HAPPY BOMBING DAY TO YOU

Today ETA celebrates its 50 th anniversary – if celebrates is a term you use in association with murdering thugs.

Hence the bombs of Wednesday and Thursday aimed at the Guardia Civil were no surprise – expect another big bang today or soon.

There are certain facts that have to be stated.

The Basque region of Spain enjoys all the rights and privileges bestowed on the Spanish people.

In addition it has its own freely elected autonomous government.

The Basque people overwhelmingly reject the form of nationhood that ETA wishes to impose upon them.

Whilst one in four Basques would like to see their own nation they roundly condemn achieving it through bloodshed and slaughter.

So the only thing left for ETA is to terrorise, maim and kill more often than not amongst the very people it seeks to “liberate”.

For Britons living in Spain the majority of us view the terrorism with stoicism. Our parents survived the blitz; we have lived through IRA bombing campaigns, so whilst ETA might shake us we won’t be stirred.

The Spanish people are also made of sterner stuff. A nation that within living memory experienced the horrors of a bloody civil war and a lengthy dictatorship are not going to be cowed by a bunch of masked terrorists.

So ETA will bomb away never comprehending why they are pariahs and not liberators.

IS SPAIN A DEMOCRACY?

Spain is a key member state of the European Union and I believe is viewed by all the other governments as being a true democracy after the years of dictatorship under Franco.

However that is not the view of all in Spain who argue that what was created after the death of Franco was not democracy but a new regime that is just as authoritarian as the old.

On the blog ‘Voto en Blanco’ Francisco Rubiales argues that to be a democracy a nation has to honour seven or eight golden rules and these he maintains do not exist in Spain.

So what are they?

The separation of the basic powers of State – whereas such powers are held in Spain by the parties who even appoint the judges.

The right to freely elect their representatives – but in Spain you vote for a party list which is selected by the politicians.

The citizen should be sovereign and the controller of the system whereas in Spain the voter is marginalised and excluded from the decision making process.

All should be equal under the law. However Francisco Rubiales quotes the former Minister of Justice Mariano Fernández Bermejo. He resigned in February after hunting without a licence with Judge Baltasar Garzón who was about to open a corruption investigation involving the opposition Partido Popular but in the past said - the interpretation of the law should be soft on friends but rigorous and lethal for opponents.

Society should serves as a counterbalance to the State but in Spain society is occupied by the political parties that control everything from trade unions to the media along with universities, religious organisations, associations and even companies.

A free press capable of controlling and criticising the powers of the State. As an esteemed journalist Francisco Rubiales believes the media in Spain is not meeting its mission to democracy to tell the truth at all costs, to criticise and monitor the powers of government in order to curb its authoritarian tendencies.

Francisco concludes by stating that he could go on to list many other shortcomings such as the tyranny of the parties, corruption, institutionalised lies, arrogance and the start of the hatred of politicians especially amongst the more literate sectors of society. He adds that he regrets to say that there are still many Spanish democrats who believe they live in a democracy but they need to have a good reality check to open their eyes to the tyranny of the political parties working under the guise of democracy.

Now I would hazard a guess that whilst many Spaniards, especially those who are part of the political system, would strongly object to Francisco’s views in contrast many Britons (and Northern Europeans) living in Spain would nod their heads in agreement. This may be democracy – but not as we know it – yet we accept it because we take the view that Spain is a young democracy recovering from decades of dictatorship so allowances should be made. Of course it falls to Spaniards such as Francisco to say “this is not good enough” and demand the changes to bring democracy to a level of acceptability. However Britons more than anybody will know that whilst they pride themselves in living in a true democracy all is far from well with that nation’s body politic and the same can probably be said for all countries that describe themselves as democratic.

(Photo: Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and opposition PP leader Mariano Rajoy)

ENTERTAINER GOES UP IN SMOKE

I am sure that like me you have seen the fires on TV that have ravaged Spain especially around Mojácar. I knew my good friend Lenox Napier lived in those parts but was shocked to receive an email from him to say much of his land, outbuildings and peacocks had gone up in smoke. Thankfully Lenox, his wife Barbara and her horses that she uses in her therapy work with disabled people through her charity, Animo, are all safe.

We are all used to seeing forest – summer fires on TV, sometimes vivid pictures from California - but everybody who has lived in rural southern Spain will have been confronted by this terrifying seasonal spectacle. Mercifully the infernos are often quickly brought under control by brave fire teams both on the land and in the air...but not always, as was the Mojácar experience.

Firemen were recently killed in Spain when engulfed by the flames. I experienced a horrific close escape in South Africa. Whilst staying with friends about 30 kms from Jo’burg a fire started on adjacent land. We all rushed out to try to stem the blaze in a nearby field when suddenly the wind changed direction and sent the flames roaring towards us. We literally escaped by inches as the inferno raced past engulfing all in its path.

Lenox is the great grandson several times over of Lord Napier who amongst other distinctions was a Governor of Gibraltar. He has lived in Spain for many a year and was the publisher of the much lamented “Entertainer” – one of the most popular newspapers on coastal Spain in the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed it was back in 1993 that I started penning my Gibraltar column for “The Entertainer” – and Lenox kindly gave me a book about the Rock which I use as a reference to this day.

I shed a tear for the lost of Lenox’s peacocks, birds which I happen to adore, but also join him in lamenting the loss of the first ten years of archive copies of “The Entertainer” that sadly lie amongst the ashes of one of his outhouses. A little bit of publishing history is lost for ever.

I bring you a photo of the Mojácar fire from Lenox’s own website but you can read all about it in graphic detail at:

http://spanishshilling.blogspot.com/

http://www.theentertaineronline.com/news.php

SWINE FLU OR BRITISH FLU?

As I keep a close eye on the British media I have been aware of the hysteria and confusion in the UK over the threat of swine flu. Media hype, political incompetence or public panic? In all truth a mixture of each.

As the swine flu call centre finally opened for business with staff who wouldn’t know a common cold from foot and mouth Britain’s Premier Gordon Brown, who looks as if he is suffering from both, went on TV to assure the nation that it was the first of its type in the world. For all the wrong reasons that is probably true but what the public in the UK haven’t been told is that Swine Flu is now largely a British problem. As Britons ask – is it safe to go abroad? – the answer is - its much safer – to which should be added – please stay at home.

I got a shock yesterday as I prepared an article on swine flu precautions in Spain. Here safe guards are in place but without all the panic that seems to have engulfed the UK. Now I know why.

According to data issued by the EU as of July 22 there were around 18,000 cases of swine flu in the nations that make up the community. I was staggered to learn that over half, 10,649 to be exact, were in the UK. Across the Channel in France there are 628, in Belgium 126, in Holland 21, Italy 258 and Ireland a mere 172.

Germany has the second highest total with 1,818 and Spain is in third place with 1,486 – which is hardly surprising given this country’s close association with Mexico where it all started.

So the main threat to Europe’s health appears to be Britain and of course right now millions of Britons are heading off on holidays to the Continent. They will bring with them swine flu – or as it now should be called – British flu - because a nation that is happy to sneeze all over each other on the train, the bus, at the shops or in the street isn’t going to hold back when faced with Johnny Foreigner.

Trouble is with the economic crisis still biting hard the holiday venues of France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal badly need British tourists and sterling. However come the autumn and winter I would argue that we should pull up the draw bridge and put Britain, the sick nation of Europe, in to total isolation.

FAREWELL CAPTAIN

I spent a part of Sunday reading two obituaries. Rather than sad occasions they were a pleasant stroll down memory lane with many happy recollections of when I and the world were young.

I opened the obit section of the Daily Telegraph (which although printed in Spain only arrives in Ronda on Sunday) to find that John Ryan had died on July 22. Now John Ryan – author, illustrator, animator - was a childhood hero of mine because he was the man who brought us Captain Pugwash.

It was back in 1957 when I first sat down before my TV as the Black Pig sailed in to sight with Captain Pugwash in command, Tom the cabin boy, Willy and Master Mate all aboard waiting to do battle with their sworn enemy Cut-Throat Jake. Over nine years 58 of these shows graced our screens all in black and white although later shows were in colour.

Now the memory can play strange tricks because in 1991 Ryan took two British newspapers to court for libel and won. They had reported that Captain Pugwash was taken off the air by the BBC because of the risqué names of some of the crew – Master Bates, Seaman Staines and Roger the Cabin Boy, which I have to admit when I first read them they sounded true enough. Not so - they were the creation of students in the 1970s for university ‘rag mags’ but became established as an urban myth.

What I didn’t know till I read John Ryan’s obit was that the voice of Captain Pugwash was that of the celebrated actor Peter Hawkins. Now although Peter had started out treading the boards after the Second World War, having survived the sinking of HMS Limbourne, by the time I met him in 1968 he was well established as Britain’s top voice artist and was a truly lovely man.

Whenever the advertising agency I then worked for had a script to present to a client we called in Peter to record the track because there wasn’t a voice he couldn’t do and more often than not he did all the voices together in one take.

It amuses me now because I then though Peter was incredibly old – well he was 44 – and in those days anybody over 30 was past their prime. What I didn’t know till I found his obit on-line (he sadly died in 2006) was that Peter had also been the original voice for the Daleks and wait for it, Weed in Bill and Ben (BBC 1952-54). Now only true connoisseurs of early Children’s TV will delight in memories of Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men – and if the mention of them has you scratching your head –then you are just too young - so “flobbadob”!

WING AND A PRAYER

Ryanair, the budget airline, is taking its no-frills concept to the limit.

The airline has carried out a poll that shows that more than 80,000 passengers, 66 percent of those polled, would be happy to stand during one-hour flights.

Ryanair’s head of communications Stephen McNamara said: “With 120,000 passengers voting and 80,000 saying they would stand on board, Ryanair will continue to explore the concept of 'fare free standing' flights with Boeing and the relevant aviation authorities in the US and EU”.

The airline is proposing that passengers would lean on a stool or ledge and wear a seatbelt during take off and landing.

I keenly await the next Ryanair poll telling us that passengers would be happy to stand on the wing.

GIBRALTAR ESPAÑOL

I seem to have blogged extensively on Gibraltar in recent days. The row over the age of consent for homosexuals and heterosexuals, Caruana versus Feetham and of course the historic visit by Spain’s Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos – the first such visit by a Spanish Government Minister in an official capacity since the Rock became a British colony.

I decided to see what my esteemed colleague Francisco Rubiales had to say on the subject on his excellent blog – Voto en Blanco – required reading for those who want to know what is on the minds of thinking Spaniards. You don’t have to agree with their views but you should engage with them.

I reproduce Francisco’s words below but the gist of the blog was that Moratinos was forced to go to Gibraltar by the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – who leads the worst Spanish government since Fernando VII – the criminal king.

There is also the feeling that Zapatero does not listen to the views of his people, the visit was an indignity for Spain and in some way implied Spain’s recognition of Gibraltar’s sovereignty. I am not sure I agree with that entire thesis but it is none the less valid for that.

What is a fact is that Gibraltar is physically part of the Iberian Peninsula.

Another fact is that all the major Spanish political parties share the view that Gibraltar is part of Spain and that one day the nation’s sovereignty will be restored. A view Moratinos was keen to publicly state this week in both Spain and Gibraltar.

The people of Gibraltar voted over 99 per cent against Spanish sovereignty in the referenda in 1967 and again in 2002 – so no change in views there.

As for Britain it has given its word, enshrined in the Gibraltar Constitution, that it would not return the Rock to Spain without the clear consent of the Gibraltarian people. However I don’t think there is any doubt that the Foreign & Commonwealth Office would hand over the Rock to Madrid tomorrow if it thought it could get away with it.

Hence Gibraltar is fundamentally a problem for Spain and the people of the Rock. However the two mind sets are poles apart and it will take a lot of jaw-jaw to sort out this political and sovereign war-war.

“El jefe de la Diplomacia española, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, siguiendo órdenes expresas del presidente del gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, llevará a cabo este martes la primera visita de un ministro español a Gibraltar desde que los ingleses ocuparon el territorio en 1704. Es el fin de una línea de dignidad y firmeza que España ha mantenido durante más de tres siglos, ininterrumpidamente, compartida por todos los gobiernos.

“El entreguismo, la cobardía y la indignidad en el asunto de Gibraltar es otra herida que abre a España Zapatero, el peor gobernante de la Historia de este país desde los tiempos de Fernando VII, el rey felón.

“La visita de Moratinos ha levantado una tormenta política de rechazo en España, ante la cual, como es su costumbre, Zapatero permanece insensible, manteniendo su tesis de que el gobernante debe gobernar incluso en contra de la opinión mayoritaria de los ciudadanos, una concepción del poder más totalitaria que democrática.

“Desde que se supo que Moratinos se desplazaría al Peñón para participar en el III encuentro ministerial del Foro de Diálogo creado en 2004 por los Gobiernos de España, Reino Unido y Gibraltar con el objetivo de avanzar en la cooperación local, el PP ha convertido la visita en otro caballo de batalla contra el Gobierno de Zapatero. Sus principales dirigentes piden la suspensión de una reunión que consideran "un insulto a la dignidad de España, como país soberano". Estas son palabras del secretario general del Partido Popular andaluz, Antonio Sanz, que argumenta que "lo más grave de la visita es el rango de quien la realiza, lo cual supone un reconocimiento a Gibraltar como país soberano".”