Spain Parliament to vote on recognition of Palestinian state

Spain's Parliament will next week be voting as to whether the country will recognize Palestine as a state. This after Sweden unilaterally recognized the Palestinian state and the UK and France are symbolically looking in that direction.

Pro-Palestinian Rally in Fuengirola, Spain - Photo courtesy Anne Sewell, Spanish News in English

Spain's foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo said on Thursday that should the current peace negotiations between Israel and the currently-occupied Palestinian state not come to light, parliament will be debating the issue in its lower house.

The move comes after a push by the PP's main opposition party, the PSOE, on the issue. The socialist party wants the government to "recognize Palestine as a State," pointing out (no doubt due to failed attempts in the past) that the only way a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Palestine could be possible is with the "coexistence of two states."

The PSOE also said that the country's recognition of Palestine should be carried out in a "coordinated manner with the European Union."

According to sources of the El País newspaper, Spain's foreign minister is "not against" these plans.  García-Margallo said that he would not be in favor of a purely "symbolic" recognition of the Palestinian state and that issues relating to setting up borders between the two states would need to be addressed before the full recognition could take place.

"Spain will recognize Palestine when we believe it will favor negotiations or when we believe those negotiations aren't moving ahead," he told the media on Thursday.

Israel has already criticized this move, with Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, saying the Spanish motion “is not useful,” and that "it sends Palestinians the message that they don’t have to negotiate with Israel to get their state."

El País reports that 300 figures from Israel’s political left requested Spain to lead the effort in getting Palestine recognized as a state.

Two weeks ago, the Swedish government officially and unilaterally recognized Palestine, and was the first EU member to do this.  However, Hungary and Poland had recognized Palestine prior to joining the EU bloc. As for the UK and Ireland, they have recently passed symbolic motions towards the recognition of the Palestinian state.

Spain's Civil Guard uses superheroes to educate kids on Internet risks

Using the popular and enigmatic characters from the movie world of superheroes, along with quite a few Disney characters, the Civil Guard in Spain has begun a new set of workshops in Madrid aimed at informing third and fourth grade children about the dangers of the Internet.

Using a giant TV screen, the first class was held on November 5 at the Nuestra Señora del Carmen school in Madrid.  It began with the words, “You should never give your personal details online without the permission of your parents, or create a profile on the social networks until you reach 14.”

Children tend to be trusting and it is far too easy for the wrong people to take advantage of them online.  All the pupils in the class were familiar with the various apps, like WhatsApp, Skype and YouTube, but most were completely unaware of the basic rules and etiquette of using the Internet and the various social networks.  This was the first of around 6,000 more classes to be held all over Spain during the coming months. 

Arsenio Fernández de Mesa, director general of the Civil Guard told the assembled children, “I bet the majority of you have better smartphones and tablets than your parents, but you still need to be careful,” adding, “There are bad people out there who will try to get to know you through the internet. What we’re about to tell you is so that from now on you will use it properly and nobody will be able to hurt you.”

On the TV screen, the Hulk warns the children,  “It is forbidden to pretend to be somebody else, or record somebody on your phone without their permission and then upload it to the Internet.”

In the classroom, Captain Carlos Igual of the division that investigates crimes against minors is on hand to advise the children.  He told El País, “A teenager is old enough to understand a serious message about online safety, but younger children aren’t.”

“Cartoons are a way to get that message over in a friendly manner, and to help them interiorize what we are trying to say,” he added, explaining that some parents are unaware of how the Internet functions and exactly what their children do online.

Igual said that most parents, and even many teachers, don't really know what Twitter is, for example. While some teachers have already contacted the Civil Guard requesting talks on online safety, the Civil Guard will also be organizing workshops for parents and teachers on the subject, but without the help of the Hulk this time.


Spanish sources:

El País
20 Minutos

Photo credits:
Hulk: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Eneas De Troya
The Civil Guard detains a man for pedophile evidence on mobile phone

Lost mummy & two skeletons found on Madrid university roof

While it might sound like a bad comedy, a routine inspection at the Complutense University in Madrid has turned up a strange find.  One of the professors just happened to stumble upon a mummy and two skeletons on the roof terrace of the faculty building.  

No one has a clue who they belong to or how they even got there.

Photo Madrid Complutense University CC-by-SA Liito92 

A spokesperson for the Vice Chancellor's office told El País the find was made on October 29th in an area not used for quite some time."We're talking about an old drying room for cadavers, facilities that haven't been used for 25 to 30 years," he said, adding, "It's not as if the mummy was out in the open, it was protected in a suitable place."

However, somewhere along the way, there was an internal department memo, reading as follows:

“Yesterday, an incident occurred at the School of Medicine. We were examining a facility on the rooftop that contained a mummified body. Since neither the facility nor the activity meet minimum safety and hygiene requirements, the school has been asked to adopt the necessary measures to clean up the area and find a solution to the existing remains, either removal by a funeral company or, if it is some sort of experiment or scientific endeavor, a report detailing the pertinent preventive measures to be taken. We have been verbally informed that the mummified body is going to be removed shortly by a funeral company.”

Despite this, El País were unable to confirm whether the mummy had been removed from the university, or if the facilities there had been dismantled.

This follows a huge story back in May this year of how hundreds of corpses had been found, piled up like cord wood, in the basement of the University's Anatomy and Embryology Department. Because of the scandal, the department, which was actually responsible for the rooftop facility where the latest find was made, was shut down and its director fired.  This was due to a later, and even worse, scandal that the corpses found back then were being "hired out" for use in private weekend courses at 750 euros ($930) a head, if you excuse the pun.  It was sort of a back-door cash for corpses set up, if you will.

It seems clear that no one at the University has any idea how the mummy and the two skeletons got there, or the name of the deceased person who had been mummified. However, a spokesperson at the Rectorate, the university’s management body, said of the mummy, “the original idea was to obtain a complete skeleton and use it for educational purposes,” adding, “Probably [the remains] should be eliminated if they are not going to serve their original purpose. But they have always been carefully monitored.” 

Really?  Anyway, looks like the Madrid Complutense University is going to have to suffer from the various scandals a tad longer.

80 percent say resounding ‘yes’ in Catalan independence referendum

In what is essentially a symbolic independence referendum, the Catalan people have spoken, with 80 percent voting ‘yes” to an independent Catalan state.  Meanwhile Madrid dismissed the event as a “day of political propaganda.”

This poll was organized despite the fierce opposition of Spain’s government, including a constitutional court ruling to suspend the referendum.  After weeks of intense “negotiations” with Spanish authorities, the poll went ahead anyway.  There were queues of people lining up all over Barcelona and other Catalan cities on Sunday, many cheering and applauding as the polling stations opened. 

Voters were asked two questions.  Question number one was, “Do you want Catalonia to be a state?’ For those that answered the first question affirmatively, the second asked, “Do you want that state to be independent?”  Turns out 80 percent of Catalans answered those two questions in the affirmative.

The Catalan president, Artur Mas, said that the symbolic referendum was a “total success, adding that this vote "made it very clear that we want to govern ourselves." 

While the final results will only be published at the end of the month, partial results have shown that 80.7 percent of the approximately two million people who took part ticked the “yes” box on both questions, while slightly over 10 percent voted yes to question one, and no to question two.  Of the naysayers, approximately 4.5 percent said no to both questions. 

Sour Grapes? 

According to Justice Minister Rafael Catalá, the vote was "fruitless and useless", saying that the government considered it to be a “day of political propaganda organized by pro-independence forces and devoid of any kind of democratic validity."

Apparently state prosecutors are trying to establish whether the Catalan authorities actually breached court injunctions by using schools and other public buildings as polling stations.  Their investigations are to apparently "assess the existence of criminal liability," Catalá added.

While Catalan leaders do admit the vote is symbolic with no direct legal consequence, they are hoping that the numbers involved will bolster their case with leaders in Spain and other European governments.  Mas told the media his government will now be pushing for an official referendum and that he will be seeking international support in order to convince Rajoy’s government to let it happen.

"We deserve to vote in a legal and binding referendum and this is what we are going to try to do," he added. 

Fifth of Spain’s economy 

The Catalonia region, with its distinct language and culture, is proud of its heritage and the region's strong economic situation brings in what relates to a fifth of Spain’s economy.  The riches of Catalonia are likely the strongest reason that Rajoy refuses to allow independence from austerity-ridden and economically-challenged Spain, with its budget cuts and high unemployment rates.

Of the 7.5 million people living in the region, more than two million have made their thoughts clear, and it is hoped that a more official referendum will show even higher figures on the positive side of the ballot papers in future
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Photo: CC-by-SA Kippelboy

Visit La Gatoteca in Madrid for the absolutely purr-fect cup of coffee

When visiting Madrid, consider heading to La Gatoteca, situated right next door to the Reina Sofia art museum on Argumosa street. 

While your cup of coffee doesn't come cheap (at 4 euros), you do, however, get your own cat to spoil for 30 minutes or so, and it's all in such a good cause.

La Gatoteca is a cat café, which opened a year ago and offers a great solution in bringing together abandoned and homeless cats with potential new families.  The two-floor property currently has 14 cats in residence who, while they have made themselves completely at home and certainly look really comfortable, still make their way to any visiting customers in the hope that someone will adopt them and take them home.

Eva Aznar, owner of La Gatoteca, is a cat lover herself and told El Pais that she got the idea from Japan, where there are apparently approximately 200 cat cafés.  She says they also work in combination with ABRIGA, an association that works at finding homes for homeless cats.  Aznar says La Gatoteca has, in the past year, managed to find homes for 24 of the fabulous felines.

La Gatoteca currently has a waiting list of around 15 animals and Aznar works with 25 volunteers.  She says that the last year has been a steep learning curve, deciding which animals to actually take in.

“Initially, we accepted cats from people who could no longer look after their pets, but we found that they were too spoiled, and didn’t fit in,” she said, adding it normally takes approximately two weeks to find a good home for a cat.

“We try to make the adoptions as personalized as possible,” says Aznar, but she says the first thing people must do before adopting is join ABRIGA, at a subscription cost of 50 euros.  They must then attend a beginner's course in cat care. “We help animals that have no home, but also cats that already have one. Many owners don’t know how to look after a cat properly,” Aznar added.

For anyone interesting in adopting a cat, La Gatoteca sounds like the purr-fect spot, not only to enjoy a relaxing cup of café con leche in the capital of Spain, but also to meet some friendly felines.  Browse the available residents here on the café's blog, "Like" them on Facebook, or browse their website (in Spanish)

Source:
El Pais

Migrants from Africa detained in Canary Islands over Ebola concerns

African migrants, some of whom were suffering from fever, were kept on a beach in the Canary Islands for five hours Wednesday, over concerns that they may be suffering from Ebola.

It was a case of "better safe than sorry," when 23 undocumented migrants arrived on a beach in Maspalomas on Gran Canaria island on Wednesday.  Delays were caused as authorities had to decide whether to activate Ebola protocols or not, a problem that seems to be cropping up worldwide, as medical officials try to understand and deal with the deadly virus.

The migrants arrived on the beach from Africa on a small boat at 9 a.m. and immediately Red Cross volunteers went to their aid.  On taking their temperature, they found six of the migrants were running a high fever.  The Red Cross decided it was a good idea to activate their own Ebola protocol and called on the regional health department for assistance. It then took four hours for the doctors to arrive on the scene, and in the meantime the Red Cross volunteers left food, water bottles and face masks on the beach for the migrants to use. 

While this was going on, and during the delay until the doctors arrived, local police ensured that nobody got closer than 20 meters to the migrants, with the police officers wearing face masks and gloves, but dressed in short sleeve uniform shirts (see photo). Naturally, if the migrants had been suffering from Ebola, this clothing would not have been much help.However, El Mundo has published a photo showing the detainees seated on the beach in the background, with two nude male tourists strolling in the foreground!

When eventually the public health service doctors arrived, they questioned the migrants.  As soon as it was clear that none of them had recently been in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone (the most badly affected countries), they were given the all-clear.  At that stage the four weakest individuals were taken for medical treatment in the Red Cross vehicle and the balance were loaded on to what was virtually a garbage truck, used for beach cleaning, and taken to the local police station for identification, prior to the start of deportation proceedings.

Red Cross coordinator José Antonio Rodríguez complained, saying that a garbage truck was no way to transport human beings, particularly those that were unwell.  However, the major of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Marco Aurelio Pérez, told him no other four-wheel vehicles were available that could transport that many persons over the rough terrain, adding, “We had to get those men off the beach quickly, they’d been there five hours,” he said.

There was a similar incident in Aluche, Madrid at the beginning of October where undocumented migrants were isolated in a holding area for 19 hours without food, on suspicion that some of them might be suffering from Ebola.

Sources: 
El Pais
El Mundo

Protest against renovation of Burgos bullring ends in violent clash with police

Protesters in the town of Burgos in northern Spain were out on the streets Saturday, protesting against the renovation of the "Plaza de Toros," or bullring in the city.  

They feel that in times of economic crisis, and with severe austerity measures imposed by the government, money should be put to a better use.

The protests led to violence, as police beat protesters with batons, as the protesters themselves smashed bank and shop windows and ATMs.