Curated by Graham Hunt (Co-Author of Laptop Entrepreneur)

19/09/12

THE SPM IS HERE TOOTHE WHAT? SPM is the Spanish Property Magazine just for the iPad. It has now had two issues and this explains why I have been less than busy in here. Summer was a blur and now autumn has arrived (Well if you can call 30 degrees every day and the need to still use a fan at night autumn of course) I am just getting back into the swing of things.

This magazine, Spain is Different is overdue of course and we intend to bring you even more interesting stuff about Spain and Spanish lifestyle including but not limited to, why Iranians have been banned from opening accounts in Spanish banks, the latest new about the worst business ideas in Spain (A tie up between Eurovegas and Catalunya’s copycat casino development) Plenty of stuff to cheer you up in this issue from the country where the summer was rather warm and still we haven’t had the Gota Fria, the time when it rains in a monsoonlike way for a week or so.

Remember too that if you would like to contribute something, make comments, participate in any way or you have a blog or website you want me to look at then just get in touch on grahunt@gmail.com and tell me about it. Happy to take a look at suggestions and ideas as well as your content.

I read a lot of stuff online about Spain and much of it is very interesting and I think it will interest you too. The people who are on my newsletter get a whole lot more. To get first look then you should visit this link.

AUTUMN IS HERE AND SO IS SPAIN IS DIFFERENT MAGAZINE

Spain Is DifferentSQUEEZING THE JUICE FROM THE ORANGE / ISSUE 21

97 Year Old Man Dies While Surfing

At Estepona

I am not sure whether this is a good positive story or a sad story but whatever you think of it my opinion is that it is a story that I don’t quite believe.

The story was reported here in Typically Spanish and repeated around the World. However there are a few things that just don’t ring true, the lack of details, the lack of corroborative evidence and the lack of follow up because seriously this is one hell of a story.

I want to know how someone of 97 years old carries his surfboard into the sea and swims out there but more importantly I want to know what on Earth someone is doing surfing on the Mediterranean which isn’t known for its huge waves is it? A quick poll then, do you believe this story is true then or are a bit cynical like me?

Curated by Graham Hunt (Co-Author of Laptop Entrepreneur)

What Makes a Good Spanish

Cook?Julia at the Artichoke Adventures tells us more about how to be a good Spanish cook. You may be surprised at how people came to be good cooks.

My mother was  eight years old when the Spanish Civil War

ended. She was taught how to survive during that terrible time of the postwar.

She never went to school, she had to go with her father and his working gang (six men) to the fields where they worked. They went with their mules and had to leave very early every morning to avoid the heat, they travelled between one and three hours to get to the fields. She was in charge of preparing their food.

She had to cook a big meal for  seven hard working men. It was a big responsibility for such a young child, but that was her life.She was so small and the pan was so big that my Grandfather had to build a kind of step with a tree trunk for my mother to be able to reach it.

19/09/12Spain Is DifferentSQUEEZING THE JUICE FROM THE ORANGE / ISSUE 21

NICK SNELLING’S BLOG ON CULTURE SPAIN HAS STARTED A SERIES ON THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF SPAIN. NOT TO BE MISSED PART ONE IS HERE. READ AND CLICK THROUGH FOR MORE.

Imagine it is the early 1970s and you are in Spain, with the country still firmly in the grip of General Franco (El Caudillo).  He is in his late 70s (he was born in 1892) and has held absolute power for the past thirty plus years, since the end of the brutal Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Over 500,000 Spaniards were killed during the Civil War and memories of it are still fresh, with many Spaniards having first-hand experience of the war.  Almost everyone is scarred by this and the awful White Terror, during which Franco sought to cleanse the country of any opposition or past opponents of the Nacionales.

From 1936 to 1945 there were mass executions throughout Spain and, although no one knows precisely, some 50,000 Spaniards were killed by the regime after the end of the Civil War.  There are unmarked graves on the outskirts of the villages and towns across Spain that everyone knows about.  However, no-one dares mention such matters publicly and most people know that even the Republican side committed horrendous massacres of civilians.  Few people who fought during the Civil War are truly ‘clean’.

Meanwhile, for years after the Civil War thousands of men and women have been imprisoned in bestial conditions in concentration camps around the country.   Forced labour for political opponents of Franco was common and used until the early 1960s on grandiose projects such as the Guadalquivir Canal and the Valley of the Fallen.   Horrifically, thousands of children were also removed from their anti-Francoist parents in the 1940s and given to childless supporters of the regime

So, few Spaniards doubt the ruthless nature of General Franco and hardly a family in Spain has not been touched by his dictatorship. Even now, the speaking of regional languages such as Catalan, Galician or Basque is forbidden and to get a decent job you need to be able to demonstrate your Nacionale credentials.

It is true that the savagery of the first two decades of Franco’s dictatorship is largely in the past and that the regime has softened.  However, few Spaniards take this for granted.  The Guardia Civil, always seen walking in pairs, are still feared and it would be a foolish person indeed who starts a confrontation with them.  The secret police are omnipresent and any signs of protest, such as by university students or strikers, is immediately and brutally repressed.

Indeed, only nine years ago in 1962, Julian Grimau, a communist leader, was executed after a military trial, despite world-wide calls (including from Pope John XXIII) for clemency.  Twenty seven bullets were fired at him by a squad of nervous conscripts, who failed to kill him.  Finally, the Lieutenant in charge of the squad, (who afterwards needed psychiatric help) gave the coup de grace by shooting two bullets into Grimau’s head.  It was a sign to everyone that Franco will not brook opposition and can be as ruthless as ever.

READ THE REST OF THIS FIRST OF A FIVE PART SERIES AT CULTURE SPAIN HERE

HISTORY OF SPANISH

Curated by Graham Hunt (Co-Author of Laptop Entrepreneur)

The Most Awesome Spanish

Fail Ever

Just in case anybody missed this story, surely there in nobody in the World who missed this story is there, here it is again.

The worst restoration project ever in the World has been discovered in Spain.

The fresco is in a northern Spanish church and one of the parishioners Cecilia Gimenez decided that “Ecco Homo”, not “Eco Home” needed to be restored. Knowing that the church of course is a little short of money, she thought she would help out. The before and after results are above.

We won’t ask you to vote for the best of the two but I think we can safely say that the results are not spectacular.

The church is now charging one Euro to visit the spectacular new masterpiece and the tourist industry in the town has gone into overdrive with all sorts of related events happening. No doubt one day it will be declared a miracle by the church ;-).

Read More About Cecilia Here

ASTURIAS AND THE NORTH

The AVE train up to Galicia is due to be completed by 2018 according to PM Mariano Rajoy. As he hasn’t spoken a true word yet since becoming PM...

I went on holiday last MONTH to my favourite place in Spain, Asturias. Why is it my favourite? The food and the people. Why couldn’t I live there, the food! Honestly I would be at least twenty kilos heavier if I lived in Asturias. The food is voluminous and gorgeous. The weather isn’t great in Asturias you know. It is not called the green coast for no reason. It rains. We were there for ten days and we had two full beach days possible although we did actually go to the beach more than that, not too much just enough to not get bored.

But what is the point of this article apart from telling you that you must visit Asturias? Well Asturias is going to be

featured in the second issue of the iPad only Spanish Property magazine (As long as the app gets approved by Apple and the first one actually gets out before all of the houses in it are sold. THEY DID)

Property in Asturias is very different from other parts of Spain, never overbuilt because of that weather it is known in Spain as “Paraiso Natural”, a place full of unspoilt areas of high mountains where bears and wolves roam freely still, delicious green valleys, mines and endless numbers of beaches, coves and cliffs diving into the Cantabrian Sea with a background of peaks and cloudy mountain ranges.

Asturias is Spain and the rest Tierra Conquistada according to the Asturians as it was never occupied by the Moorish invaders (Don’t tell the Asturians this but they didn’t much fancy the weather) Asturias is also a brilliant place to experience that elusive real Spain where community is strong and the people ultra friendly. You have to experience it to understand. Here are some photos anyway for you to get an idea of why Asturian life is different.

Take a look at the images here.

Spain’s Wine Export Business has grown by up to 50% in the first half of 2012 according to decanter magazine. Why is that? Just read the article

The Canary Islands as an alternative tourist destination as opposed to a mass tourist destination. Alex Bramwell looks into this phenomenon.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009Sound Of Today 19/09/12Spain Is DifferentSQUEEZING THE JUICE FROM THE ORANGE / ISSUE 21

Curated by Graham Hunt (Co-Author of Laptop Entrepreneur)

IRANIANS BANNED FROM

OPENING BANK

ACCOUNTSIn one of the stupidest moves I have heard in a long time, Iranians have been banned from opening bank accounts in Spain. At a time of capital flight out of the country by people worried about Spain dropping out of the Euro this might be considered one o the craziest ideas ever as lots of Iranians are very wealthy and they absolutely love Spain in general.

Antonio Flores’ Blog talks about the circular memo and gives the full text of the memo on his website.

Whilst this may not cause you a lot of grief it seems to me that it is just another part of the creeping over regulation going on in Spanish banks imposed by the Bank of Spain and the Government. If the citizens of a whole country are going to be painted as the same ie potential money launderers and crooks, then surely the first group that should be labelled in that way are the Spanish Politicians themselves not a whole country.

DOCTOR WHO IN ALMERIA

If you happen to tune into this week’s episode of Doctor Who, A Town Called Mercy, you’ll notice it’s set in a surprisingly authentic-looking wild west town.

Authentic, at least, for a show that’s usually filmed in Cardiff. That’s because it was shot on location in Almeria, Spain, the setting for countless spaghetti westerns.

Filmmakers began flocking to Europe’s only desert back in the ’60s. The first film shot there was ‘Ojo por Ojo’ in 1957, which received a wide release and so brought Almeria’s landscapes to a wider audience. The first Almeria-set western was ‘Tierra brutal’ in 1961.

The heyday of Almeria’s film scene was the era of Sergio Leone: most of his Fistful of Dollars trilogy was shot at ‘Mini-Hollywood’, a wild-west set and now tourist attraction.

Almeria was also used in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, doubling for Aqaba in the famous scene where Lawrence’s rebels capture the town from the land, rather than, as expected, the sea.

Read More On Almeria and Doctor Who here

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

TEN TOWN HALLS IN

ANDALUCIA OWE MORE

THAN 300 MILLION

EUROS TO THE SOCIAL SECURITY

If I get behind in my social security payments then the state in Spain is pretty quick to come down on me like a ton of bricks. When the State gets behind in its social security payments the same thing doesn’t seem to happen. Take a look at what is happening in Andalucia according to Sur In English. The figures are astonomical when looked at in isolation.

Cañete la Real is one of Spain’s growing number of tiny towns with huge debts. With no more than 2,000 inhabitants the town hall owes more than 580,000 euros in unpaid social security contributions on behalf of employees. An astronomical amount bearing in mind that only 24 people work for the local corporation.

Cañete is one of the ten municipalities in the province of Malaga that are behind with their payments according to statistics for the month of June provided by the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social. In total the town halls have negotiated, or are due to negotiate, the payment of more than 240 million euros. The figure rises to more than 300 million if the social security debts of municipal companies are included in the total.

19/09/12Spain Is Different

SQUEEZING THE JUICE FROM THE ORANGE / ISSUE 21

Curated by Graham Hunt (Co-Author of Laptop Entrepreneur)

FRESH FIGS WITH GOAT’S

CHEESE WRAPPED IN

BACON

One of the many blogs I follow assiduously is East of Malaga, more than anything for the delicious pictures of food and landscapes.

So to see how you get the above snack and how to make it get along to the blog and check it out

DRIVING IN SPAIN CAN BE FRAUGHT WITH PROBLEMS FOR THOSE NOT USED TO IT. HERE I TOOK A LIGHT HEARTED LOOK AT WHAT YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING AT WHEN DRIVING AROUND THE COUNTRY.

I wrote this a couple of years ago and people on my mailing list (Sign up below in the pop up) or those who read EZine Articles have seen it before but just realised that it had never been seen on this blog. So here you go the unofficial rules of driving in Spain.Driving in Spain is fun on the open road as there is a huge country to be discovered and very few speed cameras out there in the middle of nowhere. However as you get into the big cities it becomes a lot less fun, or even funnier depending on your point of view.What you need to know about this is the following:1) You always have right of way if you have the loudest horn, are not nervous about sticking the front end of your car into oncoming traffic and don’t mind a few bumps and scratches2) You should always parallel park by going back until you hit the car behind, forward until you do the same to the car in front and so on until you are right into the space that is

about two inches bigger than your car, or in some cases smaller.3) Stopping at zebra crossings is not an option because if you stop for a pedestrian you will get back ended by someone who wonders why you have just stopped for no reason.4) It is obligatory to use the car if it is new even if your local supermarket is just 100 yards away5) Reversing up the motorway hard shoulder because you have missed your turn off is normal practice.6) Red lights are a challenge rather than an order to stop. If you can sneak through a red light in your BMW in the same way a cyclist does because there is no traffic coming then so be it.7) You are Alonso and everybody else is a Jensen Button type.

Roadsigns are there to confuse you and at best are just guidelines as opposed to rules and you always know better ie that is not a one way street, yes you can go into this no entry area, you can park on this side of the

road.

Any more that you would like to add?GO TO THE BLOG AND JOIN IN

“Do you want Kung Fu then” A drunken Brit has destroyed the floor of a hotel bar in Puerto de la Cruz. Apparently throwing a TV out of the window just wasn’t enough.

Maureen at SpainStruck visits Atapuerca and finds out more about our ancestors. A side of Spain that you rarely see from our neanderthal friends.

The Mudejar Tour as shown by the Spanish Thyme Travellers. This tour takes you to Teruel, which exists of course and looks at Mudejar architecture.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009Sound Of Today 19/09/12Spain Is DifferentSQUEEZING THE JUICE FROM THE ORANGE / ISSUE 21

DRIVING IN SPAIN. WHAT IS THE REAL SITUATION?

Curated by Graham Hunt (Co-Author of Laptop Entrepreneur)

EDITORIALTHERE HAS BEEN A HUGE COMPETITION RECENTLY BETWEEN MADRID AND BARCELONA TO ATTRACT EUROVEGAS.

Eurovegas is an idea promulgated by Sheldon Adelson, one of the most reactionary right wing nutjobs in the United States and owner of half of Las Vegas and the whole of the Macau gaming industry. He wants to build a huge gambling complex and his patronage seems to have been won by Madrid who have promised all sorts of inducements for him to build Eurovegas just outside the city in the hope of attracting millions of tourists every year and making madrid into the Las Vegas of Europe.

However in order to do this Madrid has had to promise to change laws regarding smoking, gambling, taxes, working hours and work conditions. The question has to be asked is any of that worth it when the benefits to the general population are negligible to say the least. Opponents of the scheme claim that it will bring more organised crime, prostitution and violence to Spain and that a red carpet shouldn’t be laid out for such a nasty piece of work.

Meanwhile Catalunya, piqued that they haven’t been able to attract the project have announced their own mega casino project called Barcelona World in a joint venture between La Caixa bank and London based Veremonte. The project with an estimated opening cost of 4.6 billion Euros is madness of the extreme sort. If there is one thing that Spanish regional governments should have learnt from the huge real estate bust in Spain it is that mega projects based on faulty logic and mathematical equations that at best can be described as tenuous just do not work. From the America’s Cup port in Valencia to Circus World in Alcorcón the the Niemayer centre in Aviles and any number of other mega projects that have floundered in the teeth of reality rather than fanciful projections, the truth is simple, big projects and drip down economics do not work.

The Casino project is destined to fail in so many ways but just to start off with there are the original costings which will inevitably overshoot when the project gets going, the time periods which will be missed and the number of jobs and investment created which will inevitably be lower.

It’s easy to criticise of course and it would be better to put forward alternatives. There are so many of them around that it is unbelievable, more especially if all of the country’s laws are changed to accommodate them.

SPM 2

At times conceiving a project can be compared to giving birth to a child. The Spanish Property Magazine has been one of those projects for me. Exclusively for the iPad I have had to learn App development, go through the labyrinthine process that Apple like people to go through to submit an app and learn a whole new platform in magazine publishing. Luckily the Spanish Property Magazine is now a bouncing healthy baby and has already completed two issues with the third one expected to be out around the tenth of October.

The second issue included features on Asturias and Jerez, two opposite ends of the country, a comparison of the biggest cities in Spain: Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia and a huge selection of property for sale in various parts of Spain. The whole thing weighed in at 89 pages and you can download the app and the magazine here if you have an iPad. However as you are a subscriber to this magazine I am going to give you an offer you cannot refuse. If you download the app from the link above, when you get to the home page click on the yellow subscribe button. A box will open and you need to click on “Current Subscribers”. You will be given a chance to enter a coupon code. In the box put “3MonthSPM” without the inverted commas and you will get the next three issues of the magazine totally free. During that time there will be a couple of subscriber only specials too for you to look at. I look forward to seeing you as a subscriber for free to our magazine and to you sharing with friends.

I read a lot of stuff online about Spain and loads of it is very interesting. The people who are on my newsletter get a whole lot more. If you want to sign up too then visit this link. You can also get older copies of the magazine there. The first seven are linked up. I am not promising that the magazine will be every week, I may leave it two weeks now and again depending on the stories that come in (Although so far I have managed to do it on a weekly basis)

Just put in your name in the first box and your mail address in the second to receive updates. Every week or two we wi l l send you the lates t newsletter as soon as it comes out. (You will also get other stuff related to Spain and updates to the magazine but you a re guaran teed the newsletter)

Also if you have photos that you want featured in the magazine or you have an article you want featured just send it to me at grahunt@gmail.com and I will take a look.

SAVING SPAIN ONE JACKPOT AT A TIME?

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009Sound Of Today19/09/12

Spain Is DifferentSQUEEZING THE JUICE FROM THE ORANGE / ISSUE 21