Galicia, a large ‘green desert’

        -The autonomous community comes with more than 200,000 empty homes

        -Almost 30% of households are uninhabited in the province of Lugo

        -Rural tourism and cooperative movements try to combat the neglect

Galicia is the autonomous community leader in number of empty homes. The rapid demographic depression and the devastating effects of the agricultural crisis are some of the main factors that can explain the existence of more than 200,000 unoccupied homes within its borders. Neglect, basically mainly family homes, attached to the failed property developments conducted in different centers of population at the end of the last decade have ended up turning much of Galicia in a huge “shadow museum”

Nowadays, Galicia has more than 1300 cores deserted. Around the 50 % of  the national total.The city council of Ortigueira, located in A Coruña, with a global total of 95 cores deserted, is in this section, the one who carries the palm.

In a similar line, As Somozas and Carballo, in the province of A Coruña, Sober, A Fonsagrada, Ancares and Samos, in Lugo, O Barco de Valdeorras Carballiño and Xinzo de Limia, in Ourense, or Agolada and Lalin, in Pontevedra, are some of the councils that have a greater number of “ghost towns” in its territory.

Taking into account its population density, the province of Lugo leads the national ranking of inhabited homes, with a total of 35.173 or, which is the same, 28,51% of the total of its propierties. Ourense, with 27,40%; A Coruña, with 25,40% and Pontevedra, with 23,49%, complete the list. It is made apparent by the last report published by the NIE, in the chapter which deals with the number of empty propierties that are fit for habition.

The rehabilitation of the environment and rural tourism:

Although the outlook in which are immersed the municipalities belonging to the Galician countryside is, nowadays, devastating, and job perspectives in this surrounding are even less promising, some public and private initiatives bet on their recovery

Jose Maria Galan, a 71 year old entrepreneur from La Rioja (autonomous community placed in the north of Spain) and co-fouder of “Couso Galán”, the only fully restores rural village in Galicia as a result of “ a risky personal commitment”, knows a lot about that.

“A friend of me who knew the area told me that there was an abandoned village close to Ourense, which did just have one neighbor in the last 15 or 20 years. We bought all the houses and the enjoining properties, and after a lot of work, we inaugurated  “Couso Galan” in summer 2008”, he remembers.

Nowadays, the new village, which belongs to the municipality of Sarreaus, located in the river Limia, is a clear reference of rural tourism in the province and an important focal point for tourists. “In the first instance, I couldn’t expect the project to go any further. We’ve restored a total of 18 houses. We have 20 rooms available, a café, a restaurant and an events room for which we have 30 wedding bookings for this year”, said José María Galán, just before remembering that his has been, years ago “the most visited village in Europe.”

However, and despite the ecotourism already supposes an important source of income for the community and represents a firm commitment to stimulate the development of the rural  environment in Galicia, the founder of the village did not hesitate to denounce the passivity of the institutions in promoting and disseminating initiatives like his. “I live here with my wife and my daughter and I am proud of what we have achieved, but it is a shame that after investing between 6 and 8 million on this project, we have not received financial or moral support from any institution at all this time”, he concluded.

Fortunately, “Couso Galán” is not the first nor the last village called to mitigate the impact caused by the rural area depopulation in Galicia. “Grupo de Acción local Río Lor” (Local Action Group Río Lor), germ of the current ‘Grupo de Desenvolvemento Rural Ribeira Sacra’ (GDR), managed to “resurrect” a total of five villages, considered since then Cultural Interest Properties in this region from Lugo in the period between 2002 and 2006. They were, however, other times, times in which the ‘GDRs’ regional entities born to manage the funds ‘LEADER,’ (financial support for the economic development in depressed regions) originally from the European Union, “they had the ability to encourage and promote rural development projects on their own initiative.”  “A change happened on the planning of the aids, since 2008, limiting the granting of founds ‘LEADER’ to third people and entities interested in developing a project”, confessed from the breast of the ‘GDR Ribeira Sacral’.

The old recipe of cooperative movement

The development of the forest area, the optimization of the profits derived of the renewable energies, the overcoming of the proprietary  smallholder structure – incapable of assimilate the business activity-; the promotion of the ecological production, or the foreign tourism, they outline  already like some of the  remedies that are able to combat the  the rural exodus in Galicia.

Along with all of them, however, which has got to consolidate on the last years as the best alternative to take up the development of the rural area, is the old recipe of cooperativism. A recipe so old that is gone back to the very origins of life in society, of shared word and plain and simple collaboration between members of the same community.

Something that, like explains Xan Martinez, manager of the Cooperative of responsible consumption ‘A Xoaniña’, based in Ferrol, “it was lost in Galicia at an atrocious rate, catalyzed by a capitalist system that promotes only the individualism”.

The cooperative, called to strengthen the social and economic development in rural areas, seems today as one of the few tools capable of reversing the current economic subordination in which the farming industry finds itself in Galicia.

Not surprisingly, 2012 has been designated by the ONU as the “International Year of Cooperatives’. It was a significant year for rural Galician expectations, that huge “green desert”.

RESOURCE: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/03/31/galicia/1333191137.html

Nineteen dogs were removed from a family’s residence in Rianxo, surrounded by feces and skeletons, that belonged to a family of Rianxo, from which 140 animals had already been removed

Seprona ( Service Of Nature Protection), the police and animal protection society cooperated in the raid.

On April 12th, the agents of Seprona Local Police and members of animal protection societies went into a house in Rianxo (a port town and municipality in Galicia, an autonomous community northwestern Spain) to remove nineteen dogs which were living, surrounded by their own feces. One hundred dogs had already been removed from this family in 2008.

It was 9 o’clock when a group of different police forces and two volunteers from the protective animal society landed in the village of Villanuestre in Rianxo. This time, to avoid the same tense scenes of 2008 when the authorities had taken one hundred dogs from the family, they tried to negotiate with the owner.

They succeeded. The owner agreed to let the authorities come into the house and take the dogs, which lived in a sort of vegetable garden and courtyard. The group tried not to feel dizzy because of the horrible smell which surrounded the entire house, caused by the feces and skeletons of dogs that covered where the inhabitants lived.

 

The family who owned animals was a couple in their seventies and an elderly woman who was bedridden. Social services paid her a visit to check her state. The couple’s daughter, who also supported them having the dogs, regularly went to the house but wasn’t there that day. The mother and daughter are well known in Barbanza.

Their story began as charity. Both built a dog shelter but it quickly got out of hand. They began to accumulate massive amounts of dogs and, in 2008, a complaint was made that then uncovered a horrible situation: they had over a hundred dogs living among feces and dead bodies of other dogs. The authorities moved ahead at that time and removed all animals.

However, five years later the situation was similar, and in some ways, more serious. The number of animals this time made it less crowded. However, before, the dogs were in sheds and in the shelter, now, perhaps to lift less suspicion, they had them in their own home where there was dog feces through the premises, including bedrooms and the kitchen. At the entrance to the property, there were tubs filled with excrements that dismissed an unbearable stench. And, still, inside the house lived a couple, a woman who could not move from her bed and, according to neighbors, the daughter and a young minor visited daily as well.

Source: http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/barbanza/2013/04/12/retiran-19-perros-vivian-hacinados-heces-rianxo/0003_2013041365762629361932.htm#_ver_siguiente

Astral conflict: A woman from Vigo proclaimed herself owner of the sun

According to the notarial deed, she is the owner of the star “as there has not been knowledge of any owner in 5,000 years”

The notary bursted out laughing. The woman opposite him had intended for him to attest to the fact that she declared herself owner of the sun, of the king of stars, of the axis of the solar system. The man recomposed himself and listened. “I am the owner of the Sun, a star of spectral type G2, located in the center of the solar system, at an average distance from Earth of around 93 million miles,” read the voluntary affidavit the notary drew up.

She is from Vigo, her name is Ángeles Durán and she lives in Salvaterra de Miño. “An international agreement exists by which no country can own the planets”, explains the new landowner. But such agreement does not mention people. “And there’s an American that registered to own almost all the planets and the moon; but not the sun,” she said. So she saw a clear chance and decided to become its owner and lady.
She did it thanks to a very appropriated method to the circumstances: «The acquisition of the above-mentioned ownership constitutes an electromagnetic and radioactive apprehension, as there has not been existence or knowledge of any owner in the last five thousand million years.” reads the document, which also declares her owner “by usurpation, having kept good-faith to the use of the sun, peacefully, for more than 31 years.”

She said that she has reunited with the Minister of Industry –who expressed identical astonishment- to explain what the thing is. She even assured that she could tax everyone who uses solar energy. As she is the owner: “If rivers are paid for, why not this?” Be it true or not, she assured that she would give 50% of the income to the national budget, 20% to minimum wages, 10% to research and public health and another 10% to eradicate hunger. She would keep 10% for herself. She had to go to the land registry to register herself as owner of the sun, but certainly the Spanish registry does not have powers over the solar system.

The notary who had laughed had to consult with his professional supervisor. He did and recorded the minutes. The most curious about the matter is that his office is in O Porriño, in a housing complex that, even if it seems a joke, is called The Sun.

Source: http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/portada/2010/11/25/0003_8870636.htm

First of May : Unemployment reaches everything.

In the First of May with more jobless ever in Spain while the economy keeps declining, thousands of Galicians go out the streets to demand the government a change of course.

Thousands of people gathered in Vigo.

The ministers, and especially Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s president, had to suffer earache during the “Work Day”,when more Spanish than ever, (over six million) , are against him as the economy decreases to alarming levels. About a hundred thousand Galicians went out yesterday to the street in twenty demonstrations to blame Rajoy (and his austerity measures at any cost) for the rampant unemployment and the social and economic decline of this country, and to ask for his dismissal or a change of course.

 

Vigo assembled one of the most massives marches, about 75000 people were overwhelming against Rajoy, who was called  for his resignation. Suso Seixo, the general secretary of  CIG, who gathered about 30.000 people according to the local police, accused the president of standing up for “ bankers and speculators” instead of defending workers. C.C.O.O and U.G.T convened  other 45,000 people, according to the same source, who cried out for the defense of employment and Rajoy´s resignation.

The main protest march of C.C.O.O and U.G.T in Galicia was in A Coruña. The local police listed 4.200 demonstrators, who were less thant in previous calls. CIG assembled other 1700 people according to the police,who were 10 000 according to the organization.

In Ferrol, about 8 000 people joined two demostrations convened by C.C.O.O, U.G.T and U.S.T.G by one side, and CIG by its side. The situation of lack of job in the shipbuilding industry, which accumulates 2.200 dismissals, starred in the union speeches, which claimed employment contracts for shipyards.There were also launched general strike calls.

In Santiago, labor unions gathered about 5000 demonstrators in two meetings. The bookshop “Follas Novas” was found with its showcase broken and painted. The First of May and the job defense also mobilized many citizens in Lugo, Ourense, Pontevedra, Ribeira…

Source and photo: La Voz de Galicia

MIRANDA PROGRESS NEW MERGERS OF GALICIAN CENTRES ABROAD

He admitted that the community feel the lack of safety like “an important problem”.

The Emigration Secretary, Antonio Rodríguez Miranda, emphasised the strength that gives the union between Galician people in Mexico and Brazil and, according to one of the Galician Government main objectives, said that, shortly, will be known new centre fusions, but not in these two countries, because “we have already progressed enough”.

Back in Galicia after his journey around Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela recently, in statements to Europa Press, Miranda emphasised the importance of the centres to unite and to be “stronger”, and indicated new steps, but not where. In his day, the Xunta— the Galician Government—expressed its confidence in achieving results in the entities, for example, in Catalonia or Cuba.

Convinced of the benefits of a few organizations combining efforts with partners from advanced age and difficulties to keep the social service, he announced that centre of Brazil and Mexico are examples of process centres’ union that determine a strong entity with an important social relevance.

The case of Mexico, he exemplified the ability of the Galician Centre to convene a mass celebration of First May Day: Brazil had an “over time” process and it supported the “specialization”, although Miranda said that there were “small chances of action.”

Questioned about the opposition’s criticisms, which he considers that the Xunta supports the centres in detriment of the attention to the Galician diaspora in the Law of Galeguidade  (Galician trend) which process the autonomic Chamber, replied that the standpoint of the law its happened, exactly, “that it regulates the Galeguidade“, represented in this entities, while the public law are “perfectly recollected” in other legislation.

“Another different discussion may be if we can do or not a citizenship law, but this law is thought to the Galeguidade“, he insisted, in order to add that, although the development of this rule falls on his ancestor in the post, Santiago Camba, he “agrees to the fullest in his contents” and he insisted that he wanted it was passed by the “consensus”.

 RETURN AND DEPARTURE

He also assured that he “agrees” with the Popular Party (conservative party) in the proposal of amending this regulation with suggestions relating to the return, because “there’s no state regulation regarding that” and it seems to him “an interesting complement”. In any case, he reminded that this regulation was submitted to debate in the Board of Spanish Communities Abroad and he received “practically uniform support”.

About the return and the migration nowadays, he said that, even if mobility is “very difficult” to set and there are young people leaving “because of the situation of crisis and unemployment”, the “real” facts are far from fitting with the rise of 80,000 Galician people living abroad in the last four years according to the National Institute of Statistics of Spain.

“Doing this comparison would be a complete mistake, the immense majority of the cases are fitted with nationality’s acquisition’s process as consequence of the Historical Memory’s Law”, explained Miranda, who stressed in the fact that the main proof is that most of the new members of the Galician colony are registered in countries like Argentina and Cuba, towards the place where is “evident” that “there isn’t a departure’s process”.

In fact, even accepting that there’s a higher emigration’s percentage, above all young people, because of crisis, he emphasized the news relating with ways out from the Community “have been decreasing since 2009”.

AIDS AND UNDERTAKING

On the other hand, the general secretary considered “the two main aims” of his trip to Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico achieved, mentioning the meeting with the community for moving the working lines of his department and signing several relief aid agreements, as the cheaper challenge of looking for “an external implication” for obtaining new investments.

In case of the relief aid agreements, he emphasized that, from the three countries, where there is “a more important need” is in Venezuela and Brazil that he linked, above everything, with the older population, in situation of “loneliness” and without economical capacity for defraying the services they require. In Mexico, there are “more unusual” cases.

In Venezuela, where Nicolás Maduro  (the successor of Chávez) has just won the elections, Miranda recognised that Galician community is “eager” to know what’s going to happen with the new Government. “They want to see what it does and in what ways it can affects them direct or indirectly”, he thought.

In the same way, after the attacks suffered by some Galician businessmen who lived in this country, he admitted that the community feel the lack of safety like “an important problem” and she considers “necessary” to have “some kind of action” to face it up. “Maybe it could be one of the most important problems perceived nowadays”, he thought.

http://www.galiciahoxe.com/vivir-hoxe-galicia/gh/miranda-avanza-novas-fusions-centros-galegos-no-exterior/idEdicion-2013-05-06/idNoticia-805117/

Galician fashion for the daughters of the Kings of Holland

Catharina Amalia, Alexia and Ariane wore Pili Carrera’s dresses.

Last Tuesday Catharina Amalia, Alexia and Ariane, daughters of the recently crowned Kings of Holland, William-Alexander and Máxima, came out on the balcony of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam with their parents and grandmother, Princess Beatrice, to greet the Dutch people dressed in Galician kidswear.

Challenging the freezing temperatures of Amsterdam, the Princess of Orange, Catharina Amalia (9 years old) and her two sisters Alexia and Ariane (7 and 6 years old) wore spring dresses designed in yellow from the Galician company Pili Carrera.

The design was made in yellow jacquard without a collar with a bow at the waist and crossed back with glass buttons, set with a flounce of tulle and a headband fitted with a yellow flower.

“We are excited and extremely grateful to the Dutch Kings for having chosen our proposals at an event of this importance. We are proud”, Efé Salomé Carrera (CEO of the brand) said.

Carrera added that it was a success for Spanish fashion in general. “The label ‘made in Spain’ is highly regarded because all our clothes are made in Mos, a small village of Pontevedra, surrounded by nature, she confessed satisfied.

It was the Galician firm itself which took the initiative and sent several catalogs with their designs to the Dutch Royal House which later placed the order.

This year, Pili Carrera celebrates its fiftieth anniversary as a child fashion company and has consolidated an extensive commercial network in countries like Spain, USA, Mexico, Russia, Panama, China, Kuwait, Switzerland, Portugal and soon in Casablanca.

Source: http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/internacional/2013/04/30/moda-gallega-hijas-reyes-holanda/00031367321369173598217.htm

Alberto Feijoo, the President Galician government (“Xunta de Galicia”) , offered in 2003 his resignation because of the photos taken with Marcial Dorado, a Galician drug trafficker. When he was the territorial political representative in Galicia, in 2003, he let his position at Manuel Fraga disposal, the Galician President at that time, for the photos taken with the smuggler.

Like a déja vù. The hard time lived by Feijoo, before the public opinion, these days had already been lived ten years ago, privately. When only nine months and a half had passed since his appointment as the territorial minister in Galician Government representative, he was shocked by the past, the 7th of November, 2003.

The judge Vazquez has just finished ordering the arrest of Marcial Dorado due to his implication in the seizure of 6’5 tonnes of cocaine on the board a ship South Sea, some weeks ago.
During the search carried out at that time in the mansion that the drug dealer has in “A Illa” (Pontevedra, Galicia), appeared sets of ten photos from the middle nineties, where it’s seen the current President.
The existence of these pictures just soon reached the ears of the popular leader, who, as reported in a conference prey, he didn’t hesitate to ask for an urgent meeting with the former president of the Xunta, Manuel Fraga, to put him on top of everything.
However, in his testimony, Feijoo obviated a detail in the story about these events: in the context of that interview, he had left his position formally on his hands.
Fraga reacted ordering a very close contributor to investigate directly in legal sources about the real importance of those snapshots, and their possible implication. “They told me they weren’t important, above all, for the case. They were so unimportant that they stayed in the house where they were” said the person in charge of this operation.
Done the assignment, the intermediary moved the information to Fraga, who confirmed the decision he had almost taken, that is, dismiss Feijoo’s settled. In fact, in September 9th , 2004, he was promoted to vice-president to his present number one.
This story has been confirmed to this journal by two of the four people involved. Another one, Fraga, passed away in January 2012. And the fourth one, Feijoo, affirmed yesterday “to be at complete disposal”.
The president explained his relationship with Dorado at the Parliament. The PP (Popular Party) didn’t particularly like the idea of having Feijoo debating with the opposition groups and giving explanations about the spreading of the pictures taken two decades ago which belonged to his privacy , in which he appears next to Marcial Dorado. But the effort AGE, BNG and PSdeG (parties belonging to the left) put into this finally produced results and the PP agreed yesterday to fix a date to one of the most important plenary sessions in Feijoo’s life, which took place last Wednesday 10 of April, at ten o’clock in the morning.
The appearance will be opened to questions. In return, in the meeting hold yesterday by the spokespersons’ committee of the Parliament, the Popular Party demanded to stop the opposition’s matters that they usually bring up in the control’s session ̶ the opposition had already seen the pictures of Feijoo and Marcial Dorado ̶ . “The opposition’s questions gave him the opportunity to explain himself”, emphasized the popular spokesperson, Pedro Puy, pointed out that the opposition tried to celebrate a kind of “double appearance”. The objection shown by the PP carried to AGE and BNG’s spokesperson, Xosé Manuel Beiras and Francisco Jorquera, to qualify respectively as “surreal” and as “outrageous” the meeting, although facing with the fear that the Feijoo’s appearance came to the frustation, Beiras himself accepted to move away, if it was demanded, his question sent to the Xunta’s President because of this issue.
The other groups accepted this proposal which let be pleased with themselves, each one in his way, because of the reached agreement. The opposition reclaims that Feijoo will give an explanation thanks to the applied pressure. «Feijoo appears taken by the opposition groups for one of his ears», said the PSdeG’s spokesperson, Abel Losada, at the end of the meeting. And, from PP, Pedro Puy have the courage of saying that the autonomic chief is showing a «huge openness’s exercise since the first time» that started with the explanations given to press, to PP group and, in a few days, also to the opposition’s groups.

“Supported by his people”
Meanwhile it doesn’t litigate the Feijoo’s parliamentary confrontation, that it will have an estimated duration of 2 hours, the president of the Autonomous government of Galicia started to receive yesterday several joining and supporting signs of his own party, both from Madrid and from Galicia. Starting with A Coruña’s (region of Galicia) mayor and personal friend, Carlos Negreira, who claimed that the “presumed expired ammunition” used against Feijoo it doesn’t make him change the opinion that he have of the current president of the PPdeG since 35 years.
PP spokesperson in the Parliament, Alfonso Alonso, shared his party’s «support, solidarity and closeness» opposed to some critiques that he judged as «untimely». The Foreign Secretary, García-Margallo, qualified the explanation as «clear». And Ruiz-Gallardón, who sees «one of the most important active workers» of PP in Feijoo, rejected his resignation outright.
Feijoo will not attend the party’s national board of directors in Madrid today because in his schedule was set an act organized some time ago by Citroën, a French car industry, in Vigo (Galicia, Spain).

http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/politica/2013/04/03/feijoo-llego-ofrecer-2003-dimision-fotos-marcial-dorado/0003_201304G3P2991.htm

Rural tourism was born in Ancares

As thermal tourism, in his more modern sense, was born in Mondariz (a little municipality located in Galicia, in the northwest of Spain, and well-known because of its big spa) in 1873, or beach elitist tourism was born in Sanxenxo (a small coastal village situated in Galicia as well) around the 50’s; interior tourism, real ancestor of the current rural tourism, had its origins around the 60’s in the Ancares. The Ancares is a spacious and mountainous territory whose name stemmed from “Valle de Ancares”, a traditional region of Spain, in the province of León, located in the northwest of Spain. The first tourists were mountaineers fascinated by their landscape, sportive and ethnographic appeals. There were unforgettable and difficult times, of a big geographic isolation, there were no snowplows, asphalt scarcely did not exist and, besides, in that time, it used to snow, hard. Since more than 50 years, initiatives like Lugo Ancares Club, Vigo Celt Mountaineers, and others executed with effort by devotees of the zone, encouraged the county’s touristic development. This model, based on the mountaineering as activity, and normally pointed to a mostly young public and of limited purchasing power, was the Galician rural tourist of quality germ that was extended for all the interior of Galicia on the 90th century. But Ancares brought more than 30 years of touristic initiatives when the rural tourism started walking in Galicia.

Picture of the Ancares mountains

But also being historically ground-breaking in the tourism, over the years, the region has stayed behind compared to the rest of the tourism offer of Galicia. In the 90’s despite of the thousand  millions pesetas(Spanish currency until 2002) of the European funds, Ancares saw how the rest of the autonomous community (Galicia) have passed it in relation with the quality of services and touristic products. It’s sad to remember it, but the worst problem was the local authorities; beyond some worshipful exceptions, they have been responsible for an enormous tide of European funds, negotiated with judgments, at least, of inefficiency; without doubting about objecting to every evolution initiative able to change the domination of the chieftains, which they exercised on their neighbors, included the associations at tourist stuff. So clear. With this, despite the entrepreneurial character from the Ancares; the region lost the chance of being situated on the tourist vanguard of Galicia.

The Natural Park

The opposition of the region to its declaration as Natural Park joined this, which, during decades, made it lost options for the future. As the matter itself could be discussed in a high quality article due to its magnitude, we should focused on two factors:  the existence of a convulsive minority which opposes to it for fear and ignorance and, secondly, the attitude of the Galician government, a Xunta de Galicia, which after 20 years, has not yet realized that, in order to make a natural place out of private properties, it is necessary to arrange an allocation of natural resources that can lift up those neighbours who feel that they have been forgotten for centuries.

Opposed to this, municipalities like Balboa, in Ancares too but from the León part (a small village placed in León, near Lugo but corresponding to another community, in the northwest of Spain), have been able to forge a model of exemplary tourist development based on its natural and ethnographic resources, in the last years, recreating in a modest but tenacious way a beautiful story that, by its authenticity, has left a mark on the visitors. Nowadays  lots of visitors meet around their shacks reconverted to canteens, restaurants, craftmanships, concert rooms to give advantages to the weekend tourism and to the no-overnight stay tourism, in the shelter of the new highway. I can’t see that in the zone of Lugo.

shacks reconverted to canteens, restaurants, craftmanships, concert rooms

But as water that has passed by can´t move the mill, let’s focus on the future and hope. If we analyze the tourist-private initiatives undertaken in this Spanish area over last years, most have been for foreign entrepreneurs, attracted by his magic and beauty, or migrants who have returned to their place of birth(we should keep in mind that Galicia is well known for its big waves of emigrants) with new eyes, formation and future vision. It is not easy to monetize a company stands alone in the mountains, away from the source markets.

But at the same time, nowadays any touristic business can work if it has a deep knowledge of the internet, in its broadest and technical sense, and the social networks. The communications have really improved with the A-6, one of the most important highways in Spain that goes near Ancares and communicates  Galicia with the center of the country, and the new interior routes, isolation is partially defeated. My dream would be that the young people from the area –the little that is still there–, to leeward from the profound revolution of information technologies that we are living, were able to leave behind old ties and delude with the realization of new entrepreneurial projects in the region. In spite the crisis.

SOURCE: http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/lugo/2013/02/25/turismo-rural-nacio-os-ancares/0003_201302L25C2993.htm

The Galician Government will deduct a part of the salary to those employees who arrive half an hour late

The staff must prolong their working day in order to make up for delays smaller than 30 minutes – Trade unions quit negociations

The Galician Government  intends to control each minute of their staff’s schedule and will subtract the delays (at the begining of the working day) bigger than 30 minutes from their employees’ salary. Besides, the Government opens the door to the application of other punishments. Whoever who comes late -not more than those 30 minutes- will be allowed to compensate their delay by lengthening their workday until completing the fixed schedule: from 7.45 hours to 15.15.

This is one of the novelties included in the draft of the order of Vice-presidency, which regulates the different modalities of workdays and the teleworking of the regions’ administration. This document points out that delays should be justified; only those who “keep to the schedule” staying longer at work to make up for their delays, that is, who don’t exceed those 30 minutes, will be exempt from giving an explanation to service managers. Those who arrive late at work will have to explain the reasons and a proportional part of their wages will be deducted.

This change is included in the strategy of the current Spanish Government to improve the “efficiency” of its staff, where the most important device is the card of the System of Kronos, the one used by each employee to accede to their computer. It gives information about the exact minute the employee starts to work and whether the working-hours continue beyond 15:15 pm, something that didn’t happen with the current computer system, which doesn’t give those compensations, according to Presidency. Union sources recognise the present laxity: “Most of the time the working day starts at eight and finishes at three in the afternoon”, they pointed out.

That new regulation from the Vice-presidency and the Presidency Commission clashed on April 19^th with the union opposition, which stood up the Vice-presidency and did not attend the meeting in which the draft of such regulation was going to be submitted. CIG, CCOO, UGT and CSIF, some Spanish trade unions, signed a joint document in which they complained about being informed by the media of the project of the Government, approved by the maximum consultative organ of this Government, in order to adjust not only the schedule of the employees, but also the teleworking. The trade unions asked for “minimum respect and good faith” to the Executive to get the information before attending to negociate. They don’t trust that their suggestions will be kept in mind.

Vice-presidency, for its part, claims that it called a meeting the day the Council approved the draft of order with both ‘informative and conciliator’ wishes and, once delivered this draft, a period of fifteen days will be opened so that the central offices provide the document with their statements.

Source:http://www.farodevigo.es/galicia/2013/04/20/xunta-descontara-parte-sueldo-personal-retrase-media-hora/794766.html

Photo:http://www.analitica-web.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Overalia-oficina-nueva-9.jpg

Franco, the old Spanish commander, changed the Spanish time to be in tune with Nazis

 

 Why do Spanish people have lunch at 3 pm? Until 1942 the Iberian Peninsula lived according to the time of the Greenwich’s meridian, like England and Portugal, but the dictator accepted to join in the time used to in the occupied territory.

 In the 60’s of the latest century, the department of Information and Tourism, Manuel Fraga Iribarne, attracted to Swedish girls to the Spanish beaches with the slogan “Spain is different”. Although the Spanish society has evolved ever since, the truth is that they go cross-current of over the world in some aspects. By instance, the meal time. Spanish people have breakfast early, at the same time than another countries, but, for the desperations by the hungry tourist, they didn`t lunch until 2.30 pm and the dinner is always after 9 pm.

On the other hand of the Pyrenees, Europe has lunch at about 1pm, and they rarely have dinner after 8 pm. Independently the culture or the clime, every world, for the Portuguese people until in the far New Zealand, they seem having a different speed than Spanish have. But all of this it would stay in a mere anecdote if it wasn’t because it was related to problems about the profit of time. “We are one of the Europeans countries that later we went to the bed and less time we dedicate to sleep. It seems like we were winning a record of vital resistance”. It was said by Ines Alberdi sociologist in the University Complutense of Madrid.

The delay of the time to go to bed produces that the Spanish people spend sleeping is not eight hours recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Apart from stealing sleep, Spanish rhythms become very difficult to reconcile work and personal life. While abroad hey have 45 minutes for lunch, Spanish cut the workday and they are eating until two hours satiating food. This means that, although the entry time in the office is the same as in other countries people to go out later and the time dedicated to the family, leisure and housework is reduced.

 

Less time for leisure

 “When work invades our personal sphere constantly, productivity becomes smaller- says Ignacio Buqueras y Bach, National Commission for Spanish Time Rationalization President-. People become irritable, less comprehensive with their business interests, more prone to labour or traffic accidents and more stressed. All this reduces productivity,

 

Time irrational design affects in different ways to each group. According to Statistics National Institute (SNI) inquiries about time uses, women spend two hours more than men to domestic and familiar work, and this causes that women suffer especially the consequences of a labour journey unusually long.

 

“The big victims are women. In the past they mainly have a job; now, they have two because of the pour cooperation of their partner” says Buqueras y Bach. And, moreover, children come home when there aren’t adults in it.

 

Franco changed the Spanish time respect to the sun

The curious is that Spanish people aren’t different to the rest of the moon, but their clocks. At the moment when the Sun is higher in the sky, namely, at 12 noon according to daylight, Spanish clocks mark the 1.30 pm.

According to the King of stars, in Spain we eat between one and two solar and we have dinner at the 8.30 pm, schedules which don’t differ much with the foreign.

Namely, food habits in Spain are guided by the Sun, although the official clocks seem to insist on going to his own.

The cause of this time difference dates back to the years of the dictatorship, when Franco advanced 60 minutes the national clocks to be in reception with the hour that Germany had put at that time in all occupied territories(GMT+1:00).

Until that moment, Spanish people had lived according with the time of the Greenwich meridian.

That is to say, until 1942, Spanish clocks were an hour late regarding the actual ones (GMT +0:00), the same they have now in England, Portugal, the Canary Islands and the one who actually belongs to Spain because of the country’s geographical situation, considering that the Greenwich meridian also crosses Castellón (Valencian Community) and leaves the peninsula on the west side of it.

Furthermore, Galicia, situated on the more occidental part of the peninsula, could easily adapt to the next time zone (GMT -1:00). During winter, their clocks are two hours ahead of the solar time.

 

The post-war period’s moonlighting

This inconsistency is intensified even more adopting summer’s schedule. The change of hour is a controversial measure, but it’s established for the board of directors of the European Union and it’s based on studies which claim that it assists energetic savings. Since this Sunday at 2 am, when in the whole Europe the clocks were delayed an hour, Spain has been 2 hours ahead the Sun, and even 3 hours in Galicia, where solar midday happens after 2.30 pm.

In addition of the time zone, the moonlighting during post-war’s poverty ages it has been suggested like the origin of the belated national dinners. After civil war, it was usual have a job since 2 pm, and other one after lunch until the beginning of the night.

Although moonlighting it’s not common in current society, have a late dinner could be a trace of an era where in fact was common, in the same way as morning bank and administration’s schedules.

The Association for the Spanish Schedule’s Rationalization suggests that the solution would be return to the Greenwich Time zone by which Spain was ruled in 1942. “It’s a decision that the government must make, and we have asked for like this, without success, to the two last presidents, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Mariano Rajoy (the current president of Spain). It’s easy put into practice, automatic and immediate; moreover, it produces no economic cost” Buqueras and Bach claim.

It would be as simple as not put back clocks the next year with the spring arrival. The process should be going served with a change in several social activities. For example, the television prime time would be advanced one hour and, in the work and school, it would be encouraged the workday with no lunch break.

“The aim of the schedules’ rationalization is to make life easier to us and to achieve that would be compatible the different obligations and desires of vital accomplishment of men and women who are, simultaneously, mothers, parents and workers” Inés Alberdi concludes.

 

‘Xinjiang is different’ too

The clocks displacement in relation to the Sun is not unique of Spain and it has led to curious situations in other regions where it’s also suffered, as in west provinces of China, a country that, despite his huge area, has set the same hour in all its territory. Areas like Xinjiang or Tibet has the same hour as Peking in spite of being located two time zones to the west of the capital. The solar midday takes place in these areas at 3 pm.

In consequence, the inhabitants of Xinjiang follow their own unofficial hour, two less than the rest of the country, which is considered a way of fighting and resisting against the Government. There schools and business open and close according to Xinjiang’s own hour, in spite of the one ordered by the central Government.

 

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