Well, Mojácar is bust like a lot of other towns in Almería. But it has money. There's the eight million euros it got from selling off a prize chunk of Macenas a few years back. However, the Junta de Andalucía stepped in then and said the town could only spend that money on building council houses (VPOs) on land which was fit for urbanisation. Which, in another master-stroke from that same authority, turns out there isn't any.
'You see', an ex-mayor of Mojácar was telling me over a beer, 'this town never had any 'illegal homes' like Albox, Arboleas, Cantoria and so on, but we have always taken the brunt of the blame as the most corrupt town in the eastern end of this province'. The reason, according to this same source, is because the PSOE came at the tail-end of the thirteen runners in the last local elections here with just a handful of votes.
'Are you saying we should vote for the PSOE for our survival?' I asked astonished?

There's nothing wrong with voting, as can be seen by the successful elections in Iraq (the same day as the Oscars). An acceptance speech from John Oliver on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show.

There is a brand new program coming out in a few weeks from the Instituto Nacional de Tecnologías de la Comunicación which will search and highlight any sexist material which comes from official documents or content from the administration - or indeed, anywhere in the Spanish cybersphere. That's right, no more implied or unintended insults because that perfidious language employed by Spain, el castellano, uses gender.
Which is why politicians say things like 'compañeros y compañeras' and write 'amig@s' to not offend the easily provoked members of society.
With me so far? The program is called 'Lenox'.
The 'Ministry of Equality' is very excited (I know. But yes, there is one - talk about Spain going from 'Macho' to 'Manso' in a generation!). Soon, you will be able to inspect any Spanish-language site and rate it for sexist commentary.

That's right, another official language in Spain. This one, spoken vaguely in parts of Asturias, is called Babel and it can now be used for any letter, plea or communication with the Asturian government, after a ruling in the Constitutional Court in Madrid today, according to El País.
Wikipedia tells us that Babel (also known as Asturian) is spoken by a relatively small number of people: 'In 1994, there were 100,000 first language speakers, and 450,000 second language speakers able to speak or understand Asturian. However, the situation of Asturian is critical, with a large decline in the number of speakers in the last 100 years'. Of course, local supporters are doing all they can to revive the language and damn their children to a future of isolation and obscurity.
It also appears that Babel is closely related to Llionés (León) and Mirandese (this last one spoken in a small pocket in Portugal).
So, another official language. Of course, if Gibraltar becomes part of Spain, a rather more useful language will join the official Spanish lexicon. Cor blimey!

Later: a reader points out that there is another language fighting for supremacy in Spain. see El Instituto de Lenguaje Klingon.

The Spanish government has agreed to place an advisor at the orders of the British Consulates to watch for British owned property problems in Valencia (Alicante) and Andalucía (Málaga) after an agreement was reached today in Málaga with Gaspar Zarrías (the long-time advisor of Manuel Chaves, now Secretary of State for Territorial Cooperation), Juan Espadas the Junta's planning tsar, Chris Bryant the British Minister for Europe and the British ambassador Giles Paxman.
Mr Bryant evidently travelling down to Málaga after his meeting this morning in Albox.
The agreement, which will help 'the million Britons living in Spain', is designed to help and advise Britons wishing to live here, with the endless and complicated rules and regulations explained and observed. This should avoid any future 'illegal' situations for Britons to do with property, health and social issues.
'It is better to find a solution beforehand', said Minister Bryant today, 'before the courts are needed. In Albox they used lawyers but still got into trouble, and this is not good enough'.
Zarrias and Espadas (in what some British readers might consider to have been a jocular moment) underlined that juridical security in Spain is absolute: 'Los británicos saben que aquí funciona el Estado de Derecho y que hay leyes, todo se hace conforme a derecho'.
So, perhaps - in one month's time, when the new system begins and certified Spanish advisors are in place in the two consulates - things may have taken a change. And that's good news.

Daily Telegraph 'Bulldozing expats homes will hurt Spain'.

GMTV ('Spain Homes under threat'). Minister Bryant talks about the illegal homes and his efforts on property owners' behalf.

The British Minister for Europe Chris Bryant met four of the 'Albox 8' home-owners today in Albox, a fact which has now made the national Spanish press. An article in today's El Mundo is rather better and more balanced than the effort from yesterday's provincial El Almería (see below).
The article explains that many British families (it suggests eight thousand) bought homes in the Almanzora Valley for an average 200,000 euros in the 2002 - 2003 period 'in good faith' only to afterwards find them to be (in one way or another) 'illegal'. This has caused a stir in the UK and the British ambassador has now asked for an audience with the President of Andalucía, José Antonio Griñán, to explain the behaviour of that authority.

Later: (AUAN Press Release): Representatives of the AUAN were very pleased to be invited to attend a private meeting between Chris Bryant, Minister for Europe, and four of the Albox families threatened with the demolition of their homes.
Also present at the meeting, were Giles Paxman, the British Ambassador, and Steve Jones, the British Consul. Mr Bryant, who was well informed on this subject, reassured the affected families that the British Government were both aware of and concerned about the situation in the area. He went on to say that, though the UK has no jurisdiction in the affairs of Spain, he would do everything in his power to help. He also referred to the detrimental economic impact this scandal has had on Spain.
Homeowners told him of the stress and legal expense they are suffering as a result of the demolition threat, despite having purchased their homes in good faith and being in possession of all the correct licences. They stressed to the minister that a quick and equitable solution was required to this problem. Maura Hillen (AUAN President) raised the disgraceful track record of the administration with respect to the payment of compensation to Helen and Len Prior and the difficulties surrounding the ‘one by one’ solution currently proposed by the Junta.
After speaking with the homeowners, the Minister went on to have a closed meeting with the Mayor of Albox, Jose Garcia. Before leaving, he spoke of a planned meeting with Juan Espadas, the Planning Minister of the Junta de Andalucia.

Mr Bryant's visit to Albox is covered in the El Almería newspaper withEl ministro británico pide más diálogo. the Minister says in a speech at one point 'if Spain wants to grow economically, with the crisis as things are, then the country needs to change this situation'. It's a good article.

Is the judiciary free from political bias? I know, it's a leading question here in Spain. Anyhow, 1,400 judges today signed a statement which they call 'a manifesto for a de-politicised and independent judiciary'. The judges want a return to the 'dignity' of judicial power, free from political influence. They have already had several 'strikes' over this issue and, once again, the national and regional governments are embarrassed (or damn well should be) by their manipulation and deceit.
By the way, 'jueces políticos' has 2,550,000 links on Google.

A strange piece in today's El Almería starts out as indignant that so many foreigners should suffer problems with 'illegal homes' or being victims of corruption in urban matters, then carries on to say that there are as many - or more - Spaniards who have similarly been ripped off. Therefore, some politicians say that we should concern ourselves more (?) with these under-reported Spanish cases. It is not always easy, admits the article, to rush off to the nearest court-house for a quick and easy solution to these problems. There are no precise rules in these cases, with too many interpretations, interested parties and (in)competent authorities.
One thing is sure, this situation largely mishandled by the Junta de Andalucía isn't doing much for the Almerian economy, with over 30% unemployment.

While some of us believe that sending money or aid to Haiti is low on one's list of priorities (see below), the prisoners in El Acebuche - the large jail outside Almería full of rapists, murderers and all-round no-goodniks - have collected 3,500 euros which has been sent to help that desolated country.

Spain's first national islamic political party, the 'Partido Renacimiento y Unión de España' was presented to polite society today in Granada. The party, with the unfortunate acronym of 'PRUNE' and led by a Spanish passport-holding Moroccan called Mustafá Bakkach, insists that it is not a radical party. We remind Mr Bakkach that (rather schoolboyish and frankly undemocratic) Spanish rules oblige all parties to have a 40% minimum proportion of women in their ranks.