There's an opinion piece in yesterday's leftist Voz de Almería which is pretty interesting:
'There are various possible interpretations for the recent departure of Luis Caparrós from his job as head of obras públicas and the vivienda. His name comes up a lot in the biggest property scandal in the last hundred years - the illegal construction of thousands and thousands of homes in our province. Such a scandal it is, that European parliamentarians have taken interest in the subject, believing that there is a serious case of fraud, ripoff and theft against their citizens living in Almeria province to answer for. The denuncias from the Junta de Andalucía always came late, generally when the house had been built, sold, an escritura issued, and with a British family installed within.
So who should we blame for this shocking state of affairs? Luis Caparrós held all the cards. To try and dodge the blame, Caparrós told the European settlers who wanted to live here not to trust the mayors. And this was the senior representaive for housing for the Junta de Andalucía in Almería talking! With urban politics badly driven over the phone from Seville, and with a department in Almería that didn't know how to help or protect the European home buyers, Almería soon made it to the front pages of all the major European newspapers, as a place to avoid bringing any investment to.
You may find other reasons why Caparrós was sacked, but this one is enough for me. We have lost a huge opportunity for some of our pueblos to find a way to survive since there are few alternatives. All that is needed is supervision, control, vigilence, and that the public administration does its job properly. This didn't happen and along came the demolitions and the suspicions. Good bye Luis!'
Juan Torrijos

There was a presentation today in Mojácar's town hall of the plans for the bit of the village by the church, the Plaza Arbellán. Unfortunately, I was asked to leave by the mayoress as 'it was only for the vecinos'. Ho hum.
Anyhow, after it was over, I managed to get the low-down - from the slightly dazed neighbours as they exited the salón de actas.
The first stage is to knock down the Loro Azul and the 'schoolmaster's building', currently used as a public lavatory. The Loro Azul fellow has already taken residence in the nearby Budú Bar (which, four mayors back, used to have a little tunnel next to it, the Arco de Luciana).
The second stage, and hold on to your hats, is to dig in the rock an underground parking space for forty cars - at an estimated 50,000 euros per car. Cost to Johnny Taxpayer. These spaces will be (or are envisaged to be) for residents only. Certainly not for the town hall employees who...
In stage three, a new town hall will be built facing you as you come up the street past the church, with another building, for an oficina de turismo, slightly to the left and a small square taking up the remaining bit (on the left).
The thought of a town hall being anywhere near where 90% of the mojaqueros live - i.e. on the playa - is not considered as making any sense.
This plan is - apparently - still in an early stage.
The money for this is to come from public land sold in Macenas a few years back.

The number of Britons apparently living in Spain (that is to say, the number appearing on the padrón) appears to have grown in 2009 by 11,523 to a massive 387,226. I would guess that part of this number comes from a slightly increased awareness on the part of the British homesteaders to get their names registered with their town halls (those who are allowed to do so - clearly not the ones living in 'viviendas ilegales' which would add a good few thousands to the above score) rather than a tidal-wave of anxious settlers leaving the Sceptred Isle before the next election.
These figures are considered (by all except the Spanish authorities) to be highly inaccurate as many who are registered fail to 'de-register' when they leave for somewhere else, and many more don't register in the first place, anxious not to appear on any computer listing.
The largest group, according to the INE figures, is the Romanian population - which we all know has shrunk considerably in the current crisis. That figure is given at 829,715. The British are in fourth position (come on you Brits!), after Morocco and Ecuador.

The Government is now moving purposefully against the 'illegal' FM radio stations, both Spanish and English. 'Trust FM' has closed (for whatever reason) and now 'Smooth FM' is to stop broadcasting from this Sunday as an FM, but they will continue as an Internet radio. Another, Levante Radio is only on the Internet.
Another small English-language radio, Cool FM, was closed down a couple of years back (it was denounced by a rival radio) and fined (the minimum allowable) 60,000 euros, so the threat of official action is out there.
Spectrum Radio is trying to get a municipal licence from the town hall, which seems unlikely as an English-language exile radio, even with a bit en castellano thrown in now and again. If you don't understand what's being said on your radio station, you re-tune. They will probably be forced to go the Internet route as well.
There is a lot of unfairness in Spain, and this issue is no exception. The fact is, the main players - including SER and Onda Cero - are pushing for this as they want to control their falling advertising. There is plenty of room, now with digital radio, for everyone on the dial.

Perhaps one of my favourite groups, The Cranberries, is making a rare concert in Spain in the bullring in Motril on July 28th. You can obtain tickets '...en el Teatro Calderón de Motril y el Centro Comercial Radiovisión de la localidad, o en la red nacional de adquisición de entradas online Tick, Tack, Ticket'. Buy one for me, hey?

The statistics office, the INE, dropped its guard for a few minutes yesterday and allowed access to Spain's first quarter unemployment figures which shouldn't be released until Friday. It seems that there are now over 4,600,000 unemployed in Spain, that is to say, over 20% of the active population. Andalucía is higher, at a bit over 27% unemployed. The best place to find work is the País Vasco (11%) or Navarra (12%).
Almería unemployment stands officially at 27.8%.

A replacement for the infamous 'Sr Bulldozer', Luis Caparrós, has now been announced. The new head of the Delegación Provincial de Obras Públicas y Vivienda, with the fate of thousands of British home-owners in her hands, is Caparros' former assistent Ana Vinuesa. We shall soon see how this new 'fichaje' by the Junta de Andalucía affects and responds to the problems in the Almanzora Valley.

I prefer Canal Satelite over Sky for a few obvious reasons - not least of which is that it is legal whereas the other one is um... ah... not that there'll be a knock on the door about it anytime soon... surely?
Anyhow, apart from a reduced but sufficient number of channels (designed for a Spanish viewer rather than one living in Norfolk), lots of films available in VO (versión original), documentaries, sports, music and the Simpsons, etc and so forth, there are lots of news channels. BBC, Sky News, CNN, CNN Spain, TVE, Fox (news? shurely some mistake), France 24, Al Jazeera and a few others. However - today I've been watching the 'Discovery Channel'. It started with a program about a vulgar family who build 'custom' Harley Davidsons, followed by Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson (showing the latest in fast cars - today's show was made in 2004), then a show about tattoos called Miami Ink (uuurggh) and another about the same revolting subject called LA Ink. Then, it's pretty much 'repeat'.
I think I'll stick to the Internet, with Jon Stewart's Daily Show to amuse me.

Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí met up for a while in 1946 and began to create a short surrealist cartoon together. The eight-minute film was eventually completed many years later by Walt's nephew Roy E. Disney. Here it is. 'Destino'.

The man who practically invented tourism in Almería, José María Rossell, is currently under lock n' key in Lanzarote while he helps the judge in a huge land corruption scandal that has so far produced seven arrests including the man who used to be until recently Rossell's Nº 2, an Almerian businessman called José Gonzalo Gil Acosta. Rossell has one hotel in Lanzarote and another under construction. In Almería, his group Hoteles Senator controls Roquetas de Mar, Almerimar and Mini Hollywood.