When the father of a missing girl in Huelva captured the media spotlight in late 2007 as he led the search for his missing daughter, he capitalised on the nation’s attention to launch a national public awareness campaign about the flaws in the Spanish justice system. Five-year-old Mari Luz Cortés disappeared after she ran off to buy a bag of crisps at a neighbourhood kiosk. Following a massive two-month nationwide search her body was found in January 2008 in a river in Huelva province’s Torrearenilla marshland. A convicted paedophile, Santiago del Valle, who had been granted an early release from prison, was arrested after he confessed to the murder. Thus began Juan José Cortés’ crusade … [Read more...] about The victim-turned-activist: a new kind of hero
Archives for April 2010
Spain gets secular… with its Muslims
A Madrid state-run secondary school’s decision to ban a 16-year-old female pupil from wearing a hijab, or Islamic headscarf, to classes has hit the headlines, bringing to the surface the uncomfortable issue of the place in public life of Spain’s more than one million Muslims. The Camilo José Cela school in the prosperous Madrid suburb of Pozuelo has decided that Najwa Malha, who was born in Spain to Moroccan immigrants, has violated its dress code by wearing the hijab. The school’s board has ratified the decision by an overwhelming majority, and Malha has been receiving individual tuition in the school’s waiting room. Her options are simple: accept the ban and remove her headscarf, or … [Read more...] about Spain gets secular… with its Muslims
What now for the “PIGS”?
Spanish savings bank La Caixa recently brought to market a €1-billion issue of three-year cédulas territoriales at 70 basis points over similar sovereign debt. As for the investors – 49 percent of these securities backed by loans to Spanish public administrations were picked up by German or British parties and 36 percent by locals. Given the horrific recent treatment of Greek debt, this benign event probably invites a closer look at the tenets behind the classification of a nation as one of the “PIGS” - as if the mere fact that Spanish sovereign 10-years are yielding approximately the same as when the crisis broke last December, whilst the Italian equivalent pays investors 10 basis points … [Read more...] about What now for the “PIGS”?
Bringing ballet in from the cold
The news that Nacho Duato will be leaving the Compañía Nacional de Danza (CND) in July after 20 years at the helm ushers in a new era for dance in Spain. His early exit is triggered by the Culture Ministry’s recent and momentous decision that from now on the state company must offer classical and neoclassical dance, instead of just the contemporary choreographies that Duato specializes in. This is in fact what the CND should have been doing all along, Duato’s critics feel, noting that in recent years its artistic director has been running the public company like a private feifdom. By offering to extend his soon-to-expire contract to 2011, the authorities hoped that Duato would agree … [Read more...] about Bringing ballet in from the cold
Garzón, the PP, and a Byzantine justice system
As growing numbers of people around the world will know by now, investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzón is in hot water. The man best-known for having ordered the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in 1998 is being investigated by his colleagues in the Supreme Court on three counts. If found guilty, his career will be over. There is something of a whiff of conspiracy about this sudden fall from grace. The first investigation is into accusations that he dropped tax fraud charges against executives of Banco Santander in return for $302,000-worth of sponsorship by the bank for a series of lectures on human rights he gave at New York University in 2003. This hearing is currently underway. The … [Read more...] about Garzón, the PP, and a Byzantine justice system
The rebirth of corruption
A flick through a Spanish daily newspaper one particular day in early April made for instructive, if depressing, reading. The national news pages were dominated by the latest on a series of corruption scandals, all involving politicians. In Catalonia, the ‘Pretoria’ case saw members of the Socialist Party and the nationalist CiU embroiled in a scam involving construction contracts; in Estepona, Andalusia, the town’s former Popular Party mayor Rosa Díaz faced charges of illegally selling off land; in the Balearic Islands, Jaume Matas, a former Popular Party regional premier and national environment minister, had been told he needed to post €3 million bail in order to avoid being jailed … [Read more...] about The rebirth of corruption
Guardiola’s masterwork is based on Cruyff’s art
Barcelona’s latest triumph on a seemingly inexorable march to another domestic and European double –a 2-0 victory over Real Madrid in the Bernabéu on April 10– was described in the Spanish media as cartera ganado por cantera – roughly, the youth team beats the wallet. It has become one of Barcelona president Joan Laporta’s favourite jibes towards the team from the capital and the outspoken lawyer, who stands down from the stewardship of the club in the summer, is enjoying his personal finale immensely. “It was a victory for our mode of football and as a club,” Laporta told reporters after the match with thinly veiled glee. Of the two starting line-ups, Real’s contained one product of its … [Read more...] about Guardiola’s masterwork is based on Cruyff’s art
Politics is ETA’s problem as it seeks global stage
When Nobel Peace Prize laureates F.W. de Klerk, Desmond Tutu and John Hume all back an initiative together with the support of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, it is bound to carry some weight. It is also likely to be a project with major international repercussions. But when South African human rights lawyer Brian Currin presented to the European Parliament a resolution backed by the above and another 17 figures from the world of politics and conflict mediation on March 29, the issue at hand was the relationship between the Basque Country, the small region in northern Spain, and Madrid. The statement sought to contribute to resolving what it called “the last remaining conflict in … [Read more...] about Politics is ETA’s problem as it seeks global stage
Lost at sea in the fight against digital piracy
In recent years, Spain has won itself the dubious honour of being labelled a haven for illegal downloading, to such an extent that international distributors have voiced doubts about continuing to supply the country with material such as DVDs. The government has attempted to tackle this issue with a raft of anti-piracy measures. Known as the Sinde Law, after Culture Minister Ángeles González Sinde, they were confusingly tacked onto an Economic Sustainability Law unveiled last year. The specific details of the legislation were not approved until March and Congress is expected to put the act into effect over the next couple of months. Production companies, content providers and the … [Read more...] about Lost at sea in the fight against digital piracy
The industrialisation of prostitution
For the first time, the Spanish police have released figures on the number of women reportedly forced into prostitution by traffickers and pimps. Last year, the authorities say police rescued or were approached by around 1,300 women working in the sex industry against their will, most of them from Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa. The real figure is undoubtedly much, much, higher: over the last three years, the police have smashed more than 40 prostitution networks alone. Official estimates put the number of female prostitutes in Spain at around 100,000. Other sources put it as high as 400,000. More than 80 percent are foreigners, and most were brought here by international … [Read more...] about The industrialisation of prostitution