Tarifa re-enacts siege of 1812

TARIFA (Cádiz) – Tarifa was under siege last weekend. Well, it might have given that impression to a wandering tourist. In fact, the town was really under siege by French forces on June 1812, during what in Spain is known as the War of Independence, and the Peninsular War in the UK’s history books. Napoleon’s troops were mostly in Cádiz towards the end of the blockade. The fun and games was presented by an association from Bailén that specialises in re-enactments all over the country – usually in themes related to the French occupation of the peninsula. On Saturday, they re-enacted the battle at La Caleta, which saw the breach of the old town walls (faithfully reproduced by municipal workers during the week) at what was once known as Puerta del Retiro and is now called Plaza de Calzadilla de Téllez. The siege itself lasted for twenty long days, seven of which the people of Tarifa had the scarred wall to defend heroically.

Antonio Banderas, lifetime Goya award 2015

MADRID -- Spain's film academy, the Academia de Cine, whose annual awards are the country's equivalent of the Oscar, has awarded Spanish international star Antonio Banderas a Goya of Honour -- something like a lifetime achievement prize. The academy's Board was unanimous in its acclamation of Banderas's "brilliant career on both sides of the Atlantic" where over the years he has developed not only as a versatile actior, but also as a director and producer. He has been nominated for a Goya award on four occasions, has worked on over 90 films and has appeared on Broadway (Nine). He worked with Spain's best-known director Pedro Almodóvar on five movies and on such box-office hits as Philadelphia, Shrek, Evita and Zorro, among others.

Andalucía’s education disaster (MÁS ABAJO EN ESPAÑOL: Andalucía, desastre en educación)

OPINION (by Alberto Bullrich) -- A friend’s son was told to leave his classroom at the village Adult Education Centre the other day. He called his mother in tears; she went to speak with the teacher, who told her that the ‘head office’ had denied the boy, 17, permission to take the exams at the end of the course because he was born in January, after the ‘adult’ deadline of December 31. He would have to wait a whole year, though he was offered other unrealistic alternatives. Fair enough, he was born ‘too late’ so he is not officially an adult yet. But why was he eager to attend these classes?

Spain: worst drop in exports in five years

MADRID – Spain’s exports dropped 5.2% in August, the worst since October 2009. The reasons behind it are multiple, but the main cause is the problems the European economies, especially France and Germany, have undergone. Sales to emergent nations have also dropped, a contributing factor. While presenting these figures at a press conference last week, the Minister for the Economy, Luis de Guindos, pointed out that in real terms and having discounted the price of exports, the downward drift is only 1%. Nevertheless, the general trend of the Spanish economy is toward negative inflation. German exports fell by 1% in the same period, and the French, 5.7%; in both countries this is the sixth consecutive downturn. Exports from the UK were also down, which accumulated a 20% descent in eight consecutive months. Bad news, too, from outside the EU, where exports dropped by 7.1%, particularly in emergent Latin American nations such as Venezuela (-73.5%), Brazil (-22.3%) and Mexico (-16.5%). (Source: El Economista)

Spanish Olympic medallist signs up with Cirque de Soleil

Margalida Crespí

MADRID – Where she’s going there are no nets, and no drum roll, yet the jump is monumental: from the podium at the London 2012 Olympics to the main ring of a circus. Not any old circus, mind you, the magnificent Cirque de Soleil. Yes, Margalida Crespí, Olympic bronze for team synchronised swimming and a world gold medal in the same discipline. She’s giving up high level competition for possibly more strenuous discipline of the world’s most popular circus. Aged 24, the native of Palma de Mallorca is packing her bags and headed for Montreal, the circus’s headquarters. She wants to

How could the new capital gains tax law affect you?

MADRID -- A new capital gains tax comes into effect on January 1, 2015. Not every property seller is impacted, though. According to Fuster & Associates, the government is eliminating two coefficients when calculating the tax due on a property sale. It does mean, however, that some vendors will see a large increase in the amount of capital gains they are liable for. There are three tax groups that will be exempted from paying, however:

30,000 illegal homes in Málaga, only 16 demolitions

MÁLAGA – It has been calculated that there some 30,000 illegal homes built in the province. Many of them are on ‘non-buildable’ or ‘rústico’ land, or on river flood courses, and the sides and tops of mountains … Yet only a tiny proportion of them have been demolished, which is what the law mandates (restitution to its original state). This permissiveness is owed principally to the fact that there is no politician willing to assume the electoral costs of an unpopular measure. That, and the sluggish speed of justice in Spain. Of course, it’s Nature that loses out, as usual. The provincial Prosecutor//calculates that there were at least 16 demolitions 2013 as the result of having been built on non-buildable land and therefore considered as an offence against ‘territorial ordination’. This is more than can be said for previous years.

Sperm: the new white gold?

MADRID – Spain has become a major exporter of human semen. It has to do with a number of things, not least of which are that it is not illegal in this country to donate sperm. This is why, for instance, Spain recently began exporting it to Portugal, where donations are not allowed, and nor are artificial insemination of lesbian couples or single mothers. People flock to Spain for artificial insemination, principally, from other less progressive European countries and from around the world. //The fact is, too, that the quality of sperm, in the developed world at least, has been decreasing over the years.  The reasons behind this are diverse: alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, fast foods in terms of nutrition, stress, fashion dictates in tight clothing, some sports such as cycling (which puts pressure on the testicles) and an increase in obesity in developed nations. There are more but these are the most common.

According to research carried out by the Department of Growth and Reproduction at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, using scientific studies of those years, the average sperm count descended alarmingly between 1940 and 1990. From 113 million spermatozoa per millilitre to 66 million, almost half.

Another study, published in HumanReproduction magazine, confirms the downward spiral. Between 1989 and 2005, the sperm count per millilitre is now a mere 49 million. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) does not see this count as alarming, as the established minimum is 15 million, as it asserts in a manual they publish on the subject.

Single mothers and homosexual couples are 60% of the business

In the meantime, sperm banks have arisen like mushrooms. Ole Schou, who founded the world’s largest, Cryos, based in Denmark, agrees that tendencies and attitudes are changing rapidly. He adds that only 40% of his clientele is heterosexual couples; the rest are single mothers and homosexual couples. Cryos exports to 70 countries, which they can do in 24 hours. “Since our foundation in 1991, we have helped in the conception of some 30,000 babies, about 2,000 a year.” This, he says, is due to the company’s strict quality controls and in part to Danish law.

Having begun with university students as donors, and having expanded exponentially, Cryos exploits the international market with profits at the 80% mark. The number of donors is a “state secret” according to Schou. He is at present studying the possibility of opening offices in other countries, including Spain, in order to offer different kinds of donors – different specifications.

The law in this country forbids payment for donations but allows compensation ‘for the trouble’. Men in Spain can make an extra €1200 in six months, according to local sources. Many sperm banks, not just here, have an open clause in their donor contracts that says that at age 18, the children resulting from a donation, are allowed to contact the donor.

(Source: www.quo.es)

Some bank customers pay over €270 a year in commissions

MADRID -- A recent study by the consumer group Facua reveals that clients of Barclays, Santander, Unicaja and La Caixa are the ones who pay highest commissions, which can reach a hefty €270 per year or more. According to the survey, the median amount paid is €168.73 if your paycheck, benefits or pension are not automatically credited (domiciliado; here we use 'domiciled' for no reason except convenience). Below is a sample listing of the costs:

Teresa Romero is free of Ebola

Excellent news: the nurse who contracted the disease after voluntarily attending to the two Spanish missionaries who died from it, is free of Ebola. She underwent a second test yesterday and it was announced that there are no longer any signs of it in her system. Doctors at the Carlos III hospital say that she must now take plenty of rest and build up her strength.