Something to Bear in Mind
You may well be aware that when you move country within the European Union, you can take certain social security benefits with you. For example, you can receive UK benefits such as contributions-based incapacity benefit/ESA, Bereavement Benefit, the State Pension, as well as others, even if you move to Spain.

However, there are certain benefits that are ‘non-exportable’. You can only receive them if you are resident in the UK. These benefits are known as ‘means-tested benefits’ and include pension credit, income support, housing benefit, council tax benefit and income-related incapacity benefit or ESA. If you are resident in Spain and in receipt of any of these benefits, you should inform the authorities immediately.

For more information on which UK benefits you can and cannot receive as a resident in Spain, see our website

Healthcare in Spain
Many people who live in the UK do not think twice about going to the doctor and accessing state-run healthcare. This is because the UK’s health system is residency-based. What some people do not realise when moving to Spain, however, is that the health system here is different, it is contributions-based.

In other words, to have entitlement to use public doctors and hospitals, a person must either be working and making national insurance contributions into the Spanish system, be in receipt of certain Spanish or UK benefits or in receipt of a state pension. Unfortunately this does mean that some British residents in Spain do not have immediate access to public healthcare and more information on the options available to you if you are in this position can be found on our website.

But what if, like many other British residents in Spain, you are in receipt of a UK State Pension?

Pensioners:
Well, if you are not in receipt of a pension from any other country, you can apply to the International Pension Centre (IPC) for form S1 (previously known as an E121). Once you receive this form, and have your residency and padrón certificate, you must take all copies of the S1 form, along with some form of official ID, to the INSS (social security) office.

They should take the forms and issue you with an accreditation document, either there and then or through the post. Once you have this document, take it to your local health centre to register with a doctor. They will then apply for a Spanish health card on your behalf. (NOTE – this is a different card from the EHIC which is for use outside Spain)

So if you’re a pensioner but have never applied for an S1/E121 or have the forms but never registered them, make sure you follow the steps above to make sure you have your right to healthcare in Spain recognised.

To request an S1 form, call the IPC on 0044 191 218 7777. In September, look out for accessing healthcare as a ‘dependant’.

UK Child Benefit
If you or a member of your family cares for young children, you may want to find out if you are entitled to some form of benefit.

To receive UK child benefit in Spain, you must either:
* Be employed or self employed in a job in which you have to pay national insurance contributions to the UK, OR
* Be in receipt of a UK contributions-based benefit such as a pension, incapacity benefit, ESA or Bereavement Benefit.

However, if you are resident in Spain and your child was born here or you are paying Spanish insurance contributions, you should make enquiries with the social security office regarding your entitlement to Spanish child benefit. See www.seg-social.es for more information.

For more information on UK Child Benefit, call the Child Benefit Department in the UK on 0044 161 210 3086 or see www.direct.gov.uk.

Keeping Your Cool
It has been a long winter so I«m sure that you are glad that summer is on its way! However, high temperatures and humidity can present a risk to health and so it is important to protect yourself from the heat and recognize the signs of heat related illnesses.

How to avoid heat related illnesses

(1) Keep out of the heat – stay indoors during the hottest parts of the day and if you are outside make sure to stay covered and take water with you.

(2) Avoid strenuous activity – limit chores such as gardening to the mornings or evenings when it is cooler.

(3) When you are indoors stay in the coolest part of your home and draw curtains and blinds closed in rooms that get the sun.

(4) Wear loose fitting, lightweight and light coloured clothing.

(5) Take cool baths and showers.

(6) Drink lots of fluids even when you«re not thirsty and eat cold foods such as salads and fruits that contain a lot of water.

Get Registered!
If you’re resident in Spain you might have heard of the Padrón. The Padrón is simply a list kept by your local town hall which allows them to know how many people are in the locality, so that they can provide sufficient services for the community.

But did you know that registering is a really simple process and that it’s free of charge? All you need is:

* An address where you habitually live.
* A form of official identification.
* Your NIE or residence card.
* Details of your home (deeds/rental contract).
* A recent utility bill in your name.

Go to your local town hall with the above documents and fill in a form. It really is that simple!

Unfortunately, we at Age Concern España see an increasing number of people coming to us for help and our hands are tied because we cannot link them into state provided services. For example, if you are not on the Padrón you may not be able to enter a state residential care home, nor access local services such as home help. You will also not be able to claim income-related Spanish benefits. Access to many of these services depends upon the length of time you have been registered on the Padrón. Therefore, the sooner you register the better!

For further information about registering on the Padrón visit the “Living in Spain” section on the UK in Spain website. www.ukinspain.fco.gov.uk .

One Local Policeman serving in the city of Granada managed to shoot himself in the leg, bless him. It happened at 5.45am one morning, just after he and his brothers in arms were called into action when a burglary was reported in Calle Cruz de Quirós.

Perhaps the Local Policeman had been attempting to impress members of the Policía Nacional, who had also been called to the scene. He had obviously been brandishing, really butch, his standard-issue firearm, and had most likely just blown non-existent smoke from the barrel and shoved it back into its holster when it went off… He was rushed to hospital, amidst rounds of applause from the Policía National, no doubt…

Police Stories II
Meanwhile, a Guardia-Civil policeman just received 6-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of slapping false fines on the ex-girlfriend of his brother, bless him.

The offending man’s wife is not happy, as can be expected: “He has served 20 years in the Corps, risking his life for fellow Spaniards and now they want to lock him up for six years over two driving fines. It’s disgusting!” She also complains that she has to cope by herself, with only a pension of 421 euros and on top of that she suffers from a chronic illness.

Police Stories III
A Venezuelan woman has been arrested by the Guardia Civil for robbing one of their policemen – is nothing sacred! Apparently, the 34-year-old woman used the tried-and-trusted bank-stake-out method; i.e., watching a queue in the bank to see who has withdrawn cash.

When the victim – who was off duty and wearing civvies – emerged from the bank, the woman and two accomplices allegedly followed the policeman to his car. The two women innocently stood in front of the car, stopping him from driving off, whilst the third punctured his back tyre, out of sight. They then stood aside, only to point out that he had a flat as he moved off. Then the two women, honed in the art of pick-pocketing, tried to relieve him of the money as he inspected the tyre.

Unfortunately for the Tricky Trio, he rumbled them and managed to grab one of them. The other two managed to escape.

Police Stories IV
And it’s back to the Local Police in Granada again who were attacked by a dog. The dog owner, who had ordered the dog to attack the policeman, has been given sentence of 16 months imprisonment.

But you would be wrong to believe that this was an incident only between the dog, it’s owner and a Local Policeman, because this scuffle was merely a sideshow within a large street brawl involving 70 people in Albaicín.

It all began on the first Saturday of last month around eight in the evening. Neighbours in Calle Pages had phoned to complain that around 70 people had gathered outside number 14 to hold an improvised street party, with plenty of booze, music and merriment. Two patrol cars were dispatched to check it out.

When the police arrived, they asked the gathering of young people to stop drinking and consuming drugs on a public street. Being members of the Local Police, nobody took the slightest notice.

When the police decided to insist that everybody went home, they were greeted with insults and suggestions concerning physically impossible sexual tasks.

One of the merrymakers, armed with a hungry bulldog, decided to try out something that he had obviously been hankering after for a long time – launch his Canine Kalashnikov against somebody.

Well, within moments, one of the policemen was wearing a bulldog backpack, the dog owner was fighting off an orgasm and the other policemen were reassessing the depth of their friendship towards the victim and whether it was profound enough to risk intervention.

Seconds ticked away and the other policemen came to a decision – a sort of compromise – yes, something needed doing about the victim, who was thrashing about on the floor with the dog on top of him, but that ‘somebody’ should be somebody else, so they called for reinforcements. Four more patrol cars, full with policemen were dispatched – more than an average bulldog can eat in one sitting. However, more policemen attracted more attention and the other 70 people decided to give the dog a hand – a policeman’s hand, naturally.

Finally, the dog got bored and the fight was broken up, resulting in four arrests and the bulldog dragged off to the municipal dog compound. Apparently, the policeman was no longer in its mouth by that time.

Police Stories V
For a whole week, Granada’s Local Police turned a blind eye to driving offences, as a sign of protest for the drop in the wages, brought about by the austerity cuts. Officially, the same as their counterparts in the Guardia Civil and the Policía Nacional, they are forbidden from going on strike, so they simply ‘will fail to see’ finable offences.

But it’s not only the Local Police there, but also the whole of Andalucía, supposedly, although each town or city was free to decide to join the ‘rebellion’ or not. Of course, even those that join the protest will still act in the case of the most serious offences, or one that are brought to their attention by members of the public.

With the salary cuts, a Local Policeman in Granada loses 183 euros a month, but even so, they won’t find much sympathy oozing from the ranks of the Guardia Civil, because a Local Police rookie earns more than a corporal in the Guardia Civil.

Fine-Free Tourists
The City Hall of Granada has decided to ditch any fines that are in the system involving tourists – not out of any business sense, but because it’s just not practical; i.e., they can’t reasonably expect to receive the money.

To date, many tourists that have visited the city have left with two things, photos of monuments and in many cases, driving fines for parking in areas that are reserved for residents. Hoteliers have long demanded that more care should be taken with the city’s visitor as tourism is one of the main sources of income for Granada. With that in mind, they have repeatedly pointed out that tourists are finding it ever-more difficult to find access to the hotels that are in the city centre, thanks to the complicated system whereby certain streets are restricted to residents only.

“The worst of it is that some of them who arrive by car receive a nice ‘visiting card’ in the form of a driving fine,” said a spokesman for the sector.

The Councillor for Mobility says that this is not the case because any tourist that requests to have the fine removed will obtain it, because in a broad sense, anybody staying in a hotel is technically, a resident. However, not many tourists on a tight sight-seeing agenda bother to go round to the police station to request an annulment, even if they were aware of such a possibility open to them. They normally find out that they have been fined shortly after returning home, and then complain to the hotel, who in turn complain to the City Hall.

Finally, the said councillor claims that these hotels have a direct link to a computer terminal within City Hall where they can register the number plates of their guests so that they do not get fined. However, according to the councillor, on many occasions, the hotels forget to do this.

Father or Son?
A woman, whose husband is in prison for having shot her mother, is pleading for his release because she claims that their young son was the one that pulled the trigger and that the father confessed to protect him.

“My son found the gun and went to show it to his grandmother,” claimed the wife, Isabella. The 13-year-old boy had already managed to load the magazine and the gun went off accidentally whilst it was pointing towards the woman, she claims.

The judge is not convinced, mind, because of an obvious question: why confess to a crime to protect the son out of parental love and then decide to turn round and blame him, six months later?

Again, the mother claims that at the time they didn’t realise that nothing would have happened to the boy, who, by the way, has a 33% mental incapacity. Furthermore, the forensic police found no trace of having fired the gun on the father’s hands or clothes.

Not Naughty Notary
A Public Notary has been acquitted of having raped a prostitute… That reminds me of an old joke: a prostitute is before a police sergeant at the police station and he is asking her, “If you were raped last week, why did you wait until now to report the crime,” to which she responded, “Because I didn’t know that it was rape until the cheque bounced.” Anyway, back to the article.

The notary had taken the women to a luxury hotel room in the centre of Sevilla, where the woman claims that she was forcibly raped and as a consequence of this, demanded 31,184 euros in compensation; the injuries received resulted in her not being able to work. Whilst the judge recognised that the notary did indeed take the prostitute to the said hotel room on the 18th of October 2008, the sexual injuries could not be determined: i.e., who had caused them or when they had been caused.

Unpleasant Neighbour
It’s not fun to suffer from schizophrenia; not for the person concerned, nor for the people who surround them, and in the case of a quiet ubanización in Huétor Vega, it is not only not fun, but terrifying.

“At first I felt sorry for her,” said María Pilar, but after the woman dragged her 14-year-old daughter around by her hair for wearing a miniskirt, that sentiment changed. It didn’t help the fact that the woman had also dug up Marias’ deceased husband to insult him in person, nor the incident when the violent neighbour advanced upon her with a cutter, promising that she was going to kill her.

But it is not only María Pilar who feels threatened because even social workers need a police escort when they visit her. Even the post woman was held against her will inside the house before she managed to escape.

The Mayor says that there is nothing that he can do because it is not in his hands, but in that of the health authorities. So far nothing has been done, though, despite police reports that have been sent to them.

Working for Nothing
You know when things are getting desperate when workers offer to work free of charge in order to save their jobs, which is the case of the 37 employees of Tenerías Alfa in Granada, who have offered to work every Saturday this year without pay.

The reason that their jobs are in peril is because the company wants to shut down their factory in Granada and move production to Valencia. The company did offer to find jobs for 15 of them in Valencia and the workers, who are all middle aged, accepted as long as the company paid their rental accommodation.

From the company’s point of view the transfer is necessary to save the mother plant in Valencia because the bottom has dropped out of the cured-leather business, with sales 30% down. The unions disagree, claiming that the company is healthy and that it was only 200,000 euros down in 2009, which is very little measured against the company’s total earnings.

As a Gazette reader, I would appreciate your opinion on an issue before I start spinning my wheels with Telefónica.

I just received my invoice dated July 1st. The periodo del consumo is from 17 May.- 15 Jun.
They billed the IVA at the new 18% rate that is effective as of July 1st. Can a company in Spain charge the higher IVA when the charges were incurred before the rate took effect?

Regards,
Clay Pamphilon

Hi, C.P.

According to an article published in the Ideal newspaper on the 12th of this month, it states that the new 18% IVA is applicable according to the date of the bill; i.e., even though the services concerned dates back to the 16% time (up to 30th June 2010), it is the date of the bill that counts. This is the case with all ‘amenity supplies’, such as water bills, electricity bills and telecommunications in general).

As far as services go, such as those provided by a plumber, for example, the IVA charged is related to when the service was concluded, even though the bill is dated after the 1st of July.

If, say, you bought an item from a shop prior to July and then returned it so that it could be replaced, if the shop has to make out a new bill, the shop can insist on using the 18% rate and charging you the difference.

Finally, goods purchased through financing, as long as the item was received before the 1st of July, the old 16% rate applies, even though instalment payments continue after that date.

Hope that this answers your question.

Cheers
Martin, the Ed.

crowd goes wild

Tonight the crisis is forgotten

For an excellent account of the match, which you saw, anyway, but from an American point of view, click on this link

They have a fantastic product range providing low-cost telephone calls from your mobile, even to overseas numbers. Calls on their mobile service are only seven cents per minute to Spanish mobiles and an even cheaper 5.3 cents per minute to the UK landlines and many other European destinations.

They even allow you 100 five-minutes calls between Telitec customers for free (subject to 15 cent connection charge) and texts from only 9 cent each! Telitec’s landline services are equally impressive with calls at one cent per minute to most European landline destinations.

We asked whether the call quality was poor with delays, only to be told we were speaking through their system and the quality was perfect! So if you are looking to cut down your phone bills, or if you are interested in representing Telitec here on the Costa Tropical, check out their web page at http://www.telitec.com/

I haven’t seen this much eurphoria in the streets in years. Spain in the Word Cup Finals – unheard of.

¡Viva España!

Firstly, there is no obligatory periodic gas inspection. However, somebody who calls at your door will either convince you that there is, or implies it without actually saying it.

Secondly, the Butano/Respsol office does not phone around announcing that they will be calling in for a routine check: they will only carry out such an inspection at your request; not visa versa.

What is happening is that many bogus and bona-fide gas companies are carrying out these inspections, calling at doors, flashing butano-like badges. The modus operandi is to say that the regulatory time has elapsed and you are now due for an inspection. They might simply say they are from Butano (which is not a company; the company is called Repsol-Butano). Saying that they are from Butano is misleading as it implies that they are from Repsol, however, any company can include the word ‘butano’ in it’s name.

Thirdly, nobody is entitled to enter your home without your consent, so you are not obligated to let such people through your door unless you wish to. If you do let them through your door then they are entitled to charge you for the inspection, as inviting them in implies that you conform to the inspection.

Fourthly, people have been receiving calls claiming to be from ‘Butano’ saying that they will be calling round for an inspection. This is false. Repsol-Butano S.A., does not do this. The official office on our coast is situated near the Macdonald’s roundabout in Motril, a lady by the name of Nieves will attend you there. I have spoken to her on two occasions, as well as with the Guardia Civil post in Almuñécar, and both sources confirm what I am writing here, so this is not just hearsay.

The fact is that Repsol-Butano does not have a monopoly on gas-installation inspections and private companies can carry them out, which is why I said before that there are bogus and bona-fide companies, but whereas they are licensed to carry out inspections and sort out your deficiencies, it can only – repeat, ‘only’ – be at your request.

Of course it is a good and wise thing to have checks carried out, as installations deteriorate – at the end of the day, it is your personal safety that is at risk. Quite apart from your life being at risk, you would be responsible for any damage and/or injuries incurred by third parties. Therefore, it is your responsibility and decision. If you ask somebody to come around, get a quote on how much this service costs first, as well as a separate quote for how much putting things right will cost.

Lastly, here are some points on what to look for in your gas installations. Rubber piping cannot be longer that 1.5 metres; for greater lengths, metal piping should be used. In the kitchen, by law, you must have ceiling and floor-level ventilation ducts. Whereas rubber piping has an end-of-life date, the gas-bottle, valve-attachment does not, I believe, and should be replaced according to its continued correct functioning.

Plums and Ambulances
Police operation Ciruela (Plum) successfully dismantled one of Granada’s main drug rings, sending its 14 members to prison.
The gang were very well organised and used quite a novel method for moving drugs from safe house to safe house: they used an ambulance.
The gangs undoing commenced in August when the Guardia Civil, during a routine road check, intercepted a car carrying 327 kilos of hashish, just outside Cijuela. The town’s name looks like a misspelling of the Ciruela but that is not the case; you can find Cijuela on a map just next to Granada airport.
During the investigation, the Guardia Civil discovered that the Policia Nacional and the Customs police were after the same culprits, so they joined forces and shared notes – surprisingly, this is the first time that there has been this level of co-ordination between the three law-enforcement agencies.
This combined effort lead to another bust, this time in Deifontes (North of Granada on the way to the province of Jaén). The operation bagged 300 kilos of hashish. Joining the dots between the two busts, the combined police effort managed to obtain a court order to intercept telephone calls between suspects, which in turn lead to the final blow against the gang.
The nationalities of those arrested are Spanish, Bolivian and Moroccan and their ages ranging between 24 and 36. The drug operation was organised from Morocco, using a Spaniard in Granada to organise this end.
The biggest surprise amongst the confiscated possessions was a fully decked out ambulance that was kept in the garage of one of the properties belonging to the gang. Using this transport, they were able to sail past police road checks without being stopped.

Doctor Attacked
Doctor Alberto Puerta received a beating just outside the hospital door, where his assailants had waited for him to finish his shift. Doctor Puerta, during the three months that he has been working at Hospital El Clínico in Granada, has demonstrated together with fellow hospital workers against the increasing number of attacks on hospital staff and to show his support for the victims of this kind of aggression. Not surprisingly, he is on sick leave, recovering from his injuries.
Not one to be cowered by events, he immediately made a statement before the press: “The bruising still hurts and I’m taking something for the swelling,” he explained before continuing with, “If we do not denounce these attacks publicly, society will not be aware of the violence suffered by this sector.”
On the day of the attack, he had been on duty in the Casualty Department, where a man recognised him as the doctor who had attended his mother ten days before. On that occasion she had been brought to the Casualty Department and from there had been sent to the Intensive Care Unit, having been seen by several doctors. However the woman’s son only remembered that Doctor Puerta was the doctor on duty that day and who had first attended to his mother.
Upon being recognised, the son insulted the doctor, shouting at him, before kicking him in the thigh. Things calmed down and the Doctor went back in, brushed himself off, changed into his street clothes and decided to take a walk settle his nerves. Big mistake, because this time, the assailant was waiting outside for him and this time accompanied.
“They were waiting outside for me: the relative that attacked me before and two more family members. They surrounded me and took turns at laying into me,” explained the Doctor. Fortunately, the Local Police, who had been alerted by passers by, turned up and stopped the attack.
“You never think that it is going to happen to you. You take part in demonstrations against attacks on work colleagues without really thinking that one day it will be your turn,” he confessed.

Polite Hold Up
Two hooded individuals burst into a hairdressers, one of whom was brandishing a firearm – it could be a replica, but who is willing to take the chance? One moment you’re having you hair cut and the next it is standing on end!
During the first few seconds nobody spoke until one of the hooded men said the obvious: “Hand over all your money!” I say ‘obvious,’ because they obviously hadn’t come for a haircut … but situations like this require a certain amount of protocol, don’t they? He could have said, “I have a gun and it says that your money is mine,” but who would like to risk a victim spoiling the drama of the moment with “Bugger me – a talking gun!”
No, our robber stuck to the tried-and-trusted, “hand over the money,” but added the words “Por favor.” In fact, his tone could have been described as apologetic.
Nobody moved, just exchanged glances between them; stunned by the devastating effect of the word, “please.” So he repeated his ‘request,’ because the grammatical structure certainly wasn’t a ‘demand.’ “Give me the money, please.” This caused even more uncertainty.
The seconds were ticking away and before long somebody, somewhere, would have alerted the police. So the courteous two, turned round and scampered.
Subsequent police investigations turned up a suspect: a mere adolescent who was hooked on drugs. He comes from a ‘problem’ family in a ‘problem suburb’ of the city but despite his hard-bitten environment, he was just too polite for the trade.

Father Acquitted
It must have been hell for this man, who was wrongly accused of sexually abusing his own 2-year-old daughter. The 37-year-old father, M.A.T.B., quite apart from the social stigma, had been forbidden from seeing his daughter for the last six years. If that weren’t bad enough, he has since been diagnosed with cancer of the colon and of the skin. Now he is understandably attempting to sue his wife for falsely accusing him.
He had already reported his ex-wife, long before this also started, of preventing him from seeing his daughter, something that his defence lawyer used to emphasise the fact that the ex-wife’s accusations of his sexual abuse of his then 2-year-old daughter had ulterior motivation.
The whole case hinged upon some scratches on the child’s genital area, which the mother had noticed after a weekend stay with her father. It turned out that the scratches had been caused by the child herself as she had a type of ringworm infection.

Parking Changes
The City Hall of Granada has announced that they will do away with side-by-side parking and replace it with parking-in-line areas. They also intend to make the maximum speed limit in all the city’s streets 30 KPH.
The reason behind this parking-alignment decision is because the City Hall considers that side-by-side parking is dangerous and causes many accidents, as driver have to back out into the flow of traffic…
Of course, as many locals have pointed out, existing parking will be reduced by around 50%, to which councillors have pointed out that there are plenty of public underground parking facilities. There’s a coincidence!
As an editorial aside, the obvious should be pointed out: the diagonal lines in these parking areas are painted facing the wrong way – it’s as simple as that! As they slant toward the on coming car, it is far to easy to drive front-first into the parking space, and far too much bother to reverse back into it. If the lines were painted sloping away from the oncoming traffic then it would be impossible to park nose first and very easy to reverse into, thus being able to drive straight out with full visibility.
I pointed this out once to my Spanish driving instructor – he thought I was mad.

Mary Anguish
It soon strikes you, upon arriving in Spain and getting a little linguistic grasp of the Spanish, that local women have pretty ridiculous names, ranging from a list of ache and pains to the begetting of children by remote control. I refer, of course, to the María Dolores, the María Angustias and the María Concepción Inmaculadas. We won’t even go into how many Marías’ there are…
But that’s all changing and has been for a while. María Angustia is quietly dying out, to be replaced by Chenoa, Elisabeth, Jennifer, Tania, Jessica, etc – thanks to the midday romantic soap operas. Things have changed so quickly that there are only 2,255 María Angustias in the whole of the province of Granada. That, by the ways, means that five out of every 1,000 Granadina women. You won’t find many females under 40 with that name and the reason that this is so important is because La Virgen de la Angustias is the Patron Saint of the City; i.e., if you were going to be called Mary Anguish, it would be in Granada! Hell, I even went out with a María Angustias for seven years!

Incompetence Made Plain
The A-92 is falling down. This flagship of motorways, built with European funds, was to be the pride and joy of Andalucía, joining the regional capital, Sevilla to Almería – linking Western and Eastern Andalucía. It was the beginning of the 80’s and the autonomous regional government of the Junta de Andalucía had only been in existence half a dozen years – everything was bright and shiny. To top it all, Spain was being admitted into the European Union and a river of funds was beginning to flow into underdeveloped Andalucía… and it all went to their heads.
Back then, in a country that until recently had lived obediently under Franco’s Regime, the idea of regional politicians having all that power and all that money was very intoxicating so out came the sturdy chequebooks and grand projects rolled off the approval desk, deaf to technical realities. In other words, politicians, who had up until then been submissive citizens in a totalitarian state, where now God and little disposed towards engineers spoiling their Pharonic development schemes – and that was the case of the A-92.
When the geologists and surveyors told the socialists (the socialists have ruled Andalucía the whole of Junta’s existence and governed Spain since 1982 barring eight years) that it was silly to route the new motorway along the existing main road and that a much more sound route should be found, the politicians sat, imperiously in their lofty offices and took no notice. Consequently, the A-92 inherited all the defects of the old main road.
Now, almost 30 years on, depressingly large sections of the motorway are disappearing under a crumbling embankment or slipping down hillsides. The A-92 costs millions to build and has been costing millions to patch up, but these prolonged rains are causing the inadequacies of the design to really devastate public coffers – and the worst is not over, because when the sun comes out and the earth dries, God knows how much more will be destroyed.
Back in February 2001 over a million cubic metres of earth and rock gave way, causing motorway to be shut down on the Diezma stretch for eleven months, but that is nothing compared with what we are facing now.

Abusing Trust I
Here are three instances where a person, who is in a position of responsibility – somebody who should be trusted, has abused that position. The first concerns a policeman who decided to use extortion against the woman he was supposed to be protecting.
The Supreme Court has confirmed a court sentence against a police inspector who blackmailed a woman by saying that he would testify against her in her divorce case if she did not give him the money that he wanted. The policeman was sentenced to nine months imprisonment.
The inspector, you see, worked in the Unidad de Prevención, Asistencia y Protección a Víctimas de Violencia de Género; in other words, a special unit to help women who are victims of domestic violence. In 2004 the woman had reported her husband for beating her up and the said inspector was assigned to her case.
At first the relationship between the two was professional but the inspector managed to steer the relation onto a friendship basis. Before long he was asking her to lend him money, which she did willingly until he asked for 18,000 euros (3-million pesetas, *sigh!*).
She refused but he repeated the request on numerous occasions, always receiving a negative. This was when he said that if she did not ‘lend’ him the money, he would testify against her in her coming divorce case. He also warned her that this would mean that she would lose her children because their custody settlement would very much take into account his report.
The most amazing thing about this is that this ‘gentleman’ only got nine months, especially when you consider that being less that two years is automatically commuted to a suspended sentence.

Abusing Trust II
The next case deals with a teacher that allegedly stole laptop computers from the centre where he worked. He had been hired at a Centro Guadalinfo in Armilla to give classes on Fridays. He evidently wasn’t satisfied with the agreed salary because he decided to augment his income by relieving the centre of its valuable equipment, reportedly.
At first, nobody realised that the computer stock of the centre was mysteriously being deplete, (one a week – and on Fridays). The head of the IT centre reported the loss of five computers to the Guardia Civil, pointing out that the classroom showed no signs of being broken into. The police investigation quickly eliminated the other teachers and the pupils and all eyes swivelled to our hero. The lad was nabbed as he was heading towards his car with another pert laptop snuggling in his rucksack.

Abusing Trust III
This time it wasn’t a teacher, but a school janitor – he was arrested for allegedly peddling drugs on the school premises. This occurred in the province of Jaén in a town called Martos.
The Guardia Civil received a tip off that something along these lines was going on so they decided to keep an eye on the school. It was soon established that their suspicions were justified and 32-year-old M.G.R. was arrested in the Janitor’s Office, together with a ‘customer’ that was present. A quick search of the premises turned up 38 grams of marihuana, and a high-precision set of weighing scales. Within a short time they tracked down the janitor’s supplier, 24-year-old M.M.P., who was also arrested.

WTF?
A 68-year-old man, who had already served time for killing his first wife, was arrested for breaking a court order not to approach his common-law wife. L.M.M. had also been boasting amongst his neighbours that he would have to murder her too.
No sooner was released from prison, he began a second relationship and immediately began mistreating her physically and threatened to kill her on several occasions. He was jailed for this and then released with the court order not to approach her – he immediately broke it.
He is back in prison because he broke the court order but how long before he is set free again?

Killed by a Vase
A 26-year-old domestic maid allegedly brained her 64-year-old female employer with vase after arguing with her over a supposed debt. At around four in the afternoon, neighbours in the same block of flats in Granada, who had been alarmed by all the shouting, phoned the Policía Nacional. When they arrived it was to find the house in silence and the womans’ body on the floor. A quick search of the house uncovered the maid hiding in a wardrobe.
The problem seems to have been that the elderly lady, a retired language teacher, owed the home-help lass money from previous hours worked and was apparently reluctant to hand over the money. The exchange became heated and climaxed in the maid picking up a bloody-great vase – the kind that stands on the floor because it is so large – and put an impressive dent in the other women’s cranium, resulting in a distinct lack of cardio-respiratory interest on the victim’s part.
It is worth pointing out that the aggressor had been arrested earlier on in the month, accused of stealing in another dwelling where she worked.

Growing Foreign Population
The foreign population of Granada has grown by eight fold in the last decade. Another interesting point is that 60% of new empadronados in the province’s municipalities come from abroad; the other 40% are obviously Spaniards that have moved to Granada from another province.
In 1999, only 1,181 foreigners officially lived in the province, whereas now there are 61,732. Both figures are inaccurate, obviously, because there are many foreigners living here illegally, or ones (EU) that just can’t be bothered to empandronarse.
In case you are wondering, this percentage is well above the national average – Granada has been definitively ‘discovered.’ In fact, there are only three tiny villages in the whole bloody province where there are no foreigners: Alicún de Ortega, which has a population of 526, Gobernador, with a population of 285 and Ferreira with 342 residents and half a cat.
This invasion came in two waves, one in 2005 when the foreign population jumped from 26,876 to 36,318 and then three years later when 10,000 newcomers turned up, leaving the total in 58,775.
Motril is an interesting case because in 1999 only 250 foreigners lived within the township, but by 2009 there were 6,432. Mind you, Jete is also interesting because there were only five foreigners registered there in 1999 and now there are 207, which when you take into account that the total population is 892, it means that foreigners represent 23% of the total. However, it is Polopos that takes the biscuit where the foreign population makes up 39% of the total.
So, where are we all springing from? Half come from the European Union (31,876), followed by South and Central Americans (15,807), Africa (11.970 and Asia with a modest 2,150.
Amongst the EU crowd the Brits make up the third largest group with 7,241 residents, followed by 2,082 Germans and 1,621 French, but the European country that holds the first place is dear old Romania with 11,512 residents! Finally, the second largest group, but who are non-European, are the Moroccans with 4,142 residents.

Overtime Overkill
Did you know the city of Granada’s Local Police get a higher hourly rate for overtime than a surgeon? No, well the blighters get double the hourly rate, to be exact. Yes, it’s true!
The 2009 municipal budget set aside half a million euros to cover police overtime, yet by December of that year it had swollen 2,050,475 euros. The official reason for this is that overtime is needed to cover fiestas and botellones, because the staff number is insufficient.
The 2010 budget has made a ruthless cut back, earmarking 362,986 euros for police overtime, 137,013 euros for firemen’s over time and just one euro for the rest of the municipal functionaries and councillors.
This is how it works: Local Policemen, 35,54 euros per hour, National Policemen, 60 euros in total for an 8-hour shift, specialist doctor (surgeon) 19 euros per hour, and a fireman, 600 euros for a 24 hour shift (25 euros per hour). A Justice of the Peace gets 255 euros for a 24-hour shift.

Is Enough Being Done?
Juan Cano Bueso is the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Junta de Andalucía, and in a recent interview with the press had harsh words on urban development, corruption and the excessive salaries and legal protection of some top executives in public posts.
Asked whether the Junta is doing, or has done enough against cases of urban development abuse, he commented the following. The problem is not that there are sufficient controls over local administrations, but that it is too easy to bypass them – a corrupt municipal administration need only ‘forget’ to send their paperwork to the controlling bodies in the Junta for some of the worst cases to go unnoticed until is virtually too late; i.e., with the illegal project nearing completion. It is worth remembering that Andalucía has over 800 municipalities and Granada is the province that has the highest number of municipalities.
When the interviewer pointed out that the general public perceive that that is insufficient retribution against corruption he responded that Spain, in general, is too benevolent with those guilty of urban development corruption. He added that political parties are not doing enough to expel or marginalise those found guilty, or even suspected of such crimes. As an aside, in most Western European countries, politicians who are facing investigation voluntarily resign until their innocence is proven or otherwise. Here in Spain, on every political level, from a municipal one to a national one, politicians facing judicial investigation do not resign, presuming innocence until proven guilty. But it is not only political parties that are guilty of permitting this, but also the voters themselves, who elect candidates, regardless of whether they are widely suspected of corrupt dealings.
Asked whether he believes that a lack of municipal financing via the State is guilty, in part, for corruption on this level, he responded that a lack of public funds does not justify, nor even explain corruption. If there are insufficient funds for the efficient running of a municipality, money should be sought via official channels and that a town hall should never become a ‘legitimizer’ of urban development that infringes laws and regulations.
Finally, he was asked about excessive political salaries earned on public posts. He said that he totally agreed with the Junta’s decision that no employee with the administration should earn more than the First Minister of the Junta. He also said that he was very much against top executives having ‘bomb-proof’ contracts.