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(Actually the title should be "shitty shitty bang bang", but in bold type the "shitty"s really stood out---thanks to Big Jim for the title, too, btw. :-)
The latest of the village's beautification efforts, or as they like to call them "embellishments":
Seriously, who thought that this was a good idea? And how much did it cost?!!! AND WHY?
And why a pine tree in the passenger seat? Anyone have a clue?
hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain
Look who showed up yesterday? Winter is definitely OVER! :-D
There is so much recession talk and stories of economic woe around us all that I have purposefully tried to keep more of it off the pages of mylifeinspain. Maybe I should talk about it---goodness knows Big Jim and I have wells of experience to draw from on the subject. Perhaps that is why I announced earlier this year to my husband that I was going "to make this the happiest recession ever!" And I was serious.
When Big Jim was caught up in the telecom recession of 2002---and there were no jobs to speak of---we let ourselves worry and get depressed, and you know what? The recession didn't end any sooner. And in the meantime, Big Jim and I learned alot, about ourselves, about the ways to cope during difficulty, and in the end came out wiser and stronger and better prepared to face uncertain job markets in the future.
That said, it is difficult to ignore what is going on around us. Far fewer tourists, many construction workers packing up the families and moving back to the UK, empty restaurants, Telefonica announcing deferrals on phone bills for the unemployed.... This village depends on contruction, tourism, and real estate as its main revenue generators, and all three sectors are suffering. Badly.
And if you think I am exaggerating, read the short article below about a village not so far from here, where unemployment has reached a staggering level, almost 75%, a direct result of the construction industry fallout. The situation is so dire the village may have their electric and water supplies cut.
I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I am afraid many of our neighbors are learning some difficult lessons. Just last summer I stood in long line at our local bank branch, one that reached all the way to the tiny vestibule that houses the ATM machine. To pass the time, I read the various brochures on offer. One that I will never forget was "Loans for every one of your desires!" And many people here were swept away by the seemingly endless possibilities, never stopping to think about mañana.
Anyway, read the story.
hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain
******************************************
LA
LANTEJUELA – On the outskirts of this town of white-washed houses in
southwestern Spain, dozens of warehouses where bricks, marble and other
building materials were once produced lie idle since a decade-long
economic boom came to an abrupt end last year.
During the height
of the country's credit-fuelled property boom, the dozens of small and
medium sized building firms which sprang up in La Lantejuela employed
up to 80 percent of the town's workers as local residents abandoned
farm work for more lucrative jobs in construction.
Today nearly 75 percent of the town's
economically active population is jobless, one of the highest
unemployment rates in Spain, which in turn is the nation with the
highest jobless rate in the 27-nation European Union.
Between
the end of 2007 and the end of last year, the number of unemployed in
La Lantejuela jumped by 132 percent, according to mayor Juan Vega.
"This
is not viable," he said, adding he felt "powerless" before the dozens
of struggling local residents who file through his office every day to
ask for help.
"They have gone into debt to build a house, buy a
car. Today they cannot pay back the loans and the companies are
threatening to cut off their water and electricity," said Vega, who
belongs to the United Left coalition.
Just a decade ago most
workers in the town of some 3,800 people nestled in the Andalucian
countryside between Seville and Cordoba had jobs as farm labourers.
"But once the construction sector had its boom, everyone raced towards this more lucrative sector," said Vega.
The
town's decline is a microcosm of the situation throughout Spain, where
the bubble burst on the property market and battered the nation's
economy.
Spain's unemployment rate hit 14.8 percent in January
after the impact of the collapse in the building sector spread to other
areas, and many economists predict it will continue to rise to hit 20
percent next year.
To draw attention to the plight of La
Lantejuela, the mayor of the town locked himself in his office for 24
hours in February, an act which got national media coverage.
"What
saves us is family solidarity. Many couples with children have already
returned to live with their parents or they go eat at their parents'
house several times a week," said Vega.
With
no job since August, mortgage payments to make and a teenage daughter
to raise, Jose Andujar Martin said he had no choice but to return to
the farm work that he left four years ago for higher-paying work in
construction.
"Even if I have no desire to do it, I will
certainly go back to picking strawberries, as I did for 10 years,"
Martin, 48, said as he sat at the counter at one of the town's bars
before a bottle of beer.
Faced with a sharp decline in demand,
Antonio Moreno is struggling to keep his aluminum siding plant, which
employed 20 people as recently as last year, alive.
"In a few
months orders dropped, clients stopped paying, I had to let my
employees go and I only work now with my two children," the 59-year-old
said.
The government's response to Spain's first recession in 15
years has been an EUR-11-billion spending plan which aims to create
more than 300,000 jobs, mainly through 31,000 public works projects
across the country.
The town of La Lantejuela will receive EUR 672,000 from this fund.
"But that is enough to provide work for three days for each of the 1,022 job seekers in the town," said Vega.
To my mom (and her brand-new knee!). :-)
xoxo,
mylifeinspain
hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain
The huz has been busy this weekend! First we had cheese scones this morning for breakfast (but alas no photos of these). Then, BJ made a batch of chocolate oatmeal-y nutty cookies (his own recipe) that are absolutely fabulous.
