Spanish Police don’t want no witnesses

Members of the press have been attacked by Spanish policemen during a demonstration… Freedon of press in the Spanish Regime?…who needs it?

NATO Air-strike kills 11 more children in Afghanistan

  The children were killed during a joint Afghan-NATO operation in the Shigal district of restive Kunar province bordering Pakistan late on Saturday, the latest case of civilian casualties which provoke great anger in the war-torn country.

   Civilian casualties caused by NATO forces have been one of the most contentious issues in the 11-year campaign against Taliban insurgents, provoking harsh criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and angry public protests. On Thursday a NATO air strike killed four Afghan policemen and two civilians during a pre-dawn clash with Taliban at a police post in eastern Ghazni province. After an air strike killed 10 civilians, mostly women and children, in February, Karzai banned Afghan security forces from calling in NATO air strikes.

11 milion people living in poverty…the 3rd world? No, this is Spain

   Crisis, unemployment, poverty and inequality. The proportion of Spaniards living below the poverty line — defined as making do on less than 60 per cent of average national income — rose to 26.7 per cent this year from 19.7 per cent in 2007, before the start of the economic downturn, according to the National Statistic Institute.  

   According to the latest statistics of Eurostat, social inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient (where 0 expresses perfect equality and 100 expresses maximal inequality), showed that Spain went from 31.3 in 2008 to 34 in 2011. The EU average is 30. Only 16 countries have issued their statistics for the Gini index for 2011. Of these Spain has one of the highest levels of inequality, only outstripped by Latvia with 35.2. Another measure revealing the growing inequality was shown by the ratio that measures the total income of the richest 20 percent to that received by the poorest 20 percent. The higher the ratio, the greater the inequality. Spain has risen from 5.5 in 2006 to 7.5 in 2011—the highest level in the EU, which has an average of 5.7. In this measurement, Spain outstrips Latvia, which was at 7.3 in 2011.

   The number of households in which all members are unemployed soared to 1,925,200 in the third quarter of this year from just 379,300 during the same quarter of 2007. To survive, the swelling ranks of the poor are turning to charities for food, clothes and help paying utility bills. The Spanish branch of the international Catholic charity Caritas provided aid to 950,001 people last year, more than double the roughly 400,000 who received aid in 2007 before the economy tanked. Thirty per cent knocked on Caritas’ door last year for the first time in their lives.

We are not the enemy – victims of financial terror in Spain who lost their houses

A terrible video from people  affected by mortgages laws in Spain (the same laws the European Union has condemned as illegal practices by Spanish banks against people)

Baroness Carmen Cervera uses island haven in South Pacific to manage her art collection

Documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists show how Thyssen-Bornemisza built up part of her collection buying art from international auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s through a Cook Islands company. The offshore service provider now called Portcullis TrustNet helped with the arrangements under a secretive structure that connected people in as many as six different countries, just to evade paying taxes.

Infanta Cristina of Spain, Duchess of Palma (King Juan Carlos’s youngest daughter) accused in corruption inquiry

  It is reported to be the first court summons for a direct descendant of the Spanish king. Investigating Judge Jose Castro said Wednesday that fresh evidence suggested that she was aware that her husband used her name and status in dealings from which they both benefitted. She was a member of the board of the Noos Institute between 2004-2006, through which Duke of Palma won public contracts to stage sporting and tourism events. She also co-owned one of the private companies which her husband allegedly used to divert funds. Until now, the princess had avoided being dragged formally into the case, although accusations had been mounting up against her.

  Support for the monarchy reached a historic low of 54 percent, according to a poll in February in the aftermath of the Urdangarin scandal and following the king’s ill-fated Botswana safari to hunt elephants last April.

“Bye Bye Hopita!”: Countess Hope Aguirre says goodbye to Madrid Regional Government

She leaves PP Government in its darkest hour in the history of Spain. Many say the fake sentimentality in her statement is intended only to benefit the “Partido Popular” in the upcoming elections in Galicia and the Basque Country. Countess Hope Aguirre’s popularity was at its lowest point. Less than a week ago, Hopey was attacked by a housewife with a “deadly” tupperware.

1 Countess Hope Aguirre stroking her hair – 2 wearing a helmet – 3 protesting against IVA – 4 praying to Allah – 5 waving her abanico – 6 simply smiling

As Countess and Grandee of Spain, Hopey will have no problem to live with the high standard of living she likes

Police terror in Madrid: Dozens of people “preventively arrested”

   Today hundreds of people have been identified again while they were gathered at a meeting to coordinate the event. “The arrest of peaceful demonstrators is part of the strategy of tension and criminalization of the mobilization by the government” said today the Member of Parliament Dr Gaspar LLamazares.

   This afternoon they’ve met again the police. Two vans have come to the Retiro park, where a meeting was being held, to cordon off the dozens of attendees and identify them with charges of “unlawful assembly“.

Próximas reuniones (última semana)

Reblogged from Coordinadora #25s:

Estamos en la última semana y os pedimos colaboración en la preparación de la acción. Estas son las próximas citas.

• Miércoles 19: reunión del grupo de Acción, a las 18h en el Patio Maravillas (c/ Pez, 21).
• Miércoles 19: rueda de prensa (hora y lugar por confirmar).
• Miércoles 19: reunión conjunta de los grupos Comunicación y Contenidos, a las 19h en Cruce (c/ Doctor Fourquet, 5).

Read more… 101 more words

Another mass demonstration against budget cuts and government lies

When Mariano came to power, he did it by promising a few changes in the situation of Spain. Noting new in political’s behaviour until now. The problem is that from the very beginning he started to do exactly the opposite of what he has promised hundred on times before winning the presidency. Now many social organizations in Spain claim this has been all planned: Partido Popular won the elections consciously lying about their real intentions. The proof is that the country is much worse than when PP came to power, and most of the actual situation is due to their decisions, even they’re still blaming last President (ZP) for the decisions he made, when the truth is since PP is in Government they’ve managed to do it worse than ZP (if that was posible..)

Yesterday, workers and unemployed people from all across Spain gathered in the capital, Madrid, to demonstrate against government lies, and asking for a referendum to decide if the country needs(or not) to ask for a bailout. The controversy is even at the level of the disagreement about how many people went to the manifestation: the Spanish Regime says no more than 70.000 people, when sources from the police and the conveners talked about several hundreds of thousands of protesters. The protesters included police, firemen, social workers, public servants, unemployed people, teachers,health workers etc…they came from all across Spain in dozens of buses prepared for the event. In a country with a democratic tradition as brief as Spain, a referendum on this issue (or about the territorial conflicts in Catalonia and the Basque Country) could do much to improve coexistence. The problem is that this is not at all a priority for the Spanish Regime.

Several people were arrested during the demonstration yesterday