Como comprar una casa en España

A bit of time off from blogging for a while, been busy with work.

We're now a production company and not a broadcaster (the expensive bit) but the website still exists.

The upshot of all this is we're making a documentary on buying a house in Spain. Since I'm the researcher for this I need to talk to lots of people about their experiences, both good and bad.

So... If you fancy sharing your Spanish house buying experience please drop me a line. You won't be on camera unless you agree.

Revelan las viñetas falsificadas

Album: Det Islamiske Trossamfund propaganda hefte contains a copy of the booklet the Danish Imams took on their mideast tour. It also includes the forged cartoon images (pages 38-40).

Now that it has been proved that at least one is fake, will the imams be charged with inciting racial or religious hatred? Or how about causing the negligent manslaughter of the Afghan protestors?

La gripe aviria

I recently read another cat lover's blog on the possible risk to domestic cats.

I was intrigued so went to the WHO website - no information there apart from this old report. Then I found a good blog here.

A bit of hunting around turned up the two mentioned studies - here and here. The risk DOES EXIST and can easily be fatal to cats. Here in southern Spain there is a large feral cat population which would make the spread of the H5N1 virus both fast and easy in the domestic cat population.

I think I'll be keeping the cats in from now on too.

¡Guai!

Now this blog I find cool. Not just because I'm sad or mad, but because it's cool in any language - read some of the comments.

Dinamarca necesita nuestro apoyo. Demuestra que te importa

A Dane, Per Nyholm says it all.

El Comité de la sequía abre expediente sancionador a ocho municipios por no informar de su consumo

A story that seems not to have made many blogs yet. Old news? Not round here it isn't.

Andaluc�a24Horas



The Junta drought committee drought initiates sanctions investigation against eight municipalities for failing to inform them about water consumption

The Drought Management Committee has decided to initiate sanctions investigations against eight municipalities of the province of Malaga, affected by the drought decree that declares an exceptional drought situation in the capital, the Guadalhorce Valley and the Western Costa del Sol.
The municipalities that will be sanctioned are Álora, Benahavís, Casares, Coín, Istán, Manilva, Marbella and Ojén. These municipalities face fines of between 30,000 and 300,000 euros. The 18 Málaga municipalities included in the drought decree as well as the large water consumers (more than 250,000 cubic meters a year), are obliged to provide data about their water consumption. To date the responses are patchy. Regarding the 64 large water consumers, the Junta has initiated sanctions investigations against 11 of them, the remainder have been granted and extension of one week to provide the data [This means that NONE have provided the information to date]. The drought decree also established a term of two months for the writing of emergency plans on the part of municipalities with over 20,000 inhabitants. The period has been extended until next the 20 of February so that the municipalities that not yet have supplied emergency plans (Alhaurín el Grande, Alhaurín de la Torre, Coín, Estepona, Marbella and Mijas) do it. Otherwise sanctions will be applied against them.

All very well and good, eh? Well, we are in the wettest season of the year, and water reserves are 25% BELOW the AVERAGE annual level. Some of the regions reservoirs are still only at 10% capacity. There is no possibility of piping water from other parts of the country, the pipelines simply do not exist and plans are beset (as usual) by political in-fighting. The proposed solution is more desalination plants. There are only two, one in Almeria, the other outside Marbella. A third is planned for 2008.

Looks like more land becoming available to film spaghetti westerns!

Barcepundit (English edition)

Barcepundit (English edition) has an excellent take on the "cartoon war". Putin (over here on a state visit) reinterates in El Periodico Zapatero's view that the cartoons are inflammatory, but that does not justify the reaction by muslims. But understand this, both Spain and Russia have significant minorities of muslims, and both have been direct victims of their terrorism. All the American 'wingnuts' are talking about this too, but I haven´t yet seen publication of the cartoons in the US. You should see what the Arab press prints about the Jews!

On a separate note, I was posted this link by a friend in the Gulf. Those Scandanavians sure know how to annoy people!