Basque peace progress

Less optimism among Basques about the peace process in the Basque country

According to the results of a study carried out by the University of the Basque Country and made public to the media in Spain today, 64 percent of Basque people fear that ETA may kill again and 33 percent no longer believe that the ceasefire called by the terrorist group in March is the first step towards ETA eventually disappearing altogether.

An increase in violent acts being carried out by groups of youngsters in several Basque towns and declarations by members of the political wing of ETA blaming the Spanish government for the lack of progress being made in the peace process are behind the most pessimist study to have been carried out since ETA announced the permanent ceasefire last Spring.

The Basque University measures public opinion with this study - called - twice a year. The results made public today contrast with the results just six months ago, when 86 percent of people said they viewed the peace process with optimism (compared to 62 percent this time), and 61 percent expressed their outright rejection of ETA then, compared to just 50 percent this time.

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Update: On Saturday 30th December ETA planted a bomb in one of the carparks in Madrid Airport. Police managed to evacuate 2000 people before the bomb exploded, but two people are missing and feared dead. The bomb was one of the biggest ever used by the Basque terrorist group and signals the end of the ceasefire and, presumably, the peace process.

Spanish President in New York

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has travelled to New York to participate in the official presentation of the Alliance of Civilizations recommendations. UN General Secretary Kofi Annan presents the project to the United Nations General Assembly today.

The Alliance of Civilizations was proposed by Zapatero and co-sponsored by the Prime Minister of Turkey last year as a way of overcoming the cultural, regional and religious differences which can cause extremism, in the belief that all societies are interdependent, bound together in their development and security, and in their environmental, economic and financial well-being.

The Alliance seeks to forge collective political will and to mobilize concerted action at the institutional and civil society levels to overcome the prejudice, misperceptions and polarization that militate against such a consensus. And it hopes to contribute to a coalescing global movement which, reflecting the will of the vast majority of people, rejects extremism in any society and the idea was originally put forward to the UN Assembly by Rodriguez Zapatero last year.

Once approved by UN members, a committee of experts was given the task of designing an action plan. Their conclusions and recommendations will be put before the General Assembly members today and Zapatero will address the UN and express his gratitude to the committee members for the speed with which they have formulated the action plan.

During his visit, the Spanish PM will also sign a collaboration agreement with the United Nations Development Plan, pledging funds worth 528 million euros to development projects linked to the Milenium Objectives, making Spain the largest country doner to the UNDP.

Air Madrid crisis

Over the past two days, ever since the Spanish low cost airline Air Madrid cancelled all its operations on Friday in response to government threats to withdraw the company's licence because of repeated delays and cancelled flights, the angry scenes witnessed at several Spanish airports have turned into expressions of grief and desesperation as passengers expecting to fly home this weekend and spend Christmas with their families, have had to face up to the idea that they might have to spend their holidays alone in Spain, despite having bought their flights months ago.

Until Friday, Air Madrid operated flights to 12 destinations in Latin America, and the low prices and online booking offered by the airline drew thousands of customers from communities of Latin American immigrants living and working in Spain to send money home to their families. For many of these people, this year was going to be the first Christmas spent at home with their families for years.

Representatives from the Transport Ministry said yesterday that the government's priority was firstly to attend to passenger's needs, even though in theory Air Madrid should have found alternative transport for all of its customers, and second to consider taking legal action against the company. The airline has limited its response to publishing a communication on its website claiming that the "very serious" government threats and actions have forced it to cancel all flights and other services.

Yesterday Transport Ministry staff said they were doing all they could to help stranded passengers. The government's main problem was first to identify just how many people were are affected by the crisis, and a Ministry spokesperson said that the only information given to the Ministry by Air Madrid to facilitate the location of affected customers was a list contained in a "lamentable" database .

So far in the past 48 hours the Ministry has managed to put over 7,000 passengers on alternative flights on routes already operated by other airlines, or on flights commissioned by the government itself.

Related:
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Spain's Best Portal Website 2006

Today the results of Spain's Website of Year 2006 were revealed and we are delighted to report that Euroresidentes has been given the award for the best Portal Website.

This year 284 Spanish websites were nominated over 20 consumer categories. Over 350,000 votes were cast between 9th October and 1st December. The overall winner in Spain was Libertad Digital, a news site, awarded the Best Website of 2006, and the game site Zylom won the most popular site award.

Euroresidentes was awarded Spain's best web portal of the year, having obtained the highest average score on content, navigation and design with respect to the other portals competing in the same category.

We are delighted (and surprised!) to have won this award which has come at the end of what has been an outstanding year in terms of production of new content, expansion of our infrastructure, network of collaborators and visitor numbers. In November we received 20 million page views, and hopefully the trend will continue next year as we publish new material on a wide range of themes and subjects useful for people living or interested in Spain.

A massive thank you to all the Euroresidentes team, collaborators, friends, family and visitors and to everyone who has made this award possible.

Average spending at Christmas for a Spanish family

According to the Spanish Confederation of Consumers and Users, the average Spanish family will spend 1.068 euros on Christmas this year.

Spaniards will spend the largest share of this amount - 350 - on food, 183 on meals at home and the rest on eating out. Another 300 euros will be spent on toys and other presents and as usual, families will spend on average over 100 euros (this year 144) on the Christmas national lottery.

The Federations advises consumers who want to cut costs this Christmas to avoid last minute Christmas shopping, to plan and buy for Christmas meals early on, to plan carefully before buying toys and presents and to stick to a list and a maximum expenditure plan.

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Reforms in primary education in Spain

The government has announced reforms in primary school education. The new decree is called Minimum Teaching in Primary and will come into force in the next academic year.

The biggest changes with respect to the current system is that primary school pupils will be able to choose whether or not to study Religious Education, and those who choose not to will have the right to study an alternative subject. This is already the case in most state schools, but many private schools with religious connections offer no substitute to the traditional Religious Education classes in Spain, which teach children the ins and outs of Catholic beliefs.

All schools will be obliged to undertake the "organizational measures" necessary to offer the alternative to its pupils, ensuring that no pupils will be discriminated against whether they choose one option or the other. This means that whether or not a student has studied Religious Education will no longer be taken into account when he or she applies for a place at university or a higher education grant.

The other main change in the schools' curricula is in the number of hours dedicated to teaching language, maths and foreign languages. According to the new decree, from next year onwards pupils will receive 45 hours more maths tuition and 25 hours less of Spanish language and literature. A new subject called Citizenship and Human Rights Education will be introduced into the timetable of the fifth or sixth primary years.

Related:
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Education in Spain