HENRY! GIVE US A CALL

The concept behind the European Union is very simple. It is the member states linked together first in a community and now in a tighter union.

In some ways it mirrors that great other union across the pond where the states govern themselves but come together under Congress, the Senate and ultimately the President to be the United States of America.

The problem with the European Union of States is that it was and is designed by bureaucrats – hence simple it isn’t.

The Treaty of Lisbon was meant to iron out many of these wrinkles, create openness and democracy – but it failed at the first hurdle. Some countries held a referendum to vote for its approval, others opted to pass it in parliament, in Britain a referendum was promised but the Labour Government fearing it would be rejected reneged and used its large parliamentary majority to force the treaty through.

Yesterday was meant to be a milestone for the European Union. Its leaders –not the voters - selected a president Herman Van Rompuy. You might not recognise his name but he is the prime minister of Belgium, is credited with holding that fractious country together and is probably also known to the people of surrounding nations such as Holland, Luxembourg and France. His main selling point is he isn’t Tony Blair!

Also selected was a new European supremo for foreign affairs. This post goes to a Briton who has two names. In the UK, because we are meant to tug our forelocks, she’s Baroness Ashton. In Europe she’s plain Catherine Ashton, I think at last night’s press conference she was even called Cathy – but she is Lady Catherine to the likes of me.

Now I doubt if many people in the UK have ever heard of Baroness Ashton. She has never been elected to public office but apparently as one of our Commissioners in Europe has made a name for herself handling the trade portfolio. Britain’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, hailed her appointment at his press conference saying this proved the UK was at the heart of Europe and argued that Britons would be delighted and proud she’d attained the position. As I write news of pending street parties in celebration has yet to reach me.

Ok – so Europe now has a president – Herman Van Rompuy. But hang on – there’s another president too. Let us not forget Durao Barroso from Portugal, who has been president of the European Commission and continues in that role. It is also probably fair to say he is wider known in Europe and internationally than Rompuy and certainly more so than the Baroness.

So that’s two then. Well yes and no. Every six months a member state holds the presidency of the European Union. Currently it is Sweden – in January it is my adopted home of Spain. That means that José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – the president of the Spanish Government but not the country because Spain is a monarchy – will oversee the affairs of the EU. Now if Spain has the presidency surely that means that Zapatero in some form or other is a president too. So that makes three.

It was Henry Kissinger who said – when you want to contact Europe who do you call? It’s quite simple Henry – the president. And if you can’t get one, you can always try the other two.

EXTRACTIONS OR BOTOX

My mind hasn’t been on blogging this week.

It hasn’t been the lack of events I normally cover – my mind simply has been elsewhere.

To show you how bad things are I even turned down a free meal from Conservatives Abroad in Puerto Banús who this very evening entertain Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Peter Caruana.

Those who know me will vouch for the fact that I do not turn down free meals lightly – especially as I am rarely offered one.

No this was the week of the dentist and although my session was yesterday I have been counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds since Sunday.

Two extractions were on the menu and numerous stitches. The picture from my good friend Prospero tells all you need to know.

Then I read a report from Ohio informing me that the same person who fills my cavities also could be filling my wrinkles—with Botox.

Some US dentists now are offering cosmetic procedures such as Botox but plastic surgeons say you should stick with them.

The Ohio State Dental Board has ruled that treatments, such as Botox, are within the scope of practice for dentists as long as they are limited to the facial areas.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons said Botox falls squarely within the practice of medicine and should only be done by a board-certified plastic surgeon.

Whatever!

However looking at myself in the mirror this morning I am not sure whether my face is a result of dental surgery or Botox – I’d say it could be either.

One thing is for certain though – beauty treatment it wasn’t!

CALL MY BLUFF!

I have written here oft times before about the confrontations in Gibraltar’s waters between the Guardia Civil on one hand and the Royal Gibraltar Police - Royal Navy patrols on the other. Yesterday Gibraltar’s GSLP – Liberal Opposition issued the following statement which highlighted comments made to the Spanish daily “El Mundo” by a Guardia Civil officer. First the key parts of the statement:

“The Opposition is concerned at the fact that, according to the Spanish Guardia Civil, their patrol boats are now challenging British sovereignty and jurisdiction in the territorial waters of Gibraltar practically on a daily basis. It is obvious that despite the professions of friendship and cooperation that we continue to hear so much about, the Spanish Government continues to increase the tension in the waters that surround Gibraltar.

“A Spanish Civil Guard has told the newspaper “El Mundo” that one of these days something very serious is going to happen in the waters around Gibraltar. They have also revealed that incidents between the Civil Guard and the Royal Navy or the Royal Gibraltar Police are now happening “on a daily basis”. The Civil Guard claim that since the summer they have been harassed by British patrol boats within the three-mile limit around the Rock which “they consider to be their area of influence”. The Civil Guard have repeated the well-known position of the Spanish Government that Gibraltar has no waters on the basis that none were explicitly ceded by the Treaty of Utrecht except those inside the Port.

“The Opposition consider that it is the height of hypocrisy for the Civil Guard to claim that they are being the victims of harassment when everyone knows that it is they who have been harassing and intimidating local boat owners in waters which are outside Spain’s jurisdiction. The Civil Guard have in the past stopped, questioned and requested papers from the occupants of Gibraltar registered boats barely a few metres from the Rock and well inside the three-mile limit. In fact, this harassment on their part led the Gibraltar Government at the time to call on boat owners to set off a flare gun or call the Royal Gibraltar Police when they were challenged in this manner.

“It is clear that there is an orchestrated campaign on the part of the Spanish Government and its agencies to undermine the sovereignty of British Gibraltar Territorial Waters. This was seen last year when the Spanish proposed a designation of our waters as if they belonged to Spain in an EU directive. The acceptance of this by the EU then had an immediate, practical effect in the waters around the Rock. It was followed by an incursion by a Spanish navy fisheries protection vessel in May this year and by frequent incursions by Civil Guard patrol boats who continue to behave as if our waters belonged to them.”

The report in the centre right “El Mundo” comes from an unattributed Guardia Civil source. Hence it could be fact or fiction destined for home consumption to strengthen the snipping from the Partido Popular who accuse the government on going soft on the Rock.

It also has to be said that neither the Royal Gibraltar Police, Royal Navy, Gibraltar nor British Government have publicly spoken about these daily confrontations in Gibraltar’s waters. This doesn’t mean to say they do not happen – just that there has been no comment from Gibraltarian or British sources. Indeed on the few occasions when Spain has put its toe in to Gibraltar’s internationally recognized waters it has pulled it out promptly and left the scene peacefully when confronted by the RGP or RN patrols.

However if “something serious did happen” it would escalate the dispute into a major incident. If the armed Guardia Civil tangled with the RGP or Royal Navy patrols it would be a confrontation between Spain and Britain. In addition it has to be remembered that the Rock’s port is a NATO facility hence British Royal Navy warships plus those from the USA frequently visit as do nuclear submarines. It would be all too easy for them to be caught up in the pistol fire.

I am a firm supporter of the Córdoba Agreement and I certainly believe that jaw-jaw beats war-war. For its part this Spanish Government has invested much time and effort in seeking to build bridges with the Llanitos. If that bridge collapsed it would leave its policy towards Gibraltar in disarray. None-the-less these discussions can only continue if Spain respects Gibraltar’s institutions and boundaries. If it chooses not to then Britain should call Spain’s bluff and suspend the process until it does. And if it doesn’t…

BUNGLE OVER TROUBLED WATERS

In my Gibraltar column last week – The Waters Are Troubled Enough – I wrote: "There are two disputes between Spain and Gibraltar – Britain over the Rock’s territorial waters. The historic row is that Spain insists that Gibraltar has no territorial waters other than the harbour whereas Gibraltar – Britain claim under international agreement and law three miles which could be extended to twelve. The more recent friction, which this article relates to, is due to the EU that has given Spain responsibility in environmental matters over much of the waters round the Rock.

"Hence it is understandable that the Gibraltar Government has gone hot under the collar over suggestions by the Opposition that Spain was now in the process of making a third claim. Not so – it insists: "Spain has not designated more British Gibraltar Waters for EU Environmental Protection purposes".

"In a statement to clarify the situation and leaving the historic claim aside the Government says: "The waters affected remain only those proposed by Spain in 2008, and listed by the EU Commission in its existing decision which is the subject of a legal challenge by the Gibraltar Government.""

The Gibraltar Government then went on to specify what action it and the British Government were taking and the importance of the UK bringing its own legal challenge.

Well no sooner had my column gone to press than Graham Watson, the Liberal Democrat MEP who represents the South West of England and Gibraltar in the European Parliament, broke some startling news. If you are one of those who wonder what Euro MPs do for their money then his press statement will go some way to answering that question.

Graham Watson has discovered how UK government bungling has allowed Spain to register Gibraltar’s territorial waters as a Spanish　Site of Community Importance under EU environmental legislation.

His statement read: "Gibraltar and the UK were dismayed to discover recently that a Spanish application for an SCI covering the waters around the Rock had been approved by the European Commission. Graham Watson MEP tabled a parliamentary question demanding how this could have happened when the UK had already registered the area around the Rock as a UK SCI. No clear reply was received, other than that the UK had not objected to the Spanish application.

""I assumed this was an oversight on　our government’s part", the MEP commented; "inexcusable but not unheard of. On further study I have discovered that in the UK’s application for an　SCI, Gibraltar was positioned at longitude 5 degrees 22 minutes East of Greenwich.　Yet Gibraltar is situated at 5 degrees 22 minutes West of the prime meridian. In other words the UK’s submission placed it in waters north of Algiers, which means that the Spanish application did not overlap with our SCI.""

Fair enough – mistakes especially with this British government - do happen. However this scenario begs certain questions. When the EC received Britain’s application didn’t somebody in Brussels notice the error and duly advise the Foreign Office? If they did – did the UK Government act to rectify the mistake? If they didn’t - does Britain thus have jurisdiction in environmental matters over waters north of Algiers that aren’t even in the EU? We seem to only have half they story and it appears to be a UK and EC bungle!

By the by Graham Watson’s father served in Gibraltar as a Royal Naval officer　and he is a qualified marine navigator himself. He said: "The litany of UK bungling over matters regarding the Rock gets longer and longer. Which bureaucrat in the cuckoo’s nest of government policy-making is responsible? If the Spanish Armada　had made such a basic error, they’d have foundered before Drake even had the opportunity to sink them. Were it not　for　the EU’s　having abolished　the death penalty, this government official might be hung, drawn and quartered for such a crass mistake!"

Steady lad, steady - I didn’t know Liberal Democrats could get so excited!

Apparently Graham Watson has asked the Foreign Secretary to endeavour to correct the matter so that no quarter be given to Spanish claims to sovereignty.

"We should never have agreed to Spain joining the EU until they renounced their claim," he adds – now he sounds like disgusted of Tunbridge Wells. Or may be Gibraltar’s seemingly most active Euro MP had his tongue firmly in cheek.

What is fact is that the Gibraltar will never be allowed to get in the way of pan-European relations. Britain and Spain share too many common interests for them to flounder on the Rock. The EC just wishes Gibraltar would float away and refuses to be drawn in to the debate or row over what it sees as old Imperial territory. The fact is that the EU was so pleased that Spain had thrown off the Franco era and embraced democracy it was never going to be blackballed by Britain or Brussels over Gibraltar and prevented from joining the European club of supposedly free nations.

THE REVOLTING MIDDLE CLASS

Spain’s middle class are on the march – well at least 1,000 of them are. The event was reported in the on-line Periodista Digital which asked why the major newspapers, TV channels and radio stations ignored the protest through Madrid to the Palacio de La Moncloa on Saturday. Amongst the protestors’ gripes is the rise in taxes backed by a demand for early elections.

The demonstration was mounted by the Plataforma de las Clases Medias. The middle class activists gathered in the Plaza de Alonso Martínez for a brief meeting at which they denounced the suffering of the Spanish people at the hands of politicians and those well connected with the governing elite.

After the meeting the protestors made their way through the streets under a police escort to the Prime Minister’s residence of the Palacio de La Moncloa. There they shouted – “Zapatero, liar” and “Zapatero, resign”.

During his closing address the president of the Plataforma de las Clases Medias, Enrique de Diego, blasted all the administrations for raising taxes, impoverishing the middle classes and leaving them in despair. He threatened a fiscal insurrection in January if the government did not immediately close the ministries of housing, equality and culture.

The action group has called for a general strike between noon and 13.00 on Thursday February 4 of next year. On the same day all Spaniards are asked to gather outside their town hall to protest in a general and intense demonstration against maladministration and corruption.

A thousand angry middle class people a revolution does not make. However whilst we are used to the unions and left wing parties taking to the streets in support of the unemployed, working class and disadvantaged the middle class are expected to stay put in their comfort zone and only speak out against the government of the day over the drinks at a dinner party. It would seem the times are changing and this economic crisis has given a voice to the silent, middle-class, majority.

(Photo: Periodista Digital)

IS MY BROTHER STILL ALIVE

Here’s an astonishing tale! Cristina Díaz Carrasco has denounced the possible theft of her brother who was born in the municipal hospital in La Línea de la Concepción in 1967. La Línea is Spain’s border town with Gibraltar. The baby is said to have died at the hospital a few days after his birth.

Now this woman, who lives in Irún in northern Spain, has told her story to the newspaper Diagonal and it has been picked up by the rest of the media. She said she has informed the Judge Baltasar Garzón of what had happened in case this was another of “los niños de Franquismo” of which there are cases throughout Spain including the province of Cádiz.

On November 5 1967, her mother, Adela Carrasco Martínez, was admitted to La Línea hospital and gave birth to a son who was alive. She then says they told her mother that the baby had died from breathing problems. They did not allow her mother to see her corpse and they told her to advise her family. The father was working overseas at the time but the paternal grandmother demanded to see the baby in the mortuary. Not only did she see the tiny corpse but had a photograph taken to record the event (see photograph).

The hospital said it would take care of the burial and the family were told it was placed in La Línea cemetery after being baptised. Cristina’s family came to La Línea every summer for their holidays and went to the cemetery to place flowers. In 1980 they could not visit the cemetery as there were extensive works being carried out but when her mother died she had recorded on the stone memorial the name of her deceased son – Cristina’s brother.

Then the mystery deepens for in between the time the cemetery was closed and its re-opening the baby’s resting place disappeared. They checked the cemetery archive and there is no record of the brother being buried there – neither in 1967, nor 1966 or 1968. The Registro Civil says there is no certificate for the birth or death of Jesús Díaz Carrasco. Cristina has contacted the hospital but after two years she has yet to receive a reply.

Now it could be that as Cristina’s mother had no large close family nearby she was targeted and her baby given to another woman. However the photograph shows us there was a dead baby at the hospital at that time – if it wasn’t Jesús Díaz Carrasco, who was it? Does a death certificate or burial record exist for another deceased new born baby at that time?

Needless to say Cristina Díaz Carrasco is now telling her story to the local media to see if any other people have suffered a similar experience. On November 5 1967 her mother was attended at the hospital by a midwife called Doña Marina and on September 26 1962, when her sister Flor was born, a Doctor Nogales looked after her. However the possibility exists that her 42-year-old brother is alive and well and living somewhere in Spain.

ARNOLD AND THE CENSORED PANDAS

In my small village street in Cádiz province there are around 20 houses. Several years ago my neighbours Chris and Richard invited me one evening for a drink along with some of their friends. I found myself talking for a lengthy period to Arnold who lived just doors away.

Now Arnold (de Wease) is American and had lived in the village for many years. I was fascinated to learn that in a previous life he had been a journalist and worked for many of the USA’s top newspapers.

Two years ago Arnold was a lucky man for he sold his house high before the market collapsed and moved inland to Granada province where he purchased a far cheaper house that is now his base. In between times he travels the world, largely in the Far East. True sometimes he stays with family or friends but rather than the intrepid American of old who trekked from Hilton to Hilton he stays in cheap boarding houses. I should add Arnold is no spring chicken, more a well matured broiler – so I doff my tattered hat to him.

When Arnold is on his travels he sends a round-robin missive to his friends but generally doesn’t correspond so I was delighted and flattered to receive an email from him this week.

The majority of readers of my blog are in Europe and the USA where we take the freedom of the internet for granted. So Arnold’s email came as an acute reminder that for many people the freedoms we enjoy simply do not exist. So I will now hand over to Arnold who can explain the situation far better than I and he also tells the tale of the endangered pandas of Chengdu:

“I am now in Bangkok and on 27th this month to Boxing Day I will be back in Burma where blogs and everything else are censored or embargoed and Internet connections are so bad there that it is almost impossible to get on-line. I will have to wait for my return to Thailand to read your fine column. Keep it going, hombre.

“Internet is better in China, though outgoing and incoming blogs are embargoed. Not even Facebook can get over the Great Wall of China. But after returning from Burma Boxing Day I can pick up your blogs again until my return to China in a few months.

“My travel reports aren’t yet embargoed by Chinese censors unless a statement or word is considered a threat to government policy. A couple of years ago I filed a report praising the 105-hectare panda reserve that is a beautiful and wild-like park in Chengdu where the lovely beasts are protected from road killing, poachers, etc., but made the mistake of titling it Sanctuary for Endangered Pandas. "Endangered" was a suspect word and the file attachment wouldn’t move. After a few attempts to send it I changed the title simply to Pandas and it went without a hitch.”