(EN) London's economic boom leaves rest of Britain behind

London's economic boom leaves rest of Britain behind

Exclusive: Guardian analysis highlighting regional imbalance raises troubling questions about who is enjoying UK's recovery

London and the south-east’s share of growth in output has soared since 2007 while every other region except Scotland has declined. Photograph: Nicholas Bailey/Rex

London's economy is doing even better after the banking crash than during the bubble – while nearly every other part of the UK has seen its economy shrink by comparison. Exclusive findings published by the Guardian show that London and the south-east are racing away from the rest of the UK at a pace that would have seemed almost incredible at the height of the financial panic.
During the boom from 1997 to 2006, London and the south-east was responsible for 37% of the UK's growth in output. Since the crash of 2007, however, their share has rocketed to 48%. Every other nation and region – with the exception of Scotland – has suffered relative decline over the same period. The upshot is about a quarter of the population is responsible for half of the UK's growth, leaving the remaining three-quarters of Britons to share the rest.
The research also shows that the UK's highest-earners have become relatively more prosperous after the crash, while many on middle incomes are being squeezed hard. In austerity Britain, the top 20% of earning households are enjoying 37.5% of all Britain's income growth, even after accounting for taxes and benefits.
These findings will embarrass the government, especially as they come shortly before the release of the latest GDP figures on Friday. Ministers are poised to celebrate news that the economy is at last enjoying strong growth, and may even have racked up its best quarter in 13 years. But the Guardian's analysis raises questions about who is enjoying Britain's growth and how sustainable it is, and will fuel the debate over who should bear the burden for an economic crisis that began in the Square Mile.
The Guardian's analysis is based on official measures of gross value added, often used to assess regional and industrial performance, and was conducted by the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change at Manchester University.
The findings suggests that David Cameron has failed to meet some of his most important promises: on making Britain's economy less lopsided; on ensuring that the pain from its cuts would be fairly shared out; and that banks would lend more to small businesses.
In his first major speech as prime minister, Cameron described Britain as "more and more unbalanced, with our fortunes hitched to a few industries in one corner of the country". Analysis of the statistics shows that regional imbalance has grown sharply since the crash.
The chancellor, George Osborne, has repeatedly claimed that "we're all in this together". But while the highest-earning 20% of households have done well, and the fortunes of the bottom 20% have been boosted by the minimum wage, most of the rest – the so-called squeezed middle – have seen their incomes stretched.
UK lending by financial institutions Photograph: Guardian Osborne and the business secretary, Vince Cable, have exhorted banks to lend more to small businesses and to manufacturing. The Guardian's analysis of the Bank of England's own lending figures shows that the share of loans to manufacturers and other real businesses have fallen since the crash. In the decade to 2007, manufacturing and other "productive businesses" took 9.7% of all bank loans. From 2008 to 2012, however, that plummeted to just 5.9%. That compares with the 40% of bank loans to other financial institutions and the 52% of credit extended to individuals, much of which would have been used for mortgages.
In 2010, Cameron described Britain's economy as "unsustainable, unstable, unfair and, frankly, uninspiring", and said that transforming it would be his first priority. Three years on, these figures suggest no such transformation has taken place. Indeed, some of the coalition's policies have been criticised for only Britain's regional and social inqualities.
Infrastructure projects such as the Olympics and the Channel tunnel rail link have seen a huge amount of public spending flowing into London. Last year, the construction skills industry training board forecast that Greater London would receive more economic-development spending than than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together.

This has sat alongside policies aimed at making credit cheaper and easier, which have had the effect of making owners of homes and other assets better off. This month, Nigel Wilson, the chief executive of Legal and General, described the £375bn quantitative easing programme as "a policy designed by the rich for the rich".

Share of regional GVA growth Photograph: Guardian "Since the crash, London and the south-east have continued to pull away from the rest of the national economy. The wedge between them and the rest of Britain has been driven in deeper," said Adam Leaver at the Manchester Business School, and a member of Cresc. The academic team's work is drawn on the latest GVA (gross value added) figures, which end in 2011, but there are indications that the divide has only grown since.
This week, a Rightmove survey showed house prices jumping 10% in London in just on

(ES) BILINGÜISMO, ¿VENTAJA O INCONVENIENTE?

18-10-2013

BILINGÜISMO, ¿VENTAJA O INCONVENIENTE?

Tener la capacidad de comunicarse en dos idiomas también genera inconvenientes. Así lo ha demostrado el proyecto científico Consolider Brainglot que, desde hace seis años, ha estado centrado en el análisis de la base neurocientífica del bilingüismo.

La profesora Núria Sebastián, que forma parte de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra, ha sido la encargada de dirigir este revelador proyecto. Sin embargo, también ha podido contar con la ayuda de cien investigadores pertenecientes a varias universidades españolas.

Durante el desarrollo de esta investigación, cuyos resultados fueron expuestos en el IV Workshop on Bilingualism and Cognitive Neurosciencie, han sido examinados los mecanismos de conocimiento neurológico que posibilitan el aprendizaje de lenguajes diferentes.

Las aptitudes que el bilingüismo confiere a las personas, según el proyecto Consolider Brainglot, son las siguientes: disposición para utilizar un mayor número de áreas cerebrales y mayor adaptación frente a los cambios que una persona monolingüe.

Sin embargo, no todo son ventajas para el bilingüismo. Este análisis ha servido también para descubrir que aquellas personas bilingües, que lo sean desde pequeñas, presentan una menor eficacia en el procesamiento de información. Esto significa que la persona bilingüe está continuamente eligiendo en qué idioma habla y este acto, a la hora de expresarse, contribuye a entorpecer la emisión de las palabras.

Asimismo, esta investigación ha incluido otro aspecto que plantea una duda determinada: ¿por qué la dificultad para aprender un segundo idioma aumenta en edades avanzadas? La respuesta a esta pregunta se resuelve de modo sencillo: porque la primera lengua aprendida ha llenado un espacio prioritario en el cerebro y, como consecuencia, deja menos espacio para el nuevo idioma.

Quizá resulte evidente, tras conocer estos resultados, que también las cosas buenas pueden contener una parte negativa. No obstante, a pesar de cualquier inconveniente que pueda acarrear, el aprendizaje de idiomas representa un beneficio en sí al que no debería renunciarse.

(ES) LA VERDAD SOBRE LA POLÍTICA ESPAÑOLA

...

(EN) Spain's cowardly purge of the journalists who ask difficult questions

Spain's cowardly purge of the journalists who ask difficult questions

The dismissal of journalists at Spain's state-funded broadcaster RTVE shows how Mariano Rajoy's government has lost the plot

Spain's prime minister Mariano Rajoy is convinced that government's unpopularity 'is the state media's fault, staffed as it is with unsympathetic journos who keep talking about cutbacks and unemployment.' Photograph: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images

"No news is good news", the old dictum goes. But someone should explain to Mariano Rajoy, Spain's prime minister, that it only qualifies as good news if there really is no news. This doesn't mean firing as many journalists as you can. Even if you sack almost everybody from TV and radio, as will soon be the case if the purge of Spanish public-sector broadcasting is to continue, there will still be news, and that news will presumably be just as bad as it has been up until now. Getting a new cohort of faithful journalists to suppress or distort the facts won't turn it into good news; it will turn it into what is technically known as "lies".
Ana Pastor, Xabier Fortes, Juan Ramón Lucas, Fran Llorente … the casualty list from the Spanish national broadcaster (RTVE) reads like a competition for the most popular journalist in the country. But as the spin doctors would put it, state broadcasting in Spain has never been about the popularity of the channel, it's about the popularity of the government. And with polls already indicating a 16% fall in support since March, this government seems to be running low on that.
And yet to Rajoy it's simply unbelievable that his austerity policies – harsh, unpopular and, what is probably worse, ineffective – may have anything to do with the quick erosion of his political capital. He and his advisers are convinced that it is the national broadcaster's fault, staffed as it is with unsympathetic journalists who keep talking about cutbacks and unemployment. That the government's reaction has been to make them unemployed and to cut back on RTVE budgets is an irony that seems to have escaped ministers.
Purges are not news at RTVE. But in 2006, at least, a decision was made to put an end to this Tony Soprano-like approach to human resources. A new law was passed that required a two-thirds parliamentary majority for key appointments in RTVE. The government has seen it as a matter of the utmost urgency to scrap that law and return to the good old vendetta system. That, rather than the personal fate of a particular number of news anchors, is what is worrying, because this Putin-esque "changing the rules of the game as you go" game is quickly becoming the government's only firm policy. It has also tried to change the way in which judges are selected, and is toying with the idea of touching up the electoral law, without seeking any consensus with the rest of political forces, in order to tip the scales in its favour in an upcoming regional election.
But then there's also the way in which journalism is understood, or misunderstood, in Spain. Maybe the sacked journalists are left-leaning or progressive. So what? While everybody expects reporters working for private media organisations to be biased to the point of militancy (as they are), those working for the state media are not supposed to have any views at all. Actually, the opposite is true: all views should be represented. That's the point of having a public media – those who lose elections pay taxes too.
Spain has always struggled with impartiality and objectivity. Impartiality – never taking sides – is neither possible nor desirable in journalism. Objectivity is what is needed, and that means simply handling the raw data with care and with honesty.
That is why it's interesting that most of those who have been dismissed are interviewers, a job that only makes sense when the journalist takes the opposing side. Politicians in Spain are not used to being contradicted, or even pressed to answer a question. They expect the interviewer to nod sheepishly while they deliver their speech, and most do. The newly jobless represented a new trend in Spanish political journalism: they asked real questions to our political leaders. That's why they were popular. And that's why the government, increasingly, is not.

(EN) Libertad de prensa en España 0

(EN) Old English

English has changed a lot in the last several hundred years, and there are many words once used that we would no longer recognize today. For whatever reason, we started pronouncing them differently, or stopped using them entirely, and they became obsolete. There are some old words, however, that are nearly obsolete, but we still recognize because they were lucky enough to get stuck in set phrases that have lasted across the centuries. Here are 12 lucky words that survived by getting fossilized in idioms.

1. wend

You rarely see a "wend" without a "way." You can wend your way through a crowd or down a hill, but no one wends to bed or to school. However, there was a time when English speakers would wend to all kinds of places. "Wend" was just another word for "go" in Old English. The past tense of "wend" was "went" and the past tense of "go" was "gaed." People used both until the 15th century, when "go" became the preferred verb, except in the past tense where "went" hung on, leaving us with an outrageously irregular verb.

2. deserts

The "desert" from the phrase "just deserts" is not the dry and sandy kind, nor the sweet post-dinner kind. It comes from an Old French word for "deserve," and it was used in English from the 13th century to mean "that which is deserved." When you get your just deserts, you get your due. In some cases, that may mean you also get dessert, a word that comes from a later French borrowing.

3. eke

If we see "eke" at all these days, it's when we "eke out" a living, but it comes from an old verb meaning to add, supplement, or grow. It's the same word that gave us "eke-name" for "additional name," which later, through misanalysis of "an eke-name" became "nickname."

4. sleight

"Sleight of hand" is one tricky phrase. "Sleight" is often miswritten as "slight" and for good reason. Not only does the expression convey an image of light, nimble fingers, which fits well with the smallness implied by "slight," but an alternate expression for the concept is "legerdemain," from the French léger de main," literally, "light of hand." "Sleight" comes from a different source, a Middle English word meaning "cunning" or "trickery." It's a wily little word that lives up to its name.

5. dint

"Dint" comes from the oldest of Old English where it originally referred to a blow struck with a sword or other weapon. It came to stand for the whole idea of subduing by force, and is now fossilized in our expression "by dint of X" where X can stand for your charisma, hard work, smarts, or anything you can use to accomplish something else.

6. roughshod

Nowadays we see this word in the expression "to run/ride roughshod" over somebody or something, meaning to tyrannize or treat harshly. It came about as a way to describe the 17th century version of snow tires. A "rough-shod" horse had its shoes attached with protruding nail heads in order to get a better grip on slippery roads. It was great for keeping the horse on its feet, but not so great for anyone the horse might step on.

7. fro

The "fro" in "to and fro" is a fossilized remnant of a Northern English or Scottish way of pronouncing "from." It was also part of other expressions that didn't stick around, like "fro and till," "to do fro" (to remove), and "of or fro" (for or against).

8. hue

The "hue" of "hue and cry," the expression for the noisy clamor of a crowd, is not the same "hue" as the term we use for color. The color one comes from the Old English word híew, for "appearance." This hue comes from the Old French hu or heu, which was basically an onomatopoeia, like "hoot."

9. kith

The "kith" part of "kith and kin" came from an Old English word referring to knowledge or acquaintance. It also stood for native land or country, the place you were most familiar with. The expression "kith and kin" originally meant your country and your family, but later came to have the wider sense of friends and family.

10. lurch

When you leave someone "in the lurch," you leave them in a jam, in a difficult position. But while getting left in the lurch may leave you staggering around and feeling off-balance, the "lurch" in this expression has a different origin than the staggery one. The balance-related lurch comes from nautical vocabulary, while the lurch you get left in comes from an old French backgammon-style game called lourche. Lurch became a general term for the situation of beating your opponent by a huge score. By extension it came to stand for the state of getting the better of someone or cheating them.

11. umbrage

"Umbrage" comes from the Old French ombrage (shade, shadow), and it was once used to talk about actual shade from the sun. It took on various figurative meanings having to do with doubt and suspicion or the giving and taking of offense. To give umbrage was to offend someone, to "throw shade." However, these days when we see the term "umbrage" at all, it is more likely to be because someone is taking, rather than giving it.

12. shrift

We might not know what a shrift is anymore, but we know we don't want to get a short one. "Shrift" was a word for a confession, something it seems we might want to keep short, or a penance imposed by a priest, something we would definitely want to keep short. But the phrase "short shrift" came from the practice of allowing a little time for the condemned to make a confession before being executed. So in that context, shorter was not better.

(ES) DICTADURA ENERGÉTICA

(ES) La verdad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TnODqFqrjo

(EN) A truly multilingual capital for the European Union

A truly multilingual capital for the European Union

^-A ⁺A

Published 16 September 2013, updated 17 September 2013

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Brussels languages Marnix Plan multilingualism Philippe Van Parijs

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To meet Brussels’s exceptional linguistic challenge, the 'Marnix Plan' wants to mobilise Brussels’s diverse linguistic competence into an exciting collaborative project, writes Philippe Van Parijs.

Philippe van Parijs is a Belgian philosopher, professor at the universities of Louvain, Leuven and Oxford, a prominent 'Brusseler' and founder of the Marnix Plan.
The European Union praises its linguistic diversity, the multiplicity of the native languages of its citizens. But linguistic diversity is a curse if it is not coupled with multilingualism, or the learning of other people’s languages.
In Brussels, as in most European cities, linguistic diversity is growing. A representative sample of 2500 registered residents (0.2% of the population of the Brussels region) sufficed to reveal the presence of 104 distinct native languages, up from only 72 in a similar sample ten years earlier. Over the same period, the proportion of Brusselers unable to speak either French, Dutch or English at more than a basic level rose from 2 to 8% of the population (see Rudi Janssens, Meertaligheid als cement van de stedelijke samenleving). No need to explain that this generates a major challenge in terms of job opportunities, social cohesion and civic participation.
In most places, the best way to address this challenge consists of accelerating the acquisition of the single dominant and official language of the nation. In Brussels, this is not an option.
First of all, Brussels has two official languages. One of them is French, the dominant language in the city: one third of all Brusselers has French as their sole native language; one third as one of their native languages (jointly with Dutch, Arabic or other languages); and over half of the remaining third learned it at a later stage in life.
The other official language is Dutch, the native language of the majority of this country of which Brussels is the capital, and the sole official language of the region surrounding Brussels, Flanders. Moreover, Brussels is the main seat of the European institutions and the main location of the EU-wide civil society. It has witnessed the growing importance of English as the European lingua franca. Overall, 89% of the Brusselers claims to speak French well or very well, 23% does so for Dutch and 30% for English.
Against this backdrop, Brussels’s challenge is clearly exceptional and requires an exceptional response. In 2001, a group of European intellectuals was mandated by European Commission president Romano Prodi to think about how Brussels could “best fulfill the needs and role of a European capital”.
In its final report — the first quasi-official document that dared to use as a title Brussels, Capital of Europe —, the group suggested the creation of an institute for multilingualism: “Brussels is the city with the highest concentration of people speaking different languages, the highest quality and expertise in translation and interpretation services and a population that has learned to respect, learn and diffuse bilingualism as a common practice. The proposal is to create from this comparative advantage an opportunity for development that would benefit both Belgium and the European institutions,” the report read.

More than a new institution, however, Brussels needs a bottom-up initiative aimed at mobilising intelligently the linguistic wealth and goodwill available locally, not least among its many ‘Europeans’. This requires early learning and stimulating teaching of more than one language in all Brussels schools, but also drawing on an effective collaboration between all types of schools, media, social partners, voluntary associations and — above all — families. Such a bottom up initiative will be publicly launched on 28 September under the name ‘Marnix Plan for a Multilingual Brussels’.

Philippe de Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde (1540-1598) was born and grew up in Brussels. Best known as William the Silent’s chief adviser in the revolt against Spanish rule, he spoke seven languages and wrote books in French, Dutch and Latin. In one of them, he formulated what may well be the first plea for the simultaneous learning of several languages through immersion at a young age. This is the book he is shown holding in the statue that represents him at the front of a primary school built in the 1890s for the boys of the Marolles, one of Brussels’s poorest neighbourhoods. Marnix himself targeted children of princes and noblemen. Our Marnix Plan is meant for all Brusselers, not the least for the children of recent foreign origin who now form the majority of Brussels’s pupils. 

The Marnix Plan for a Multilingual Brussels aims to develop among all layers of the Brussels population the coherent learning of several languages, combining a priority for French, Dutch and English with the encouragement of the transmission of all native languages.

To make this happen will require changes in the school curriculum. But school cannot do everything. The Marnix Plan is above all an attempt to identify the many relevant existing initiatives, to stimulate new ones and to weave them all into an exciting common project. It is about spreading knowledge and enthusiasm though its website and its public events. It is about convincing all Brusselers that learning languages and helping other learn languages should be a normal daily activity, economically valuable for each of them, absolutely crucial for the lasting dynamism of the capital of Europe, and moreover enriching and gratifying in all sorts of ways.

(EN) Cockney Accent

Glaswegian cockney: the EastEnders effect

Scottish soap opera fans are apparently dropping their Rs and introducing glottal stops to their original accents

EastEnders: popular in Glasgow innit? Photograph: BBC/PA

Name: Glaswegian Cockney.
Age: It's been around for at least a decade, probably longer.
Appearance: It's a sound, not a sight.
Then can you please describe what it sounds like? Like a typical Glaswegian accent that has been infiltrated by certain telltale cockney speech patterns.
Ah, thanks for that. It's nae bovver.
What? That's just an example – where the "Th" sound in bother is pronounced as a "V". Other changes include an "F" sound at the end of "tooth", dropped Rs, and a way of pronouncing "people" so it comes out "peepow".
Why are they doing it? Are Glaswegians trying to make themselves harder to understand? They're not doing it on purpose. They're getting it from television.
I watch television, and it's not happening to me, bruv. It's not just any television. According to the authors of a study published in the American journal Language, the effect was most prominent in "people who had strong psychological engagement with characters in EastEnders".
If you're really psychologically engaged with someone off EastEnders, a funny accent is probably the least of your problems. Apparently emotional involvement is the key. "Linguists used to think TV couldn't change the way we speak because you don't interact with people on TV," said Jane Stuart-Smith, professor of phonetics at the University of Glasgow.
So getting caught up in the misadventures of Dirty Den, Nasty Nick, Pat Butcher, Tiff, Grant Mitchell, Robbie, Ricky and Dr Legg is what turns you Cockney. When was the last time you watched EastEnders?
Ages ago. I was starting to get worried about my glottal stops. Don't worry – actual social interaction between peers still has a much stronger effect than telly.
Is Sharon still on it? Yes. Yes, she is.
Good. Ye canny have Eastenders wi'out Sharon in it, innit. Sorry, mate – not a word.
Do say: "They used to claim watching Neighbours would make us all talk like Australians, and that turned out to be total nonsense?"
Don't say: "No, I mean I want some actual apples and pears. Don't you people ever eat any fruit?"

(IT) IL MARCHESE DEL GRILLO - ALBERTO SORDI

(EN) Why learning languages...

Languages: the state of the nation

Is supply meeting demand? Are enough people learning languages in the UK today to meet our current and future needs?

Languages: The State of the Nation report cover Photograph: British Academy

Does supply match demand when it comes to the range of languages offered in our schools and universities? How well are we equipping people with languages, alongside other crucial employment skills? Are we providing a broad enough spectrum of the population with language skills? The British Academy's State of the Nation report draws together the baseline data on foreign language demand and supply in the UK in order to deepen our understanding of these issues and consider how best to address them.
Strategic deficits in language learning have already been identified in policy and research papers prepared by the British Academy among many others. This report forms part of the Academy's language programme and is the first comprehensive review of the empirical data available in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The report looks at:
• the policy background and health of language learning in each of the four parts of the UK;
• the demand for, and current supply of, language skills in the workplace; and
• the UK's capacity to meet economic, social, cultural and intellectual needs through languages, both now and in the future.
It highlights language issues that the four parts of the UK have in common and, where they diverge, seeks to learn from their distinct experiences. The State of the Nation report, which will be updated at regular intervals, aims to monitor the situation and to provide stimulus for the development of future policy solutions.
A wide range of data from government departments, employer organisations, exam boards and other national and international bodies are used in the report. In addition, two new pieces of research were also specially commissioned for this report: the first, Beyond English – Britons at work in a foreign language, draws on a survey of UK employers known to be using foreign language skills in their work, conducted in collaboration with Rosetta Stone; the second, Labour market intelligence for languages, explores which languages are requested by employers and which sectors recruit for language skills, and identifies job roles and other related information.
The report presents both a longitudinal perspective on the UK's supply of graduates with high language competencies into the labour market and future-scoping of emerging strategic needs. It highlights a 'vicious cycle of monolingualism', which in turn is causing market failure in the demand and supply of skilled linguists across all sectors of the UK economy.
The State of the Nation report calls for a concerted and joined-up efforts across government, education providers, employers, language learners and the wider community to ensure that language policies respond to new economic realities. To support this call for a new, strategic approach the report identifies five key priorities for action that will support the UK's aspirations for growth and global influence.
1. Develop a strategic approach to providing a wider range of languages for the workplace, adding to rather than replacing current provision.
2. Increase the number and social spread of language learners in schools.
3. Provide more courses at all levels which combine languages with the development of other vocational skills, including STEM subjects.
4. Stimulate demand and support employers in the effective management of language skills.
5. Improve information-gathering for identifying demand for languages in the economy and within specific industries, and the way that this is communicated to learners and course providers.

(EN) Belgium boots out unemployed migrants

Belgium boots out unemployed migrants

JOBLESS foreigners are being forcibly ejected from Belgium following a public outcry at a massive surge in immigration, it was revealed yesterday.

By: Daily Express reporter

Published: Thu, November 22, 2012

0Comments

Jobless foreigners are being forcibly ejected from Belgium

Belgian authorities have introduced a law allowing the withdrawal of residency rights from any newcomers remaining unemployed for six months after arriving in the country.
The crackdown is being seen as a huge turnaround for the country that is home to many EU institutions and was previously seen as one of the most welcoming nations in Europe for migrants.

Amazingly the Belgians seem to have a better idea as to their own interests than we do

Euro MP Derek Clark, the Ukip employment spokesman

Euro MP Derek Clark, the Ukip employment spokesman, said: “Amazingly the Belgians seem to have a better idea as to their own interests than we do. If they can do it to protect their taxpayers and welfare system, then why on earth can’t we?”
Many of the migrants being turfed out of Belgium are thought to have moved there from Spain in response to the worsening Spanish recession.
Some are understood to have originally migrated to Spain from Latin America.

(EN) EUROPE..THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY

To counter a flood of desperate migrant workers, Belgium - the spiritual home of the European Union itself - is forcing unemployed EU citizens to leave the country, reports PublicServiceEurope.com

Spaniards fleeing the crisis may have reason to be thankful for European Union laws that give them the freedom to search for work across the 27-member bloc. But in Belgium, the jobless have discovered that these rights are fast diminishing. After cutting benefits for EU job-seekers earlier this year, Belgian authorities are now withdrawing residency rights from those who remain unemployed for six months after arrival.
Faced with a flood of migrant workers, the government says it has been forced to take action to prevent "abuse" of the benefits system. "The town hall calls people in using any old excuse," says Gustavo Nielsen, a Brussels-based lawyer who helps job-seekers from Spain, Latin America and Italy. "Once they arrive, they hand over their residency documents and they don't get them back. This is now a very frequent practice." Without proof of residency, jobseekers have little choice but to leave the country or enter the underworld.
"Once this happens, they don't come back to us," says Nielsen. The not-for-profit association where he works, Maison de l'Amerique Latine, is one of the first points of contact for increasingly desperate economic migrants from southern Europe. Nielsen and his colleagues talk to around 15 people a day, either in person or over the phone and internet. Jobseekers come in waves, he says, particularly after time-limited benefits in Spain and Italy run out. Some come alone, others with their families.
"Until a few months ago they had the right to benefits during the first three months of their job search," Nielsen says, adding: "But they don't have this anymore." Gert-Jan Sterckx, spokesman for Belgium's state secretary for immigration Maggie De Block, confirms this: ""The law was changed to prevent abuse of our welfare system. Similar measures have been taken in other countries." Nielsen is understanding. "Belgium can't help everyone," he says.
The extent of the flood is difficult to measure given that many migrants do not get in touch with officialdom. "The Spanish government says between 30,000 and 40,000 have left but I wonder if they want the real figures to be published," says Antonio Navarro Candel, chairman of the committee of Spanish residents in Belgium. While many trained, educated Spanish workers have found work in Belgium, others come for a few months and then leave. "It's a disaster," he says. Some Brussels newcomers are migrating for the second time. Latin Americans who moved to Spain during the boom years are in many cases forced to move on again.
"Two or three people approach me every week - it's a very serious problem; they are mainly looking for work and somewhere to live," says Father Oscar Londono Builes, who preaches every Sunday to around 300 Latin Americans at the Riches Claires Catholic Church in central Brussels. Desperate jobseekers started to arrive around a year ago, he says, and the pace of arrivals has increased over the last six months. "Some of them have debts back in Spain that cannot be repaid," he adds. "Some feel welcome here, others less so. It varies from town hall to town hall. They say there is nowhere for them to learn French. After three months many have to leave."
In his sermon on November 18, Father Oscar told his congregation that Europe was experiencing a "small apocalypse" triggered by a "neo-liberal" economic system "that enriches a few but condemns millions to live in misery". There is anecdotal evidence that migration flows have begun to reverse. Latin Americans are returning from Europe to their continent in the belief that there are better job prospects there. Spaniards are going too.

Read more: http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/2759/spanish-jobseekers-turned-away-by-belgium-economic-apocalypse#ixzz2dSoB5j5m

(ES) LA MAFIA POLÍTICA DESTRUYE LA ENERGÍA SOLAR DEL PAÍS CON MÁS SOL DE EUROPA

Con el  terror que tienen las eléctricas a que se “desestabilice” el consumo eléctrico (por no decir desaparecer), a alguien en contra de lo que la lógica dicta, se ha propuesto sepultar la industria foto-voltáica (ahora que es más necesaria que nunca) en un pozo sin fondo, en algún momento del 2010 alguien ha decidido privatizar el sol….si si has leído bien, en España totalmente al contrario de Europa, se impone un peaje a quien genere electricidad y la inyecte a la linea… en vez de recibir ganancias, pero eso no es todo, si te pillan recogiendo fotónes de luz solar para tu propio consumo te puede caer una multa de 30 millones de euros. Tal cual si de una droga se tratara. Cometer el sacrilegio de ser independiente energéticamente puede costar muy caro, el sol ahora es sólo para unos pocos privilegiados y las compañías eléctricas en las cuales están de consejeros ex-presidentes y ex-ministros del partido dualista ppsoe.
“La Unión Española Fotovoltaica (UNEF), que agrupa a unas 300 empresas y representa a un 85% del sector, asegura que, de implantarse estos cambios, sería más caro el autoconsumo solar que recurrir al suministro convencional. “Se impide el ahorro a los consumidores y se paraliza la entrada de nueva competencia en el mercado eléctrico”, contemplan.”

A si que si estabas pensando que con esta falsa crisis provocada, la mejor opción era precisamente tener unas placas solares que bajaron un 80% su coste y tener la oportunidad de desconectar de la red eléctrica y su factura estafa, ya puedes ir olvidándote.
En España se ha privatizado el sol sin la consulta de sus ciudadanos, sin la consulta al sistema solar sin la consulta al universo etcétera….
Firma por un autoconsumo gratuito! http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Derecho_al_Autoconsumo_GRATUITO_y_Responsable_de_Recursos_como_la_Energia_Solar_la_Energia_Eolica_y_el_Agua_de_Mar/
Aquí está la propuesta de ley
Más información de Elpais:
El Sol ya no es gratis
La posibilidad de producir tu propia electricidad utilizando recursos renovables —paneles solares o pequeños molinos eólicos instalados en una propiedad privada— es algo muy atractivo para los hogares españoles. “De cada 50 llamadas que entran al mes, 35 son de particulares interesados en el autoconsumo”, asegura Francesc Mateu, gerente de Sol Gironés, empresa especializada en energías renovables y pioneras en este sector. “De momento les decimos que tienen que esperar hasta septiembre u octubre, a que las cosas estén más claras”, añade.
La tendencia a la tarifa plana en la factura de la luz, en la que cada vez hay que pagar una mayor cantidad de fijo y menos por el gasto energético, y las tasas específicas que impone el decreto de autoconsumo, que todavía no se ha aprobado, encarecen esta alternativa frente al consumo convencional.
El Gobierno se ha propuesto que el autoconsumo energético se implante poco a poco y sin alterar el sistema eléctrico español. Para ello se reserva el derecho de subir y bajar esas tasas o peajes específicos, y que denominan “de respaldo”, en función de como vaya evolucionando el sector. “Vamos a pagar un peaje por la energía recibida del sol”, resume Mario Sorinas, de la empresa oscense Electrobin, con más de 20 años de experiencia en energía solar.
La autarquía energética está más que consolidada en países como Estados Unidos o Japón. Muchos países europeos la tienen implantada con diferentes fórmulas. “Es el futuro”, coinciden varios expertos en energía. Permite generar tu propia electricidad con energías renovables y darle un descanso al medio ambiente y al bolsillo. También existe la posibilidad de ceder la energía sobrante a compañías eléctricas y recuperarla cuando se necesite o, directamente, venderla, algo que se conoce como autoconsumo con balance neto. El Gobierno de España ni se lo plantea. El proyecto de decreto de autoconsumo deja bien claro que no se remunerará la energía sobrante que se vierta a la red.
Ahora mismo, en España se puede producir energía de forma privada y consumirla en el momento, una modalidad que se denomina autoconsumo instantáneo. La última legislación es de 2011. Antes no se hacía porque no salía rentable. El abaratamiento hasta en un 80% de las instalaciones fotovoltaicas en los últimos cinco años y el incremento de la factura de la luz la han convertido en una opción de ahorro muy interesante en época de crisis. La utilizan desde granjas de vacas hasta supermercados, residencias geriátricas, restaurantes y algún consumidor particular. La energía sobrante no se puede almacenar en baterías porque está prohibido. Cuando no hay sol o viento, hay que engancharse a la red y pagar la factura normal.
No hay un registro oficial de autoconsumo. La revista económica Alimarket ha contabilizado 43 casos. Otro fichero, elaborados de forma voluntaria por los autoconsumidores en el portal Energética 21, los eleva a 74.
Sol Gironés, con 14 trabajadores, está echando el resto con el autoconsumo instantáneo. “Está funcionando y bien, sobre todo con empresas como cárnicas u hostelería, que dependen mucho de cámaras frigoríficas, y en las que la factura de la luz se lleva al menos el 15% de sus gastos fijos anuales”, relata su gerente. Con estos sistemas llegan a reducir entre un 20% y un 30% su consumo, aunque tienen un caso en el que han logrado una bajada del 44%. Hasta ahora no pagan impuestos de ningún tipo por este tipo de generación de energía.
La reforma energética ha caldeado enormemente al sector renovable. “De todos los escenarios posibles, este es el peor”, resume José Donoso, director general de la Unión Española Fotovoltaica (Unef), que representa al 85% de la actividad del sector. “Sin que todavía se haya aprobado nada específico sobre autoconsumo, ya se lo han cargado”, añade. Donoso se refiere al incremento en la parte fija de la factura eléctrica, y que supondrá un 77% de subida en este tramo para una tarifa doméstica —algo de lo que los productores domésticos no pueden prescindir— y una bajada del 23% en la parte del consumo —la que reduce con la autoproducción—.
“Hasta ahora, el gasto se podía repartir en un 30% de parte fija y un 70% de parte variable. Se camina al 50%-50% por lo que cualquier iniciativa de generar tu propia potencia se desincentiva”, aporta Ignacio Cruz, investigador de la división de Energías Renovables del Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Tecnológicas y Medioambientales (CIEMAT).
“Esto es un rejonazo de muerte al balance neto y al ahorro energético”, opina Javier García Breva, consultor deenergías renovables y exdirector del Instituto para la Diversificación y el Ahorro de Energía (IDAE). Este especialista mantiene que se trata de medidas puramente recaudatorias para que las eléctricas ingresen más. Unesa, la patronal de las grandes eléctricas, ha rehusado valorar la situación del autoconsumo hasta conocer mejor los cambios legislativos.
Con los cambios conocidos hasta ahora el tiempo de amortización de las instalaciones fotovoltaicas crece considerablemente. Si antes de la reforma hacían falta 12 años para recuperar la inversión de una instalación en un domicilio de 2,4 kilovatios de potencia ahora harán falta 23 más, según cálculos de Unef. Este consumidor es el más tocado, ya que en los casos de instalaciones de servicios o para regadío los tiempos de amortización se han incrementado 5 y 4,75 años respectivamente.
Con todo, siempre hay quien ya trabaja en buscarle la vuelta. Sol Gironés asegura que sus clientes están reduciendo la parte de potencia contratada, la que registrará mayor incremento en la factura, porque el autoconsumo instantáneo les permite tener sus necesidades energéticas cubiertas. Otra de sus metas es conseguir que el autoconsumo doméstico sea rentable.

(EN) How to find a job

(ES) LA TRADUCCIÓN 1

(EN) European Languages

(ES) FALLOS DE RENFE

http://www.ivoox.com/que-paso-tren-santiago-audios-mp3_rf_2248109_1.html

(FR) The Pirate Bay

(EN) 60 Second Adventures in Economics (combined)

(EN) Translation Research

(EN) THE TUBE

(EN) NOTICE TO CEASE AND DESIST ALL COMMUNICATION WITH OCCUPIER

http://crimebodge.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Baliffs-Cease-and-Desist.pdf

(EN) MAN BEATS COURT BALIFFS & PREVENTS EVICTION

(EN) Spanish train crash

Spanish train crash: PM criticised over 'cut and paste' condolence message

Statement expressing grief for Santiago de Compostela crash victims includes unexpected reference to Chinese earthquake Link to video: Santiago de Compostela train crash: CCTV captures moment of derailment

Spain's embattled prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, already beset by political and economic difficulties, faced severe embarrassment on Thursday after it emerged that he had sent "cut and paste" condolences for the Santiago de Compostela train crash.
After expressing his personal grief and sending his "most heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims", his message went on to send even more regret "for the loss of human life and material damage" inflicted by the earthquake that struck the Chinese city of Gansu on Monday. The blunder was particularly unfortunate since Rajoy is from Galicia, the north-western region in which the crash took place, and was born in Santiago de Compostela, the nearest city to the site of the disaster.
Though the mistake was likely to have been made by an official in the prime minister's office, it was a further blow to a leader already under severe pressure. Next Wednesday, the Spanish prime minister is due to appear before parliament to answer questions about his alleged involvement in the illegal funding of his party, the conservative People's party (PP).
Rajoy on Thursday declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the tragedy whose number climbed to 78, making the crash the most serious rail accident in Spain for almost 70 years. A total of 77 people died as the result of a collision between Seville and Cadiz in 1972, but the biggest number of victims is thought to have resulted from an express train crash in 1944.
Between 500 and 800 people are thought to have died in the disaster which took place at Torre del Bierzo in north central Spain in the early years of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship. The scale of the tragedy was masked by the dictators' censors. The Spanish national rail company said at the time that the death toll was 78.

(EN) Giulio Andreotti: the Hunchback of the Palazzo Chigi

Written by: Phelim USHER-PURVES 

            Monday saw the news of the death of one of the giants of Italian politics. In Italy's fractious political scene, Giulio Andreotti represented an unwanted continuity, holding the position of Prime Minister no fewer than seven times, and that of Minister on 23 occasions. He was a leading light in Democrazia Cristiana (DC), the centrist Christian Democratic party, which held power in various coalition formations from the end of the war until the collapse of the party system due to systemic corruption in the early 1990s known as Tangentopoli (loosely translated as 'Kickback City' or 'Bribesville'). He was then created a senator for life and spent much of the rest of his life fighting allegations of corruption and collusion with the Mafia throughout his terms of office.

           

            Hidden behind these dazzling facts and figures is the nature of the man; by all accounts an enigma. A superb tactician and political thinker who couldn't see that the era of the DC was at an end; a devout Catholic and friend of several popes with no moral scruples about paying the costs of retaining power; a great lover of beauty, art and culture but with no sense of intimacy. He is known for his many witticisms, and famously locked horns with Lady Thatcher over the thorny issue of European economic and monetary union. Throughout his terms of office, he wished to present himself as a humble worker trying to do his best for the nation, and perhaps leading a life he would not otherwise have chosen: "I know I'm of average height, but looking around, I don't see any giants".

            Even in Italy, a country in which nicknames are often attributed to politicians, Andreotti stood out: the Black Pope, the Hunchback, Beelzebub, the Divine Giulio. Many of these were used by critics and supporters alike, in reference to his cunning, his intelligence and his ruthlessness, and perhaps this uncertainty lies at the heart of the enigma. To some, he was the hero of the Cold War, a man who kept the powerful Italian Communist Party out of power, and put Italy on the road to economic success. To others he was a symptom of the pervasive corruption of the era before the 1990s, keeping himself and his political allies in power with scant regard for the wishes of the electorate. And to still others, he was simply a relic of the 'old order', promoting Catholic views and warning about the dangers of consumption to a populace that was no longer really listening.

            What Andreotti's passing really marks is an opportunity for Italian politics to forget the post-war dominance of the centre, the limp electoral reforms and fragmentation of the political system resulting from . It allows Italy to break with the past and truly achieve a Second Republic. It may be ironic that the death of one of the architects of a false political stability in may give Italy a real chance for another form of democratic stability, but it is an irony that the 'Divine Giulio' would have appreciated.

(EN) German bomber

German bomber to rise from its English Channel grave

Dornier Do 17, one of Luftwaffe's 'flying pencil' bombers, was shot down off Kent coast during battle of Britain in 1940

The only surviving German second world war Dornier Do 17 bomber is to be raised from the English Channel in an operation announced on Friday.

The plane's retrieval from the Goodwin Sands off the Kent coast more than 70 years after it was shot down during the battle of Britain will mark the biggest recovery of its kind in British waters, the RAF Museum said.

The existence of the aircraft became known when it was spotted by divers in 2008 at a depth of around 15 metres (50ft) on a chalk bed.

Sonar scans by the RAF Museum, Wessex Archaeology and the Port of London Authority then confirmed the identity of the aircraft as the Dornier Do 17Z Werke number 1,160.

Nicknamed the Luftwaffe's "flying pencil" bombers because of their narrow fuselage, the aircraft is said to be in "remarkable condition".

The main undercarriage tyres remain inflated and the propellers show damage from the bomber's fateful final landing, experts have said.

Lifting it from the sea will take around three weeks using pioneering technology and will have to take place within a given time frame owing to tide and weather conditions.

A grant of more than £345,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) has made its retrieval possible.

Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye, director general of the RAF Museum, said: "The discovery and recovery of the Dornier is of national and international importance. The aircraft is a unique and unprecedented survivor from the battle of Britain and the blitz.

"It will provide an evocative and moving exhibit that will allow the museum to present the wider story of the battle of Britain and highlight the sacrifices made by the young men of both air forces and from many nations."

Once it has been lifted, work will start to conserve and prepare the Dornier for display. The work will take place at the museum's Michael Beetham conservation centreat Cosford, Shropshire.

The aircraft will be placed in two hydration tunnels and soaked in citric acid for the first stage of its conservation. Once the delicate process is complete, the aircraft will be displayed at the museum's London site within the context of the battle of Britain story.

The culture minister, Ed Vaizey, said: "Today marks the beginning of an exciting project to raise the last surviving Dornier Do 17 bomber from the English Channel.

"I'm delighted the RAF Museum and the NHMF have joined forces to make this project possible and I know that it will be a tremendous addition to the museum's collection where it will serve to educate and entertain all who visit."

Dame Jenny Abramsky, chair of the NHMF, said: "The battle of Britain remains one of the most pivotal moments in the history of our country.

"The Dornier Do 17 was one of its main protagonists and therefore the trustees at the NHMF felt it was vital that this, the last known surviving example, be safeguarded."

The Dornier Do 17 will join a range of more than 1,200 objects and places which have been safeguarded by the NHMF at a cost of more than £300m.

These include the first world warship HMS Caroline, the last surviving vessel from the battle of Jutland, a rare collection of work by second world war codebreaker Alan Turing and HMS Alliance, the last surviving British submarine from the second world war.

It is hoped that the aircraft will be raised by the end of this month or early June.

(ES) LIBERTAD DE EXPRESIÓN

336 reporteros y blogueros han sido encarcelados en 2013

Las denuncias de las asociaciones de periodistas están cada año más divididas entre las acusaciones al trato a los periodistas en países totalitarios y la precariedad de la profesión dentro de España. En lo que va de año, 174 periodistas han sido encarcelados en todo el mundo (hay 348 en total, muchos de ellos sin haber sido juzgados) y 19, asesinados. En cuanto a los que escriben solo en Internet, 162 blogueros han ingresado en la cárcel y 9 han muerto por el contenido de sus textos o investigaciones, según el Barómetro de Reporteros Sin Fronteras. 

La ONG señala a Turquía como el peor país para las encarcelaciones. "No mataron a ningún periodista durante el año pasado, pero tienen una ley antiterrorista que aplican de manera tan tremenda que se encuentran con 70 reporteros encarcelados. Cualquier informe sobre el PKK (el independentista Partido de los Trabajadores del Kurdistán) o Armenia, confunden al mensajero con el mensaje. Esto es un escándalo para un país que aspira a entrar en la Unión Europea", explica la vicepresidenta de Reporteros Sin Fronteras, Macu de la Cruz. La periodista recuerda también países como México, en los que "no encarcelan a los periodistas, los matan" o Eritrea, donde "ni siquiera hay periodismo": "Solo hay propaganda, y los periodistas están directamente fuera de combate", apunta.

La presidenta de Reporteros Sin Fronteras, Malén Aznárez, ha calificado de "periodismo plasmario" la tendencia del presidente del Gobierno, Mariano Rajoy, y otros miembros de su partido de convocar ruedas de prensa sin preguntas y la precarización de las condiciones laborales de los reporteros en una entrevista en la cadena Ser.

Aznárez ha pedido al Ejecutivo que apruebe una ley de transparencia que permita a los periodistas acceder a toda la información pública y ha criticado que España sea "el único país de la UE, de más de un millón de habitantes que no tiene una ley de transparencia". "En caso de haberla tenido, difícilmente se hubiera llegado a la corrupción política y empresarial que hay ahora", ha asegurado.

Con el lema "Sin periodistas no hay periodismo. Sin periodismo no hay democracia", la Federación de Asociaciones de Periodistas de España abunda en la crítica a las ruedas de prensa sin preguntas y abogan por la autorregulación de los profesionales y los medios. "Denunciaremos toda la pretensión de los poderes, sean cuales sean, de intentar controlar la información y ponerla al servicio de su ideología o, también, de sus intereses", afirman en un comunicado.