Puntos de vista - a personal Spain blog

I was sitting at my computer this afternoon in my house in Fuente de la Higuera (Ronda) when the phone rang. It was my friend Julia who lives further along the valley.

“Do you know about the fire?” she asked.

I didn’t.

Tuesday 30 July 15.30

Apparently, the fire had started in the garden of the Hotel Molino del Puente, which is run by friends Ian and Elaine Love. This was around 15.30, according to the first responders I spoke to.

And because there was a strong west wind it was heading rapidly towards Hotel La Perla Blanca, my neighbour, then via several other fincas to Finca Retama, the home of friends Julia and Nick Flynn.

I put a few more clothes on and went to investigate. There was a heavy police presence and despite showing my Press card I could go no further.

I managed to get some good shots, though, and later, when the helicopter had stopped emptying bucketloads of water onto the flames, I went along to take a look at the aftermath.  

The first fire truck arrives on the scene. Photograph by Paul Whitelock

Photos of the aftermath of the wildfire by Paul Whitelock

Mopping up - 18.30 onwards

I’d say we were all lucky that the fire hadn’t jumped the road. Otherwise Villa Indiana (my house), the Hotel La Perla Blanca, Bodegas Badman and possibly Finca Retama would have all been engulfed.

In actual fact, luck had nothing to do with it. The odds were against the firefighters, mainly because of the strong winds blowing from the west, yet they responded promptly to the 112 emergency calls made by Nick Flynn, Elaine Love and others, and they were on the scene very quickly. First to arrive were a large contingent from INFOCA (see Links below).

Nick and Julia Flynn with their sons Danny and Oliver

[Photograph by Paul Whitelock]

There were an amazing number of collaborators on the scene, including bomberos, guardia civil, INFOCA, Junta de Andalucía, patrulla verde, policia local, policia nacional, and SEPRONA.

They have this "off to a T" these days. The collaboration went like clockwork. It was very impressive.

Strange as it may seem no other representatives of the Press were present, no Diario SUR, no Ronda Semanal, no Olive Press, just me.

At the end, when I went back, INFOCA operatives were just damping down, cutting back and clearing up.

“It’ll take us a few hours,” said their captain. 

Epilogue

This incident could have turned out very badly. If the collective effort from the authorities had not been so swift and well-coordinated, this could have turned into a major fire. If the flames had "jumped" the lane, the grapevines at Bodegas Badman would have caught quickly. The adjacent Hotel La Perla Blanca would have been under threat, as well as my property and countless others, including a small estate of newly-built houses and the fincas beyond, including Finca Retama.

A spokesman for La Perla Blanca said: "We were quite anxious for the safety of the hotel, as we were potentially in the path of the spread of the fire." He continued: "The firefighters and their colleagues were brilliant in stopping the flames from crossing the road."

In summary, those of us who were threatened by this should consider ourselves grateful to the combined services who acted promptly and effectively.

Nick Flynn told me: "We had a bad experience some 15 years ago, when a wildfire surrounded our house. Fortunately the house was spared. So we were naturally concerned when we could see today's fire heading our way."

The question is ..... how did the fire start ..... ?

"I think somebody probably tossed a cigarette end out of their car window," said Ian Love. "But I don't know for sure."

Investigations by the authorities are ongoing .....

© Pablo de Ronda

Acknowledgements:

Video Footage by Danny Flynn:

VIDEO-2024-07-30-20-15-48.MP4

VIDEO-2024-07-30-20-16-21.MP4

Photographs by Paul Whitelock

Links:

badman wines – Vinos de Ronda

Bienvenido a nuestro hermoso hotel rural en Ronda, Málaga. (hotelmolinodelpuente.com)

(20+) Facebook

CX.pdf (juntadeandalucia.es)

self-catering holiday home Ronda Andalusia Finca Retama

Help me, Ronda - HELP ME RONDA (help-me-ronda.com) 

LA PERLA BLANCA - RONDA - Official Site. Book Direct and breakfast is FREE (la-perlablanca.com)

Tags:

Bodegas Badman, bomberos, Finca Retama, guardia civil, Hotel Molino del Puente, INFOCA, Julia and Nick Flynn, Junta de Andalucía, Pablo de Ronda, patrulla verde, Perla Blanca, policia local, policia nacional, press, SEPRONA, Villa Indiana                                                                                                                                                        

Last Sunday, the first ever flea market/zoco artesanal/Flohmarkt launched in Ronda (Málaga).

The brainchild of Markus Bauer, a German, and Paul Whitelock, from England, the pair have known each other for nearly a quarter of a century. Markus has lived in the Ronda area for some 30 years and has two children with his Spanish partner, an English teacher.

Paul has clocked up 16 years as a resident and has been married for 13 years to a German lady whom he met in Ronda. Paul got to know Markus when he bought his first property in Ronda in 2001. Markus worked at El Choque Ideal* in Barrio San Francisco and Paul was a regular customer of the bar/restaurant/TV lounge/snooker hall/second-hand clothes market/swimming pool/recording studio located on Calle Imágenes.

Ronda Flea Market

Paul and Markus chose Venta La Fragua, next to Viveros Gómez, right at the entrance to the City of Dreams, as Ronda is also known, thanks to Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke*.

Both Markus and Paul are good friends with La Fragua owner Antonio, who was delighted to be asked to host this market, which is currently scheduled to take place on the last Sunday of every month.

This is a good day to choose, since Ronda’s municipal market is on every Sunday at El Recinto Ferial. Ronda market is truly disappointing, however, for a town with a population of around 33,000, plus many other potential visitors from surrounding villages of the Serranía. Places like Arriate, Benaojan, Montecorto and Montejaque.

If you are after ladies’ underwear, shoes, clothes, and bedding, it’s great, but if you want a drink or something to eat, hard luck!

It is also Antonio’s busiest day, for both breakfast and lunch.

What happened?

There were only three stallholders, yet the range of quality items on offer was remarkable. Books, CDs, DVDs, children’s toys, men’s polo shirts, bric-a-brac and second-hand and new items. All three sellers were delighted with the way it went.

They have three more stallholders lined up for next month, including a local bodega, a group of amateur craft people and an artist (painter). In addition, during Sunday’s sale, the two guiris* were approached by two separate local Spanish ladies who wish to take part next time.

As for punters or buyers, as the Spanish return from their holidays, next month the footfall will be greater. And both Markus and Paul agree, their publicity could have been better. They’ve already discussed more effective ways of getting the word out.

© Pablo de Ronda

Notes:

El Choque Ideal is sadly no more. Opened in around 2000 by Dutch couple Dirk and Hebke, it really was “the ideal place to meet”. Offering a Bohemian-style bar restaurant, pay TV, snooker, darts, second-hand clothes shop, swimming pool and a recording studio, it was very popular with the author and his family whenever they were in town.

When the pressures of commuting from their main jobs in the Netherlands became too much, El Choque Ideal passed into other hands in around 2007, but it was never the same again. It is now a music school.

Links:

How did Ronda get the name "City of Dreams"? - Help me, Ronda (help-me-ronda.com)

Ronda, el choque ideal (the perfect place to meet) - Help me, Ronda (help-me-ronda.com)

What is a guiri? It's what the Spanish call us foreigners - but is it good or bad? (secretserrania.com)

Tags:

Amateur, Arriate, artist, Benaojan, bodega, books, bric-a-brac, children’s toys, City of Dreams, CDs, craft people, DVDs, Dirk, El Choque Ideal, flea market, Flohmarkt, guiri, Hebke, Help Me Ronda, La Fragua, Markus Bauer, men’s polo shirts, Montecorto, Montejaque, new items, Pablo de Ronda, painter, Paul Whitelock, Rainer Maria Rilke, Ronda, Ronda Flea Market, second-hand, Secret Serrania, Venta La Fragua, Viveros Gómez, zoco artesanal

BREAKING NEWS: US president Joe Biden has announced that he is withdrawing from the upcoming presidential election in November.

He has nominated his vice-president Kamala Harris to be the Democrats candidate for the presidency, although others are gathering in the wings to make a possible challenge.

To go or not to go?

Biden needed to ‘fall on his sword’, after a series of mishaps in recent times.

Falls, stumbles, the dreadful, now infamous, debate a couple of weeks ago, make his age, 82, a serious handicap to his chances against Donald Trump, himself 77.

Mistakes, calling the Ukraine president Zelensky Putin being just one example.

Biden falls again [Photo courtesy of The Telegraph]

Trump’s popularity ratings have soared since the failed assassination attempt and then Biden contracted Covid.

The guy had to go!

Senators, congressmen and former president Barack Obama, were lining up calling for Biden to step down.

Curiously Bill and Hilary Clinton continue to support Biden!

      Trump Missed! [Photo courtesy of Reuters]

Kamala Harris ... or?

     Kamala Harris [Wikipedia]                   Gavin Newsom [New York Times]

     Michelle Obama [BBC]

So, will Ms Harris be the challenger to Trump? She has not been popular to date, but then, which VPs ever have been? Harris is from a privileged, well-to-do background, so has little appeal amongst Americans living in the rust belt. As a woman, and a woman of colour at that, she is unlikely to enjoy the support of misogynists nor racists.

Would Senator Gavin Newsom from California be a better bet? He is white, male and young.

Would Michelle Obama be a good choice, if she could be persuaded? Despite being black and a woman, she is very popular.  

I think Barack needs to remind her how pleasant it was living in The White House for eight years.

And wouldn’t Barack Obama make a great vice-president? The first ever man to hold that office and black to boot!

The US presidential election, which dominates the news agenda in any case, just got VERY interesting.

©  Pablo de Ronda

Acknowledgements:

BBC

New York Times

Pablo de Ronda

Paul Whitelock

Reuters

The Telegraph

Wikipedia

Tags:

Barack Obama, Bill and Hilary Clinton, BBC, Donald Trump, Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama, misogynists, New York Times, Paul Whitelock, Putin, racists, Reuters, Telegraph, The White House, Ukraine president, US presidential election, vice-president, Wikipedia, woman of colour, Zelensky 

By Pablo de Ronda

Which languages have the most speakers? It comes as no surprise that English reigns supreme, with over 1.1 billion total speakers—or roughly 15% of the global population. Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, and French round out the top five.

However, the most widely spoken language in the world in terms of the number of native speakers, is Spanish, not always castellano, to be fair, with some 485,063,960 speakers. Around 379,682,200 people have some form of English as their mother tongue.

So, with mastery of these two languages you can more than get by in most parts of the world.

Background

Why is this the case?

Historically, from the 15^th century onwards, Spain and England were the most successful conquistadores, colonists and explorers, followed by Portugal, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. And they all took their national languages with them and imposed them on the natives of the countries they colonised.

After most of these countries gained independence, the “foreign”, ie non-native tongue, survived, at least as the language of politics, administration and commerce.

Christopher Columbus discovers America in 1492

India is a good case in point (English); as is South Africa (Afrikaans, a form of Dutch), Brazil (Portuguese) and most of the rest of South and Central America and the Caribbean (Spanish). Curiously, when the Philippines went independent from Spain in 1898, the populace rejected Spanish and reverted to the native tongue, Tagalog.

Important European politicians and officials and the English language

Although the 27 member states of the European Union speak a range of different national and regional languages, their politicians (MEPs) have access to translations of all official documents and may make speeches in their mother tongue, which are simultaneously interpreted by a team of high-quality translators and interpreters. In practice the main language of Europe is English.

So, how good at English are foreign heads of government (prime ministers, presidents, chancellors, etc)?

Traditionally Scandinavian leaders have had the best English. Germany too. Newer members from Eastern Europe tend to have leaders who are more than competent in English, yet the French, Italian and Spanish leaders, until recently, have been the most stubborn and obdurate, when it comes to the use of English.

Spain since Franco, France and elsewhere

Of the seven prime ministers/presidents of Spain since the death of Franco and the return to democracy, only one, the current presidente del gobierno, Pedro Sanchez, has demonstrated good skills in English. Former president José María Aznar speaks English these days, but he only started to learn English when he left office.

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, is the only French leader I can recall who speaks/spoke good English.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez

Top officials also have good English nowadays, eg Ursula von der Leyen (German - President of the European Commission ); Charles Michel (Belgian - President of the European Council): Jens Stoltenberg (Norwegian - NATO secretary general), and European Central Bank boss Christine Lagarde (French).

***

To hear how good at English some of these people are, click here:

European summit live: We're resetting our approach to illegal migration, Keir Starmer says at European leaders’ summit - BBC News

French president Emmanuelle Macron                                                                                                  German chancellor Olaf Scholz

Personal Note

I studied for a joint honours degree in Spanish and German, graduating in 1973. I taught languages in three state schools in the Northwest of England, in Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside for 15 years, before becoming a schools adviser/inspector in Merseyside (St Helens and Sefton Councils) for a further 15.

I have lived in Spain for more than 15 years, where I have worked as a Spanish tutor, translator and interpreter. I am a sometime corredor (independent real estate agent) and property developer.

I am fluent in Spanish, so much so that I was happy to be interviewed twice for Spanish TV, during the Covid-19 lockdown and afterwards.

La Serranía de Ronda, un rincón con encanto para quedarse (youtube.com)

I am also fluent in German, since I have been married to a German lady I met here in Spain for the last 14 years. We only speak German at home.

I have travelled widely in Europe and have visited the USA and Australia. The only places where I felt uncomfortable linguistically were Greece and the Soviet Union.

Conclusion

To return to my earlier premise, that you can get by nearly everywhere in the world with Spanish and English, I think this is largely true.

In addition German is useful in Eastern Europe, as it was the first foreign language taught in schools in many Soviet satellite states from 1917 onwards.

French is useful in, well, France….. (only joking!)

French is also good in parts of Belgium and Switzerland, southern Morocco, some other former French and Belgian colonies in Africa eg Mozambique, some islands in the Indian Ocean, eg Reunion, and in French Guinea (South America), and the Caribbean islands of  Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy, and Saint Martin.

Epilogue

So, with English, Spanish, German and my rusty French (studied to A-level) I can get by pretty much everywhere. The exceptions, as before, are Greece and Russia, but as I have no current plans to go to either country, that’s OK.

Other countries where I wouldn’t have a clue linguistically include China, Korea and large parts of Indonesia, but I’m not going there either.

The only country which is a longish flight away that is on my “Wish List” is Cuba. But that’s OK – they speak Spanish there!

¡Adiós and goodbye!

©  Pablo de Ronda

Links:

European summit live: We're resetting our approach to illegal migration, Keir Starmer says at European leaders’ summit - BBC News

Help me, Ronda - HELP ME RONDA (help-me-ronda.com)

La Serranía de Ronda, un rincón con encanto para quedarse (youtube.com)

properties FOR SALE - A1 INMOBILIARIA - Real Estate (a1-inmobiliaria-real-estate.com)

(28) Paul Whitelock | LinkedIn

Acknowledgements (Photos):

Amazon

Diario Critico

El Correo

El Mundo

Genially

Tags:

Afrikaans, Amazon, Asia, Australia, Belgian colonies in Africa, Belgium, Brazil, Caribbean, castellano, Central America, Charles Michel, China, Christine Lagarde, colonists, conquistadores, Cuba, Diario Critico, Dutch, Eastern Europe, El Correo, El Mundo, Emmanuelle Macron, English, explorers, France, Franco, French, French Guinea, Genially, German, Germany, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Hindi, India, Indian Ocean, Indonesia, Jens Stoltenberg, José María Aznar, Korea, Mandarin Chinese, Martinique, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, Olaf Scholz, Pablo de Ronda, Paul Whitelock, Pedro Sanchez, Philippines, Portugal, Portuguese, Reunion, Russia, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, South Africa, South America, Soviet satellite states, Soviet Union, Spanish, Switzerland, Tagalog, USA, Ursula von der Leyen

Catching everyone - even his own ministers - by surprise, UK premier Rishi Sunak called a General Election for 4 July 2024.

Yesterday. 

I opted to try and stay up all night to watch the developing story. The last time I did that was for the Brexit referendum, eight years ago.

Here's what happened last night.

Thursday 4^th July, 2024

Also Independence Day in the USA, today is the date of the British General Election. Opinion Polls have been telling us for weeks that the Labour Party, led by Sir Keir Starmer, will win with a massive majority, possibly sending the Conservative Party into oblivion. If the Reform Party, previously UKIP, led once again by Nigel Farage, takes votes from disgruntled Tories, it looks even worse for the governing party, led by Rishi Sunak, the party’s fifth leader in 14 years.

Since David (now Lord) Cameron foolishly agreed to hold a simple yes/no referendum on leaving the European Union, the party and its several governments has failed on so many fronts, that many Tory MPs will surely be relieved to no longer be in government, when they lose their “safe” seats today. Some have already announced that they are standing down, in order to avoid the embarrassment of defeat at the poll.

Thursday 4 July 2024, 11.00 pm

Polling stations in the UK have just closed. The official exit poll predicts a landslide for the Labour Party. Labour 410; Conservative 131; Liberal Democrats 61; Reform 13; SNP 10; Greens 2; others 23.

This is only a poll based on 130 constituencies, yet in the last five general elections, the exit poll has been uncannily accurate.

I’ve just got myself an ice-cream and am going to settle down to watch the first actual results come in ….. I opted to watch the coverage on SKY News. I'm glad I did, as my former A-Level Spanish student, Andy Burnham, the current mayor of Greater Manchester, former MP and foreign secretary in the Blair/Brown governments. I was impressed.

More later …..

Thursday 5 July 2024, 05.00 am

It’s six hours since polling stations closed, and the count started.

The state of play, at 05.45 am, as Rishi Sunak retains his seat, with 436 out of 650 results declared, is Labour 308; Conservative 67; Liberal Democrats 40; Reform 4; Green 4; others 14.

The Tories have lost a record 12 cabinet ministers, namely Alex Chalk, Therese Coffey, David Davies, Michelle Donelan, Oliver Dowden, Liam Fox, Lucy Frazer, Gillian Keegan, Brandon Lewis, Johnny Mercer, Penny Mordaunt, Grant Shapps. The detestable Jacob Rees-Mogg is also gone!

I’m going to take a break – I need a cuppa and an early breakfast …..

Friday 5 July 2024, 06.00 am - Labour wins the 2024 General Election                                      

In the short time I was away in the kitchen Labour achieved the 326 seats it needed to win the election. Sir Keir Starmer is the new Prime Minister.

Friday 5 July 2024, 06.30 am

With results in from 550 seats – 100 to go – Labour has 373; Conservatives 91; Liberal Democrats 51; Reform 6; Green 5; others 24.

Friday 5 July 2024, 07.30 am

Labour reach 400 seats with just 34 still to declare.

Bye for now!

© The History Man

Sources:

Cornish Times

El Periodico

France 24

Google Imagenes

Independent

Reuters

SKY News "Election Night"

Wikipedia

Tags:

Alex Chalk, Brandon Lewis, Conservative, David Davies, general election, Gillian Keegan, Grant Shapps, Greens, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Johnny Mercer, Keir Starmer, Labour, Liam Fox, Liberal Democrat, Lucy Frazer, Michelle Donelan​​​​​​​, Oliver Dowden, opinion poll, Penny Mordaunt, Reform, Rishi Sunak, SNP, Therese Coffey, vote, voting