San Fulgencio

There was an article published in Sur in English yesterday, clearly translated from the original Spanish although I don't know in what publication it originally appeared, about San Fulgencio (Alicante). I can't find a direct link to it, but there is a PDF version of the paper here and you can find it on pages 14-15.

It might be interesting to hear the views of anyone who lives in, or knows, San Fulgencio (I'd never heard of the place). It strikes me that, apart from the various inconsistencies, inaccuracies and, in my opinion, shoddy, poorly researched journalism, this article is also bordering on blatant racism. I can't quite decide whether the editor (of the English version) was brave or foolhardy to publish this. I don't follow the UK papers, so I could be wrong, but I can't help feeling that if one of them was to publish a similar article about, say, the Asians in Bradford, the editor would probably wake up in the morning with a Fatwa hanging over them!

Should we be ashamed? Insulted? Or simply (as I think) laugh it off as a silly bit of typical sensationalist tabloid journalism that won't really be taken too seriously by most people?

Thoughts, anyone?

Roberto.  San Fulgencio is south of Alicante and north of Guardamar / Rojales.  Reading the article, I could not find anything I thought overtly racist (although I am probably slow to take offence) and if I were a local I might well find myself saying much the same.  The thoughts on problems with the healthcare system are probably correct as many of us do not live in Spain, but spend quite a lot of time there in our "holiday homes".  Because we are retired, we can now take very long breaks to escape the worst of the weather in the UK, so take advantage of the position.  Unfortunately the health system is probably being clogged up by foreign nationals who, because they are old (ish) need more maintenance than your average Spaniard.  This is, in part due to the negative view taken by the Spanish authorities in all things official that although we are all citizens of the EU, unlike EU citizens in the UK, we are treated as foreigners.  If either Government accepted the duality of tenure represented by senior citizens, then we would quite happily sign on to the Spainish system, but if we do, we loose the right to healthcare at home in spite of our roots.  There are places in the UK where there are so many EU foreign residents that they are swamping the healthcare system and taking over the language (talk to someone from Peterborough), in fact it's not only the hospitals, but schools and all "free" public services.  If you read the Daily Mail, articles on the problem are frequent and caustic, so I cannot object to someting similar appearing in a Spanish newspaper, at least they do publish it in English!

Mike

 It is La Marina, just south of Alicante. I'm afraid its true, I've been on holiday there! However, much of this coast is the same. It didn't put me off buying, although further South. In some ways it is reassuring to be surrounded by English. 

There should be a way of registering in Spain without loosing your rights at home. On the urbanisation I've bought on, there are lots of English and Germans as well as Spanish. Not the density of English that seems to be at La Marina.

 It is La Marina, just south of Alicante. I'm afraid its true, I've been on holiday there! However, much of this coast is the same. It didn't put me off buying, although further South. In some ways it is reassuring to be surrounded by English. 

There should be a way of registering in Spain without loosing your rights at home. On the urbanisation I've bought on, there are lots of English and Germans as well as Spanish. Not the density of English that seems to be at La Marina.

I am unfamiliar with the system in that area; all I know is that down here, if you don't have an Spanish medical card, you won't even get an appointment with a GP, let alone get treated. Emergencies may be another matter of course, but routine doctor's visits, you need a card, which you can normally only get if you are contributing (or have done) here, or as a pensioner have had your benefits transferred from the UK, which means one way or another you've contributed and are getting nothing a Spaniard isn't entitled to. Is it very different there? In the UK, simply proving residency entitles one to free health care - easy to understand why many complain about foreigners using a system which they have in no way contributed to. The journalist of this article is implying the same is true in this town, despite admitting that a nurse at the medical centre says without a SIP card, you won't get seen. Her opinion doesn't matter of course. The proof, it seems, that foreigners are getting treated without being on the system, is that the majority of the patients have "European" names (such as Ahmad & Nadja!) - well, hello! He has just told us that the majority of the population are non-Spanish. What's so surprising about the majority of patients being non-Spanish then? The nurse also points out that many of the foreign "residents" who don't register on the padrón or get SIP cards spend 6 months here and 6 months in their home country. If that's true, then it's up to them where they choose to register themselves as residents - why make them out to be pariahs because they don't choose Spain as their main residence?

Apparantly, there are "few - or no signs of benefit to the economy" because the only businesses doing well are owned and run by foreigners. Presumably therefore all foreigners run their businesses illegally and pay no taxes? Couldn't possibly be a case of the few Spanish owned businesses are either targetting the wrong (virtually non-existent Spanish) market, or are simply plying their trade in the wrong town? The implication is that the foreigners have taken over the town and taken the jobs and business from the Spaniards. Missing his own point by a mile, the journalist seems to have forgotten that before the foreigners arrived there was nothing here anyway.

I don't really object to the article as such, I just feel it was a bit pointless and pathetic. I would have liked the journo to have the balls to actually ask the English woman waving an England rattle in the bar exactly why she was cheering when Switzerland scored against Spain. The answer may just have given him material for a far more interesting and revealing article!