CONGRATULATIONS DIOUF
Luc André Diouf has just been elected a Member of the Spanish Parliament. He is one of the first Africans to have achieved this honour. He arrived in the Canary Islands back in the early 1990's on a tourist visa. However, when this expired, he found himself converted into an illegal immigrant without papers and forced to sleep on the streets. He fell ill and was admitted to hospital. He was then given the opportunity to finish the studies in Economics that he had begun in Senegal. He now has a Master in Microcredits. He was an activist and became involved in the Spanish Communist Union, CCOO, in immigrant problems. Now as an MP he is determined to make migration more fluid, to try to avoid the deaths in the Mediterranean and at the fences dividing Morrocco from Ceuta and Melilla, to insist that the EU take on their part of the responsibility thus relieving Italy, Greece and Spain of the stress on their borders, helping to save lives and to offer opportunity in the 27 EU countries to those who are searching for a better life. Diouf is an example of the right path to follow. No more xenophobia, please. Let us realise that our nations can be enriched by helping immigrants in this way. Thank you Diouf. Thank you Spain.
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The thing is, I've been in a bit of a limbo waiting for "A Grave above Ground" to be published. Editing and re-editing takes time, interchange of ideas with my editor who has shown the utmost patience with me. And, yes, I suppose as I am very new to all this business, in particular to the technological ins and outs, I might have taken double the time that other experienced authors would take. However, after all this, we have made it - HPEditions and I! If you're interested, you can go into the My Books page of my website and browse through the information there.
And of course summer is a time in Spain for relaxing in the heat, for entertaining during the long cooler evenings, for catching up with the household obligations we put aside during the remainder of the year, for reading where possible. Better to keep away from the centre of Madrid where the tourists amble along, taking up the space that half the city's population leaves them because they have left for the coast. Even better to keep away from the coast at this time too, where the beaches are choc-a-bloc with lobster-coloured bodies and queues in the restaurants. Not my idea of peace! Remember, this is not Australia where there are still virgin beaches to be found.
Which brings me to tourism and the unpleasant outbreaks of anti-tourist publicity flaunted in certain areas. This has come about at the hand of aggressive groups of Spanish citizens who are making the grave mistake of turning in on themselves. Yet another demonstration of petty insularity in our global world. Tourism represents something like 11% of Spain's GDP. It provides employment which is impossible to obtain in other sectors. For years tourism has put this country on the map in a positive way - tourists come for the sun, for the beaches, for the cheap food and wine, for the history of this land and for its stunning geography and, yes, for the Spanish way of life. Of course, there is a tourism which is negative in the sense that it degrades places, making life difficult for the native inhabitants. Some call it the plague of the 21st century and in part this is true. Yet we cannot deny people the elemental right of freedom of movement. It all boils down to a question of education and fundamental respect for our neighbours whether we are on holiday or not. Whilst the trouble-making tourists are being educated (utopia??), perhaps we could all make diplomatic suggestions about behaviour, instead of attacking them with disrespectful pamphlets and hostile attitudes.
I hope, I really hope, to be able to take up this blog more frequently now. There are lots of issues and things to talk about. So, until the next.....
