I refer to your response to Dave and Ron Hedges in Edition 1180 of the The Euro Weekly News. You wrote, “…although if we’re talking dictators, I think I marginally prefer Gordon Brown to Robert Mugabe. But only marginally.”
Your response is outrageous and a disgrace, especially in view of the recent elections held in Zimbabwe and the awful economic, financial and social developments in that country in the recent past (for which Mr Mugabe and his government are responsible). How about land confiscation, sharp drops in output (including in the agricultural sector), an inflation rate which defies imagination (and continues to rise), massive unemployment and social suffering, political suppression and brutality, and citizens fleeing the country to neighbouring countries? None of these factors is present or even threatened in the United Kingdom.
If your response had been published on April 1, I would have taken it as an April Fool’s joke, albeit in very bad taste. If you were trying to be funny, you failed. If I were your editor, I would fire you on the spot.
This comment is provided by an occasional reader (I am not a national of either Zimbabwe or the United Kingdom) on one of his two-to-three annual stays in El Campello.
I trust you will share this letter with your editor.
Grant B Taplin
Paris (France)
Well I did say “marginally”. And rest assured, I was scrupulous about sharing your letter. Mrs Ed
On Saturday, 26th April, at 5pm, I heard on a Spanish national radio station an Ecuadorian young mother, Argelia, who without a job or hope of one and no future in Ecuador, decided to come to Spain to look for work, leaving behind her children to be looked after by her mother, María. After finding a job in Spain, Argelia started to send some money to Ecuador for her family. Then Argelia was allowed to bring her children to Spain, but had to leave behind her mother in Ecuador on her own.
Argelia’s mother, now very ill in Ecuador, wishes to see her daughter and her grandchildren before it is too late. María made it very clear to the authorities that she does not want to come to stay in Spain but despite that her visa to travel to Spain has been denied twice. According to the law, she must be 65 years old to be allowed to come to Spain to see her family. People invited to stay in Spain for a little while have sometimes disappeared in this country and were sent back to their counties after causing problems. But I think this is not the case. I think that this is an exceptional case, a humanitarian case.
Can anyone help? Telephone 628 942 089.
José Rivero
Asociación Vecinos
Colaborando
Crime Watch España
Over to you, readers! Mrs Ed
With reference to the Boadicea story concerning John Prescott being applauded for acknowledging that he was bulimic and the concluding statement “one look at the man means that his admission will be of no consolation whatsoever”. Surely anyone with any reasonable IQ would be of the same opinion as myself that his admission is just an excuse for being a self-centred, over-indulgent, greedy, fat bas**d?
Geoff Smith
Emailed letter
Says Boadicea: “I’m not convinced that reaching a conclusion like that requires even a reasonable IQ.”
With reference to Rojales Grip/PP budget shortfall and plagiarising the nursery rhyme “Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle”:
“Hey diddle diddle, Rojales ayuntamiento on the fiddle?
It’s sounding like an all too familiar tune.
14,000 euros entertaining on a restaurant’s griddle,
And a quarter of a million gone over the moon.
The Grip/PP president saying the queries put forward were untrue,
No explanation about 250,000 disappearing into the blue.
In this region of underdevelopment sun, sea and sand,
This deficiency - was it sweeteners only 250,000 grand?”
Neil Burman
San Miguel de Salinas (Alicante)
If you write in verse
I’ll do the same
And if mine is worse
Then you’re to blame!
Mrs Ed
Recent comments prompted by over-development on the costas makes interesting reading. The widespread interest in this subject must eventually dawn on the authorities involved. As the international crisis over world finances gathers pace and is now being felt by all of us, perhaps these next few years of slowdown offer a window of opportunity for all of us to look ahead and plan in a more enlightened way for our future.
Regarding one point made by Joseph Cashmore concerning lack of tourism on the costas, I read that numbers coming to Spain last year had increased to nearly 50 million visitors, and 2008 is expected to improve on the 2007 figure.
So let’s sit back and enjoy the spring weather and hope the powers-that-be realise the priceless asset that they have in Spain and stop this destruction of the environment.
Alan Page
Senija (Alicante)
Remember that the costas are the victim of their own success - if there has been over-development it’s because there is a demand for it. Mrs Ed
On behalf of the Torrevieja and Vega Baja committee of the AECC (Asociación Española Contra el Cancer) I would like to take the opportunity to thank all our supporters and volunteers, with special mention of the fundraising of the following: Peter and Dawn; Gill Scott-Davies; Terry and Dolores Collins; Casablanca Ladies Club; Sackos Bar, El Limonar; Dennis and Kathleen, Pat Brownhill and Betty Wilson. Also in memory of John Collette, Margaret Teal, John Newnham, Thelma West, Rita and Declan Gregory. Without the support of our fundraisers and the help of our volunteers we would not be able to provide our services to the community. So to all of them, we would like to send our wholehearted thanks.
Jennie Mutter
Torrevieja (Alicante)
And well done to expatriate commitment to the costas’ community! Mrs Ed
Letters for Dear Mrs Ed should be emailed to mrsed@euroweeklynews.com, posted to The Euro Weekly News, Calle Moscatel 10, P-62, Polígono Industrial, Arroyo de la Miel, 29630 Benalmadena,Málaga, Spain, or sent by fax to 952 440 887
|
