# Newsflash!!



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Not sure where to post this so if anyone has any better ideas, please move it.

Tomorrow there will be a programme about Spain and where it's at now.

_The state-of-the-art Aeropuerto Don Quijote in Ciudad Real opened for business at the end of 2008. The vision was to create an air hub in the heart of Spain, and its backers believed it would bring business, jobs and tourists to this underdeveloped region. But just over three years later the airport closed - bankruptcy proceedings are on-going. Now it lies abandoned and empty, the silence broken only by birdsong and the occasional whoosh of a high speed train._
_In Crossing Continents, Pascale Harter tells the story of a project with its roots in Spain's building boom-years._

Of course, this link will be useless after a few days...
BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Crossing Continents, 26/07/2012

Then there is also this article about which I haven't read yet, but I wanted to post this before I forget/ lose the link

*Spain's regional governments: How they got into trouble*

BBC News - Spain's regional governments: How they got into trouble


Lastly, a programme about Miguel Angel Blanco who was assassinated by ETA 15 years ago. I remember it very clearly. It seemed like the whole of Spain stopped, and it seemed like the whole of Spain went to the street to protest against ETA. My husband travelled from Madrid to Bilbao specifically to march there with his family and friends.
BBC - BBC World Service Programmes - Witness, Miguel Angel Blanco


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## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

Thanks for posting these Pesky.
I will definitely have a look later.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

You can now listen to this programme if you're interested


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## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

Pesky Wesky said:


> You can now listen to this programme if you're interested


I didn't listen to the one about *Aeropuerto Don Quijote*, because my hubby has talked about it A LOT and, although I see the whole project as a good example of what has gone wrong in Spain, I just couldn't listen to any more on the subject. 

The programme about *Miguel Angel Blanco*:
Although I wasn't in Spain at the time, I did remember this when I took a listen and I remember the mass movement of condemnation which followed.
What I remember most about this though is a friend I knew then, who studied nationalist movements and sympathised with the Basque cause up to that point (and who still sympathised with them for the treatment they had received under Franco), but who now admitted that some of the Basque support at local level may have been born out of fear of opposing them. 
What he said was that even supporters of the movement were now standing up and loudly condemning what had happened to Miguel Angel Blanco.
It actually changed his way of thinking. Haven't seen him for years though, so I have no idea what he thinks now.

As to *Spain's regional governments: How they got into trouble:*
I must admit here that I concentrated on Andalucia and the (some would say ironic) situation whereby Andalucia, being the poorest region, has received the biggest help from Central Government which has made it very dependent on Madrid. And it is now that very situation which could cause even more problems here as the Government enforces its cutbacks.

Nothing much I can add there really, except to say I think we are still a distance from where the **** is going to hit the fan in a big way, but it still looks very likely to happen.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Solwriter said:


> Nothing much I can add there really, except to say I think we are still a distance from where the **** is going to hit the fan in a big way, but it still looks very likely to happen.


I DO love an optimist


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## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

baldilocks said:


> I DO love an optimist


Believe it or not, I am usually an optimist.
But I don't like to bury my head in the sand either.


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