UD Las Palmas made a glorious comeback to the First Division in a thrilling encounter against Deportivo Alavés that kept fans on the edge of their seats until the final whistle. In front of a raucous near-capacity-crowd of 31,790, Las Palmas sealed their return ticket to the top flight with a hard-fought goalless draw in the season’s photo finish.
What an interesting last weekend of May ahead. Weather predictions are showing some rain showers are likely across Gran Canaria. This extended #WeekendTips covers up to Tuesday, when all things Canarian are celebrated on the Día de Canarias. There’ll be some gorgeous Patron Saints’ festivities happening in San Fernando de Maspalomas as well as in Valleseco.
Fun Fact:
Valleseco literally means “dry valley” in Spanish, but is actually one of the wettest municipalities Gran Canaria. Nestling between the famous fresh water sources of Firgas & Teror, half way up the island’s mountainous northern slopes, this area is well known for its apple growers, cider and its weekly market
The authorities on Gran Canaria have been engaged in a rigorous search for Swedish tourist Anna-Karin Bengtsson, who went missing in the south of Gran Canaria around April 9. Her unexplained disappearance has caused her family much distress, with no clues to her whereabouts having emerged in the six weeks since they first realised her phone was no longer functioning.
An exciting May weekend ahead with abundant events and festivities taking place all around Gran Canaria. There are Patron Saints’ festivities for Motor Grande, in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, and in El Tablero in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana and up in the mountains of Artenara. There is also a two day lively exhibition event in Meloneras boulevard and the Rally Gran Canaria is held this Friday and Saturday.
The body of a 58-year-old German man was found this Friday floating just off the coast of Mogán, on the south-west of Gran Canaria.
 |
Canarian trans-feminist and gender rights activist Emma Colao, from the association EQUAL LGTBI+, has announced radical action in an effort to try to highlight the need to #SaveTheFoodProject in Mogán. From this Wednesday, September 23 at 10:00 a.m. she has declared a hunger strike to protest outside the Mogán municipal offices demanding occupational alternatives for the Las Lomas de Arguineguin AV Food Distribution Project, who, by October 17, are threatened with eviction by the delinquent mayor of Mogán.
There are many causes and associations working to improve day-to-day life and social reality on the island of Gran Canaria. This holiday paradise is often a little embarrassed by some of the extreme poverty it hides. At times of hardship, like 2020, it becomes more and more necessary that these groups find ways to work together and support each other, particularly when they have come under attack from self-interested, and allegedly corrupt, political players, as is the case in Mogán right now. The local mayor, Onalia Bueno, along with her councillor for social services, Tanya Alonso, both of whom were arrested last week on suspicion of electoral fraud, seems to hell bent on closing the only facility of its kind in the area that provides food and advice to the poorest members of the community. Among their arguments against the service is that some poor people might get extra help, more than the council provides, despite the fact that the council play no part in assistance provided by The Food Project, other than allowing them use of this dilapidated building. Everything else is supplied from private donations, with the assistance of The Food Bank of Las Palmas and the EU Food Bank.
The mayor of Mogán wants to evict a food bank for alleged sanitary problems despite all their inspections in order and no evidence whatsoeverImage: Alejandro Ramos
Having ignored, since Bueno’s CIUCA party seized power in 2015, repeated requests to meet with the Mogán Neighbours Food Project (Proyecto Vecinal de Alimentos de Mogán run by the volunteer association AV Las Lomas de Arguineguín) the town hall held a closed meeting at the beginning of August in which they decided that they would evict the volunteer-led food project without recourse. When this (quietly added) agenda item was uncovered, Bueno and Alonso hastily organised a press announcement, in which they suddenly pointed to were all sorts of alleged problems with the project, despite not having visited the premises nor communicated this at any time beforehand, nor had they tried to assist in finding any solutions; they just said that the reason they were ejecting the volunteers was due to sanitary deficiencies, alleging, quite unfairly, that the project caused rodent infestations, that the property was uninhabitable and that the electrical wiring was dangerous, among other supposed offences. They offered no evidence whatsoever for any of this, essentially slandering the project to tarnish the good name of a facility which has diligently provided food to the poorest families in Mogán for more than 11 years.
Activist Emma Colao
Activist and campaigner, Emma Colao, the president of the association EQUAL LGTBI+, has highlighted the social, economic and political context that the Canary Islands are currently going through, saying that there is a real and tangible need to maintain projects such as this one, now more than ever. Her hunger strike to protest the senseless closure of a volunteer, food bank supported effort to feed the poverty stricken, at a time of great economic hardship will demonstrate a certain conviction in the face of restrictions limiting the right to protest en masse.
Colao stressed, in a statement, that they are fighting “for a fundamental right”, for the right to food. Pointing to the fact that what help is available, is patently insufficient to meet the needs of poverty stricken people, this in one of the wealthiest tourist municipalities in Spain, saying “Projects like AV Las Lomas de Arguineguín are completely necessary, and to deny the truth, appealing to the administration, is to take refuge in alternative realities where the procedures of local administrations are effective in a social context, like the one in which we find ourselves”. The association denounces that in too many cases there is a wait of up to five weeks, just for an assessment appointment with social services, and emergency aid is not effective in multiple cases. “If it is necessary to take a risk, I will.” added the rights activist Emma Colao.
“I will remain on hunger strike until an occupational alternative for The Food Project is offered that meets their needs. I know when I will start, but the end date will depend on Mayor Onalia Bueno. I appeal to her ethics and morality.”
Desde @EQUALLGTBI instamos a la alcaldesa de Mogán @OnaliaBueno, a reconsiderar una alternativa ocupacional para el Proyecto de Reparto de Alimentos.#huelgadehambre#Aporofobia#NoMasPrecariedad#LGTBI @MunicipioMogan @eldiarioeshttps://t.co/7uCzTJn9np
— Emma Colao ?️? (@ColaoEmma) September 20, 2020
The municipal government of Mogán announced in August the planned eviction from this municipal space, of the only organisation in the area dedicated to the distribution of food for the most needy people and families, quoting totally unsubstantiated hygiene & sanitary issues. The Las Palmas Food Bank, which supplies part of the food distributed by the Las Lomas de Arguineguín Neighbours Association, has responded to these accusations with a letter from its president, Pedro Llorca, making clear that they ensures that all partners comply with every requirement and have passed all relevant inspections, as has this facility repeatedly. At a press conference, the mayor criticised provision of food at the Association’s premises, the accumulation of belongings in their yard and tried to suggest that there could be rats in the facilities. All of this is demonstrably false, say the volunteers, who only last Thursday were visited by a Agricultural Ministry inspector
FollowFollowFollowFollow
The Canary News
About a hundred anti-mask protesters gathered together this Sunday, August 16, by the sculpture of Alfredo Kraus, on the capital’s Las Canteras beach, demonstrating against what they see as the imposition of the mandatory use of masks, along with a range of other complaints and theories about the latest decisions by the governments of the Canary Islands and Spain to further restrict activities that are thought to favour the increasing numbers of coronavirus cases being detected daily across the country, such as obligations to socially distance and avoid crowds and nightclubs.
Shouting ‘Freedom’ and ‘We want to breathe’ among other slogans, protesters made as much noise as they could to express their anger at what they see as over-reactions and draconian measures not just from regional and national government, but from governments across the world, who many of them claimed were simply promoting the manufacture of vaccines. The overwhelming fear among those present was the ushering in of a new world order on the premise of a virus they believe to be less dangerous than the flu.
What was evident yesterday was the near total lack of support from Las Palmas for the ideas behind the protest, centered around conspiracy theories and anti-establishment rhetoric. There did not appear to be any epidemiological researchers, doctors or nurses present. Though National Police did intervene, checking identities and collecting evidence after some incidents were reported.
Yesterday’s anti-mask protest was in support of a larger manifestation in Madrid, which drew 2,500 protesters according to some estimates. The hashtag #Subnormales began trending throughout Spain as other members of the population began to express their own anger at the gatherings, which did not respect any of the guidelines set out by the regional parliaments and the government of Spain, based on epidemiological advice.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is currently the epicenter of new coronavirus cases in the Canary Islands, with 503 confirmed infected, from yesterday’s data, and a total of 1,051 active cases throughout the Archipelago.
Some medical professionals took to the ‘one fingered salute’ on social networks to thank the protesters for their insights.
FollowFollowFollowFollow
The Canary News
A Gran Canaria hotel chain has in recent weeks reopened the former Portosol hotel under the name of the Nachosol Atlantic , in Puerto Rico, after a comprehensive renovation of all the facilities and the services it provides. The remodeling was to give the building a fresher, more up-to-date look, better adapted to the modern day tourism reality of the Canaries.
The hotel, located on Calle Fuerteventura number 15, was originally opened in 1988 as a complex of 34 apartments and now, after taking advantage of the latest Tourism Modernisation Law, has returned to the market to add a new quality offering for the south of the island. having converted into a four-star establishment with 51 rooms. The building overlooks the ever-popular Puerto Rico beach.
However, this shiny new venture, implemented by IG Hotels & Resorts, has been marred over recent days by protests from some of the construction workers who brought about the changes, who say that despite the announced multi-million euro investment they have still yet to be paid and who have resorted to loudly expressing their disgust at the situation directly outside the hotel itself, where demonstrators have been treating the hotel’s first new guests to daily loud drumming and horn blowing, holding aloft banners demanding that the hotel “Pay your Debts” in a last resort effort to gain acknowledgement for their plight.
The works at the property, which occupies a plot of around 800 square meters, took eight months and the company say they have made an investment of three million euros. “After thirty years, I needed a deep intervention and practically everything is new, the plumbing, the electricity, the furniture, the swimming pools and the jacuzzi”, explained Yaiza Guedes, owner of the establishment, when talking to local Spanish language daily La Provincia on the eve of the re-opening “we have only kept the structure of the building which we have reinforced.”
The reopening of the establishment was lauded in the press for bringing new job opportunities to the municipality to alleviate unemployment. “It’s a way to help the locality,” said the owner of the property; it appears however that somewhere along the line someone has messed up and forgotten to pay some of the workers who have been fundamental in effecting the change.
Though there do not appear to have been any official statements from either side in the dispute just yet, the demonstrators are certainly beginning to attract attention, and it now remains to be seen whether the local press will cover the story and help ensure a quick and satisfactory resolution for all involved.
One supporter of the demonstration put it like this: “Construction company at war to get paid for the work done in a hotel complex in the south of Canaria. (NachoSol Atlantic). Opening party in style with people of great influence on our island and debt without ditch. Maximum diffusion I ask you to reach those responsible and let it be known that the big businessmen continue to play with the bread of Canarian companies and their workers.”
