OPINION & COMMENT
West to blame for much Third World poverty I TOO read D Blanchette’s comments on Third World poverty. My reaction, however, in contrast to that of your correspondent Keith Hannan, (Letters, Issue 1483) was that D Blanchette was not only ill informed, but also guilty of blaming the oppressed for being oppressed. It is the greed of the West as well as its own political elites which collude to keep much of the world’s poor in poverty. The US in particular spends huge sums subsidising its own farmers who then flood world markets with cheap grain thus undercutting indigenous farmers and forcing them into poverty. As long ago as 2006, the National Center For Policy Analysis reported that ‘Subsidised agriculture in the developed world is one of the greatest obstacles to economic growth in the developing world.’ Also education is indeed the quickest solution to poverty. Here is an extract from Goal No. 3 of the UN’s 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): ‘Equal schooling for both boys and girls is the foundation for development. ‘No other policy intervention is likely to have a more positive multiplier effect on progress across all the MDGs than the education of women and girls. ‘Evidence shows a strong correlation between educating women and girls and an increase in women’s earnings, improved child and family health and nutrition, an increase in school enrolment, protection against HIV infection, higher maternal and child life expectancy, reduced fertility rates and delayed marriage.’ What looks like common sense is in fact more often than not nonsense. Information gained from empirical evidence is a far more useful tool. Helena McGinty, Alhaurin El Grande (Malaga)
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12 - 18 December 2013 / Costa del Sol
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The ‘enjoy’ tabs in the postboxes pictured are part of a promotional leaflet. So now any local criminals just need to wait a couple of weeks to see which ones are not removed to get an indication of which houses might be vacant. Thank goodness our house is always occupied. But absent owners should be worried. The product being promoted might be very good. But, come on, this must be one of the most crass bits of advertising ever. Unless you know better, of course!
Andrew Johnson (by email)
Pen to paper I HAVE watched with interest the petitions objecting to the proposed cessation of the winter fuel allowance. However, when we lived in the UK we were advised by a civil servant that a petition is treated by the authorities as one complainant as many people sign petitions without reading them. Far the best way is to write to your old constituency MP; any expatriate living in Spain for less than 15 years will if they apply, be returned to their last constituency for voting purposes. Point this out as well as any objections you may have. MPs are obliged to reply to letters from constituents and if they receive large numbers it will, if nothing else, be a nuisance. In marginal constituencies it may well be seen as a threat to their parliamentary seat. Nothing moves an MP’s feelings more than the chance of being voted out. You could also ask friends and relatives still resident in
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the post office and bought a couple of packs of oblong envelopes for about €1 and transferred all my 22 little square cards into the oblong envelopes and sent them for 75 cents each. What a saving, but how stupid! And once again it only affects foreigners. Merry Christmas, ho ho ho. Trilby (by email)
Not a good idea the UK to write also. The address for all MPs is: Care of The House of Commons, SW1, London. Lewis Rudge, Bellreguard (Valencia)
Ho, ho, ho POSTING a square Christmas card or a card in a red envelope to Europe costs €1.45. Send the same card in a white oblong envelope and it costs 75 cents or nearly half the price. Angry about this stupidity, I went to the shop next door to
LICENSING dogs ( Letters, Issue 1482) will mean that irresponsible owners will simply dump their dogs so only responsible owners will pay the price. This will mean even more abandoned ones being neglected. Many Spanish don’t have their dogs micro-chipped or neutered so how are they going to be licensed? I have limited money but my dogs are my loyal companions and I feed them as I would any family member. Licences would punish me even though my dogs stay in
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my grounds and are not a problem to anyone. Janet Hayden, La Vinuela, (Malaga)
Movistar woes WE have been customers of Movistar/Telefonica since we came to Spain some six years ago. It was not until we had a problem with our bank account that things went amiss. We received a text message from them. After four days of trying we eventually spoke to them but the amount owed went from €24 up to €176 then down to €157. When we asked for details we were told we had a dongle (a mobile internet connection). We do not have one other than the items we got with our phone. After telling them we do not use the internet connection via our phone, still no joy. We have tried to get more information from the internet with again no joy. If you had a meal and got a highly inflated bill, you would want to check the bill before paying, but we can only wait and see. Cherry Atkinson ( Letters, Issue 1482) who suggested the text message route of getting help must have the advantage of either being a fluent Spanish speaker or have access to a fluent Spanish speaker. Unfortunately, in this respect, we are not lucky, we are just ordinary expatriates. Linda C Walton (by email)
Second helpings YET another downside of living above a bar. The health department, the town hall and the administrator of our urbanisation all think that there is no problem when all the cooking smells from the bar below me are pumped into my apartment through a faulty chimney. Nobody will take any responsibility. Any advice? Raymond Langhorn, Vera Playa (Almeria)
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