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1984 - 2010
The Canary Islands’ biggest fortnightly English newspaper read by thousands of tourists & residents Edition # 618 /
4th - 18 th June 2010
/ 1.80€ at Newsagents
Living on a fault line
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www.islandconnections.eu
/ www.newscanarias.net
Are we really properly prepared or informed in the event of an eruption?
T
he 6th Cities on Volcanoes Conference, one of the largest conferences of the year in Tenerife, attracted hundreds of delegates from all over the world to the conference centre in Puerto de la Cruz.
Canarian volcanologists worked hard to bring the biennial conference to the islands, to help underline the general lack of preparation in the islands in the face of future eruptions. The Canaries are volcanic islands and sooner or later a new eruption will break out somewhere. Out of the seven islands, only Tenerife has a fully drawn up emergency plan and experts emphasise that even that has not yet been tested or
published. Many communities in the world live with volcanoes, but sadly, all too often, familiarity breeds contempt and the possible risks, as well as the possible opportunities are ignored. At a seminar for the island’s press, only two representatives of the majority Spanish press were present, indicating that they either already know it all, or they are not interested. Reductions in the conference fee of over 70 per cent for teachers saw less than 10 Canarian education specialists take up the opportunity. Volcanoes are part of nature, they are expected to provide up to 10 per cent of the world’s energy in the future and without them the Canary Islands would not exist. A volcanic eruption is
World Cup Special
2010
not catastrophic, a catastrophe is what is caused when there is improper vigilance of volcanic activity, no evacuation plans or plans are incorrectly carried out. A volcanic hazard is what happens when people settle too close to volcanoes, and danger occurs when they are without the knowledge or means to protect themselves. During the early days of the conference, which continues as we go to print, several worrying pieces of information were revealed. Key installations such as the new northern hospital and the possible Granadilla port which is supposed to take over all of Tenerife’s future shipping are both in possible risk areas.
Continues on page 3
Centre Pages
Full match calendar, team profiles, songs, and news of Tenerife’s mini World Cup
Search for a star blackstone film
Hundreds of potential stars of screen, small and large, tuned up recently at the Blackstone Film casting session which was held in the CC Plaza del Duque over the last weekend of May.
F
rom tiny tots to interesting senior citizens, the company’s call was for everyone and anyone to turn up and get their photograph taken for possible use in future projects. BlackstoneFilms are based in Parque de
la Reina and are a film and TV production company.
T
he atmosphere during the casting was fun and relaxed, with very little sign of any ‘Hollywood’ moms around. People took it in their stride, were there as much out of curiosity as a desire for fame and fortune, and certainly the people at Blackstone were more than pleased with the turn out of over 1,200 people.
Ivan Pengelly
Mr ‘WimPen’ talks exclusively to Island Connections Page 13
Simply Red Confirmation of the concert of the year – Simply Red in Costa Adeje Golf on July 20th Page 40
Guide
Pages 8-9
The Sports Megastore 8.000m2
Motorway Santa Cruz La Laguna, Exit “Las Chumberas”. La Laguna, Tenerife. Tel: 922 62 79 00, Fax: 922 82 11 07
www.decathlon.com