A Positive Turn On Immigration

The Spanish secretary of state for EU affairs, Alberto Navarro, claims that over the last six years Spain has become the second emigration destination country in the world, after the US.
He said there are some five million legal migrants living in Spain, more than half of whom are from EU countries. Two million are from Latin America and the rest are largely from North Africa and Eastern Europe. He added that it is estimated there are a further 700,000 people who are living in Spain illegally.
He did not say how many immigrants are only here on a temporary basis, on their way to a third country.
“It is this government’s opinion that immigrants should accept and assume the culture and traditions of the host country and I consider immigration to be a wholly positive phenomenon,” he said.
“Statistics show that 50% of Spain’s economic growth can be attributed to the effects of immigration and half of all jobs being created here are being taken up by immigrants. Every year 600,000 immigrants join our labour force.”

All Eyes On Valencia

A great article taken from the San Francisco Chronicle. The original can be viewed here.

All eyes are on Valencia, Spain, vibrantly transformed by native architect Santiago Calatrava's City of Arts and Sciences. It's an extraordinary complex of futuristic buildings surrounded by shimmering water and sweeping green spaces.

Architect Frank Gehry put Spain's northern port city of Bilbao on the map when his curvaceous Guggenheim Bilbao Museum opened 10 years ago. Valencia's newfound panache extends to its port, elegantly rejuvenated to coincide with the America's Cup competition, which the city hosted in June. Befitting the jet-set yachting event, the seafront has chic restaurants, glittery hotels and broad promenades of palm trees and lavish flower beds.

Yet long before the media began trumpeting the America's Cup, Valencia's Turia Gardens attracted international attention. The project goes back to 1957, when floodwaters devastated the Ciutat Vella, the historic district, and threw the province into chaos. In an effort to avoid another such deluge, the government diverted the Turia River. Rather than turn the dry riverbed into a highway, a proposal rejected by Valencia's residents, the city made it into a public "green zone."

Architect Ricardo Bofill led the gardens' planning during the 1980s. Bofill imagined a greensward meandering through Valencia toward the sea. The former dry riverbed - a 105-square-mile expanse - comprises sports facilities, bike paths, exercise stations and lush gardens. Visitors can stroll eastward around the heart of old Valencia's serpentine streets and plazas, rich with Baroque, Romanesque, Gothic and Islamic architecture.

Here, running parallel to the riverbed, is the 19th century Alameda, a leafy, Moorish-inspired walkway. In contrast, a series of evocative bridges define the newly landscaped Turia spaces, unfolding as you amble toward the site of the City of Arts and Sciences.

Approaching Exposition Bridge, you'll observe its startlingly contemporary white-bowed form, playing off the tactile stone wall of the riverbed, resonant of centuries past. The iconic span, designed by Calatrava in 1995, is affectionately referred to as "the comb" by locals.

The old wall continues to embrace the walkway with a view to Flower Bridge. A popular pedestrian crossing constructed in 2002, its masses of colorful blooms are replanted seasonally.

Bofill's modernist aesthetic characterizes the Turia area, linking the 16th century Bridge of the Sea, where a spacious, circular pool below evokes the river, to the Bridge of the Guardian Angel.

Bofill laid out the parcel in a symmetrical, rectilinear arrangement, softening the straight lines with a lush green oasis that incorporates groves of orange trees with an orderly progression of fountains set into the ground and enlivened by red-tinted walls.

The fountains serve as a gateway to Valencia's Palace of Music, where concrete colonnades articulate the palace's formal courtyards. Characterized by olive trees, emerald lawns and elaborately patterned carpet bedding, the popular spot is animated by a vast reflecting pool with dancing water jets synchronized with music from the concert hall.

The mirror image of Bofill's design is restated in the path beyond, its soothing geometry leading directly to the recently completed urban complex of the City of Arts and Sciences.

The gleaming white buildings of glass, steel and concrete have risen in a formerly depressed industrial area near the sea.

Exhibitions and performances take place in the arts center, science museum, oceanographic park (designed by Felix Candela) and combined planetarium, IMAX theater and Laserium. The vast, undulating grounds are densely planted with swathes of fragrant herbs and trees, which will braid together as they reach maturity.

This mecca of art and technology has some magical effects. One concept involves pencil cypresses breaking the surface of the pale blue water encircling L'Hemisferic, the planetarium building inspired by the human eye.

The domed entry pavilion, L'Umbracle, stands atop the parking garage. Designed as a public space, the innovative open-air structure captures the imagination with its clarity of light, illuminating allees of palm trees, ornamental vines and aromatic specimens.

Adding to the impact, Calatrava created emphatic sculptural forms sheathed in mosaics to house elevators and mask air-conditioning units.

The scope of the Turia is growing. Recent additions include the 86-acre Cabecera Park at the western boundary, which formally connects the diverted river to its former site. The parkland's reconfigured terrain gives rise to naturalistic hills and a lake, threaded with winding paths culminating in a series of overlooks.

Plantings emulate a Mediterranean pinewood and natural wetland habitat, enhanced by enclaves of exotic trees. And work goes forward on the Bioparc, a natural zoo reserve adjoining Cabecera.

A few hours south of Barcelona, perched on the Mediterranean coast, Valencia is drawing garden lovers to neighborhoods vivified by 21st century landscapes.

More secret gardens both old and new await. The achingly romantic Monforte Gardens hold sway in the city center and are not to be missed. A classical, mid-19th century gem encompassing magnificent statuary, murmuring fountains and a pool shaped like a water lily, its garden rooms are given form by clipped hedging, while a canopy of cypresses, laurels and pines offers a haven from the sun.

Horse Racing on Sand. Red Rum all over again

Hi Again and welcome to a story of tourism that is positive because it is so unusual, and no I don't mean the Tomatina, that is next week in Buñol. Thanks to Typically Spanish for the story.

Along the shore of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, these are the oldest official horse races in Spain

The oldest officially-regulated horse race which still exists in Spain today was held on the beach in 1845 in one of the three towns of Cádiz province which, together with Jerez de la Frontera and El Puerto de Santa María, make up the world-famous sherry triangle: Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

Lying in the northwest of Cádiz province, on the banks of the Guadalquivir River, Sanlúcar de Barrameda has a long history which dates back to pre-Roman times. It was later the site of a defensive fort during the Moorish occupation, and, once retaken by the Castilian monarchy, was first a major trading port and then one of the points of departure for the conquistadores after the discovery of the New World.
Christopher Columbus set sail from Sanlúcar on his third voyage in 1498. Another historical departure came in 1519, when the explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, set sail with 270 men on his attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

According to tradition, the Carreras de Caballos owe their origins to the informal races which used to take place between the owners of the working horses which were used to transport fish from the former port of Bajo de Guía to the local markets and other nearby towns.

The first race was organised by an association which was set up specifically to promote the Andalucía breed of horse, the Sociedad de Carreras de Caballos de Sanlúcar de Barrameda. It has been held almost without interruption ever since, and now straddles the festivities held in honour of the town’s patron saint, Nuestra Señora de la Caridad Coronada.

This annual race on the flat southern sands of this part of Andalucía is today renowned all over the world, and has been classed as International Tourism Interest since 1997. The King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, is Honorary President of the Racing Club.

The races take place every August, and are spread over two separate three-day events.
At low-tide at the mouth of the Guadlquivir River, just as the sun is setting, and with the marshes of the Doñana National Park as the backdrop across the other side of the river.

The racehorses run for distances ranging between 1.2 and 2 kilometres, while a crowd of thousands watches jockeys from Spain and elsewhere in Europe resplendent in their racing colours as the horses’ hooves pound across the wet sands. There is official betting, with an unofficial system run by children on the side, and total prize money running into the millions.

The largest purse is awarded during the last weekend of the races, for the first horse to cross the line in the two kilometre stretch in the Gran Premio Ciudad de Sanlúcar.

Spanish farmers modernize water control

Fantastic Article in a newspaper in South Carolina, The State, about how Spanish farmers are leaving behind the traditional Moorish irrigation methods.

VALENCIA, Spain --
The Moorish invaders who once ruled Spain brought with them a clever irrigation system that helped turn arid land into verdant fields. A millennium later it is still largely in use, and Spain remains one of Europe's breadbaskets.

But after years of chronic drought coupled with vastly increased water use, not to mention worrying climatic change, farm groups have realized it's high time for change.

Spain's federation of irrigators, known as Fenacore, is promoting an initiative to computerize Spain's irrigation system by 2010, connecting some 500,000 farmers to an irrigation network headquartered outside Madrid.

The scheme should allow valuable water to be monitored and controlled by computer, drop by precious drop.

"We're jumping from the 13th century to the 21st century," said Juan Valero, Fenacore's secretary general.

While computer-assisted irrigation is not new, Fenacore believes no other country is organizing it at a national level. So far 200,000 farmers have signed up for the project, Valero said.

"The only way to manage water is to measure how much enters each channel, and computer technology is the best way to do this," he said.

Farmers are being encouraged to move away from outdated, wasteful Moorish-style flood irrigation systems toward drip and dispersion irrigation. They are also asked to lay highly efficient telecommunications cables alongside main water conduits so that the irrigation grid can be monitored from a national computer center.

"In almost half of Spain, the irrigation technique used is flooding, which uses up to three or four times more than the water that is necessary," Environment Minister Cristina Narbona said recently.

Fenacore estimates computerized irrigation will mean up to 20 percent water savings.

Spanish scientists use maths to cure terminal liver cancer

This is a story that appeared in 2005. Steps have been taken since but it is quite fascinating.

By using a mathematical formula designed to strengthen the immune system, a team of scientists in Spain have succeeded in curing a patient who was in the last stage of terminal liver cancer.

The team of researchers from the Complutense University in Madrid believe that this discovery could open new doors for the treatment of solid cancerous tumours.

The new treatment was developed in 1998 by a team led by Antonio Bru, a physicist who bases his theory on the idea that the evolution of solid tumors depends on a mathematical equation which defines their biological growth. An equation is then obtained in the laboratory and used to design a therapy to destroy the tumor.

The scientists, who have carried out successful tests on mice over the past few years, announced yesterday that the only human experiment they have carried out so far has been a complete success.

Apparantly the patient was suffering from liver cancer which had been diagnosed by his doctors as terminal and in its final stage. The scientists used a mathematical formula to create a treatment based on neutrofiles that strengthened the patient's immune system. The patient responded well to the treatment immediately and has since made a total recovery and has returned to work.

The treatment produces no side effects.The Spanish scientists believe that their theory could be applied to treat all kinds of solid tumors although they will need to carry out many more tests on human patients before they can be sure.