jackytoo

In Sur today a report on public projects on hold for lack of money and planning. Seems they thought it a good idea to build but never gave any thought as to money to run them

A hospital in Cártama is completed but the Ayuntamiento does not have the money to install electric. A prison in Archidona, completed but not money to run it or employ staff. Likewise a hospital in Ronda, a cultural centre in Málaga which there is no use for, historic buildings which have had restoration plans for decades, a centre of people with Alzheimers empty since completed two years ago...you couldn't make it up could you

http://www.diariosur.es/v/20121007/m...-20121007.html

me me

Are you trying to ruin Stevie's Sunday morning?

rugbymatt

but... but... but... there's a new Apple store in Madrid!

cricketman

Financing for major projects usually comes in stages

Unfortunately money has dried up everywhere so the current projects are proving impossible to finish

There is a brand new hospital here in Oviedo that they cannot afford to fill with equipment.

It is a result of Spain being unable to refinance its debt at reasonable levels - and the commitment to reduce the budget deficit year on year. The project managers (and politicians) obviously didnt foresee this happening when the go-ahead for these projects were given many years ago

steviedeluxe

Err - she's proven my point, that i've constantly needed to remind the idiot knee-jerk knockers!
Spain has a fine reputation for building things and getting things accomplished. It's the efficient utilisation afterwards that they often falter in - see for example the Castellon airport, or indeed the examples J2 gives. I tell you what though, they'll all be used in some capacity many many years before HS2 ever gets built!

steviedeluxe

and a new one in Valladolid, and one has opened this week just in Zaragoza?
Guess which European country has the greatest take-up of smart phones? No wonder Google are expanding in Spain and looking for tech startups to buy-up

http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/07/goo...er-virustotal/

rugbymatt

I absolutely love your optimism mate!

steviedeluxe

Not optimism, just the realisation that the web and apps sector is really taking off in Spain. It's the one sector where there isn't an issue with unemployment. here's another recent purchase of a Spanish tech start-up by foreign investors - in this case the German outfit Bertelsmann of Whisbi. I could go on and on ( really - I actually run a couple of sites on this sector) but I'm aware many posters here are averse to links and news

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/0...-video-agents/

rugbymatt

Its all a game though mate, we are being shatfed by capitalism, Apple make the iPhone for less than a fiver and tell us its 700 quid because of the vast technology they invest in, bollocks, its 700 quid because they know idiots will pay for it but the tipping point is looming, the corporations pay us less and less for our services yet expect us to pay more and more for their shiney things.... how long do you think that is sustainable for? What the disaffected need is direction... imagine what will happen if that ever comes along?

steviedeluxe

I agree that at some point Apple will become history. Look at the state of Nokia now, after being the mobile leaders a few years back!
The real money is in the mobile apps, and how you generate advertising revenue from that (not easy). And apps can be on android or other operating systems - apple has a lead now, but at some point they will come a cropper.
Augmented reality is another area that is being hyped - but it seems to have been the next big thing for a long time now. Maybe Telefonica can exploit it?
http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/09/augm...-aurasma-deal/
I fear though, the biggest money areas will be the old standards - gambling (including the stock market side), sex and rock n roll

paintermujer

Theres a hospital In Lliria lying empty too.

Dick Dasterdly

There you go Stevie.
One business at least that is always booming in Spain and attracting tourists.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/07/wo...anted=all&_r=0

"While the rest of Spain’s economy may be struggling, experts say that prostitution — almost all of it involving the ruthless trafficking of foreign women — is booming, exploding into public view in small towns and big cities. The police recently rescued a 19-year-old Romanian woman from traffickers who had tattooed on her wrist a bar code and the amount she still owed them: more than $2,500."

Not such a nice way of doing business, but still its easy money I suppose,so who cares ?

cricketman

I think you will find that the traffickers are also foreign

Just like they are in London. I remember reading a Guardian article a while ago saying that it is estimated that one in two prostitutes there are trafficked. London, like Med Spain is a hub for tourism - and therefore for prostitution

The NY Times is on a Spain-knocking mission at the moment. Their last article highlighted that some people in Spain have to hunt for food in bins. Obviously this never happens in the US

Dick Dasterdly

What I can't quite get my head around is why it all occurs so openly under the eyes of the cops in Spain,but not to anything like the same extent across the borders in France or Portugal, hence so much business is carried out in and around Spanish border towns, though obviously it is still rife elsewhere.

Once in a while the cops make some high profile arrests, I think for publicity purposes only, whilst business including trafficking and sex slavery continues as normal right under their noses.

I dont think it takes Sherlock Holmes to work out who is benefiting from a large slice of the action.

cricketman

Because prostitution is legal in Spain

Pimping, however, is not. From what I've seen in the news, there has been the odd case of trafficking gangs being arrested