By Maja Gojkovic

Spain in the last decade has been known as a ‘job creation machine’. In the last decade, Spain has generated more new jobs in comparison to the other original 15 members of the European Union. Spain has a Gross Domestic Product growth rate of 3.75% which has been very beneficial for the economy.

With the general election looming on 9 March, the Socialist government and the conservative opposition are trying to convince voters that they can keep the ‘job machine’ producing new employment even as Spain braces itself for an economic downturn.

The Socialist Party are promising to kick off a number of new public-works projects to create jobs and stop the economic downturn.

By Maja Gojkovic

Terrorism and the economy were on the agenda on Monday’s televised debate, which saw the two main political parties, through Prime Minister Zapatero of the Socialist Party and the conservative People’s Party leader, Mariano Rajoy, go head-to-head.

The debate seems to have left the Spanish newspapers and people divided as the Spanish newspapers are all reporting different outcomes.

The El Mundo newspaper have reported that the conservative Mariano Rajoy forced socialist Prime Minister Jose Luís Rodríguez Zapatero onto the back foot. El País said Zapatero won on points. The newspaper ¿Que? simply asked, “Where are the policies?”

When leaving the studio, both candidates claimed victory. Both the prime minister and Rajoy said that they were happy with their performance, although the debate was a tense affair in front of the cameras.

The debate consisted on the two parties criticizing each other’s policies. Rajoy said, “You’ve done nothing about recent price rises,” and “You were happy to watch from afar while things were going well, right up to the moment they went wrong. You failed to wind the watch, and so, it stopped.”

The prime minister’s comeback was, “Spain has become the world’s eighth most powerful economy,” “Average wages have overtaken Italy. This is a country which listens to its young people, which has created three million jobs during my government, more than half of them for women.”

The topic of Terrorism was also highlighted and Zapatero’s failed attempts to negotiate with ETA. According to Rajoy, terrorism “is your government’s biggest failure.”

Zapatero’s come back was “If you ask me, it’s immoral to use terrorism to back up your political agenda,” “Both in parliament and on the ground, you have done nothing but weaken the government’s fight against terror.”

The result of the general election will be revealed on 9 March.

by Simon Rashleigh

I’m just a foreigner who speaks a little Spanish. I’m not even very interested in Spanish politics, but for some reason, I found myself inexorably drawn to the television on Monday at 10pm, to watch the great debate.

I confess I enjoyed it. I usually enjoy pre-poll debates. Just a few months ago I watched the antipodean version, as Rudd took on Howard for the grand title of Prime Minister of Australia. That was amusing, too.

In Australia, during the broadcast of the debate, the audience have the opportunity, as in Big Brother, to vote for their favourite candidate. The result is displayed as an oscillating line going up and down across the screen. As the potential leaders make their respective cases, this line tells us the audience’s affections for the candidates. It’s a great innovation, and a handsome creature to boot, so the line has become affectionately known as the worm. In late 2007, the worm favoured Mr Rudd over the incumbent John Howard.

Mr Rudd is now the PM in Oz, meanwhile in Spain, the hopefuls are still slugging it out. And on Monday, they provided us with another scintillating night of politi-tainment!

So, what was it like? Let me give you my brief impressions: The opening was great. Channel 1 gave us an hour-long build up. I’m not sure what it was about, the rules and the history I think, but I was cooking chicken and rice. When I walked in with my steamy plate, the two-sports reporters (hastily brought in for this once in fifteen-year job), began to talk excitedly of the pocos minutos que nos quedan (few minutes remaining). The time finally came for the start of the big debate, there were only 20 seconds, 15 seconds, 10 seconds, and then:

Blackout

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

funny blue twirling graphic. And then…

The camera zooms to an enormous beige table. It is big enough for two grown men to have a proper wrestle on. We zoom further to another sports reporter. It turns out he is the referee. I didn’t write down his speech, but it went something like this:

We are really very lucky and thanks to democracy and thanks to the two partidos agreeing to have a debate. Let’s go boys, you’ve already been briefed on the rules.

It was an appropriately over-the-top intro, and we were ready for the back-and-forth to begin.

Rajoy opened with 3 minutes very well spoken about why he should be boss and not Zapatero. Then for 3 minutes Zapatero spoke about why he should be boss and not Rajoy. Pretty much the whole debate went along in this pattern. For added excitement, the time for each candidate to speak was reduced to two minutes, and then one minute.

It appeared that both candidates had used a similar team of university graduates to produce bold-coloured graphs. These visual aids were employed to prove things such as steeply rising prices, robust economic growth, doublings of illegal immigrants and just plain ol’ unemployment being under control. Mr Rajoy, I suggest for the next debate, might need to show his graphs to the camera rather than to Señor Zapatero.

Both Zapatero and Rajoy became overly excited by the 60-second time-limit and got more difficult for an angloparlante to understand. Sr. Zapatero managed to calm down in “Topic 2: Social Issues”, but Rajoy never seemed to calm down for the rest of the debate. He also seemed to forget, as the debate rolled on, to tell us why he should be boss. Instead he concentrated a little too much on why Zapatero shouldn’t be.

I hate to take a cheap shot, but Mr. Zapatero has really pointy eyebrows. Perfectly pointy. But I liked the way he glared down his opponent from under those arches, barely glancing at his notes.

Mr Zapatero, could, I think, answer questions more directly. Or perhaps he can’t, which is why he didn’t. His strategy was to take rather scant regard of the issues brought to attention by his opponent, and instead made the case that his government has done well and should be elected on this basis. This technique worked because by the end of his allotted time, even I had forgotten the original questions posed.

So who won really? Well, Zapatero fairly easily if you ask me. Not necessarily for his politics, but for his style. Mr Rajoy did, however, successfully pose the question: está España realmente bien? If Rajoy was targeting an English speaking audience, which he ain’t, his slogan could well be: Is Spain OK? No way!

All in all, it was an entertaining couple of hours. The television academy did great work with the cameras and the editing, cutting to the reactions of the candidates as their opponent made a scathing criticism. For the record, Rajoy tended to look at his notes at these times, while Zapatero tried to distract his opponent with those eyebrows, before confidently scribbling down his rebuttal. And what I enjoyed most of all was the feeling of being at home. Democracy is democracy after all, and I felt like I was seeing the same Australian debate, just translated to Spanish. The issues were different but the politics, that is to say the game of politics, was the same. The only thing missing was the worm.

The candidates return next Monday for the return leg.

Our new Australian writer, Simon Rashleigh, talks of the hellish experience that we all have to suffer with international travel: surviving the airport.

I’m quite bad at airports really.  Every time I have to go through a metal detector for example (and I seem to somehow manage to go through three or four per airport), I inevitably hold up everybody else with the whole process of emptying the thousand loose coins, keys and other assorted rubbish that have accumulated in my pockets over the previous weeks.  And despite my best efforts, I always set the machine off beeping.  They wave their magic wand over me, and I discover some hidden pocket that I had forgotten about (so that’s where my phone was!)  Usually by about the 4^th pass, I’m clean, and it takes a lot less time to collect everything from the little plastic tray because in the process they have confiscated the water bottle I was going to use either to quench my thirst or to blow up the plane, and my nail-clippers (We fly to Libya now or your little friend here loses her toenail!).

Then there’s the whole departure cards thing.  I never manage to fill them out completely and correctly (again holding up the people behind me). And besides, I have a moral objection to the information collection that’s going on.  For example, if I tell the Australian authorities that I expect to be out of the country for 6 months, do they come looking for me if I stay away longer? 

-Mr Prime-Minister, I’m worried about Mr Rashleigh, it’s now been 6 months and 3 days, and he still hasn’t returned to Australia.

-Yes, that is very worrying.  Where did he expect to spend most of his time while overseas? 

-According to the card, Norway sir. 

-Right, then we begin the search there.

So I don’t know about you but I don’t take these cards very seriously.  A few years ago I got a chuckle out of the customs officer (pretty impressive eh?) when I wrote for my usual occupation “Rock-Star”.  But this time I decided to be more honest, and simply wrote “professional busker”.  Not even a smile.

I’m usually quite relieved to make it through the whole customs/security process.  That is until I realize I’m in an airport, and that now I can’t get out.  There’s really nothing to do in an airport apart from shop, and I hate shopping.  I could read my John Grisham novel if the security guy hadn’t got a paper cut and taken it away. So I usually just walk around for an hour and a half and wonder why I had to check in two hours before departure time.  This makes me angry.  And I start to get angry at the whole world and at the terrorists.  If only they had a proper global economy, then there wouldn’t be any need for customs regulations.  And why can’t they just win the war on terror already? Then I’d have my book to read, and I wouldn’t have to empty my pockets anymore, and we could all just turn up at the airport and walk onto the plane.  Next time, I tell myself, I will arrive 10 minutes before departure, with empty pockets and my nail clippers in my checked-baggage!  That will show them. 

I won’t of course.  But such whimsical fantasies are my form of airport entertainment.  By the time I’m done cursing al-quaeda, the US government, world paranoia, homogenous airport design, smoking bans and been to the toilet once or twice, I see that my flight is on last-call. I make my way with a smile on my face to Gate 3 and to free beer.  I don’t like airports, but I don’t mind planes.

by Maja Gojkovic

Spain hosted its first televised electoral debate in 15 years. The debate went down a storm and had an estimated 13 million viewers glued to their TV sets. The debate saw the clash between José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the prime minister, and the opposition leader Mariano Rajoy.

The debate was almost as popular as past football finals between top Spanish clubs and their European opponents and at one point the country saw 60% of televisions tuned in to the debate.

The debate was the first in 15 years with the last televised clash being in 1993 between Felipe González, the socialist reformer, and José María Aznar, the conservative who went on to lead the country between 1996 and 2004.

On March 9 th the Spanish Public will see the result, either another four years of Mr Zapatero’s Socialist party (PSOE), or a return to the Popular party led by Mr Aznar’s successor.

Currently PSOE are in the lead according to the polls although in recent days the votes have narrowed. Monday night’s debate will have a repeat run which will be aired next Monday. Next Monday’s debate could see the result and be decisive in mobilizing PSOE supporters who are thinking of abstaining. According to analysts the party(PSOE) needs a turnout of close to 75 per cent to win enough seats to claim victory.

PSOE was yesterday declared the winner in the first round although according to analysts Mr Rajoy campaign had proved surprisingly effective where his aim is to portray Spain as a country that is on the verge of recession and overrun by immigrants.

by Cynthia Goldman 

As only my second time in Europe, I came to Madrid with little to no expectations. Sure, I had lived in New York City for a summer and even Mexico City (my mother´s native city) but it would be difficult to compare such a European city like Madrid to anywhere I had been before.

My first observation would be the obvious mix of the old with the new. Walking around El Retiro (the Spanish equivalent to Central Park except this park used to be the royal gardens) on a Saturday afternoon, its easy to notice trendy Spanish couples walking their dogs, break dancers jumping next to old historical European monuments, elder people lounging on benches eating gelato and little kids playing with boats. Surrounding the old statues and beautiful gardens are bars, restaurants and shops, even fast food chains like McDonalds!

Despite the temptation of a Big Mac, I was excited to try the healthy Mediterranean diet once I got to Spain. I’m originally from Kansas City, famous for its barbecues and steaks and with my Mexican background, I love spices and anything drenched in lime with lots of flavour! But to my dismay, I found the food to be boring and not as nutritious with the exception of paella, chorizo and mixed salads (with olives, tuna, oil and vinegar). Everything else? Bread, meat, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes… and mayo! For all the skinny Spanish women walking around, I was shocked. Perhaps that’s why friends in the past who came back from studying abroad gained an additional “freshman 15″ (as in pounds). They either ate the potatoes and mayo or resorted back to the Big Mac.

Another culprit for the mysterious “freshman 15″ could be the crazy Spanish nightlife. Bars and discotecas often close at 7am! And with all the dancing and drinking, people get hungry. My favorite nights so far have ended with churros and hot chocolate at a chocolatería conveniently located next to Palacio and Joy.

Something you can’t find in North America is the futbol! Or soccer for Americans. I have watched two teams play so far- FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Although both games were equally amazing experiences, I’m quickly becoming a Real Madrid fanatic. The action, energy, and cute soccer players with talent playing for one of the best teams in Europe (did I mention my great grandfather was madrileño?)… what’s not to love?

For anyone who loves art and royal history like me, Madrid is heaven! I’m taking a Modern Arts of Spain course at school where I study Goya, Velázquez, Dalí, among others. Once we finish studying their work in class, we just hop on a metro and go to any one of the art musuems and see the real things! Not to mention, Madrid is a masterpiece in itself with its old architecture and monuments unlike anything I’ve ever seen back home.

The Spanish are very lucky to have a lifestyle where they can enjoy all of their perks, although it may be annoying to Americans. In America, everything is ‘go, go, go!’ In Spain, businesses usually open at 10, close from 2 to 4 for siesta, and either stay closed or reopen till 8 or so. Servers take longer to serve food at restaurants and cafes because dining is seen as a pleasant pastime. Light a cigarette (which MOST do), sip on a cafe con leche and chat with a friend: it seems that sometimes there are just no worries.

This weekend I’m planning on shopping and going to the Rastro, which I have yet to go to. I can’t wait to check out boots and palestina scarves! And who knows what other surprises I’ll find.

If you can get by all the smoking, bland food, annoying hours and rude people (although my Spanish teacher insists it’s part of the culture- the Spanish are simply upfront), Madrid is an amazing place to live. When I leave Madrid in May, I can honestly say that I have learned and experienced so much. In a nutshell, I’d say Madrid is a mix between Mexico City and New York City but with that extra European flair that made me fall in love with the city.

By Maja Gojkovic

The policing departments in Madrid and New York City have signed an agreement in order to combat terrorism.

The agreement involves enabling a police office from the Madrid Police Force to be stationed in New York City.

The New York City Police Department also allows other international law enforcement agencies to station their officers in the city. The NYPD’S intelligence department is already made up of detectives from 10 foreign countries including Madrid.

The spokesperson for the NYPD Paul Browne has commented that “the department is selective about which countries are able to place officers in the city.

Lets hope this move will enable to help in the fight against terrorism.