We attended a political rally this week - which although it sounds like a bunch of loonies waving placards in Trafalgar Square, was actually a bunch of "gerries" sitting in the shade at a Mijas restaurant.
I (we) have always subscribed to the rule that you should only complain about things where you are prepared to get involved and help to improve - which is why we vote in the local elections down here.
I guess it is at the same level as local elections in the UK, whereby the party that gets in is actually beholden to the regional powers for money and authority (who are, in turn, beholden to central government). The only difference down here is that they refer to themselves as "the government"!! (Oh, and they have many hundreds of millions of euros at their disposal.)
That was just one of the sore points. There was a surplus of over a hundred million euros in the council coffers only a few weeks ago, but the incumbent councillors, sorry, government, managed to overspend that amount by making €105 million in commitments for some crazy plans (almost like they are trying to shaft the next council, but they wouldn't would they?). They have committed 32 mil for a park in a small flood basin next to the river in Fuengirola - a place noted and named for the animals that drown there during the floods, also committing 6 million a year, for each of 5 years, to a promoter to run the "music festival". There are other idiocies, but you get the picture.
Corruption(Incompetence is also in the air, where they gave away a prime plot of land on which they were meant to be building an old-people´s home on the proviso that the developer gave them two rooms in return. It beggars belief. All this from a council who have failed to deliver on any of their promises. No wonder the townspeople are wanting a change.
Anyway, we went along and G raised the old-peoples home issue and I had my say about tourism v residents, traffic management, and, specifically, the lack of any plans for improving the infrastructure to cope with all these tourists they are constantly trying to attract. I also asked about whether they had any sort of vision for where they saw the pueblo in (say) 20 years (Like any of us will be around to check on that), but that swiftly became a regional and national level problem.
The potential councillors in attendance were all very supportive of the questions, but with the election only a fortnight away, they would be wouldn't they?
The actual voting system is a nightmare of bureaucracy, whereby we had to register months ago as we are now resident-aliens since Brexit, but then it turns out that there is a shortcut scam whereby you go into the Post Office / Correos and ask for a postal vote and get it there and then. Hmmm. Postal vote issues, local elections, corruption - where have I heard that before?
Amongst the dozen or so attendees, I met the guy who has been taking over most of the restaurants in the pueblo. I don't particularly like that idea, or the restaurants which are firmly aimed at clipping tourists, but he was actually a very pleasant guy who invited me to join in as he told me that he is pulling together a bunch of expats who could then come up with some ideas which would be useful to residents and tourist (businesses) alike.
Here we go again - I'd better start dusting-off my minute-writing skills asap.
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