‘HABLANDO en plata’ (literally, Speaking in Silver) is a Spanish expression that means, ‘to put it bluntly’. When we speak, we automatically adapt our language to the person we are speaking to. That is, we don’t speak in the same way to our friends as we do to someone in a position of authority. We are taught this as children when we learn how to address our teachers and parents, and although we hear complaints that youngsters don’t respect their elders, it is still true that they use a different type of language, mainly because they think that only their peers are ‘cool’ enough to understand their own slang.

THE Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has ruled in favour of an Italian mother who demanded that all religious symbols be removed from her children’s state school because according to her it is against the pupils’ freedom of thought. For now, this will only affect that particular school, and the Italian government is appealing against the sentence. If Strasbourg maintains the decision, this will set a precedent, and any further complaints in Italy would lead to the removal of all religious symbols in the affected schools.

LAST weekend I went to Madrid, not so much for pleasure but in hopes of adding another string to my professional bow. I had never actually stayed in the city itself although I have been through it on several occasions and visited the surrounding area. But being a large and cosmopolitan city, I was expecting something a little different to what I found there. Our first stop was the metro, which having cut my teeth on the London Underground some years back, I found easy to use, punctual and very well priced.

I FIND it quite amusing how the Spanish seem to have adopted the custom of celebrating Hallowe’en, and how! I can remember when some years ago none of my school friends had heard even of it and were quite intrigued to hear about all the strange things that we foreigners get up to. Consequently, they were keen to come to a Hallowe’en party the following year and find out what the attraction of eating doughnuts off strings, ducking for apples, lighting pumpkin lanterns, and dressing up in a witch’s hat is really all about.

SPAIN has an interesting history and has been inhabited by cave dwellers, Celts, Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, Vikings and Moors; leaving it with a rich heritage which has influenced not only the language but also the landscape, which is dotted with archaeological remains. Even the smallest of towns has something to offer, and some of the stories that these old stones can tell us are quite incredible.

WHEN does a word become an insult? Does is depend on how it is said, how it is intended, or how the other person takes it?

AT EWN we try to keep abreast of the news wherever it happens but there are times when you would have preferred not to have known about some stories. Unsurprisingly, the case of nursery worker Vanessa George, arrested in June, has been all over the UK news. The 39-year-old mother of two teenage girls, who people described as bubbly, helpful and friendly, horrifically abused and photographed children in her care, apparently in order to gratify a man she had met online and compete with him and another woman over who could come up with the most depraved images.

THE Ministry of Health is apparently coming up with a plan to target alcohol consumption amongst youths, which will involve an advertising campaign and ‘activities’ at centres of education to allow them to see the negative effects of alcohol.

NONE of us would like to see schooling go back to a time when lessons were drummed into children without really worrying whether or not they had understood them, nor allowing teachers to use excessive physical punishment at their own discretion.

LAST week, after seeing some lovely photos of our colleague’s children’s first day back at school, EWN’s design and editorial teams reminisced over lunch about our own school days and summer holidays.

I have got my parking space and tranquillity back and thank God the school term will start soon, but if I have a problem with badly-behaved children, it’s nothing compared to how I feel towards rude adults.

THE time finally came last weekend for the Spanish tourists to take their cars and head back to where they came from, taking with them their generally noisy and badly behaved children.

IT was quite a coincidence that I received a copy of ‘The Madeleine Investigation: Incompetence or corruption?’, on the same day it was reported that the Madeleine Foundation had posted leaflets listing 10 reasons why they think the McCanns’ version of the events on the night of their daughter’s disappearance don’t add up.

WHEN a case has had so much publicity, there is very little I can say that hasn’t already been said, but on the other hand, I can’t not mention the little boy who would probably never have made the news if it hadn’t been for his terrible and untimely death at the hands of those who should have looked after him.

AS British police revealed that the hunt for Madeleine McCann has cost some 745,000 pounds so far, most of which is covered by a special grant from the Home Office, the reports in the international press are that detectives are searching for a woman who, just three days after the child’s disappearance, spoke to a British businessman in Spain and, seemingly mistaking him for someone else, asked him if he was there to ‘deliver her new daughter’.  

AUGUST is upon us, and last weekend was one of the busiest of the year on Spanish roads making them even more chaotic than normal. Why everyone decides to take part in the so-called ‘operacion salida’ at once I will never understand.

I HAVE just finished reading the book by Gonçalo Amaral, the former chief of Portugal’s Judicial Police, who was taken off the McCann case. Some time back it was reported that the McCann family had sued Amaral and the publisher. Both responded they would be more than happy to face them in court.

I HAVE been dealing with crime articles for the past few weeks because there have been some cases worth commenting on, but, luckily, today I found that not everything in the news was crime and punishment. Like most of us girls, I like a good love story and I believe in destiny, so the story of a couple which fate brought back together after years was appealing, especially as it takes place in the town where I used to live.

LAST week, a Minors’ Court in Barcelona began to hear the case against two boys, aged 14 and 15, who, in November 2008, brutally murdered a 14-year-old girl.

LLUCMAJOR, the largest town on the island of Mallorca, is a popular tourist destination, especially for Germans, but this week it was in the limelight for a totally different reason.

ON January 27, 1993, the gruesome discovery of the dead bodies of three young girls in Alcasser, Valencia, shook the whole of Spain. Fernando Garcia, the father of one of the girls, Miriam, has searched incessantly for the truth. He was recently sentenced to pay 14,634 euros for alleged slander against the public prosecutor, forensic specialists and four police officers during a Canal 9 programme, which aired in 2007, while the hearing against one of the suspects was in progress.

SO far this year, 19 women have died at the hands of their husbands or partners, but one recent case shocked the public more than most. In a town called Parla, some 25 kilometres from Madrid, an 84-year-old man killed his wife, just four years younger, by hitting her head against the wall and floor, before climbing up a step ladder and hanging himself from the front door. Their children were unfortunate enough to find this macabre scene when they arrived at the house to look for the elderly couple with whom they had agreed to have dinner that night. Apparently they found their mother’s body lying on the sofa, in a pool of blood, her face covered with a towel and the rest of her body with a sheet. Her husband had put a crucifix on her chest. Family and friends of the couple are shocked, as the woman had never reported her husband for domestic violence and there was nothing to indicate there were any problems between the two. What could have led this man, who had spent a seemingly peaceful life with his wife, to kill her in such a violent way and then take his own life, is a mystery. Although statistics show that immigrant women are the most frequent victims of domestic violence, sad cases such as this one show that violence knows nothing of age, race or creed. Despite campaigns against domestic violence, it seems that the number of violent deaths of this type is rising and not only amongst the social groups where it is, to some degree, expected. Although more women are reporting violence, there are still many who don’t and the sad fact is that many are too ashamed to do so.
In unrelated news, in Teia, a small town in Barcelona with just 5,000 inhabitants, a priest allegedly refused to allow a nine-year-old girl with severe Down’s syndrome to receive her First Communion. The priest is said to have told the girl’s family that she was not mature enough and he feared she might disrupt the ceremony, because she sometimes shouts and has unpredictable reactions. The family claims that when they informed him they would find another priest, he told them he would contact his colleagues and tell them not to accept. According to the priest, he taught the girl’s twin brother catechism, but was informed that it would be impossible to teach her. He told her parents she did not need purifying as she was an ‘angel of God’ who has known no sin since she was baptised. He says that this was in no way discrimination against the child, and that on a previous occasion he had taught a handicapped child, but in that case, although the boy couldn’t read, it was possible to converse with him, which was not the case with this girl.The priest claims to have pondered his decision for two weeks and told the children’s mother that he would finally allow them both to receive the body of Christ. Despite asking her on three occasions to meet with him, the mother failed to do so and took her son out of catechism classes. Finally, both children received Holy Communion, two weeks later than planned, after a Badalona priest agreed to perform the ceremony. Both he and her family reported she had behaved perfectly and was very happy. Was this a case of discrimination or a rational decision? So many people seem to have forgotten the true significance of First Communion, if this family’s beliefs were so firm, were they right to fight for their daughter’s right to receive it? Or, on the other hand, were the priest’s views that she had committed no sin, more accurate? If you have any views or comments on the subject, contact jennifer@euroweeklynews.com
Don’t forget to tune in to TRE.fm  every Thursday at 12 noon to hear more from EWN Euro Weekly News

THE seemingly unending story of Madeleine McCann has taken another turn, and 64-year-old convicted British paedophile Raymond

HOW many times have you received a chain email, normally starting “if you erase this you have no heart” (or some similar phra