Author: Ben

I just found this gallery with some stunning pictures of Spain’s biggest party.

(For amateur – and often more amusing – pictures, try searching Flickr!)

You’ve got to love whoever started this new rage for naked protests – what a way to guarentee media attention! Last week they were stripping off for the bulls, this weekend they were revealing all for the Pope. Why do I never find about these things in time to go along and do a bit of quality photojournalism of my own?!

We all know the fate of the bulls, but what about the cock fights, the horses forced to cross bonfires, or goats thrown from bell towers? Over 60,000 animals a year are still getting the rough end of the stick in Spanish fiestas, according to an article in 20minutos.com. 95% of these are bulls (of course), not just killed in the ring, but tormented in village fiestas in a variety of ingeneous manners – fireworks are tied to their horns, they are driven into the sea… “Tradition or aberration? Culture or abuse?” asks the article. The same argument still rages in the NFS forums, what do you think?

July 1st saw the beginning of the new points-based driving license in Spain, with 5 drivers loosing all their points, and thus their license, on the first day alone. El Casareño Ingles, a fellow Spain blog, has a good run down of the day’s first statistics. As far as I am concerned the new system is more than welcome – the more lunatics they get off the roads of Spain the better.

Will it work? Things may improve for a while, certainly we noticed less speeding maniacs as we drove down the A3 motorway last night, listening to a radio interview with the inspiring Enrique Cenalmor, the Police Chief Inspector from Navalmoral de la Mata (near Caceres). He has set up Spain’s first ‘Accident Museum’ (pdf file) in a field near the police station, consisting of mangled and burnt out cars from horrendous, and usually fatal, local accidents. Tours are given, with lectures on road traffic safety from local policemen. ‘Traffic accidents cost the lives of 90 people a week in Spain,’ he said. ‘If those figures were a result of terrorism, don’t you think the government would do more about it?’ Good point.

He went on to argue that responsible driving needs to be taught from an early age. If our parents can teach us how to behave in public, not to steal or use violence, to strive for good grades, then why aren’t children also being taught how to avoid killing each other in cars?

More than 30 people were killed and 150 injured in Valencia this morning when the Metro carriage in which they were travelling became derailed. This is a huge tragedy in it’s own right, especially in Spain where train accidents are relatively rare. Combined with the fact that there are 4,000 journalists in Valencia this morning due to the Pope’s arrival today, a media frenzy is bound to ensue as the day continues…

The quality of the photos in the NFS Flickr group is outstanding, and it’s increasingly hard to choose one outright winner every month. My choice for June is this photo of the bullring in Ronda, by multum in parvo. The colours, the location, it just shouts ‘Spain’ at me in every sense. In fact, she has a whole set of great Spain images on Flickr.

Do you have a favourite from this month? Comments are welcome below.