ISSUE 40Santa Cruz de Tenerife,Saturday 2 June 2012

www.diariodeavisos.com/thesupplement

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art” Eleanor Roosevelt

KIDS AGED 9 TAKING UPSMOKING IN CANARIES

FESTIVAL

!The decision by Las Palmas tocancel the big Womad musicand dance festival this yeardue to financial problemscould prompt Tenerife to seekto bring the massive event overhere. Rumours have been cir-culating for months that LaLaguna has expressed interestin staging the festival createdby Peter Gabriel in the early1980s and which has takenplace in November in Las Pal-mas every year since 1993.Santa Cruz is also said to bewilling to host the festival.

Tenerifeto cash inon Womadcancellation?

ADEJE

!The new small bridge overthe end of the Barranco delAgua in Costa Adeje shouldbe open to traffic in a fewdays following the successfulload tests carried out thisweek. The 22-metre La Enra-mada bridge near the RIUand Sheraton hotels is expec-ted to alleviate the currenttraffic problems considerablyand, equally importantly,ease the flooding that oftenplagues the area duringheavy rain.

Enramadabridge tobe openedto traffic soon

SURVEY

!The Canarian accent has come topsamong Spanish regional accents in anationwide survey. The Canarian wayof speaking polled 35%, ahead of theAndalusian accent (30%). Bottom ofthe table came the accents from Cata-lonia, Galicia and Extremadura.

Canarianaccent votedtops by Spaniards

SOCIETY

!The organisers of a TV‘food-raiser’ which was heldin La Laguna on Tuesday ofthis week say they are stun-ned by the massive res-ponse. An estimated 80

tons of food of all kindswere donated for needyTenerife families duringthe 10-hour event, whichwas broadcast live on localchannel Mírame TV.

AID PLEA BY TVSTATION RAISES80 TONS OF FOOD

The Cancer Association has devised a hard-hitting Stop Smoking campaign aimed at young people in particular. / DA

The food-raiser saw Canarian artists perform free in La Laguna. / DA

!The new campaign by the Spanish CancerAssociation to curb smoking among youngpeople has thrown up some startling statis-tics, including research findings showing thatyoungsters in the Canaries now take up smo-king much earlier than the rest of the country.

Launching the campaign, Dr José Batistafrom the Candelaria Hospital in Teneriferevealed that children as young as 9 are star-ting smoking. Among the causes of the earlytake-up of the habit are poverty, the goodweather and parents who, for some reason,

‘reward’ their children for good behaviourwith a cigarette, said Batista. Smoking is res-ponsible for 30% of cancers today and 80%of all cases of lung cancer, says the Associa-tion, which is urging young people to kick thehabit and recognise that it is ‘very ugly’.

RUSSIAN YACHTSMAN RESCUEPROMPTS NEW CHARGE CALLSDiario de AvisosSanta Cruz de Tenerife

Calls are mounting for tougherrules to be introduced to recoupthe cost of major rescue opera-tions where the beneficiary hasacted recklessly or negligently.The fresh demands for actionemerged after this week’s drama-tic rescue of a Russian man whohas now failed on two occasionsto sail single-handedly to Ame-rica from here.

The 50-year-old was pluckedfrom the sea approximately 80miles south of the coast of Tene-rife after his yacht capsized, lea-ving him drifting in a small life-raft for 48 hours. The alert wastriggered by a merchant shipwhich saw the semi-sunken yachtand contacted the authorities toreport the sighting. In a bizarreoperation, helicopters and lifebo-ats combed the area acting oninformation, much of it impre-cise, received from the Russianvia his elderly mother, withwhom he was in contact bymobile phone. He was eventuallylocated two days after gettinginto trouble and was airlifted tosafety in Tenerife.

The rescue, which saw fourhelicopters and several boats dis-patched from the Canaries tosearch a wide area of the Atlan-tic, cost several thousand eurosbut, officially at least, was justi-fied given that the Russian’syacht had capsized and his lifewas in danger.

However, it later emerged thatthe yacht was ill-suited to the

marathon voyage and the Rus-sian had apparently not takenproper precautions such as acqui-ring radio beacons to signal hisposition or even flares to attractattention in the event of an emer-gency. The Tenerife Port Autho-rity says it specifically bannedhim from sailing in it just over amonth ago. As more details of thedramatic mobilisation were rele-

ased on Tuesday, it was revealedthat the Russian had alreadymade one failed attempt to sail toAmerica. In July 2011 his boatbecame something of an attrac-tion in La Punta de Abona in Aricowhen it ran aground shortly afterdeparting Tenerife.

The latest incident comes asthe Canarian government is con-sidering legislation to recover the

cost of expensive rescue opera-tions, including those involvingtourists who fall ill or injurethemselves while hillwalking. Afew months ago two British menwere in the headlines here and inBritain after they had to be res-cued 120 miles off El Hierro aftertheir second attempt to cross theAtlantic in a pedal-boat hit trou-ble in bad weather.

The ill-equipped Russian was rescued after almost two days at sea in a small life-raft. / DA

DA Santa Cruz de Tenerife

The success of La Orotava’sfirst ever community allotmentscheme has prompted thecouncil to release more land toenable local residents to growtheir own vegetables.

As reported in a previousedition here, nearly 20 plotswere allocated a few monthsago for the initial project andinterest has now spiralled tosuch an extent that an adjoin-ing piece of prime agriculturalland has now been acquired forinclusion in the scheme to atleast double the number ofparticipants.

A total of 35 new mini-allot-ments will be adjudicated tolocals by mid-June, including asmall number for use by par-ents’ associations from schoolsin the district. The scheme,which is being run in the DoñaChana Cultural Park, hasalready drawn interest fromother towns in the north of theisland, who are believed to beplanning similar initiatives toencourage people, particularlyolder ones, to remain active bytending their own ecologicalvegetable garden.

La Orotavaextendsallotmentprogramme

DA Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Apartment complexes andresidents’ communities havebeen warned by Tenerife’sconstruction sector that hiringunqualified or unlicensed tra-desmen may save themmoney in the short run butcould prove very costly in theend. At a conference earlierthis week in Santa Cruz,representatives of sector asso-ciation Fepeco outlined thepitfalls of poorly thought deci-sions by those in charge ofcomplexes.

‘People tend to forget thatadministrators and commu-nity presidents are legally lia-ble for their decisions’ explai-ned Oscar Izquierdo, whoreminded the audience thatworkplace accidents and bot-ched jobs can often comeback to haunt those who turnto the ‘black economy’ forrepair work. Fepeco urgedparticipants to ensure thatonly authorised tradesmenand companies with properinsurance are hired for work.

Shoddyrepairswarning tocomplexes

Diario de AvisosSanta Cruz de Tenerife

Ecologist group Ben Magecchose Canary Islands Day, whichwas marked in the region lastWednesday, to stage a novel pro-test at plans by the Spanishauthorities to allow oil compa-nies to drill for oil in the watersoff the coast of Lanzarote andFuerteventura. Dozens of mem-bers of the militant environmen-tal association trekked to the hig-hest points of each island on 30May to unfurl banners deman-ding that renewable energies begiven priority ahead of pollutingfuels.

The protestors staged theircoordinated action on the top ofMt Teide in Tenerife (3718 m)and at the highest points of Gran

Canaria, La Palma, El Hierro, LaGomera, Lanzarote and Fuerte-ventura, with a small numberalso demonstrating on a hill ontiny La Graciosa.

The protest was staged justdays after the Canarian govern-ment, which is officially againstthe drilling, was embarrassed byrevelations that it had co-spon-sored a conference in Houston atwhich Canarian ship-repair firmsattempted to attract business inthe form of contracts for servi-cing oil rigs belonging to majorUS oil multinationals operatingoff Africa. Critics accused thegovernment of hypocrisy inpublicising the advantages of theCanaries for the oil industry yetopenly denouncing the environ-mental damage that would becaused by offshore drilling here.

Environmentalists taketo peaks for oil protest

Diario de AvisosSanta Cruz de Tenerife

Senior Tenerife politician Anto-nio Alarcó has slammed as‘immoral’ plans to make theCatholic church pay local taxeson its properties. A member ofthe Spanish Senate and leaderof the Popular Party in theCabildo, Alarcó said those whohave started calling for imme-diate changes to legislationgoverning the IBI property taxto force the church to pay woulddo well to remember its vitalcommunity work.

According to Alarcó, thechurch is now the ‘biggest NGOin the world’ due to the assis-tance it provides to needy peo-ple, including here in Tenerife,where several councils have

manifested their intent thisweek to raise the IBI issue for-mally. ‘Defending the current IBIexemption has nothing to dowith religious convictions butwith an appreciation of theindispensable work that thechurch, backed by countlessvolunteers, does for society,including providing free mealsand shelter’ he added.

Alarcó described the proposalby PSOE leader Alfredo Rubal-caba to review the exemptiongranted to the church under theVatican’s long-standing Concor-dat with Spain as ‘a smokes-creen’ and said he doubted itwas a view shared by otherparty members. Critics of theproposal also say it would meanall charitable associations couldbecome liable to IBI as of now.

Alarcó slams ‘immoral’church tax proposal

2 Saturday2 June 2012The Supplement

3Saturday2 June 2012 The Supplement

Ferry protest almostbackfires onEl Hierro politiciansShip blockaded by angry islanders

Diario de AvisosSanta Cruz de Tenerife

Protest action this week by agroup of politicians from El Hie-rro to secure better maritimeconnections with Tenerife notonly brought chaos to the port ofLos Cristianos but very nearlybackfired badly. The problemswere triggered when ferry com-pany Armas left several trailersof food and other items behindin Tenerife due to a lack of spaceon its Tuesday sailing to El Hie-rro via La Gomera.

The news sparked a furiousreaction by the president of theisland’s Cabildo, who mobilisedhis colleagues to meet the shipon arrival in El Hierro severalhours later. 16 politicians andsympathisers blocked the loa-ding ramp of the ferry and refu-sed to allow any lorries to disem-bark. They then boarded the shipand sailed on it back to Los Cris-

tianos, sending messages viaTwitter and their mobile phonesto drum up support for a secondprotest there against the com-pany. The ship’s captain contac-ted police to report that he had‘16 stowaways on board’ andwanted them arrested on arrivalin Tenerife.

Once in Los Cristianos, the dis-pute escalated further and the ElHierro contingent, singing ‘WeShall Not Be Moved’, once againblocked access to the ship, pre-venting the loading and unloa-ding of vehicles. The politiciansused the media presence at theharbour to complain about thefailure to carry the trailers ear-lier in the day, a situation whichthey said exemplified the‘neglect’ suffered by El Hierro.

‘The number of weekly sailingshas been cut and now not eventimely delivery of perishablegoods needed by the island isguaranteed. We will not move

until guarantees of better con-nections and service are given'vowed Cabildo boss AlpidioArmas. However, the disruptionprompted a swift reaction fromthe ferry company, which threa-tened to withdraw completelyfrom the El Hierro route due tothe treatment received.

Canarian government officialstried to calm matters downalthough they were clearly ange-red by the islanders’ decision totake the law into their ownhands. Regional transport minis-ter Domingo Berriel accused thepoliticians of over-reacting andcomplicating the situation.

The angry politicians blockaded the entrance to the ferry. / DA

DA Santa Cruz de Tenerife

University students from herewho are currently studying atBologna University in Italyhave been describing theirexperiences following therecent earthquakes that hit thearea. Another earthquake (5.8on the Richter scale) rattledthe region on Tuesday, leavingat least 16 people dead andmany missing. A strongerquake measuring 6.0 killed 7people a fortnight ago in thesame part of the country.

Bologna is popular withErasmus students, particularlythose studying law. La Lagu-na’s Sadiana Cabrera washaving breakfast when thelatest quake struck around9am. The 23-year-old studentdescribed how people in herstreet fled their homes to seeksafety in open spaces. ‘Our flatis new and was not damagedbut fellow-students living inolder buildings said cracks hadappeared’ she told Tenerifemedia. ‘I was surprised howcalm everybody was. Althoughshops closed immediately as aprecaution, the bars and caféswere full of customers chattingon the terraces’, she added.

Tenerifestudents reliveearthquake

SPORT4 Saturday2 June 2012The Supplement

BASKETBALL

!Iberostar Canarias coach Ale-jandro Martínez has no plansto radically change his squadeven though the standard willbe much tougher next seasonin the ACB league. As the clubcontinues to put together thefunds required to compete inthe top flight, Martínez,recently appointed Spain U-17coach for the world cham-pionships, is looking to addjust a few players to the team.

Iberostar Canariasto keep faithin current squad

OLYMPICS

!Tenerife’s Eli Chávez is set forthe London Olympics withSpain’s women’s handballteam which clinched a placevia the qualifying tournamentlast week-end. The 21-year-oldfrom La Orotava is thrilled atthe prospect but admits amedal is probably beyondSpain due to a very toughgroup draw, which has pittedthe side against top teams suchas world champions Norway.

La Orotava girlbooks London 2012handball ticket

DA Santa Cruz de Tenerife

England’s Euro 2012 squadwill take a poignant history les-son this week ahead of theEuropean Championship inthe form of a visit to the formerNazi death camp at Auschwitzin Poland. A few days beforetheir opening game againstFrance on 11 June they willmake the trip to Auschwitz,where more than one millionJews died during the Holo-caust. The players will sign themuseum’s guest book and lighta candle of remembrance onthe train tracks at Birkenau,the small village that was des-troyed to build the camp.

Squad members will alsovisit the factory in Krakowonce owned by Oskar Schin-dler, the German who helpedto save over a thousand Jewishpeople from the death camps.The English Football Associa-tion and the Holocaust Educa-tional Trust (HET) have ente-red into a partnership to pro-duce an educational resourceon the Holocaust for secon-dary schools and collegesthroughout England.

England squadto visitAuschwitz

!EURO2012 Semis within reach for Tenerife Players very optimistic ahead of Linense tie

Diario de AvisosSanta Cruz de Tenerife

Last Sunday’s impressive sho-wing against Badalona has gene-rated great optimism among theTenerife players ahead of theplay-off quarter-final whichbegins tomorrow. Spirits havesoared after the comfortable 3-1win which saw Tenerife throughto a tie against relative unk-nowns Linense, who -like Bada-lona- play on an artificial pitch.

Although manager QuiqueMedina stresses that the Andalu-sians, who finished runners-upto Cadiz in their group after win-ning promotion from Division 3only last year, are a solid unitwith an effective counter-attac-king style, the general impres-sion from players is that the play-off draw could have been a greatdeal worse.

With Tenerife playing thesecond leg of the tie at home infront of what is certain to be abumper crowd in the HeliodoroRodríguez, hopes are high that aplace in the semi-finals is verymuch on the cards. Two promo-tion places are up for grabs forthe winners of the semis andthere is now more optimism than

ever that the topsy-turvy seasonmay end on a positive note.

Medina has tried to keep a reinon the enthusiasm by orderinghis players to take one game at atime and treat the first legagainst Linense as if it were afinal in itself. ‘We will try andsecure a good result there to

finish the job in Tene-rife. But we have tokeep our feet on theground if we are toavoid surprises’ saidMedina earlier thisweek.

Tenerife received aboost when team cap-tain Pablo Sicilia wasgiven the all-clearafter taking a nastyknock to the face andhead against Bada-lona. Sicilia was takenoff in the first halfafter suffering seriousconcussion and mas-sive swelling on hisforehead in a clashwith an opponent.

In order to rewardfans for their loyalsupport, the club hasdecided not to chargeseason-ticket holders

for the Linense game and haskept prices low again for non-holders. Last Sunday’s crowd of13,300 was the second best ofthe season, narrowly failing tobeat the record set against Casti-lla on 4 March. An even biggerturn-out is anticipated for nextSunday’s return against Linense.

Tenerife’s promotion hopes are still intact. / DA