British councillor of San Fulgencio dies

The Town of San Fulgencio , which includes the urbanisition of la Marina, has held two days of official mourning for the late Michael Peter Blake who held a seat on the towns council. Mr. Blake who was 61 died on Tuesday from a brain haemorrhage. He has been praised for his work by the Mayor of San Fulgencio, the Socialist, Senora Trinidad Martínez.
His death leaves the governing group in the town in a minority, and his place on the council will probably be taken by another member of the AIM list – the Mediterranean Independent Association.
The Mayor spoke warmly of Mr.Blake calling him a ‘todo un señor’. (all Gentleman)
It is never easy to stand up and ask the public to give you their confidence and their vote, anyone one who has stood in any kind of election will tell you that. Mr. Blake did this in as an immigrant in this country so was brave indeed. Politics and allegiances are put aside at times like this and i think we would all say RIP Peter whilst also sending our condolences to his family and friends.

Back To Nature

We need another election, I know after the long drawn out USA presidential one you may think I'm wrong. Though what a good result there, congratulations to President Elect Obama. We had some elections here of course and prior to these elections there was flurry of activity in the Town. Roads where resurfaced in Los Palacios and a lovely job was made of the park alongside the river walk. This is a area with lots of specimen trees, pathways to pleasant seating areas. Well it was when it was spruced up before the last local council elections. They also put in lots on trees alongside the river and renewed fencing.
So why do we need another election? Well since the last one nothing seems to have been done to these areas. They are now totally overgrown, some bright spark has dumped rubbish in at least one of the seating areas. Whats more the fences have been vandalised. The whole area is now a sorry sight. Its also obvious that the watering system to the trees along the river has malfunctioned, many of them have now died.
Call me an old cynic, well not so much of the old maybe, but I really cannot help but see the original work as just a vote grabbing ploy. I know the local council will be suffering from the present economic climate just as much as anyone else but really a stitch in time would have helped. They do keep a lot of the parks and flower beds in lovely condition, i just wish this particular park could get some TLC. When its usable its a wonderful resource.
Like they say every cloud has a silver lining though, the wild life is flourishing in this undisturbed plot. In particular the great Shrike commonly know as the Butcher Bird seems to love the place. We always see at least two hanging out there as they wait to pounce on small mammals and other tasty snacks. In case you are wondering the Shrike is also called the butcher bird because of it habit on storing its catch on thorny trees and bushes. I know it sounds yuck but it makes you realize just how amazing animals can be doesn't it.

By The People For The People?

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Maybe not my business as its San fulgencia, but had to make a general comment on recent events there. Not about corruption, let me make that clear, no comment on rights or wrongs, who done it and who didn’t. I prefer to leave that to the courts. However something did seem worthy of a posting, see what you think out there.
You will all no doubt have seen the story of British councillors take the reins, if only for a day. Even the good old BBC took a moments rest from the Brand/Ross story to take a look. The details seem a little fuzzy with at least one British guy saying that he had not been Mayor for a day. The one point that does seem to be clear is the fact that these two representatives of the people who do not speak much Spanish at all. Now I would have thought to be effective as a politician in any country you would need a very good command of the language. I know I would never give my vote to someone who in reality would not know what the heck was going on. May be that’s why one of them was made councillor for animals, do dogs bark in Spanish?
No joking a side, it maybe very noble and not a little brave to stand for election to represent your community, isn’t it just a little short sighted to do so if you cannot understand what is going on in the meeting you will attend.

What surprises me is that there is not some sort of ruling about competency in the official language of the country in which you are standing. Surely that would make sense.