the supplement #43

ISSUE 43Santa Cruz de Tenerife,Saturday 23 June 2012

www.diariodeavisos.com/thesupplement

“It’s choice -not chance- that determines your destiny” Jean Nidetch

MAYOR HINTS AT POOLCOMPLEX CHANGE

POLITICS

!MPs in the Canarian regionalParliament have bowed at lastto public pressure and voted infavour of a pay-cut in line withthe cuts applied to public sec-tor workers in recent months.The MPs agreed to reduce theirsalaries by an average of 5%,which means they will loseapproximately 200 euros fromtheir paypacket every month.Parliament also adjusted thedaily allowances payable toMPs for attendance at sessionsand for travel outside theCanaries on official business.

CanarianMPs voteto take a5% pay-cut

LA LAGUNA

!Parents of pupils at a well-known La Laguna school haveexpressed relief at the deci-sion to ban a teacher who wasformally accused a year agoof sexually abusing two boys.The ban was served this weekby a local judge, who hasordered the male teacher tostay at least 200 metres awayfrom the premises, the twoboys and any off-premise acti-vities organised by the school.The investigation into theallegations continues.

Parentsrelieved atsex-abuseteacher ban

TENERIFE

!A 70-year-old woman has drownedwhile swimming on the Puertito deGüímar beach. The elderly woman,who is from La Laguna, was pulledfrom the sea by other swimmers aftergeting into difficulty but died fromheart failure shortly afterwards.

Elderly womandrowns inGüímar tragedy

POLITICS

!China’s President paid afleeting 9-hour visit toTenerife on Wednesday. HuJintao called in on his wayhome from the G-20 Sum-mit in Mexico and met with

Spain’s deputy prime minis-ter Soraya Sáez and tou-rism minister José ManuelSoria in the plush Antheliahotel in Costa Adeje to dis-cuss bilateral cooperation.

CHINESE PRESIDENTMAKES FLYINGVISIT TO TENERIFE

The Parque Marítimo, which was designed by César Manrique, should extend its activities to attract more business, according to the mayor. / DA

The Chinese president pictured with Spain’s deputy prime minister. / DA

Santa Cruz’s flagship open-air swimmingpool complex could be put to additional usesif the city mayor gets his way. The popularParque Marítimo next to the Auditorium isideally suited to offer much more than swim-ming and sunbathing, according to mayor

José Manuel Bermúdez, who has signalledhis intention to seek a change in the usescurrently authorised for the complex andmake it an ‘engine-room’ of the local scene.‘The idea is not to turn it into an open-air dis-cotheque but there is certainly scope to add

sporting activities, entertainment and formaldinners to its range of uses, particularly inwinter when the pools are not operating’ saidBermúdez, who believes that restricting thecomplex to swimming only is a sure way ofcausing its financial ruin.

TENERIFE GEARS UP FORBIG SAN JUAN BONFIRE NIGHT Diario de AvisosSanta Cruz de Tenerife

This week-end sees hundreds ofbonfires lit across the Canaries tomark the longest day of the year.Midsummer Night or Noche deSan Juan as it is known in Spa-nish, is of particular importancein Gran Canaria, especially theisland’s capital Las Palmas, whichwas founded by Spanish conquis-tadors on 24 June 1478. Thehighpoint of the city’s commemo-ration of the historic event is thegiant bonfire on the Las Canterasbeach, which draws a crowd ofaround 150,000 every year andneeds approximately 250 policeto ensure safety.

Tenerife’s biggest San Juan firealso takes place on a beach andgives the authorities a massivelogistics headache due to the tensof thousands of party-goers whohead to Las Teresitas outsideSanta Cruz, bringing congestionto the roads throughout the night.Although the austerity drive bySanta Cruz council has seen thesize of the celebrations reducedconsiderably in the past couple ofyears, the beach is still the must-go venue.

Bonfires are also taking place invirtually all towns on the island,some of them ‘official’ on designa-ted sites and others purely privateaffairs organised by people intheir back gardens. Puerto de laCruz is holding its traditional bon-fire on the beach at Punta Brava-Playa Jardín and has laid on arange of activities, including funevents for children as of 6pm, a

fireworks display, and live musicthroughout the night.

Those that manage to stay thecourse until dawn will be treatedto the sight of hundreds of goatstaking an early swim in the sea atthe town harbour, a pagan tradi-tion dating back hundreds ofyears to the days when nativeGuanches brought their herdsdown from the hills to wash and

purify the goats in readiness forthe mating season.

San Juan is one of the datesmarked in red on the calendar ofthe island’s fire brigade due to thenumber of emergency call-outsto deal with fires that get out ofcontrol, often due to negligenceby the organisers.

The combination of breezesand very dry conditions can prove

lethal, sending sparks from firesto surrounding fields and trigge-ring much bigger blazes if the pro-per precautions are not taken.Equally worrying for the emer-gency services is the combinationof foolhardiness and alcohol,which can lead to serious acci-dents when participants try tojump over the fires to show theirbravado.

The San Juan bonfires are hugely popular but can have undesired consequences occasionally. / DA

DA Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Tenerife has a new heart-throbsinger, who is tipped by theindustry to go all the way andestablish himself as Spain’snew singing sensation. Localboy José Luis Delgado, betterknown by his stage nameJadel, won the country’s latestTV talent show this week andset himself up for a money-spinning career in the popindustry with his unique blendof latino pop and R&B.

The 25-year-old took 57% ofthe vote in Thursday night’sFinal, which attracted a mas-sive live TV audience acrossSpain as well as a big crowd tothe Víctor Cinema in SantaCruz, where hundreds of fansjoined his family to watch theshow on a giant screen.

Jadel has been the public’sfavourite throughout the com-petition, which is called Num-ber One and has given thewell-known budget fashionretailer from here of the samename an unexpected publicityboost for the last few months.It is likely he will release arecord immediately beforeplanning a concert tour.

Spain hailsnew Tenerifesingingsensation


Efforts in recent years toimprove Canarian pupils’proficiency in English appearnot to be achieving the des-ired effect, judging by thedisappointing results obtai-ned by the Canaries in a com-prehensive assessment of lan-guage skills. According to thefindings of a 14-countrystudy published this week,Canarian schoolchildrencome some way below theSpanish and European avera-ges when it comes to expres-sing themselves in even themost basic English.

The study, which wascarried out in hundreds ofschools across the country,has revealed that nearly 40%of children here are unable tocommunicate properly at themost elementary level (preA1) of the Common Euro-pean Framework of Refe-rence for Languages (CEFR)by the time they completetheir compulsory secondaryschooling.

Schoolkidsfare badlyin Englishsurvey

Diario de AvisosSanta Cruz de Tenerife

The current wave of protestsagainst plans to drill for oil offFuerteventura and Lanzarote hasmoved beyond the Canaries.More than a hundred opponentsof the controversial plans to allowRepsol to search for oil in variouslocations in the waters off the twoislands heeded a call by Canarianenvironmentalists living in theBarcelona area and turned outfor a protest on one of the city’sbeaches.

Green group Ben Magec, whichorganised the demonstration,said a human chain 150 metreslong was formed on the Barcelo-neta beach at the week-end.Curious beach-users, includingmany foreign tourists, enquired

about the reason for the actionand were given detailed informa-tion on the oil drilling which wasauthorised by the Spanishgovernment back in March. Thegroup says the action was a bigsuccess and generated considera-ble interest not just on the actualbeach but also on social mediasites such as Facebook and Twit-ter.

The Cabildos of both Lanzaroteand Fuerteventura, who areengaged in a legal battle to blockthe oil search, played an activepart in encouraging people origi-nally from the two islands andnow living in Barcelona to turnout for the protest. Furtherdemonstrations are in the processof being organised in other partsof the country to raise the visibi-lity of the oil-drilling issue.

Drilling protestmoves outside Canaries


Residents of a La Laguna estatewhere blocks of flats need to bepulled down due to seriousstructural problems are up inarms over what they say is yetmore feet-dragging by the Spa-nish government over paymentfor the massive housing repla-cement programme. Locals hadbeen assured some months agothat Madrid would contributemuch of the funding for themammoth project to replacenearly 500 flats affected by con-crete degradation, which wascaused by the use of poor-qua-lity cement when the estate wasbuilt in the early 1970s.

The rebuilding work is expec-ted to cost around 90 million

euros, half of it payable by cen-tral government, but Madridhas now expressed doubtsabout the project, particularlythe reliability of informationsupplied by the local authoritiesand the viability of the redeve-lopment plans.

The news has come as abombshell to the Las Chumbe-ras residents, who have vowedto resume their street protests inand around the Alcampo shop-ping centre if the governmentdoes not give funding guaran-tees immediately. ‘When thePopular Party was in opposition,its politicians in Tenerife led thefight for the rebuilding work,but now it is in power thosesame politicians are nowhere tobe seen’ complained one ofthose affected.

Las Chumberas angerat fresh funding delays

2 Saturday23 June 2012The Supplement

3Saturday23 June 2012 The Supplement

CC party suffersdamaging internalrift at conferenceElection of chairman triggers split


Annual conferences are usuallythe opportunity for political par-ties to put on a show of strengthand unity but last week-end’sgathering of the Canarian Coali-tion (CC) proved anything butthat. Indeed, for many observersthe power struggle that plaguedthe proceedings exemplifies theinternal problems that couldcause a highly damaging split bet-ween the newly-elected chairmanand regional president, PaulinoRivero, and a number of influen-tial figures, including several towhom he owes his current politi-cal status.

As predicted in the weeks run-ning up to the conference, Riverolaunched a late bid to be electedparty chairman even though CCstatutes bar anyone from holdingboth the chair and high regional

office at the same time. Rivero’ssupporters succeeded in forcingthrough an amendment to makethe two posts compatible and thenews that he was bidding for theleadership led potential candida-tes to pull out, leaving him as theonly nominee.

When the vote was taken on theleadership, Rivero obtained just56%, which has been interpretedas a clear signal from a large sectorof the party that he has made a bigmistake in pushing his case. Criticsinclude some of the most influen-tial names in the CC, such as Spa-nish MP Ana Oramas and Cabildopresident Ricardo Melchior.

In all 355 party members out ofa total attendance of 862 gave thethumbs down to the president inan explicit message that he mayhave severely damaged his hopesof being the CC candidate in thenext regional elections. Talk isalready emerging that the critics

are quietly going about preparinga new candidate to challengeRivero, possibly in an extraordi-nary party conference before theend of the year.

Rivero himself deftly playeddown the repercussions of the splitand insisted that the conferencehad been a resounding success in

strengthening the CC’s internaldemocracy. However, he was dealta further blow when Narvay Quin-tero, the up and coming youngSenator from El Hierro, refused tobe part of the new party executive,even though his presence hadbeen formally announced by theCC after the conference.

Rivero (left) pictured after his designation as CC leader. / DA


Tenerife’s Observatory is hol-ding its annual Open Days thisweek to give the public aninsight into the work done atthe big telescope facility at thefoot of Mt Teide. The Observa-tory, which belongs to theCanarian Astrophysics Institute(IAC), houses some of the mostadvanced instruments of theirkind, including the recently-inaugurated Gregor telescope -the largest solar telescope inEurope and the third-largest inthe world-, which took just overten years to develop.

The Open Days take place onFriday 22 and Saturday 23June from 10 am to 5 pm.Observatory staff offer guidedtours on a ‘first come first ser-ved’ basis. Visitors are advisedto wear sturdy footwear andensure they have cream to pro-tect against the sun, which canbe deceptively strong at theObservatory’s altitude. Anyonewho suffers from a heart condi-tion or respiratory problems isurged to consult their doctor onthe risks associated with alti-tude before making the trip upto Teide.

AstrophysicsObservatoryOpen Days

CYCLING

!The Canaries will not figure innext year’s Tour of Spain(Vuelta Ciclista a España) cyclerace, the organisers haveannounced. Race boss JavierGuillén says the current econo-mic climate ruled out furtherconsideration of the widely-publicised plans to hold up tofour stages of the prestigiousevent in the islands, althoughhe would review the situationfor 2014.

No room forCanaries in2013 Vuelta race

OLYMPICS

!Mario Pestano has turneddown the ‘paltry’ sponsorshipoffered to him by the Canariangovernment to take part in theLondon Olympics. The Tenerifediscus thrower, who is alsoSpain’s athletics team captain,said the funding (48,000 eurosto be divided among all theCanaries’ Games athletes) wasvery poor and had ‘too manyconditions attached to be worththe bother’.

Pestano turnsdown governmentfunding for Games


One of Tenerife’s brightestsporting talents is to try herluck in France. Women’s hand-ball star Eli Chávez is leavingher Spanish club Mar Saguntofor Nice on the Cote d’Azur dueto the financial problems at theformer. ‘We have been told theclub is going to fold, which isvery sad. We were not paid forthe last four months of the sea-son and the only future isabroad at present’ said the LaOrotava-born player.

Before turning out for hernew club, who have won pro-motion to the French 1st Divi-sion, Chávez has, she hopes, animportant appointment tokeep in another EU country.She is a member of the Spainsquad that has qualified for theLondon Olympics althoughselection is not 100% guaran-teed. 18 players are in the pre-liminary squad for the trainingcamp which begins this week-end and that number will begradually trimmed to the final14. ‘I have plenty of time aheadof me for other Games if I don’tmake it’ she said this week.

Handballstar movesto France

!HANDBALL Tenerife rally for one last effortPlayers confident of return-leg victory


Tenerife can count themselvesvery lucky to be still in with a rea-listic chance of winning the finalpromotion playoff and returningto the 2nd Division. ManagerQuique Medina and his playershave admitted that they couldhave lost the first leg against Pon-ferradina by a much bigger mar-gin than the 1-0 scoreline but areready to remedy the problemtomorrow in the return in theHeliodoro Rodríguez, in front ofwhat will surely be the biggestcrowd of the season.

More than 500 fans travelledfrom Tenerife to Ponferrada forthe first game, only to see theirside take a battering not justfrom their opponents but alsofrom the torrential rain that las-hed down for much of the secondhalf. Ponferradina won courtesyof a controversial penalty awar-ded against Pablo Sicilia forhandball in the dying seconds ofthe first half but they could havescored four or five goals againsta very poor Tenerife.

The second leg will decidewhich of the two teams goes backup to the 2nd Division after both

were relegated a year ago. Therun-up to the tie has been shrou-ded in controversy followingallegations that Ponferradinagoalkeeper Orlando Quinteroreceived a phone call from some-one acting on behalf of Tenerifeand offering him money to throwthe game. The allegations, which

made the nationalsporting headlines,have been strenuouslydenied by Tenerife,who have threatenedlegal action for thedamage caused to theclub’s image. On thepurely footballingfront, Tenerife areconfident of overtur-ning the 1-0 deficit butwill need to be verycareful not to concedean away goal to Ponfe-rradina, whose speedyforwards Yuri andAcorán, proved ahandful for the Cana-rians’ defence lastweek.

A goal would forcethe home side to scorethree to take the tie onaggregate and, jud-ging by the showing in

Ponferrada, it is a task that looksbeyond Tenerife. The positivenote a week ago was the specta-cular performance yet again ofSergio Aragoneses in goal and ifhe repeats his heroics tomorrowby keeping a clean sheet he mightjust give Tenerife a reasonablechance of glory.

Tenerife are 1-0 down from the first leg. / DA

SPORT

DiariodeAvisosSábado, 23 de junio de 2012

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