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Vol. 5, Issue 110 www.theolivepress.es November 20th - December 3rd 2019
AUTUMN DREAM: The road to Ronda through the Genal Valley
A
ll about
S
errania de Ronda
www.theolivepress.es
November 20th - December 3rd 2019
Bewitched by fairytale Ronda Y Vol. 13
Issue 331
This picture-perfect mountain town has charmed many an artist in time past and many famous people recently yet still retains its mythical appeal. Robert Firth shares the magic
OU don’t have to be writing the next award-winning novel or screenplay to appreciate Ronda, but it helps. Artists from Ernest Hemingway to Orson Wells – both commemorated with busts in the town – have made pilgrimages to Ronda for centuries in search of artistic inspiration. And it’s easy to see why from the moment you begin your journey here in the south east – just outside the town’s walls. For this is the only place you should begin your trip to Ronda. To really understand this historic medina, you have to first leave it and start again outside the town’s walls. From this vantage point, Ronda – dripping with history – perches monumentally above the olive and auburn countryside it overlooks. And through winding dirt tracks by ramshackle farms tended by shepherds with crooks in the shadows of the fortress and up stone steps towards the town, you catch a glimpse of the mythic beauty that transfixed so many artistic geniuses. So stunning is Ronda’s puente nuevo, bridging the canyon the town is built over, that Germany’s most famous poet, Rainer Maria Rike, credited his stay at the Reina Victoria hotel overlooking the ravine with curing his writer’s block.
Remote
Around almost every corner is tucked a stunning church, immaculately preserved historical ruins or a viewing point over postcard landscapes. If entering the town the proper way from the south, a stop-off at the Arab Baths is almost obligatory. Indeed passing through the exceptionally well-preserved 13th century hammam was mandatory for visitors to the Muslim medina when the town was a stronghold of the Emirate of Granada. It was one of the last places to fall to Catholic rule. After the conquest, its remote location in the Sierra de las Nieves National Park made it a refuge for Muslims fleeing per-
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RECENT VISITORS: J.K Rowling, Anne Hathaway,
Gordan Ramsay, Doctor Who star Jodie
Whittaker and Ricky Gervais
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It’s time to head to the hills for a classic winter break... our six-page Ronda special gives you the inside track
To the future
THE new government is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2030, its new minister for climate change has revealed to the Olive Press. John Cortes told this paper how despite the challenge, a Green Gibraltar is ‘realistic’. “I have never said it’s not a challenge,” Cortes said. “I think we have to make many changes in the way that we all behave but I think it is possible to achieve it. “In some African countries it’s already illegal to even import a plastic bag or carry one with you.” He called the Climate Change portfolio ‘overarching’ after declaring a Climate Emergency. “All areas of government work will be influenced by commitments to climate change,” he said.
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“I have to drive that very, very hard to make a real difference in everybody’s work and life patterns.” With New Harbours industrial estate already draped in solar panels, he is hoping to unveil a whole raft of renewable energy projects in the next few months. “I think that society now has a clear picture of what we have to do,” Cortes concluded. “With the support of governments, together with NGOs and crucially with businesses, we will achieve the carbon neutrality we need.” It comes as the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol was extended to Gibraltar by the Government. The amendment to the global agreement, which was made in 1987, calls on countries to reach an 80% BASED reduction in the consumption of dangerous greenhouse gas
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IT is the biggest public money scandal in Spanish history, estimated at nearly €1 billion. Now, finally, two former Andalucia leaders are heading to prison and banned from office for their links to the disgraceful ERE scandal. Ex-Junta president Jose Antonio Grinan has been sentenced to six years jail and banned from office for 15 years, while predecessor Manuel Chaves has been banned from office for nine years. The pair oversaw the scheme, which saw the shocking theft of at least €680 million - dubbed the ‘Reptile fund’ - meant to go to companies in trouble and to stimulate employment. A further 17 politicians and businessmen who worked with the Junta received a total of 86 years in prison between them, a Sevilla court has ruled. This included eight years for former Employment minister Javier Guerrero, who helped set up the scheme which embezzled money from 2000 to 2009. The bent politician was particularly guilty, having set up two bogus companies with his former driver - dubbed the ‘Cocaine Chauffeur’ defrauding over €700,000 between them. The pair are said to have spent much of their afternoons spending the money taking cocaine with prostitutes at brothels near Sevilla. The final 1,700-page report, issued by a panel of judges, announced that 13 of those accused received six to eight years in prison while all have been banned from public office for at least 10 years. A further three, José Antonio Viera, Francisco Vallejo and Carmen Martínez-Aguayo were also ministers. In a major embarrassment for the PSOE party, Chaves and Grinan led the Junta for a combined 23 years, two thirds of the regional parliament’s history. The pair had been icons of the party, while Chaves went on to become a minister in both the Spanish governments of Felipe Gonzalez and Jose Luis Zapatero. The pair had overseen the set up of the €855 million slush fund, intended for retired and unemployed workers and struggling companies.
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‘hydrofluorocarbon’ (HFC) by 2047. According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, ‘hydrofluorocarbons, are super greenhouse gases, manufactured for use in refrigeration, air conditioning, foam blowing, aerosols, fire protection and solvents’. Unlike most other gases, these substances are ‘intentionally produced’. “I am delighted that this amendment to the Montreal Protocol has been extended to Gibraltar,” Cortes added. “This is one of the steps we needed to take in order to continue to conform to international environmental standards even when we leave the European Union. “I am grateful to DEFRA in the UK for their support and their work on this and look forward to
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EXPERT: John Cortes
other international agreements on environment being similarly extended to Gibraltar in the coming months.” Meanwhile, the minister also hopes to continue to raise standards in the culture portfolio he took over from Steven Linares. “I will improve the way we record and archive our culture, including our cultural heritage and promoting our culture outside Gibraltar,” he added. As a dramatist, one of his main tasks will be to create a new national theatre at John Mackintosh Hall over the next two years.