POIGNANT PARADE

The processions through

THE residents of Alozaina made the long Easter weekend into a memorable, sad but at the same time happy occasion.

The processions over the three main days were poignant but at the same time beautiful and were very ably led by the Alozaina band and their musical counterparts from Yunquera. Many of the younger children were dressed in robes and behaved beautifully, realising they had an important role to play.

Some of the village ladies also dressed traditionally in black with gorgeous lace veils held in place with mantillas. The overall effect was stunning and added to the solemness of the occasion.

The highlight for many was the mid night procession on Good Friday. This had a slightly different format from last year, but it was a change that I felt brought about a more dignified and sol emn procession with the street lights being turned off and the whole route lined with residents and visitors alike carrying candles.

Many of the local ladies sang sponta neously which was beautiful to hear and it seemed to me that the whole village was taking part in the event. The pasos, or floats, which were very carefully carried down slopes

Home Village

and steps and through the village streets by young and old alike, were spectacular and very poignant. The dressing of the pasos themselves, as well as the robing of Jesus Christ, Mary and John The Evangelist were carried out with love and care by the congregation of the church and the overall effect was complemented by the many beautiful floral arrangements. Although these Easter processions are commonplace throughout Spain, there is something special about being part of a village community. The whole process is more personal and intimate and there is an overwhelming feeling of belonging and being part of the pro-

SPAIN’S Social Security system is using artificial intelligence to try to predict whether someone who is taking sick leave is ready to get back to work.

That’s according to an investigation carried out by Spanish online daily El Confidencial Spain’s National Institute of Social Security deployed two machine-learning algorithms in 2018 to assess the health of millions of people on sick leave.

The aim was to detect which recipients were defrauding the state.

The investigation discovered that the system is very opaque and that its algorithms are considered to be ‘poor’ and ‘unbalanced’. It also alleged to generate a high number of false positives, which could potentially be pushing people back into work before they are medically fit to do so.