Businesses
along the Costa Tropical are complaining that 2009 has kicked off at the lowest
level of tourist spending in 15 years. Restaurants, hotels and traders have calculated
a drop in takings of approximately 25% compared to the same period during 2008.
Despite several accusations of corruption (including building licence bribes, the Tropical Fruits scandal and the sudden change in ownership of any property he previously had) what seems to have ‘clinched’ his conviction has been Mayor Benavides' sudden enforced closure of Almuñécar’s local television channel.
You can clearly see when the goats have moved through the town, with a brown carpet of excrement and destruction left behind. Apart from the mess and the damage to plants and trees, the authorities are very concerned about the faeces which are left to smell and spread about the streets and plazas. However, the goatherder and a number of country-folk supporters are proving resistant to this tradition.
According to a study by the Granada union CC OO, some 3000 people in Granada are refusing to take sick leave, for fear of losing their jobs during this infamous economic crisis. People are continuing to work through minor and not so minor illnesses and injuries just because they don’t want to run the risk of being sent off work and possibly replaced by any one of a what has become a long queue of potential employees during these tough times.
