Current Affairs: Time's up for siestas

A controversial and stereotypical view of Spanish culture ? ...

Time's up for siestas, delayed meetings and late nights, Spaniards told in effort to make them work better 

Spaniards should ditch their siesta culture, stop being late for meetings and get to bed earlier, MPs have been told.

By The Telegraph

Their three-hour lunch breaks have long been the envy of workers in neighbouring countries, their business meetings often start late and millions of them rarely get to bed till well after midnight.

But now Spaniards face growing pressure to give up their siestas, bring their working day into line with the rest of western Europe - and switch their clocks to the same time zone as Britain.

A parliamentary commission has called for fundamental reform to traditional working hours and practices as part of Spain's effort to break out of recession and reduce the chronic unemployment that has dogged its economy for the best part of a decade.

The review, by the National Commission for the Rationalisation of Working Hours, is expected to win the backing of a panel of MPs on Thursday.

"We need more flexible working hours, to cut our lunch breaks, to streamline business meetings by setting time limits for them, and to practise and demand punctuality," says the report.

Long lunch breaks are a throwback to the time when working outdoors became unbearable in midday temperatures of 40C or more but have persisted - along with the habit of working till 9pm, then socialising until late at night - despite the advent of air conditioned factories, offices and shops.

The result is that even though Spaniards put in more hours in total than equivalent workers in Germany, they waste more time and produce far less. They also have on average one hour less sleep per night.

"In these difficult and critical times, Spain urgently needs more humane working hours," the Commission says. "This would raise productivity, lower absenteeism and accidents, as well as reducing drop-out rates from school."

The report also recommends ditching the use of Central European Time which - since Madrid is further west than Plymouth - means daylight and working hours are out of synch. Spain adopted Berlin time in 1942, at the height of the Second World War, when it was sympathetic to Nazi Germany.

The Commission has told MPs that a shorter, sharper and better timed working day would improve Spaniards' quality of life, raise the country's low birth rates and reduce the rate of marriage breakdown.

Current Affairs: Spanish lottery winning ticket worth nearly £4m still unclaimed

Spanish lottery winning ticket worth nearly £4m still unclaimed

Hunt is on in La Coruña for lucky winner after good samaritan finds mislaid ticket and hands it in

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The Guardian

In La Coruña, northern Spain, a tiny scrap of paper has got everyone talking. On it are the winning numbers of last year's lottery, worth €4.7m (£3.95m). Nothing is known about its owner except that he or she has no idea they are now extremely rich .

According to the Galician newspaper La Voz, someone bought the ticket carrying the winning numbers 10, 17, 24, 37, 40 and 43 last year in a Carrefour shopping centre in Galicia but failed to keep it safe. So when the numbers were drawn in June 2012, the prize went unclaimed.

The mislaid ticket was found on the counter of a different lottery shop, suggesting the winner likes to play the numbers in multiple locations. Rather than try to claim it, the good samaritan who found it, Manuel Reija González, informed lottery administrators, and so began the long process of confirming its veracity.

Now the hunt has begun to find the lucky ticket buyer. Whatever happens, there will be a happy ending of sorts, because if the owner doesnt show up within two years, the prize will go to Reija González, rewarding his honesty. There is just one strange detail – Reija González's brother works for the lottery, as did his father and grandfather.

The mayor of La Coruña, Carlos Negreira, said on Monday: "For the first time we're looking for a millionaire, not because we want money from them, but because we want to give it to them."

The town hall has provided some information about who they are seeking, but it won't be easy to fool them. They have kept back some important details to make sure the right person claims their winnings, including the exact time the ticket was bought. Perhaps the numbers are the ones the winner always uses, or match their birthday, or some other significant date. According to the law, "the prize can only be paid out if sufficient information is provided that proves without doubt that the claimant is the rightful" winner. One man has already tried to claim the prize, but has been rejected.

In a country hit hard by recession, with unemployment above 27%, the news has made the headlines on the main national TV shows.

It is not the first time a winning lottery ticket has caused such commotion. In 2001 a British couple lost out on a £3m payout after mislaying their ticket, despite convincing Camelot that they were the rightful winners.

Finance&Economics: Inditex expansion pushes Asia sales above group’s home market

Inditex expansion pushes Asia sales above group’s home market

By The Financial Times

Shares in Inditex rose to an all-time high as second-quarter earnings from the largest clothes retailer in the world by sales calmed investor concerns that its rapid growth had begun to slow.

The company, which began life as a Galician bathrobe manufacturer three decades ago, underlined its increasing internationalisation as sales in Asia and Africa overtook those from Spain for the first time in its history over the first half of the year.

Inditex, which divides its sales between Spain, Europe, America, and Asia and the rest of the world, said the latter unit now accounted for 21.7 per cent of total revenues, surpassing the 19.3 per cent it derived from its home market for the first time in its history.

At the same time the company opened new stores at a pace of almost four a week over the first six months of the year, taking its total to 6,104 across 86 countries.

Inditex, which owns brands including Massimo Dutti and Pull & Bear alongside its main Zara brand, has largely managed to shrug off the sharp falls in consumer spending across the rest of Europe, which remains its main market making up almost half of sales.

A slight slowdown in sales in the first quarter of Inditex’s trading year had caused concern among some analysts that in spite of the company’s rapid growth it would be unable to continue surpassing itself each quarter.

News of Inditex’s second-quarter earnings sent its shares up to a new all-time high of €112.60 in early trading as investors took the analysts forecast-beating numbers as evidence that the company has continued to expand in spite of very demanding comparable figures from the year before.

Over the first half sales rose 5.7 per cent to €7.65bn year on year, while like-for-like sales rose by 2 per cent. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation in the first half rose 0.2 per cent to €1.62bn, while net profits increased 0.8 per cent to €1.53bn.

“Although these results could erode some concerns originated in the previous quarter . . . we think that they do not totally clarify if the deceleration persists or even if record margins are sustainable,” said analysts at Mirabaud, who have argued that it will be very demanding for Inditex to match current market consensus for growth for this year.

Analysts at Citi, however, argued that strong like-for-like gross profit growth of 17 per cent from the first to the second quarter showed that Inditex was on track to meet expectations. They were also encouraged by the company’s announcement that store sales in local currency terms rose 10 per cent from the start of August to the middle of this month.

Over the quarter the company’s considerable net cash position continued to increase, moving up to €3.6bn, including the payment of €686m in dividends, compared with €3.48bn in the same period last year.

Inditex shares were up 0.8 per cent at €111.10 on Wednesday.

Current Affairs: Madrid and Istanbul Respond Differently to Rejection by Olympics

Madrid and Istanbul Respond Differently to Rejection by Olympics

The New York Times
 

Madrid and Istanbul started counting the costs on Sunday of failing once more to be named an Olympic host, after Tokyo was chosen to organize the 2020 Games.

That cost could be higher for Madrid, whose population, hit hard by record unemployment and a long recession, had rallied around the idea that the Games could help create jobs and revive the image and economy of Spain.

In contrast, large groups of people in the central Taksim district in Istanbul celebrated their city’s Olympic defeat on Saturday night. They argued that the Turkish government had tried to use the Olympics as an excuse to ignore environmental concerns and proceed with large-scale building projects.

With 80 percent of its earmarked Olympic venues already completed, Madrid’s bid was centered on a straightforward argument: we have built the sites already, so let us at least use them.

Madrid, Spain’s capital and largest city, now faces a new challenge, as it scrambles to reduce $9.2 billion in debt as it figures out what to do with some of its half-built or underused sports centers, including a water sports complex that was to serve as the Olympic swimming pool. Construction on the aquatic center started in 2004, but the work was halted four years later amid budget overruns as Spain’s construction bubble burst.

Among Madrid’s other underexploited flagship sites is the Caja Mágica, or Magic Box, a tennis center with a retractable roof that opened in 2009, with intentions of holding Olympic events. The center ended up costing $387 million, compared with an initial budget of $158 million, but it has been used little since, except for a Masters tennis tournament held each May.

The voting was carried out in Buenos Aires by secret ballot, making it impossible to know why members of the International Olympic Committee favored Tokyo over Istanbul and Madrid. But a negative factor shared by the two losing cities, their countries’ response to doping in sports, might have played a role.

Turkey recently announced a “zero tolerance” stance on doping after a string of positive test results that led to the ban of more than 30 athletes by the Turkish Athletics Federation. In 2011, however, Turkey lost its World Anti-Doping Agency accreditation after failing to comply with international standards.

A Spanish judge fueled international criticism in April, when she ordered that about 200 bags of blood and plasma be destroyed instead of handing them over to antidoping inspectors. The bags were among evidence seized by the police during a cycling investigation focusing on Eufemiano Fuentes, a Spanish doctor found guilty of endangering public health by providing blood transfusions to cyclists. During his trial, Fuentes said his list of clients also included unnamed athletes from soccer, tennis, boxing and track and field.

The Madrid delegation hoped that the investigation had been put to rest, but the doping issue was raised Saturday before the vote in Buenos Aires, both during Madrid’s presentation to the Olympic delegates and in a news conference.

A few hours later, after Madrid was rejected, disenchantment and sadness spread rapidly among the large crowd that had gathered around Puerta de Alcalá, one of Madrid’s landmarks, where local musicians performed before the vote.

In Istanbul, however, recent social divisions were highlighted Saturday as supporters and opponents of the Olympics gathered at separate sites. After Istanbul failed in its fifth Olympic bid, some cried and others embraced in the ancient square of Sultanahmet. Most just stood still, lowering their Turkish flags.

In Taksim Square, those who had opposed the bid celebrated late into the night. Taksim had been turned into a battleground in June after disputes over the razing of a public park evolved into the largest antigovernment rally the country had had in more than a decade. Analysts have said that one of the largest setbacks for Turkey’s Olympic bid was the government’s harsh crackdown on the protesters.

“We’ve been tear-gassed too many times to have any Olympic spirit left in us,” said Ali Turan, an architect who has been active with the “Boycott Istanbul 2020” campaign in Istanbul. “This city has to learn to value its people and environment before it makes any promises to the world.”

The campaign was led by a group of urban planners and architects who carried out an assessment of Istanbul’s candidate file and concluded that it was a “megaconstruction pitch,” devoid of the Olympic ideals of legacy, spirit and sustainability.

“In Turkey’s candidate file, there are no environmental assessments, no ecological consideration or evaluations of social impacts for those that will be displaced from their homes,” the group said via e-mail.

Separately, clashes between the police and students at Middle East Technical University in Ankara began Friday and continued into Saturday, with the police firing tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators who were protesting deforestation on their campus. The deforestation was led by the city to accommodate a road project.

After the Olympic vote, Ankara’s mayor, Melih Gokcek, wrote on Twitter that the antigovernment protesters were traitors who caused Istanbul to lose its bid.