A coincidence?

On the same day that the neighbouring region's new ultra right culture Minister is installed,...at a cafe in a coastal town in Catalonia a Black man is refused service by a waiter who racially insults him. 

Someone please tell me why...?

The Spanish region of Valencia will be the world capital of Hyperloop, "the transport of the future." 

From July 19 to 25, Valencia will host the European Hyperloop Week, a transport system that will allow passengers and goods to be carried at more than 1200kph.

[Source via news service: Business Over Tapas.]

Deaf woman chosen as Podemos spokesperson in Valencia's parliament

[Photo: Europa Press]

In an historical first, Spanish progressive-left party Podemos has chosen Pilar Lima, who is hearing-impaired, as their parliamentary spokesperson in the Valencian parliament. She will communicate in sign-language.

 Source: Business Over Tapas. (A superb news summary service.)

When your walk really says who you are...

[Photo credit: Shutterstock.com]

“Ramón Mollineda and his team at Universitat Jaume I in Castellón de la Plana, Valencia are developing a system that uses key aspects of a person's walk to build unique identification data.

It works by collecting a series of silhouettes provided by video [images] and placing them on top of each other to create a summary image or "gait signature." Together with physical appearance, the final representation can be used to help identify the individual.”

Read more here.

Immigrant badly injured after assault at festival

Moulaye Ndiaye. Photo by Jesus Cisnes from lasprovincias.es.

"Moulaye Ndiaye, a street vendor and native from Senegal, was thrown from a bridge on the eve of the 2012 Tomatina Festival in Buñol, Valencia, Spain. 


Moulaye was selling his products at the festival when a young man stole his sunglasses. After asking, without success, for the man to return them, Moulaye decided to leave, and then he was shoved and pushed over a bridge more than six metres from the ground. The backpack which he was carrying and the reeds growing in the area where he fell [probably]saved his life. 

He spent a month in intensive care at the Manises Hospital with traumas, several broken ribs and a spinal injury. The assault has caused him to lose sight in his right eye and a very serious neck and back injury has prevented him from working since.

In its blog, and on its Facebook wall, the Movement Against Intolerance seeks the help of those who witnessed the assault, asking them to make contact with the organisation so that the case can remain open, as the police have been unable to find the aggressor who escaped into the night. There has also been a large civilian mobilisation  which still continues, and the residents of the town of Buñol say they are horrified at this tragic event."

More details here at Global Voices online.

Catalan speakers denied a voice in Valencia

In a pig-headed piece of small-minded politics, the right-wing People’s Party (PP) in Valencia have created a law that meant that after 25 years the Catalan language broadcasts on channel TV3 in that region stopped yesterday.

This move is in spite of the fact that (as one report put it) “in this territory, around 40% of its inhabitants have Catalan/Valencian as their mother tongue, and in some… towns or counties, they are the vast majority.