You will need to identify 5 topics of current affairs that will still be current news while you are abroad, i.e. a topic that you can analyse its evolution over time.
References: the information provided needs to be properly referenced.
Submission date: to be uploaded to your blog by week 10
In this section,
five items of Spanish current affair will be analysed: economy, politics,
immigration, environment, and science.
ECONOMY –
UNEMPLOYMENT
According to sources such as DatosMacro (2016) and
TradingEconomics (2016), the unemployment rate in Spain is very high, compared
to the one in the UK, which are 20.5% and 5.1%, respectively. Statistics also
show that the number of females unemployed is higher than males, and that
unemployment (paro) is much more common between youngsters than among adults,
with a rate of 45% between adults with less than 25 years of age, compared to
the 18.8% of over-25s unemployed. According to Boesler (2016), the main cause
is the recession generated by the end of a huge construction boom in 2008.
POLITICS – CATALONIA’S INDEPENDENCE
Catalan independence has been a very sensitive element permeating
Spain’s news for years. In November 2015, a year after an informal referendum,
Catalan parliament voted on the secession from Spain (Ríos and Piñol, 2015). With 72 votes in favour and 63 votes
against the independence, Spain is now facing “the biggest challenge to our
democracy in the last 30 years” (opposition leader Inés Arrimadas, of
Ciudadanos, cited in Ríos and Piñol, 2015). According to
The Guardian (2016), Catalonia’s new separatist leader, Carles Puigdemont, is
aiming to break with Spain in the upcoming 18 months. Catalonia will also start
creating their own constitution and all the necessary institutions for the new
independent state (The Guardian, 2016).
IMMIGRATION
- REFUGEES
The crisis
of Syrian refugees has led the immigration topic back to one of the top
positions for debating in Spain. Indeed, España is
one of the country who has received most immigrants over the past 20 years, and
nowadays, foreigners count for 14% of Spain’s population (El Confidencial,
2015). As the routes to Greece and Italy are very dangerous, refugees are
targeting Spanish colonies in Morocco to facilitate their entry in the UK and
Northern Europe. Spain reported 478 cases of Moroccan passports used by
Syrians between 2014 and 2015, while more than 2800 Syrian asylum applications were
submitted in Melilla between November 2014 and June 2015 (Gutteridge, 2016).
ENVIRONMENT
– WATER ISSUES
According
to Rovira and Polo (2015), Spain has been and is still suffering from lack of
water resources. This is due to the rise of internal water demand, the growth
in urbanization, the lack of a rational and efficient use of water resources,
and the low price of water. Moreover, the irrigated areas suffer from large
quantities of water losses, as they are mostly canals. In addition, the Spanish
Ministry of the Environment believes that at least 45% of the water pumped
every year from aquifers is illegally extracted. To solve this issue, Spain is
working on the construction of water infrastructure and water depuration
systems (Rovira and Polo, 2015).
SCIENCE – AIDS VACCINE
According to Think Spain (2016),
Spanish doctors and scientists at Hivacat Centre, in Catalonia, have recently
gotten a secure funding to research a vaccination against AIDS. Initial testing
and clinical trials will start within the next five years. If successful, the
vaccine could be in the market by the next seven to ten years from now.
Although this vaccine will not be able to cure people affected by the AIDS
virus, it will prevent HIV to turn into AIDS. Hivacat’s directors Clotet and
Gatell hope the funding of their researches will enable them to develop and
immunisation jab to stop patients from contracting HIV (Think Spain, 2016).
REFERENCES
Boesler, M. (2016). The Worst
Unemployment Crisis In Modern History Is Unfolding Right Now. [online] Business
Insider. Available at:
http://www.businessinsider.com/spanish-unemployment-crisis-2013-4?IR=T
[Accessed 15 Mar. 2016].
DatosMacro (2016). Desempleo de España 2016. [online] Available at:
http://www.datosmacro.com/paro/espana [Accessed 15 Mar. 2016].
El Confidencial. (2015). La inmigración en España en trece preguntas
y un gráfico. Noticias de Mundo. [online] Available at:
http://www.elconfidencial.com/mundo/2015-09-16/hay-algun-pais-con-mas-inmigrantes-que-espana_1018061/
[Accessed 15 Mar. 2016].
Gutteridge, N. (2016). Gateway to
Britain: Economic migrants targeting Spanish colonies as route into EU and UK.
[online] Express.co.uk. Available at:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/638855/EU-migrant-crisis-refugees-Spain-Ceuta-Melilla-Morocco-Britain-Calais
[Accessed 15 Mar. 2016].
Ríos, P. and Piñol, À. (2015). Catalan
parliament passes motion declaring start of secession process. [online] EL
PAÍS. Available at:
http://elpais.com/elpais/2015/11/09/inenglish/1447067955_007589.html [Accessed
15 Mar. 2016].
Rovira, A. and Polo, M. (2015). Global
Water Forum | Current and future challenges in water resources management in
Spain. [online] Globalwaterforum.org. Available at:
http://www.globalwaterforum.org/2015/04/20/current-and-future-challenges-in-water-resources-management-in-spain/
[Accessed 15 Mar. 2016].
The Guardian. (2016). Catalan
independence back on track as new leader is sworn in. [online] Available at:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/10/catalan-independence-back-on-track-as-new-leader-is-sworn-in
[Accessed 15 Mar. 2016].
Thinkspain.com. (2016). AIDS vaccine
research in Spain 'most promising to date'. [online] Available at:
http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/26952/aids-vaccine-research-in-spain-most-promising-to-date
[Accessed 15 Mar. 2016].
Trading Economics (2016). United Kingdom
Unemployment Rate | 1971-2016 | Data | Chart | Calendar. [online] Available at:
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/unemployment-rate [Accessed 15
Mar. 2016].
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