The game of bastards

This is our 100th post: we have been almost two years delivering data about social and environmental issues! Let’s celebrate with a game about bastards who make life more difficult in our planet. We should name them and learn what they did: it is the best way to prevent things from happening again.
We hope you enjoy it!

You can use the following code to embed this game into your website:<iframe width="400" height="600" src="http://www.alexcanosa.com/Dd/J003ang.swf" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Food from far and near

Some months ago we published a post about the importance of eating local products, arguing that fishing prawns in Scotland to be hand-shelled in China and eventually eaten in Europe is rather nonsense. And it is utterly unsustainable.
Thanks to a survey performed by the ecological association Friends of the Earth together with some researchers from the university of Vigo and Seville, we can get a clear picture of all this nonsense. Let’s analyse it with figures in hand.
Even if we are getting aware of environmental issues, our consumption habits are getting worse in this sense. Between 1995 and 2007, 53% more food was imported in Spain. At present, Spain imports 29,000 million kg of food --that is, 29 plus nine zeros. Not bad at all, is it? These imports have environmental costs: 4.7 million tonnes of CO2 released to the atmosphere, which do nothing but boost climatic change.
How do these imports get in Spain? 70% are shipped by sea and the rest by road. Some other food is freighted by train or by plane, but in a small percentage. However, airmailing is very contaminating: even if it stands only for 0.22% of imported food, it represents 16% of total CO2 emissions. Lucky us it is only 0.22%!
And to top it all, all these food is not imported from our neighbours: as average, food travels 5,013 km before getting in Spain. The less travelling imports are diary products, which only travel 1,339 km, whereas the most travelling imports are cattle feed (7,901 km). And do not try to avoid your responsibility: unless you are vegetarian and you do not eat eggs or diary products, you do consume cattle feed indirectly!
In 1995, Spain imported mostly from the US (24%) but our habits have changed and now Spain imports 39% from Latin America (especially from Argentina, from where we currently import 25%, quite a lot if compared to 4.25% in 1995).
 

Here you have a list of the main countries exporting their food to Spain:

• Wine: Chile, Argentina and Italy
• Diary products and eggs: France, Portugal and Germany
• Coffee and cocoa: Vietnam, Germany and Brazil
• Living animals: the Netherlands, France and Switzerland
• Processed food: Europe
• Meat: France, Brazil, Germany and the Netherlands
• Peas: Mexico
• Fish: Argentina, Morocco, China, France and Portugal
• Cereals: Brazil, France, US and Argentina
• Pork: France, the Netherlands and Hungary
• Fruit and vegetables: France, Thailand and Portugal
• Fodder: Argentina
• Soya: Argentina and Brazil
• Sugar: France, India and Portugal

It does not make any sense, does it? When you go shopping, just check where the food comes from. It is the first step to change our consumption habits.

Sources:

1. Post at Delivering Data about the importance of consuming local products: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2011/08/food-without-borders.html
2. Report Alimentos kilométricos: Las emisiones de CO2 por la importación de alimentos al estado español (Food miles: CO2 emissions from food imports in Spain) drawn by the ecological association Friends of the Earth together with researchers from the university of Vigo and Seville: http://issuu.com/amigos_de_la_tierra_esp/docs/informe_alimentoskm
3. Friends of the Earth International: http://www.foei.org/

    
    

The Spanish military Industry

Most items in the Spanish general budget have been cut: the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality has been cut in 13.7%, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports has been cut in 21.2%, but the Ministry of Defence has only been cut in 8.8%. The Spanish Government justifies it by stating that national defence cannot be left aside, as if education and health services could… It is more dangerous to leave people without education and health care rather than an unlikely invasion. Even Fernando García Sánchez, Chief of Defence (which is the maximum authority in the Spanish Army after the King) admitted last April in an interview that, currently, the worst threat for Spain is the financial crisis.
The other argument to justify the budget of the Ministry of Defence is the financial importance of the Spanish arms industry, allegedly employing many people, so it would not be wise to cut this sector if we want to emerge from this economic crisis. However, the report El complejo militar-industrial: un parásito en la economía española (the military industry: a parasite for the Spanish economy) by the Centre Delàs, an observatory on disarmament, arms trade, armed conflict and culture of peace, seems to refute this argument. The military industry is not so important for the Spanish economy; on the contrary, it is even counterproductive. Let’s analyse some figures.
The Spanish military industry reported a turnover of 6,560 million euros in 2009. It is quite a lot of money, but it represents only 1.24% of the total Spanish industrial production. Arm exports, which kill many civilians all around the world, stand for 0.6% of the total Spanish exports. In short, getting rid of the Spanish military industry would not be so bad for the Spanish economy, and in fact it would mean getting rid of an industry which promotes world injustice and social differences between rich and poor people. As for the workers who would lose their jobs, it is only 1.1% of the workers of the Spanish industry (29,000 people).
Also, we must bear in mind that this sector requires a significant expenditure, paid by Spanish citizens. The Ministry of Defence (that is, Spanish citizens) owes 37,000 million euros to the military industry, increasing the Spanish public deficit. But which companies make up the so-called Spanish military industry? There are about 500 companies supplying arms and services to the Ministry of Defence, but 4 of them represent 75.4% of the total military turnover:

• Navantia, manufacturing warships for the Spanish Navy.
• EADS-Casa, devoted to military aeronautics.
• Santa Bárbara / General Dynamics, manufacturing light and heavy weaponry for the Spanish Army.
• INDRA, specialized in electronic components and new technologies for weaponry.

To end up with this post, we give you the proposals suggested by the authors of the above-mentioned report in order to reduce the negative impact of the military industry on the Spanish economy. First, we should reduce the number of soldiers of the Spanish Army in order to cut arms expenditure. Secondly, we should not buy any more material. Thirdly, we should not give any more credits for military R+D to the above-mentioned companies. And last but not least, we should restructure the military industry into civil industry so that factories are not shut down and job posts can be kept. In other words: we should turn the Spanish military industry into something useful.

Sources:

1. Cuts in each Spanish Ministry: http://www.lavanguardia.com/economia/20120330/54279837412/todos-recortes-ministerios.html
2. Interview to Fernando García Sánchez, Chief of Defence: http://www.abc.es/20120304/espana/abci-entrevista-jemad-201203040008.html
3. El complejo militar-industrial. Un parásito en la economía española, a report by Centre Delàs, observatory on disarmament, arms trade, armed conflict and culture of peace: http://www.centredelas.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=905%3Ainforme-sobre-el-complejo-militar-industrial-espanol&catid=52%3Ainformes&Itemid=85&lang=es#.T6IoXvJZpbM.twitter
4. Post at Delivering Data about the exportation of cluster bombs to Gaddafi’s Libya: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2011/11/following-cluster-bomb.html
5. Navantia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navantia
6. EADS-Casa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EADS_CASA
7. General Dynamics/Santa Bárbara: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_B%C3%A1rbara_Sistemas
8. Indra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra_Sistemas

   
   
    
     

Immigrants and the public health system

The loss of rights is always gradual. Our welfare state cannot be ruined all of a sudden because citizens would argue a lot, but our welfare state can be dismantled gradually, piece by piece, so that nobody realises what’s going on, until it is eventually ruined. When a right or a service is banished, we often accept it as a lost battle and we devote all our efforts to prevent subsequent budget cuts… but the damage is done and, little by little, our rights disappear, even those which were so hard to get.
Some days ago, the Spanish government announced that immigrants may be excluded from the public health system. But why immigrants? Because they do not cast a vote and because, unlike children who cannot cast a vote either, they are regarded distrustfully by some people, who do cast a vote.
And, as always, in order to get popular support for such an unfair and dangerous measure, the Government uses the same old arguments: immigrants bring the public health system to a standstill, immigrants jam emergency units, immigrants shoot up medication expenses… These are stupid and racist arguments, because they are based on fake premises. And these arguments are not fair either, as we shall prove:

• Immigrants go less to the doctor than the rest of citizens. In a survey on the access to public health system in Madrid in 2009, it is reported that 8 out of 100 Spaniards go to hospital every year, whereas only 5.8 out of every 100 immigrants do.
• Immigrants spend 96.5 euros every year as an average in medication, whereas Spaniards spend 446.4 euros every year, almost five times more.
• The only health service where immigrants outnumber Spaniards is the maternity unit.
• In 2009, only 7.3% patients going through surgery in Catalonia were immigrants, according to the Catalan Health Department (in Catalonia, immigrants represent 15.7% of its population).
• Immigrants and Spaniards make use of emergency services likewise, according to a survey of the hospital Sant Pau in Barcelona.

Therefore, excluding immigrants from the Spanish public health system is a step towards the privatization of rights and services. Afterwards it will be the unemployed (those who do not pay cannot have the same rights) and then retired people (we should give priority to young people, for elders are too expensive) and eventually the rest.
Some of these data can be found in the Anti-Rumours Network promoted by the Town Council of Barcelona, a very interesting initiative to refute widespread arguments against immigrants. We wrote a post about it some months ago.

Sources:

1. Announcement by the Spanish government that immigrants will be excluded from the public health system: http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2012/04/24/actualidad/1335254687_707783.html
2. Angel Alberquilla’s survey on public health services in Madrid (2009), including some data about immigrants and their access to health services: http://ep00.epimg.net/sociedad/imagenes/2012/04/24/actualidad/1335254687_707783_1335262552_sumario_grande.jpg
3. Barcelona Anti-Rumour Agency: http://www.bcnantirumors.cat/
4. Post at Delivering Data about the Anti-Rumours Agency: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2011/06/im-not-racist-but.html