Pink arrival
Palma de Mallorca’s Son Sant Joan
airport received an unscheduled arrival
on April 7 when a pink flamingo strolled
across the apron forcing a taxiing
aircraft to brake sharply. A video shared
by the air traffic controllers said the bird
led the Easyjet flight towards its stand
very elegantly before flying off safely.
The visitor was particularly surprising as
flamingos have usually left the island by
April.
Electric boost
The government is to offer grants of up
to €5,000 to anyone replacing their
conventional vehicle with an electric or
hybrid version. The plan, partly funded
by Europe, is expected to become
available in June and will continue until
the end of the year, but may then be
renewed. It also includes financial aid
for installing charging points.
Sea rescue
A Spanish naval patrol boat has rescued
a Nigerian merchant ship from pirates.
The hijackers had seized the craft four
days before the patrol vessel Serviola
spotted it sailing erratically and without
transmitting its automated identification
signal. The Spanish crew saw the ship
safely out of the Gulf of Guinea and
confirmed none its crew was harmed
during their ordeal.
Big quake
The most powerful earthquake to
strike Cataluña in the 21st century
recorded a magnitude of 4.2 last
month. The movement was felt on
April 3 between Andorra and
Barcelona, with lower intensity
aftershocks reported over a wide area,
but no injuries or damage were
reported. The epicentre was near
Ribera d’Urgellet, 120 kilometres
north-west of Barcelona.
Spain may soon have to make a decision
about which time zone it wants to adopt
after the EU agreed to end the practice
of changing all clocks in member states
twice a year. In late March, MEPs voted
by 410 to 192 to scrap the spring and
autumn changes, and to leave it to each
to decide for themselves what is best.
Their decision has to be confirmed by
the European Council made up of
representatives of all states who must
vote unanimously for the change to go
ahead. It is thought, however, that the
move is already favoured by most EU
member states.
If the proposition gets the OK, the final
date on which all European clocks will
change simultaneously will be the last
Sunday in March, 2021, when time will
jump forward by one hour. Then, at
the end of October, 2021, when clocks
would normally go back one hour,
states will be free to decide what to do.
There has been growing support in
Spain, presently on GMT+1 in winter,
for a move to follow the clocks in the
Canary Islands, Portugal and the UK
which are always one hour behind
Spanish mainland time. It was said that
Franco changed peninsular Spain to
GMT+1 during World War II to align
with Berlin, although it has also been
suggested that General de Gaulle made
the decision after the war in a bid to
maintain peace in western Europe.
Geographically, Spain should be in the
same time zone as the UK, Belgium,
the Netherlands and a large part of
France; this move is supported by
Galicia in particular because of its close
ties to neighbouring Portugal. On the
other hand, the Balearic Islands want to
move to Central European Time
(GMT+1) year round and even suggests
GMT+2 in summer to allow tourists as
much sunshine as possible.
Nothing is simple and clear cut when it
comes to time zones. The US state of
Hawaii plus the Canadian province of
Saskatchewan do not observe daylight
saving, while the state of Indiana has to
operate three different time
arrangements because it straddles two
time zones. Citizens of Arizona don’t
observe daylight saving, unless they
live in the Navajo Indian Reservation.
Chile delayed it in 1987 when the Pope
visited and in 1990 for a general
election, while Antarctica is a very
confusing place: Palmer Station is on
Chilean time while the rest of the
continent isn’t, the UK’s Rothera base
does not implement daylight saving,
but US Bases on New Zealand time do.
In Mexico debates raged when daylight
saving was introduced 20 years ago. Top
of the list of complaints was the strain it
put on good marital relations. The
argument went that setting the clock
back caused distress among Latin lovers
who are unable to engage in their
mananero – literally, a morning
“quickie” - because wives have to take
their children to school an hour earlier...
Warning on high cost call-backs
The Spanish watchdog FACUA
Consumers in Action last month
warned against returning missed phone
calls from five African and eastern
European countries. The advice follows
complaints of unexpectedly high bills
after calling numbers left by businesses
in Albania, Bosnia, Côte d'Ivoire,
Ghana and Nigeria. At the heart of the
problem are private-sector companies
which use high cost additional tariff
numbers for their call backs. These
automatically charge the originating
subscriber for the connection, and
FACUA says that, while this could be
regarded as unethical, it is not illegal.
The organisation says that anyone
having fallen prey to the scam should
advise their operator in writing and
request an itemised bill which breaks
down the cost of the rogue call. The
10
customer can then opt not to pay this
part of the bill. FACUA adds that
Spanish law states that a
telecommunications company is not
allowed to cut off a customer who has
contacted them to dispute a bill or who
does not pay a charge relating to these
additional tariff numbers. So, even if
the phone company then sends
reminders, the customer should not be
cut off for non-payment.
FACUA says the numbers to beware of
are those beginning with international
dialling codes 355 (Albania), 387 (Bosnia),
225 (Côte d'Ivoire, formerly the Ivory
Coast), 233 (Ghana) and 234 (Nigeria). It
also advises consumers who routinely
receive calls from these countries not to
reply to numbers displayed which are
not known to them.