MOTHER’S HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST ENDESA
By David Eade – Costa del Sol News
Karin Kapp has been walking the streets of central Ronda with a placard declaring she is on hunger strike as Endesa refused to connect electricity to her home. The ploy seems to have worked for after waiting for eight months the electricity company immediate sprang in to action.
The German mother lives in Jimera de Líbar. She said: “My house is in the country between Jimera de Líbar and Estación and my neighbours have had no problem with electricity.”
Karin went on to say she had lost her job because she is a composer and had been working on the music for a programme aired on a TV channel in her home country. However no electricity meant she couldn’t work on her computer so the project fell through.
Perhaps a more serious problem for Karin is she is a single mother with three children. The youngest has kidney cancer and needs medicine that has to be kept in a fridge. To get over the problem she had to go to her friend’s house eight times a day for the medication.
Karin had been asking Endesa to supply her with power for eight months so in desperation she went on hunger strike. As there is no Endesa office in Ronda she took her protest to the busy shopping streets to make her plight known to the media and the public.
The frustrated young mother said had Endesa told her there would be a problem she could have sought another solution such as installing solar panels. However she had spent around 24,000 euros having pylons and a transformer installed and all she needed was a technician to come to hook it up.
Amidst the glare on publicity instead of giving Karin the usual brush-off Endesa sprang in to action and hooked up the supply. The company claimed it had not acted before because the documentation was incomplete and the installation was in another name.
TOUGHEST TEST
Over the weekend Ronda held its 101 km in 24 hours marathon in conjunction with the Legion. Over 7,000 competitors took part in one of the hardest tests in Spain. The route ran from Ronda through Arriate, Alcalá del Valle, Setenil, Montejaque and Benaoján with 1,000 people including members of the Legion controlling the tough endurance event over rough terrain.
WORD CHANGE
CEDER, which promotes rural development in the Serranía de Ronda, wants the Real Academia Española’s dictionary to change its definition of rural. CEDER argues the Serranía has 23 municipalities with 60,000 residents whilst the main town Ronda has almost 40,000. However all are deemed rural, an historic prejudicial term that does not take into account the natural and cultural values of the zones.
POLICE TRIAL
The trial finally gets under way this month of nine people including four National Police officers and a Guardia Civil stationed in Ronda. The officers are accused of not taking action against brothels in the municipality between 2003 and 2007 and for accepting money plus sexual favours for overlooking irregularities. Over 60 witnesses will take part, some of whose identity have court protection.
INDY MUNICIPALITIES
Ronda council in one of its last acts before the local elections approved the way for the outlying districts of Montecorto and Serrato to become independent municipalities. These rural areas already enjoy ELA autonomous status and now the regional government has dropped its minimum population condition will, within the next two years, become the 102 and 103 municipalities in the province of Málaga.
NEIGHBOURLY ACT
Guardia Civil in Arriate arrested a 21-year-old who is accused of breaking in to the two properties on either side of his own, probably over the balcony. He is alleged to have stolen various items worth around 3,000 euros including a video consol, DVD with Digital TV connection, games’ CDs and cash. The thefts took place over Easter when the neighbours were away.
JOBLESS DROPS
Ronda has recorded a drop in the number of unemployed for the month of April. The new total is 4,524 – 145 less than the previous month. The figure is also the lowest total in the municipality since December. Women still make up the majority without work, 2,400. The drop coincided with the Easter holiday season plus the town hall’s tenth job creation plan.
GIVING EVIDENCE
The child prosecutor has started taking evidence in Arriate over the death of 13-year-old María Esther Jiménez on January 20. A 17-year-old living in the village has been arrested for her murder. The youth is being held in preventive detention for six months but this can be extended for another three months. The prosecutor’s action starts the process of bringing him to trial.
DIGITAL X-RAY
The Serranía de Ronda health service has invested 330,000 euros on digitalising the x-ray, CAT scan, echographs and mammogram system. This means the 85,000 x-rays taken at the Ronda hospital each year can be accessed by doctors there plus all the health centres and consulting units in the area. The system was first introduced in the emergency and intensive care unit in 2009.
TAJO SEWAGE
Since Ronda installed its new sewage system is has led to a great improvement to the cleanliness of the waters coursing through the Tajo. However 16 houses in the central calle Villanueva still send their sewage in to the gorge. Now a 262,000 euros scheme is underway co-funded by Málaga province to install a new drainage system that connects to the sewage network.
