In Spain, housing has been leading a tragic story for years where tenants have lost out in any of its endings. When there was already an excessive demand for flats and supply shortage was cause for despair, a black cloud arrived to darken everything even more: Airbnb. Housing for tourist use expanded in large cities, further aggravating the problem of availability and what worried tenants the most: a general rise in prices. All of this motivated many cities to legislate regulations and urban plans to regulate the market. Now, all of that could culminate in a major law that would…
Author: Ezra
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Why does no one know how many Nigerians there are in the world? This is the question asked by hundreds of international experts and institutions. Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa, and yet not even the country itself has a demographic approximation. We know that it had more than 140 million citizens a couple of decades ago and that it will soon become the third largest population in the world, behind India and China. But those figures and the extrapolation are based on Nigeria’s 2006 census, one that was likely rigged. This is the story of a gigantic…
9,000 are the residents who live in Monserrat d’Alcalà, Llagostera or San Fulgencio, to cite just three examples spread along the Mediterranean coast. 9,000 is the maximum capacity of some stadiums, the record mark that the Royal Albert Hall crowded during a concert held back in 1906 or the passengers that the Global Dream ship can accommodate. And 9,000 were also the lives that were lost in the tragedy of the Wilhelm Gustloff transatlantic, which for that very reason stands out as the greatest maritime disaster in history. As a sad and mournful reference, the Titanic mowed around 1,500, six…
Spain was Romanized before Christianity but today we still talk about Italianization. No, we are not referring to the term that can also be associated in politics with the collapse and fragmentation of traditional parties, nor with the recent rise of xenophobic populism, nor with a situation of economic crisis, parliamentary scandal or citizen disappointment. Nothing of that. We refer to another cultural point of view of italianism, to that recent trivial fascination with the Mediterranean, the countryside, tradition, ancient architecture, the hedonistic way of life and those things that Americans have always attributed to Italy. totally distinctive aesthetical that…
The colors and designs of the national flags are not selected arbitrarily, but are derived from the history, culture, or religion of the particular country. Many can be traced back to a common originand such “flag families” are often linked by both common traditions and geography. The oldest European flags still in use, for example, are those displaying the Christian cross, first widely used in the Crusades. It is worth noting the British flag, the Union Jack, which incorporates the Crosses of Saint George (England), Saint Andrew (Scotland) and Saint Patrick (Ireland). Also similar are those of Norway, Sweden, Finland,…
Mental health has had a very dark history in Denmark. A 2014 study suggests that 40% of Danish women and 30% of Danish men have received treatment for a mental health disorder at some point in your life. More than 60 years ago, our understanding of what went on in the brain was even more limited. Back in the 1930s, lobotomy, for example, was a common procedure performed without the consent of patients or their families. All this leads us to a curious history of the Nordic country on science, psychiatry and ethics. Or how 10,000 human brains ended up…
A few days ago, the emeritus king was seen in London leaving a private club in a luxurious 4×4. The place in question was Oswald’s, the small London corner where famous and wealthy people from the British capital meet and where dinners that can reach thousands of euros are organized. That day, Juan Carlos I allegedly dined with British royals like the Prince of Wales and ex-politicians like Boris Johnson, among other millionaires. As our fellow Trendencias commentJuan Carlos I was visiting London to go to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday and have lunch alone with Carlos III, to whom he…
The story of the African penguins is exciting, but also a little disturbing. Currently we can find these birds in the southern tip of Africa as well as in other regions of the globe, such as the Antarctic continent, the southern coast of Australia or the western coast of South America. If we stick to Africa, due to its environmental characteristics, they feel comfortable on the western coast of South Africa and Namibia, but the penguin population that resides in this region of the planet is dramatically lower than there were thousands of years ago. The last glacial maximum occurred…
Spain is facing a devastating drought. A few days ago the Ministry of Agriculture met urgently and recognized that the situation is serious and widespread, highlighting the condition in the Guadalquivir, Guadiana and inland basins of Catalonia. The data indicate that the average value of accumulated rainfall since the beginning of the hydrological year in Spain is 23.5% lower than the normal value, which is a significant drop. Rice farmers already in 2022 were able to plant only 30% of their surface. This year, if it doesn’t rain before May, there may be no planting. A terrible drought. One of…