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lenox · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 8:48 pm Post subject: Outliving Our welcome?

'Mojacar Insider' over on another forum (where, for some reason, I'm not allowed to post), thinks that 'The general consensus amongst many of the other long-term ex-pat residents with whom I have spoken to in the past few weeks is that we have outlived our welcome'. Sometimes I think this is - inexplicably - true, while other times I reckon that we are still an important part of our local society, bringing money, companionship, employment and a bit of culture.
Mojacar Insider bases his opinion on the supposed actions of the Mojacar Town Hall - but is he right, I wonder?

Beachcomber_Bar_Mojacar · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:31 am Post subject:

Lennox, try re-registering on the forum with a slightly different name, I cant see there being a problem with you personally, John.

Adeybrown · Regular Joined: Jun 19, 2009 Posts: 112

Is this because they aren't making money out of land/property any more?

If every Brit left Mojacar/Garrucha/Vera Playa I wonder how long before it returned back to some god forsaken agricultural backwater?

I know it isn't very PC to say this but it is a similar argument in South Africa. If every white left South Africa it would decline into complete economic and civil chaos within 2 to 3 years. Look to Nigeria for a country with a similar abundance of natural resources that was left to govern independently as a "federal republic".

The British are interwoven into the social and economic fabric of the Mojacar area. It may appear and look as though the Spanish community is surviving and could do so without British interruption but somewhere along the chain I guarantee you is a link that relys upon British financial input.

I think it makes political sense to play to a nationalistic sentiment during a period of austerity and high unemployment. The Town Hall are well aware that this appeals to a certain gallery. I imagine if things started picking up and building work increased the anti British sentiment would fade away. As it stands local people seem unaware that even the Brits that aren't resident are renting out their apartments to fellow Brits who are spending money in Spanish restaurants or buying a quarter of all food sold in Mercadona. Take that money away and more Spanish people lose jobs, more cafes close and the Town Hall has half the money to spend.

lenox · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:17 pm Post subject:

There are a few local people who have made a stack of money over the years - from real estate, building urbanisations, fraud and politics - and they are interested in paying 10c on the euro for anyone needing to sell up. (The village in particular is getting rather monochromatic).
The Junta de Andalucia is getting rather chauvinist, but with luck, the institutionalised PSOE will be booted out in a couple of weeks. Beyond that, some people seem nicer than others and life goes on as it must. At a local level, our neighbours in the campo seem just as friendly as ever. It's 'Mojacar Insiders' call, but I think that the majority of people here have more pressing problems than what the foreigners might be up to.

lenox · Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:05 pm Post subject:

Then there's the new Mojácar magazine put out by the Town Hall. It's called 'Mojácar todo el año' http://www.dobleespacio.com/mojacar/MOJACAR_5.pdf. Great production, superb photos, bilingual text and eighty pages about our favourite village.
The 'forasteros' - we make up 60% of the inhabitants - aren't mentioned at all.

ejay · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:43 pm Post subject:

I am risking 'flack' by responding to this post!!,..but what the hell??,........It's ten years now since I lived in Mojacar, but I have been back for a 'fleeting' visit,...and the changes are unbelievable!!!,....fifteen/twenty years ago it was a very different place, although still with a heavy influx of foreigners, it was a 'melting pot' of cultures and ideals, a place that welcomed change within it's own boundaries, but now those boundaries have been pushed to the extreme!!,........by way of example, I recieved a email yesterday from a Spanish friend to show me his new bar, although he speaks very little English, his whole bar is promoted, both inside and out, in English!!,....."and that saddens me!!, the very beauty and culture of the place has been 'raped' !!!!! :"?

Beachcomber_Bar_Mojacar · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:53 pm Post subject:

Ejay, I think its more a case of your friend trying to get at a different clientèle because his own countrymen and women are not spending in bars and restaurants rather than there being lots of Brit customers around. Its all botellon and drinking at home nowadays. Also for most Brits so he's possibly barking up the wrong tree, John.

cab2 · Regular Joined: Sep 20, 2007 Posts: 226

hartcjhart · Advanced Joined: Jan 23, 2004 Posts: 362

lenox · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:01 pm Post subject:

I think most of the 'raping of the beauty of the place' is down to a few local barons who worship money but don't have much pride in their town. You can't really balance enormous and pointless underground car-parks, behemoth and unsaleable constructions and useless and overpriced public buildings... with a few tattooed nitwits falling about drunk on the Strip.

kingdh99 · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:12 am Post subject:

ejay, I understand your sentiment but as with anywhere where you have enjoyed a great experience in your life, if you leave it for 10 or 20 years and then go back, it will have changed, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

The fact is people need money to survive and as the whole world changes very few if any places will remain the same either structurally or in the mix and attitudes of the population.

When you were first there it was probably a difficult place to get to, with the pueblo being the summer destination for the Madrilenos. With modern communications and air-travel new business opportunities occur and people take advantage.

Now that Almeria airport is sliding backwards to oblivion, maybe in another 10 years Mojacar will return to being as you remember it.

pottsy189 · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 12:04 pm Post subject:

Yes very difficult to get to, the beach road was full of pot holes, we took 2 tyres out in one go just by the 3 hotels, no street lights, but we still like the place and haven't notice much change [over 100 trips] other than new builds going up all over the place & motorways, there was always more eating places than people around, 25 years ago ! what has changed is US getting old and the airports getting to large, that is why we only go over 2 times a year now not 4 , and out off season ie May & October
The pueblo was the place to get your money changed from english notes to Spainish

JoeP · Advanced Joined: Feb 22, 2006 Posts: 333 Location: ROI

The Spanish got on without the expatriate community before we came and will get on without us after we've gone. The Spanish and the Brits were once world powers. Both have since progressed to being ordinary peoples. (Sorry to break the news guys!).

The "welcome" for the ex-pat community was never there. Furthermore, in general terms it never worked the other way round either. But, both communities lived in relative friendship and peace. The ex-pats brought and spent money, the Spanish were happy. They were making money from Sun, Sea, Sand and new Buildings. Since then, we are into a new generation of "ex-pats" who in reality are Spaniards with UK accents.
Both communities made money, the former northern Europeans know that you cannot starve yourself out of a famine; the Spanish still think that they can increase rental prices.

They need us, we need them. The sun is always there so there will always be that link between northern europe and Spain. The only difference in a hundred years time people will be dealing with Spaniards with the names Smith, Bronson, O'Sullivan, etc.

pottsy189 · Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:25 pm Post subject:

''The Spanish got on without the expatriate community before we came and will get on without us after we've gone.''
Wrong they will ALL be in the UK just like Ireland, only the old ones left so NO job's needed ! that would cure the unemployment figures, now running at about 25%

lenox · Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:38 pm Post subject:

''The Spanish got on without the expatriate community before we came and will get on without us after we've gone.'' - In Mojácar, there were only around 600 inhabitants by 1960, most of the rest had emigrated to France... Catalonia... Germany and even Argentina. With the arrival of foreign and national settlers, money began to circulate and people returned from elsewhere. Tourism began with Horizon Holidays in about 1972 - which, in the long run, proved to be rather a bad idea.