Winner: Spain Barbie (2007)!

パルケエスパーニャ 03/Parque España 03

Spain has just passed a law allowing those with especially painful periods to take paid “menstrual leave” from work, in a European first.

The law gives the right to a three-day “menstrual” leave of absence - with the possibility of extending it to five days - for those with disabling periods, which can cause severe cramps, nausea, dizziness and even vomiting.

The law states that the new policy will help combat the stereotypes and myths that still surround periods and hinder women’s lives.

Source: Euro News (link in bio)

#spain #period #healthcare https://www.instagram.com/p/CpAjhGQLebR/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

well, today is a good day:

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They require a login so I did my best to get around it by some copying and pasting below. Did not get everything but hopefully enough to get a gist, as this is VERY interesting:

How a derelict countryside bloomed into an ecoparadise

Rural Spain has been losing population for decades. Now, new idealistic communities are moving in.

Prada de la Sierra, in northwestern Spain, emptied out in the seventies as people migrated to cities. In more recent years, about a dozen newcomers have moved in and restored some of its buildings. Residents won a court order in early June to have the village recognized again.

Where one person sees emptiness, another may find promise. That was the running theme for Dutch anthropologist and photojournalist Sanne Derks as she documented the lives of people who have moved into abandoned homes and villages in the sparsely populated Spanish countryside.

“I’d been working on a story about European citizens developing initiatives to resist climate change,” says Derks. She became fascinated by ecovillages—sustainable cooperative communities—which inspired a larger project.

Marta Haro López, Sara Vallejo Sarden, Mauricio Noel Strübing, and Yule Argüello Navarro have breakfast in a house they built in isolated Matavenero, in northwestern Spain. German hippies resettled the deserted village in the 1980s; now it’s home to around 50 permanent…Read More

During 2020 and 2021, she explored seven Spanish hamlets that have been “repopulated,” including not only ecovillages but other types of living arrangements. Derks found the residents shared a common outlook. “Almost all of them are doing it from the conviction that things have to be different in today’s world,” Derks says. “They believe that the city is no longer the place to live.”

She christened her photography project Rutopia, a blend of “rural” and “utopia,” which explores two questions: What compels someone to pack up and move to a village in ruins, and what challenges do they face once there?

Hannah Brüderer is one of the founders of the community at Matavenero. Her son and grandchildren still live here. “Most people stay around 10 years,” she says. One of the challenges is earning money from the remote location; people often move when their children…Read More

The sustainable community concept may have existed for centuries, but the term “ecovillage” is relatively new. Founded over 30 years ago, one of Spain’s oldest examples is Matavenero, a remote mountain outpost in the León Province. The deserted village, which can be reached only by foot, was settled anew by a group of German hippies in the late 1980s, and today has about 50 permanent residents. According to the Global Ecovillage Network, a volunteer organization, Spain has about 90 ecovillages, far more than most countries in Europe.

Spain also has something other European countries lack. “Spain is much more spacious than, say, the Netherlands or Belgium,” Derks says. “On top of that, there has been a great deal of migration to the coastal cities and to Madrid since the 1970s.” According to the Spanish government, 70 percent of the country’s land is occupied by just 10 percent of the population, a phenomenon commonly referred to as España vacía, or empty Spain. The exodus is so extreme that many rural villages are now complete ghost towns.

In addition to a desire for a lifestyle change, Derks observed that people moving into these sparsely populated reaches were also spurred by the strict lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic and a series of economic and housing crises. “They are turning away from capitalism, from consumerism—and seeking some kind of utopian mini-society,” she explains. But Derks discovered that this ideal has more than a few imperfections.

Left: Felix Franco Escobar and Guillem Mateu Prat barbecue in the ruin where Franco Escobar lives in Aguinalíu. The building, a former stable for animals, doesn’t have any windows or doors, but he’s content with his home…Read More

Right: Barchel, an off-grid village in the province of Valencia, stood empty for 40 years. Seven years ago, new residents moved in. They’ve organized in a communal style, rotating daily tasks like preparing dinner, working in the garden, and herding the goats. Those who hol…Read More

Jürgen Pluindrich, who lives in Matavenero, was given his house in exchange for three weeks of labor for another resident more than 20 years ago. Originally from Germany, he says he has a sense of belonging he couldn’t find in the urban jungle.

Shangri-blahs

An unreliable phone connection. Getting snowed in during the winter. Not being able to survive on just the harvest from your own vegetable garden. Before she began her reporting, Derks expected the challenges of the countryside would primarily be found in the hardships of an isolated, self-sufficient life. “Those do play a role, of course,” she says. “But after I visited a few places, I realized that most of the problems in the communities by far had to do with internal conflict.”

A bad brew of NIMBY and gossip could spoil the espirit de corps. “You have a nice tree but it casts a shadow on someone else’s place. Or you are very happy with your berry bush, but if you don’t prune it in time, the neighbor children will scratch their legs on it,” she says. “Or suppose your romantic relationship breaks up. That can suddenly become a big issue in such a small community.”

In La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, in the Catalonia region, Dídac Costa bought 70 hectares (170 acres), including four abandoned structures in a hamlet. (The park includes municipalities.) He’s put his money into renovating this house, but his dream is to cr…Read More

Even venerable Matavenero couldn’t reach perfect harmony. “I expected that community to be a success story because it has already lasted multiple generations,” Derks says. “But the problems turned out to be at least as severe as in other places. In one case, someone even set someone else’s house on fire.”

Communication seemed to be a perennial challenge, and a person might even be expelled from the group because of a conflict.

One nascent community in Girona Province was completely free of interpersonal conflict—because it has only a single resident. In La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, an idyllic landscape of tree-covered extinct volcanoes north of Barcelona, Derks visited Dídac Costa. With money inherited from his father, he had purchased 170 acres of land in the park, including several ruins in the hamlet of Ca l’Amat in order to found a community.

Hailing from Barcelona, Dídac Costa has four cats, three dogs, two donkeys, and 35 goats. But apart from the animals, he hasn’t yet been able to find any like-minded residents for the aspirational community he calls Ecovila Amat. “What Dídac has in mind is politically…Read More

“He completely renovated one house. He lives there now with three dogs, four cats, two donkeys, and 35 goats.” But apart from the animals, he hasn’t yet been able to find any like-minded people for the community he calls Ecovila Amat.

“What Dídac has in mind is politically complicated,” Derks explains. “In order to live with him, people have to share his anarchistic convictions. And candidates who are sufficiently eco-libertarian/pacifist/hippie, “often don’t have any money to invest,” she says. “So he’s been living there alone for years.”

No matter how idyllic the setting, there’s no such thing as a conflict-free social group, Derks says. It’s “the price you have to pay if you want to start a community with diverse personalities.”

Costa feeds his animals in front of his house in the hamlet of C'al Amat. He doesn’t see his attempt to start a community as a failure. “Even if you never reach the destination, it still gives direction to your life,” says Derks. 

But now and then she found herself in places that felt pretty utopian. In Barchel, an off-grid village west of Valencia, Derks immediately felt right at home. A group of young idealists were converting a vacant farmhouse there into their new residence. Until they arrived seven years ago, the place had been deserted for four decades.

“There is an enormous vegetable garden, and they have a lot of fun together,” she says. “They’re highly motivated to develop the village based on their values.” For one, Barchel has no hierarchy. The residents make nearly all of their decisions by holding a meeting. “Who will milk the goats? Who will work in the garden? Who is taking care of lunch? Who is making soap? It’s kind of like a perpetual school camping trip,” she says.

Derks realized that she wasn’t cut out for communal life. “That was perhaps the greatest challenge of this project,” she says. “I embrace many of the ideas that make up the foundation of such a village, such as sustainability and minimalism.” But her individualistic side tugs more.

“You have to set yourself aside in a certain sense for the collective goal of building a sustainable future together,” she says. “It’s fantastic that they do it, but I couldn’t do it myself. Holding a meeting for each little decision? I don’t have the patience for that.”

Andrea Martín Moreno, Duende del Parke, Lalo Arracíl Coca, and Miguel Martínez, who have been living in Fraguas, in the Castilla-La Mancha region, take an afternoon break at the communal house and outdoor kitchen. The barrels constitute their preparation for…Read More

Rural reinvention

Although a utopia in the Spanish mountains may not be for everyone, many people do flourish. Jürgen Pluindrich, originally from Germany, has been living in Matavenero for 30 years and raised a child there. “He told me he wouldn’t be able to find his way among the asphalt and consumerism of a city,” Derks says.

In Aguinalíu, a mountain village in the Aragon region, she heard a similar story from Guillem Mateu Prat. He bought a place for a thousand euros and wants to renovate it using only recycled materials. He’s found an inner peace he was missing in his earlier life. “He felt lost in the city,” says Derks.

She also met people who had grown up in an ecovillage. “Once the children go to school, the parents often move to a village nearby that has facilities,” she explains. “But when they’re grown and want to start a family themselves, many of them go back to the community. It gives them a warm feeling.”

Even Dídac Costa, still searching for those like-minded residents for Ecovila Amat, doesn’t see his community of one as a failure. Derks expresses Costa’s mindset: “Even if you never reach the destination, it still gives direction to your life.”

An early morning view over Fraguas. About 15 newcomers hoping to start a self-sustaining community rebuilt the abandoned structures. The local government has since ordered the group to dismantle the buildings or pay for their demolition. After that, the land mi…Read More

Pioneer pains

She sees the value in the paring back one’s possessions. “When I worked as a tour guide in South America, I saw people in my groups with trekking poles, 17 pairs of shoes, convertible pants,” she says. “Everyone thinks that they need all that stuff. When you learn how to tear yourself away from that idea, in a certain sense you are more free.”

Felix Franco Escobar, a Paraguayan Derks met in Aguinalíu, embodied that spirit. “Always in good humor and completely satisfied, although he owns practically nothing,” she says. “A master of minimalism.” Escobar can usually be found sipping maté tea. He lives in a former sheep pen, made of stone and without a door or windows, where he sleeps on a bed without a mattress.

“He works in construction but is in no hurry at all to renovate that cottage,” Derks says. As for the lack of a mattress, he maintains it’s good for your back. “I’m not saying that everyone should go and live that way,” says Derks. “But you could reflect on what you really have to have.”

In a manner of speaking, the small Fraguas community in the forested hills of Guadalajara, northeast of Madrid, takes minimizing possessions to the extreme—according to the local government they have no right to live there. Derks recalls its fruit trees and berry bushes in bloom during her visit. “Very idyllic, but there is a good chance the people will be evicted,” she says.

The inhabitants consider repopulation to be their right, but the Spanish government holds a different view. The settlers, labeled as “squatters"—Spain has a complex history of squatting, which originated in the post-Franco era—have been entangled in a legal dispute with authorities for seven years, partly about violating property rights.

Recently a court ordered six members of the Fraguas community to pay 110,000 euros to demolish the town they rebuilt or go to prison for more than two years. They’ve announced they will appeal the decision. “They can’t pay, after all, because they have nothing. Now some of them have a prison sentence hanging over their heads,” says Derks. “That’s a high price for a utopia.”

These communities grapple with so many conflicts, Derks believes, precisely because they are pioneers. “They’re experimenting with anti-capitalist models, something that seems totally impossible in a capitalistic world,” she says.

Ideological commitment is a common denominator of the places Derks visited—whether that’s residents who want to reduce their ecological footprint, live with fewer possessions, or experiment with new political and economic systems.

“That’s exactly where the utopia lies, I think,” says Derks. “I started to admire the fact that they dared make such a conscious choice. Because no matter how small it is, they are doing something.”

This story was adapted from the Dutch edition of National Geographic.

An age-old strategy has been revived to tackle the devastating effects of drought and heatwaves.

The four-legged brigade – made up of 290 sheep and goats – has just one task: to munch on as much vegetation as possible.

Their arrival turned Barcelona into one of the latest places to embrace an age-old strategy that’s being revived as officials around the world face off against a rise in extreme wildfires.

The idea is simple: wildfire-prone areas are handed over to grazing animals, who chomp and trample over dry vegetation that could otherwise accumulate as fuel for fires. Whether the animals are semi-wild or overseen by a shepherd who is usually compensated for their efforts, a job well done usually leaves behind a landscape dotted with open spaces that can act as firebreaks.

The grazing has brought about other benefits: the animals carry seeds and fertilise as they move through the terrain and their relatively indiscriminate feeding habits nurture biodiversity by curtailing the competitive advantage of some plants.

Source: The Guardian (link in bio)

#spain #goats #climatechange https://www.instagram.com/p/CiAt5R3P38l/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

84 projects for potential new TV series will be presented at this year’s Cartoon Forum event. A few are listed here. The entire selection can be found here: http://www.cartoon-media.eu/cartoon-forum/cartoon-forum-2021/discover-the-projects-2021.htm#

- VORO (France) Lily is a talented young novice who dreams of becoming a master thief. During one of her quests, Lily finds herself at the centre of a battle between several ancient cults, worshipping entities who have been long forgotten…

- UNDER THE SCHOOL (France) Welcome to St Joseph’s, a school known for welcoming into its ranks all kinds of “unperfoming“ children. Anywhere else these “offset“ students would be at the back of the classroom. But not at St Joseph’s.

- THE LAST OF THE PEBBLES (France)  Firmin Pebble has just lost his parents, two famous explorers who died at sea. Hosted by his aunt Anna in Normandy, he encounters a huge, lost sea creature.

- THE CHIMERAS KEEPERS (France) What if the dreams that fill children’s nights were actually sent to them by fantastic creatures called…Chimera?

- IVY’S BOOKSHOP (Ireland)  is about a 6-year-old dragon who lives in a sleepy coastal village and dreams of adventure. The only adventures to be found nearby, however, are those in the books in Ivy’s Bookshop – where Ivy lives with her two dads.

- HADIDO AND THE RED FLOWER (France), is the adventures of Maya, an intrepid and waggish 8-year-old girl, fond of technology, and Hadido, a shy and clumsy giant robot.

- A'AI MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF POLYNESIA (France) follows the travels of two children guided by a magic Tiki. With them, the whole family can travel to the South Pacific and discover or rediscover the myths and legends of Polynesia.

- THE MONSTERS VALLEY (Spain) Ellis is a common teenager who, accidentally, touches a magic orb and acquires a power that allows him to control fire. At that moment, he starts being chased by strange creatures who want to take advantage of his power.

- BOOKWORMS (Belgium) Pam, Elikya and Lola, three 18-years-old girlfriends, run a book club at their university dedicated to the discovery of unknown female authors.

- THE SCAVENGERS (Ireland) Humans have been forced into Space and Earth as we know it is gone. But when Arrow and his best-bud-robot are dragged back to post apocalyptic Earth, they form part of The Scavenger crew. Their task? A super important mission: find supplies and determine if humans can ever return to their home planet.

Quino (17 July 1932 -  30 September 2020)

Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón, better known by his pen name Quino, was an Argentine-Spanish cartoonist. His comic strip Mafalda (which ran from 1964 to 1973) is popular in many parts of the Americas and Europe and has been praised for its use of social satire as a commentary on real-life issues.

Rest in Power Cinchona !

Check out the ‘flower moon’ as seen from Segovia, Spain. This week marked the last supermoon of 2020. Supermoons occur when the full moon coincides with the moon being closest to Earth 🌸🌕

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