The chicken and the egg
The current winter statistics (2006/2007) will be released in good times by civil servants who will have studied them at leisure on the hot sands of next August.
During the past winter, supposedly our rainy season, the province of Malaga received an average of 6 litres of rainwater per square metre of land. To put this statistic in perspective a bucket of water holds 10 litres. Try to sprinkle a little more than half a bucket of water on one m2 of dry earth and in minutes, given the odd ray of sunshine and a good blast of wind, that patch would have returned to a desolate cracked piece of earth. The farmers tilling that fertile plain outside Antequera have had to use very expensive metered water to irrigate their crops. Vegetables, either local or expensively imported from the other side of the world have reached dizzy prices. I can't remember paying 3.50 euros (more than 500 old pesetas) for a kilo of locally grown artichokes or 2.10 for tomatoes. This year potato harvest is still lying on the ground and the poor spuds look like dried ginger roots due to distortion by lack of water. Try to peel those multi-headed monsters for a good old mash and you'll soon reach for a packet of pasta. Except that pasta is made of cereals and those require a fair amount of water to grow.
On the other hand the Junta de Andalucia has given the go-ahead for various local councils to consider favourably 21 applications for new golf courses in the area. We need another one like a 19th hole in the head. The place is infested with those "keep off the grass" no-go expanses of land that could be put to better use like keeping them as they were long time ago. A shepherd whose pasture grounds run alongside the high hills of Marbella complained in the local press a couple of years ago that every time he returned from the mountains with his flock of sheep and goats he had lost part of his lower grazing space to yet another golf course. Considering that the lopping and grazing rights are bought annually from the Town Hall our shepherd was not amused. He started a ball rolling fast, so fast that the Marbella dignitaries had no idea of the avalanche yet to crash on their heads. The ball has exploded.Two hundreds and eighty luxury villas plus 1500 apartments are being pulled down. The once upon a time Rolls-Royce driven dignitaries are in jail complaining of the food. Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon are not on the menu of Spanish jails.
Those playing grounds require more than 6 litres of water per m2. Where is it going to come from? Aha! Say the councils: golf courses irrigation comes from "grey water". This ambiguous expression means water produced mainly by domestic waste that has not been treated to human consumption standard. I am all for it. We are so used to brown water nowadays that the colour matters not. Try to wash some whites in your washing machine and see the result. Especially in summer when we are really scraping the bottom of the reservoirs thanks to the tourism industry. I buy black knickers not to look tartly but because I know that the water is guaranteed to keep them deep black in the wash. A holidaymaker told me once that she was taking 10 showers a day and kept the children out of her hair by giving them pocket money to wash the car. The little darlings did just that. All day long with the pressure jet so they could stuff their already rotting teeth with highly coloured sweets made of chemicals and packets of unidentifiable munchies. After so much washing the mother looked like a dried-up prune. The day I saw her was a total waste of make-up. The car was already showing some sign of rust in places. Or may be it was the other way round. I can't remember.
The problem with water of whatever colour is that it has to come from somewhere in the first place. In Andalucia where the once upon a time rivers are now just rough tracks it comes from underground tables fed by rain. No rain: no water of whatever colour. The chicken and the egg.
To combine idiocy with greed, permission has been given for a further 10 so-called 5stars hotels to join the forest of already badly built high-rise horrors. Each of those vertical rabbit warrens will have a minimum of 500 bedrooms. You don't need to have an MA in maths to calculate that in the season there will be an additional 10.000 pink-skinned rabbits using the loos and having baths and showers. Where will the water come from? Don't think for a moment that it will come from the North. That part of Spain has said quite firmly that it would be prepared to help the South for agriculture and domestic needs but under no circumstance for building more hotels and golf courses. The desalination plant in the province of Almeria not only shot its original building estimate by an impressive amount of millions before it was completed but was also oversubscribed at the same time by farmers who were eager to pay the ultimate for watering their crops. Similar fate will await any other plant of the kind. The sea is as unforgiving as the harsh land. It doesn't let go of its riches without putting up a good fight. Put that in your pockets Councillors and smoke it. And smoke you will have this coming summer. Already 575 hectares in the area have been destroyed by early fires and more are predicted. The tumbleweeds and dried up brush are kindling ready to go. The earth is baked as hard as the rock cakes Chris's mother used to produce. The fire fighters will not have a drop of water to fight with. The helicopters will have to scoop water from the thousands of swimming pools littering the area to the wrath of the owners who have yet to find out what it feels like to watch your property consumed by flames and feeling hopelessly powerless.
Coming back to artichokes (I am not talking about councillors, those guys who go through life with their hands in their pockets) here is something simple for any season, as a starter or part of a buffet occasion. You'll need very small fresh artichokes at a reasonable price and it doesn't use water..
ARTICHOKES A LA SICILIAN
For 4 helpings as a starter8 small artichokes, stems chopped off, top of the leaves cut off and outer rough leaves removed
A small glass of olive oil
2 onions thinly sliced
Juice of one orange and one lemon
A small glass of white balsamic vinegar
A few capers
A small tin of anchovies well drained
A small cup of soft brown sugar
Some cooking white wine
Cut the artichokes in quarters. You should not need to wash them. If they are small enough the choke doesn't matter. Throw everything in a pan with the hot oil except for the capers and the anchovies. Stir well and add enough white wine to cover. Let it simmer for about an hour. Test with a knife. When the artichokes are tender add the capers and the anchovies. Give it a stir. Pour yourself a glass of decent wine and check that the washing machine is not overflowing due to an overenthusiastic dose of washing powder. Let the whole thing go a bit syrupy (the artichoke casserole) and check for seasoning. It should not need anything. The capers and anchovies are very salty. Serve hot or cold.
Scientists at the University of Granada are predicting that in few years time 60% of Southern Spain's land will have undergone desertification unless there is a definite and concerted effort by all to stop unsustainable projects and to keep to a controlled planning of reforestation. It applies to many other countries.
Promoters versus Nature or Nature against promoters.
The chicken and the egg.
JOCELYNE
The last instalment of Mister Bear adventures will be shortly on spanglefish.com/MisterBear
