Dear NEXOnr,
We have always appreciated the hard work Diana and Salva have put into the years of NEXO, and particularly the new on-line NEXOnr, and we love them both dearly, however, it has always been a source of irritation to me that their publications don’t or won’t publish anything like the amount of dissatisfied resident complaints.
I realise nowhere in the world is perfect, and have to say that we have enjoyed our 7 years living in Calasparra, but we need to feel safe in our homes as well as out on the street, and really do need more consideration from our elected representatives and their staff. For example, why didn’t the town hall provide an English speaking representative to help new residents when they arrived 5 years or so ago. And why does the mayors new website only accepts suggestions, complaints and comments in Spanish. I fully accept that as visitors to this new life it is our responsibility to learn local communications skills, and indeed many of us have, however, Marie and l have been knocking around Spain for many years. I also accept that at a certain age it is not so easy to absorb this new information, especially if you are living in a predominantly British community with little opportunity to further your practical skills.
Jim & Marie Cregeen, 27 La Nora, 30420 Calasparra, Murcia – Spain.
EDITOR’S RESPONSE
We are delighted to receive this email from our reader, of which we have printed only part, because it gives us an opportunity to clarify a few issues that have been outstanding for some time.
Firstly, when NEXO was a bilingual newspaper it was a campaigning publication which advocated on behalf of the entire population of Calasparra: Spanish speaking and non Spanish speaking. During this period we fiercely defended our independence and resisted considerable pressure from the authorities who were unaccustomed to any form of criticism. However, when advertising revenue in the town virtually dried up we had a choice stop producing NEXO or radically cut costs.
As the Spanish speaking residents were well served news wise (public radio, two local televisions and a newspaper) we felt it was important to continue to inform the non Spanish speakers about the town, its news and consumer and national information which affected them but was only available in Spanish: NEXOnr, English only review was born.
NEXOnr changed in that moment from a campaigning publication to a point of information for non Spanish speakers printing information that would otherwise be inaccessible to them. The editorial team consider it would entirely wrong to print criticisms of the Spanish authorities or anyone else for that matter in a language they cannot understand and to which they cannot respond. Neither is NEXOnr a vehicle for readers’ complaints against the authorities: these should be made in person to the appropriate agency.
NEXOnr webpage will continue to inform and attempt to engender integration between the host and new residents and to provide accurate information which helps non Spanish speakers understand, operate and live in Calasparra.
We would appeal to our readers to be realistic in their expectations of NEXOnr and the editorial team. NEXOnr was not created to represent the views or the interests of the non Spanish speaking residents here in Calasparra: it merely sets out to keep readers informed and provide opportunities for integration. In this we hope we generally succeed.
