2024-05-04 11:42:03
Up until only a few years ago, the concept of bullying wasn’t really recognised in Spain, so much so that when social awareness about this problem grew, Spaniards first adopted the English word ‘bullying’ to describe it.
They also referred to it as bulling, or bulin to make it easier for them to spell and pronounce, and used it to describe physical and verbal abuse at work as well. More recently, they’ve coined the more Spanish and specific term acoso escolar (school harassment).
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It’s likely that bullying in Spanish classrooms was around decades ago, but there’s every reason to believe it wasn’t as widespread as it is now, as the latest figures suggest one in three kids in Spain has suffered bullying.
It’s not that Spanish schools and high schools are any worse than elsewhere in Europe. In fact, according to the latest stats from the World Health Organisation, Spain has among the lowest rates of bullying on the continent, whereas Lithuania, England, Denmark and Latvia have the highest prevalence.
Bullying doesn’t make you stronger.
Bullying doesn’t hurt you.
Bullying doesn’t make you tougher.
Bullying always leaves its mark.As today is International Day Against Bullying and Harassment, I needed to remember this. pic.twitter.com/kAWTfx98Ix
— Ugo Sin Hache (@Ugo_Sin_Hache) May 2, 2024
Rather, Spain’s rising bullying rate has the same roots as in other countries: cyberbullying, whereby young people humiliate, insult or verbally abuse their classmates online, is on the up.
The 50 percent rise of cyberbullying (or ciberacoso) in schools in the Valencian Community is the chief reason why the regional government has decided to ban mobile phones in all schools and high schools from Monday.
Seven regions in Spain have now limited mobile phone usage in classrooms as a means of putting an end to this toxic behaviour and to increase pupils’ concentration.
One in three teens in Spain is reportedly addicted to social media and 95 percent of those who receive screen detoxing help are girls.
The healthy al fresco Spanish upbringing isn’t quite what it used to be, nor is the innocence of the country’s youth. Spain’s next generations are afflicted by the very same challenges as the rest of the globalised world.
READ ALSO: Is bullying a problem in Spanish schools?
And it’s not as if the country’s political classes are setting a very good example, as this week’s events have shown.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had 48 million Spaniards holding their breath for five days before announcing that he wouldn’t resign in the endeven though “the sludge machinery” (mud machinery) and “smear campaign” (acoso y derribo) he and his wife had been subjected to by right-wing groups had apparently led him to seriously consider giving up.
READ ALSO: Spanish prosecutors question credibility of corruption probe against PM’s wife
For many, it was much ado about nothing from Sánchez, or pure political strategy, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt, as he says he’s been the victim of what analysts call “domestic lawfare”.
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Satirical TV presenter El Gran Wyoming describes it as: “Certain media publish fake news, certain political groups amplify it and repeat it until it enters the collective imagination, certain pressure groups take it to court, and certain judges accept the complaint, and then you have the headline: the case of the Prime Minister’s wife reaches the courts, and even if the investigation proves no wrongdoing the damage is already done”.
🔴 “In a healthy democracy, it is the citizens who remove and replace their public representatives, and not a media, political and judicial network”
The peak of the Wyoming table on the complaint of Clean Hands against Begoña Gómez#elintermedio pic.twitter.com/8Vr5hlb0qY
— El Intermedio (@El_Intermedio) April 25, 2024
And it’s not the first time Sánchez’s wife has been targeted by cruel and outlandish claims peddled by the right, from her being a man, to her family being drug traffickers or that they run a chain of brothels.
The PM himself has also been called a “psychopath”, a “terrorist sympathiser” and a “traitor” who in the words of Vox leader Santiago Abascal deserved to be “strung up by the feet” in allusion to the death of fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Not that Sánchez is completely blameless either, as The Guardian wrote in an op-ed.
Whether it’s in the corridors of El Congreso or those of a Spanish high school, the propensity for damaging bulos (fake news) spreading appears to be just as likely nowadays.
#Cyberbullying #schools #rights #sludge #machine
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– 2024-05-04 14:25:29
#Spain #repudiates #Mileis #attacks #Sánchez
This Saturday, Spain rejected the harsh statements of the Argentine president Javier Mileyin which he accused his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sanchezto produce “poverty and death” in his country.
“The government of Spain categorically rejects the unfounded terms of the statement issued by the Office of the President of the Argentine Republic, which do not correspond to the relations of two brother countries and peoples,” indicated the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The Government and the Spanish people will continue to maintain and strengthen their fraternal ties and their relations of friendship and collaboration with the Argentine people, a will shared by all of Spanish society,” the statement added.
Milei accuses Sánchez of producing “poverty and death”
The message is a response to the controversial statements of the Argentine presidency, published hours before, in which President Sánchez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), is accused of leading the European country towards “poverty.”
“Sánchez (…) has endangered the middle class with their socialist policies that only bring poverty and death”Milei’s office declared this Friday in a statement published on the social network X.
The Argentine presidency also accused Sánchez of put “in danger the unity of the Kingdom, making an agreement with the separatists and leading to the dissolution of Spain”a reference to the political agreement of the PSOE with the Basque and Catalan independence parties to form a government in 2023.
As part of the agreement, the PSOE accompanied and achieved the approval in Congress of an amnesty law for independentists who participated in the attempted secession of Catalonia in 2017, which has generated a frontal rejection from the opposition.
Milei had been accused of ingesting “substances”
The Argentine presidency also accused Sánchez of having “more important problems to deal with, such as the corruption accusations that fall on his wife” Begoña Gómez, investigated for influence peddling and corruption.
The Milei government’s attacks were in response to a comment by the Spanish Transport Minister, Óscar Puente, who accused the Argentine leader of ingesting “substances”.
Milei will embark on a trip to Spain in two weeks, where he will participate in an event organized by the far-right opposition party Vox, which will take place on May 18 and 19.
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2024-05-04 13:01:19
At least 10 people died and another 21 remain missing in southern Brazil due to the intense rainfall that has affected the state of Rio Grande do Sul since last Monday, official sources reported this Wednesday.
Rescue organizations have confirmed five new deaths this Wednesday and have added three people to the list of missing people that was the day before.
So far, 4,465 people have had to leave their homes in 107 municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul due to rising river levels and flooding, according to the latest Civil Defense bulletin.
Regional authorities are focused on rescuing families that have been left isolated, especially in the region of the municipality of Candelária, located 200 kilometers west of Porto Alegre, and which is in critical condition.
Candelária, with eight missing, and the neighboring municipality of Encantado, with one deceased and six missing, are at the moment the towns hardest hit by the floods.
At least 69 roads in the region have total or partial blockages due to flooding, falling trees or landslides or the collapse of bridges.
Rio Grande do Sul has suffered three episodes of flooding and torrential rains since last September, caused by extratropical cyclones.
These meteorological phenomena, which are rare in the region and have been aggravated by El Niño, have caused more than 50 deaths and extensive material damage in recent months.
Weather forecasts predict that the rains will continue to be intense until Friday, with precipitation volumes that may reach 300 millimeters in some points.
It is expected that in the coming days the rains and the increase in river flow will put the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, the regional capital, on alert.
At least 10 dead and 21 missing due to rains in southern Brazil
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