IBIZA celebrates the Portmany Year

POWERED BY Eivissa Web

Centenary of the birth of drawer Antoni Marí Ribas, "Portmany".

The Eivissa Town Council will celebrate the Portmany Year with a vast programme of events to commemorate the centenary of the birth of drawer Antoni Marí Ribas, "Portmany" (Ibiza, 1906 - 1974). Some of the outstanding activities are:

• The exhibition "Portmany i l'Eivissa del seu temps", that will take place in the cloister of the Eivissa Town Hall from March to April.
• The exhibition "Narcís Puget i Domingo Viñets, fotògrafs", scheduled for August and organised by the Arxiu d'Imatge i So Municipal. Narcís Puget was Antoni Marí Ribas Portmany's drawing and painting teacher.
• The anthological exhibition about the painter and drawer in the MACE in October.

The programme of activities will end in January 2007 with the First Drawing Contest "Antoni Marí Ribas, Portmany", organised by the Escola d'Arts, AAVIB and MACE

Historically Massive Anti-Motorway Protest in IBIZA

THIS ARTICLE IS POWERED BY THE IBIZA SUN newspaper


According to the calculations made by the Local Police in Eivissa & the Ultima Hora Newspaper, 22.500 residents took to the streets of Eivissa Town last Friday at 20h to protest against the motorway constructions on the island. These motorway projects are being carried out by the PP Conservative Balearic Government, supported by the PP Conservative Consell Island Government but the protestors claim they are out of proportion with the island causing a negative environmental impact as well as destroying the image of the island & the quality of life of the residents.
This time the protest was led by 4 youngsters dressed as "cats", in reference to the first anti-motorway lobby protest last summer when 14.000 persons took part. However, at the time, a spokesman for the PP Conservative Consell apparently said that there were only "cuatro gatos" (4 cats) at the demonstration so this time the anti-motorway lobby put 4 cats at the front of the massively attended march to take the "mickey" of what they see as deliberate misinformation by the Consell.
Our reporters amongst the marchers can personally testify that there appeared to be thousands more on this protest march than on any other rally they had reported on in Ibiza & seemingly the Local police got their figures right by saying that there were 22.500 taking part on the march who appeared to The Ibiza Sun to be normal residents from all walks of life & political persuasion. Even so, once again the day after the protest the Consell Island Government claimed they had unofficial police figures which seemingly suggested the low figure of 6.000 residents taking part in last Friday's protest! According to the actual anti-motorway lobby they had monitored video footage of the march & calculated the figure as being more likely around 25.000.
Putting to one side the seeming futility of the numbers debate about how many protestors took part in the protest, our reporters took nearly 2 hours to walk the 1.5 kilometres of the route taken by the anti-motorway march. The protest was peaceful throughout its duration except for some youngsters who, before the march started seemingly caused problems on the fringes of the protest as it was waiting to move off by throwing a bottle of sulfuman cleaning agent into the public waiting in the Parque de Paz. This led to three persons needing hospital first aid treatment for injuries caused by being splashed by the cleaning substance when it apparently hit the ground & the bottle burst open.
During the march there were supposedly a few eggs thrown at buildings with strong PP Conservative connections such as the Consell Island Government building whilst at the offices of an influential family on the island, who support the PP Conservatives, the shouts, whistles & cat calls increased to a deafening volume. Throughout the protest there were lots of chants, some quite abusive & personal, against lots of the PP conservative Politicians on the island & their some of their powerful & influential supporters who many of the anti-motorway lobby seemingly suspect will in some way benefit from the building of the motorways.
Our reporting team were "flabbergasted" by how much Ibicenco was spoken between the residents taking part on the march. It has to be remembered that 22.500 protestors of all ages, nationalities & political colours represents over 20% of the island's population. This is an incredible turn out on a cold night in the middle of winter especially as it is not supposedly part of the Ibicencan culture to protest in this fashion but it appeared that thousands of well known local Ibicencan faces were surprisingly there standing up & being counted.
The speeches at the end of the protest reminded everyone that the fight against the motorways must go on & that everyone against the motorway projects need to defend the properties, which the anti-motorway lobby claim are being compulsory purchased, incorrectly. Lots of the speakers apparently claimed that the motorways never appeared in the PP Conservative election manifesto at the last elections whilst other supposed that all the roads on the island could be improved & the accident black spots made safe at a fraction of the cost of these 3 motorways. Others said that a tiny percentage of the investment in motorways could solve all the educational & health service needs on the islands & many pointed out that in their opinion motorways, along with all the other construction, which is going on all over Ibiza, will drive away the quality tourism the island needs.
Attending the protest, Francesc Antich, the President of the PSOE Socialists throughout the Baleares, suggested that the Madrid PSOE Socialist National Government are prepared to sign a new road building agreement with the PP Conservative Balearic Government as long as they propose projects which are accepted by all of the society & which are sustainable & in keeping with the islands. With this offer on the table, Antich said that it was a good time to stop the present motorway projects, which Madrid are supposedly not prepared to help finance, & reconsider the road plans & financing for Ibiza.
For their part, the PP Conservative Balearic Government & Consell Island Government the next day made several statements relating to the protest march. Apart from highlighting the abusive chants against their leaders & other prominent supporters as well as the cleaning agent incident & appearing to play down the level of attendance, the Consell supposedly maintained that there would be no changes in the motorway plans & there would be no changes in either government or their policies. They appear to believe that the population will accept the motorways as a good thing when they are finished & appreciate, once the motorways are finished, how the PP Conservatives have improved the population's quality of life. The Consell spokesman seemingly accused the protestors of having been manipulated by the left wing parties on the island who had failed to win votes at the last elections & were using public protests as a form of opposition to make up for their lack of political power. Jaime Matas, President of the Balearic Government supposedly said that the motorways were respectful of the environment, would improve road safety as building motorways in Palma had done & by building the motorways on Ibiza his Government was at last addressing the long standing issue of a lack of investment in roads & other infrastructures on the island.