It´s not what I have, it´s what I am26/02/2014 | Rafael Martínez González (Alumno UC)
How do they see us (Spain) from abroad? Spain is known to the entire world from their beaches, gastronomy, bullfighting, the nightlife, the folklore and/or the “siesta”. But that is not everything. It is strange a lot of people forget that Spain has been a country of vast opportunities. Nowadays, the situation has changed. The reality of the country is very different: the sovereign debt is suffocating us, our international reputation is not very good and all of Europe thinks that we are slackers. On the one hand, there is the debt. Today, Spain is one of the most indebted countries in Europe, and they are beginning to have problems with the volume of their public debt. The fact is that the debt ratio is around 94%. In order to remember one similar situation, we have to go back to 1910, when Spain finally overcame the crisis of 1898, a time when the expenses were high because of the lost colonies after the wars with United States, which increased the national levels of debt. However, Spain is far of the rest of countries with more debt: Greece (171.8%), Italy (132.9%), Portugal (128.7%), and Ireland (124.8%). The problem of this situation has four general aspects: Right now we do not have the capacity to pay our debt without generating new debt. And, on the other hand, our international reputation has diminished because of our high debt, our deficiencies, our excessive way of life and our image from abroad. Those are all very regrettable facts and will continue to be problematic. In conclusion, what do we do? In my opinion, to change any things, we must be stricter in every economic aspect (sanctions/jail time for the thieving politicians, for example) and we must work hard in order to advance into the future. Nota: Este artículo ha sido elaborado por Rafael Martínez González, alumno de la Universidad de Cantabria, como una de las actividades enmarcadas dentro del programa de capacitación lingüística, dando su permiso para la publicación del mismo en FxM. |