E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

Sin Cabeza (Headless)

Tags: Gran Canaria, Canarias, Canary Islands, Fires, Spain, Tragedy, Drama, Paradise, Incendio, Tenerife, Mixed Feelings, Arde Canarias, JRMora, J.R. Mora, Viñeta, Cerillas, Blogosfera

Hacía ya tiempo que no había creado ningún artículo en español en ninguno de los blogs que llevo manteniendo durante varios meses, y creo que ya va siendo hora de que vuelva a escribir alguno que otro artículo y así poder llegar un poco más a la blogosfera hispana que últimamente la tengo un poco abandonada.

Y me alegro de que me re-encuentre con la blogosfera hispana haciendo referencia a una viñeta que el gran, e insuperable, J.R. Mora (JRMora) compartió no hace muchas horas con motivo de los diferentes desastres ecológicos que se están dando tanto en Tenerife como en Gran Canaria y que expresa muy, pero que muy bien, algunos de los mixed feelings por los que he ido pasando durante los últimos días.

No tiene desperdicio y desgraciadamente no será la última vez. ¿Hasta cuándo?

Aquí tenéis la viñeta en sí:

Gran Canaria and Tenerife Disasters and Some Mixed Feelings

Tags: Gran Canaria, Canarias, Canary Islands, Fires, Spain, Tragedy, Drama, Paradise, Incendio, Tenerife, Mixed Feelings, Arde Canarias

While the news items keep popping up on what has been named as Gran Canaria‘s worst ecological disaster in recent history, we can already start seeing some folks coming out of the places where they have been hiding for a while, looking for those who should be responsible for such tragic set of events. Yes, that is right, while we are starting to witness some of the political games coming from various fronts, all of them blaming someone else, probably like it usually happens in these cases (Blame your neighbour, it’s easier), the fires are still blazing away while we all hope that the high temperatures and the strong winds would give everyone a break to finish off the job.

Over the course of the last few hours, there have been a number of different webloggers commenting further on what is actually happening out there and I just thought I would share a few links in here to give you a sense of some of the mixed feelings that we are all going through these tough times:

— Canarias está ardiendo
— Arde Gran Canaria (5)
— Hace fuego
— El incendio de Canarias en la red
— Incendio en Canarias: el fuego arrasa reservas de la biosfera
— Arde Canarias
— Fuego arrasa 65 por ciento superficie “Palmitos Park” y afecta a 60 por ciente animales y plantas
— Special Canariasbruta coverage
— Mi isla se quema

I have been sharing a few pictures already over here on what is going on at the moment, but I would strongly encourage you to have a look and check this weblog post, Pictures, from Isle of Gran Canaria, to see the kind of impact that this disaster is having.

And, like you would not have expected otherwise, the first video clips from YouTube are starting to emerge. So instead of sharing some more additional pictures I am just going to embed some of the dramatic clips put together thus far:

Finally, here is a detailed description of the events as they are happening and courtesy from Canarias7. And thank goodness, it looks like things are starting to improve a bit as mentioned in Gran Canaria tiene “estabilizados” todos los focos tras 100 horas de incendio, pero desconfía de las cambios de viento. Although, still on guard, of course.

Dramatic Weekend in Gran Canaria … and Now Tenerife, Too! – Part II

Tags: Gran Canaria, Canarias, Canary Islands, Fires, Spain, Tragedy, Drama, Paradise, Incendio, Tenerife

And while several different fires continue to spread around the South-West of the island of Gran Canaria (With one soldier injured at the moment) and while there are more and more news items coming through just as horrifying as the previous ones, things are getting a whole lot worse now with another massive fire spreading around like mad in Tenerife, the other major island from the Canary Islands.

So far here in Gran Canaria 10,000 hectares have burned with 5,200 people evacuated, whereas in Tenerife it is already going for 13,695 hectares and 4,200 people on the move. An unprecedented catastrophe for all of the Canary Islands and Spain, no doubt! From here onwards, here is a positive message going out to everyone affected to let you all know: we will get things back again in shape soon, we have to, we don’t have a choice, we will:

“[...] sólo os puedo decir que no olvidéis ni permitáis que os hagan olvidar.” (Comment in Spanish from a weblog post shared in Mangas Verdes by Dani)

Here are some more pictures from the catastrophe thus far:

Courtesy from Pablo César, a.k.a. pcesarperez / AdAstra

Courtesy from artevirgo (Impressive set of pictures):

Courtesy from Víctor, a.k.a. rvr:

And perhaps one of the most impressive, courtesy from GrJMontero (For a more recent one from both Gran Canaria and Tenerife click here):

PS. There is also a Flickr group: Incendio Gran Canaria – Julio 2007, where we can share the pictures we have taken about the fires. Feel free to add yours as time goes by.