The Battle for Independence: A Catalan or a Spanish problem?

I Part- The Project

The Catalan independence movement has growth exponentially recently. The reasons are several and debatable, but there are clear circumstances that have helped its development. The judgement of the Constitutional Court in 2010, limiting the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, had an important social impact. The lack of response from the government also fuelled the unrest. Since then, demonstrations have led towards the demand for independence for Catalonia.

The political, sociocultural and economic conflict is now in a turning point where polarization is extreme. For some, (unilateral) independence seems the only way to go. For others, there are a few other alternatives. Anyway, negotiation is a prerequisite to achieve the best and the less painful solution for all. This project is intended for anyone who wants to have a better understanding of this situation and thinks that extreme positions are not the only solution.

 

Lewisham hospital in the spotlight

The South-East London hospitals are running through a process of transformation to improve the South London Healthcare Trust system because of the financial problems they are suffering. The government-appointed administrator, Matthew Kershaw, from the Trust Special Administrator (TSA) has sent some recommendations to the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, to alleviate these problems.

Although this area includes six London NHS Trusts and five major hospitals, the public discussion has been about the Lewisham hospital and the closure of  several key departments. Lewisham south-east London hospital is threatened for the selling of a sixty percent of its buildings due to a closure of  the Accident and Emergency (A&E) and maternity units, paediatric services, the ICU and all acute admission if these recommendations are approved next 1st of February.

This closures will cost large sums of money to the National Health Service over many years; more than a hundred and ninety million pounds.  SaveLewishamhospital.com campaign will organize a demostration next 26th of January to stop the recommendations.


Interview:

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The recommendations report from the Trust Special Administrator is about how to improve the efficiency South London Healthcare NHS (National Health Service) Trust or colloquially SLHT. Three hospitals are part of this single government entity: the Queen’s Elizabeth  hospital at Greenich, the Queen Mary hospital in Sycup in Bexly and the Princess Royal hospital in Bromly.

Most of the recommendations of the TSA report look at the long term solutions to the financial problems of that Trust, since it is losing a million pounds a week. However, the controversy has focused on another South-East hospital Lewisham.

Mark Palin, communication’s consultant for the Office of the Trust Special Administrator (OTSA) explains why it is necessary to look beyond that Trust and to look at the wider health economy of South-East London, which includes Lewisham.

The Health economy of South-East London is twenty percent of London and it serves a population of nearly two million people. The recommendations address the problems of the Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) within South-East London Healthcare.

On the other side of the story, Jos Bell, a spokeswoman for the Save Lewisham hospital campaign, says that this issue is beyond politics but for the people of Lewisham. She says that dismantling Lewisham hospital will cost one hundred and ninety million pounds and it will mean more losses than gains.

People al Lewisham have now signed a petition against the proposal to close A&E and maternity units,  paediatric services, the ICU and all acute admission, and they are organizing demonstrations, as the one on the twenty six of January, to keep Lewisham hospital untouched.

The final report is now on the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, who is expecting to make his decision about these recommendations on the first of February, in terms of solving the issues to the Health economy of South-East London.



Sources:
Jos Bell, spokeswoman for the Save Lewisham hospital campaign
Mark Palin, communication’s consultant for the Office of the Trust Special Administrator

Buenos Aires steak house - A different business story

“The financial crisis has helped us to grow”, said the Chief Executive of Buenos Aires, an Argentine steakhouse restaurant, the second group enterprise steakhouse in London

The ultimate Argentine experience is the motto of Buenos Aires steakhouse restaurant. With six restaurants around and in London, this company has learned how to expand itself amid the global financial situation.

Cristian Barrionuevo, chief executive of Buenos Aires says that in 2011 sales fell 10%, however this did not stop him from opening one restaurant per year. 2012 was the big bet. Buenos Aires opened last summer its sixth restaurant in The City. To rent a building in this area costs around £400,000 per year, however, Mr. Barrionuevo explains this has been possible because when many pubs are closing the situation changes and “now landlords give you more opportunities to let the premises”. For example,  Mr. Barrionuevo obtained 18 months for free in the rent of the last building, what it means a total saving of £300,000. In this sense, “the financial crisis has helped us to grow”, continues Mr. Barrionuevo.

The greatest challenge for Mr. Barrionuevo was that he did not have initial capital to invest in his new business. With the revenue of one restaurant, he invests in the next one. “This way of acting always makes you feel in tension, you have to work harder to success since you have invested everything you have”, describes Mr. Barrionuevo.

Since in 2007, when Buenos Aires steakhouse restaurant opened its first restaurant in London, many things have changed. Now, banks give Mr. Barrionuevo loans because they see a continuity in his businesses. In the first restaurant there was more drawbacks to borrow money or to negotiate the contract clauses with the landlord. Once your business has developed a brand, name and logo, “you are the one to impose the conditions”, Mr. Barrionuevo explains. Nowadays, Buenos Aires is a Group Company with a turnover of more than £4m. Here, it is easier for them to expand their business.

Nevertheless, it has not been always that easy. Mr. Barrionuevo, Argentine by birth, had to move to Spain because his son had a skin disease and he needed the Spanish climate. There, in Valencia, he decided to open his first of all restaurants in 2006. His experience was definitely different if he compares Spanish and English (UK) businesses. As Mr. Barrionuevo specifies, “the expenses are higher and the benefits are lower in Spain because you pay the same amount to the suppliers as you would do in UK, but you earn less benefits” because the price costumers pay in Spain is lower. In other words, in Spain there is more work to do, and less benefits to earn. In these circumstances, Mr. Barrionuevo had to close his business in Spain one year later.


Businesses in UK
Mr. Barrionuevo opened his first restaurant in London in the area of Purley in 2007, what eventually becoming the “Steak Palace” of the area. A year later, the second restaurant was opened in Maidstone, which was the only Argentine steakhouse in Kent. In 2009 was the time of the Argentine steakhouse restaurant in Croydon. This time, a market study was already necessary to know the area and the public with the purpose to define his product and to build a particular style of restaurants. Next year, another restaurant was opened in Fulham, the first London based venue. In 2011, Mr. Barrionuevo decided to expand his business in the area of Wimbledon. In the new one (2012), Mr. Barrionuevo bet for the City, where he needed different strategy; or as he explains, “each area needs different inversion, because it has different clientele, and the one in the City has more bookings” since it is the biggest one among the sixth of them.


Know-how
Cristian Barrionuevo has worked in gastronomy since he was 15 and his experience, first as a employee and later as an employer, has made him to value his own business. As he relates, “the skill for success is to concentrate in the details”. 80% of his staff are Spanish-speakers with knowledge of Argentina’s traditions. The atmosphere, the quality of the food and human contact are essential attributes in Buenos Aires steakhouse restaurant. Mr. Barrionuevo points out that the most important thing is a good management of the product, “knowing every time what it is happening in your business”.

“Steakhouse business is on fashion and the Argentine steak is different”, explains Mr. Barrionuevo. All the products in Buenos Aires restaurant are Argentinian; from the wine, to the meat until the cook. “Everything can work if you know how to organize your business”, says Mr. Barrionuevo. Some products need more management than others and to know what everything costs and how much earnings it produces it is fundamental to maintain the business line. “We have to work harder to maintain what we have”, Mr. Barrionuevo says. He works from Monday to Monday and the secret is to be always available, definitely to be present.

This kind of restaurants has a specific target and the competence is still low because there is not one Argentinian restaurant next to another. Buenos Aires steakhouse restaurant has a strategy of innovation in menus, specialty dishes, or tango night!. Besides, Mr. Barrionuevo is thinking to introduce again some tapas menu in his next restaurant in 2013 as he did in his restaurant in Spain.

Nowadays, Mr. Barrionuevo has developed a sense of business, and he does not open a restaurant everywhere. Mr. Barrionuevo´s purpose is to continue growing but maintaining the same style, developing a brand identification and recognition of all his businesses.

A familiar chain
Buenos Aires steakhouse restaurant has grown, but it has not lost its identity. Mr. Barrionuevo identifies his company as a “family business”. Mr. Barrionuevo appreciates his employees as his friends. Some of them has stayed with him since he opened his first restaurant six years ago. In 2007,  he needed some support for the initial capital to open his first restaurant in Purley, what it received from his friend and wine supplier. “He helped with in the worst moments and he is still working with me”, Mr. Barrionuevo mentions this behavior as a principle to maintain a business and to build strong relationships with the staff.

When you come in to Buenos Aires Argentine steakhouse restaurant, the local´s elegance grabs you. The informal style regarding quality/price, the Spanish language and music along with the quite atmosphere make you feel in another place out of the hustle of the city of London. Their objective is “to establish a place out of the business routine, where costumers can come here and relax”, specifies Mr. Barrionuevo. The image of the restaurant seems expensive, but as Mr. Barrionuevo says “we are one of the less expensive, specially among the City”.

Regarding to the finances, Mr. Barrionuevo explains that everything is well distributed according to the expenses. He needs a balance between the cost of food and staff, the bills and the rent of the premises. “If we have a net benefits of 15% in the Buenos Aires restaurant at the City for example, means a good equivalence, since we have to pay £75,000 of renting per quarter of three of our buildings”, specifies Mr. Barrionuevo.

The “forgotten army”
There is no crisis if there is money. Something as clear as that is what make businesses stay afloat nowadays. UK policy about lending money to start-ups is riskier than to lend it to a business already consolidated. However, Small and Medium-sized (SME) companies accounted for “99.9 per cent of all private sector businesses in the UK”, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). They are the ones that can make the economy grow, and therefore, they need backup from the government. As the UK's premier business lobbying organisation (CBI) proclaims “the British government should provide stronger support for medium-sized firms”.

Hedge your risk at the LME

The LME is still primarily an exchange for producers and consumers 

to hedge there risk with the use of futures contracts. 

By Mª Victoria Gomis Sanz
People shouting, running, writing, waving hands, secret codes, phone here, phone there, you only have five minutes! Get the deal done! This is how the traders agree on the everyday prices at the London Metal Exchange (LME). The last physical place to deal with metal prices is in the floor room at the LME based in the City of London.

Sellers and buyers get in touch face to face at what is called “the ring”. Everyone wears a badge, and only people with red badges are allowed to sit in there and trade. 12 are the dealers sitting in the red leather sofa inside the ring trying to get an agreement on what the price of industrial metals will be. 80% of non-ferrous metals are trading in the LME such as Zinc, Cooper, Aluminum, Tin or Nickel. And volumes and prices vary from day to day depending on what is happening in the world.

The total amount the LME traded last 2011 was $15.4 trillion, 3.5 billion tonnes and 146 million lots. What translated into the Copper price, for example, is £7720 a lot approx. Copper, Aluminum, Lead and Zinc weight 1 lot, 25 tonnes. Therefore, a day on average buying and selling, LME can take an account in the electronic system on £10000 lots of Copper (or £25000 lots in a busy day). Besides, trades on the ring that have to be added after, since the “outcry” goes through the electronic trading platform.

The financial tool used at the LME is often the three months forward contract, because this is the time a ship takes to go around the world to deliver the goods. At that time, you adjusted it for cash. However, if you need the metal sooner or later you use what it is called the “carry” on the electronic platform, that basically means the movements of selling and buying back the futures. They are not cash settles, like in the stock market, but what you buy or sell in the LME is the metal.

Hedges or speculation is the financial tool that is now use to lock in the price for a future delivered. Through it, they manage the risk of changes in prices in the future. The exchange is very actively traded by hedge funds but the contracts remain physically delivered. Banks as Barclays has a lot more hedge funds business than Triland, for example.

Thomas Steward, the Director of Newedge summarizes the trading with one sentence “at the end it is all about liquidity”. This is all about futures and options, the financial instruments the LME works with. That means what you will be willing to buy and sell in a fixed date. Prices change everyday, and products become more expensive in a long-term due to the extra cost of maintaining your goods. Storage, transport or salaries of the employees are an important part to take in mind when prices are set in a future contract.

However, what it is more interesting are the secret codes. The waving hands from the dealer´s clerks standing behind the trades. In that particular moment you can tell what it is going on. Numbers. If the hand shows numbers up, it means the price you want to buy that metal, and if the hand is opposite down means the price people want to buy it at. The agreement comes exactly when the hand is shaking. Bingo!

4.45pm that is the time when everything will get set, and prices and agreements make their shape. 15 minutes to the close, nerves rise. The room is chaotic. Everything happens so quickly.  Information goes back and forth in the room thousand times. One of these 12 men, a Company´s dealer from LME explains, “LME is all as simple as you want to sell your product at a specific price and you need someone to buy it at the same price, how to negotiate”. Basically, the information coming from everywhere in the world is reduced to the ring.

Nevertheless, the market reminds open almost 24h a day between the London, New York and the Tokyo offices, what means that market metal prices are available to investors anytime. Since 1877, the LME has become the biggest and most influential market. And it is the Europe´s only remaining ‘open outcry’ trading floor on London’s financial markets. This place is different from other markets since it gives you trust and it brings stability to the clients. Besides, it is widely recognized as almost the benchmark of metal prices.

Social crisis, instead

 Since "networks are part of our reality" (M. Castells), I will perform this role sharing some ideas I have gotten from Manuel Castells, today at London School of Economics (LSE). Under the title: "The crisis always rings twice", Manuel Castells gave us an answer about how the financial crisis has caused. He explained that it is/was "a combination of new technology, through a process of deregulation and reckless of financial managers".

Financial system is built in a sense that people do not mind. As Manuel Castells explained, reffeing to the action we are taking to solve the financial crisis, "we save the banks, but let the people fall". He also interpreted the current crisi of the power´s system as one where the "elites have lost the capacity to rule the financial system".

Furthermore, there is a more important cause for the moment we are living in: a social crisis. Since every economic process implies a social process, here it is the explanation of how people interact and organize through the network and the implication this has to our lifes. Manuel Castells refers the networks as an important basis of the self in what he calls it "the real virtuality", where information is the cornerstone of humanity.

He links the social process to the fact that the economic crisis has lead us to a social crisis, pointing out the question: "who has lent money to a non-family member? not many nowadays", was his answer. And, who will be able to work less if they will be paid less? A positive answer of the former question is what he describes as "post capitalism" or "non-capitalism" society. That it will probably happen soon.

However, meanwhile there is a process of marginalization. Here, the case of Greece came out as "they are going through a process oof desistegration on its political system". Also, the Spanish indignadoswas  represented by the statemet of "when systems block, the new social opinion is formed".

Therefore, he made sense of the fact that the economic crisis is not over, but there exists a political crisis to legitimacy that has been followed by a social crisis where: "European identity will work fine as long as there is not crisis".

Everything here emphasize the current economic and political crisis with a new aspect: a social crisis. However, it was his last comment what called my attention: "the non-global global crisis", where global economy is growing.

Defenders of... what?

Is the media an instrument for the government and big corporations to achieve their personal interest or is it really a powerful weapon to unmask them? The sad truth is that the media has become, a part from a few exceptions I will mention later, a easy tool for big conglomerates to get profit. The only interest here is: money, and on the bottom of the scale: look for the truth or merely inform.

Shadows of liberty, a documentary directed by Jean-Philippe Tremblay, exhibits the crisis in the US media through history. There are many scandals of goverment and large companies that, as Friedman said in the documentary (if I remember correctly) , if a news does not appear in the mainstream media as The New York Times, The Guardian... is like it has never happened. So, how can we (the journalists) keep the integrity of our professional values if there are contradictory interest behind? Where are people like Woodward and Bernstein nowadays? Oh right! they are refugees in an embassy to flight against the White House... (I will leave aside this lastest example since it is a hard to speak case, and everybody has their own opinion. But as one section Shadows of liberty alludes related to similar subjects in the past: "kill the messenger").

Returning to the docuemtnary, I would like to congratulate Tremblay and his team for brighing to light those hidden interests of big conglomerates and defending the truth of the facts even at the prospect of losing your jobs, because people and ideas like yours makes me believe again in the profession I chose to study.

“If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”  

Malcolm X