Good evening, we are going to present to you some issues that are happening in Spain currently, first of all, let us introduce our country.
Good evening, I’m Ainsley Samuelson the geographer and cartographer. First of all, Spain is a peninsula which means that it is surrounded by water on three sides. This provides protection for Spain as well as providing them with resources such as fish, minerals, and oil. Spain has another natural border along France; the Pyrenees mountains which are a good source of talc and zinc as well as being rich in timber and pastures. Along with providing protection, Spain uses their natural resources for their economic advantage. For example, many of their streams are utilized by hydroelectric power stations, a good example of this is the Alarcón Dam
Like England, Spain is a constitutional monarchy, meaning that its run by a royal power but limited by a constitution. The current king of Spain, Felipe VI’s role is only as the embodiment and personification of the country and its unity but he also is the leader of the the the Spanish forces and Head of State. The main leader of the State, however, is the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, is Spain’s economist and deals with decisions in the government along with operating civil services and government agencies. Before Spain's constitution was created, there was a dictator named Francisco Franco, who ended democracy, freedom of the press, and political opposition along with crushing diversity to start a single national identity. He also set out to destroy Catalan separatism. With his victory at the Battle of Ebro in 1938, he took control of the region, killing 3,500 people and forcing many more into exile. After he passed away, Spain went back into a democracy which enabled a constitution in which the government of Spain is based on today. After that, one of Spain’s constitution laws allowed for independent communities to reform. Spain has 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities. These cities and states run under the central government of Spain but are also governed within the laws of their own land along with their own set of cultures.
The Happiness Index of a country is how happy the people are in the country. There are six basic factors that are taken into consideration to acquire a country’s overall happiness score. These are income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity. In the most recent results Spain ranked 36th out of 157 countries scored. Their score was in between Qatar and Algeria. One of the main causes of their lower scores was the downturn in their economic circumstances resulting in a high level of unemployment. The Human Development Index is judged on three separate levels, healthy life, being knowledgeable, and a decent standard of living. A healthy life consists of having a high level of life expectancy, the ability to live longer than the average person. Being knowledgeable pertains to the number of years you have attended school. The decent standards of living pertain pretty much to money and the gross national income per capita. Even though income level is considered part of the HDI, it's really more about expanding the richness of humanity instead of the richness of the economy. The religion in most of Spain is Catholic. There are, however other religions practiced in Spain. They are Islam, Judaism, Protestantism, and Hinduism. Barcelona, one of the largest cities in Spain has Catholicism as their number one religion and Islam as number two. Itś interesting how Barcelona has the largest Jewish community in all of Spain. The education in Spain is very similar to that of America consisting of Nursery School, Pre-School, Primary School and Secondary School. There are five main languages in Spain, however Spanish is the main language spoken. The other languages are Portuguese, Basque, Catalan and Occitan.
The largest cities in Spain are Madrid with a population of 3,255,944, Barcelona with a population of 1,621,537, Valencia with a population of 814,208, Sevilla with a population of 703,206, and Zaragoza with a population 674,317. Spain’s total population is currently 46.56 M. Unfortunately, the population is slowly dropping due to the number of deaths steadily going beyond the number of births. This is partly because of people emigrating out of the country due to the end of the construction boom.
Because of their abundant access to the coast, Spain is involved in a lot of different trade routes, including Morocco along the Strait of Gibraltar, which is a small ocean area that separates southern Spain and northern Africa. Arabia along the Mediterranean, Central America across the Atlantic Ocean and South Africa across the Atlantic Ocean.
Spain is rich with resources such as kaolin, sepiolite, gypsum, uranium, zinc, lead, copper, tungsten, iron ore and coal.
One issue that Spain is currently facing is a water shortage. Spain has water shortage issues with demands for water outnumbering the amount of water they have to offer, this is caused by lack of rainfall, increased temperatures and priority on producing crops over providing for their people. About 80% of water is used for irrigation of Spain's crops. These water shortages are having drastic effects on the economy of Spain. Spain has lost 20% of its freshwater in the last 20 years and It’s worse in other areas. For example, by the Mediterranean Sea, Spain's water shortage rates can be as high as water loss is at 40%. Because of the water shortage, Spain is importing a lot of water from other countries, plunging them further into debt.
The problem we are going to be focusing on is the Catalonia independence movement. Catalonia used to be a separate country on the Iberian peninsula until Spain conquered and claimed it and tried to enforce their beliefs and culture on the Catalans. When that didn't work the Spanish tried to wipe out the Catalans by genocide. prejudice, hatred, and tension still exist between the warring countries. Catalonia wants complete independence from Spain, but Spain does not want Catalonia to be independent because of their economy. Spain has a depleting economy and a negative trade deficit meaning they are importing less than they are exporting. This is causing Spain to go into debt and lose money because they are exporting more to make up their debt over time. Catalonia is wealthy and economically stable. In politics, economics, and language Catalans are separate from Spain but they don’t have an independent country. Catalonia’s split from Spain is also affected because Catalonia represented 20% of Spain's tax income.
Finding a solution to this issue was onerous, but we finally came to a conclusion. Catalonia will not be satisfied until they are independent and Spain will not be satisfied until they are able to stabilize their shortcoming economy, so if Spain let Catalonia become independent once again but implemented mandatory trade between the two countries to fix the economic vacuum that would be caused by the split, Spain could strengthen their economy and Catalonia could become independent.
The Happiness Index of a country is how happy the people are in the country. There are six basic factors that are taken into consideration to acquire a country’s overall happiness score.
These are income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust, and generosity. In the most recent results, Spain ranked 36th out of 157 countries scored. Their score was in between Qatar and Algeria. One of the main causes of their lower scores was the downturn in their economic circumstances resulting in a high level of unemployment.
The Human Development Index is judged on three separate levels, healthy life, being knowledgeable, and a decent standard of living. A healthy life consists of having a high level of life expectancy, the ability to live longer than the average person. Being knowledgeable pertains to the number of years you have attended school. The decent standards of living pertain pretty much to money and the gross national income per capita. Even though income level is considered part of the HDI, it's really more about expanding the richness of humanity instead of the richness of the economy.
The religion in most of Spain is Catholic. There are, however other religions practiced in Spain. They are Islam, Judaism, Protestantism, and Hinduism. Barcelona, one of the largest cities in Spain has Catholicism as their number one religion and Islam as number two. Itś interesting how Barcelona has the largest Jewish community in all of Spain.
The education in Spain is very similar to that of America consisting of Nursery School, Pre-School, Primary School and Secondary School.
There are five main languages in Spain, however, Spanish is the main language spoken. The other languages are Portuguese, Basque, Catalan and Occitan.