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The family of Jeffrey Hodgson, a British
tourist that disappeared on 8th July 2001, have returned to
the island this week to initiate a fourth search since their
son's disappearance four months ago.
10,000 posters in English and Spanish offering
£1,000 (approximately 260,000 pesetas) compensation
to anyone who comes forward with information about Jeffrey's
whereabouts, are being distributed all around the island.
"As long as Jeffrey is missing we will
be returning to the island. Until his body is found we will
not accept that our son is dead", said Jeffrey's father.
The 38-year-old, who has a mental age of
12 and suffers from epilepsy, went missing from a hotel in
Cala Llonga after discovering that he was in Ibiza instead
of the Costa Blanca, the families usual holiday destination.
Even though the Spanish authorities organized
various search parties (including sniffer-dogs and helicopters)
in the days following Jeffrey's disappearance, the family
doesn't think that enough effort has been made by the local
police to find their son.
Hodgson's family has now set-up a website
in three languages hoping for some information. If you, or
any of your friends know anything about the disappearance
of this young man, please contact the family on the following
website: www.wheresjeffrey.org or inform the local police.
Terrorist fears hit Ibiza
A false alarm at Ibiza's airport caused
the evacuation of flight IBE 1763 destined to fly to Barcelona
at six o'clock on Monday 15th October.
As the 138 passengers were boarding the
plane, a French woman overheard two men of Arabic decent say:
"They don't know what is waiting for them, they are all
going to die on this plane".
The French passenger, fearing that the two
men were terrorists, alerted the stewardess who informed the
captain of the plane.
The crew made the decision to evacuate the
plane immediately and postpone the Barcelona flight.
The Tedax unit (special bomb squad) from
the Guardia Civil (Civil Guards) accompanied by various police
officers and the captain of the Policia Local (Local Police)
searched the plane and the passengers luggage and arrested
the two men who were Belgium's of Arabic descent.
The two men, originally feared to be part
of a terrorist organization, were submitted to interrogation
by the local police officers.
The police then revealed that the two men
were not terrorists and had decided to play a joke on the
other passengers, thinking that no one would understand their
comments as they were speaking French.
After a three-hour investigation to confirm
that the two men were telling the truth, all the passengers,
except the two suspects, were allowed to board their flight
once again. Flight IBE 1763 departed from Ibiza airport at
10:30pm, four and a half-hours late.
It was later revealed that the two suspects
worked in the baggage-handling department for the Belgium
airline ‘Sabena'.
'Sabena' has since released a statement
declaring that the two employees have lost their jobs as a
result of the incident.
'Sabena', which is going through an economical
crisis as a result of the September 11th tragedies in the
United States, condemns the comments made by their two former
employees as "cruel and disrespectful as well as giving
the company a bad image".
On Wednesday 17th a spokesperson for 'Sabena'
said: "The two men will be put on the passengers 'black
list' and in future they will find it very difficult to fly
as companies will not accept them as passengers".
On the same day, a flight from Palm to Stuttgart
(Germany) had to be grounded at the German airport when a
stewardess discovered a suspicious powder on board the plane.
The fear of anthrax caused the LTU plane
to be grounded for many hours until it was confirmed that
the powder didn't contain anthrax.
1st January is looming and so is the
Euro
If you have been shopping recently in the
bigger stores on the island you will have noticed price labels
in Euros with a small equivalent in pesetas hidden in the
bottom corner. If you feel confused, don't worry you are not
alone.
Already Ibicencan businesses have started
to consider where they will stand after the peseta is replaced
by the Euro.
The CAEB (Balearic Business Administration
Company) has already started working out the pros and the
cons of the new European currency.
CAEB has discovered that one of the most
negative aspects of the introduction of the Euro is the amount
of money that each business will have to spend on new computer
programmes and courses in order to accustom their staff to
the new currency.
Accountancy systems that work with decimals
will be a priority for all businesses.
The short period of time when the peseta
and the Euro coexist will also cause extra expenses to businesses,
according to CAEB.
Although it may all seem very confusing
at the start, the CAEB assures us that the Euro will have
a general positive effect on the Balearic economy.
A natural cure
PharmaMar, a company in charge of locating
and extracting "ecteinascidea turbinata" (ET-743),
a micro-organism found in the sea just off Formentera (which
has been proven to prevent the on-set of tumours) have in
the past eight months recovered a total of 20 tons of ET-743.
PharmaMar's director, Santiago Bueno says:
"Even though it isn't easy to extract the substance,
the results will definitely be worth while".
In order to increase the growth of the micro-organisms,
special production techniques are being used to increase the
sea's temperature by 1 degree.
PharmaMar is expecting to extract 20 tons
of 'ET-743' each year between March and October, as this time
of year seems to be the most productive.
"Ecteinascidea turbinata" will
be on the market by 2002.
Aigua, agua and water
A study done by the water company Meri Iberica,
with the collaboration of Sogesur (one of the main water supply
companies on the island), revealed that the mains water supply
system of Ibiza Town is losing a lot of water, some 700,000
litres a day.
San Antonio, Santa Eulalia and Formentera
all suffer from the same problem. The environmental councillor
Fanny Tur has assured Ibiza residents that "the figures
are not alarming, as it is impossible for a water supply system
not to lose any water".
Fanny Tur also made it clear that, even
though Ibiza loses 700 cubic metres of water daily; this figure
doesn't exceed the 15% legal water loss.
"High water pressure and day to day
use causes the mains system to lose high quantities of water
but now, after this study, we all realise how much water we
are actually losing, each Town Hall will be forced to take
action".
The Consell Insular (Island Council) has
decided that periodical studies on Ibiza's water system will
now have to be done to insure that the already high figures
don't increase any more.
Louise Wright
louisewright@ibizahistoryculture.com
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