• Català
  • Castellano
  • English
Regulació Estany des Peix
Press Room Newspaper library

Local photographers get their shot: Beni Trutmann registration open

beni trutman 40315This morning, the CiF's councillor of culture and local heritage, Sònia Cardona, together with staff specialist Anna Costa, announced details regarding participation in the upcoming XIII Beni Trutmann photography competition. Participants stand to qualify for three prizes in two different categories: black & white and colour and entries are accepted in both digital and traditional analog formats.

Sònia Cardona explained the goal behind this year's renewed call for contributions was “to continue the life-long work of Beni Trutmann and the competition: combine nature and cultural heritage in Formentera”.

Beni Trutmann – born in 1935 in Locarno, Switzerland – was a brilliant photographer who passed away on 28 April 2002 in Formentera. The photo festival that carries his name commemorates Trutmann's celebrated life by distributing awards to winning photographers every year on that same day. It was 1958 when Trutmann first arrived to our island's shores. He would go on to photograph it for 44 years, ultimately leaving behind a legacy of more than 30,000 photos.

Anyone interested in participating must submit entries – already developed – on photo paper at least 20cm wide and a maximum of 45cm tall. Submissions can be brought to the Citizen Information Office (la OAC) until 10 April.

Cardona noted that gains would be “double”, alluding to the cash prize that winners would walk away with as well as the exposition of their work at the event's accompanying exhibition. The jury will be composed of both industry professionals and representatives from GOB, the regional association of birdwatchers and Obra Cultura Balear, two groups with which Trutmann collaborated throughout his life.

Last year the festival received 118 submissions from 46 individuals, each allowed a maximum of 3 entries. Details concerning participation in the event can be found on the Formentera Council's website (www.CiF.cat)

A month of events that do justice to the role of women

040315 diadona2This morning in the plenary hall of the Formentera Council, Dolores Fernández, councillor of social welfare, early-childhood and youth services and Antònia Costa, vice president of the group Espai Dones, announced the events calendar that accompanies Sunday 8 March, recognised by the United Nations and across the globe as International Women's Day.

The first event takes place in La Mola. In the courtyard of the local schoolhouse and alongside Olimpiada Pagesa festivities, organisers will read a copy of the International Women's Day official manifesto. Speaking to the importance of the day, Councillor Fernández reflected: “We've still got a long way to go on this issue. There are still so many instances where the importance of women in society is not even acknowledged. This can hardly be considered even-handed development”.

Workshops and conferences

Antònia Costa trumpeted an activities programme that promised to keep participants busy the entire month of March. The Espai Dones vice president spoke about the common thread tying together the events: “Educating women and providing them with tools to understand our situation in the world today. Restoring power, dignity and respect. And having fun.” First up is a conference, “Women and Sports”, scheduled for 7:30pm on Friday 13 March at the Es Marès hotel. The event is also included as part of the Fòrum Salut, Educació i Família calendar of conferences, two of which have already taken place.

Tuesday 17 March at 7:30pm, psychologist Anna Costa will lead a workshop in the FiC plenary hall titled “10 foolproof ways to meet your goals” (“10 claus infal·libles per aconseguir els teus objectius”). As both Costa and Fernández were sure to stress, the activity – like all the others on the programme with the exception of the women's dinner – is open to women and men alike.

Next up on the calendar, on Friday 20 March: a double session of storytelling led by Encarna de las Heras. First, at 6:30pm, the Casal de Joves will be regaled with a story tailor-made for the island's younger audiences. Immediately after, de la Heras will switch gears and head over to the Day Centre for an 8pm tale intended for adults' eyes and ears only.

Introducing a FiC-backed programme entitled “Sextima”, Dolores Fernández commented on young people's need for “positive information” in a world all too saturated with media-skewed representations of sexuality. “Sextima”, explained Fernández, “is a programme that goes straight to the classroom to counter that trend by presenting positive images of women”.

Later that Friday is an annual event reserved for the women of the island. Meant to be both fun and festive, the Espai Dones-organised 'women's supper' will start at 10pm and reservations must be made in advance through the Espai Dones association (697 941 016).

Saturday 21 March in the conference hall of the Formentera Day Centre, an open house is scheduled for the Eivida school of intuition and life (Escola d'intuïció i vida Eivissa). The gathering aims to promote women's ability understand their own personal processes and achieve balance in their own energetic system.

Rounding out the calendar of events is an evening projection of the film “La Voz Dormida” on Friday 27 March (8pm) in the municipal cinema and, on Saturday, the VII Homage to the Elderly Women of Formentera. This final event, programmed for 28 March at 12 noon and once again taking place in the conference hall of the Day Centre, will take a look at the women of the island born in 1930.

Untilled land use project underway

conveni cooperativa signToday, the president and councillor of agriculture, livestock and fishing of the Formentera Council, Jaume Ferrer and Santi Juan, signed off with president and director of the Farmers' Cooperative of Formentera, Jaume Escandell and Carlos Marí, on the initiative known as 'cultiu de terres', the untilled land use project coordinated by the two groups.

The signature of the measure came on the first official work day for new cooperative chief Marí, a full-time employee of the association who will take charge of the land use and other projects. As of today, Director Marí will tend to public inquiries from his office, temporarily-located at the Centre Gabrielet in Sant Francesc Xavier.

The untilled land use project consists in the temporary cession to the Farmers' Cooperative (for periods of either three or five years) of farmable parcels of land whose owners do not actively labour them. The cooperative works the borrowed terrain in order to commercialise the harvest reaped, the profits of which go to the association's own benefit. Landowners, in turn, receive the benefit of a more fertile plot with improved appearance.

Among the Formentera Council's different objectives for the project are an increased agricultural productivity, revaluing of the agricultural activity, beautification of Formentera countryside, revitalisation of the farming profession and an improved capacity for local self-sufficiency.

Under the terms of the initiative, the Council will supply the funding (€95,000) and the cooperative will provide the materials, labour and technical expertise necessary for the project. With a June deadline on completion of the industrial space to be used by the Farmers' Cooperative, the Formentera Council will offer the group office space in order to tend to public inquiries vis-à-vis cultiu de terres.

Jaume Escandell: “Today is a very important day for the Formentera countryside”

Formentera Council president Jaume Ferrer explained that the signatures formalised a project that was a long time in the making. “An incredible amount of work has been put into this project by the Council and the Farmers' Cooperative. It included not just a great deal of legal legwork, but also the task of formalising the idea and convincing people that it was really possible”. Ferrer said that as of today landowners could cede non-laboured agricultural properties to the cooperative.

For his part, Farmers' Cooperative president Escandell remarked: “This is a very important day for the cooperative and the Formentera countryside. In broad terms, the project means a recovery of the land”.

Last Tuesday, the Formentera Council spearheaded a census of untended local land and offered up its own contribution to the project: Ca Ses Ferreres, a farmable terrain of some 10,000 square metres located in La Mola. Last Thursday, participants at the plenary meeting of the Council voted unanimously to request the cession by the Govern Balear of the farmable portion of the Can Marroig terrain, one of the largest on the island.

DAY OF THE BALEARIC ISLANDS “Equal but different”

Good day, thank you to all the local authorities and residents who have made it out for this official celebration of El Dia de les Illes Balears – the Day of the Balearic Islands.

An event that is observed here on Formentera, but also on Mallorca, Menorca and Eivissa.

Tomorrow is 1 March. An important day in the Balearics. It's no coincidence that it be designated the official day of our community.

1 March 1983 the first Statute of the Balearic Islands took effect. It was also the first day of March – this time in 2007 – that the statute was revised.

That revision led to our community's current guiding statute, which saw to the creation of el Consell Insular de Formentera – the Formentera Island Council.

1 March is an important day for our island.

The establishment of the Formentera Island Council simultaneously gave political ground to something that was already geographically evident.

Until the year 2007 Formentera was an island in the Balearic community, but only from a geographical standpoint.

The political unity manifest south of Es Freus, captured in Isidor Torres' oft-uttered maxim - “we want to be the fourth wall of the Balearic Islands” - culminated in the creation of this island council on 1 March 2007.

We are not yet through with challenges.

A new challenge now stands before us, no less important than the one that preceded it. It's a challenge on which our entire economy depends, and it too demands political unity.

Fortunately, such political unity is our reality. On all the essential questions, the course Formentera plots today is clear; our collective work evident.

This political unity is real enough for us to be able to recognise that, at times, outside factors impede us.

Our unity is so genuine that we were able to come together and ask the Balearic Islands Parliament for the power to administer a local tax on vehicles entering the island.

Real enough as well to fuel improvements to the productivity and natural beauty of our countryside.

We are united in our hope that soon one of the largest farmable plots on Formentera, Can Marroig, be included in the most-recent project of the Farmers' Cooperative.

As I said, we have another challenge ahead.

We must make use of the current climate of unity in order to surmount it.

And surmount it now. We mustn't wait long. If we set our sights on it, we can achieve it. Let no one say that Formentera lacked the initiative.

And what is this challenge that lies ahead? Convincing any who would believe otherwise that, in the same way that we are an island in geographical terms, in the same way that we are our own island in political terms, Formentera is its own brand name in tourism.

We have our own identity within the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. Just as Mallorca has one, just as Menorca has one, and of course, just as Eivissa has one as well.

Formentera is a brand name on the rise. We have got our own values, taxes, and we deserve the power to dictate and fund our own policies in tourism.

Mr Bauzà, we are in negotiations to bestow this island the resources it needs to promote the brand name of Formentera on an international scale.

We are fashioning a model that permits each island to do the same. May each of our community's four islands have the resources to explain its strengths to the world.

Equal but different.

All four islands with sufficient resources to explain their own respective realities.

Ultimately, we are doing the same with tourism promotions as with this important celebration of our autonomous community.

For these commemorative acts, all four islands have sufficient resources to celebrate the Day of the Balearic Islands, as each sees fit.

Equal but different.

Equal in opportunities and in the existence of sufficient resources.

Different in the attributes, messages and characteristics.

Thank you for your attention,

Feliç Dia de les Illes Balears.

Jaume Ferrer Ribas,
28 February 2015

More Articles...

Page 21 of 155

21

Media

Gabinet de Premsa


971 32 10 87 - Ext: 3181
premsa@conselldeformentera.cat