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"There are three types of lies - lies, damn lies, and statistics." - Variously attributed to Benjamin Disraeli and popularized in the U.S. by Mark Twain and I can't help recalling that every time there's a report of a demonstration, strike or similar on this island.

There's invariably a wide gap between the numbers different parties say took part. It never fails and this week, we have no less than 2 examples.

According to the press, Miles de personas se manifiestan en Santa Cruz en defensa del suelo rústico. Organizers say there were 10,000 at Saturday's demonstration - in favour of social and sustainable progress amongst other things too - on the streets of Santa Cruz: police sources only counted 2,000. Count them yourself: someone who actually was there, José Mesa has a whole set of photos from the event. And there's more here.

And, on Friday, the doctors and nurses strike (Los médicos y enfermeros canarios, a la huelga el día 23) paralyzed health services (La huelga de los médicos y los enfermeros ha paralizado la sanidad canaria). Just how "paralysed" were they? According to the unions, 82% joined the strike action. The Government only made it 12%, for some reason. :)

(La sanidad canaria está parada en un 82% según sindicatos y un 12% según el Gobierno)

| Permalink | (3) Comments | Post a Comment

 jose wrote (on November 24, 2007)  

Thanks a lot for the link, Pam!

Jose Mesa

 Pamela Heywood wrote (on November 25, 2007)  

:-) Did you actually manage to count how many people were there?

 Pamela Heywood wrote (on December 04, 2007)  

Jose later explained:

Around 13:15h. I estimate the end of the demonstration was near Civilian Government building, in Mendez Nuñez St. and the head was reaching Principe Sq via Pilar St.
Using Google Earth I've calculated this is 2.620 square meters. Considering 3 to 4 people for square meter (and I think thats a pretty accurate number) I estimate 7.800 to 10.500 people. A happy medium could be 9.000 people.

Like I thought, it looks certain that it was more than the 2,000 that the authorities counted.

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