10.02.2014 // Text: Andreas Simon // Pix: Victor Oliver / artiG

Editor’s Letter February 2014

2014 seems to be a year of heavy changes – just look around and see what is happening already…

Who would have thought not long ago that we would face a threat of the magnitude of several oil platforms around our shores? And who can seriously be so stupid to think that this is a way out of the financial ‘crisis’ (oh how i hate that word…) – this is the most short term thinking i saw in a long time – but lately so indicative for a politician’s view… Who will come to Ibiza to spend a fortune on a hard-earned holiday facing the idyllic view of an oil platform in front of them on our beaches? Maybe tourists from the emirates as they are used to it – but all the rest will go to another place that is not spoiled… So where is the benefit for the island? Or is it only about the benefit of a few on cost of us all??

Reading about all side effects of the oil drillings is like being told you are going to die soon, knowing that sooner or later we will face some kind of incident, besides all the Ecosystem being destroyed only to find out if there is oil or not…

Sure, we all need to run our cars on petrol, but the reason we all do not drive cars fuelled by water, air or any other alternative energy is because the big oil companies do have an existential interest to maintain things like they are to keep making their profits – no more no less. My car is 30 years old and needs 10 litres of Diesel on 100 km – i ask myself what happened in all those years to reduce the consume of petrol?? Ok, in the last few years the companies make us believe their cars only consume a few litres, but if you buy the car you find out it still consumes a lot more than they have told you…

The fact that the sun got privatized recently in Spain (no joke…) so you have to pay if you want to gain energy out of it with solar cells shows clearly that the only reason for things to be the way the are is money, and that equals power. Or that is what we are supposed to believe.

Very soon we will know how many signatures we were al able to collect, rumors already say the authorities will have problems to count them as there are so many – SO WHAT? Hopefully there are so much more than expected to drown them in signatures, for one time in history Ibiza has the same opinion about something – Ibiza says NO to oil platforms on our shores or anywhere near us!

The fotos you see of the people painted in black were an action of Jil. Love in Talamanca on Sunday 9th of February, the pictures were provided by Victor Oliver – thank you all for collaboration!

The next action will take place upcoming Saturday 15th of February at midday, on the Vara de Rey in Ibiza town – a flashmob – means a choreography performed by a group of people – to show our opinion about the planned platforms.

More information about the flashmob here:

eivissadiuno