15M movement, from the outrage to the action

After the results of the Spanish local and regional elections which took place on May 22, the centre-right Popular Party was more than pleased with the victory, whereas the Socialists suffered heavy election losses.

Once the recount finished, everything was done that night, the elections were over.

Just the opposite was happening in the Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol. It could be sensed that the people from the called “Movimiento 15M” were intended to stay in the square, that movement just started.

People gathered around a megaphone used by citizens to express their major concerns, onlookers stopped to read the hundreds of protest signs, while many volunteers, installed in their makeshift stands, reported on the movement and collected signatures and proposals at the same time.

During the election’s night it was possible to walk through Sol square, as the protests of thousands of people in the days before the elections dissipated. Although the agglomeration decreased dramatically, several hundred people remained in the Madrid’s heart square and ended that day of protests in the camp with a silent sittingheld minute before twelve o’clock.

About twenty tents are still set up along the main camp, organized by working committees with no visible leaders and created spontaneously. “The intention was to organize ourselves, but we didn’t expect so much people would join us”, says a spokesman of the movement, who studied to install renewable energies and, after looking for a job in Spain without success, is determined to try his luck in Italy. Organization, precisely, makes up one of the foundations that support the survival of the camp established strongly on 17 of May as a consequence of the forced evacuation of the previous day.

Since that first time, committees were organized according to the needs of the camp. “As it has expended, the commissions have been extended. There is a children’s area, an infirmary, a mental health and natural therapies area with professional masseurs and psychologists...” says Sofia, a 26 years-old journalist who has lent herself to be a spokeswoman of the movement.


Although there are people ranged all ages, most volunteers working in the camp are educated young people who find in the movement an opportunity to show that they can organize and carry out their duties professionally.

The proof of that is that, in less than a week, a perfectly organized camp divided into committees has been created by the members of the 15M movement for self-management.

Thus, it has been established a legal committee constituted by lawyers to solve all sort of legal issues related to the protests and the camp; the commission of respect that is responsible for avoiding altercations and keep the square clean; extension to create links with other Spanish cities or overseas; the communications commission to inform the media; the information one to explain citizens what is the movement... in total there are about ten commissions which are constantly growing and changing, depending on the needs and the new proposals submitted by anyone who decides to go to Sol square with the idea of helping.

A different society, in Sol

Many say that in the Puerta del Sol has been created a mini-city. “At first it was a protest, but now it is a way to say that a totally different society is possible”, says a 19 years-old girl who is studying Occupational Therapy first year degree. She is working in the food commission: “we give food to colleagues working in the camp and then to others”.

Although poor naughty and very cunning people finds its place in the Sol’s camp (there are those who try to sell the food they get for free or try to get sandwiches without working in the movement), people’s solidarity is the protagonist. “If we need spoons, half an hour later we have lots of them”. And all this without money involved, “there are many people, of all kinds, who bring food. Everything works through donations, which is the only thing we accept. Sometimes we have to say not to people who want to give us more food, because we have plenty”.

Others try to give money, however, they have always the same answer: “we only accept donations ‘in kind’ so doesn’t get us wrong”.

The committees, in turn, are divided into working groups, which collect the proposals of the citizens who pass through the camp. These proposals are discussed by each working group made up by anyone who wants to participate and, after being unanimously approved, they are voted at the general meeting which takes place usually in the evenings and with the participation of several hundred people gathered in the square. Everything said, is written up in the minutes.

"We're deciding what we want", says a volunteer. At the moment there is such a volume of submissions that it is very difficult to develop a common manifesto. "We're not overwhelmed, is that there are many people who want to participate. We will stay at Sol square, at least, until Sunday, and then we want to organize meetings in the neighbourhoods and villages in order to revitalize the local communications, which currently are very weak”, says another spokesman for the 15M movement.

They are organized, but what they want?

Despite having no manifests, 15M members agree that democracy mechanisms for citizen participation don’t work. That’s why they claim the use of public spaces as a forum for debate. "Politicians do not represent us, only represent the interests of banking", complains a volunteer. "We are very tired, very tired, we want a change".

Some say they cannot find a job because they are “overqualified”, others want to reform the electoral system because it promotes two-party system; all agree that is should be removed the privileges of the political class. “My generation has seen no prospects, but has been now when we have realized that the situation is really bad, that’s why we have organized”, says a 21 years-old boy. Another spokesman states: "even if you aren’t affected by the crisis, you should be touched; this is not only about what can happen to you, this is as well about what happens to people around you. Your neighbour may be unemployed. We live in a society, we are social beings and we have to fight to achieve an universal social justice”.

"I was just hoping that young people did something, it has been necessary", says 71 years-old, Eugenia. "We didn’t know what was wrong with young people, why have not complained so far, but now I'm very happy about this movement, it's about time!", says excited 56 years-old Vicenta. The two disappear into the crowd, leaving a crowded Plaza del Sol which has gone from being a transit area to become, in just a few days, in an agora to discuss, debate and propose ideas.

*Published in La Opinión de Granada on 25/05/2011

The public outrage is justified

The public indignation materialized in outcries of anonymous people since 15th of March in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, and in several cities in Spain, change the course of the political campaign and becomes the protagonist of the front pages of national media. All I can see and hear from my laptop in the UK resulting in a feeling that moves between the hope and the relief of knowing that we are not asleep. "It’s about time1”, I tell myself. The media have made us protagonist in less than a week, and it is curious, because we have been it for years, victims of economic crisis, social injustice, corruption, manipulation and the curtailment of our rights. Something that, however, is not new in our history.

Because we are the protagonists in this play, we know all too well the reasons for these concentrations, that’s why we don’t need anybody to light us up and explain the reasons of our boredom and tiredness. I just list them:

1. 43% youth unemployment. Almost half the youth Spanish population is not working, those who have no experience or studies find really difficult to be recruited due to the high competition for the few jobs on offer; and those who have got qualifications and work experience , now are considered "overqualified". And all of this is happening, while we see that in Spain, to be prime minister is not required to speak English.

2. Injustice in the labour market. Those who work don’t envision a scenario very encouraging: aspiring to be "mileuristas" (earning no more than 1.000 euros per month for a full time job), having precarious contracts and enduring hellish working conditions for fear of being fired. If you are a woman, the situation is even more difficult: maternity redundancies double with the excuse of the crisis. How to escape from this labyrinth without end? Many, like me, have chosen to emigrate to other countries in search of opportunities denied to us in Spain.

3. "Tighten your belt". We have heard so many speeches appealing to social responsibility and the need to apply "difficult" measures to tackle the crisis ... In this term we have witnessed a labour reform that makes dismissals cheaper, lower wages for government employees, an increase of the retirement age and a drastic cut in social benefits (no more check-baby income, college loans with no interest rate or benefits to long-term unemployed). All this would make sense if there is a consistent policy of cuts and restrictions for all sectors of the population, but, unfortunately, in Spain the political class keeps their privileges, for example, by having exorbitant salaries - in some cases for life, paid from our pockets.

4. Ministry of Housing, what for? The housing bubble burst and, although prices have fallen slightly, housing in Spain is overvalued by 40%. Renting a house is also expensive, the average price is 750 euros per month, slightly less than the salary of a Spaniard "mileurista" without access to a mortgage. The alternative is to share an apartment for rent or live with parents. "To get by," say many young Spanish -and not so young. The trouble is that this option becomes mandatory and indefinite. And people get tired of that.

5. A discredited political class. Corruption scandals in the two major parties, lies, false promises and political actions in the service of financial power or lobbying businesses rather than citizens are, I’m afraid, too common in Spain. These politicians work for our welfare? People feel that politicians don’t represent them them, because they live in a “bubble”. As protesters say in front of the Puerta del Sol: "Citizens have lost respect for the major political parties, but because of this we are not going to lose our critical sense".

Clearly, there are plenty of reasons to be indignant and demonstrate against government. Still, we endure outrageous interested views saying things such as "behind all the protests are the extreme left-wing parties and communist groups" or that "this is organized just by young people, bored, with nothing better to do." Two days before regional and municipal elections, the Electoral Board has outlawed concentrations, so people can be fined just for protesting. This shows that who most should, still don’t understand. The day of reflection is not important. The election result doesn’t matter. The important thing here is that the Spanish have managed to organize in order to point out their outrage. How this will end? At the rate that is changing the world with the push of social networks, even sociologist can’t agree. I'm not a sociologist and couldn’t foresee the consequences, however, I hope that this has just begun.

Fighting poverty, from the laboratory

Development economics, it’s just theory without a scientific basis? Not for Esther Duflo, of course. This economist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believes that by using random testing, similar to those utilized by the pharmaceutical industry, lies the key to create effective measures which determine the success of the aid programs.

Money, obviously, is important to fight against poverty. But it’s not the only thing. To Duflo’s view, the most important is to know what (and why) works and doesn’t work in the implementation of aid programs to make them the most effective possible. “In technology, we spend so much time experimenting, fine-tuning, getting the absolute cheapest way to do something, so why aren't we doing that with social policy?” – says Duflo in a speech organized by the MIT.

Since 2003, through the Poverty Action Lab, Duflo and her team has gathered real data in order to find answers to alleviate poverty. From this data, they have got really interesting results. For example, the efficiency of public benefits depends on the gender of its recipient; or that the acceleration of the rate of human capital is not matched with economic growth. Another research that has generated quite a lot controversy has been the measure of the ‘microcredit’ programme effectiveness, which is not really effective because only one out of eight people use a ‘microcredit’ to set a business that wouldn’t exist in any other way.

Social experiments to fight poverty

Using a ‘micro’ approach, Esther Duflo has made plenty of social experiments to fight poverty. In a MIT speech, the economist gives three examples to get an impression of her work:

Immunization. In spite of the existence of vaccination programmes that offer vaccines for free, there are yet at least 25 million children who do not get the immunization they should. This is not due to a lack of vaccines or because parents don’t care about their children, there are other determining factors that must be considered like, for instance, the distance of the vaccination centres or the survival chores that poor people have to face day by day. These factors make parents to postpone their children’s vaccination until it is too late. After carrying out several experiments of random selection, it was found that which made the best measure to get an increment in the vaccination rate was a simple kilogram of lentils, offered as a gift in response of going to a vaccination centre. Something so cheap could increase the initial vaccination rate by six times.

Malaria. To fight malaria, there are lots of programmes which distribute bed nets for free. Having realised that there were people who didn’t value this prevention measure (maybe just because it was for free) and they use them as fishing nets instead. Duflo’s team wondered until what extend it was the best to give bed nets for free. It was also important to know if people would buy them in the future in case they were no more for free. Should they be for free, then? After doing some experiments, they came to the conclusion that this ‘alternative’ uses were made by a minority and that the distribution of bed nets for free, in spite of decreasing, guaranties a greater rate of purchase in the long term.

Education. How to get children into schools? In Duflo’s words, education intervention can be applied in many different ways, for example hiring teachers, school meals, school uniforms, scholarships... but, what is the intervention which makes the best result? It was proved that by telling people the benefits of education, something really cheap, it was achieved the biggest schooling rate increase. Another finding less intuitive was the relation between worms and school attendance: intestinal worms make a considerable amount of children weaker and, as a result, they didn’t attend to school. By curing these children, the attendance was incremented considerably.

Thanks to her research, Ester Duflo is becoming one of economist more important in the field of development economics. Her name has been mentioned since 2009, when she was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, otherwise known as a 'genius' grant. In 2010, Duflo was awarder with a John Bates Clark medal, which is considered a reliable indicator of future Nobel consideration.

Starbucks: the marketing experience

The ‘third place’, introduced by the chairman and CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz, since he founded the chain in 1971, was a key concept that has revolutionised the coffee shops business in half the world.

Under the premise of creating an attractive, cosy and comfortable space perfect to be the ‘third place’ between work and home, it was established one of the basic foundations in the Starbucks’ marketing strategy.

The doors of the coffee shop chain are opened not only to offer coffees, but also to create a sensorial experience made, conscientiously, by the best marketing professionals. As well as coffee, the Starbucks’ marketing strategy can be experienced with the five senses:

Sight. The very well-known logo of the twin-tailed siren has accomplished its mission in 2011: to be recognised without the need of include the words ‘Starbucks’ and ‘Coffee’. After the omission of every written reference of the brand and its core article, there is a clear intention of open up the market for the brand. According to the BBC, Starbucks is planning to sell ice-creams and other drinks such as wine or beer to extend its product range. Which definitively catches our eyes are the comfortable sofas that are part of the cosy design of the furniture’s stores and reinforce the concept of ‘third place’.

Smell. The Facebook’s goup ‘Starbucks in Málaga’ define it like this: “An atmosphere really special, the coffee smell, it has a certain something that makes you feel comfortable, relax...”. That smell is not accidental, it comes from fresheners emplaced strategically which ‘invites’ us to fancy a coffee in a very subtle way and that are part of the ‘scent marketing’ that find in Starbucks one of its best examples.

Taste. Have you ever been offered a small piece of brownie just when you have pop into a Starbucks coffee shop? Marketing can be also ‘eaten’, which means more sales of complementary Starbucks’ products like cakes or sandwiches.

Touch. The Starbucks’s merchandising is placed close to the casher area, which allows you to approach to the goods while you are queuing and, of course, to touch them. This opportunity of experiencing the articles is so effective that, even at the risk of being stolen, Starbucks keeps its merchandising ‘close enough to touch’.

Earing. The Starbucks’ music selection is a key in order to create this atmosphere that invites to relax while you are reading the newspaper, have a chat with your friends or even work with your laptop. Again, we come back to the ‘third place’ concept that has been so useful to consolidate this brand worldwide.

Marketing not only outside

To create the ‘experience Stabucks’, the marketing campaign goes beyond its products and extends to the people that make up the working team: from the baristas to the district managers. It is useless a great marketing strategy if the staff don’t believe in what is selling, that’s why Starbucks insists on instil its brand culture to its ‘partners’.

At first sight, working in a international company with coffee shops in every corner must be easy. However, the reality is different to what we can intuit: the barista hiring process starts from the selection of their CV among a high number of resumes received (a number that has increased by the crisis scenario we are living in and the ‘calling effect’ that an international company involves), to the personal or group interview which combines conventional questions with others more ‘physiological’. Having succeeded the interview, the candidate is ‘invited’ to work for a couple of hours to make sure that is absolutely comfortable with all that they’ll need to do, according to Starbucks’ website.

It’s surprising that you can’t find Starbucks adverts in conventional platforms such as newspapers or television, its marketing strategy has broken out the norm and the consequences are visible. However, to be fair, we can’t forget the big push that means their strategy of expansion that gives as a result *17.009 stores over more than 50 countries. Even if you are not looking for the ‘Starbucks experience’, it’s very probable that it finds you ‘around the corner’.

*2^nd of January 2011 figures