- Publisher: Roqueta Magazine
- Editor: Duncan Frazer
- Edition: 324
- Published: 15th March 2018
Welcome Back! Thanks for picking up the first copy of ROQUETA for the year.
The message that we should have taken into the winter was ‘Don’t turn your back for a minute’, as the island is awash with a number of topics that are attracting much discussion. It is of course impossible for us, as a monthly magazine, to report on developments on a minute-by-minute basis, but we can try to set the scene and explain what is happening. As we are totally non-political too, we aim to cover the topics without bias.
We have an article trying to get to the bottom of the letting of properties in Menorca. This is a hot subject for many of us, and certainly well covered in the local paper most days. Chele Fox, the long-term president of the Cala Llonga Residents’ Group, has stepped forward and tried to explain the direction of passage on the issue. An awesome task.
A topic that is filling newsstands across the world is that of the environment and sustainability. We have had a look at what that means for Menorca. All the advertising material promotes Menorca as natural and unspoilt with the Biosphere at its core. But does the island merely talk the talk or does it walk the walk? We have introductory articles that will develop into a series over the summer.
Regular contributor Mary Macrossan has met up with Úrsula Mascaró to talk about her campaign to have the mandatory requirement for Catalan proficiency certificates to be held by all staff in the Health Service rescinded.
Angela Rose has kindly agreed to run a ROQUETA Book Club, both from the pages of the magazine and via Facebook. You will find her first list of books to read, with stories based in Spain in this edition. Why not get involved and meet some like-minded people?
And of course, it’s Spring and Easter, so we have a report on local customs, appropriate gardening tips, some insight into the beautiful and colourful wildflowers in the fields right across the island, new fashion trends and some seasonal recipes.
One of the key areas that readers have found to be useful in ROQUETA is the What’s On pages. The lack of prepromotion of events is a constant frustration and we are delighted that some event organisers are now approaching us to help get the message out. Hats and Horses anyone?
The societies and clubs that maintain a healthy social life on the island as well as raising thousands of euros for local charities have been keen to tell us what they have been doing over the winter and what they have planned for 2018. We have reports from some of the regulars and a couple of new faces too. We are of course always very pleased to report on all of this.
And what about the new front cover? What do you think? We are aiming to refect the improvements we hope we have made over the past two years by introducing a more appealing look. We are a lifestyle magazine for Menorca of course, so we hope this evolving look better reflects this position. Not many other changes for 2018: some improvements on layouts, but otherwise the ROQUETA with which we are all familiar.
Happy reading. We are always available for comment – contact duncan@roquetamagazine.net. And don’t forget that you don’t need to miss a thing if you take out a subscription for a printed or digital version on https://roquetamagazine.net/subscribe/.