PO E T R Y C O R N E R "Manipulate No More"

A string is pulled

A wooden mouth falls open in a gape

A finger presses plastic switch

Engaging vocal tape

A shrill dismembered songster

From an era dead and gone

Emits from tongue-less mouthpiece

Scratched fragments of a song

A heartless little Pierrot

Fake limbs controlled above

Is made to dance a costumed prance

Mouth miming words of love

Performing to an empty house

Upon an empty stage

Enveloped in a spotlight

Illuminating age

The painted face now losing trace

Of featured fascination

Looks blankly through a cob-webbed view

In dumb anticipation

Clip-clopping on the boards of dust

Which once reflected laughter

A marionette alone of wood and stone

Should last for ever after

But all at once the muted dunce

Felt that his world was ending

Frail arms went weak then with a squeak

His joint less spine was bending

by David Whitney c1962

A fragile thread above his head

Broke without any warning

And the wooden mouth fell North to South

As if the fool was yawning

Then one by one each string begun

To snap in mock defiance

As the puppeteer and puppet Broke off their strung alliance

Pierrot was free no more to be

A prisoner with a master

Slumped to the ground a splitting sound

As floor cracked hands of plaster

The master watched in disbelief

As Pierrot turned his head

The singer ceased his singing

The tape recorder dead

The puppet watched with doleful eyes

His master fixed his stare

Then walked away to leave the play

And puppet lying there

The effigy looked at himself

Prostrated on the floor

And shut his eyes with muttered sighs

“Manipulate No More”

By David Whitney c 1962

To see your poem published on this page send to: office@theleader.info the needs claimed by doctors.

Mas has highlighted that the Minister of Health, Miguel Mínguez, has sat down with all the unions on a number of occasions to listen to the needs and put on the table proposed solutions to the demands of the Medical Union. The vice president stated that it is essential that the dialogue between the parties continues to be open, but at the same time she has urged putting aside unilateral decisions and continuing "with active listening," while at the same time calling for responsibility.

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At a meeting held in the town last Monday the local PSOE Group unanimously ratified the candidacy of the current mayor, José Manuel Butrón Sánchez, who will now lead the group into the municipal elections in May

Butrón has expressed his "desire and eagerness" to run again in the municipal elections for the 20232027 legislature: "I am proud to represent my people, to whom I am grateful, and to work for them to continue moving the town forward in this horizon of opportunities in which we find ourselves, "says Butrón.

Butrón has been the only elected mayor for over 30 years, since the town was declared independent from Almoradí on July 30th, 1990.

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"It's in the middle of nowhere," observes one of the passengers. The facility is a veritable island: September 15, 2022 was the last time a scheduled bus service was available at the airfield and no more are expected until summer to the Region, and they are unaware that their only mode of onward travel is either a taxi or a hire car.

An aircraft lands at one of the seven least used airports in Spain. The small group of passengers, arriving from the United Kingdom, walk through the terminal, they will be the only ones to do so for the next few hours, as there are only five flights scheduled throughout the whole day.

“It's very nice and clean, but it's empty, even for winter,” says one of the passengers, with a chuckle.

Only 838,940 people travelled through Corvera airport last year, in comparison to the 13,202,880 that chose to use Alicante, and four years after it was opened by King Felipe in 2019 the passenger numbers are still far short of those processed by it’s predecessor at San Javier. This cripplingly expensive aviation saga has been an embarrassing flop for the Murcian government. It really is such a pity that millions of euros of public money have been squandered by self-seeking politicians on little more than a whim, that we have gone from a profitable and award winning airport at San Javier to one that continues to eat up public funds. Public transport is non-existent with the last service ending in September 2022 and there is still being no guarantee of it returning in the summer.

Pampering to the vanity of PoliticiansJust five flights, no buses and a 180 million euro black hole.

One further disadvantage is the airport being in a military zone which means that flights, including commercial ones, cannot start until 7am and must stop by 10pm, so there are no night flights at Corvera airport. The same was the case with the already closed San Javier airport, although that did not prevent it from consistently exceeding one million passengers per year for eleven of the twelve years on record.

But far from admitting defeat the Institute of Tourism of the Region of Murcia is about to pump an additional 4 million euros into Corvera Airport to encourage new national and international routes in 2023.

“If this airport had public transport it would be more successful. We have to rent a car, it's a problem, plus it's in the middle of nowhere,” states another passenger, Paul. For most of the travellers spoken to, this was their first flight

In fact the airport is already offering cheap flights to the Canary Islands as well as trips to London-Luton and Manchester from May, and with the forecast of a strong industry improvement for the Murcia region, perhaps the poor performance of it’s airport might also be turned around.

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The women were attracted by promises of modelling and film work