Industrial fishing is carried out mainly by multinational companies, who benefit from concessions given by the Ecuadorian government, and by national investment groups. However, there is a large price to pay for this progress. Fishermen work hard in difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions, all year round. The immigrant workforce has driven down the cost of labour and increased working hours;  as in every rapidly developing community, this has made the cost of basic living rise dramatically.

The majority of fishermen still work on small fibreglass or wooden boats, leave at 4 pm, rarely return before 7 am, and earn an average of around $20 a day. However, most families now have enough money for basic healthcare and school books, and, although no statistics have been compiled, most people agree that children begin to start to work notably later – at 15-16 rather than 10-11 years old.

This burgeoning development could not be further from the reality of life in any of several hundred undeveloped subsistence fishing communities stretching down the southern coast of the country. More than 12,000 families are dependent on the micro-fishing industry, still using traditional onshore netting and trapping techniques, and fishing from small motorboats and canoes. In the tiny settlement of Estero de Platano, only a few hours north of Manta, life has changed little in the last 50 years. Geographical and economic isolation has presented a barrier to the development witnessed in other parts of the country.

The men of the village fish for pipas del mar from 5 am until 9 am; the fish make $3 to $5 each when sold. The fishermen’s lives are slow and quiet, and the rest of the day is spent netting food, cultivating fruit and cocoa in the forest, talking, playing cards and staring out to sea, waiting for the tide to change. Estero de Platano has not fallen victim to any social difficulties, like alcoholism, which have had such a damaging effect on similar communities.

However, the future holds an increasingly bleak prospect for the younger generation. The inevitable northwards creep of tourist-related development from Manta, coupled with the increase in passing traffic, is bringing young people into contact with an ever increasing number of things they cannot afford, yet desperately want – from mobile phones and CDs to antibiotics and shampoo. Efforts to ease the path of development and boost the local economy by national NGOs have been largely unsuccessful; all have now left, disheartened by lack of enthusiasm and progress.

That’s not surprising. In the short term, all the development efforts have meant a great deal of work for less money, and no guarantee of success. Add to this the fact that many of the inhabitants, particularly the women, have rarely, if ever, journeyed even as far as 30 km down the coast to the nearest town, and do not really understand what the NGOs intended to achieve. They live as their parents and grandparents lived, and have no real engagement with or exposure to the process of social change. Change, indeed, has usually meant for the worse – more noisy and messy traffic, more pollution in the sea, more poaching. It seems likely that most of the older generation will be able to live out their lives without any alteration to traditional existence. What the future holds for the youngest is anybody’s guess.

For somebody who detests shopping, it must have been something very special which made me stop dead in my tracks, cause a line of people behind me to shunt each other bumper-to-bumper, and turn back to inspect the shop window further. I had discovered the home of East Village Radio; not a shop at all, but an independent radio station broadcasting from a former retail floor.

In the East Village, there is an unwritten decree that forbids convention, and, in this day of prohibitive legislation, permits innovation, originality and contrast. EVR is a radio station that meets this remit unquestionably, and embodies the cultural vitality of its surrounding environment. It is dedicated to playing the most eclectic mix of music imaginable, and its broadcasters are passionate experts in their preferred genres. It also has a significant Brooklyn influence, complete with the beats and grooves which so characterise this other New York cultural hotspot.
But alternative does not mean financial hardship. Frank Prisinzano, Director of EVR, sees the enterprise as a fusion of the College radio mentality, which supports broadcasters and artists trying to ‘break the mould’ and offer new ideas, tastes and thoughts, whilst also making the station a viable business prospect. It must be financially successful.
EVR started out in 2003, transmitting on FM, but is now internet-based. Its first members of staff had been working in pirate radio, and got their inspiration for ‘college-commercial’ radio from the WFM New station. EVR benefits handsomely from the dues paid by record labels and shops, eager to get new music on the data waves. Academy Records, Boundless and Turntable Lab all feed their latest and greatest through EVR.
Passion drives the station. “We want to give a platform to people who otherwise wouldn’t have a platform,” says Steve Cohen, EVR Station Manager. This is done by setting up the radar, and searching for the best blips. The result of this is an impressively diverse programming schedule, which takes in ‘20s jazz, gay-orientated electronic, minimal techno and a classic hip-hop show.
Although dialogue does not figure hugely at the moment, there are plans to introduce more chat.  But it won’t be Moyles-esque rubbish: it will be the talk of true aficionados. East Village Radio will be feeding its listeners with inspiration, and hopes to attract more support via its revamped website, due to be released in May 2008. Cohen calls the approach to music at EVR “academic;” a lot of research goes into sourcing the best of the latest, and collaborating with record shops to forecast the new wave in each genre.
Although EVR has recorded listeners in 117 countries, Cohen admits that there has not really been much of an effort to promote the station. In line with the revamped website, there will be more cross-promotion, including a link from the new Globalist website, branding on buildings and a presence at relevant music events. The station itself hopes to offer recording facilities, and become a portal for music enthusiasts and professionals the world over.

The desire to integrate and interact with the West is a powerful spur to achieve human rights- focused reform in the country. However, China does not conform to internationally-accepted standards of democratic protocol and procedure. Election to the Upper House (the People’s Congress) is restricted to party members. China still continues to imprison and execute thousands for political crimes each year. Indeed, it performs 90 percent of the world’s executions, according to Amnesty International.

Moreover, China’s treatment of prisoners, particularly political prisoners, remains a cause for concern. Torture is widespread. Amnesty has found that the use of electric shock treatments and sleep deprivation are common. Investigations by leading human rights activist, Gao Zhiseng, indicate that prisoners’ organs are removed for transplant while they are still alive. This is not an exclusively domestic issue. Thousands of people travel to China each year to receive organ transplants. More generally, torture in prisons remains an intractable problem. On this issue, the West has lost much of its moral high ground, as a result of detention without trial in Guantanamo Bay and extraordinary rendition flights. Therefore, opposition to non-democratic practice in China is best directed through non-governmental human rights groups.

China is frequently criticised for disregarding human rights in its pursuit of economic growth. China is the largest investor in Sudan and it receives 80% of the country’s oil output. At the same time, it is the one of the few nations to provide active military and political support to the Sudanese government. Over the last four years, Chinese opposition at the Security Council has prevented the deployment of UN forces to police the fragile ceasefire in Darfur, arguably also to the relief of many other nations too ‘proud’ to confess their lack of interest in involvement in the crisis. In addition, China has been the strongest supporter of the government in Burma. This has clearly prolonged the life of one of the world’s most detested regimes.

Concerns have been raised about the human rights of religious minorities. The most disturbing claims of all relate to the Fallongong, a religious movement that combines aspects of Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, founded in 1990 by Li Honzihg. At first, the government was very supportive, awarding the movement a prize for improving public health, because of its practice of a strenuous form of yoga. By 1999, when it had 70 million followers in China, the government suddenly turned against the movement, branding it an “evil cult,” a label rejected by all independent experts. Thousands of practitioners were arrested and sent to government labour camps, and survivors report that there was a systematic and cruel programme of torture in place to force practitioners to renounce Fallongong. This is evidence that governmental secularism lives on in modern-day China. Significantly, all this took place under the leadership of Jiang Zemin, a man who instigated economic liberalisation. It seems that amongst China’s political elite economic freedom and religious freedom are considered separate issues, though they are clearly rooted in the same basic ideology.

On a provincial level, there are some positive signs. Yunan province has accepted 20,000 Rohingya Muslims refugees, fleeing the persecution of the Burmese junta. The group has been well-treated and has become one of the most prosperous minority groups within China. By contrast, China still maintains an iron grip over Tibet. Mistreatment of independence activists continues. There is great concern for the welfare and whereabouts of monks who took part in recent protests. The biggest worry for the international community is that the campaign for Tibetan independence might turn violent. Images of Chinese businesses being looted only provide ammunition for crackdowns on the people of Tibet. For this reason, it is critical that world leaders rally around the Dali Lama and his call for peaceful resistance.

There have been improvements in press freedom. The Party has recently allowed its citizens to access the BBC news website. This is a crucial step, for increased press freedom can only fuel demands for democracy. It also continues to tolerate press freedom and public demonstrations in Hong Kong. However, further lifting of censorship restrictions is far from inevitable. In recent local elections on the mainland a number of high-profile independent candidates have been elected, and only time will tell whether they can maintain an independent voice. The outlook, however, is not good; the Party still excludes candidates it deems too radical.

In 2005, individual landowners were given the same property rights as the state. This should help prevent corrupt officials forcibly removing land from rural farmers for urban development. In the long term, to maintain high rates of economic growth the government will have to deal with the high level of corruption and the lack of an adequate social safety net. If growth slows sharply, the public mood will turn against the government, particularly amongst the Party’s key support base, the aspiring middle class.

What are the implications for the Beijing Olympics? According to its charter, “respect for universal ethical principles” is a cornerstone of the Olympic movement. There is international consensus that the abuse of dissidents and lack of democracy in China violates these principles. What, then, is the international community’s best response? A boycott of the Games would be deeply damaging. If leading nations did not compete, then China’s leaders and its people would view it as a grave insult to national pride. China would respond by becoming more inward- looking. The government would blame democratic activists and minority rights groups for undermining The Games and inflict even worse abuses on them.

A more effective approach might be for world leaders to boycott the opening ceremony, in the way that Nicolas Sarkozy and Hillary Clinton have intimated. For, in an effort to save face, China might be forced to make significant concessions, freeing dissidents and allowing opposition groups freedom to protest. However, the challenge would be to make sure China would not revert back to its old ways after the Games have finished. Therefore, the key for the international community is to focus its diplomatic pressure on winning tangible long-term commitments from the Chinese government- most importantly- self-government for Tibet. Contrary to widespread cynicism, this is a realistic goal. It was the international diplomatic and media attention around the Seoul Olympics that caused dictator President Chun to resign and call elections that precipitated South Korea’s move from military dictatorship to full democracy.

There are clear precedents for athletes to lead protests. Most memorably, in 1968, the medal winners Tommie Smith and John Carlos made the famous Black Power salute to protest against a racist Olympic team coach, apartheid in South Africa and lynchings in the American South. A similar one could make a profound mark on the Beijing Olympics. It would be most effective if Chinese athletes were involved, as this would stop the Chinese government claiming that human rights protesters were imperialist foreigners imposing their own values upon China.

China’s human rights record remains poor and its political system is far from democratic. In the short term, the main stimulus to the movement for democracy and human rights is coming from external forces. In particular, Beijing hosting the Olympics has led to far closer scrutiny of China’s human rights record by the international community. This increased attention has been heightened by the recent unrest in Tibet. The Olympics provide an outstanding opportunity for the international community as a whole, to take a stand against human rights abuse in China and push for a resolution of the conflict over Tibet. In the long term, greater prosperity will fuel the democratic movement within China. Indeed, China may actually need economic reform to maintain the rapid rate of economic growth that its people are becoming accustomed to.

Recent media coverage has focused on the British public’s ostensibly paranoid reaction to these new residents. Do we want them here or not? Are they taking all our jobs? Or are they just revealing the extent to which the benefit culture has spread in Britain?

These questions and others have been banded back and forth in recent months with increased fervour. It looks like the Poles, who represent the biggest proportion of Eastern European migrants in the UK, are here to stay.

But the views which have most often been neglected or difficult to tap into have been those of the Polish immigrants themselves. What a lot of Britons fail to realise is that a magical aura surrounding Britain spread to Poland during the 2006-onwards immigration boom. The early Poles told stories of buying cars and big houses, and sent home cold hard cash to prove it. And as word spread of the opportunity – and indeed ease – of working in Britain, the Poles quickly jumped on their own bandwagon.

But there was often no Holy Grail in Albion after all. Poles who wanted to come here were often exploited by employment agencies, and when they arrived they were greeted with an unexpected sense of loss and terrible living conditions. Then there was the work itself. Often paid less than the minimum wage, and frequently expected to do a greater proportion of work than other employees, many Poles realised they had received a raw deal.

Now we are faced with a new concern. Before the debate over immigration has even reached its peak, we are beginning to wonder why some Poles are leaving the UK, and quickly putting a check on the boom which brought so many of them here in the first place.

A disgruntled House of Lords committee recently published a report looking into the economic impact of immigration in the UK. As well as grumbling about the lack of net benefits to the British economy, the committee picked up on a characteristic of the latest wave of immigrants: most of them never planned to stay or integrate into the British community.

The improved Polish economy and an exchange rate favouring the value of the zloty has started to pull Poles back, and the realization that the dream of working in the UK is a double-edged sword has begun to set in.

Krzsztof Tomkowski, Grounds Manager for the Polish Association in Slough, had an all-too-familiar initial experience: “It was difficult to make a living in Poland. The earnings were poor and back then the prognosis for our economy didn’t look good.

“I got here through an agency. I paid 1500 zt. for them to provide transport and find me work and accommodation in this country. They organized transport, yes, but nothing else. When I got here I didn’t know what to do.

“After two weeks I was offered illegal work. There was no formal registration and they paid less than £3 per hour – cash in hand. They effectively told me to work non-stop, for 12 hours each day, for £30.”

After a series of trying to get legal employment through different English agencies, and a string of jobs including working at Heathrow Airport and on building sites, Krzysztof found a job with the Polish Association in Slough.

His new employer, Edward Jasnikowski, commented, “We took him on in January and he’s been an absolute gem. He can drive tractors, service engines and do a range of maintenance work on our buildings. Things have worked out well now, but his initial experiences were rather upsetting.”

Mr Jasnikowski, a British citizen, has watched as Slough became home to an estimated 10,000 Polish immigrants.

“The English community has been particularly accommodating in Slough. They were a little slow to accept the new arrivals, but more recently there has been a positive atmosphere.

“Of course, I’ve heard a whole host of stories about Polish workers being exploited. I was involved with a local committee which tried to tackle the problem. Polish people would respond to advertisements in Poland offering work in the UK. They would be picked up by a car in England, their passport and a deposit would be taken and then they’d be left at a house with other Poles. After a few weeks they could be out on the streets.”

Mr Jasnikowski says that the trend of Poles returning home is becoming visible.

“Poland has been making an effort to entice its workforces back. The Poles who have been exploited are most likely to return sooner rather than later.” Krzysztof has said that he has no concrete plans to return, but he was considering it when things weren’t looking so promising.

“It’s also harder to get jobs now. The agencies exploiting immigrants are being disciplined and Poland’s improved economy has been a big factor in attracting Polish workers back to their home country. The advantages of working in the UK are less obvious than they seemed to be before, and when faced with a choice between those advantages and going back to their families, a lot of Poles are starting to choose the latter.”

It’s clear, then, that there are reasons for and signs of Polish workers returning home. This looks set to be the next subject of the immigration debate. As soon as Britons realise that the Poles are going home, attitudes to Poles’ influence on the British economy will change.

There is a flip side to the coin. Some Poles are settling in the UK, and integrating with British communities, like Krzysztof Tomkowski. Monika, who works for a chain of Polish convenience shops in England, spoke to me about her plans to remain in this country for the foreseeable future.

“I work in the administrative department of a chain of Polish shops. At this moment in time, I’m happy here. My situation is slightly different because I’m a single parent and I’m bringing my children up in the UK. From my point of view, it’s easier to live and work here. I came just before the Polish immigration boom, in 2004 and I’ve enjoyed living here because of the provision of social services which aren’t available to single parents in Poland.

“I’m more secure here and more independent than I would be at home. A lot of younger Poles have come over and are going back now. Living here isn’t how they imagined. Polish people are expected to do more than others. I have a friend who works for a transit company in Wolverhampton. His employer expects him to drive the vehicles like the other employees, but also to clean the vehicles and the garages after everyone else goes home. He gets the same wage as they do, however.

“Unlike a lot of the Polish workers here, I’ve been able to take a language course and I can speak English quite well now. Many Poles don’t integrate with the English, they find it very difficult to socialise with them especially. I haven’t found the same problems, though. I have a lot of English friends; I can joke with them, we go out together and get on well.

“I can’t see myself going back soon. It will take too long for the services and situation in Poland to change enough to suit me. Also, I don’t want to move again while my children are growing up – it’s unfair on them. Here they’ve got their education, I have a home, a job and friends – there’s no reason for me to go back.”

Before the immigration debate goes any further, perhaps greater attention should be paid to the real situations of the Polish people. Understanding who these people are, and why each of them has decided to come here is the key to knowing what effects they’ll really have on British economy, culture and society.

The strike, which ended this month, came in the wake of a series of difficult periods in the Chinese-Zambian relationship. Two years ago, more than 40 miners were killed in a blast in a Chinese-owned explosives factory at Chambishi, blamed on lax regulations. A year later, the giant 30 year-old Mulungushi textile mill, originally funded by Beijing, was forced to close after a flood of cheaper Chinese goods effectively strangled its business.

Many are calling for ‘equilibrilisation’. The most prominent case of African ‘push-back’, as the phenomenon is known among Africa and China experts, is in South Africa. Although a vocal advocate of a Sino-African partnership, partly as a counterbalance to the US-dominated global architecture, South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki has delivered the most poignant warning yet of the potential dangers of the new relationship. In late 2006, he told the South African Students Congress that African states ran the risk of getting stuck “in an unequal relationship” with Beijing, such as had developed between Africa and the former colonial powers.

This warning came as the South African government put the finishing touches to a deal on quotas for Chinese textiles, aimed at propping up the struggling local garment industry. Analysts do not believe the quotas have had much effect, but symbolically they represented South Africa drawing a line in the sand, sending a powerful signal of assertiveness.

China was recently hailed by The Economist as the ‘New Colonialist’, a title and a sentiment certain Chinese Officials clearly resent, given the rebuttal found in the People’s Daily, which, like all other Chinese media, is State controlled. According to the People’s Daily, “some Western media have attempted to discredit Sino-African relations by propagating their African version of the ‘China threat theory’.” There is a saying in Namibia that, as the sun rises in the east, so do all good things come from the east. On a recent trip to Namibia, I was surprised to find just how far China’s influence had extended.

Namibia is a vast country, the size of France and Germany put together; with a tiny population of 1.4 million. Although you are unlikely to see many clear signs of Chinese culture, the indirect impact of Chinese investment is evident. China has undeniably boosted the Namibian economy, with its demand for raw materials; it has also created an abundance of well paid jobs. For better or worse, many Namibians are leaving behind their traditional lives and values to work in the mines and factories that have sprung up to meet China’s demand for natural resources. In most of Africa, the structure of employment is such that, in industry, the demand is mostly for male workers. Consequently, men tend to migrate alone, leaving their wives and families behind, at least initially.

This has shaped the perception of the sex roles, which tend to associate women almost exclusively with the task of housekeeper and mother. There is a lack of data about the involvement of women in the migratory process, owing to the numerical preponderance of males in the migratory streams and the ‘invisibility’ of women who, as wives, merely accompany or join migrant males.

The propensity to migrate correlates closely with educational attainment. Migrants are generally younger and better educated than the rest of the population in their place of origin. Migration itself is linked to the pursuit of formal and informal education in the cities, where most post-primary institutions and apprenticeship opportunities are concentrated. Since most wage employment is found in cities, rural youths who invest heavily in education must, out of necessity, invest also in migration, if their education is to pay off.

China repays its debt with large injections of investment into Namibia’s infrastructure and her people. The Chinese Embassy in Windhoek offers numerous scholarships for further education. On a visit to the Namib-Rand reserve, I met a guide who was about to begin training as a pilot on a scholarship from the Chinese Embassy. He told me that they were offering a large number of scholarships like his to pursue higher education.

Over the last 30 years, China itself has witnessed one of the largest cases of rural-urban migration in history, and the situation is still escalating. There are 103 million urban migrants in Chinese cities but, by 2025, there will be 243 million; the total urban population of China will be nearly a billion. More than 40% of China’s urban population will be migrant within two decades, putting huge pressures on the ability of local governments to provide adequate services for their urban dwellers, according to a study by the Mckinsey Global Institute. It seems plausible that this process may, to a certain extent, be due to China’s labour shortage which is feeding greater import dependence. Likewise, Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s highest rate of rural-urban migration. This is driven, in part, by greater employment opportunities instigated by the building of new factories – most of which are Chinese investments. People are moving to the cities and often there is nowhere for them to live; townships continue to expand and for a large proportion of the poor in urban Africa living condition are deteriorating, as the strain on resources increases. Furthermore, the improvements in infrastructure cannot keep up with the pace of population growth in urban areas.

But China also has its supporters. Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal’s president, recently defended China’s growing economic role in Africa in an article in the Financial Times, writing that “China’s approach is simply better adapted than the slow and sometimes patronising post-colonial approach of European investors, donor organisations and non-governmental organisations.” He observed that the Chinese model for stimulating rapid economic development has much to teach, not only Africa, but also Europe. Through direct aid, credit lines and reasonable contracts, China has helped African nations complete infrastructure projects in record time- bridges, roads, schools, hospitals, dams, legislative buildings, stadiums and airports. The President concluded that “In many nations, including Senegal, improvements in infrastructure have played important roles in stimulating economic growth.”

China has also been a much needed friend to Robert Mugabe. With the possibility of change in the air, Chinese companies have been actively exploring opportunities in Zimbabwe, which boasts rich deposits of gold, uranium, platinum and diamonds. Chinese Deputy Commerce Minister, Gao Hucheng, who was in Harare last month on a trade mission, said Beijing had invested $1.6 billion in Zimbabwe in 2007, although analysts say Chinese investment has yet to take off. The Chinese Government seemed to ignore the possible moral objections to supporting Mugabe. China’s role in Darfur has also been heavily criticised.

China may appear as confident and ambitious as ever. However, in the current economic climate even the Chinese government admitted its outlook for 2008 is grim. The financial crisis which has brought several banks in the West to the brink of bankruptcy- Bear-Stearns, Northern Rock, and several of the state owned banks in Germany- have led some commentators to view this as a seismic shift in the global economy. If they are right, who will be the winner and the losers in the new order?

In October 2007, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China took a stake of approximately 20% in Standard Bank, a South African bank with total assets of US$119 billion, for just US$5.5 billion. China is investing throughout the developing world, but most notably in Sub-Saharan Africa, not only mining its resources, but also taking strategic stakes in its businesses. When the world economy emerges from the present downturn, China will be propelled further forward; that is, if its government doesn’t make too many mistakes. But will the African nations, with which China is forming such strong ties, move forward with China?

According to Open Democracy, an internet-based forum for democratic debate, Wen Jiabao, the Premier of China, has said he is the most worried man in the world. Consumer spending in China is low, representing only 36% of the country’s GDP, yet inflation is higher than ever. There is a labour shortage in the manufacturing sector, and market forces are causing wages to rise. Although a large middle class has been emerging, many workers still suffer from poor living conditions, and there is a serious power shortage. Then there is Tibet.

The Beijing Olympics have been orchestrated by the Chinese government to mark China’s emergence as a superpower. As China tries to deal with the major economic, environmental, social and cultural issues that confront it at home, the cultural impact of its investment in Sub-Saharan Africa may not be high on its list of priorities. But for Africa, the stakes are high: undoubtedly, Chinese investment has brought significant economic benefits, but the loss of traditional values and social disintegration are a high price to pay.

Negotiations between the Cultural Ministry of the Generalitat of Cataluña and regional museums are, after recent elections, back on track. Talk of a major retrospective in Barcelona, a touring exhibition, and a permanent gallery space for Armengol’s work is advancing as his story blends with the retelling of one of Spain’s most turbulent eras.

Mariano Armengol Torrella was born in 1909 in San Juan de las Abadesas, a pretty town in the shadow of the Catalan Pyrenees. The second of six children, and the elder of the two sons of Benito Armengol, a wealthy textiles manufacturer, and Francisca Torrellas, Armengol junior was a bright and affectionate boy with unruly auburn hair, and a love of nature. He was voraciously intellectual.

His commitment to study and learning led him in many different directions. The young Armengol loved fishing and patiently made his own flies to catch trout and salmon. Angling became a lifelong joy. He was a regular hill-walker and, later, an accomplished mountaineer. These skills helped him to survive in future years.

He and his siblings learned to swim during regular family trips to the nearby Barcelona coast. They took turns to develop a strong breast-stroke alongside their very large pet dog, occasionally holding on to its tail for safety. The beast seemed to enjoy its role as ‘swimming coach’, under the watchful eye of the family Governess.

However, Armengol’s overpowering love was painting and drawing, and his extraordinary talent was evident from the age of seven. His mother encouraged him from the outset, and a quite remarkable sense of colour and design, and skilful figurative work emerged.

Always an inquisitive boy, his early ‘investigations’ led to a series of death-defying incidents. A wealthy aunt owned one of the first cars to be seen in the province. After learning to ‘drive’ the noisy auto at the age of eight, he was fascinated by the engine and its mass of mysterious moving parts, and he enjoyed hanging upside down over the bonnet to watch the pipes steam, flywheels turn and gears rotate. Hanks of hair were left scorching on the engine block as the shocked boy was yanked free with a souvenir bloody scalp, after toppling over the bonnet edge. Thrilled by the growing sophistication of airplanes, the youngster was moved to launch himself from the upper balustrade of a grand staircase, with braced bed sheets for wings, and was left severely concussed on the marbled floor below. A primal interest in fire led to perilous experiments with petrol and candles, and his hair combusting over a primus stove. The rapid actions of a servant, who wrapped him in a heavy tapestry, saved his life, but left Armengol with a heavily scarred neck and pitted cheeks. These childhood episodes and wounds neither diluted his intellectual prowess, nor the attentions of women in future years.

His industrialist father moved the family to a large, elegant house in the city of Terrassa, which then had a population of 30,000 and was an important regional centre for textiles manufacture. It had played an important role in the development of Spain’s industrial revolution, particularly in the production of woollen fabrics. It flourished further from the 1890s, and has an important art nouveau design and architecture legacy dating from this period.

The Paris of the 1920s and its dynamic artistic community drew Armengol irresistibly. He left Spain to enrol at an Arts academy and continued his studies living on the breadline, telling tales of cold nights under bridges when the cash ran out. But he thrived on the bohemian lifestyle, and made friends with the painters, radicals and free-thinking women with whom he lived.

Armengol’s paintings, with a distinctive, bold style with dashes of impressionism and wonderful atmosphere, began to sell, and his reputation as an outstanding colourist grew rapidly. He held two successful exhibitions, hanging alongside Picasso and Utrillo, and received favourable critical notices in La Gazette des Beaux Arts and mainstream French press.

With starvation allayed, he became very political, and his eye turned searchingly to Spain, then in the midst of one of the most turbulent periods of its history. Post-Russian Revolution, political ideals and pressures for change were building. The desperate poverty of the Spanish rural poor, set against the vast wealth and unbending authoritarianism of the landed gentry, was inflaming resentment and insurrection as never before, and the whole world was watching.

Armengol was in danger under the new regime. He was on a list of ‘undesirables’ being targeted by the Rightists. Using his knowledge of the mountains and climbing skills honed in his teenage years, he fled, crossing the Pyrenees into France, burying his artistic materials on the way lest he be caught and taken for a spy, arrested by the police and, along with many other Spanish refugees, interned in a transit camp.

The French authorities were inundated with Spaniards escaping the Fascists. Armengol was given two choices; forcible repatriation which would result in imprisonment and almost certain death, or joining the French Foreign Legion. He joined the Legion, enlisting with the 2nd Battalion of 13th Demi-Brigade and, following the custom of the Legion, acquired an official pseudonym – Hubert. The young recruit was posted to the Legion’s headquarters at Sidi-bel-Abbes, Algeria. His head was shaved, and he tried to smarten up his ‘Beau Geste’ uniform- always the dandy- by pressing his tunic between two straw mattresses. He wore wooden-soled boots and was bitten mercilessly by insects. But he did try his best to integrate with the strange mix of men that made up the fighting force, many with murkier reasons for taking on a new identity.

Armengol’s poor soldiering skills soon became painfully obvious. Luckily, the Brigade Captain recognised his artistic talents, took him off rock-breaking, target practise and marching drills, and set him to work as a cartographer on topographical surveys. In between mapping expeditions into the desert, he used his pens to create a caricature narrative of his legionnaire’s life.

After Dunkirk Armengol was evacuated to France and fought a rearguard action, before being evacuated from Brest, in North-West France, to Plymouth Sound, and then to Liverpool, where he was interrogated by political and military intelligence officers. Here he was demobilised from the French Army. He had not fired a single shot throughout the hostilities.

In 1941 Armengol was one of thousands of displaced people newly arrived in Britain. He was granted refugee status and official leave to stay. He and two friends, Juan and Agustyn, an Armenian jewellery designer, were befriended by Francisco Madariaga, a restaurateur, wine importer and ‘big noise’ in Liverpool’s long-established Spanish Basque community. With many hours in the day to fill, Armengol found himself, in halting English, talking with the owner of an art materials shop. The man eventually presented him with a box of inks, paints and cartridge paper, which had been ordered, paid for, but never collected by a number of customers. Armengol had the tools to work again. In return for the Basque hospitality he was enjoying, he painted panels of exotic sea food and traditional paellas to decorate the restaurant bar, and designed advertisements and menu cards. The owner was delighted. Here he met Rolindez, the owner’s striking elder daughter; their relationship was to last 60 years. An instant attraction flared between them, but a penniless, already-married (a connection which had taken place some years before) refugee artist was certainly not part of the family plan for their handsome daughter.

Armengol went to London on the recommendation of the International Commission for War Refugees, to work as an artist for the Ministry of Information. He presented his credentials, his caricatures and legionnaire drawings. He found rooms in Hampstead and joined the Latin American Section, then transferred to the European Art Department, led by Edwin Embleton. Rolindez joined the Army and tried to forget him.

A highly sensitive man, Armengol was close to mental collapse after being on three war fronts, rapidly followed by constant bombing in Liverpool and London. The Ministry billeted their valuable propagandist in a tiny village in rural Nottinghamshire, far away from the air raids. He made friends with the villagers of Laneham, who found him truly exotic, many never having seen or heard a foreigner before. He helped on their farms, and drew murals to brighten up their homes. He also painted atmospheric landscapes of the River Trent, a fisherman walking the banks, and a small oil sketch of one of the lads with whom he went fishing. He had fun showing the kids how to make flies, just as he had done as a boy. And he had a relationship with a ‘certain young woman’, whose reputation is preserved to this day. Mister Mario is vividly remembered, in 2008, by the community as a ‘folklore’ figure.

In better health, Armengol moved back to London, coping with hysterical sprints to shelters and the underground to avoid bombing raids, and had two paintings included in an exhibition of Western Art at The French Institute. Other contemporary artists exhibiting included John Piper, Stanley Spencer, Paul Nash, Walter Sickert, Augustus John and Pablo Picasso. Armengol also had his first political cartoons reproduced in British publications, including Tribune. Political cartoons were then published in the mainstream press; the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, and several US newspapers including the Chicago Sun and Boston Globe.

Those Three (Hitler, Mussolini & Emperor Tojo), a collection of Armengol cartoons, was published with a foreword written by his old Catalan acquaintance, Dr Josep Maria Batista I Roca. A second political cartoon collection entitled According to Plan was also published, and he won a commission to illustrate a children’s book, Spanish Fairy Stories, translated by the American poet and novelist, Gamel Woolsey.

Armengol was a lonely man in a restless, dark and troubled capital city. He met Sylvia Lawrence, a divorced Czech refugee working as an MOI translator. They lived together, more out of comfort than grand passion, which diluted still further into an uneasy mutual tolerance lasting more than 50 years. Paintings of a woman with magnificent skin tones date from this period; were they imagined, or were they drawn from life?

In 1951 Armengol’s career really took off. He created a mural for the Houses of Parliament- a montage of chess figures representing the First Parliament. He produced displays for the Festival of Britain, a post-war celebration to launch the country’s brand new future. These included transparent sculptures. The new material used, Perspex, was manufactured by ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries). Armengol was one of the first artists to work creatively with this medium. An early experiment was to create a translucent corn on the cob, which was immediately purchased by Brown & Polson, a major corn milling company, and displayed at their Company HQ for years afterwards. These early creative innovations cemented his 20-year designer relationship with ICI, one of Britain’s most successful international companies, during which he won many awards and broke new ground, including being the first British designer to visit Moscow at the height of the Cold War. This included a firm handshake and eye-contact with Khrushchev.

For over 30 years Armengol continued to receive high profile and prestige commissions, won international sculpture and design awards and gold medals, furniture design awards, and worked for some of the biggest companies and institutions of the 20th century, including Dexion, the BBC, ICI, and the British Board of Trade. One of his major works for the government was a sculptural group entitled Brotherhood of Man for the 1969 Toronto World Fair, British Pavilion. The sculptures were then offered at international auction, bought for the City of Calgary, and installed outside the Education Ministry building, where they are still a major tourist attraction today.

The mystery is that Armengol stubbornly refused to hold any exhibitions of his fine art, despite the persistent persuasion of friends, business acquaintances and agents. Was he punishing himself, fearful of failure, or simply perverse? A fear of the possible critical rejection of the work which documented so many periods of his life may have been too worrying a prospect.

In his retirement, Armengol moved to Cornwall, built another studio and worked constantly. He experimented with sculpture again, and produced a collection of fascinating paper sculptures which were then commissioned in vast number by a major greetings cards company, Gallery 5, and sold internationally. They were a development from his habit of customising multiple folded sculptural cards of birds and beasts for friends, who never threw a single one of them away. They were all ‘works of art’.

He died in 1995, and was buried in Nottinghamshire, the county where he had spent much of his wartime years and made many friends. His artwork passed to Rolindez, and then to her daughter, for whom Armengol was a surrogate father, and who owns his Estate.

In 2005 an exhibition of his war cartoons, part-funded by the Arts Council, toured Britain, together with a short documentary film of his time in Nottinghamshire, as part of the WW2 60th anniversary commemorations. An Edinburgh Festival exhibition was sponsored by the Spanish Consulate – the festival theme being ‘Cataluña’. The mayor of Barcelona attended the celebrations, and word broke that there was a dead Catalan with a wealth of wonderful artwork, waiting for recognition in the country of his birth.

Armengol, through his art, may well return at last to his homeland. He might tour the Province, perhaps hang alongside Picasso again, and maybe share wall space with Dali. Recognition in Cataluña of this son of Terrassa is well overdue.

This latest single from Mr Scruff fits the template perfectly. The latin-inspired riff in Donkey Ride, similar to a Buena Vista Social Club piano groove, sits delicately over a hip-hoppy and bass drum-heavy underbeat, which is making my windows rattle and feet skip under the desk as I write.

I particularly like the syncopated bassline, which is not intrusive in the least. In a club setting, however, the drop-in would be amazing. After some inspired rhythmic play, and the establishment of the chordal riff, that ever-so-famous “Warning, incoming bassline” which comes up on Scruff’s video screens to broadcast the moment, would welcome those trouser-buzzing bass notes beautifully.

The B side, Giant Pickle, is more of a chillout tune, with a slightly trip-hoppy sound, which morphs into a touch of drum and bass in parts. My feet don’t skip to this track. It’s more of a gentle, gangster-like rock-with-the-beat affair. Imagine the hand up high on the steering wheel, seat well back, reclined. It doesn’t really speak to me, and it would be at this point in the Scruff set that I’d get my cup of tea.