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... you should all ask yourself, of hundred and hundred of other hostels, why is it only at this albergue that monies have been stolen? ...
That doesn't make it first hand knowledge. Unless you were there and actually witnessed the events, you don't have first hand knowledge of anything but a couple of people telling you a story. The story might be true. It might not. You feel it is. I don't know. But what I do know is that in publishing it as if it were true without any attempt to get the perspective from the other side, you are not affording the establishment you are accusing of any natural justice in that matter.I am sure thefts have been committed in other albergues and their surrounding. However i do not have any first hand knowledge of them being committed. This particular theft was told to me by the victims themselves.
Do you have the appropriate power or authority to compel witnesses and find the truth? No. So are you the appropriate person to investigate this? No. While to don't have the power and authority to get to the truth, you have no idea what the truth might be, and what you are doing here is rumour-mongering.I do not want to be accused of rumour-mongering as suggested by one of the veteran poster.
If you feel that the security arrangements at this establishment are lax, tell them about your concerns, and they might be willing to address that. That would be a benefit to the whole pilgrim community, not just those of us who participate in this forum.I am just making other peregrinos aware of what is going on and to be on the alert for this particular hostel.
No, you are being unfair. Completely and utterly unfair. You have no first hand knowledge of the events and you haven't given the establishment the opportunity to respond to your accusations before making them publicly. That contravenes the natural justice principles as I understand them. It probably contravenes a number of other established publishing principles as well.Maybe i am being hard.
That was an opportunity you should have provided before you even contemplated making the accusations you have levelled at the establishment both here and elsewhere.If the md of this establishment feels free to contact me, i will be happy to talk to him to clear the whole thing up.
or a whole townBOYCOTT THIS HOSTEL AT ALL COST. Enter at your own risk.
bypass portomarin and go to the next town.
What? Rumours might abound in a small town, but if @piogaw was as concerned as he claims he has gone about this in a most unusual way.i am not saying the owner is aware of what is going on, but it is hard for a small pueblo not to know what is going on.
Well why didn't he? That would have been a more constructive course of action than spreading rumours on this forum. (edit: I see he is not considering contacting the establishment. That is a positive step.)... but i can not let this one go by without kicking up a storm ... i believe someone should contact the guardia civil office in portomarin to make them aware of what is going on.
My action is to ask that we be fair to any individual or business. If you think you have been, that certainly hasn't been evident from your posts. Indeed, your posts indicate quite clearly that you haven't been. I don't have to be in Santiago to assess that.Hello doug,
I am not in spain right now, if i were i would have go to portomarin to see the md. Like i said before, you are entitled to your opinion and i am entitled to mine. The only person who can remove these threads is the administrator, ivar. Short of that, this is an open forum for discussion. You also have a tendency to pick out piecemeats of my thread to justify your actions. Yet you are accusing me of being the investigator, judge, jury and executor. If i am, them what exactly are you. You weren't in santiago when all these incidents happened, and yet you dare to speak like you are an authority from down under. Who give you the authority when you are so ignorant of what is going on in my backyard.
When the event was revealed to me i was quite tied up in my work.
It is my intention to inform the camino community as to what happened in portomarin. I became furious only after my return to london and found out there was another thread mentioning the theft with similar method. Two thefts happened in 4 months at the same place is no coincidence.
Annie,
Thanks for the good advice. I appreciate it. I can take care of myself, not to worry.
God bless.
You are correct. Two thefts in four months in the same place is no coincidence.Two thefts happened in 4 months at the same place is no coincidence.
Oh dear.Thank you very much for at least agreeing with me. As i mentioned before, this is really what i am trying to point out to everyone.
I am sorry and my apology if i have hurt your feelings.
hello doug,
you are entitled to your opinion and i am entitled to mine. we agree to disagree. let the other experienced and veteran peregrinos make their point known. i have spent 2 1/2 months this past year working as a volunteer in santiago, i have seen many things that you might not be aware of.
this is not an accusation. if the management of this particular albergue feels i am slandering them, let them take me to court. i will gladly show up as spain is more or less my second home.
Very well said, Laurie. I agree with you. Be careful out there Peregrinos.I found myself in a similar situation as piogaw not too long ago when I got a fair amount of criticism for saying that I thought it was important for pilgrims to be careful on the first stage of the Vdlp anear Guillena. There were a lot of posts chiding me that the Camino was very safe, that I was scaring off pilgrims, that I was basing my posts on one or two reports, that crime is a fact of life, etc. I couldn't seem to make it clear that what I was saying was that pilgrims should not panic, that there was no crime wave, that I was not hysterical, but that I thought that pilgrims walking between Italica and Guillena should pay careful attention.
I think this post is similar to that one, with the difference being that it names a specific establishment, not an open place on the Camino.
Piogaw's posts here, like mine, were not based on first hand experience. What he has done has been to put together two first hand reports of experiences that seem very different than your average random theft in an albergue, at least to anyone who reads them carefully. The timing of the thefts and the circumstances are unusual. In addition, this is an albergue with security cameras, yet the cameras were not working? The local police office doesn't open till 9, true, but there are a number of ways to report a crime when the local office is not working. No one seriously thinks that there is no police service in Spain overnight. Telling pilgrims there is no way to report a crime before 9 is patently false and whoever said that knew that. Spanish pilgrims report that there is a "security guard" patrolling the albergue in the middle of the night. Really?! It seems to me that there is enough that seems "one off" to suggest that it may be risky, especially for non-Spanish speakers, to spend a night in this albergue.
If the norm were that people could only post on the forum what they know from first hand experience, this would be quite a different place. We routinely report hearsay on one thread after another. I think we operate on the assumption that we should be reasonable when we report other's opinions. I wouldn't hesitate to post something like "I didn't stay in X albergue, but I talked to three pilgrims who had stayed there the night before and they loved/hated it."
This is not just wild random hearsay. There is one first hand experience reported on this forum, and piogaw spoke with someone with an identical first hand experience. When you consider the totality of the circumstances, it seems to me that it is reasonable to alert people to these incidents.
I am not suggesting that people ought to hurl accusations without justification, but I don't think that piogaw's post merits the level of criticism it has generated. This is not a criminal trial, though many of dougfitz's suggestions seem to liken it to one. It is merely the opinion of one person that based on his opinion, pilgrims should avoid this particular albergue.
Some of us are trying to get more information, and will post that when we have it. But in the meantime, wouldn't you want to know about this if you were choosing an albergue in Portomarin?
Buen camino, Laurie
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