NEWS LESSONS / Spains Robin Hood / Advanced

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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2014
Spains Robin Hood
Level 3
l

Advanced
Warmer 1
Key words 2
What do you know about Robin Hood?
a. Match the key words from the text to the defnitions. The paragraph numbers are given to help you.
b. Underline the main stressed syllable in each key word.
1. showing that you do not think you have done something wrong or that you do not think you need to say sorry
______________________ (para 2)
2. cause someone to be in an unpleasant situation or place ______________________ (para 2)
3. the ability to do something ______________________ (para 3)
4. the state of depending on a particular person or thing ______________________ (para 3)
5. continuing all the time ______________________ (para 3)
6. obtained dishonestly ______________________ (para 4)
7. criticizing someone or something severely in public ______________________ (para 4)
8. an offcial statement accusing someone of committing a crime ______________________ (para 6)
9. allowed to stay out of prison while you wait for your trial, after money has been paid to the court, which will
not be returned if you dont attend your trial ______________________ (para 6)
10. the fact that something is legal ______________________ (para 6)
11. in a leading position ______________________ (three words, para 7)
12. people or activities that are considered extreme ______________________ (para 8)
13. a situation in which people do something for someone who has done something for them
______________________ (para 10)
14. learned by asking questions or watching or listening carefully ______________________ (para 10)
15. done illegally with the intention of tricking someone ______________________ (para 10)
NEWS LESSONS / Spains Robin Hood / Advanced

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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2014
Spains Robin Hood
Level 3
l

Advanced
Spains Robin Hood swindled
banks to help fght capitalism
Enric Duran in hiding and unapologetic after
obtaining dozens of loans and handing out
money to social activists
Ashifa Kassam in Madrid
20 April, 2014
1 They call him the Robin Hood of the banks, a man
who took out dozens of loans, worth almost half a
million euros, with no intention of ever paying them
back. Instead, Enric Duran handed the money out
to projects that created and promoted alternatives
to capitalism.
2 After 14 months in hiding, Duran is unapologetic,
even though his activities could land him in jail.
Im proud of what I did, he said in an interview by
Skype from an undisclosed location. The money,
he said, had created opportunities. It generated
a movement that allowed us to push forward with
the construction of alternatives. And it allowed us
to build a powerful network that groups together
these initiatives.
3 From 2006 to 2008, Duran took out 68 commercial
and personal loans from 39 banks in Spain. He
farmed the money out to social activists, funding
speaking tours against capitalism and TV cameras
for a media network. I saw that, on one side,
these social movements were building alternatives
but that they lacked resources and communication
capacities, he said. Meanwhile, our reliance
on perpetual growth was creating a system that
created money out of nothing.
4 The loans he swindled from banks were his way
of regulating and denouncing this situation, he
said. He started slowly. I flled out a few credit
applications with my real details. They denied me,
but I just wanted to get a feel for what they were
asking for.
5 From there, the former table-tennis coach began
to weave an intricate web of accounts, payments
and transfers. I was learning constantly. By the
summer of 2007, he had discovered how to make
the system work, applying for loans under the
name of a false television production company.
Then, I managed to get a lot. 492,000, to
be exact.
6 Duran was arrested in Spain in 2009, on charges
brought against him by six of the 39 banks that
had lent him money. He spent two months in
prison before being bailed for 50,000. In February
2013, facing up to eight years in prison, he
decided to fee rather than stand trial. I dont see
legitimacy in a judicial system based on authority,
because I dont recognize its authority, he said.
7 His actions, he said, were in the vanguard of a
worldwide debate on the economic crisis. The
timing pushed the anti-capitalist movement into
the light, just as many Spaniards were seeking
alternatives to a system that had wreaked havoc
on their lives.
8 While the same actions would probably be
better understood in todays Spain, he said that
they would not be needed. The anti-capitalist
movement has grown from a fringe movement
to one supported by thousands of Spaniards,
he said, evidenced by the widely supported
movements such as the Indignados.
9 Success has helped the movement become self-
suffcient. We now have the capacity to generate
resources, said Duran, adding somewhat
ironically that this was exactly what banks issue
credit for to advance and generate a situation
that allows you to be independent. Duran is
widening his focus to include Spains justice
system, by promoting restorative justice. The
people in Spain who believe that banks dont work,
they think that I dont owe anything. Ive already
done my work, he said. But there is a part of a
population that is not in agreement with us and I
think I should respond to that.
10 In his case, he said, the element of reciprocity
he could offer to banks might lie in the insight
he gleaned from years of obtaining bank loans
fraudulently. He could share his thoughts on
which best practices work and the bad ones that
dont, he suggested, for the general population
and for bank workers.
Guardian News and Media 2014
First published in The Guardian, 20/04/14
NEWS LESSONS / Spains Robin Hood / Advanced

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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2014
Spains Robin Hood
Level 3
l

Advanced
Comprehension check 4
1. undisclosed a. activists
2. social b. growth
3. perpetual c. system
4. credit d. justice
5. stand e. location
6. judicial f. trial
7. best g. practices
8. wreak h. applications
9. restorative i. havoc
a. Match the words to make collocations from the article.
b. What do they mean?
c. Use the expressions in sentences of your own and to talk about the article.
What can you remember? Answer the questions about the article before reading again to check
your answers.
1. Where is Enric Duran now?
2. Why did he decide to fee?
3. Why would his actions gain more sympathy in Spain now?
4. How did he manage to borrow so much money?
5. In what way does Duran think he can repay the banks?
6. What is ironic about the movements fnancial situation?
Collocations 3
Find out more about the Indignados and other similar groups, such as the Occupy movement, on
the internet.
In your opinion, is Enric Duran a criminal or a hero?
Do you think Enric Duran is a modern-day Robin Hood? If not, how else would you describe
him and his actions?
Should he give himself up to the police?
Who, if anybody, should repay the money to the banks?
Discussion 5
Web quest 6
NEWS LESSONS / Spains Robin Hood / Advanced

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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2014
Spains Robin Hood
Level 3
l

Advanced
1 Warmer
a heroic outlaw from English folklore
robbed from the rich and gave to the poor
lived in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire
assisted by his group of Merry Men, who were
fellow outlaws
was a skilled archer
2 Key words
a. and b.
1. unapologetic
2. land
3. capacities
4. reliance
5. perpetual
6. swindled
7. denouncing
8. charges
9. bailed
10. legitimacy
11. in the vanguard
12. fringe
13. reciprocity
14. gleaned
15. fraudulently
3 Collocations
a. and b.
1. e when the place is not reported publicly
2. a people or groups who protest against, or fght
for, something relating to society and government
3. b constant increase in the success of a
countrys economy
4. h the process of flling out forms to borrow money
from a bank
5. f to go to court where a judge or jury will decide
whether you have committed a crime
6. c legal system
7. g the best, most effective ways to do something
8. i cause chaos
9. d an approach to justice that focuses on the
needs of the victims and the offenders, as well
as the involved community, instead of satisfying
abstract legal principles or punishing the offender.
Victims take an active role in the process, while
offenders are encouraged to take responsibility for
their actions.
4 Comprehension check
1. in hiding
2. because he was facing prison but doesnt believe
in the Spanish justice system
3. because the anti-capitalist movement has grown
and, at the same time, more people have been
affected by the economic crisis
4. He wove a confusing web of transfers, accounts
and payments.
5. by sharing with them his thoughts on best practices
and showing them how he was able to borrow so
much money
6. Now, they have enough money to be self-suffcient,
which is actually what the bank loans would have
done had they been obtained legally.
KEY