Church in Hun

FX: Church bell

18:30

Williams: Just outside Grenada in southern Spain, Hun is the village where time stood still -- at least since someone lobbed a rock through the clock.

18:35

Villagers

Here, methods of communication had changed little over these past couple of thousand years.

18:47

Congregation in church

But, while the rhythms of village life appeared untouched, irresistible forces of change fell upon this flock. Like villages the world over, the young were leaving, now longer content with a lifetime's toil in the olive grove.

18:58

The Lord may be the Shepherd, but it was the local council that decided to act, lest there be no sheep left to chaperone.

19:16

Singing

19:26

David Sorroche plays guitar/Liisa

Williams: No, the answer was not free flamenco -- though that might have worked. Local record star with a growing international reputation, flamenco singer David Sorroche, loved his home village of Hun, but his wife's work as a consultant to the European Union meant they had to live in a big city, far away. But when they heard about the council's commitment to the Internet, suddenly Hun was home.

Liisa at computer

With the promise of high quality Internet access to every home, and full IT support from the council, Liisa could now hold the job she needed in the place she loved.

Liisa: You live here, really.

20:01

Liisa Forsberg

In Sweden, where I come from, it's only work, and the people live to work, and here you work because you have to live, you have to eat and you have to -- but it's different, it's everything.

20:14

Hun streets

Music

20:32

Williams: But this was not an initiative just for the educated, the young or the netheads.

Maria uses laptop

Williams: At 76, Maria Jimenez was not expecting anything particularly new or exciting in her life,

20:55

but with the patient coaching from the council IT lady, Maria is a new woman. The net, a mine of information and fun for her friends.

Maria Jimenez

Maria: You can find everything on the net. I like it a lot. This is something we have never seen before. Now we're experiencing something that is for us really big.

21:17

Music

Elderly people in square

Williams: At this point you've have to ask -- do old people gather in old squares in old villages because they're not on the net? Politicians used to promise a chicken in every pot. Here they promise the internet in every house. Hun Council says it's not out to change traditions, but certainly to teach old dogs very new tricks.

21:37

Council Man

Council Man: It was about motivating these people to learn? Some find it difficult because they had forgotten how to read and couldn't write very well. They'd never seen a computer -- let alone typed on a keyboard.

21:59

Men enter technology centre

Williams: The computer room in the council's technology centre has become the new heart and soul of the village. It's individual and yet still it's communal. Anna Gonzalez suffered from cancer and uses the net to research her illness.

22:20

Ramon at computer

Ramon Castilla was pretty miserable after a heart attack had left him partially disabled, but he perked up remarkably when he managed to track down his long lost relatives who'd emigrated to Argentina -- using the net.

22:36

Ramon Castilla

Ramon: These are the daughters of a cousin of mine a long time ago, and these are my cousin's husband, his wife and two children.

Well, we have a good time, all of us. We're among friends, we're learning something -- and at our age, where are we going to go? There's nothing better to do than this.

Inside technology centre

Williams: So, far from the technology corroding the social structure, most here think it's adding another story.

23:25

Huge sculpture

Music

23:35

Jimenez works on sculpture

Williams: When Hun artist, Miguel Jimenez, get an idea it's never a little one.

23:45

A work in progress, the sheer scale of the sculpture guarantees this will never be sold off as a back yard ornament.

The finance is provided by another talent of this prodigious man. Twenty years of research unlocked the secrets of 14^th and 15^th century Alhambra ceramics.

Music

Ceramics

Williams: The Arabic art form is in high demand -- the Saudi royal family shops here, and now they can do it from home, thanks to the new website, business is booming.

24:19

Miguel Jimenez

Miguel: The internet is the way everybody can learn about my art. In ceramics, it's costly and very difficult because the pieces are very heavy and fragile and it's very expensive to export them. With the internet -- without any pieces leaving the workshop -- people know exactly where you are, and that the work exists -- and they can see it at any time.

24:31

Hun

Music

25:10

Williams: Unlike thousands of other villages, Hun is thriving -- a rising population, new jobs, a future.

25:15

The silence only broken by the clack of collective keyboards, as Hun communicates with the world.

25:26

25:38

Credits:

INTERNET VILLAGE POSTCARD

Reporter: Philip Williams

Camera: John Tesoriero

Editor/Sound : Mark Douglas

Research: Alberto Letona