Driving through it, from the access roads to the main avenues, Marbella has the quality of being a city that could be many other cities. Better said, any other overcrowded city on the Costa Dorada, Costa Brava, French Riviera, or the Costa del Sol itself, of which it is an emblem. The tallest buildings are hotels and not offices, the apartment blocks, also imposing, have communal swimming pools, and the mountains on the horizon are full of white dots; buildings that have destroyed the natural landscape. But if you venture onto the roads that wind through the mountains, you see they are not chalets or old houses: there are many mansions, complexes, tennis clubs, and exclusive golf courses. The health crossing signs are accompanied by signs that say Arzt and Apotheke, not doctor or pharmacy. The billboards are in English and advertise private clinics, mostly for aesthetic tweaks, to treat low fertility or hair loss, aimed at an older demographic who do not want to - or at least want to hide - getting older.

Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia has once again topped the list of Spain's most expensive shopping streets for the fourth consecutive year, with rents averaging €3,420 per square meter annually, an 8% increase over last year. It has also moved up one place, from 17th to 16th, in the global ranking of the world's most expensive shopping streets, according to real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.

Idalija Nacaite is from Lithuania and first visited Barcelona as a tourism student thanks to the Erasmus program. "Barcelona was and continues to be a model for tourism because it offers everything: sea, mountains, a very metropolitan city," she explains. For more than 10 years, she has worked as a concierge at the Hotel El Palace, a job she dreamed of when she finally settled in the city. "I lived in Arc de Triomf and every day I passed by El Palace on the bus and I drooled. I dreamed of working, and one day I walked in and left my resume. When they interviewed me, they were surprised because I knew everything about the hotel," she recalls.

Lamine Yamal has gone on vacation in a private jet and displays a lifestyle that is an insult to his social class. Getting the poor to aspire to be immensely rich is the great success of the neoliberal system, which elevates the diversity of identities while hiding and camouflaging the factor that most conditions people's lives: money. But what does a kid who can't yet vote want him to know about the impoverishment of the majority that hides the immense enrichment of a select few? Raised more in La Masia and the indecent materialistic culture of business football than in Rocafonda or Torreta (where he lived with his mother, although the player only claims to be from the Mataró neighborhood, prioritizing his paternal affiliation), it's understandable that Lamine Yamal is blind to the inequalities that govern the world. Sports stars embody, more than any other media figures, extreme individualism based solely and exclusively on personal goals. They owe nothing to anyone; their innate talent blossoms spontaneously, and the money they receive for scoring goals comes out of nowhere. If most people with average incomes are completely unaware of the magma of violence, exploitation, and extractivism on which our absurd and nihilistic consumerism floats, how should we expect a perfect product of this culture, molded from childhood in the values of narcissistic triumph (does anyone know at what age they entered the farmhouse) to embrace the inequality it embodies? They'll tell us that we should be grateful for asserting himself as a young man. from the neighborhood, But what is he really talking about when he talks about that place of origin? The pride of being in the periphery in this case seems nothing more than a cliché, a topic that evokes humility and recognition of one's roots without stepping too far into the territory, an empty and romantic concept that enjoys good press and pays off in terms of marketing (for the player and for Barça, who can boast of finding talent). Note that I say all this observing the brand Lamine Yamal and not the real person behind it, whom I have no intention of judging.

Luxury evolves in many ways, such as in the choice of materials it uses. A testament to this phenomenon is the new Atelier Next collection by Silhouette, specializing in high-quality eyewear and sunglasses. For this new launch, the Austrian brand has chosen materials such as vegan leather and recycled gold. In this way, Silhouette sought to merge the creative and technological innovation that has characterized it since its inception with new trends in the luxury sector. With the incorporation of more conscious customers, it must ensure that its products are more environmentally friendly.

The most expensive apartment in the history of Barcelona, and probably of all Catalonia, is formally for sale. The 650-square metre luxury penthouse is part of the Mandrin Oriental residential complex and has four bedrooms and spectacular views over the entire city. "We are taking offers in excess of €40m," explains Josep Maria Farré, founder of the KKH Property Investors group.