SPAIN: Juan Carlos King of Spain's diplomatic tiff with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez generates some 2 million-dollar in ringtone sales

Juan Carlos King of Spain's diplomatic tiff with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez generates some 2 million-dollar in ringtone sales. The diplomatic row King Juan Carlos of Spain sparked earlier this month at a summit in Chile when he told Chavez to "shut up" continues to make headlines and for economic reasons this time. After Venezuelans, Spaniards have turned the King's phrase, "Why don't you shut up?" into the ringtone on their cellphones and the joke has already generated some 2 million-dollars in benefits. Roughly 500,000 people have downloaded one of the many different available versions of a ringtone featuring the "Porque no te callas" phrase according to national media. Rap, reggae or the typical Spanish march 'pasodoble' are some of the on hand versions for those wishing to hear the heated sentence every time they get a phone call. Although not all the amused Spaniards understand what exactly brought their king to utter such sentence. "During a conversation with Chavez, the King, who by the way I like very much, told the Venezuelan President to shut up because he wouldn't stop criticizing Aznar," junior school student Patricia rightly put it. For an overwhelming majority, the song is mostly a fashion statement. "I don't know, it's the ultimate fashion 'it' -the King said it and I liked it." simply said Lorena. "And why don't you shut up?," added friend Ana joking. The trick between the young is to pass the ringtone to each other. "I have the funny part here, someone passed it on to me and it's the thing of the moment," said Alberto. Chavez demanded that the Spanish King Juan Carlos apologise to him for telling him to "shut up". The leftist Venezuelan leader, who nationalised swathes of his nation's economy this year, has threatened Spanish investments, especially Santander and BBVA banks, as possible targets, saying the OPEC nation did not need Spanish business. Spain, a top investor in Venezuela, has sought to ease tensions through diplomatic channels and says it wants ties to return to normal despite the flap that erupted at the weekend summit of leaders from Latin America and Iberia. system.scripts. Chavez said the king displayed 500 years of Spanish arrogance, exposing that colonial attitudes toward South America have not died out.

ITN Source | November 22, 2007

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