"Too risky." Remember that catch-phrase? Some of you would probably prefer not to, but it came from the "nick-nick" time when Jim Davidson was any good, i.e. for a brief period when he first found fame. Too risky. Risk all. Riskal. Know what Riskal is/was? A grand centre for entertainment, culture, events and gastronomy, not far from Palma. It was the vision of one Joan Gelabert, ten years in the development at a cost of some 50 million euros. It opened in December 2008. In keeping with pretty much any new establishment, there was an inauguration, though Riskal's was in the stratosphere of the lavish. Among the guests was Miquel Nadal, then the tourism minister. Maybe that was a fate of bad omen. Riskal seemed to risk all, it was hugely ambitious. It closed on Monday.
One needs to appreciate the scale of what was risked. Occupying 26,000 square metres and with 4,000 additional square metres of gardens, Riskal, technologically at the state of the art, comprised an art gallery, an auction room, a bookshop, a jazz club, a disco, three function areas, restaurants and cafés and a catering facility. Two hundred jobs were envisaged. The thirty employees are now out of work. The owner hopes it's not the end, that Riskal may not be closed permanently, that it might be possible to sell it on.
It was rotten timing of course and was not the first grand Mallorcan project to open just when the world's economy was in freefall. Hotel Formentor was another, back in the days of The Depression; it financially crippled Adan Diehl who had arranged its construction. Fifty million euros were splashed on the Riskal pleasure dome, and slap bang in the middle of economic chaos it opened to considerable publicity; full-pages ads in the newspapers and so on. The problem was, what was it? Perhaps it was some overblown vanity project. But such a description would be unfair to Gelabert's vision. Riskal was intended to be a location that would show off the finest of talents, a location for conventions (achieved for example with staging a congress for the UGT union), a location for residents and tourists alike, well those with some money to throw around. It was intended, one guesses, as symbolic of a different type of Mallorca, a sophisticated Mallorca, one in keeping with other visions, those of government and authorities keen on an image of the island elevated from the sun and beach.
No, Riskal was not vanity. It was virtuous, too much so perhaps, but it defied simple definition. A maxim of business is to be able to sum something up in a short sentence. Riskal needed several, or certainly that was the impression its publicity gave. It was difficult to get a handle on the place. Whether it caused much impact among tourists last year is hard for me to say, but the name never seemed to crop up. Or maybe I just move in the wrong circles.
It's a shame. Of course it's a shame that Riskal has closed. New, different projects are just what Mallorca needs. Take another one, due to start this summer - the Mallorca Rocks Hotel in Magaluf. This sounds a fantastic idea, one that builds on the success of the Ibiza Rocks Hotel. The opening of the new hotel will feature The Kooks and DJ Zane Lowe. Apart from the obvious, namely the differences in markets and entertainment offered, Mallorca Rocks is also different to Riskal in that it has a clear focus and identity. It is a music destination. It is easy to understand and therefore easier to market.
Recession clearly played a part in Riskal having to close barely a year after opening, but maybe it was just too broad a concept. Too ambitious and too ill-defined. Too risky.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr-fOJdeUus. Today's title - and once again for this: "did you hear about this one?"
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
We Got Nothing To Be Guilty Of - Mallorca's tourism corruption
Events surrounding Operación Voltor (Operation Vulture) and the corruption allegations related to Inestur and the tourism ministry have moved on apace. The prosecutors are talking in terms of six years imprisonment for Miquel Nadal, ex-tourism minister, and eleven for the Miquel Flaquer, recent leader of the Unió Mallorquina. One needs to be careful. Though charged, along with others, there have been no trials as such. These announcements are often made as to prison terms, but they are rather unseemly. Guilt does tend to be presumed, perhaps with very good reason, but the pre-match (so to speak) publicity given to stints inside does rather stick in the throat.
Nevertheless, what is emerging is evidence of what the prosecution alleges was a "network of assistance to businesspeople close to the UM" that operated via the tourism ministry with the additional aid of the former leader Flaquer. A key example concerns the awarding of a contract for a voice recognition system worth over a million euros to a technology firm. The police argue that the value was way above what was required, the suspicion being that the money trail ended up in the coffers of the party itself. What all this implies is that the ministry, and therefore also Inestur, were being exploited for gain and being run as some private fiefdom to finance, if not necessarily individuals, but then the UM party - a line of argument denied, as you might expect. Individuals or party, it doesn't really matter, as it all involves the diversion of public money. It seems extraordinary, assuming one accepts the police's version, that a ministry can be so run without apparently any checks, until the belated ones of the prosecutors. Moreover, it suggests a vein of collusion coursing through the ministry with drips attached to various individuals all tagged with the name UM.
At present, the investigation seems to centre on the period when Miquel Nadal was minister. His predecessor, Francesc Buils, has not been detained but he is expected to be called to answer questions. No charges have been made against him, but a question which arises is whether the UM, in return for its coalition place, was granted the tourism ministry and then targeted it as a means to a rather different end than that of merely promoting and managing the islands' tourism industry. Inevitably, the scandal has been used to question the viability of coalition governments in the Balearics (well, by "The Bulletin" anyway). This is plainly not the issue. Coalitions do not beget corruption. The logic of the "viability" argument is that they do, and it is wrong-headed. The issue is corruption - period - and the wider societal malaise that cultivates it. This, and the sheer inadequacy of control mechanisms. I would reiterate a point made more than once on this blog, that to reassure a rightly alarmed electorate, a system of pre-emptive vetting of contract awards is needed, rather than the retrospective actions of the police and prosecutors.
Anyway, back to day-to-day running of government, and there is now a new tourism minister. President Antich has chosen not to assume command, though he has put sport under his direct control, and has moved to tourism the employment minister Joana Barceló, president of the Council of Menorca from 1999 to 2008 and a member of the PSIB-PSOE, i.e. the Balearics wing of the socialist party. Antich is also rebuffing attempts by the Partido Popular to bring a vote of no confidence.
Bird-watching tourism - part two
Further to yesterday, Geoff, the blog's twitcher in residence, has put into perspective the argument that bird-watching tourists necessarily contribute much to the wider economy. Staying at an eco-tourist farm as part of a bird-watching trip to Alcúdia, he had the impression that it was the tour company that was benefiting the most and that he spent only small amounts whilst on trips around the island. Moreover, he wonders about Mallorca as a bird-watching destination, given that it has become cheaper to travel to Asia where the birds and the landscapes are more exotic and also given that rarer birds which come to Mallorca do so in the winter when the weather is less inviting and the hotels are shut. On this last point, hotels, the piece from "The Bulletin" on Sunday referred to "a number of hotels ...near to Albufera ... which cater for bird-watchers during the low season". Really? Which ones are they? Unless I'm very much mistaken, there is only one hotel in Playa de Muro open right now, the Iberostar which brings in mainly the cyclists.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Weather Report, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqashW66D7o. Today's title - oh yes you have - allegedly. Which twosome?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Nevertheless, what is emerging is evidence of what the prosecution alleges was a "network of assistance to businesspeople close to the UM" that operated via the tourism ministry with the additional aid of the former leader Flaquer. A key example concerns the awarding of a contract for a voice recognition system worth over a million euros to a technology firm. The police argue that the value was way above what was required, the suspicion being that the money trail ended up in the coffers of the party itself. What all this implies is that the ministry, and therefore also Inestur, were being exploited for gain and being run as some private fiefdom to finance, if not necessarily individuals, but then the UM party - a line of argument denied, as you might expect. Individuals or party, it doesn't really matter, as it all involves the diversion of public money. It seems extraordinary, assuming one accepts the police's version, that a ministry can be so run without apparently any checks, until the belated ones of the prosecutors. Moreover, it suggests a vein of collusion coursing through the ministry with drips attached to various individuals all tagged with the name UM.
At present, the investigation seems to centre on the period when Miquel Nadal was minister. His predecessor, Francesc Buils, has not been detained but he is expected to be called to answer questions. No charges have been made against him, but a question which arises is whether the UM, in return for its coalition place, was granted the tourism ministry and then targeted it as a means to a rather different end than that of merely promoting and managing the islands' tourism industry. Inevitably, the scandal has been used to question the viability of coalition governments in the Balearics (well, by "The Bulletin" anyway). This is plainly not the issue. Coalitions do not beget corruption. The logic of the "viability" argument is that they do, and it is wrong-headed. The issue is corruption - period - and the wider societal malaise that cultivates it. This, and the sheer inadequacy of control mechanisms. I would reiterate a point made more than once on this blog, that to reassure a rightly alarmed electorate, a system of pre-emptive vetting of contract awards is needed, rather than the retrospective actions of the police and prosecutors.
Anyway, back to day-to-day running of government, and there is now a new tourism minister. President Antich has chosen not to assume command, though he has put sport under his direct control, and has moved to tourism the employment minister Joana Barceló, president of the Council of Menorca from 1999 to 2008 and a member of the PSIB-PSOE, i.e. the Balearics wing of the socialist party. Antich is also rebuffing attempts by the Partido Popular to bring a vote of no confidence.
Bird-watching tourism - part two
Further to yesterday, Geoff, the blog's twitcher in residence, has put into perspective the argument that bird-watching tourists necessarily contribute much to the wider economy. Staying at an eco-tourist farm as part of a bird-watching trip to Alcúdia, he had the impression that it was the tour company that was benefiting the most and that he spent only small amounts whilst on trips around the island. Moreover, he wonders about Mallorca as a bird-watching destination, given that it has become cheaper to travel to Asia where the birds and the landscapes are more exotic and also given that rarer birds which come to Mallorca do so in the winter when the weather is less inviting and the hotels are shut. On this last point, hotels, the piece from "The Bulletin" on Sunday referred to "a number of hotels ...near to Albufera ... which cater for bird-watchers during the low season". Really? Which ones are they? Unless I'm very much mistaken, there is only one hotel in Playa de Muro open right now, the Iberostar which brings in mainly the cyclists.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Weather Report, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqashW66D7o. Today's title - oh yes you have - allegedly. Which twosome?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Birdland - Cycling and bird-watching in Mallorca
Come on, 'fess up. Cyclists behaving badly or even behaving well, and do you lose your rag, shout and scream? Does Matthew Parris's piano wire cross your mind? What if maybe I just give a little nudge with the bumper? No, no, don't do that. Whatever you do, don't do that.
Me? I move from ultra polite to ultra pissed off. I will gladly observe the rules, gladly let a line of cyclists enter a roundabout, the only time you are meant to stop on a roundabout. I will even let a lone cyclist come onto a roundabout in front of me, so long as there isn't a truck about to demolish my boot. I will happily give a wide berth, slow at the central islands where there isn't sufficient space for car and two-abreast cyclists, even if they are meant to be in single file. I will do all these things. I don't suffer from road territorialism. It isn't that. What it is, is when the rules are broken, when the cyclists do what no car driver could get away with - running a red, coming out of an exit that they shouldn't be, cutting up, or just going the wrong way. But why get so peed off? Does it really matter? Well actually it does, given that the car driver is invariably always at fault if there's an accident.
The recreational cyclist is not the issue. He or she usually pedals at a sedate speed. He or she can stop easily. It is the pros, the semi-pros, the pretend-pros who get the driver's goat. The ones who act as they own the roads. Ah yes, own. It's that territorialism again. And it's also the provocation, the one that comes from the attire, the dress-code, the lycra. They dress deliberately to antagonise.
But it's not just on the roads of Alcúdia, Pollensa or Muro that the great cyclist-driver divide occurs. In Dublin, according to a piece in yesterday's "Sunday Times", "cyclists are facing a backlash from motorists and pedestrians who claim they are a menace". The paper reveals police figures for transgressions - 1,847 motorists done for going through a red, 28 cyclists for doing the same. Strangely enough, given the lunatic nature of the Mallorcan driver, I have rarely actually witnessed a driver running a red. I couldn't tell you how many cyclists I've seen doing the same. What I can tell you is how often I've seen Trafico dealing with an errant cyclist. Once. A girl went through a red right in front of the patrol vehicle. They could hardly not stop her. But whereas a driver can be easily identified, a cyclist cannot be. They all look the same, all stretched into blue outfits. There may be sponsors' logos, different colour helmets and so on, but you can't really pick a cyclist out. And that's it, the cyclist knows damn well that he or she can get away with it. It's this that hacks the drivers off.
Bird-watching in Mallorca
"The Bulletin" ran a piece yesterday about a book that has been published, in English, which highlights the rich bird life to be found on the island. It is called the "Birding Tourist's Guide to Majorca". Three lucky readers may well have emailed the paper to win a copy in response to the question "which red-breasted bird from northern Europe is starting to breed in Mallorca?" Hmm, let me think, bird, red breast. Is it a blackbird?
The robin is just one bird that is now laying down roots in Mallorca. So also is the little egret and the hoopoe. The Albufera nature park is home to them, as it is to many other birds, migrant or relatively full-time. Bird-watching is something of a growth tourism market and a not unlucrative one. As one of the book's authors points out, bird-watchers spend a fair amount of dosh on twitching kit and they are "relatively big spenders", like other tourists who splash out on specialist equipment and clothing, such as golfers or - dare one say it - cyclists.
The book is all part of an initiative to grow this tourism market further. It's a good idea, a very good idea. Now all that's needed is a tourism minister and someone in charge of tourism promotion.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZip7Y_IDqQ. Today's title - "Birdland", probably the best-known thing done by one of the most important of jazz fusion bands.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Me? I move from ultra polite to ultra pissed off. I will gladly observe the rules, gladly let a line of cyclists enter a roundabout, the only time you are meant to stop on a roundabout. I will even let a lone cyclist come onto a roundabout in front of me, so long as there isn't a truck about to demolish my boot. I will happily give a wide berth, slow at the central islands where there isn't sufficient space for car and two-abreast cyclists, even if they are meant to be in single file. I will do all these things. I don't suffer from road territorialism. It isn't that. What it is, is when the rules are broken, when the cyclists do what no car driver could get away with - running a red, coming out of an exit that they shouldn't be, cutting up, or just going the wrong way. But why get so peed off? Does it really matter? Well actually it does, given that the car driver is invariably always at fault if there's an accident.
The recreational cyclist is not the issue. He or she usually pedals at a sedate speed. He or she can stop easily. It is the pros, the semi-pros, the pretend-pros who get the driver's goat. The ones who act as they own the roads. Ah yes, own. It's that territorialism again. And it's also the provocation, the one that comes from the attire, the dress-code, the lycra. They dress deliberately to antagonise.
But it's not just on the roads of Alcúdia, Pollensa or Muro that the great cyclist-driver divide occurs. In Dublin, according to a piece in yesterday's "Sunday Times", "cyclists are facing a backlash from motorists and pedestrians who claim they are a menace". The paper reveals police figures for transgressions - 1,847 motorists done for going through a red, 28 cyclists for doing the same. Strangely enough, given the lunatic nature of the Mallorcan driver, I have rarely actually witnessed a driver running a red. I couldn't tell you how many cyclists I've seen doing the same. What I can tell you is how often I've seen Trafico dealing with an errant cyclist. Once. A girl went through a red right in front of the patrol vehicle. They could hardly not stop her. But whereas a driver can be easily identified, a cyclist cannot be. They all look the same, all stretched into blue outfits. There may be sponsors' logos, different colour helmets and so on, but you can't really pick a cyclist out. And that's it, the cyclist knows damn well that he or she can get away with it. It's this that hacks the drivers off.
Bird-watching in Mallorca
"The Bulletin" ran a piece yesterday about a book that has been published, in English, which highlights the rich bird life to be found on the island. It is called the "Birding Tourist's Guide to Majorca". Three lucky readers may well have emailed the paper to win a copy in response to the question "which red-breasted bird from northern Europe is starting to breed in Mallorca?" Hmm, let me think, bird, red breast. Is it a blackbird?
The robin is just one bird that is now laying down roots in Mallorca. So also is the little egret and the hoopoe. The Albufera nature park is home to them, as it is to many other birds, migrant or relatively full-time. Bird-watching is something of a growth tourism market and a not unlucrative one. As one of the book's authors points out, bird-watchers spend a fair amount of dosh on twitching kit and they are "relatively big spenders", like other tourists who splash out on specialist equipment and clothing, such as golfers or - dare one say it - cyclists.
The book is all part of an initiative to grow this tourism market further. It's a good idea, a very good idea. Now all that's needed is a tourism minister and someone in charge of tourism promotion.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZip7Y_IDqQ. Today's title - "Birdland", probably the best-known thing done by one of the most important of jazz fusion bands.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Nothing Has Been Proved - Unió Mallorquina's disgrace
"Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." - Ronald Reagan.
The police have arrested another member of the Unió Mallorquina, the former leader Miquel Flaquer. There are that many former leaders of recent vintage that is hard to keep track. Two of them are now detained, one other makes appearances before courts and keeps her counsel, as befits the former leader of the Council of Mallorca.
Perhaps we should remind ourselves as to the roll-call that is the rogues' gallery of the UM, lining up for a police mug-shot either now or possibly in the future: Maria Antonia Munar, speaker of parliament and ex-leader of the party; Miquel Nadal, former tourism minister and ex-leader of the party; Miquel Flaquer, ex-leader of the party; Miquel Grimalt, now ex-environment minister; Antoni Oliver, ex-director general of the Inestur tourism institute and now also an ex-director general of environmental quality; Joan Sastre, relieved of his position as head of tourism promotion. To this little lot can be added those now without a job as a consequence of the dismissal of the UM from the coalition - the minister for sport, the minister for tourism, other leading figures at Inestur and at Ibatur, the tourism promotion wing of government. And there are quite a few more.
Look at those above and a pattern emerges; well more than one. A number of Micks who've been nicked or who may be, and a number of politicians centred on one ministry - tourism. The easy assumption, and one that the police and prosecutors are making or for which they have hard evidence, is that there was something distinctly rotten in the state of the tourism ministry of the sub-state that is the Balearics. The tourism ministry, the domain, the bailiwick of the UM. The conspiracy theorists are now hard at work. Tourism equals UM equals irritant party equals something that needs obliterating. It may make sense to those of a conspiratorial inclination, but it doesn't make sense. You wouldn't conspire against a ministry that happens to oversee the most important industry on the islands, just because it's under the control of an annoying, third-force party, would you? No. It makes no sense. Forget it.
I say forget it, but then ... . It is true that a party like the UM does rather muddy the waters where the major parties are concerned. It may not itself be a major party but it is not insignificant. Clearly not, given the current furore. Moreover, it is a party that is well-represented at mayoral level across the island. It is also a party that represents nationalist interests. Nationalist versus national. UM versus the PSOE and the PP. This is how some are depicting this latest scandal. The wilder and plain bonkers conspiracy theorists may want to dress this all up as some collusion against the UM, but one can - legitimately I believe - wonder as to the corruption accusations levelled at senior UM members. It's like match-fixing in football. It can't really work unless the whole team, or several players, are in agreement. Are we really to believe that so many have been engaged in a collusion of their own? It would seem we have to, because this is what is entailed. If so, then this - the UM - is a party that cannot be trusted and that deserves to be blasted into the far reaches of the political universe. But then, that is what some might want.
Another conclusion is that elements within the party appear to have been acting like some sort of self-interested masonic lodge. Funny handshakes and looking after their own. While politicians of other parties are clearly not immune to the temptations afforded by Mallorcan and Balearic politics, the UM, one could argue, is more tight-knit, more indicative of the ties within the islands' society, more prone to looking after its own and to touting its services in return for feathering its nest with ill-gotten, misappropriated gains. Reagan may have had a point. There again, nothing has yet been proved. And there is that nagging feeling that ... .
QUIZ
Today's title - "Nothing Has Been Proved". Surely had this before, given Mallorca's politics, but it's a cracker - and is?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The police have arrested another member of the Unió Mallorquina, the former leader Miquel Flaquer. There are that many former leaders of recent vintage that is hard to keep track. Two of them are now detained, one other makes appearances before courts and keeps her counsel, as befits the former leader of the Council of Mallorca.
Perhaps we should remind ourselves as to the roll-call that is the rogues' gallery of the UM, lining up for a police mug-shot either now or possibly in the future: Maria Antonia Munar, speaker of parliament and ex-leader of the party; Miquel Nadal, former tourism minister and ex-leader of the party; Miquel Flaquer, ex-leader of the party; Miquel Grimalt, now ex-environment minister; Antoni Oliver, ex-director general of the Inestur tourism institute and now also an ex-director general of environmental quality; Joan Sastre, relieved of his position as head of tourism promotion. To this little lot can be added those now without a job as a consequence of the dismissal of the UM from the coalition - the minister for sport, the minister for tourism, other leading figures at Inestur and at Ibatur, the tourism promotion wing of government. And there are quite a few more.
Look at those above and a pattern emerges; well more than one. A number of Micks who've been nicked or who may be, and a number of politicians centred on one ministry - tourism. The easy assumption, and one that the police and prosecutors are making or for which they have hard evidence, is that there was something distinctly rotten in the state of the tourism ministry of the sub-state that is the Balearics. The tourism ministry, the domain, the bailiwick of the UM. The conspiracy theorists are now hard at work. Tourism equals UM equals irritant party equals something that needs obliterating. It may make sense to those of a conspiratorial inclination, but it doesn't make sense. You wouldn't conspire against a ministry that happens to oversee the most important industry on the islands, just because it's under the control of an annoying, third-force party, would you? No. It makes no sense. Forget it.
I say forget it, but then ... . It is true that a party like the UM does rather muddy the waters where the major parties are concerned. It may not itself be a major party but it is not insignificant. Clearly not, given the current furore. Moreover, it is a party that is well-represented at mayoral level across the island. It is also a party that represents nationalist interests. Nationalist versus national. UM versus the PSOE and the PP. This is how some are depicting this latest scandal. The wilder and plain bonkers conspiracy theorists may want to dress this all up as some collusion against the UM, but one can - legitimately I believe - wonder as to the corruption accusations levelled at senior UM members. It's like match-fixing in football. It can't really work unless the whole team, or several players, are in agreement. Are we really to believe that so many have been engaged in a collusion of their own? It would seem we have to, because this is what is entailed. If so, then this - the UM - is a party that cannot be trusted and that deserves to be blasted into the far reaches of the political universe. But then, that is what some might want.
Another conclusion is that elements within the party appear to have been acting like some sort of self-interested masonic lodge. Funny handshakes and looking after their own. While politicians of other parties are clearly not immune to the temptations afforded by Mallorcan and Balearic politics, the UM, one could argue, is more tight-knit, more indicative of the ties within the islands' society, more prone to looking after its own and to touting its services in return for feathering its nest with ill-gotten, misappropriated gains. Reagan may have had a point. There again, nothing has yet been proved. And there is that nagging feeling that ... .
QUIZ
Today's title - "Nothing Has Been Proved". Surely had this before, given Mallorca's politics, but it's a cracker - and is?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
De-Sastre - Corruption at the tourism institute
The corruption scandal that has engulfed the Inestur tourism institute threatens to swallow more than just a few named politicians; it could take with it the Unió Mallorquina (UM) party and indeed the regional government. Following the arrests of the director general of Inestur and of Joan Sastre, the head of tourism promotion in the government, the police have now detained our old friend Miquel Nadal - ex-tourism minister - in connection with the Inestur action, known as Operation Vulture (Operación Voltor). The vultures are circling, spying the carrion that is the UM and the government.
President Antich has been backed into a corner not of his making. He may have been criticised for not doing so before, but now he has sacked all the UM ministers in his government, while the heads of the Council of Mallorca and Palma town hall have done likewise where UM councillors are concerned. One of these - Nadal, forced to quit as minister because of the Son Oms corruption case - had the temerity to stay on as a Palma councillor. He isn't any longer. The UM has been left utterly humiliated and discredited. Many of its leading lights are either under arrest or under suspicion. How it can continue as a viable party must be open to some doubt - certainly in the short term.
Antich intends to continue to govern, but in minority, with only the left-wing Bloc as a coalition ally. The UM has been booted out. Whether Antich can limp on is also open to some question, but he wants to avoid what may become inevitable - an early election.
There are innumerable practical issues that face Antich, only one of them being his ability to govern. Foremost is what the hell he can do with the tourism ministry. At a time when all hands are needed to man the pumps of the islands' tourism promotion, he is left with no head of tourism promotion (Sastre) and no minister for tourism. Spare a thought for poor old Miquel Ferrer. No sooner had he got his feet under the desk at the ministry, than he's been told to pack up his stuff and clear off. And he's meant to be one of the good guys. Another minister, Enviro Man Grimalt, implicated in a previous and ongoing case, has also been shown the door.
The president is due to announce a reduction in ministries. He has got a whole mess on his plate and a whole mess of things he needs to do, but now - surely - he will grab the tourism brief himself. What he, and the rump government, cannot afford is to allow even more uncertainty where the industry is concerned.
Antich is now getting a kicking. Though his own party, the PSOE, is not caught up in the scandals, it is the ruling the party, and Antich - so it is argued - should have acted earlier to oust the UM. Perhaps so, but he had his majority to consider. What he has attempted to do is to continue with the status quo of the coalition, whilst at the same time being undemined by the rotten status of his key coalition partners. There will doubtless be calls for an election, but where ultimately does that get anyone if the problem is less one of politics but more one of a thoroughly nasty streak of greed, power, nepotism and favours that runs through the Mallorcan culture? It is Mallorcan society that stands accused as much as its political system. Inestur, Son Oms, these have been spectacular scandals even by the corrupt-ridden standards (sic) of Mallorcan life, but who is to say they won't be repeated? It's not as if they are new. What is, is the sheer scale.
The tourism industry outside of Mallorca is said to be concerned. Concerned? You bet it is. Or should be. Aghast, perplexed, horrified. Only some days ago at the Fitur exhibition in Madrid, tour operators and others would have been glad-handing Joan Sastre. They have every right to wonder what the hell is going on. The comings and goings at the tourism ministry and the extraordinary nature of the scandals and of the people involved are farcical. Or they would be were they not so tragic. For this reason, as much as for practical purposes, Antich should take over. He may have lost credibility with some, but who on earth else is there to represent the islands at such a crucial time for the local tourism industry?
The UM's latest leader, Josep Melià, is blaming Antich for breaking the pact and for acting unilaterally. What other choice did he have? It is the UM that has brought the situation about, or at least several of its leading members have. But there will still be hints that this is all somehow a conspiracy, one aimed at blasting the UM into political oblivion. It doesn't seem to need any help in this, yet there is one thing that occurs, and it is this. When Nadal was forced to quit as tourism minister, there were various possible successors, one of them was Sastre. A UM representative, a member of the government, the holder of a position in the tourism ministry, he had, it seemed, all the right credentials to take over from Nadal, given that the UM held the ministry as part of the coalition agreement. Instead, Ferrer was appointed, for no better reason than he had been mayor of a town that is an important tourist resort. Yet, he had never operated at the level he was then propelled into. Sastre on the other hand had and was doing so. Why, therefore, was Sastre overlooked? Did someone know something?
* Note on the title: De-Sastre. The word for disaster in Spanish is "desastre".
QUIZ
Yesterday: "Close To The Front", Amy Winehouse, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oPslmsH7hA.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
President Antich has been backed into a corner not of his making. He may have been criticised for not doing so before, but now he has sacked all the UM ministers in his government, while the heads of the Council of Mallorca and Palma town hall have done likewise where UM councillors are concerned. One of these - Nadal, forced to quit as minister because of the Son Oms corruption case - had the temerity to stay on as a Palma councillor. He isn't any longer. The UM has been left utterly humiliated and discredited. Many of its leading lights are either under arrest or under suspicion. How it can continue as a viable party must be open to some doubt - certainly in the short term.
Antich intends to continue to govern, but in minority, with only the left-wing Bloc as a coalition ally. The UM has been booted out. Whether Antich can limp on is also open to some question, but he wants to avoid what may become inevitable - an early election.
There are innumerable practical issues that face Antich, only one of them being his ability to govern. Foremost is what the hell he can do with the tourism ministry. At a time when all hands are needed to man the pumps of the islands' tourism promotion, he is left with no head of tourism promotion (Sastre) and no minister for tourism. Spare a thought for poor old Miquel Ferrer. No sooner had he got his feet under the desk at the ministry, than he's been told to pack up his stuff and clear off. And he's meant to be one of the good guys. Another minister, Enviro Man Grimalt, implicated in a previous and ongoing case, has also been shown the door.
The president is due to announce a reduction in ministries. He has got a whole mess on his plate and a whole mess of things he needs to do, but now - surely - he will grab the tourism brief himself. What he, and the rump government, cannot afford is to allow even more uncertainty where the industry is concerned.
Antich is now getting a kicking. Though his own party, the PSOE, is not caught up in the scandals, it is the ruling the party, and Antich - so it is argued - should have acted earlier to oust the UM. Perhaps so, but he had his majority to consider. What he has attempted to do is to continue with the status quo of the coalition, whilst at the same time being undemined by the rotten status of his key coalition partners. There will doubtless be calls for an election, but where ultimately does that get anyone if the problem is less one of politics but more one of a thoroughly nasty streak of greed, power, nepotism and favours that runs through the Mallorcan culture? It is Mallorcan society that stands accused as much as its political system. Inestur, Son Oms, these have been spectacular scandals even by the corrupt-ridden standards (sic) of Mallorcan life, but who is to say they won't be repeated? It's not as if they are new. What is, is the sheer scale.
The tourism industry outside of Mallorca is said to be concerned. Concerned? You bet it is. Or should be. Aghast, perplexed, horrified. Only some days ago at the Fitur exhibition in Madrid, tour operators and others would have been glad-handing Joan Sastre. They have every right to wonder what the hell is going on. The comings and goings at the tourism ministry and the extraordinary nature of the scandals and of the people involved are farcical. Or they would be were they not so tragic. For this reason, as much as for practical purposes, Antich should take over. He may have lost credibility with some, but who on earth else is there to represent the islands at such a crucial time for the local tourism industry?
The UM's latest leader, Josep Melià, is blaming Antich for breaking the pact and for acting unilaterally. What other choice did he have? It is the UM that has brought the situation about, or at least several of its leading members have. But there will still be hints that this is all somehow a conspiracy, one aimed at blasting the UM into political oblivion. It doesn't seem to need any help in this, yet there is one thing that occurs, and it is this. When Nadal was forced to quit as tourism minister, there were various possible successors, one of them was Sastre. A UM representative, a member of the government, the holder of a position in the tourism ministry, he had, it seemed, all the right credentials to take over from Nadal, given that the UM held the ministry as part of the coalition agreement. Instead, Ferrer was appointed, for no better reason than he had been mayor of a town that is an important tourist resort. Yet, he had never operated at the level he was then propelled into. Sastre on the other hand had and was doing so. Why, therefore, was Sastre overlooked? Did someone know something?
* Note on the title: De-Sastre. The word for disaster in Spanish is "desastre".
QUIZ
Yesterday: "Close To The Front", Amy Winehouse, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oPslmsH7hA.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, February 05, 2010
I Love All The Bickering - Muro's former mayor
An era of political bickering has come to an end. So says "The Diario" in a comment related to the case of the former mayor of Muro, Miquel Ramis, who has been disqualified from public office for a period of ten years. The bickering refers to years of squabbles between Ramis and the most recently retired mayor, Jaume Perelló, while the basis for the disqualification surrounds a charge of "prevaricación" levelled at Ramis in respect of - you might have guessed it - planning and construction infraction. The "prevaricación" is a common charge in Spain. It means basically what the word does in English - a transgression through concealment. There are other public figures who have been accused thus, such as Joan Mesquida, now the national government secretary of state for tourism, but formerly the director-general of the Guardia in the Balearics.
Without boring you with the details of the case against Ramis, it boiled down to the involvement of a construction company that was owned by a partner of Ramis's in the Alcúdia Suite hotel apartments in Playa de Muro. Ramis is the president of Grupotel, of which the Alcúdia Suite is a part. The political dimension was the rivalry between the Unió Mallorquina party, of which Perelló was a member, and the Convergència Democràtica Murera (CDM), a local Muro off-shoot of the Partido Popular, and a party founded by ... Miquel Ramis. Perelló was involved with the charges against Ramis, "crossing swords" with Ramis in tribunals investigating planning infractions. The "prevarication" actually occurred in 2006, when Ramis was mayor, even if the origins of the case went back to 1997.
The current mayor of Muro, Martí Fornés, said after the disqualification was announced that it was a "pity that a small stain" should have blotted the reputation of "a great mayor in many ways". Ramis may indeed have been a great mayor in many ways, but one might recall that Fornés had the full backing of Ramis in assuming the mayoral position - from Perelló - and that Fornés was once finance director of Grupotel. One might believe that a ten-year disqualification is excessive if the case against Ramis revolved around something that was merely indicative of a small stain.
The bickering was more than just a case of lobbing accusations and political spats. It was fomented against a background of personal fiefdoms, of who - if you like - runs, or ran, the town. It was good, old-fashioned local politics at its best, or worst if you prefer. But this still rumbles on in the sense that not everyone in Muro is necessarily enamoured of the golf development, prime movers behind which are Grupotel. A curiosity, as "The Diario" points out, is that Muro is currently governed by a coalition of the CDM, the UM and the Partido Popular, leader of which is Nofre Plomer, another Muro grandee and an old ally of Ramis. Maybe they have been able to put the old bickering to one side, but you wouldn't necessarily bank on it.
Real Mallorca heading for administration
Poor old Real Mallorca. It just gets worse. The club's interim president has taken the first step towards placing the club into administration. A period of three months will now follow a declaration of the club's insolvency before a judge, a period during which the management will seek some accord with its various creditors. If this is unsuccessful, there will be a month's prolongation, at the end of which administration would be the result. The timing of the declaration before the judge is not without significance. The four months would take the process up to the end of the football season. The club may yet avoid relegation on account of its parlous financial position, and relegation would be massively unjust for a team that has performed surprisingly well given the off-field crisis.
The club's president has, meantime, been in discussion with the regional government's president. One outcome of this is that the government may take over as club sponsors. "The Bulletin" referred to this the other day, though it said the "Mallorca government". There is no such thing; it is either the Balearic regional government or the Council of Mallorca. Either way, if any government is going to start piling in with some cash for the club, then it could well be asked what the hell it's playing at. Why should government intervene with a club that has been so mis-managed and which is so poorly supported? It is not a club for the majority of Mallorcans, or anything like it. Nor is it somehow emblematic, in a way that a Barcelona is. The government might perceive some involvement with a new "strategic plan" as a way of garnering electoral support from supporters, but their numbers are hardly great. And one, inevitably, comes back to the question as to why no serious buyer has emerged over the past couple of years. It's because it's not really worth anything, despite the remarkable efforts of the team and the coach Manzano who is almost certain to leave at the end of the season, come what may.
Make the most of it, any football fans in Mallorca. What is left of this season might be your last chance.
Inestur corruption case - arrests
A director general in the current regional government, Antoni Oliver, has been dismissed from the government and arrested by police investigating the allegations of corruption surrounding Inestur. He was previously the managing director of the tourism institute. The director general of tourism promotion at the government, Joan Sastre, has also been detained, as have two businesspeople in Pollensa - owners of Viajes Pollença Balear. Oliver and Sastre are members of which party? Yep, the Unió Mallorquina. Here we go again.
QUIZ
Yesterday: Jon Secada, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yfu9egNOdA. Today's title: "I love all the bickering" comes from someone hugely soulful with big hair.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Without boring you with the details of the case against Ramis, it boiled down to the involvement of a construction company that was owned by a partner of Ramis's in the Alcúdia Suite hotel apartments in Playa de Muro. Ramis is the president of Grupotel, of which the Alcúdia Suite is a part. The political dimension was the rivalry between the Unió Mallorquina party, of which Perelló was a member, and the Convergència Democràtica Murera (CDM), a local Muro off-shoot of the Partido Popular, and a party founded by ... Miquel Ramis. Perelló was involved with the charges against Ramis, "crossing swords" with Ramis in tribunals investigating planning infractions. The "prevarication" actually occurred in 2006, when Ramis was mayor, even if the origins of the case went back to 1997.
The current mayor of Muro, Martí Fornés, said after the disqualification was announced that it was a "pity that a small stain" should have blotted the reputation of "a great mayor in many ways". Ramis may indeed have been a great mayor in many ways, but one might recall that Fornés had the full backing of Ramis in assuming the mayoral position - from Perelló - and that Fornés was once finance director of Grupotel. One might believe that a ten-year disqualification is excessive if the case against Ramis revolved around something that was merely indicative of a small stain.
The bickering was more than just a case of lobbing accusations and political spats. It was fomented against a background of personal fiefdoms, of who - if you like - runs, or ran, the town. It was good, old-fashioned local politics at its best, or worst if you prefer. But this still rumbles on in the sense that not everyone in Muro is necessarily enamoured of the golf development, prime movers behind which are Grupotel. A curiosity, as "The Diario" points out, is that Muro is currently governed by a coalition of the CDM, the UM and the Partido Popular, leader of which is Nofre Plomer, another Muro grandee and an old ally of Ramis. Maybe they have been able to put the old bickering to one side, but you wouldn't necessarily bank on it.
Real Mallorca heading for administration
Poor old Real Mallorca. It just gets worse. The club's interim president has taken the first step towards placing the club into administration. A period of three months will now follow a declaration of the club's insolvency before a judge, a period during which the management will seek some accord with its various creditors. If this is unsuccessful, there will be a month's prolongation, at the end of which administration would be the result. The timing of the declaration before the judge is not without significance. The four months would take the process up to the end of the football season. The club may yet avoid relegation on account of its parlous financial position, and relegation would be massively unjust for a team that has performed surprisingly well given the off-field crisis.
The club's president has, meantime, been in discussion with the regional government's president. One outcome of this is that the government may take over as club sponsors. "The Bulletin" referred to this the other day, though it said the "Mallorca government". There is no such thing; it is either the Balearic regional government or the Council of Mallorca. Either way, if any government is going to start piling in with some cash for the club, then it could well be asked what the hell it's playing at. Why should government intervene with a club that has been so mis-managed and which is so poorly supported? It is not a club for the majority of Mallorcans, or anything like it. Nor is it somehow emblematic, in a way that a Barcelona is. The government might perceive some involvement with a new "strategic plan" as a way of garnering electoral support from supporters, but their numbers are hardly great. And one, inevitably, comes back to the question as to why no serious buyer has emerged over the past couple of years. It's because it's not really worth anything, despite the remarkable efforts of the team and the coach Manzano who is almost certain to leave at the end of the season, come what may.
Make the most of it, any football fans in Mallorca. What is left of this season might be your last chance.
Inestur corruption case - arrests
A director general in the current regional government, Antoni Oliver, has been dismissed from the government and arrested by police investigating the allegations of corruption surrounding Inestur. He was previously the managing director of the tourism institute. The director general of tourism promotion at the government, Joan Sastre, has also been detained, as have two businesspeople in Pollensa - owners of Viajes Pollença Balear. Oliver and Sastre are members of which party? Yep, the Unió Mallorquina. Here we go again.
QUIZ
Yesterday: Jon Secada, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yfu9egNOdA. Today's title: "I love all the bickering" comes from someone hugely soulful with big hair.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Just Another Day - tourism scene and corruption
Here's a potentially useful addition to the coverage in "The Bulletin" - a regular thing on tourism. You might wonder why there hasn't been such a column before. If you haven't wondered, I most certainly have. Amidst the pages of questionable relevance and of British and international politics, there are few that actually deal with issues of direct relevance to Mallorca. Tourism is not exactly irrelevant. But now there is a column, of sorts. It is in the form of an interview with the paper's tame tour operator chappie, the guy from the Co-Op-Monarch-Cosmos group. The first one is not uninteresting, albeit that it says much that is fairly obvious or known.
The same chap was recently reported in the paper as saying that bookings to Mallorca were down by some 15%. At the time (25 January: I'm Anti, Fly Me), I questioned whether this would continue to prove to be the case, and continue to prove it has not - the current fall is around half that figure, while - in all likelihood - there will ultimately prove to be no fall and possibly even a slight increase. It isn't really tourist industry rocket science to suggest that there will be later bookings that contribute to a reasonable, if not spectacular, tourism season. The Turkish situation is an interesting aspect that will play a part in this. There is under-supply in Turkey and, just as importantly, prices have gone up there. I read on a forum someone saying that prices were "outrageous"; that person was looking for a villa in Mallorca as an alternative. Something that may have escaped many of the doom-mongers is the enduring strength of the Mallorca brand and product, despite the tourism authorities' best attempts at trying to undermine it or to not promote it adequately. One thing the tour operators know is that they can get that supply, which they cannot necessarily obtain elsewhere.
To have a regular feature is a good enough idea; to give some facts is a good enough idea. To have an industry insider supplying the information is also a good enough idea, but it is only one insider and one who represents a specific company. Inevitably, there might be a bit of a "take" on matters that are - how should one say it - skewed towards that company. But don't let me get too critical. It is a useful addition, but even more so would be a real feature or column, one that takes the insider information and forms a discussion, one that might be - dare I say it - rather more journalistic. Heaven knows, there is enough cracking off in the island's tourism industry to fill a paper, let alone just one page. And, slightly tangential but still within the industry orbit, comes the oh-no-not-more-of-it moment. Corruption. This time it is Inestur. Which is? The Balearics institute for tourism strategy, an institute within the ambit of the regional government's ministry of tourism. An investigation is now under way into this institute. The facts are not yet clear, nor is it clear if any alleged corruption refers to the current ministry administration - under the Unió Mallorquina party - or the previous one of the Partido Popular. It hardly seems to matter any longer. Just another day in Mallorca. Another day, another corruption allegation. And this time, tourism's in the front line. Regular feature. Yep. The daily scandal feature.
QUIZ
Yesterday: "Riders On The Storm", The Doors, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbPUzhWeeI. Today's title: could be a few, but this one - Cuban-American - had a gold seller with "Just Another Day".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The same chap was recently reported in the paper as saying that bookings to Mallorca were down by some 15%. At the time (25 January: I'm Anti, Fly Me), I questioned whether this would continue to prove to be the case, and continue to prove it has not - the current fall is around half that figure, while - in all likelihood - there will ultimately prove to be no fall and possibly even a slight increase. It isn't really tourist industry rocket science to suggest that there will be later bookings that contribute to a reasonable, if not spectacular, tourism season. The Turkish situation is an interesting aspect that will play a part in this. There is under-supply in Turkey and, just as importantly, prices have gone up there. I read on a forum someone saying that prices were "outrageous"; that person was looking for a villa in Mallorca as an alternative. Something that may have escaped many of the doom-mongers is the enduring strength of the Mallorca brand and product, despite the tourism authorities' best attempts at trying to undermine it or to not promote it adequately. One thing the tour operators know is that they can get that supply, which they cannot necessarily obtain elsewhere.
To have a regular feature is a good enough idea; to give some facts is a good enough idea. To have an industry insider supplying the information is also a good enough idea, but it is only one insider and one who represents a specific company. Inevitably, there might be a bit of a "take" on matters that are - how should one say it - skewed towards that company. But don't let me get too critical. It is a useful addition, but even more so would be a real feature or column, one that takes the insider information and forms a discussion, one that might be - dare I say it - rather more journalistic. Heaven knows, there is enough cracking off in the island's tourism industry to fill a paper, let alone just one page. And, slightly tangential but still within the industry orbit, comes the oh-no-not-more-of-it moment. Corruption. This time it is Inestur. Which is? The Balearics institute for tourism strategy, an institute within the ambit of the regional government's ministry of tourism. An investigation is now under way into this institute. The facts are not yet clear, nor is it clear if any alleged corruption refers to the current ministry administration - under the Unió Mallorquina party - or the previous one of the Partido Popular. It hardly seems to matter any longer. Just another day in Mallorca. Another day, another corruption allegation. And this time, tourism's in the front line. Regular feature. Yep. The daily scandal feature.
QUIZ
Yesterday: "Riders On The Storm", The Doors, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbPUzhWeeI. Today's title: could be a few, but this one - Cuban-American - had a gold seller with "Just Another Day".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
