Chaos Theory: Normal service resumed

Once upon a time, one supposes, Mallorca's businesses and economy may well have operated under conditions of chaos. Or maybe they didn't. The enduring image of Johnny Foreigner, especially southern European, Mediterranean Johnny Foreigner, is that he is Manuel, forever the butt of a joke and forever getting a kick in the butt from an agitated, manic, stiff-upper-lip, northern-European sort like Basil, while the enduring image of the Johnny Foreigner southern European, Mediterranean businessowner is that of Keith Allen's slothful and violent Hotel Bastardo proprietor in "A Fistful of Travellers' Cheques". Whatever the truth of this past image, events appear to be conspiring to revive it. The current theory of chaos in Mallorca is one of normal service having been resumed, or about to be.

The agitated northern-European sort is himself about to enter a state of heightened agitation combined with indignation, disbelief and prejudice confirmation. "Don't they know there's a recession!?" Well actually, yes they probably do, which may have something to do with the "long hot summer of discontent" (please forgive this cliché of hyperbole) that is now more or less upon us.

I'm not here to defend striking workers when it comes to wanting more money or fewer hours. They should know there's a recession on, and they're bloody lucky to have a job, but there is one line of defence, one that I have every sympathy with: those who are meant to be leading Mallorca and Spain in these times of crisis, now about to become times of chaos. When you are a Mallorcan or Spanish worker lumbered with the political leaders they have, then striking seems the least worst option.

Let's just sum up where we are on the strike front. The doctors in the public health service may or may not be striking, but either way they are distinctly hacked off because of cuts and the ham-fisted way in which the regional government has gone about trying to reclaim money that has been paid to them since 2008. The teachers are threatening to strike from the start of the next school year because class sizes will become too large. More immediately, we have the hotel and wider hostelry sector about to down cutlery and wine glasses on 20 July, and we have the coach drivers about to stop ferrying tourists to and from the airport or taking them on excursions on 21 and 22 July. Both these actions may be extended. To add to this jolly little mix, we also have the bus drivers of the public transport services operated by Transunión; they are planning on striking on 16 and 17 July.

When you've not been paid for three months, which is apparently the case with the Transunión drivers, then there is a legitimate grievance. And the reason for not being paid is because the company hasn't been paid - by government. It has been a similar story with, for example, workers in old people's homes.

All of these actions, including that of Transunión, might, just might, be avoided were there anything like a real sense of political leadership or attempt by political leaders to engender sympathy for their position and to get the disenchanted workforce to rally behind them at a time of genuine crisis. But there is no attempt and there is no sympathy, because leaders such as Rajoy don't command it.

He doesn't help his cause by being so anonymous and invisible. He is most definitely not a leader for such trying times. And in the Balearics, you have a similarly unsympathetic character as Bauzá, one who also abrogates the messenger role - to the unfortunate Rafael Bosch.

What you have, rather than attempting to appeal to workers' better instincts for the common good, is a government in the Balearics which seeks to use the law to investigate a previous health minister for having agreed to pay doctors the money that the government now wants back (and which seems to have been just some sort of bluster as no more has been heard of it) and which has a president who is also seeking legal redress because his honour has apparently been impugned by the leader of the UGT union. While Lorenzo Bravo has used various insults, one that has been cited, that of "inútil" (useless), is not much of an insult.

Regardless of stronger insults, the president should simply dismiss them and tell Bravo to grow up. But no, it seems easier to get prosecutors involved rather than tackle the genuine issues that confront Mallorca. These are the politics of the playground and they are the politics that make me feel sympathy for all the strikers.

There is a further chaos theory, and that is that the political leadership wants the strikes. Rajoy implied that he knew he would get a general strike, and so he did. But he personally did nothing to avert it. Nothing through his own lack of leadership. And in Bauzá, he seems to have the perfect accomplice.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.