Showing posts with label Children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Children. Show all posts
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Another First For Alaró
Alaró. What do we know of it? It has a castle. It was the first place in Mallorca to get electricity. The citizens not so long ago took part in a referendum to allow women to be part of the cossiers folk dance troupe. Its first woman mayor took office in 2015. It will have the Balearics first black mayor - Guillem Balboa - later this year. A municipality of firsts, it generally, one might suggest, has a fairly genteel image, as in being free of any associated vulgarities as opposed to being populated by the gentry (save some maybe).
Alaró is therefore not a Magalluf. It would be impossible for it be anyway, given that it doesn't have a coast. Instead, it nestles quietly by the Tramuntana, which cliché demands that it should do. Villages overlooked by mountains are required to nestle. That's all they do.
Unfortunately for Alaró, this carefully carved-out reputation has been shattered. It has joined the ranks of Magalluf (of which one must say, of course, that this is pre-transformation Magalluf). It has attained a new first. It is the first village nestling in the Tramuntana foothills to grab the attention of The Sun and The Daily Mail, except when either of these may have published a travel article describing the pleasures of Mallorcan foothill nestling. The genteel, free of vulgarities image has been destroyed by scenes reminiscent of most nights in Magalluf (sorry, pre-transfomation Magalluf).
The Sun usefully informed its readers of the "shocking moment" that a mass brawl broke out between parents at a kids' football match. Mums screamed "in horror" and scrambled "to protect children from fighting dads". Goodness me, Alaró, what have you done? There's Biel Barceló going on about non-beach tourism, lauding the alternatives of cultural, heritage and nature tourism, facilitating the arrival of inland holiday rentals, and what happens? A village symbolic of all this alternative tourism has threatened the promotional drive by engaging in a re-enactment of Punta Ballena. One thing's for sure. If Alaró signs up to the sports tourism niche as a means of tackling seasonality, it'll carefully sidestep any mention of football.
This is of course greatly exaggerated, as was perhaps a headline in the local press which referred to a scandal with global repercussion. This repercussion will mostly have involved avid social network users having a good laugh. Which isn't to condone what happened, just that values are what they have become. Moreover, it's not as if it is unheard of for parents to get out of hand at kids' football matches. The difference in this instance is that parents behaving badly has gone viral.
The immediate victims of the "mass brawl" (what actually constitutes a mass?) were the Alaró boys. The team has been withdrawn. There again, the boys aren't entirely victims. Certain players face expulsion from the team, such as one seen kicking a man who was on the ground. It might be noted that the whole incident kicked off when an Alaró player chased a Collerense youngster and kicked him. Alaró had already had a player sent off as well as their trainer. The referee had apparently asked for the police to be called fifteen minutes before the brawl broke out. He sensed that there was an inflamed atmosphere.
As a consequence of what took place the public prosecutor is involved, as is the Guardia Civil, the national government's delegation to the Balearics as well as the Balearic Islands Football Federation's Anti-Violence Commission. Fines of up to 10,000 euros could be handed out. There is the threat of possible custodial sentences. And all because of a football match involving 12 and 13 year olds in the Regional Second Division, Group E.
The government and the Council of Mallorca both rushed to condemn Sunday's events. "Values" to be acquired through sport are important, said Biel Barceló in his vice-presidential guise. The Council was at pains to explain that it has a whole project aimed at inculcating these values through sport and at holding workshops to try and prevent violence.
Values, and good ones, are there to be attained, but there are other values being pursued - monetary, fame and celebrity. When the likes of Talk Sport, rather than indulging in shouting, stop and have sensible discussions about football, a subject that comes up is the behaviour of parents. When did they start behaving badly? Around the time when big bucks for junior players loomed. Allied to this are the values displayed on football pitches. Jamie Vardy has been praised in some quarters for having been cute enough in ensuring Samir Nasri was sent off. There are so many other examples.
As a local journalist has written, none of the kids last Sunday will become Messi. But such are the distorted values, that is the parental ambition. Poor Alaró. What had it done to deserve its global repercussion?
Friday, January 22, 2016
Spring And Fall: A winter's grave
"Have you ever tended a child's grave in winter? Do you know what it is to look down on the earth that covers the bones you made? Do you remember the smell of wet leafmeal? Did you feel the cold in your knees? Did you weep when you wiped the grime from the tiny headstone? Did you think about the day when you first came to this place? It was a long while back; it was a lifetime ago that we buried Jolly."
This is the opening to a story entitled "Spring And Fall". I won't give details about the story, as to do so would seem inappropriate and disrespectful. The last sentence does, however, give an idea. "Then he opened the window." The "he" was Jolly, the diminutive for Jolyon.
The author was someone perhaps better known for his idiosyncratic television broadcasts. Well before those, I had become aware of Jonathan Meades. Less so for his journalism than for his fiction and essays. The story comes from a collection called "Filthy English". Published in 1984, it remains one of the finest collections of short stories in a contemporary tradition.
Why am I mentioning this story? Its context, as with the other stories, was mainly the Wiltshire where he grew up and the New Forest and Hampshire that he also knew. Much of the raw material for the stories came from his mother who was a teacher. It was a very English context of the 1960s. As such, it has nothing to do with Spain of 2016. Except, that is, it has everything to do with now, right here, because of the opening and the ending.
I haven't re-read the story thoroughly, but I don't think Meades reveals the boy's age. But from hints as I remember them, he would probably have been around eleven or twelve. It is the very sadness of that opening and of the ending that now come to mind. Have you ever tended a child's grave in winter? One who was eleven years old and who had committed suicide?
Diego González was eleven. He lived in the Madrid district of Leganés. On 14 October last year, Diego jumped from the fifth floor of the family home. On the windowsill was a note. He gave it a title, asking for "Lucho" to be looked after. Lucho was the name of a comfort doll he had had since he was a baby.
"Dad, mum. These eleven years I've been with you have been very good and I will never forget them just as I will never forget you. Dad, you've taught me to be a good person and to keep my promises, and also you have played with me a great deal. Mum, you've taken care of me so much and you've taken me to many places. Each of you is amazing, but together you are the best parents in the world ... I hope that one day we can see each other again in heaven."
Of the remaining content of the note, there is one line that explains everything but yet of course leaves so much unexplained. "I'm telling you this because I can't bear going to school." Diego had concluded, as he wrote, that there was no other way to not go to school.
The suicide was treated by the police as having been the consequence of bullying at school. Diego's parents, though, want the case to be kept open. They say that "odd things" have happened at the school.
It's impossible for me to offer any comment on this particular tragedy and nor would I wish to comment. But it prompted a search into suicide among younger children, a group about which less seems to be said than teenagers. The causes, however, sound much the same, with bullying being one of them. In December 2006, for example, eleven-year-old Ben Vodden took his life in Horsham, Sussex. The bullying had included name-calling by a school bus driver. Other possible causes, again out of respect, do not warrant detailing. The scale of pre-adolescent suicide, mercifully, is miniscule. But, again by example, 56 suicides by under-12s in the US in 2006 are 56 too many.
The circumstances of Diego's death and the one that Jonathan Meades wrote about are very different. There was no bullying in "Spring And Fall": quite the contrary in fact. But his story is one that affected me when I first read it all those years ago. And it still does. The opening is one of desperate loss and sadness. What follows is the wondering and the not knowing. How would the boy be now, as a man?
While Diego's parents believe there may have been reasons other than the one the police concluded, they will have other questions. How utterly and awfully unbearable.
This is the opening to a story entitled "Spring And Fall". I won't give details about the story, as to do so would seem inappropriate and disrespectful. The last sentence does, however, give an idea. "Then he opened the window." The "he" was Jolly, the diminutive for Jolyon.
The author was someone perhaps better known for his idiosyncratic television broadcasts. Well before those, I had become aware of Jonathan Meades. Less so for his journalism than for his fiction and essays. The story comes from a collection called "Filthy English". Published in 1984, it remains one of the finest collections of short stories in a contemporary tradition.
Why am I mentioning this story? Its context, as with the other stories, was mainly the Wiltshire where he grew up and the New Forest and Hampshire that he also knew. Much of the raw material for the stories came from his mother who was a teacher. It was a very English context of the 1960s. As such, it has nothing to do with Spain of 2016. Except, that is, it has everything to do with now, right here, because of the opening and the ending.
I haven't re-read the story thoroughly, but I don't think Meades reveals the boy's age. But from hints as I remember them, he would probably have been around eleven or twelve. It is the very sadness of that opening and of the ending that now come to mind. Have you ever tended a child's grave in winter? One who was eleven years old and who had committed suicide?
Diego González was eleven. He lived in the Madrid district of Leganés. On 14 October last year, Diego jumped from the fifth floor of the family home. On the windowsill was a note. He gave it a title, asking for "Lucho" to be looked after. Lucho was the name of a comfort doll he had had since he was a baby.
"Dad, mum. These eleven years I've been with you have been very good and I will never forget them just as I will never forget you. Dad, you've taught me to be a good person and to keep my promises, and also you have played with me a great deal. Mum, you've taken care of me so much and you've taken me to many places. Each of you is amazing, but together you are the best parents in the world ... I hope that one day we can see each other again in heaven."
Of the remaining content of the note, there is one line that explains everything but yet of course leaves so much unexplained. "I'm telling you this because I can't bear going to school." Diego had concluded, as he wrote, that there was no other way to not go to school.
The suicide was treated by the police as having been the consequence of bullying at school. Diego's parents, though, want the case to be kept open. They say that "odd things" have happened at the school.
It's impossible for me to offer any comment on this particular tragedy and nor would I wish to comment. But it prompted a search into suicide among younger children, a group about which less seems to be said than teenagers. The causes, however, sound much the same, with bullying being one of them. In December 2006, for example, eleven-year-old Ben Vodden took his life in Horsham, Sussex. The bullying had included name-calling by a school bus driver. Other possible causes, again out of respect, do not warrant detailing. The scale of pre-adolescent suicide, mercifully, is miniscule. But, again by example, 56 suicides by under-12s in the US in 2006 are 56 too many.
The circumstances of Diego's death and the one that Jonathan Meades wrote about are very different. There was no bullying in "Spring And Fall": quite the contrary in fact. But his story is one that affected me when I first read it all those years ago. And it still does. The opening is one of desperate loss and sadness. What follows is the wondering and the not knowing. How would the boy be now, as a man?
While Diego's parents believe there may have been reasons other than the one the police concluded, they will have other questions. How utterly and awfully unbearable.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Sleepy Time: Spanish kids and education
"It's often past midnight, well past midnight and you can hear the boy and what's probably a TV. This isn't just weekends by any means. And then you can hear them getting up at seven the next morning. Maybe he has a siesta, but if not, he's surely suffering from sleep deprivation. It can't be good. And it's been like this for some years. He's fourteen now, but it was a similar pattern when he was much younger."
This is the drift of what I was told by someone (English) who lives in a semi and whose neighbours are Mallorcan. Being a semi, you can hear something of what goes on next door and you are aware of people being up late. It is only one story, but how typical is it? How normal is it for Spanish kids (and indeed kids from other nationalities) to be up until past midnight and to seemingly get too little sleep? Quite normal, you might tend to think.
The broadcaster Telecinco has been criticised for showing "La Voz Kids", the children's version of "The Voice", between 10pm and 1.25am on Thursday nights. The average viewing figure for the show was 5.1 million in all. When the final was broadcast, ratings data suggested that over 300,000 viewers were children. They may not all have watched to the end, but you would guess that most did.
Spanish TV programmes have a tendency to go on for an inordinately long time. Partly this is because of interminable and regular ad breaks. Partly it is because they are simply over long. Put these two factors together and you get a show that lasts for almost three and a half hours, one that doesn't start until 10pm on a weekday. If you take my anecdote, then you can add other examples of late broadcasting which are keeping children awake into the early morning.
Television is only element. It's a cultural thing, so the justification goes. We are all familiar with the sight of children being up and around late in Mallorca. It is nothing unusual. But is it good for them? Has this cultural fact of life been a contributory factor in educational underperformance, something which is more acute in Mallorca and the Balearics than in most other other parts of Spain?
Towards the end of 2012, the Spanish Institute for Sleep Research launched a campaign called "I Have a Dream". It was designed to promote better sleeping habits among children. What the institute was mainly concerned with were the health consequences of inadequate sleep - obesity and the development of diabetes - but it also considered educational performance and the effects of late-night TV watching and computer screen use. Its director was in doubt that fewer hours of sleep plus the wrong signals being sent to the brain by this late-night viewing were contributing to attention deficit syndrome. He said that 60% of Spanish children got less sleep than is recommended, that 30% displayed symptoms of daytime sleepiness, that there had been an ongoing tendency since the mid-1980s for children to go to bed later and that two-thirds of kids between the ages of ten and fifteen made the decision themselves as to what time they went to bed.
Research published in 2011 studied sleep among children from the ages of two to nine in different European countries. It found, among other things, that the percentage of children in, for instance, Germany, who slept between ten and eleven hours was almost 28%. For Spain, the percentage was under 5%. But other international research, published last year by the Boston College in the US, showed that, for maths teaching, Spanish teachers reported that 38% of pupils suffered from a lack of sleep. This was a comparatively low percentage. A higher one was for Finnish pupils. 60% of them suffered from lack of sleep, and yet maths performance is very much higher in Finland than Spain.
A conclusion that was drawn from the Boston research was that the use of phones and computers (to which could be added TVs) late at night was resulting in the lack of sleep and was a particular problem in more affluent countries. Does this mean, therefore, that Spain is a comparatively less affluent country?
Drawing firm conclusions as to the relationship between sleep and the school performance of Spanish children is difficult because of apparent contradictions between these different pieces of research. And in any event, does research for Spain as a whole equate to the situation in Mallorca?
It may be right to criticise broadcasters, but before people get too critical or draw inaccurate conclusions, perhaps there ought to be thorough research into the sleep of children in different parts of Spain and the relationship with school performance. Only then might it be possible to say for sure that Mallorcan kids need more sleep or don't.
This is the drift of what I was told by someone (English) who lives in a semi and whose neighbours are Mallorcan. Being a semi, you can hear something of what goes on next door and you are aware of people being up late. It is only one story, but how typical is it? How normal is it for Spanish kids (and indeed kids from other nationalities) to be up until past midnight and to seemingly get too little sleep? Quite normal, you might tend to think.
The broadcaster Telecinco has been criticised for showing "La Voz Kids", the children's version of "The Voice", between 10pm and 1.25am on Thursday nights. The average viewing figure for the show was 5.1 million in all. When the final was broadcast, ratings data suggested that over 300,000 viewers were children. They may not all have watched to the end, but you would guess that most did.
Spanish TV programmes have a tendency to go on for an inordinately long time. Partly this is because of interminable and regular ad breaks. Partly it is because they are simply over long. Put these two factors together and you get a show that lasts for almost three and a half hours, one that doesn't start until 10pm on a weekday. If you take my anecdote, then you can add other examples of late broadcasting which are keeping children awake into the early morning.
Television is only element. It's a cultural thing, so the justification goes. We are all familiar with the sight of children being up and around late in Mallorca. It is nothing unusual. But is it good for them? Has this cultural fact of life been a contributory factor in educational underperformance, something which is more acute in Mallorca and the Balearics than in most other other parts of Spain?
Towards the end of 2012, the Spanish Institute for Sleep Research launched a campaign called "I Have a Dream". It was designed to promote better sleeping habits among children. What the institute was mainly concerned with were the health consequences of inadequate sleep - obesity and the development of diabetes - but it also considered educational performance and the effects of late-night TV watching and computer screen use. Its director was in doubt that fewer hours of sleep plus the wrong signals being sent to the brain by this late-night viewing were contributing to attention deficit syndrome. He said that 60% of Spanish children got less sleep than is recommended, that 30% displayed symptoms of daytime sleepiness, that there had been an ongoing tendency since the mid-1980s for children to go to bed later and that two-thirds of kids between the ages of ten and fifteen made the decision themselves as to what time they went to bed.
Research published in 2011 studied sleep among children from the ages of two to nine in different European countries. It found, among other things, that the percentage of children in, for instance, Germany, who slept between ten and eleven hours was almost 28%. For Spain, the percentage was under 5%. But other international research, published last year by the Boston College in the US, showed that, for maths teaching, Spanish teachers reported that 38% of pupils suffered from a lack of sleep. This was a comparatively low percentage. A higher one was for Finnish pupils. 60% of them suffered from lack of sleep, and yet maths performance is very much higher in Finland than Spain.
A conclusion that was drawn from the Boston research was that the use of phones and computers (to which could be added TVs) late at night was resulting in the lack of sleep and was a particular problem in more affluent countries. Does this mean, therefore, that Spain is a comparatively less affluent country?
Drawing firm conclusions as to the relationship between sleep and the school performance of Spanish children is difficult because of apparent contradictions between these different pieces of research. And in any event, does research for Spain as a whole equate to the situation in Mallorca?
It may be right to criticise broadcasters, but before people get too critical or draw inaccurate conclusions, perhaps there ought to be thorough research into the sleep of children in different parts of Spain and the relationship with school performance. Only then might it be possible to say for sure that Mallorcan kids need more sleep or don't.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Children Not Welcome Here
A few years ago, the old Golf hotel in Puerto Alcúdia ceased to celebrate its long life. It, or rather its operator, Viva Hotels, dispensed with the Viva. Long live the hotel? Yes, but in an altogether vainer way. The adoption of the Vanity brand name still strikes me as curious. Guests may well be vain, but do they want the world to know this? However they perceive themselves or the brand name, it has been successful. The Vanity Golf is not the only Vanity hotel, and the reason for the success lies in its guests and in those guests who are not permitted - children.
The theming of hotels that is a current theme of the tourism scene is not confined to music-concert or pirates hotels. It also involves social groups and gender preferences. Mallorca's first gay hotel opened in 2010, and what it has in common with the Vanity brand and other hotels is that it is (obviously) adults-only. Being adults-only has nothing to do with any sleaze, but everything to do with keeping kids as far away from adults as possible.
The recent growth in adults-only hotels means that Spanish hotel chains now operate 25 such establishments. The big two tour operators in the UK, TUI and Thomas Cook, both offer specific adults-only holidays, as they do in Germany, where another operator, Rewe, has now added its own programme. And as with hotels, so also with cruise operators, which may not expressly market cruises as adults-only, but provide facilities, including pools and restaurants, from which children are barred.
The trend towards the adults-only offer (the age barrier is usually 16) can be attributed to a number of factors, but key to it is a decline in educational and parental standards of discipline, combined with an obsession with child protection that has given rise to this disciplinary decline.
Albert Llorca, professor of entertainment sociology and tourism psychology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, is convinced that it is the failure in child education that is at the heart of the rise of the adults-only hotel. As reported in an investigation by "Hosteltur" into the phenomenon, he has identified a process, over the past 25 years, that has led to children being excused for everything they do and to everything they do being justified.
Navel-gazing of this sort is not restricted by any means to the Spanish, but it is in some respects more acute, given a typically indulgent attitude towards children in any event and the remarkably powerful lungs with which all Spanish children appear to be blessed (if this is the right word).
Family associations in Spain have not responded with total agreement to the charges of the likes of Professor Llorca or to the creation of adults-only hotels. They raise their own charges, those of discrimination, but the movement towards keeping children out of hotels is going to expand, coincidental with ever further declining standards of discipline.
There are also those who argue, with justification, that children should not be singled out for their noise or behaviour; there are plenty of adults who are as if not more guilty of rowdiness and indiscipline. This, however, causes a double-whammy of racket and irresponsibility. For many a tourist making his holiday choice (be he part of a couple, single or part of a family that would take rightful umbrage at being lumped in with the indiscipline tag), the selling of a hotel or even a resort as "family" would probably now appear to be akin to carrying a health warning.
The marketing of the adults-only holiday is quite careful not to appear to be discriminatory. First Choice, for example, which offers another childless hotel in Alcúdia, the Platja d'Or, makes no mention of children. It's all about accentuating the benefits ("chilling out together", "relaxing" or "action-packed") without resorting to the obvious. The Vanity website, a lavish production of the aspirational, is similarly discreet, though the Vanity Hotel Suite & Spa in Cala Mesquida does dare to state "without children".
The rise of the concept or theme hotel will become more evident. Differentiation of the hotel product in Mallorca is clearly felt to offer potential competitive advantage, and the adults-only product is likely to be made more available. As it does, it will start to change the character of resorts. It is not totally unrealistic to perhaps conceive of small resorts becoming all but child-free, but then maybe there might be the counter to all this - the child-only hotel. Could you imagine? Here's the new hotel theme idea: the "Lord Of The Flies" hotel.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The theming of hotels that is a current theme of the tourism scene is not confined to music-concert or pirates hotels. It also involves social groups and gender preferences. Mallorca's first gay hotel opened in 2010, and what it has in common with the Vanity brand and other hotels is that it is (obviously) adults-only. Being adults-only has nothing to do with any sleaze, but everything to do with keeping kids as far away from adults as possible.
The recent growth in adults-only hotels means that Spanish hotel chains now operate 25 such establishments. The big two tour operators in the UK, TUI and Thomas Cook, both offer specific adults-only holidays, as they do in Germany, where another operator, Rewe, has now added its own programme. And as with hotels, so also with cruise operators, which may not expressly market cruises as adults-only, but provide facilities, including pools and restaurants, from which children are barred.
The trend towards the adults-only offer (the age barrier is usually 16) can be attributed to a number of factors, but key to it is a decline in educational and parental standards of discipline, combined with an obsession with child protection that has given rise to this disciplinary decline.
Albert Llorca, professor of entertainment sociology and tourism psychology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, is convinced that it is the failure in child education that is at the heart of the rise of the adults-only hotel. As reported in an investigation by "Hosteltur" into the phenomenon, he has identified a process, over the past 25 years, that has led to children being excused for everything they do and to everything they do being justified.
Navel-gazing of this sort is not restricted by any means to the Spanish, but it is in some respects more acute, given a typically indulgent attitude towards children in any event and the remarkably powerful lungs with which all Spanish children appear to be blessed (if this is the right word).
Family associations in Spain have not responded with total agreement to the charges of the likes of Professor Llorca or to the creation of adults-only hotels. They raise their own charges, those of discrimination, but the movement towards keeping children out of hotels is going to expand, coincidental with ever further declining standards of discipline.
There are also those who argue, with justification, that children should not be singled out for their noise or behaviour; there are plenty of adults who are as if not more guilty of rowdiness and indiscipline. This, however, causes a double-whammy of racket and irresponsibility. For many a tourist making his holiday choice (be he part of a couple, single or part of a family that would take rightful umbrage at being lumped in with the indiscipline tag), the selling of a hotel or even a resort as "family" would probably now appear to be akin to carrying a health warning.
The marketing of the adults-only holiday is quite careful not to appear to be discriminatory. First Choice, for example, which offers another childless hotel in Alcúdia, the Platja d'Or, makes no mention of children. It's all about accentuating the benefits ("chilling out together", "relaxing" or "action-packed") without resorting to the obvious. The Vanity website, a lavish production of the aspirational, is similarly discreet, though the Vanity Hotel Suite & Spa in Cala Mesquida does dare to state "without children".
The rise of the concept or theme hotel will become more evident. Differentiation of the hotel product in Mallorca is clearly felt to offer potential competitive advantage, and the adults-only product is likely to be made more available. As it does, it will start to change the character of resorts. It is not totally unrealistic to perhaps conceive of small resorts becoming all but child-free, but then maybe there might be the counter to all this - the child-only hotel. Could you imagine? Here's the new hotel theme idea: the "Lord Of The Flies" hotel.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, March 25, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Can Picafort priest suspended
The parish priest of Can Picafort and curate of Pollensa, Pere Barceló, has been suspended from his post while accusations of sexual offences against children are being investigated. The priest was previously accused of such offences, in 1998, when a case against him was eventually archived.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Wonderland
"So she sat on, with closed eyes, and half believed herself in Wonderland, though she knew she had but to open them again, and all would change to dull reality."
Lewis Carroll, "Alice In Wonderland".
There are many Alices. They come to Wonderland but find it to be not quite the reality. There was a conversation today that was one of the most insightful I have had since being here. She - British - has lived here (Puerto Pollensa) for many years, is married to a Mallorcan, has a son at school, and knows the school system well. Hers is one opinion, one perspective. It is worth relating though, in a way, I am almost reluctant to do so.
Puerto Pollensa is not as it was. Puerto Alcúdia has usurped it. Even the old town of Alcúdia has upstaged the old town of Pollensa. The town (Puerto Pollensa) is riven by cliquishness. Were it not for the son, she would go somewhere else. But even the son is a problem, a problem in terms of his future. He goes to the Institute next year (the secondary school), the one where 90% of the first year had to repeat. And so many have to repeat, not because the school is necessarily poor, but because many are unmotivated (children of those with finca after finca who indulge their offspring who can expect the booty without school effort); but because the discipline is lousy; but because the children of incomers (foreigners, like those of the British) often need to repeat as their language is not up to it and they, the children, suffer an inferiority complex as a consequence of the language issue. But moreover, there is the wonderland life that is to blame. The children see the sea, the fun, the laidback style of life and they see that as the future with no real effort needed.
She. She would prefer to be in Palma to bring up a child, as far as education is concerned in any event. That is because Palma is "serious", a place of commerce and work rather than play and indulgence.
This conversation was loaded. Disillusionment. I make no comment on the Puerto Pollensa versus Puerto Alcúdia divide, but it's not the first time I've heard this. This was not what really intrigued me. What did was the way in which she dismantled the dream, the wonderland of what is meant to be one of the island's finest places; dismantled it in terms of how that very wonderland hides the reality of life for children, the reality of what may face others who come not only to Puerto Pollensa but to other places on the island (including Puerto Alcúdia). The wonderland is meant to be a place to raise children, a place for their futures, but what is that future? Is it a "dull reality" of low-paid work that the present has failed to address? It was an extraordinary observation; extraordinary in that it was new to me.
QUIZ: Yesterday - Steve Strange (but could also have been Rusty Egan). Today's title? There are possibly others, but I'm going for one by a Scottish group who have been here before.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Lewis Carroll, "Alice In Wonderland".
There are many Alices. They come to Wonderland but find it to be not quite the reality. There was a conversation today that was one of the most insightful I have had since being here. She - British - has lived here (Puerto Pollensa) for many years, is married to a Mallorcan, has a son at school, and knows the school system well. Hers is one opinion, one perspective. It is worth relating though, in a way, I am almost reluctant to do so.
Puerto Pollensa is not as it was. Puerto Alcúdia has usurped it. Even the old town of Alcúdia has upstaged the old town of Pollensa. The town (Puerto Pollensa) is riven by cliquishness. Were it not for the son, she would go somewhere else. But even the son is a problem, a problem in terms of his future. He goes to the Institute next year (the secondary school), the one where 90% of the first year had to repeat. And so many have to repeat, not because the school is necessarily poor, but because many are unmotivated (children of those with finca after finca who indulge their offspring who can expect the booty without school effort); but because the discipline is lousy; but because the children of incomers (foreigners, like those of the British) often need to repeat as their language is not up to it and they, the children, suffer an inferiority complex as a consequence of the language issue. But moreover, there is the wonderland life that is to blame. The children see the sea, the fun, the laidback style of life and they see that as the future with no real effort needed.
She. She would prefer to be in Palma to bring up a child, as far as education is concerned in any event. That is because Palma is "serious", a place of commerce and work rather than play and indulgence.
This conversation was loaded. Disillusionment. I make no comment on the Puerto Pollensa versus Puerto Alcúdia divide, but it's not the first time I've heard this. This was not what really intrigued me. What did was the way in which she dismantled the dream, the wonderland of what is meant to be one of the island's finest places; dismantled it in terms of how that very wonderland hides the reality of life for children, the reality of what may face others who come not only to Puerto Pollensa but to other places on the island (including Puerto Alcúdia). The wonderland is meant to be a place to raise children, a place for their futures, but what is that future? Is it a "dull reality" of low-paid work that the present has failed to address? It was an extraordinary observation; extraordinary in that it was new to me.
QUIZ: Yesterday - Steve Strange (but could also have been Rusty Egan). Today's title? There are possibly others, but I'm going for one by a Scottish group who have been here before.
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