Oops. A bit of an oversight in "Talk Of The North" when listing the candidates for Alcúdia mayor. Missed out none other than Francisco of Don Pedro and the "Ciudadanos". So here's the poster.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Ciudadanos - Alcúdia Political Party
Oops. A bit of an oversight in "Talk Of The North" when listing the candidates for Alcúdia mayor. Missed out none other than Francisco of Don Pedro and the "Ciudadanos". So here's the poster.
MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa's beaches; the annual fiasco
Once again, the organisation of sun beds and parasols on the beaches of Puerto Pollensa is causing a fuss. The awarding of the contract for the beaches was not satisfactorily resolved last year, and now there is the situation in which the company which the town hall wishes to take on the management is claiming that the neighbourhood association, which has been putting up sun beds, has been receiving money for doing so, which it denies.
The Alternativa per Pollença has called for a legal investigation into what is going on, suggesting that there may be grounds for charges of misappropriation of public funds and "prevaricación" (which basically means wrongdoing in public office).
The Alternativa per Pollença has called for a legal investigation into what is going on, suggesting that there may be grounds for charges of misappropriation of public funds and "prevaricación" (which basically means wrongdoing in public office).
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 May 2011
Looks to be another decent day in the offing. Fair amount of hazy cloud around though. Temperatures all very similar in the area, just topping 20 degrees at 10.00. A high of 24 is being forecast for later.
Largely hazy sun for most of the day, the local high having been 24.4 C in Puerto Pollensa.
Largely hazy sun for most of the day, the local high having been 24.4 C in Puerto Pollensa.
Quackers In Can Picafort
It is the fate of certain places that they get lumped in with larger ones nearby or are thought to be a part of these neighbours. So it is with Can Picafort. It's part of Alcúdia, isn't it? No, it isn't. It isn't even a direct neighbour. Playa de Muro intervenes. But that's part of Alcúdia, isn't it? Wrong again.
Can Picafort suffers a fate twice over when it comes to what it is a part of. "It's part of Santa Margalida!?" ask some, incredulously, who do nonetheless know that it isn't part of Alcúdia. "Well, I never knew that. I always thought it was its own place."
It's a simple mistake to make, though. Can Picafort. Santa Margalida. Where's the name link? There isn't one. The resort is several kilometres away from the town that owns it: a once wealthy town, birthplace of Franco's banker, Joan March, he of the Banca March. Its one-time affluence was what led a poor boy of the town to up sticks and find some then more or less worthless coastal land on which to build a home. Mr. Picafort. How he would be laughing nowadays.
The reversal in fortunes of town and resort is not dramatic, however. Can Picafort is, with the greatest respect, the poor man of the tourism-centre trinity of the bay of Alcúdia (you can pretty much discard Artà as a fourth member). Santa Margalida, if not a poor man's town by any means, is not wealthy in the way that Alcúdia is.
Arguably, Santa Margalida should be better off than it is, if only because of the sheer volume of hotels in Can Picafort. For reasons that are not entirely clear, the benefits of the resort's tourism have never quite rubbed off on the municipality. It could all simply be down to two quite different cultures that have never found a way to work with each other.
The meeting of these cultures was a feature of the town's mayoral candidate debate. At present, the Partido Popular (PP) holds the whip-hand in the town. It governs in alliance with something called the CPU. Not a computer's central processing unit, but the Can Picafort Unit.
One of the candidates, representing an amalgamation of the PSOE socialists and independents under an umbrella party called Suma pel Canvi, lambasted the CPU. It was responsible for "nonsenses" and "sins of management", said Miguel Cifre. (How many Miguel Cifres are there, do you suppose, in Mallorca? But that's a side issue.)
The PP and CPU are not responsible for all the sins of Can Picafort. One, the quite appalling state of the marina, has required a judge to arbitrate, giving the company which is meant to look after and develop the marina its marching orders. But the marina is symptomatic, despite an upgrading of the resort's promenade, of what is widely felt to be neglect.
The bad blood between opposition and town hall government has never been far from the surface over the past four years. At times, it has come pouring out of the wounds inflicted on the PP, such as when the what is now the Convergència published a news-sheet with a front cover showing mocked-up 500 euro notes with an image of mayor Martí Torres. The squandering of public money was the accusation, which you might think was a bit rich coming from what was then the pre-corruption-charges Unió Mallorquina (UM).
The sheer pettiness of Santa Margalida's politics was no better summed up than by what appeared to be a retaliatory gesture. The CPU's Can Picafort delegate vetoed the handing out of trophies donated by the UM for a football tournament a day after the news-sheet appeared.
Back at the election debate, though, there was one issue which didn't get a proper airing. It should have, because in the bizarre world of local politics, there is little more bizarre than the row that has been going on over Can Picafort and its August duck-throwing fiesta.
Can Picafort may be mistaken for being a part of somewhere else or for being a town in its own right, but its greatest claim to fame is that it's the place where the burning issue is whether live or rubber ducks should be lobbed into the sea. If you think local politics and issues are mad elsewhere, they are positively sensible compared with those of Can Picafort. Absolutely quackers.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Can Picafort suffers a fate twice over when it comes to what it is a part of. "It's part of Santa Margalida!?" ask some, incredulously, who do nonetheless know that it isn't part of Alcúdia. "Well, I never knew that. I always thought it was its own place."
It's a simple mistake to make, though. Can Picafort. Santa Margalida. Where's the name link? There isn't one. The resort is several kilometres away from the town that owns it: a once wealthy town, birthplace of Franco's banker, Joan March, he of the Banca March. Its one-time affluence was what led a poor boy of the town to up sticks and find some then more or less worthless coastal land on which to build a home. Mr. Picafort. How he would be laughing nowadays.
The reversal in fortunes of town and resort is not dramatic, however. Can Picafort is, with the greatest respect, the poor man of the tourism-centre trinity of the bay of Alcúdia (you can pretty much discard Artà as a fourth member). Santa Margalida, if not a poor man's town by any means, is not wealthy in the way that Alcúdia is.
Arguably, Santa Margalida should be better off than it is, if only because of the sheer volume of hotels in Can Picafort. For reasons that are not entirely clear, the benefits of the resort's tourism have never quite rubbed off on the municipality. It could all simply be down to two quite different cultures that have never found a way to work with each other.
The meeting of these cultures was a feature of the town's mayoral candidate debate. At present, the Partido Popular (PP) holds the whip-hand in the town. It governs in alliance with something called the CPU. Not a computer's central processing unit, but the Can Picafort Unit.
One of the candidates, representing an amalgamation of the PSOE socialists and independents under an umbrella party called Suma pel Canvi, lambasted the CPU. It was responsible for "nonsenses" and "sins of management", said Miguel Cifre. (How many Miguel Cifres are there, do you suppose, in Mallorca? But that's a side issue.)
The PP and CPU are not responsible for all the sins of Can Picafort. One, the quite appalling state of the marina, has required a judge to arbitrate, giving the company which is meant to look after and develop the marina its marching orders. But the marina is symptomatic, despite an upgrading of the resort's promenade, of what is widely felt to be neglect.
The bad blood between opposition and town hall government has never been far from the surface over the past four years. At times, it has come pouring out of the wounds inflicted on the PP, such as when the what is now the Convergència published a news-sheet with a front cover showing mocked-up 500 euro notes with an image of mayor Martí Torres. The squandering of public money was the accusation, which you might think was a bit rich coming from what was then the pre-corruption-charges Unió Mallorquina (UM).
The sheer pettiness of Santa Margalida's politics was no better summed up than by what appeared to be a retaliatory gesture. The CPU's Can Picafort delegate vetoed the handing out of trophies donated by the UM for a football tournament a day after the news-sheet appeared.
Back at the election debate, though, there was one issue which didn't get a proper airing. It should have, because in the bizarre world of local politics, there is little more bizarre than the row that has been going on over Can Picafort and its August duck-throwing fiesta.
Can Picafort may be mistaken for being a part of somewhere else or for being a town in its own right, but its greatest claim to fame is that it's the place where the burning issue is whether live or rubber ducks should be lobbed into the sea. If you think local politics and issues are mad elsewhere, they are positively sensible compared with those of Can Picafort. Absolutely quackers.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Smile, You're On Camera
(NOTE: Blogger was not working for around 24 hours. Yesterday's entries were lost, so the article has been re-entered. The system now appears to be working again and so, much later than usual, is today's article. Apologies for this. Trust normal service will be resumed and maintained from tomorrow. Andrew.)
Video and the internet have enabled us to become virtual tourists. Though I worry that there are strange people who spend hours staring at a barely changing image of a promenade or sea front in Mallorca through the medium of a shaky webcam, to be able to drop in and take a quick view of what a place is like at any time does have some attraction.
One problem with webcams, other than the fact that the images are often not very good or the camera isn't working, is that many of them aren't registered. Mallorca is not a heavily surveillance society. It adheres to Spanish regulations governing data protection and privacy, but it is these regulations that webcams can flout.
Security cameras for property are meant to avoid showing the "public way". In other words, they have to be trained on entrances, access points and so on and not, potentially, on members of the public who might be passing by. Regardless of whether the public way is being shown or not, the right authorisation and controls are needed, which come from the police and the data protection agency.
There has been an increase in public way surveillance, however, and this is as a result of the police requiring systems to watch for potential delinquency. Though this increase has caused some disquiet, the use of cameras is nevertheless authorised. Webcams often are not.
Webcams have cropped up in an unexpected context. The ongoing court investigations surrounding alleged corruption and other misdemeanours at the tourism ministry have now focussed on webcams that were put up following the ETA bombs in 2009.
It was not unreasonable for the regional government to think that ETA might just place a bomb or two on tourist beaches. The terrorist organisation had done so in the past. It was this concern that was the backdrop to the tourism ministry setting about putting up surveillance webcams on hotel sites that were trained onto the beaches.
On the face of it, this may sound like it was a sensible precaution. Sensible or not, little that was occurring at the tourism ministry or at its strategy institute, Inestur, during Miguel Nadal's period as minister is escaping the scrutiny of the investigators.
But then, how sensible as a precaution was it? The number of webcams amounted to five in total. One of them was put up at the Nuevas Palmeras hotel, part of the Sunwing Resort, in Alcúdia. Anyone with even a vague idea of the geography of Alcúdia's coastline will know that the beach stretches for several kilometres. The other four were in four different resorts. As surveillance measures go, they were of limited or even no use.
Apart from the fact that investigators might want to know if there was any government cash going somewhere it shouldn't have, they also want to know whether permission was actually sought or indeed granted for the cameras to be put up. Furthermore, they want to know whether these cameras are still there, whether they are working, who exactly is looking at or controlling the images captured and whether these images have been or are being stored.
Here's a question for you. If you are a sunbather on a beach in Mallorca, do you want a camera to be watching you? I suspect you don't. And this goes to the heart of the privacy laws. The investigators are quite right to be taking a wider interest in the webcam affair than just any possible financial wrongdoing.
A mystery of this case is the line of authorisation. No mention is being made of the security forces. It was Miguel Nadal, the tourism minister remember, who appeared to order the cameras' installation; for the regional government, either through the tourism ministry or another agency, to undertake the sort of surveillance which appears to have occurred (may still be), it has to refer the matter to the delegation for the Balearics at central government.
It's all about checks and balances. Privacy and data protection are taken seriously in Spain. The contrast is sometimes made between the liberal application of privacy laws in Britain with the greater rigour in Spain and in Germany. The contrast owes much to contrasting political regimes of the last century.
It may all seem pretty innocent, sticking up a webcam and showing views of a beach or a promenade or whatever. But there are meant to be rules.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Video and the internet have enabled us to become virtual tourists. Though I worry that there are strange people who spend hours staring at a barely changing image of a promenade or sea front in Mallorca through the medium of a shaky webcam, to be able to drop in and take a quick view of what a place is like at any time does have some attraction.
One problem with webcams, other than the fact that the images are often not very good or the camera isn't working, is that many of them aren't registered. Mallorca is not a heavily surveillance society. It adheres to Spanish regulations governing data protection and privacy, but it is these regulations that webcams can flout.
Security cameras for property are meant to avoid showing the "public way". In other words, they have to be trained on entrances, access points and so on and not, potentially, on members of the public who might be passing by. Regardless of whether the public way is being shown or not, the right authorisation and controls are needed, which come from the police and the data protection agency.
There has been an increase in public way surveillance, however, and this is as a result of the police requiring systems to watch for potential delinquency. Though this increase has caused some disquiet, the use of cameras is nevertheless authorised. Webcams often are not.
Webcams have cropped up in an unexpected context. The ongoing court investigations surrounding alleged corruption and other misdemeanours at the tourism ministry have now focussed on webcams that were put up following the ETA bombs in 2009.
It was not unreasonable for the regional government to think that ETA might just place a bomb or two on tourist beaches. The terrorist organisation had done so in the past. It was this concern that was the backdrop to the tourism ministry setting about putting up surveillance webcams on hotel sites that were trained onto the beaches.
On the face of it, this may sound like it was a sensible precaution. Sensible or not, little that was occurring at the tourism ministry or at its strategy institute, Inestur, during Miguel Nadal's period as minister is escaping the scrutiny of the investigators.
But then, how sensible as a precaution was it? The number of webcams amounted to five in total. One of them was put up at the Nuevas Palmeras hotel, part of the Sunwing Resort, in Alcúdia. Anyone with even a vague idea of the geography of Alcúdia's coastline will know that the beach stretches for several kilometres. The other four were in four different resorts. As surveillance measures go, they were of limited or even no use.
Apart from the fact that investigators might want to know if there was any government cash going somewhere it shouldn't have, they also want to know whether permission was actually sought or indeed granted for the cameras to be put up. Furthermore, they want to know whether these cameras are still there, whether they are working, who exactly is looking at or controlling the images captured and whether these images have been or are being stored.
Here's a question for you. If you are a sunbather on a beach in Mallorca, do you want a camera to be watching you? I suspect you don't. And this goes to the heart of the privacy laws. The investigators are quite right to be taking a wider interest in the webcam affair than just any possible financial wrongdoing.
A mystery of this case is the line of authorisation. No mention is being made of the security forces. It was Miguel Nadal, the tourism minister remember, who appeared to order the cameras' installation; for the regional government, either through the tourism ministry or another agency, to undertake the sort of surveillance which appears to have occurred (may still be), it has to refer the matter to the delegation for the Balearics at central government.
It's all about checks and balances. Privacy and data protection are taken seriously in Spain. The contrast is sometimes made between the liberal application of privacy laws in Britain with the greater rigour in Spain and in Germany. The contrast owes much to contrasting political regimes of the last century.
It may all seem pretty innocent, sticking up a webcam and showing views of a beach or a promenade or whatever. But there are meant to be rules.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Getting It Wrong: Tourism promotion
At the same time as various agencies are criticising the regional government's tourism ministry for pulling the plug on promotion to the Spanish market, the same government is turning out its largely empty pockets to scrape together 50 grand for some different promotion; more of this below.
The failure to promote to the Spanish market for the lower months of the main season is due to a lack of funds. Does this matter?
It is easy to overlook mainland tourism, yet it forms, along with the British and the German markets, one of the three most important markets for Mallorca. It has its own characteristics. It is one that is accused of being the most miserly when it comes to spend and it is, obviously, not a foreign market. For the Spanish, a holiday in Mallorca is a "holistay".
Though Spanish tourists might be more aware, regardless of promotion, of what is available to them in their own country, it doesn't mean they should be ignored. They are also, like their British and German counterparts, subject to what happens in the world, i.e. they go to places like Egypt; or don't, as the case may currently be.
You wonder if behind this lack of promotion (other than the fact that the tourism ministry is all but bust) is the hope that the overseas (and potentially higher-spending) markets are going to be that strong this season that promotion to the home market doesn't indeed matter. But it may matter for different parts of Mallorca.
The distribution of Spanish tourists is heavily loaded towards the south of the island, with Palma a particular attraction. By contrast, in the northern resort of Alcúdia, the volume of Spanish tourism typically accounts for only 8% of total tourism. It's still 8%, nonetheless.
But there is a more fundamental issue, and it is one that gets back to just how effective, or not, any of this promotion and marketing really is. And that's where the 50 grand spend on something else comes in.
The national tourism ministry is putting together a promotion package, to be directed to both the home and foreign market, that will amount to nearly 500,000 euros in total, one tenth of which will come from the Balearics. It's a small amount, but the size is not what matters. It's what this plan is.
It is for the promotion of the estaciones náuticas. In Mallorca, there is one of them. In Alcúdia. Not that you would really know. At the risk of repeating myself, because I have spoken about this before, an estación náutica is not a physical entity, it is a marketing concept. One that is meant to promote a resort's water sports and related activities; water sports and related activities which already exist.
Are you aware of any marketing of this marketing concept? Well, there is some. There is a website, not for Alcúdia's estación náutica specifically, but for the estaciones in general. I didn't know about it until I spoke to a business which is one of the so-called related activities. It is not a big concern, without a huge amount to spend on promoting itself. It is nervous that the 500 euros it has paid to feature on this site is a complete waste of money.
I would be nervous, too. But then I wouldn't have spent 500 euros on a website for a questionable concept that is just an umbrella for all the various estaciones náuticas and which also, at present, does not provide a version in any of the languages its flag icons suggest - English, for instance.
I guess you can say that the marketing concept has been successful insofar as it has persuaded a business, which can ill afford to do so, to part with 500 euros. But what is any of it going to achieve?
The Balearics have five other estaciones - three in Menorca. I have a question. Where is the evidence that they have benefited Menorca? The island has been suffering a decline for some time. Has this marketing concept helped? I would seriously doubt it.
And this is the real point. It doesn't matter in the slightest what is spent. If it's spent badly, if the concept's lousy, then no amount of money makes any difference. I hope that I am proven wrong where the estación náutica idea is concerned, but I fear I might not be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The failure to promote to the Spanish market for the lower months of the main season is due to a lack of funds. Does this matter?
It is easy to overlook mainland tourism, yet it forms, along with the British and the German markets, one of the three most important markets for Mallorca. It has its own characteristics. It is one that is accused of being the most miserly when it comes to spend and it is, obviously, not a foreign market. For the Spanish, a holiday in Mallorca is a "holistay".
Though Spanish tourists might be more aware, regardless of promotion, of what is available to them in their own country, it doesn't mean they should be ignored. They are also, like their British and German counterparts, subject to what happens in the world, i.e. they go to places like Egypt; or don't, as the case may currently be.
You wonder if behind this lack of promotion (other than the fact that the tourism ministry is all but bust) is the hope that the overseas (and potentially higher-spending) markets are going to be that strong this season that promotion to the home market doesn't indeed matter. But it may matter for different parts of Mallorca.
The distribution of Spanish tourists is heavily loaded towards the south of the island, with Palma a particular attraction. By contrast, in the northern resort of Alcúdia, the volume of Spanish tourism typically accounts for only 8% of total tourism. It's still 8%, nonetheless.
But there is a more fundamental issue, and it is one that gets back to just how effective, or not, any of this promotion and marketing really is. And that's where the 50 grand spend on something else comes in.
The national tourism ministry is putting together a promotion package, to be directed to both the home and foreign market, that will amount to nearly 500,000 euros in total, one tenth of which will come from the Balearics. It's a small amount, but the size is not what matters. It's what this plan is.
It is for the promotion of the estaciones náuticas. In Mallorca, there is one of them. In Alcúdia. Not that you would really know. At the risk of repeating myself, because I have spoken about this before, an estación náutica is not a physical entity, it is a marketing concept. One that is meant to promote a resort's water sports and related activities; water sports and related activities which already exist.
Are you aware of any marketing of this marketing concept? Well, there is some. There is a website, not for Alcúdia's estación náutica specifically, but for the estaciones in general. I didn't know about it until I spoke to a business which is one of the so-called related activities. It is not a big concern, without a huge amount to spend on promoting itself. It is nervous that the 500 euros it has paid to feature on this site is a complete waste of money.
I would be nervous, too. But then I wouldn't have spent 500 euros on a website for a questionable concept that is just an umbrella for all the various estaciones náuticas and which also, at present, does not provide a version in any of the languages its flag icons suggest - English, for instance.
I guess you can say that the marketing concept has been successful insofar as it has persuaded a business, which can ill afford to do so, to part with 500 euros. But what is any of it going to achieve?
The Balearics have five other estaciones - three in Menorca. I have a question. Where is the evidence that they have benefited Menorca? The island has been suffering a decline for some time. Has this marketing concept helped? I would seriously doubt it.
And this is the real point. It doesn't matter in the slightest what is spent. If it's spent badly, if the concept's lousy, then no amount of money makes any difference. I hope that I am proven wrong where the estación náutica idea is concerned, but I fear I might not be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 May 201
A beautiful start to the day with a totally clear, blue sky. Chilly feel though first thing. The best at 08.00 in the area is 17.1 C in Puerto Pollensa.
A superb day, still with the typically cool May breezes from the sea, keeping the coastal temperatures in Alcúdia/Playa de Muro and Puerto Pollensa one degree below the inland high today of 22.7 C in Pollensa.
A superb day, still with the typically cool May breezes from the sea, keeping the coastal temperatures in Alcúdia/Playa de Muro and Puerto Pollensa one degree below the inland high today of 22.7 C in Pollensa.
MALLORCA TODAY - Cerdà cited by anti-corruption prosecutors
The now former mayor of Pollensa is one of those to be cited by investigators dealing with the so-called "caso Bomsai" corruption case. Specifically, Cerdà is set to be required to declare as a person indicted in respect of subventions that were made to a businessman, Jaume Fluxà, from the Council of Mallorca.
In One Piece: Crossing the road
Why did the tourist cross the road?
It's a stupid question. Everyone knows the answer of course. In order to collect the lilo that he'd let go of and which was caught on a strong breeze and caused a cyclist to veer off the road and knock a pedestrian over.
You can play a version of Kipling's Six Wise Men as a tourist road-crossing game. You can't do "what did the tourist cross the road?", because this doesn't make sense unless you add a preposition such as "on", meaning that answers might be: "the tourist crossed the road on one of those ridiculous trike things"; "the tourist crossed the road on his hands and knees, having got lagered-up and staggered out of the bar and fallen over".
It's the same with "who". You can only do this if you append "with". But "when", "how" and "where" all work without the aid of prepositions, and of these, it is the how and where that are the keys to the road-crossing game.
Where did the tourist cross the road? Anywhere you like, so long, usually, as it's not a recognised crossing-point, but preferably about five metres to either side of one. But in the event that a pedestrian crossing is actually used, you get to the really interesting part of the game. How did the tourist cross the road?
But let's start a bit closer to home, and not necessarily with tourists. With the Spanish.
The Spanish don't so much cross the road as enter into negotiations with it. Or this is how it appears, given the length of time it takes, a period that can be extended considerably when they stop in mid-cross to gesticulate frantically while rabbiting into a mobile which invariably they will be using. The Spanish saunter across the road. All the time in the world. But what about the car-driver?
It is a pretty big assumption, admittedly, but let's assume a car has stopped to let some Spanish cross. Is there any recognition of the fact? Nope. The car and its driver are invisible. On what we might call our Driver Acknowledgement Rating (DAR), the Spanish score "nul points".
How do the Germans cross the road? In formation, generally speaking. The crossing of the road is conducted with efficiency and organisation. The sole purpose is to get to the other side. There are no frills, no loitering but also not huge amounts of driver acknowledgement, other than to stare (which is what Germans do anyway) at either the driver or the car and to be unimpressed if it isn't a BMW or Mercedes. The German DAR? Five points.
How do the British cross the road? Now you're talking serious road-crossing etiquette. The British are eternally grateful for the fact that the driver hasn't catapulted them ten feet into the air or are grovellingly apologetic at having inconvenienced the driver by having made him stop. There is no ambling where the British are concerned. They cross at speed, waving furiously in thanks and smiling sheepishly. Woe betide a small child who hasn't quite got the hang of the game and has to be tugged vigorously to the safety of the pavement, while a mother or father grins at the driver in an expression of further apology. The British DAR? Ten points.
There is one other aspect to "how did the tourist cross the road". And that is the pre-cross. Given that no one, either pedestrian or driver, really has any clue as to what the actual rules are as to whether a car will stop or not, when a car does stop, the British and German tourist enters into a phase that might be referred to as the "after you, Claude" or the "hokey-cokey" routine. One foot off (the kerb), one foot back. They should take a leaf out of the Spanish book which is to completely ignore the fact that a car might be bearing down on a crossing. They go anyway, without looking. Albeit slowly.
Yes, the tourist road-crossing game. Fun for all the family, whether crossing the road or watching from a car. See how many different nationalities you can identify from the way in which a road is crossed. But finally, when it comes to "how did the tourist cross the road", the answer should always hopefully be - "in one piece".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It's a stupid question. Everyone knows the answer of course. In order to collect the lilo that he'd let go of and which was caught on a strong breeze and caused a cyclist to veer off the road and knock a pedestrian over.
You can play a version of Kipling's Six Wise Men as a tourist road-crossing game. You can't do "what did the tourist cross the road?", because this doesn't make sense unless you add a preposition such as "on", meaning that answers might be: "the tourist crossed the road on one of those ridiculous trike things"; "the tourist crossed the road on his hands and knees, having got lagered-up and staggered out of the bar and fallen over".
It's the same with "who". You can only do this if you append "with". But "when", "how" and "where" all work without the aid of prepositions, and of these, it is the how and where that are the keys to the road-crossing game.
Where did the tourist cross the road? Anywhere you like, so long, usually, as it's not a recognised crossing-point, but preferably about five metres to either side of one. But in the event that a pedestrian crossing is actually used, you get to the really interesting part of the game. How did the tourist cross the road?
But let's start a bit closer to home, and not necessarily with tourists. With the Spanish.
The Spanish don't so much cross the road as enter into negotiations with it. Or this is how it appears, given the length of time it takes, a period that can be extended considerably when they stop in mid-cross to gesticulate frantically while rabbiting into a mobile which invariably they will be using. The Spanish saunter across the road. All the time in the world. But what about the car-driver?
It is a pretty big assumption, admittedly, but let's assume a car has stopped to let some Spanish cross. Is there any recognition of the fact? Nope. The car and its driver are invisible. On what we might call our Driver Acknowledgement Rating (DAR), the Spanish score "nul points".
How do the Germans cross the road? In formation, generally speaking. The crossing of the road is conducted with efficiency and organisation. The sole purpose is to get to the other side. There are no frills, no loitering but also not huge amounts of driver acknowledgement, other than to stare (which is what Germans do anyway) at either the driver or the car and to be unimpressed if it isn't a BMW or Mercedes. The German DAR? Five points.
How do the British cross the road? Now you're talking serious road-crossing etiquette. The British are eternally grateful for the fact that the driver hasn't catapulted them ten feet into the air or are grovellingly apologetic at having inconvenienced the driver by having made him stop. There is no ambling where the British are concerned. They cross at speed, waving furiously in thanks and smiling sheepishly. Woe betide a small child who hasn't quite got the hang of the game and has to be tugged vigorously to the safety of the pavement, while a mother or father grins at the driver in an expression of further apology. The British DAR? Ten points.
There is one other aspect to "how did the tourist cross the road". And that is the pre-cross. Given that no one, either pedestrian or driver, really has any clue as to what the actual rules are as to whether a car will stop or not, when a car does stop, the British and German tourist enters into a phase that might be referred to as the "after you, Claude" or the "hokey-cokey" routine. One foot off (the kerb), one foot back. They should take a leaf out of the Spanish book which is to completely ignore the fact that a car might be bearing down on a crossing. They go anyway, without looking. Albeit slowly.
Yes, the tourist road-crossing game. Fun for all the family, whether crossing the road or watching from a car. See how many different nationalities you can identify from the way in which a road is crossed. But finally, when it comes to "how did the tourist cross the road", the answer should always hopefully be - "in one piece".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Warmest April in 60 years
According to data from the national meteorology agency, AEMET, April was the warmest April since 1950 when comprehensive records were first taken. An average of 3.9 degrees higher than normal was recorded for Spain as a whole. The agency admits that this is an unusual anomaly. The heat in April exceeded a previous record by 1.1 degrees.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 May 2011
A cloudy start, but the clouds should burn off, with temperatures expected to be up to 23 degrees and rising to 24 later in the week. The high at 08.00 in the area at 16.3 C in Pollensa.
Another day with a chilly breeze from the sea keeping temperatures down. The trend may now indeed be set where inland and coastal levels are concerned. Pollensa the local high today at 21.4 C, with coastal Alcúdia/Playa de Muro at 20.2 C and Puerto Pollensa at 19.7 C.
Another day with a chilly breeze from the sea keeping temperatures down. The trend may now indeed be set where inland and coastal levels are concerned. Pollensa the local high today at 21.4 C, with coastal Alcúdia/Playa de Muro at 20.2 C and Puerto Pollensa at 19.7 C.
And You Will Go To Mykonos
I'm back in 1973. On a ferry crossing the Aegean. Two Irish girls have become my travelling companions. We are passing the uninhabited island of Delos, heading for the windmills of Mykonos.
In the early '70s, Mykonos, together with Crete, were the end-of-the-line destinations for the grand tourers. The island attracted hippies, gays, nudists, artists, Australians, and some who were all of these things. It also attracted some regular tourists as well as boat loads of American day visitors, eagerly snapping photos as they landed; the trophy shot was one with the pelican who lived in a bar on the harbour front.
Mykonos was both Bohemian and hedonistic in a style far removed from the later lager tourist who was to lay waste to Greek islands such as Zante. It was distant enough from the mainland to have a streak of independence. Locals would speak to you, albeit in hushed tones, about the brutality of the country's military regime.
Despite the poor image that followed the 1967 coup, Mykonos and the Greek islands gradually became a new, but still unspoiled world for the tourist. Like Spain under Franco, there was a questionableness as to the morality of tourism; not that this deterred the hippies or the intellectuals who would gather at the tavernas in Mykonos town every evening.
And like Franco's Spain, and therefore Mallorca, Greece looked for economic salvation from tourism, which it got, along with a construction and inward investment boom.
For the teenaged grand tourer, the contrary liberal attitudes of Mykonos were only one part of the Greece story. You didn't go to Greece without doing the culture as well. The Irish girls and I sat under a tree and ate watermelon, shaded from the ferocity of a July heat traipsing around the Acropolis. For those who ventured to Crete, the hippy enclaves of Plakias and elsewhere were the base camps for visiting the cradle of Minoan civilisation.
Come forward to today, and Greece and the Greek islands have a new poor image - twice over. Greece is Euroland's basket case; there is no more construction, and the economy has all but collapsed. The islands have attained a reputation tarnished by the movement across the Mediterranean of a particular type of holidaymaker. For all this though, like Mallorca, the islands are anticipating a boom summer, the beneficiaries of the north African upheavals. While all else in the economy may be failing, tourism is being seen, once more, as the salvation.
Helena Smith, writing in "The Guardian", stirred the memories of Mykonos. She also described a situation with similarities to Mallorca.
The Greek prime minister sees tourism as the "model for economic development", but the country and its islands need re-branding, says the president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises. "The immense cultural wealth" has to be tapped into. Yet, this wealth, says the prime minister, is something "we either don't know or have no idea about promoting in a proper and organised way".
It is the coinciding of re-branding and culture that has resonance for Mallorca. The development of cultural tourism, long wished for, has been dashed on the rocks of a lamentable inability to conceive a brand image that isn't dominated by sun and beach. Partly this is because Mallorca, much though some in positions who should know better might believe, doesn't have strong culture. Certainly not in the way that Greece does. And if the Greeks can't promote culture, then frankly what the hell hope is there for Mallorca?
It seems crazy that the Greeks, with that immense cultural wealth, should need to think about its branding. It should sell itself. As it used to. In 1973, though I might also have had more basic pleasures in mind, it never occurred to me not to do the culture. It was one of the reasons why you went. And nowadays, you can even get guided tours of the archaeologically and mythologically important Delos, which was off-limits back then.
Perhaps it is something in the nature of today's tourism and tourists from the old world of Britain and northern Europe. Destinations, be they Mallorca or Mykonos, overtaken by development, have bred the contempt of familiarity and convenience. What once was a curiosity, a leap into the unknown, an adventure has gone. And it has taken with it any natural and unforced enquiry and interest in culture. You can promote it, but does anyone listen?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
In the early '70s, Mykonos, together with Crete, were the end-of-the-line destinations for the grand tourers. The island attracted hippies, gays, nudists, artists, Australians, and some who were all of these things. It also attracted some regular tourists as well as boat loads of American day visitors, eagerly snapping photos as they landed; the trophy shot was one with the pelican who lived in a bar on the harbour front.
Mykonos was both Bohemian and hedonistic in a style far removed from the later lager tourist who was to lay waste to Greek islands such as Zante. It was distant enough from the mainland to have a streak of independence. Locals would speak to you, albeit in hushed tones, about the brutality of the country's military regime.
Despite the poor image that followed the 1967 coup, Mykonos and the Greek islands gradually became a new, but still unspoiled world for the tourist. Like Spain under Franco, there was a questionableness as to the morality of tourism; not that this deterred the hippies or the intellectuals who would gather at the tavernas in Mykonos town every evening.
And like Franco's Spain, and therefore Mallorca, Greece looked for economic salvation from tourism, which it got, along with a construction and inward investment boom.
For the teenaged grand tourer, the contrary liberal attitudes of Mykonos were only one part of the Greece story. You didn't go to Greece without doing the culture as well. The Irish girls and I sat under a tree and ate watermelon, shaded from the ferocity of a July heat traipsing around the Acropolis. For those who ventured to Crete, the hippy enclaves of Plakias and elsewhere were the base camps for visiting the cradle of Minoan civilisation.
Come forward to today, and Greece and the Greek islands have a new poor image - twice over. Greece is Euroland's basket case; there is no more construction, and the economy has all but collapsed. The islands have attained a reputation tarnished by the movement across the Mediterranean of a particular type of holidaymaker. For all this though, like Mallorca, the islands are anticipating a boom summer, the beneficiaries of the north African upheavals. While all else in the economy may be failing, tourism is being seen, once more, as the salvation.
Helena Smith, writing in "The Guardian", stirred the memories of Mykonos. She also described a situation with similarities to Mallorca.
The Greek prime minister sees tourism as the "model for economic development", but the country and its islands need re-branding, says the president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises. "The immense cultural wealth" has to be tapped into. Yet, this wealth, says the prime minister, is something "we either don't know or have no idea about promoting in a proper and organised way".
It is the coinciding of re-branding and culture that has resonance for Mallorca. The development of cultural tourism, long wished for, has been dashed on the rocks of a lamentable inability to conceive a brand image that isn't dominated by sun and beach. Partly this is because Mallorca, much though some in positions who should know better might believe, doesn't have strong culture. Certainly not in the way that Greece does. And if the Greeks can't promote culture, then frankly what the hell hope is there for Mallorca?
It seems crazy that the Greeks, with that immense cultural wealth, should need to think about its branding. It should sell itself. As it used to. In 1973, though I might also have had more basic pleasures in mind, it never occurred to me not to do the culture. It was one of the reasons why you went. And nowadays, you can even get guided tours of the archaeologically and mythologically important Delos, which was off-limits back then.
Perhaps it is something in the nature of today's tourism and tourists from the old world of Britain and northern Europe. Destinations, be they Mallorca or Mykonos, overtaken by development, have bred the contempt of familiarity and convenience. What once was a curiosity, a leap into the unknown, an adventure has gone. And it has taken with it any natural and unforced enquiry and interest in culture. You can promote it, but does anyone listen?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, May 09, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 May 2011
A perfect clear blue sky, with temperatures at 08.30 getting up to a local high of 17.5 C in Puerto Pollensa.
A very fine day it has been. Typically strong breezes coming in from the sea during the afternoon, keeping the coast temperatures down, Alcúdia/Playa de Muro edging Puerto Pollensa for the day's high - 21.2 C - but Pollensa town a degree warmer, which suggests that the shift towards warmer inland temperatures of summer may now be with us.
A very fine day it has been. Typically strong breezes coming in from the sea during the afternoon, keeping the coast temperatures down, Alcúdia/Playa de Muro edging Puerto Pollensa for the day's high - 21.2 C - but Pollensa town a degree warmer, which suggests that the shift towards warmer inland temperatures of summer may now be with us.
Poster Boys: Local elections
Mallorcans have a thing about posters. They are more than mere means of communication. They are their own events. Come a fiesta and the grand launch of the poster is made. It gets star billing in advance of the fiesta programme being published and can appear to be more important than the programme or indeed the fiesta itself. Such prominence can occasionally backfire, like it did in Palma when it was discovered that the poster design for this year's San Sebastian fiesta had been ripped off.
As much as posters keep the legions of Mallorca's graphic designers in gainful or plagiaristic employment, so they also keep the machines of the island's printers whirring away. Try getting anything printed when it's election time, and you may be unlucky to have chosen one of the print firms that has been given the parties' poster and publicity gigs. Back of the queue you go.
The election posters suddenly appeared. One day there were none; the next day you couldn't move for them. At just past twelve on Thursday night, the posters miraculously emerged. There they were. On lamp-posts and stuck into grassy roundabouts. They'd been watering and fertilising the seeds of politicians and so up sprouted all manner of election candidate flora: a PP plant or a socialist on a stick.
Taking to the road on Friday, one was confronted by repeated visions of José Bauzá and Maria Salom. The Partido Popular had commandeered every available surface and non-surface. A vast banner hung outside the Playa de Muro municipal building. "Vota!"
At the witching-hour of the day of the start of the official election campaign, the broomsticks were out, plastering the posters onto billboards. It's bad enough that the face of Count Dracula Bauzá is leering at us. Mistake Salom's name for Salem and you have both a vampire and a witch. The Balearic Government and the Council of Mallorca will soon be the bailiwicks of the underworld, and the electorate will be hauled, kicking and screaming, to a "Wicker Man".
One thing you can say about Bauzá though is that he is, even before he becomes president, acquiring a healthy number of nicknames. He is "yuppie", according to one newspaper. The way he's going on, he will out-nickname the also-known-as champion, i.e. Zapatero.
But back to posters. It was the prevalence of them outside the municipal building that made me wonder. Muro is sort of PP, in that its mayor is part of some local PP progeny, but who gets to decide which posters and banners go where? No one, it would seem.
A friendly PSOE socialist acquaintance of mine in Alcúdia - and there is such a thing - has a restaurant. Why, I asked, was there a PP poster outside his gaff? He muttered something about removing it in the dead of night and then let on what happens. It's all a bit of a party. Any old excuse, I suppose. The politicos' armies of supporters are on the starting-grid, waiting for the clock to turn midnight and off they go. It's like the doors of Harrods being flung open to the nutters who camp outside in readiness for the start of the sale. First ones to the optimum spots get the prize.
It is true that the poster run when the starter's pistol is fired on the election campaign is a bit of a "fiesta". In both Inca and Manacor, for instance, the tradition of hanging the posters is taken seriously enough for mayoral incumbents to be out on the streets with their glue or hammers.
It seems like a recipe for chaos though. Are there squabbling sets of supporters, fighting over specific lamp-posts as though they were trying to grab some knockdown-price knickers from another sales-goer?
Chaos or not, the PP managed to nab some of the best specks, the posters shouting out "canvi". Vote for change. How original. Not at all of course. It was, for example, a John Kerry slogan for the 2004 American presidential election. How ironic though that Bauzá's PP should use the Catalan "canvi" when it seems intent on change that will see the language downgraded.
But vote for change it is, which just goes to prove, as with the San Sebastian poster, that slogans as well as designs can be ripped off. And you wonder how many of the posters are ripped down. Outside one restaurant they may well be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
As much as posters keep the legions of Mallorca's graphic designers in gainful or plagiaristic employment, so they also keep the machines of the island's printers whirring away. Try getting anything printed when it's election time, and you may be unlucky to have chosen one of the print firms that has been given the parties' poster and publicity gigs. Back of the queue you go.
The election posters suddenly appeared. One day there were none; the next day you couldn't move for them. At just past twelve on Thursday night, the posters miraculously emerged. There they were. On lamp-posts and stuck into grassy roundabouts. They'd been watering and fertilising the seeds of politicians and so up sprouted all manner of election candidate flora: a PP plant or a socialist on a stick.
Taking to the road on Friday, one was confronted by repeated visions of José Bauzá and Maria Salom. The Partido Popular had commandeered every available surface and non-surface. A vast banner hung outside the Playa de Muro municipal building. "Vota!"
At the witching-hour of the day of the start of the official election campaign, the broomsticks were out, plastering the posters onto billboards. It's bad enough that the face of Count Dracula Bauzá is leering at us. Mistake Salom's name for Salem and you have both a vampire and a witch. The Balearic Government and the Council of Mallorca will soon be the bailiwicks of the underworld, and the electorate will be hauled, kicking and screaming, to a "Wicker Man".
One thing you can say about Bauzá though is that he is, even before he becomes president, acquiring a healthy number of nicknames. He is "yuppie", according to one newspaper. The way he's going on, he will out-nickname the also-known-as champion, i.e. Zapatero.
But back to posters. It was the prevalence of them outside the municipal building that made me wonder. Muro is sort of PP, in that its mayor is part of some local PP progeny, but who gets to decide which posters and banners go where? No one, it would seem.
A friendly PSOE socialist acquaintance of mine in Alcúdia - and there is such a thing - has a restaurant. Why, I asked, was there a PP poster outside his gaff? He muttered something about removing it in the dead of night and then let on what happens. It's all a bit of a party. Any old excuse, I suppose. The politicos' armies of supporters are on the starting-grid, waiting for the clock to turn midnight and off they go. It's like the doors of Harrods being flung open to the nutters who camp outside in readiness for the start of the sale. First ones to the optimum spots get the prize.
It is true that the poster run when the starter's pistol is fired on the election campaign is a bit of a "fiesta". In both Inca and Manacor, for instance, the tradition of hanging the posters is taken seriously enough for mayoral incumbents to be out on the streets with their glue or hammers.
It seems like a recipe for chaos though. Are there squabbling sets of supporters, fighting over specific lamp-posts as though they were trying to grab some knockdown-price knickers from another sales-goer?
Chaos or not, the PP managed to nab some of the best specks, the posters shouting out "canvi". Vote for change. How original. Not at all of course. It was, for example, a John Kerry slogan for the 2004 American presidential election. How ironic though that Bauzá's PP should use the Catalan "canvi" when it seems intent on change that will see the language downgraded.
But vote for change it is, which just goes to prove, as with the San Sebastian poster, that slogans as well as designs can be ripped off. And you wonder how many of the posters are ripped down. Outside one restaurant they may well be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Real Mallorca 0 : 0 Villarreal
A midday kick-off for the grudge match between Mallorca and Villarreal (all to do with Mallorca having been denied entry into European competition this season) saw a pretty even first half. Mallorca had the better of the second half in terms of attempts on goal, but the game ended up scoreless, thus more or less ensuring Villarreal the fourth Champions League spot. For Mallorca, relegation is still a possibility, but is most unlikely. There are three rounds of matches left this season, and Mallorca are five points and seven places above Osasuna, who play this evening, in 18th spot.
Real Mallorca:
Lux; Cendrós, Nunes, Ramis, Ayoze; Martí (yellow card, 62 min.), Joao Victor (sub. Pina, 71 min.); Pereira (sub. Aki, 60 min.), De Guzmán, Nsue (sub. Castro, 85 min.); Webó
Villarreal:
López; Mario, Musacchio, Marchena, Catalá; Borja Valero, Senna (sub. Wakaso, 53 min.; yellow card, 90 min.), Cazorla (sub. Cani, 65 min.), Bruno; Nilmar, Rossi (sub. Kiko, 76 min.)
Real Mallorca:
Lux; Cendrós, Nunes, Ramis, Ayoze; Martí (yellow card, 62 min.), Joao Victor (sub. Pina, 71 min.); Pereira (sub. Aki, 60 min.), De Guzmán, Nsue (sub. Castro, 85 min.); Webó
Villarreal:
López; Mario, Musacchio, Marchena, Catalá; Borja Valero, Senna (sub. Wakaso, 53 min.; yellow card, 90 min.), Cazorla (sub. Cani, 65 min.), Bruno; Nilmar, Rossi (sub. Kiko, 76 min.)
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 May 2011
Thunder and rain overnight, but it has cleared away and the morning is fine and sunny, as should be the day. The forecast is good through to Thursday. Temperatures at 08.30 from 15.6 C in Alcúdia/Playa de Muro to 17.2 C in Pollensa and 17.9 C in Puerto Pollensa.
A glorious sunny day, but breezy from the north and east keeping temperatures in check. Highs today similar everywhere at up to 21.6 C.
A glorious sunny day, but breezy from the north and east keeping temperatures in check. Highs today similar everywhere at up to 21.6 C.
Sitting Pretty Vacant: Pollensa
It was like the awards ceremony when the winner doesn't show up, or the dinner when the guest of honour cries off. This might be over-egging things, but Joan Cerdà's absence from the ranks of mayoral candidate in the Club Pollença deprived the occasion of some fun. No more will Joan be the pig in a poke** of a public haranguing. But he will remain; a Banquo's ghost, haunting Pollensa for years to come.
How many mayoral candidates does it take to change a light bulb? As many as you want, and they will still manage to get the lights of Puerto Pollensa's bypass and church square the wrong way up or simply wrong. How many mayoral candidates does any town need? It is quicker to name those residents of Pollensa who are not standing for mayor than to name those who are.
Even without Joan to liven up proceedings and to be the target of metaphorical rotten eggs and tomatoes lobbed in his general direction, the malcontents of Pollensa opposition politics were only too happy to try and generate the normal fun and games that surround Pollensa town hall. The collective slagging-off was just like old times. In fact, just like any time over the past four years of Cerdàdom.
The one candidate currently warming a seat in the town hall, PSOE's Maria Sastre, was asked about the value of her sinecure - sorry, sorry, size of her salary. Only 1900 euros a month, she retaliated. But salary is not what is important. It's all about effectiveness. Cue chortling.
The naughty boys of the opposition, Garcia of the Alternativa, Sureda of the Esquerra and Cifre of the Mallorcan socialists, have been the ones who have habitually been caught sniggering at the back of the room during council meetings.
One of them, Cifre, questioned the amounts paid on town hall staff - 40% of the entire budget, always assuming you know which budget is being referred to; the town hall has only recently signed off on the 2009 accounts. Or were they 2008's? Everyone seems to have lost track.
What do these staff members and councillors do precisely? Garcia reckoned a full-time fiestas councillor was unnecessary. A full-time post would be better reserved for tourism.
Ah yes, tourism, and Puerto Pollensa. Remarkably, someone (Cifre) made the point that it is up to the town hall to make the place look pretty. It is the tour operators and hoteliers who should be attracting the tourists. Hallelujah. When all the talk is made about local authorities doing this and doing that in order to promote to tourists, the obvious point is overlooked; that it is not the local authorities that really matter, but the tour operators. Cifre should be given the job as tourism minister.
Puerto Pollensa has its own party, the Unió Mollera Pollencina, and it naturally enough has its own mayoral candidate. Nadal Moragues deplored the pathetic image of the port and called for the Moll to have its own budget and responsibilities. It's not the first time the suggestion has been made, but the rumblings of potential UDI are growing louder.
The new chico on the block, the virtual unknown, mini-Cerdà of the Convergència Whatever They're Called Nowadays said that he would give out his mobile number so that citizens could call him. It sounds like a dangerous thing to do, but as no one knows who he is, he'll probably be ok. And I'm not telling you his name, just in case. He won't win anyway. Surely he can't? Not AC - after Cerdà.
Such openness had already been trumped by Pepe Garcia. His Alternativa could just as easily be called the Transparencia. So clear and clean is Pepe, you can see right through him. Which is not meant to sound as it does. He's a thoroughly decent bloke, and he has published his full financial and earnings situation as a way of demonstrating his transparency.
And that was about it. The candidates for the self-styled worst town hall in Mallorca will wait a few days to discover their fate. Oh, but there was one I've not mentioned. Malena Estrany of La Lliga. She is the best-looking of the lot. But given the vast numbers standing for office, she, as with all the others, cannot be said to be sitting pretty. The job's vacant, and the race is wide open.
(** For those of you not up to speed with the Spanish, "cerda" is a female pig - a sow.)
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
How many mayoral candidates does it take to change a light bulb? As many as you want, and they will still manage to get the lights of Puerto Pollensa's bypass and church square the wrong way up or simply wrong. How many mayoral candidates does any town need? It is quicker to name those residents of Pollensa who are not standing for mayor than to name those who are.
Even without Joan to liven up proceedings and to be the target of metaphorical rotten eggs and tomatoes lobbed in his general direction, the malcontents of Pollensa opposition politics were only too happy to try and generate the normal fun and games that surround Pollensa town hall. The collective slagging-off was just like old times. In fact, just like any time over the past four years of Cerdàdom.
The one candidate currently warming a seat in the town hall, PSOE's Maria Sastre, was asked about the value of her sinecure - sorry, sorry, size of her salary. Only 1900 euros a month, she retaliated. But salary is not what is important. It's all about effectiveness. Cue chortling.
The naughty boys of the opposition, Garcia of the Alternativa, Sureda of the Esquerra and Cifre of the Mallorcan socialists, have been the ones who have habitually been caught sniggering at the back of the room during council meetings.
One of them, Cifre, questioned the amounts paid on town hall staff - 40% of the entire budget, always assuming you know which budget is being referred to; the town hall has only recently signed off on the 2009 accounts. Or were they 2008's? Everyone seems to have lost track.
What do these staff members and councillors do precisely? Garcia reckoned a full-time fiestas councillor was unnecessary. A full-time post would be better reserved for tourism.
Ah yes, tourism, and Puerto Pollensa. Remarkably, someone (Cifre) made the point that it is up to the town hall to make the place look pretty. It is the tour operators and hoteliers who should be attracting the tourists. Hallelujah. When all the talk is made about local authorities doing this and doing that in order to promote to tourists, the obvious point is overlooked; that it is not the local authorities that really matter, but the tour operators. Cifre should be given the job as tourism minister.
Puerto Pollensa has its own party, the Unió Mollera Pollencina, and it naturally enough has its own mayoral candidate. Nadal Moragues deplored the pathetic image of the port and called for the Moll to have its own budget and responsibilities. It's not the first time the suggestion has been made, but the rumblings of potential UDI are growing louder.
The new chico on the block, the virtual unknown, mini-Cerdà of the Convergència Whatever They're Called Nowadays said that he would give out his mobile number so that citizens could call him. It sounds like a dangerous thing to do, but as no one knows who he is, he'll probably be ok. And I'm not telling you his name, just in case. He won't win anyway. Surely he can't? Not AC - after Cerdà.
Such openness had already been trumped by Pepe Garcia. His Alternativa could just as easily be called the Transparencia. So clear and clean is Pepe, you can see right through him. Which is not meant to sound as it does. He's a thoroughly decent bloke, and he has published his full financial and earnings situation as a way of demonstrating his transparency.
And that was about it. The candidates for the self-styled worst town hall in Mallorca will wait a few days to discover their fate. Oh, but there was one I've not mentioned. Malena Estrany of La Lliga. She is the best-looking of the lot. But given the vast numbers standing for office, she, as with all the others, cannot be said to be sitting pretty. The job's vacant, and the race is wide open.
(** For those of you not up to speed with the Spanish, "cerda" is a female pig - a sow.)
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, May 07, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 May 2011
A cloudy and blustery start, but it should blow away, leaving the afternoon fine, with tomorrow and the next few days also good. Top score on the temperature chart at 08.30 is 18.8 C in Puerto Pollensa.
The sun came out later, but it was also quite hazy. Alcúdia/Playa de Muro again the warmest today, with a high of 22.2 C.
The sun came out later, but it was also quite hazy. Alcúdia/Playa de Muro again the warmest today, with a high of 22.2 C.
Close To You: Tourist supermarkets
When I was at university, there was a Spar on campus. I hesitate to use the word supermarket to describe it, because supermarket and student in the same sentence, back then, meant little more than tins of corned beef and those sausages they shoved in with baked beans.
Nowadays, there are probably Tesco Metros on British campuses, pandering to a student class that places purple-sprouting broccoli and gourmet fresh pastas above getting bladdered in the union bar or being served up with the sort of animal droppings my university's refectories specialised in.
Sophistication may have grown these past thirty years, but the Spar is still with us. In Mallorca, as elsewhere in Spain and on the Continent, Spars have become good Europeans. They are EuroSpars.
The Spar always was European, in that it was originally Dutch and still is. Though the logo of a fir reflects the Dutch word for the tree ("spar"), the word can also mean save, as in saving money.
It is here, the saving money angle, that the original Spar philosophy of everyone regularly profiting has tended to become a tad one-sided. In favour of the Spar operator. The Spanish slogan for EuroSpar has been, may still be, for all I know, "always close to you". It sounds soothing enough, in a Karen and Richard Carpenter way, and is probably necessary in order to soothe a customer startled by a price tag.
It is not just EuroSpars that are close to you. The tourist supermarket of whatever name appears to be taking over as the main representative on the streets of Mallorca's resorts. The restaurants are disappearing and are being replaced by emporia with stands of flip-flops and Bells whisky piled high.
The tourist supermarket, like the Chinese bazaar, is very much on the march. In Alcúdia, a large, now ex-restaurant has been supermarketed, bang opposite another that has been there for some years. Why do you need two of them in such proximity, especially as there would appear to be at least partial common ownership? Perhaps it's all the McDonald's strategy of street saturation.
Or perhaps it's ... . No, actually I don't know what it is. I can't think of any good reason why so many of these supermarkets are in fact necessary. Some, but not so many.
The trend towards tourists eating in may have something to do with it; where food shopping is concerned at any rate. But any savings on eating out are eroded by the prices that can be paid. You can hand over up to twice what you might expect to pay in an Eroski, a Mercadona and others; more perhaps.
Unless it is a matter of convenience or sometimes necessity, it is hard to understand the attraction of the tourist supermarket, though there is a further factor. Bone idleness, to which you can add heat. In ninety degrees, the nearest supermarket, even at higher prices, becomes distinctly attractive, compared to schlepping a kilometre or so with bags of spuds, bottles of Coke and a five-litre container of water.
It's unfair to damn all tourist supermarkets, as there are those which, in addition to convenience, do some things well - better ranges of alcohol than mainstream supermarkets, the occasional deli, their own cafés, bakeries, home deliveries, plus friendly and attentive service. I can name a few, if you wish, and so it is unfair to tarnish them all. But there are those whose practices can be questionable, if not illegal.
Before the pound dived, there was one which used to advertise booze - in huge front-of-store displays - at prices quoted in pounds that appeared to be significantly lower than the real price in euros which was shown in small print. In others, newspapers can attract price stickers, above their proper prices. Paracetamol is sold at an inflated price when it shouldn't even be sold at all. Names can be misleading. How about an Aldi which most certainly isn't?
One of the problems for Spar is that, although its Euro shops may be perfectly ok, its name has entered the vocabulary in the same way as Hoover has to mean a vacuum-cleaner. The name is synonymous with the tourist supermarket. Whether Spar or not, whether any good or not, the supermarket is Spar-ed. But does it still sell corned beef?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Nowadays, there are probably Tesco Metros on British campuses, pandering to a student class that places purple-sprouting broccoli and gourmet fresh pastas above getting bladdered in the union bar or being served up with the sort of animal droppings my university's refectories specialised in.
Sophistication may have grown these past thirty years, but the Spar is still with us. In Mallorca, as elsewhere in Spain and on the Continent, Spars have become good Europeans. They are EuroSpars.
The Spar always was European, in that it was originally Dutch and still is. Though the logo of a fir reflects the Dutch word for the tree ("spar"), the word can also mean save, as in saving money.
It is here, the saving money angle, that the original Spar philosophy of everyone regularly profiting has tended to become a tad one-sided. In favour of the Spar operator. The Spanish slogan for EuroSpar has been, may still be, for all I know, "always close to you". It sounds soothing enough, in a Karen and Richard Carpenter way, and is probably necessary in order to soothe a customer startled by a price tag.
It is not just EuroSpars that are close to you. The tourist supermarket of whatever name appears to be taking over as the main representative on the streets of Mallorca's resorts. The restaurants are disappearing and are being replaced by emporia with stands of flip-flops and Bells whisky piled high.
The tourist supermarket, like the Chinese bazaar, is very much on the march. In Alcúdia, a large, now ex-restaurant has been supermarketed, bang opposite another that has been there for some years. Why do you need two of them in such proximity, especially as there would appear to be at least partial common ownership? Perhaps it's all the McDonald's strategy of street saturation.
Or perhaps it's ... . No, actually I don't know what it is. I can't think of any good reason why so many of these supermarkets are in fact necessary. Some, but not so many.
The trend towards tourists eating in may have something to do with it; where food shopping is concerned at any rate. But any savings on eating out are eroded by the prices that can be paid. You can hand over up to twice what you might expect to pay in an Eroski, a Mercadona and others; more perhaps.
Unless it is a matter of convenience or sometimes necessity, it is hard to understand the attraction of the tourist supermarket, though there is a further factor. Bone idleness, to which you can add heat. In ninety degrees, the nearest supermarket, even at higher prices, becomes distinctly attractive, compared to schlepping a kilometre or so with bags of spuds, bottles of Coke and a five-litre container of water.
It's unfair to damn all tourist supermarkets, as there are those which, in addition to convenience, do some things well - better ranges of alcohol than mainstream supermarkets, the occasional deli, their own cafés, bakeries, home deliveries, plus friendly and attentive service. I can name a few, if you wish, and so it is unfair to tarnish them all. But there are those whose practices can be questionable, if not illegal.
Before the pound dived, there was one which used to advertise booze - in huge front-of-store displays - at prices quoted in pounds that appeared to be significantly lower than the real price in euros which was shown in small print. In others, newspapers can attract price stickers, above their proper prices. Paracetamol is sold at an inflated price when it shouldn't even be sold at all. Names can be misleading. How about an Aldi which most certainly isn't?
One of the problems for Spar is that, although its Euro shops may be perfectly ok, its name has entered the vocabulary in the same way as Hoover has to mean a vacuum-cleaner. The name is synonymous with the tourist supermarket. Whether Spar or not, whether any good or not, the supermarket is Spar-ed. But does it still sell corned beef?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, May 06, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 May 2011
A very similar start to yesterday with some cloud around that might become thundery later. The local highs at 09.00: 15.4 C in Alcúdia/Playa de Muro; 17.5 C in Pollensa; 17.7 C in Puerto Pollensa.
It has been a fine, sunny day with more of a breeze coming from the east. Highs in the area, down a bit on yesterday, ranging from 22.4 C in Alcúdia to 19.9 C in Puerto Pollensa.
It has been a fine, sunny day with more of a breeze coming from the east. Highs in the area, down a bit on yesterday, ranging from 22.4 C in Alcúdia to 19.9 C in Puerto Pollensa.
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