This Is Not A Story, This Is Not A Book

Flags. You get quite a few flags on houses here. By the beach near me is a group of holiday chalets on top of which is a flag. An ancient German tourist once asked me what the flag was. Mallorcan, said I, but it could be the Balearic one; I can never remember the difference. Along the coast there is another flag, a flag that has caused a bit of a kerfuffle, sufficient for the boys in green to be asked to intervene.

By the roundabout as one enters Can Picafort coming from Playa de Muro is a road down to what is known as Ses Casetes des Capellans which is actually in Muro. It is a strange enclave of small holiday homes, some like glorified beach-huts. They surround an area that is used as parking; some disappear along tracks into the forest. There is a feel of Jaywick Sands about Ses Casetes. It is the flag on one of these holiday homes that has caused the problem. And the problem is? Well the flag is the Spanish flag but it features also a pro-Franco symbol. Such symbols are now effectively banned. Neighbours have complained, Muro town hall have said it basically isn't their problem and so the Guardia are now involved.

All this Francoism lingers on. Muro council is also being cajoled into renaming streets that have their origins in the Generalissimo era, which may be fair enough but would add to the confusion that has also come from streets having dual names (Catalan and Castilian) or having been changed from one to the other, and then back again, depending upon the prevailing political mood and complexion of the local council. Street names may not necessarily offend or their connotations be apparent, but a flag is a pretty overt statement of affiliation.

There was something else the other day that acted as a reminder of the days of fascism. It was a weird letter in "Euro Weekly" from some body calling itself the Historian Group Mallorca. The letter was in response to a review of Victoria Hislop's novel "The Return". Let me quote: "She (Hislop) is only concerned with the cowardly socialists." This may give you a flavour. It goes on to say that atrocities were perpetrated by the Republicans and to imply that Spain would, without Franco, have been like Russia. Now no one would deny that both sides were culpable of some dreadful acts during the Civil War, but, as I understand it, Hislop does chronicle this fact, though as she's writing a novel, she's entitled to take whatever angle she wishes; she is not writing a history textbook. Moreover, to say that Spain would have been like Russia has some truth only insofar as the Republican ranks were populated with Communists and received Soviet support (and the Nationalists were bolstered by the Nazis and the Italians). The Republicans were, however, a rather more eclectic mix than only outright Marxist-Leninists. But for any historian to extrapolate that a defeat of Franco would have resulted in a Communist state akin to the old USSR or that it would have lasted for any great time is purely hypothesis. This speculation though is revealing for one thing - the assumption that Spain would have swapped one form of totalitarianism for another; a sympathetic view of the Franco period should not allow the dreamt-up guise of a different tyranny to pardon the Nationalists their sins. One can theorise all one likes. Had the Republicans won, the battle lines of the Second World War would have been different. Hitler, who in any event didn't always see eye to eye with Franco and had indeed once threatened Spain with invasion, would surely have invaded. Or a Spanish front might have invaded occupied France. From there, who knows what would have transpired? We can all speculate, but it isn't history.

I don't know who this group is, but as it is a letter in good English to an English publication, I have to assume that it comprises English speakers, possibly and rather alarmingly expats. Whoever they are, the adoption of a title "Historian Group Mallorca" suggests an intent to speak for Mallorca. I don't think so.


THE WIFI WHITE ELEPHANT
You could have predicted this. The much-hyped WiFi zone on Puerto Alcúdia's beach has to date attracted ... Well how many do you think have bought the cards that allow you to get the connection? Today's "Diario" tells us. 72. How many people do you suppose have been on the beach since the connection was established in June? Until such time as great hordes of laptop users are cyberspacing on the sand, I will continue to believe that this has been nothing more than a vanity project on behalf of the town hall.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Brian Wilson, "Midnight's Another Day". This song is so poignant. Wilson's voice has gone, but you can almost imagine The Beach Boys circa mid-60s singing this. Go to the website and it plays - http://www.brianwilson.com. Today's title - this is a line from a brilliant early 90s song by a female group whose name is Spanish: think flags and Antonio.

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