Wishin' and Hopin'

And so the Puerto Pollensa road-closure fiasco continues to make itself felt. "The Bulletin" reports on the concerns of my old friend Garry Bonsall, dentist of Alcúdia and head of the Gotmar Residents' Association. In brief, these are a lack of consultation regarding the pedestrianisation and the potential to send more traffic and parking into the leafier areas of, for example, Gotmar, and the plan to in fact close the road between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa in order to expand the beach. There is quite a bit more besides, including a threat of legal action against the town hall.

While I sympathise, my understanding was that there had been, finally, some consultation, though quite with whom I'm not exactly sure, presumably not the good people of Gotmar. Moreover, the pedestrianisation compromise, as I referred to on 14 September, doesn't restrict vehicle access nearly as much as the original plan. Consequently, I'm not sure quite how the Gotmar residents will be affected. Perhaps they will be. As for this closure of the coast road idea, it frankly beggars belief that this might be done. What was the point of building the new road if now it won't be accessible except by another road from somewhere? I've gone over this reclaimed ground before (9 May: Road To Nowhere). It had seemed as though it were some fantasy idea, but apparently not. The point though is that this would not be a Pollensa town hall matter. It might fancy closing the road, for whatever reason, but it would surely be one for higher authorities than the gaffe-prone council. There may be some sound environmental thinking here, but not if it means cutting a huge swathe through land at the back of Albufereta in order to create a link road to the one that's just been completed.

But amongst those higher authorities, one wonders at times. Here we now have a Balearic Government minister, who's leaving the sinking ship to head up the Playa de Palma project, saying that the same number of people are employed in the Balearics as there were last year. Excuse me. Have I been misreading those reports of increased unemployment? Have the tourist and construction industries not been laying off workers after all? It's all been a dream, and here's Bobby coming out of the shower. One fears that there is a sizeable dose of wishful thinking knocking around. The minister goes on to say that the government is looking at ways of working through the current economic crisis and at remodelling the economy (which appears to mean throwing a whole load of money at public construction, which hardly sounds like a remodelling) and at "policies to boost tourism and commerce", whatever they might be.

What part of the planet is the minister on? It doesn't appear to be that part formed by an archipelago in the Mediterranean. The unpalatable truth for Balearic politicians is that the "crisis" reveals just how impotent and irrelevant they are when the world's economy is in such strife. They can affect little, other than dabble at the edges. They might like to think so, and to blame previous administrations, but they are neutered, emasculated, up the "mierda" creek minus an implement of manoeuvre. The good times let the regional governments, such at that in the Balearics, to follow the same policy of unchecked boom as the national government. But with the arrival of the bad times, they are left wallowing with nowhere to turn, except to Madrid for assistance.

Mallorca is caught in a vice of factors almost completely beyond anyone's control. It, as part of Spain, is one, along with the UK, of the big victims of the economic slump. Were there not so much debt already sloshing around (and there was a great ocean of it before anyone had even heard of sub-prime), it might not be so bad, but there is - business and personal. The level of Spain's consumer debt exceeds even that of the reckless UK. The island's main industries - tourism and construction - are utterly at the mercy of economic circumstances. The local government may want to splash more cash in the direction of the construction industry, but it will be public spending that merely papers over the cracks of an unbalanced economic model, assuming the cash is actually forthcoming. This all said, the good news coming out of Alcúdia at any rate is that certain hotels are showing healthy bookings for next year and even taking them for 2010. Among all the turmoil, let us hope.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Geoff rightly points out that it was a traditional folk song, but fair to say I think that The Beach Boys popularised "Sloop John B" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_KY_d9MQv8). Today's title - who made this a hit?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)