When Tears Roll Down

With a different meaning, one more perhaps in keeping with the film, yesterday's title of "Mean Streets" could have been as appropriate today. There was another demonstration in Alcúdia at the weekend; a demo and sobbing and wailing. I had known about it, but had been in two minds whether to mention it, but as it made the press then ... . This was the second demo in response to the violence that claimed the lives of Gabriel Marquet ("Gaby") and a British tourist in separate incidents a month or so ago. Actually, it had everything to do with Gaby and little to do with the tourist, but the latest demo, on the Sunday of the first weekend of the season, was surely not coincidental. Nor will future demonstrations be. Give a dog a bad name, or give a resort a bad name ... . Not that there should not be demos, not that they should not be reported, but what actually do they achieve? The first one could be viewed as an outpouring of grief and anger, as much as anything else, and so be it. But to do it all over again, and then again?

When the first march - against violence - was announced, one of the aspects that was highlighted was the "impotence" of the local community in the face of violence. Demonstrations are an expression of this impotence. They may appear to be doing something, but what? Let me say that I am not objecting to demonstrations. I am firmly in favour, and it is a shock to me that the growing passivity and complacency of the British have not produced more marching against encroachments on all manner of liberties. God knows, I had little sympathy with the Countryside Alliance, but at least they were willing to take to the streets. That, though, is an entirely separate subject. However, take away the anger and the frustration, what is there?

The violence that has occurred, and it is not, it must be stressed, a specific Alcúdia issue, is as a consequence of a social condition - of disaffection and alienation, lack of control and of alcohol and of drugs. It is a universal problem. To march against it is to march against society as it has become. It's a tall order. Ramón Socias, who is the delegate for the Balearics to the central government, spoke after the Marquet incident about people who cannot control themselves when drinking. He said that they shouldn't do it - drink, that is - if they can't maintain control. What world is he occupying? If nothing else, though, the drinking, the violence and the demos are all a bit of a shock to the cosy and unrealistic impression of a Mallorcan society in which everyone, well the indigenous Spanish at any rate, respects alcohol and does not indulge in the British-style disease of so-called bingeing followed by bundling. It's rubbish.

The fact that violence may be connected to the street-drinking parties (the "botellones") that have occurred at weekends by the Magic roundabout is something which should have a practical solution. In this regard, the demonstrators are surely right to draw attention to the problem. What then did the mayor of Alcúdia, who was on the first demo, plan to do? Was he simply there for form's sake? The town hall has a law against all street drinking. In which case, why does it not seem to be effected? A heavy clampdown would not end drinking or violence, but it would be an attempt to remove the circumstances which can result in violence.

Tears for Gaby and for the violence that took him, but tears and marching are the emasculation and pathos of what went wrong. Island paradise, anyone? Sad.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. Today's title - the sub-title of one of the most remarkable songs with a "violence" theme. Huge favourites of this blog.

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