You know how it is. You're a member of an everyday European royal family and you're swanning around on your modest yacht. You're admiring the turquoise, crystal-clear waters of the marine reserve national park of Cabrera. You look admiringly at the velvety white sands of the small archipelago's beaches. But you know that you can't go and "privatise" these beaches by installing some handsome tents and loungers because some oik from Terraferida will be lurking in the undergrowth with a smartphone.
So, you continue on your untroubled way. What about a picnic on board? A little light lobster washed down with some Moët Chandon, for example? Very agreeable. Your man servant is preparing the dish and chilling the champagne, and then what goes and happens? The Guardia Civil happens, that's what. The force's marine service roars up to your yacht, takes one look and apologises. "Sorry, your Majesty. We mistook you for being Algerian. You haven't by any chance seen any illegals, have you?" "They went that-a-way."
With this, the Guardia takes off in hot pursuit of north Africans in far less modest crafts. Hundreds of them, all milling around Cabrera in the forlorn expectation of hitching a ride to Palma. If you're going to land illegally, Cabrera is really the last place to choose. You might continue on your way to Colonia Sant Jordi on your little boat, but you might be forced to fork out an arm and a leg for the eco-friendly vessel that normally does the crossing. And that'll blow a massive hole in the budget for eventually getting the train, having also taken the ferry, and heading for Marseille (other French destinations are possible).
Following this brief disturbance, you return to your tranquil navigation only to then get a message on your Twitter feed. It's from Vince Vidal, he of the regional environment ministry. To your horror, Vince has issued a decree: "The days of Moët and lobster in Cabrera have passed." Nervously, you look around at other modest yachts and wonder if the Terraferida/GOB oiks have commandeered one of them and are aiming long lenses in search of Moët and lobster evidence.
Once more, though, you are able to relax. Vince is aiming his ban at the Partido Popular. Given his Mésite eco-nationalist credentials, you should of course have realised that it was the PP incurring his wrath. And Vince, let's be clear (one assumes) is not a champagne and lobster man: more frito (an abundance thereof, which should of course be referred to as frit rather than frito) and a crate of Saint Mick.
And what exactly have the PP done to awaken Vince from a hard-earned, high-summer slumber? Well, to be honest, the PP haven't really done anything. But a bloke called Joan Pocoví has. Not being intimate with the minutiae of Mallorcan politics and business, you request your man servant to consult Google. It turns out that this Joan fellow once paid for PP politicos to indulge themselves in Moët and lobster in Cabrera. And one of those politicos is the now leader of the PP in the Balearics, Biel Company, who was Vince's predecessor as environment minister; he held this post when enjoying the bubbly.
Joan and Biel, it would seem, are mates. Joan, moreover, is on the Hacienda's radar in respect of the PP's dodgy, so-called B accounts. Vince has been informed that this Joan sort had apparently co-opted a worker with the environment ministry's Ibanat agency to give him a ride to Cabrera. Which was the sort of thing that Biel had also once done when carrying the cool boxes with the champers and the lobster. Vince was incandescent: "We will take decisive measures: we will start by punishing the worker who messes up the good work of Ibanat."
You, being a liberal type of royal and a generally good egg, think that this sounds a tad over the top. But no, Vince is determined to expunge the memory of the Moët days and insists that he will not tolerate this type of behaviour.
Later on, you learn that Biel believes that there have been half truths. "I am not used to commenting on half truths," he states, despite the photographic evidence of Joan arriving at Cabrera. The PP, you further discover, have gone into full-on social media mode. Their "artillery" is taking aim of Vince, who responds by forgetting his normal Catalan and giving a boost to trilingual teaching. In English, he says: "Keep Calm and Love Your Company."
What can this mean, you wonder, especially as you are pretty handy when it comes to the old Anglo. You're unsure, as is mostly everyone else. And despite Vince's fury and the PP artillery, no one much pays this latest champagne moment a great deal of attention. It is high summer after all. Silly season and all that, as well as being a time to take to the water: royal families, PP benefactors and Algerians. "No, they went that-a-way."
Showing posts with label Cabrera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cabrera. Show all posts
Sunday, August 06, 2017
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Knowing Your National Parks
How many Spanish national parks can you name? Any? I ask the question because the question was asked of me. Someone doing a survey on behalf of the national parks had picked me at random and phoned me. Put on the spot, I initially went blank before blurting out Cabrera and Doñana. What followed was a bit of guesswork. The lady on the other end of the phone was probably as confused as I was. Salinas, I suggested. The one in Ibiza? What about the Albuferas? I corrected myself. Partially. The Mallorca one is a nature park. But what about Albufera des Grau in Menorca or the Albufera in Valencia?
When the survey was concluded, I had still only managed to accurately recall the two, but then immediately thought, damn, forgot about Teide (Tenerife) and Garajonay (La Gomera). Four out of fifteen might not have been too bad. Two? Pretty poor really, and honestly, how could one have overlooked the Sierra Nevada?
It wasn't of course a test or a competition. There were no prizes for knowing any of the parks or indeed for having been to any. Indeed, not knowing about them was presumably part of the exercise. But was I particularly representative? I think she was able to figure out that I wasn't actually Spanish. By not being Spanish, my knowledge might therefore be somewhat limited. And being where I am might also limit this knowledge, although establishing where I was did create its own difficulty. Palma de Mallorca, she informed me. No, I replied: Alcudia. Palma de Mallorca, she insisted. There are 53 municipalities in Mallorca, I tried to explain before realising it obviously wasn't terribly important and that she hadn't in any event ever heard of Alcudia.
I'm guessing, but many a native of Mallorca might not have got much further than Cabrera. Or even that far. Many a native might have thought that the Mallorca and Menorca Albuferas and the Ibiza Salinas are national parks. They're not. They're all nature parks. So, location may well determine one's knowledge. The only reason, in all honesty, that I knew Doñana is because it was the title of a fabulous track (a long time ago now) by the Fundación Eivissa. I didn't know the reference, so I looked it up, and then became aware that Spanish prime ministers make a habit of having holidays there.
Anyway, knowledge or no knowledge, the survey had various other questions. The lady settled on Cabrera and started asking about the level of protection. Should it be increased? Yes it should, said I, before then informing her - which she didn't want to know (or I don't think she did) - that very many more of the waters around the Balearics should be declared marine reserves. She must have thought that she had found an enviro-fanatic, which I'm not especially; just that I think that marine reserves are a thoroughly good idea.
More tricky was when we got round to employment and tourism. For example, by extending the national park of Cabrera (which is both land and sea), would there be more jobs? Blimey, I've never thought about that, I more or less said. I was required to give a valuation out of ten. I plumped for four, hastily reasoning that there would be more folks to look after the park but that their numbers would be limited. What other job creation would there be? It's not as if you can build five-star hotels or luxury villas, much though hoteliers and property developers might like to. And likewise with tourism. More park or park as it already is, what's the benefit for tourism, she wanted to know. Not huge, I concluded.
There are two points. One is that current efforts seem to wish to deter tourists rather than attract them, especially to an environmentally sensitive park like Cabrera. The other is - just how many people go there as it is or are attracted to Mallorca in order to go there? And as a corollary, to what extent is the specific tourism of Colonia Sant Jordi and its environs influenced by the existence of Cabrera?
One understands that of the fifteen national parks, Cabrera has the least number of visitors. Working on some figures from a few years ago, it attracted 0.6% of the ten million or so who went to all the parks: 60,000, therefore. Within the overall scheme of Mallorca's tourism, that's a drop in the ocean, which is essentially what Cabrera is - dropped off the edge of Mallorca.
By comparison, the most visited park is Teide. It accounts for around 30% of all visitors to the national parks. But Teide has and is a ruddy great mountain. It's Tenerife's natural attraction par excellence. Unlike myself, a lot of survey respondents will have been naming Teide. As for Cabrera, I might represent 0.6% of those who were surveyed.
When the survey was concluded, I had still only managed to accurately recall the two, but then immediately thought, damn, forgot about Teide (Tenerife) and Garajonay (La Gomera). Four out of fifteen might not have been too bad. Two? Pretty poor really, and honestly, how could one have overlooked the Sierra Nevada?
It wasn't of course a test or a competition. There were no prizes for knowing any of the parks or indeed for having been to any. Indeed, not knowing about them was presumably part of the exercise. But was I particularly representative? I think she was able to figure out that I wasn't actually Spanish. By not being Spanish, my knowledge might therefore be somewhat limited. And being where I am might also limit this knowledge, although establishing where I was did create its own difficulty. Palma de Mallorca, she informed me. No, I replied: Alcudia. Palma de Mallorca, she insisted. There are 53 municipalities in Mallorca, I tried to explain before realising it obviously wasn't terribly important and that she hadn't in any event ever heard of Alcudia.
I'm guessing, but many a native of Mallorca might not have got much further than Cabrera. Or even that far. Many a native might have thought that the Mallorca and Menorca Albuferas and the Ibiza Salinas are national parks. They're not. They're all nature parks. So, location may well determine one's knowledge. The only reason, in all honesty, that I knew Doñana is because it was the title of a fabulous track (a long time ago now) by the Fundación Eivissa. I didn't know the reference, so I looked it up, and then became aware that Spanish prime ministers make a habit of having holidays there.
Anyway, knowledge or no knowledge, the survey had various other questions. The lady settled on Cabrera and started asking about the level of protection. Should it be increased? Yes it should, said I, before then informing her - which she didn't want to know (or I don't think she did) - that very many more of the waters around the Balearics should be declared marine reserves. She must have thought that she had found an enviro-fanatic, which I'm not especially; just that I think that marine reserves are a thoroughly good idea.
More tricky was when we got round to employment and tourism. For example, by extending the national park of Cabrera (which is both land and sea), would there be more jobs? Blimey, I've never thought about that, I more or less said. I was required to give a valuation out of ten. I plumped for four, hastily reasoning that there would be more folks to look after the park but that their numbers would be limited. What other job creation would there be? It's not as if you can build five-star hotels or luxury villas, much though hoteliers and property developers might like to. And likewise with tourism. More park or park as it already is, what's the benefit for tourism, she wanted to know. Not huge, I concluded.
There are two points. One is that current efforts seem to wish to deter tourists rather than attract them, especially to an environmentally sensitive park like Cabrera. The other is - just how many people go there as it is or are attracted to Mallorca in order to go there? And as a corollary, to what extent is the specific tourism of Colonia Sant Jordi and its environs influenced by the existence of Cabrera?
One understands that of the fifteen national parks, Cabrera has the least number of visitors. Working on some figures from a few years ago, it attracted 0.6% of the ten million or so who went to all the parks: 60,000, therefore. Within the overall scheme of Mallorca's tourism, that's a drop in the ocean, which is essentially what Cabrera is - dropped off the edge of Mallorca.
By comparison, the most visited park is Teide. It accounts for around 30% of all visitors to the national parks. But Teide has and is a ruddy great mountain. It's Tenerife's natural attraction par excellence. Unlike myself, a lot of survey respondents will have been naming Teide. As for Cabrera, I might represent 0.6% of those who were surveyed.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Too Much, Too Little: Cabrera's Organisation
When the Cabrera National Park was declared in 1991, a trust was established in line with national law. The trust exists to guarantee the integrity of the park, which consists also of the smaller Conills island and a series of islets as well as the surrounding sea. The president of the trust is appointed by the national government, with the environment and fisheries ministry making the proposal. There are representatives from national ministries other than environment. The development ministry is involved through transport, communications and public works. The education ministry has a role, so does tourism. And then there is the ministry of defence. Cabrera has belonged to it since 1916.
Also on the trust are three representatives of the Balearic government, one apiece from the Council of Mallorca, Palma town hall, the University of the Balearic Islands, the fishermen's brotherhood and the national institute of oceanography. There are two more - both from conservation associations.
This trust, with its diverse representation, is to be presented with a damning report from analysts. It is based on a simple technique - a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. From what has been so far revealed of this report, there is a great deal to do with the weaknesses. Together they generate key threats - the risk posed to the park's reputation and its entire marine area.
There will be those shifting uneasily in their chairs when this report hits the table for discussion. The trust may not have operational responsibility, but it does oversee the organisation. The main question from the revealing of all the weaknesses is: what organisation? And from this stems further questions regarding efficiency and effectiveness of management, cooperation and coordination, lines of communication and centres for decision-making.
The analysis has highlighted a total mess of organisational structure, and that is because the structure is, like the trust, diverse. Its component parts comprise: the regional government, which through the environment ministry has overall responsibility for the park; government agencies and companies; Palma town hall. On top of these there is the ministry of defence, because it owns Cabrera, and Ses Salines town hall.
Administratively, Cabrera belongs to Palma. Despite the distance, it is classified as falling under the Palma municipality. Yet, let's consider what happened in February this year when the regional environment minister, Vicenç Vidal, made an announcement at the Cabrera information centre. The institute for natural areas (Ibanat), which is one of the government's agencies active in the park, was to invest just over 225,000 euros for certain infrastructure improvements. Who was to receive this money? Palma? Yes, but only some 130,000 euros. The rest was going to Ses Salines.
This division of investment made some sense in that Ses Salines was to receive aid for information signage, a cycle park and the tarmacking of a rural road: Colonia Sant Jordi is the main port that serves Cabrera. Well, it made some sense, but then it also made very little. Which is essentially the thrust of the report. There are simply too many administrations involved with Cabrera. The organisation is such that no one seems to be clear who does what or why. And when it comes to the provision of money, the budget has declined markedly since the regional government assumed control of the park some five years ago.
The report's findings hint at Cabrera being symptomatic of organisational confusion, inefficiency and ineffectiveness that affect Mallorca's coastal areas. They may not specifically be noted in the organisation or the trust, but there are yet further administrations who have their say, such as the national Costas Authority and the regional Ports Illes Balears (Colonia Sant Jordi's port is under its control).
How often do we hear of issues that stem from the involvement of all these different bodies? Cala Varques in Manacor has been a classic example, and there the Guardia Civil and National Police are adding to a mix of regional government, Council of Mallorca, town hall and Costas. There are other cases. Take Alcudia, for instance. Depending on which part of the municipality one is talking about, the town hall is involved with - and usually at loggerheads with - the Balearic Ports Authority and the Costas Authority. But then it also has to deal with the Council of Mallorca (main roads), Ports Illes Balears for its small ports of Barcares and Bonaire, the regional government, e.g. with the laying of electricity cables, and both the government and the Council of Mallorca when it comes to decisions regarding land use.
The upshot of all this is that it can be and has been that nothing gets done, while there are inbuilt mechanisms for conflict. And Cabrera appears to be one of the worst cases. A national park and an apparent symbol of everything environmentally righteous in the Balearics, and it is failed by the disorganisation created by too many organisations.
Also on the trust are three representatives of the Balearic government, one apiece from the Council of Mallorca, Palma town hall, the University of the Balearic Islands, the fishermen's brotherhood and the national institute of oceanography. There are two more - both from conservation associations.
This trust, with its diverse representation, is to be presented with a damning report from analysts. It is based on a simple technique - a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. From what has been so far revealed of this report, there is a great deal to do with the weaknesses. Together they generate key threats - the risk posed to the park's reputation and its entire marine area.
There will be those shifting uneasily in their chairs when this report hits the table for discussion. The trust may not have operational responsibility, but it does oversee the organisation. The main question from the revealing of all the weaknesses is: what organisation? And from this stems further questions regarding efficiency and effectiveness of management, cooperation and coordination, lines of communication and centres for decision-making.
The analysis has highlighted a total mess of organisational structure, and that is because the structure is, like the trust, diverse. Its component parts comprise: the regional government, which through the environment ministry has overall responsibility for the park; government agencies and companies; Palma town hall. On top of these there is the ministry of defence, because it owns Cabrera, and Ses Salines town hall.
Administratively, Cabrera belongs to Palma. Despite the distance, it is classified as falling under the Palma municipality. Yet, let's consider what happened in February this year when the regional environment minister, Vicenç Vidal, made an announcement at the Cabrera information centre. The institute for natural areas (Ibanat), which is one of the government's agencies active in the park, was to invest just over 225,000 euros for certain infrastructure improvements. Who was to receive this money? Palma? Yes, but only some 130,000 euros. The rest was going to Ses Salines.
This division of investment made some sense in that Ses Salines was to receive aid for information signage, a cycle park and the tarmacking of a rural road: Colonia Sant Jordi is the main port that serves Cabrera. Well, it made some sense, but then it also made very little. Which is essentially the thrust of the report. There are simply too many administrations involved with Cabrera. The organisation is such that no one seems to be clear who does what or why. And when it comes to the provision of money, the budget has declined markedly since the regional government assumed control of the park some five years ago.
The report's findings hint at Cabrera being symptomatic of organisational confusion, inefficiency and ineffectiveness that affect Mallorca's coastal areas. They may not specifically be noted in the organisation or the trust, but there are yet further administrations who have their say, such as the national Costas Authority and the regional Ports Illes Balears (Colonia Sant Jordi's port is under its control).
How often do we hear of issues that stem from the involvement of all these different bodies? Cala Varques in Manacor has been a classic example, and there the Guardia Civil and National Police are adding to a mix of regional government, Council of Mallorca, town hall and Costas. There are other cases. Take Alcudia, for instance. Depending on which part of the municipality one is talking about, the town hall is involved with - and usually at loggerheads with - the Balearic Ports Authority and the Costas Authority. But then it also has to deal with the Council of Mallorca (main roads), Ports Illes Balears for its small ports of Barcares and Bonaire, the regional government, e.g. with the laying of electricity cables, and both the government and the Council of Mallorca when it comes to decisions regarding land use.
The upshot of all this is that it can be and has been that nothing gets done, while there are inbuilt mechanisms for conflict. And Cabrera appears to be one of the worst cases. A national park and an apparent symbol of everything environmentally righteous in the Balearics, and it is failed by the disorganisation created by too many organisations.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Throwing Sand: Invasion Of The Superyachts
"Arrogant ostentation of the super-rich." "These people think they rule the world." "Louts, go home."
The first two of these quotes were words spoken by local people. The third was a slogan on a banner. They didn't come from Mallorca but from Sardinia. They were expressed eight years ago. I had quoted them then under a piece entitled "Careful What You Wish For".
Mallorca has and has had a reputation for being what cliché and convention require calling a millionaire's playground. However, the noughts now need amending: billionaire rather than mere millionaire. For the latter, and even for those who have failed to acquire six noughts to their names, comparatively modest displays of wealth can be found bobbing up and down on Balearic waters at any time during summer. And why not. Here is a bedrock market for the nautical industry. Here is aspiration afloat. There's nothing wrong with it. Mostly, it's all good, save perhaps for the odd sea-grass meadow that is ripped by an anchor or for the garbage that is nonchalantly tossed overboard.
This bedrock market is not in the same stratosphere as the super league. The quotes from eight years ago are echoing. Will there be a barrage of wet sand hurled in the general direction of the super league's exclusive membership? There was in Sardinia. Locals took aim at Flavio Briatore and the dinghies which were disgorging his entourage. Beach invasion Italian style. Now it's beach invasion Mallorcan style. Flavio is not among the invaders, but just as in Sardinia there are the Russians. And there are others, such as Hamdan bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, fourth son of the founder of the United Arab Emirates. He and the up to sixty invited ones have been occupying 142 metres of sea. To put that into context, it is two-thirds the maximum length of cruise ship that Alcudia's port can accommodate. Modest it is not.
Photos of the "privatisation" of a beach in Cabrera have stirred up some outrage. Among those who have taken issue is the bio-outraged director general for biodiversity, Caterina Amengual. The agents of the environment ministry will be pressing for sanctions. Even if they can in fact be applied, they may as well save themselves the cost of administering the sanctions' process. It would probably equate to more than the slightly less than one thousand euros that could be charged. When you're hiring a superyacht for 65 grand a day, this would hardly represent a deterrent.
The usual suspects have been mobilised. GOB says that there can be no repeat of the "beach club" of Cabrera being mounted elsewhere (or even in Cabrera once more). Eco-nationalists Més are demanding that competences of the national Costas Authority are directly devolved in order to prevent similar "privatisation". And then what? Increase the fines to around two grand?
While the poor everyday tourist - and he or she is in penury compared with the superyachting fraternity - is slagged off for having the audacity for saturating the island (mainly Palma), here is this brigade of invaders who are held in thrall (both they and the floating palacetes) by an element of Mallorcan society which delights at its obscene ostentation and at its purchasing capacity; one that allows it to hoover up the contents of emporia along the Born and Jaume III and still have some spare change to hand over for a beachside luxury villa replete with helipad and Olympic-sized pool.
But should these invaders be the recipients of opprobrium? In the case of the odd Russian oligarch taking over beach space and employing goons to keep the riff-raff away (are they tooled up, do you suppose?), then most definitely yes. In general, however, they are a consequence of being careless in what is wished for. There may indeed be wealth to be distributed and all-year jobs to be had - not to be sniffed at, it should be said - but this is the extreme end of the search for the Holy Grail of quality tourism. It is a mainly anti-social class utterly divorced from mainstream Mallorca but one perhaps inadvertently coveted by the island's left-wing. The political left (and right, it should be pointed out) sees virtue only in "quality" tourists, thus excluding a common, working element that might be deemed more characteristic of socialist principles.
What about the everyday Mallorcan? Bombarded with a news diet of touristic saturation, he or she now has to contend with images of a Balinese poolside having been deposited on a beach in the protected nature park of Cabrera. He or she could be forgiven for believing that the island(s) are being irretrievably lost to foreign empires that are on the one hand all-inclusive and on the other all-exclusive. Might there be a barrage of wet sand? Bet they'd fine them more than a grand if there was.
Index for August 2016
Cala San Vicente - 21 August 2016
Education failings in Mallorca - 10 August 2016
Holi colour festivals - 19 August 2016
Holiday compensation claims - 24 August 2016
Holiday rentals' legislation - 13 August 2016
Innovation and technology in Mallorca - 26 August 2016
José Hila in Palma - 5 August 2016
Low Cost Travel Group - 6 August 2016
Low-quality tourism and accommodation - 2 August 2016, 12 August 2016
Mallorca nationalism - 18 August 2016
Mallorca plain and Lloret - 7 August 2016
Mariano Rajoy and government - 22 August 2016, 30 August 2016
Més, Emaya and Palma - 14 August 2016
Moors and Christians, Pollensa - 1 August 2016
Partido Popular and language - 16 August 2016
Plaça Espanya - 9 August 2016
Police corruption and politicians - 25 August 2016, 29 August 2016
Royal family in Mallorca - 8 August 2016
Sant Joan and the seven sins demons - 28 August 2016
Sant Roc - 15 August 2016
Shopping centres - 4 August 2016
Sineu's Much fiesta - 11 August 2016
Superyachts and use of beaches - 31 August 2016
Sustainable tourism awards - 23 August 2016
Tourism sustainability - 27 August 2016
Tourist satisfaction - 3 August 2016
Tourist saturation / overcrowding - 17 August 2016, 20 August 2016
The first two of these quotes were words spoken by local people. The third was a slogan on a banner. They didn't come from Mallorca but from Sardinia. They were expressed eight years ago. I had quoted them then under a piece entitled "Careful What You Wish For".
Mallorca has and has had a reputation for being what cliché and convention require calling a millionaire's playground. However, the noughts now need amending: billionaire rather than mere millionaire. For the latter, and even for those who have failed to acquire six noughts to their names, comparatively modest displays of wealth can be found bobbing up and down on Balearic waters at any time during summer. And why not. Here is a bedrock market for the nautical industry. Here is aspiration afloat. There's nothing wrong with it. Mostly, it's all good, save perhaps for the odd sea-grass meadow that is ripped by an anchor or for the garbage that is nonchalantly tossed overboard.
This bedrock market is not in the same stratosphere as the super league. The quotes from eight years ago are echoing. Will there be a barrage of wet sand hurled in the general direction of the super league's exclusive membership? There was in Sardinia. Locals took aim at Flavio Briatore and the dinghies which were disgorging his entourage. Beach invasion Italian style. Now it's beach invasion Mallorcan style. Flavio is not among the invaders, but just as in Sardinia there are the Russians. And there are others, such as Hamdan bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, fourth son of the founder of the United Arab Emirates. He and the up to sixty invited ones have been occupying 142 metres of sea. To put that into context, it is two-thirds the maximum length of cruise ship that Alcudia's port can accommodate. Modest it is not.
Photos of the "privatisation" of a beach in Cabrera have stirred up some outrage. Among those who have taken issue is the bio-outraged director general for biodiversity, Caterina Amengual. The agents of the environment ministry will be pressing for sanctions. Even if they can in fact be applied, they may as well save themselves the cost of administering the sanctions' process. It would probably equate to more than the slightly less than one thousand euros that could be charged. When you're hiring a superyacht for 65 grand a day, this would hardly represent a deterrent.
The usual suspects have been mobilised. GOB says that there can be no repeat of the "beach club" of Cabrera being mounted elsewhere (or even in Cabrera once more). Eco-nationalists Més are demanding that competences of the national Costas Authority are directly devolved in order to prevent similar "privatisation". And then what? Increase the fines to around two grand?
While the poor everyday tourist - and he or she is in penury compared with the superyachting fraternity - is slagged off for having the audacity for saturating the island (mainly Palma), here is this brigade of invaders who are held in thrall (both they and the floating palacetes) by an element of Mallorcan society which delights at its obscene ostentation and at its purchasing capacity; one that allows it to hoover up the contents of emporia along the Born and Jaume III and still have some spare change to hand over for a beachside luxury villa replete with helipad and Olympic-sized pool.
But should these invaders be the recipients of opprobrium? In the case of the odd Russian oligarch taking over beach space and employing goons to keep the riff-raff away (are they tooled up, do you suppose?), then most definitely yes. In general, however, they are a consequence of being careless in what is wished for. There may indeed be wealth to be distributed and all-year jobs to be had - not to be sniffed at, it should be said - but this is the extreme end of the search for the Holy Grail of quality tourism. It is a mainly anti-social class utterly divorced from mainstream Mallorca but one perhaps inadvertently coveted by the island's left-wing. The political left (and right, it should be pointed out) sees virtue only in "quality" tourists, thus excluding a common, working element that might be deemed more characteristic of socialist principles.
What about the everyday Mallorcan? Bombarded with a news diet of touristic saturation, he or she now has to contend with images of a Balinese poolside having been deposited on a beach in the protected nature park of Cabrera. He or she could be forgiven for believing that the island(s) are being irretrievably lost to foreign empires that are on the one hand all-inclusive and on the other all-exclusive. Might there be a barrage of wet sand? Bet they'd fine them more than a grand if there was.
Index for August 2016
Cala San Vicente - 21 August 2016
Education failings in Mallorca - 10 August 2016
Holi colour festivals - 19 August 2016
Holiday compensation claims - 24 August 2016
Holiday rentals' legislation - 13 August 2016
Innovation and technology in Mallorca - 26 August 2016
José Hila in Palma - 5 August 2016
Low Cost Travel Group - 6 August 2016
Low-quality tourism and accommodation - 2 August 2016, 12 August 2016
Mallorca nationalism - 18 August 2016
Mallorca plain and Lloret - 7 August 2016
Mariano Rajoy and government - 22 August 2016, 30 August 2016
Més, Emaya and Palma - 14 August 2016
Moors and Christians, Pollensa - 1 August 2016
Partido Popular and language - 16 August 2016
Plaça Espanya - 9 August 2016
Police corruption and politicians - 25 August 2016, 29 August 2016
Royal family in Mallorca - 8 August 2016
Sant Joan and the seven sins demons - 28 August 2016
Sant Roc - 15 August 2016
Shopping centres - 4 August 2016
Sineu's Much fiesta - 11 August 2016
Superyachts and use of beaches - 31 August 2016
Sustainable tourism awards - 23 August 2016
Tourism sustainability - 27 August 2016
Tourist satisfaction - 3 August 2016
Tourist saturation / overcrowding - 17 August 2016, 20 August 2016
Wednesday, August 06, 2014
Mallorca And War: The collaborators
Collaboration in wartime comes about for different reasons. Coercion and threats, sympathies with a cause, expectation of personal gain. Collaboration by Mallorcans during the Great War was not the consequence of the first of these. There were sympathies on both sides, but such sympathies never really carried a great deal of weight. Spain was never likely to have been placed in a position where it needed to break its neutrality. But the country was placed in an awkward and potentially threatening situation because of one particular act of collaboration with the Central Powers.
The Mediterranean theatre during the war was well away from the Balearics, but by sheer fact of geography - being in the Mediterranean - Mallorca, despite neutrality, was dragged into the war. And the person who dragged the island in was Joan March. Though March was in effect an agent for the British secret services, he played both sides. It is generally believed that his personal sympathies were with the Allies, and he was, during World War Two, to express to Churchill his desire to assist against the Nazis and the Axis Powers. (Churchill, one understands, quite warmed to March. He knew full well that he was a rogue, but Churchill adopted a pragmatic attitude to such roguishness.)
But wherever his sympathies lay, March had greater motivations than ideology. Above all else, he was out to get what he could get, and it didn't really seem to bother him where he got this from. Though he was informing British intelligence about ship movements, he was also involved with supplying the other side and specifically U-boats belonging to the Austro-Hungarian fleet. In 1915, there was a major international incident when it was discovered that U-boats were sheltering off the island of Cabrera. Across the strait which separates the Cabrera archipelago from Mallorca was and is S'Avall, a finca by Colonia Sant Jordi. Its owner? Joan March.
There was a suspicion that the Spanish Government was complicit in this affair. It knew what March was doing and allowed him to do it. Or so it was believed, and indeed it is hard to believe that it was unaware of the U-boats. Churchill, then still First Lord of the Admiralty, insisted that the Spanish took some action. And it did. It expropriated the island of Cabrera from its owner Sebastian Feliu, citing reasons of national security. The island is to this day the government's property. The national security was such that a clear violation of neutrality might have posed a threat to Spain. It is highly doubtful that the British would have actually declared war on Spain, if only because the Italians were coming in on the Allies side at that time, and so it would have been counterproductive. Besides which, the swift action of the Spanish allayed fears that they were not acting in good faith when it came to being neutral. Nevertheless, it was the unscrupulous opportunist March who nearly messed things up.
But March wasn't the only one who threatened to compromise Spain and Mallorca's position by seeking some gain through collaboration with the Central Powers. The French had good reason to believe that there were a number of people from Sóller, a town with traditionally strong and friendly relations with France, who were engaged in supplying German U-boats off the coast of Mallorca. The newspaper, "Le Petit Marseillais", reported that early into the war there were those in Sóller who were making fuel and other supplies available to the Germans. The paper cited the testimony of a Mallorcan fisherman that several U-boats had been supplied on 20 September. Someone by the name of Vicens was named by the French as heading this conspiracy of collaboration. The French also accused the Maritima Sollerense shipping company of being engaged in the illegal supply of fuel to the Germans. The company protested its innocence, formally complaining to the French consulate in Palma and claiming that, despite neutrality, it and also the people of Sóller were firmly behind the Allies. (Collaboration could of course work in different ways.)
There was a different form of collaboration, one which was also centred on Sóller (and neighbouring Fornalutx). A fruit exporter by the name of Joan Mayol, originally from Fornalutx, had been exporting to Germany and Switzerland before the outbreak of war. He continued to export but only to Switzerland. However, these exports were then sold on to Germany at vast profit. Mayol was convicted under a law that had been drawn up in 1915, was sentenced to five years in prison but later acquitted following the intervention of Jeroni Estades - him again - in his capacity as a parliamentary deputy.
Perhaps there were other collaborators. If there were, it is doubtful that they had any other motive than personal gain. War or no war, Mallorca's entrepreneurs were determined to remain active.
The Mediterranean theatre during the war was well away from the Balearics, but by sheer fact of geography - being in the Mediterranean - Mallorca, despite neutrality, was dragged into the war. And the person who dragged the island in was Joan March. Though March was in effect an agent for the British secret services, he played both sides. It is generally believed that his personal sympathies were with the Allies, and he was, during World War Two, to express to Churchill his desire to assist against the Nazis and the Axis Powers. (Churchill, one understands, quite warmed to March. He knew full well that he was a rogue, but Churchill adopted a pragmatic attitude to such roguishness.)
But wherever his sympathies lay, March had greater motivations than ideology. Above all else, he was out to get what he could get, and it didn't really seem to bother him where he got this from. Though he was informing British intelligence about ship movements, he was also involved with supplying the other side and specifically U-boats belonging to the Austro-Hungarian fleet. In 1915, there was a major international incident when it was discovered that U-boats were sheltering off the island of Cabrera. Across the strait which separates the Cabrera archipelago from Mallorca was and is S'Avall, a finca by Colonia Sant Jordi. Its owner? Joan March.
There was a suspicion that the Spanish Government was complicit in this affair. It knew what March was doing and allowed him to do it. Or so it was believed, and indeed it is hard to believe that it was unaware of the U-boats. Churchill, then still First Lord of the Admiralty, insisted that the Spanish took some action. And it did. It expropriated the island of Cabrera from its owner Sebastian Feliu, citing reasons of national security. The island is to this day the government's property. The national security was such that a clear violation of neutrality might have posed a threat to Spain. It is highly doubtful that the British would have actually declared war on Spain, if only because the Italians were coming in on the Allies side at that time, and so it would have been counterproductive. Besides which, the swift action of the Spanish allayed fears that they were not acting in good faith when it came to being neutral. Nevertheless, it was the unscrupulous opportunist March who nearly messed things up.
But March wasn't the only one who threatened to compromise Spain and Mallorca's position by seeking some gain through collaboration with the Central Powers. The French had good reason to believe that there were a number of people from Sóller, a town with traditionally strong and friendly relations with France, who were engaged in supplying German U-boats off the coast of Mallorca. The newspaper, "Le Petit Marseillais", reported that early into the war there were those in Sóller who were making fuel and other supplies available to the Germans. The paper cited the testimony of a Mallorcan fisherman that several U-boats had been supplied on 20 September. Someone by the name of Vicens was named by the French as heading this conspiracy of collaboration. The French also accused the Maritima Sollerense shipping company of being engaged in the illegal supply of fuel to the Germans. The company protested its innocence, formally complaining to the French consulate in Palma and claiming that, despite neutrality, it and also the people of Sóller were firmly behind the Allies. (Collaboration could of course work in different ways.)
There was a different form of collaboration, one which was also centred on Sóller (and neighbouring Fornalutx). A fruit exporter by the name of Joan Mayol, originally from Fornalutx, had been exporting to Germany and Switzerland before the outbreak of war. He continued to export but only to Switzerland. However, these exports were then sold on to Germany at vast profit. Mayol was convicted under a law that had been drawn up in 1915, was sentenced to five years in prison but later acquitted following the intervention of Jeroni Estades - him again - in his capacity as a parliamentary deputy.
Perhaps there were other collaborators. If there were, it is doubtful that they had any other motive than personal gain. War or no war, Mallorca's entrepreneurs were determined to remain active.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
In Too Deep?: The minister for diving
I feel sorry for Rafael Bosch. It can't be easy being named after a German electrical-goods manufacturer and so having an appellation which suggests that you should be organised, highly efficient and run on time. It becomes even less easy when you manage to make a Bosch botch of things.
Bosch is the Balearics education and culture minister. He also has the dubious honour of being the government's spokesperson, meaning that he is the government's patsy, its fall guy. Whenever he is wheeled out in front of the press, he is left exposed while Count Dracula, the president, lurks in his lair, licking the blood of his innocent colleague-victim and smirking at his misfortune and squirming embarrassment.
Bosch is the government's Explanationfinder-General, its justifier, its spinner. Nice Sr. Bosch, forever cast in the role of governmental moderate, the pleasant, acceptable face of Balearics capitalism and policy-making, thrown to the media wolves as Bauzá sinks his fangs into whatever cut he can make, as the vice-president and finance minister Aguiló emerges periodically from the darkness to issue further edicts of ever more outrageous tax-raising, and as the tourism minister Delgado scurries and scuttles between and in and out of skirting-boards, popping his head out now and then before disappearing for months on end.
The spokesperson duties have been coming thick and fast for Sr. Bosch, and in performing them it hasn't always been certain that he has been on-message. The government's withdrawal from the Ramon Llull Institute was apparently for financial reasons, or so Bauzá had implied. Bosch has said it was for political reasons, which is what everyone knew to be the case.
He finds himself in the midst of a Partido Popular media storm, new corruption allegations attaching themselves to the mayor of Inca, Rafael Torres, the speaker of the Balearic parliament, Pere Rotger, and the former and briefly secretary of the party, José María Rodríguez. This is scandal in the good, old-fashioned tradition of political scandal in the Balearics, but Bosch, normally used to commenting on news in that he tries and explains what on earth the government is up to, now finds that he is the news and in the midst of a media storm as great if not greater than that closing in on the PP because of the corruption accusations.
Bosch and the minister for the environment, Biel Company, have both been found to have been making summer visits to the island of Cabrera. In themselves, these visits are absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. However, both ministers are being accused of having made private trips using public funds. To make matters worse, there are suggestions of gorging on lobster and washing it down with Moët, all at the taxpayer's expense. Bosch has said that his trips were for educational purposes, and he has been seen diving in the waters around Cabrera apparently as part of putting together an educational video.
Unfortunately for Bosch, no one much is buying his explanation. There has never been, or so it would seem, any budget for the making of this video. Bosch has said that he has been looking for a sponsor, which is odd for an education minister who was meant to be undertaking a trip for educational purposes. And as the story unfolds and the clouds of the media storm darken, more is emerging, for example the fact that two public employees had to be paid for overtime while accompanying Bosch and Company. This - the overtime - is not in line with Bauzá austerity policy.
The president, not entirely out of the woods because of the supposed incompatibility of his business affairs, hasn't exactly been rushing to voice his support for Bosch, who is therefore increasingly being cast adrift. One could understand if Bosch, who has to defend government policies, might feel slightly let down. But the Bauzá presidency is of course all about clean politics, which is why there are corruption allegations surrounding individuals associated with the current administration.
This is a government fast giving the impression of drowning. Bosch is one of the more likable figures in government, Company the most popular minister (according to a recent poll anyway). Yet here they are, embroiled in a ridiculous affair coming on top of the corruption allegations, the president's own embarrassment over his business affairs and the loss of two health ministers in under four months.
The resignation of both ministers has been called for in certain quarters. Either or both may yet decide to resign, even if the affair is relatively minor in the scale of things. Bosch may not be in so deep that he can't escape the consequences of his watery hole. Or maybe he is simply out of his depth. Sadly, he wouldn't be the only one.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Bosch is the Balearics education and culture minister. He also has the dubious honour of being the government's spokesperson, meaning that he is the government's patsy, its fall guy. Whenever he is wheeled out in front of the press, he is left exposed while Count Dracula, the president, lurks in his lair, licking the blood of his innocent colleague-victim and smirking at his misfortune and squirming embarrassment.
Bosch is the government's Explanationfinder-General, its justifier, its spinner. Nice Sr. Bosch, forever cast in the role of governmental moderate, the pleasant, acceptable face of Balearics capitalism and policy-making, thrown to the media wolves as Bauzá sinks his fangs into whatever cut he can make, as the vice-president and finance minister Aguiló emerges periodically from the darkness to issue further edicts of ever more outrageous tax-raising, and as the tourism minister Delgado scurries and scuttles between and in and out of skirting-boards, popping his head out now and then before disappearing for months on end.
The spokesperson duties have been coming thick and fast for Sr. Bosch, and in performing them it hasn't always been certain that he has been on-message. The government's withdrawal from the Ramon Llull Institute was apparently for financial reasons, or so Bauzá had implied. Bosch has said it was for political reasons, which is what everyone knew to be the case.
He finds himself in the midst of a Partido Popular media storm, new corruption allegations attaching themselves to the mayor of Inca, Rafael Torres, the speaker of the Balearic parliament, Pere Rotger, and the former and briefly secretary of the party, José María Rodríguez. This is scandal in the good, old-fashioned tradition of political scandal in the Balearics, but Bosch, normally used to commenting on news in that he tries and explains what on earth the government is up to, now finds that he is the news and in the midst of a media storm as great if not greater than that closing in on the PP because of the corruption accusations.
Bosch and the minister for the environment, Biel Company, have both been found to have been making summer visits to the island of Cabrera. In themselves, these visits are absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. However, both ministers are being accused of having made private trips using public funds. To make matters worse, there are suggestions of gorging on lobster and washing it down with Moët, all at the taxpayer's expense. Bosch has said that his trips were for educational purposes, and he has been seen diving in the waters around Cabrera apparently as part of putting together an educational video.
Unfortunately for Bosch, no one much is buying his explanation. There has never been, or so it would seem, any budget for the making of this video. Bosch has said that he has been looking for a sponsor, which is odd for an education minister who was meant to be undertaking a trip for educational purposes. And as the story unfolds and the clouds of the media storm darken, more is emerging, for example the fact that two public employees had to be paid for overtime while accompanying Bosch and Company. This - the overtime - is not in line with Bauzá austerity policy.
The president, not entirely out of the woods because of the supposed incompatibility of his business affairs, hasn't exactly been rushing to voice his support for Bosch, who is therefore increasingly being cast adrift. One could understand if Bosch, who has to defend government policies, might feel slightly let down. But the Bauzá presidency is of course all about clean politics, which is why there are corruption allegations surrounding individuals associated with the current administration.
This is a government fast giving the impression of drowning. Bosch is one of the more likable figures in government, Company the most popular minister (according to a recent poll anyway). Yet here they are, embroiled in a ridiculous affair coming on top of the corruption allegations, the president's own embarrassment over his business affairs and the loss of two health ministers in under four months.
The resignation of both ministers has been called for in certain quarters. Either or both may yet decide to resign, even if the affair is relatively minor in the scale of things. Bosch may not be in so deep that he can't escape the consequences of his watery hole. Or maybe he is simply out of his depth. Sadly, he wouldn't be the only one.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Whales off Cabrera
At least three whales have been seen off the island of Cabrera. While the sighting of whales is not uncommon - the current sighting is the fourth since 2004 - the fact that the whales are feeding rather than just passing through is.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Napoleon Did Surrender
Good God, he's back again. Is there nowhere that does not provide a photo opportunity for Enviro Man? The latest jaunt? There amidst some scrubland in the S'Albufereta, along with the mayors of Alcúdia and Pollensa. Environment minister Grimalt sharing the camera lens with his mayoral compatriots in the Unió Mallorquina, all in the name of environmental recuperation.
Albufereta, in case you don't know, is the little Albufera to be found to the side of the coastal road between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa. Basically, it's much the same as the Albufera of Playa de Muro except much smaller, without a reception centre and without anything remotely worth looking at. It is an area that has, apparently, been classified as a recuperation priority by the European Union. Over a hundred thousand euros have been earmarked for the first phase - that of getting rid of rubbish that has accumulated and re-establishing the water land area known as Can Cullerassa which takes its name, or is it the other way round, from the stretch of beach and which also lends its name to the restaurant, albeit that this is called Can Cuarassa - not sure how that works, but apparently it is so.
It was reassuring that the photo opp in the "Diario" did not show Enviro Man and his fellow camera fodder wearing masks. Back in March, it was revealed that there was a bit of a problem with E.coli in the water of Albufereta, something which led to a sign being covered with the word "contaminado", which one assumed was not an official addition to the sign.
In a quite different matter environmental, Enviro Man's ministry, according to "The Bulletin", is coming in for a bit of a bashing from the local Chamber of Commerce for refusing to grant permission for the island of Cabrera to be used as a location for a film with Al Pacino about Napoleon. This is in fact the long-awaited adaptation of the children's book by Staton Rabin, "Betsy And The Emperor", which will also feature Emma Watson, as Betsy. I say "long-awaited" only because the film has been talked about for at least four years.
Cabrera is the largest of the small archipelago off the southern coast of Mallorca, all of which is deemed to be a nature reserve, one to which there is little by way of excursion. The regular population of Cabrera is under 100, and the ecosystem is considered that fragile that diving is forbidden. But the argument goes that filming there would not have any harmful effect, which may possibly be true, while production teams are generally pretty assiduous when it comes to tidying up after themselves and are also not unknown for being quite generous in terms of paying for locations, a possible additional source of revenue, therefore, for promoting the island, one might have thought. Moreover, goes the argument, using Cabrera would be beneficial in showing off some excellent landscape and thus attracting further tourism. Which may also be true, but not for Cabrera as such, while cinema-goers would probably need to know that Napoleon was on an island off Mallorca and not on an island in the Atlantic, as the film will be about his exile in St. Helena.
Maybe though the objection has to do with the fact that Enviro Man would not himself appear; for newspaper photographers read also film camera crews. But it might be possible for him to get a walk-on as an extra or something, planting a sign to the effect of "this scene sponsored by the Balearic Government's environment ministry on the island of Cabrera near to Mallorca". That might do the trick, so long as no-one comes along and adds "contaminado" to the sign.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Sugababes, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns6SdC8TQuQ. Today's title - and it is on the night of their great win that a story does lie, but not one I'm about to tell you.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Albufereta, in case you don't know, is the little Albufera to be found to the side of the coastal road between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa. Basically, it's much the same as the Albufera of Playa de Muro except much smaller, without a reception centre and without anything remotely worth looking at. It is an area that has, apparently, been classified as a recuperation priority by the European Union. Over a hundred thousand euros have been earmarked for the first phase - that of getting rid of rubbish that has accumulated and re-establishing the water land area known as Can Cullerassa which takes its name, or is it the other way round, from the stretch of beach and which also lends its name to the restaurant, albeit that this is called Can Cuarassa - not sure how that works, but apparently it is so.
It was reassuring that the photo opp in the "Diario" did not show Enviro Man and his fellow camera fodder wearing masks. Back in March, it was revealed that there was a bit of a problem with E.coli in the water of Albufereta, something which led to a sign being covered with the word "contaminado", which one assumed was not an official addition to the sign.
In a quite different matter environmental, Enviro Man's ministry, according to "The Bulletin", is coming in for a bit of a bashing from the local Chamber of Commerce for refusing to grant permission for the island of Cabrera to be used as a location for a film with Al Pacino about Napoleon. This is in fact the long-awaited adaptation of the children's book by Staton Rabin, "Betsy And The Emperor", which will also feature Emma Watson, as Betsy. I say "long-awaited" only because the film has been talked about for at least four years.
Cabrera is the largest of the small archipelago off the southern coast of Mallorca, all of which is deemed to be a nature reserve, one to which there is little by way of excursion. The regular population of Cabrera is under 100, and the ecosystem is considered that fragile that diving is forbidden. But the argument goes that filming there would not have any harmful effect, which may possibly be true, while production teams are generally pretty assiduous when it comes to tidying up after themselves and are also not unknown for being quite generous in terms of paying for locations, a possible additional source of revenue, therefore, for promoting the island, one might have thought. Moreover, goes the argument, using Cabrera would be beneficial in showing off some excellent landscape and thus attracting further tourism. Which may also be true, but not for Cabrera as such, while cinema-goers would probably need to know that Napoleon was on an island off Mallorca and not on an island in the Atlantic, as the film will be about his exile in St. Helena.
Maybe though the objection has to do with the fact that Enviro Man would not himself appear; for newspaper photographers read also film camera crews. But it might be possible for him to get a walk-on as an extra or something, planting a sign to the effect of "this scene sponsored by the Balearic Government's environment ministry on the island of Cabrera near to Mallorca". That might do the trick, so long as no-one comes along and adds "contaminado" to the sign.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Sugababes, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns6SdC8TQuQ. Today's title - and it is on the night of their great win that a story does lie, but not one I'm about to tell you.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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