Rebuilding Bridges In Alcúdia

Are there really 28 bridges over Alcúdia's waterways? Perhaps there are. I confess I have never bothered counting them, but I'll accept that the number is accurate just as I'll accept that it will cost 1.2 million euros to return them to a condition that might warrant their being called bridges. How long have we had to wait for movement on this? Far too long.

The bridges, as with the canals and the lakes, are not ultimately the responsibility of the town hall. The Costas Authority is responsible. This division of the national environment ministry, far away in Madrid, has appeared to wish to take absolutely no responsibility for the bridges. Until now. Why, though, it is really necessary to get Madrid actively involved is a good question. There is, after all, an entire delegation of the Costas knocking around the Balearics. What do they do with themselves?

Madrid it is, though, and so it was to Madrid that Coloma Terrasa went, accompanied by one of her mayoral predecessors, Miquel Ramis, in order to meet the sub-director for the Costas, Angel Muñoz. (It can't have been deemed that important if it was only the sub-director.)

But Sr. Muñoz will be getting the authority to cough up the 1.2 million euros for the 28 bridges, and work on them is scheduled to start after the coming tourism season. The work cannot be done during the season, said Coloma, as it would "cause inconvenience to tourists and residents". And she was right to say this of course, though why she said nothing to similar effect when work was going on at the new Viva hotel last summer one doesn't quite know.

The work to be done on the bridges will represent a "partial" renovation of the area: 30% of a total budget that is due to be spent on the whole pedestrian area around the lakes and canals. When the remaining 70% of the budget will be made available is not known. Nor is it known what it will actually be spent on. However, one can always refer to the town's touristic development plan 2014-2015 to get some clues. Under this plan, a recreational zone is supposedly going to be created by the big lake (Lago Esperanza) and new "touristic attractions" will be created "with the Lago Menor and canal spaces", whatever this means. There is also scope for the "revitalisation of the Avenida Pedro Mas y Reus zone".

It's an interesting document, this plan. The ideas for the Mile (Pedro Mas y Reus) include a plan for its modernisation: not of the infrastructure but of the businesses. Really: that is what it says. Which businesses do you suppose they have in mind? And how do you think they are proposing that this modernisation might be effected? Answer: there are no proposals. Just an idea.

Anyway, a revitalisation "action" for the Mile is the control of the "venta ambulante ilegal": that's looky-looky men and lady hair braiders to you and me. The control is such that it seems that many of the lookies have decided to get off the streets and make a damn nuisance of themselves around the pools in Bellevue. And, because there are few if any physical obstacles to prevent them from doing so, they can get access to holidaymakers with ease. Trip Advisor reviews note this activity: yet another black mark against Bellevue. Where are the security personnel to kick them off?

By The Old Canal

Further to yesterday's piece regarding the "Acampallengua", there was a bit of controversy surrounding the Sa Pobla event. The vice-president of the Obra Cultural Balear, the organisation that promotes the Catalan language and culture, was detained for a couple of hours by the Guardia on the Sunday morning whilst the night party was in full swing. Quite why is unclear, though the Guardia suggest that there may have been some sort of "disobedience". The president of the organisation dubbed it an "absurd provocation". (Quotes in translation from the report in "The Diario".)


The canals and bridges of Puerto Alcúdia have sometimes been subjected to criticism by tourists. The bridges themselves are in need of upgrading, something everyone pretty much accepts, and now the Costas authority, which is responsible for the canals, the lakes and the bridges, has presented a plan costing close on 5 million euros to upgrade the walkways and the canals. The original project that formed the lakes and canals from Albufera was intended to create a "little Venice", and the further development will require some expropriation, for example, from Bellevue. The creation of new walkways and possibly also bridges for the Lago Esperanza (the big lake) was talked about well over a year ago when a plan was also put forward for the lake to become a canoeing centre. While an upgrade in appearance and in facilities is to be welcomed, the thing that may remain a point of concern is the cleanliness of the canals. The odd plastic bottle here or there is almost to be expected, but when whole rubbish bins get deposited it means that someone needs to be doing the rounds rather more regularly than they seem to. One hopes that they also have a plan to keep them up to standard and also to keep the fountains going, all year if necessary, in order to create better water circulation. The other aspect of both the lakes and the canals that really should be addressed, but probably won't be, is the mosquito population. And with regard to mosquitoes, they seem to be bigger and more abundant than ever this spring.


Coming back to all-inclusives and tour operators etc., I'm grateful to Anne Marie for pointing out the some time erroneous information that tour-operator reps give out. She cites the example of one rep who explained to a coach load that the "old town of Alcúdia and its walls had been built by the Romans in the 11th century". Apart from the fact that the Roman Empire had collapsed several centuries previously, by the 11th century Alcúdia was under Islamic control, and it was from Arabic that the town's name was derived.

Not all reps are useless. There are some experienced reps who are extremely knowledegable and would never have made such a mistake, but unfortunately too many are ill-informed or maybe just take no notice of what information they are provided with. Whatever. Many tourists may not be interested in local culture and history, but the tour operators and their personnel still have a duty, or should have, to present the area correctly.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Trevor Horn and Paul Morley. Today's title - this comes from a song strongly associated with Ireland but was in fact written about Salford.

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Gonna Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse

"Make them an offer they can't refuse." Some hope perhaps. It's probably all too easy to decline the offer, the special offer. Under current circumstances, that is. And those circumstances will be why there has been an advert in the "Diario". What's the offer? Hotel rooms; hotel rooms in August. Want to know which ones? Try these: Uyal and Daina in Puerto Pollensa; Platja Daurada and Yate in Can Picafort; Cala San Vicente and Molins in Cala San Vicente. I daresay there are other offers circulating. It's not as if these are lousy hotels; they're not. Quite the contrary. As so often I was asked how I thought the season was going the other day. It was by Maria who runs Cas Capella and other places in Alcúdia. I mentioned the advert. "Daina!?" Yes, the Daina. I guess there are places you would just always expect to be full. Offers in early season or after August, but during August ...

While there were no offers in the ad for Alcúdia hotels, it isn't the case that everything is hunky-dory. It was the tourist office that had pointed out the ad to me, so I asked about occupancy. Two per cent down in July apparently. Ok, may not sound a lot, but it's still a couple of points less. For July. And that comes from the figures the town hall receives. One kind of suspects they may not be the whole picture, but that's only a suspicion. While the larger resorts may just be able to absorb lower numbers (though even that is obviously questionable), a place like Cala San Vicente is going to be struggling if two of its better hotels are having to offer specials. The all-inclusive Simar and Don Pedro may have the bodies but those bodies are unlikely to be the spenders of a Cala San Vicente or Molins hotel.


CANAL UPDATE
Clean. In fact as I was going past the grand canal and then up to the Sea Club entrance, the fountains were in full shower, and all seemed perfectly agreeable. And it was. You see some of what goes into this blog is in response to mutterings, such as "oh the state of the canals"; hence I go look and find what appeared yesterday. Then it's all fine again. I guess there's always going to be something that isn't just right, but hats off presumably to the costas as there were no bottles, no cups and certainly no dead fish.

But just to prove that not all is right and well in the world of waterways, there comes the little local difficulty in Pollensa regarding the obnoxious smells at night from the torrent Sant Jordi. In the "Diario" neighbours close to the torrent in the port area are quoted as saying that at times they can hardly breathe because of the smell. The town hall - in the form of the mayor - denies that there any nasties floating along its length and that water-treatment is functioning correctly. The government environment ministry (them again) also says that it is functioning correctly and adds that it isn't actually their problem anyway, it's the town hall's, who in turn say everything's ok. Well fine, except it isn't, as the neighbours can apparently testify to. Why do I have the impression that the division of responsibility may not be functioning as well as the water treatment is allegedly meant to be?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Simon and Garfunkel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbFEnoITiWE). Today's title - soul singer who was also a part of what really was a rather good R&B/dance group of the '90s?

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Bridge Over Troubled Water

"Miles and miles of unbroken golden sands, shimmering turquoise sea, deep-azure skies of endless summer sun, and canals attractively landscaped with the contents of a rubbish container." Knew it. Should have been a brochure-writer after all.

One thing that does exercise the minds of internet-forum critics of Alcúdia is the state of the canals and the occasional bridge as well. Not without some justification. The canals, in theory, lend the resort a flavour of Venetian-lite aquatic ambience. The fountains that spring on and off assist in water circulation, but they only do so much. They cannot contain the mosquito larvae and the litter, merely help to push it to the edges. The photo above is not untypical. Where was it taken? Opposite the reception to Sea Club. Nice vista for those pulling up in the coaches. The other day I watched the rather unedifying sight of some young boys attempting to hook a large and very dead fish out of the canal between the two parts of Sea Club. Sort of thing kids get a kick out of, and maybe get something else out of if they come into physical contact.

Perhaps we shouldn't get too precious. Canals everywhere were designed for people to chuck things into them. Though this may well be one of their main raison d'êtres, it doesn't mean they shouldn't get cleaned. Well they do - sometimes. But by whom? Now I always thought, as I imagine others would as well, that this was all down to the local town hall. Apparently it isn't. Alcúdia council, like others, has its own environment division, but one wonders quite what they do with themselves all day, as - so I am told - the canals are the responsibility of the mythical "costas". For many the word "costas" will summon up images of the Spanish del Sols and Blancas etc., but it is also a word that strikes fear into many. The "costas", as the name suggests, are the government's beach police, but have engaged in some inland acquisition as well. From what I can make out they are actually part of the government environment ministry, presumably the local Mallorcan one in this instance. This is the same environment ministry that would happily clear the beaches of any semblance of human development in pursuit of the protection of nature but seemingly can't get round to regularly removing empty bottles of Saint Mick or Pepsi cups from the canals. And the bridges over the canals? Same deal it would appear. Alcúdia town hall? Not my job, mate.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Green Day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKOwGffqlbM). Today's title - er, is there anyone who doesn't know this?

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Bits And Pieces

So, even more by way of updates. This time the canal incident and the Beep Romanian row.

Someone came through anon with a comment appended to the piece on 19 May, saying that he or she had seen the car at 6.30 in the morning sticking out of the canal and, moreover, had seen the way the police handled the episode, by essentially letting all and sundry have a good look at what was going on with the forensics. I don't know what that really tells us, but I would guess that elsewhere, let's say the UK, it might have been dealt with a tad more discreetly. Apart from the voyeuristic, the general Joe or Jose Public has no need to be presented with death and an incident of this nature in such a way.

This is the comment in full: "I saw the car sticking out of the canal at 6.30am. I couldn't believe the time it took to get that poor girl out of the canal and how laid back the police were in letting passers-by look in and witness them taking her out and doing forensic tests on her in full view of the public.. It was both shocking and very sad."

And so to the Beep story (14 May). It did occur to me that there might be something more behind that sign than a mere dislike of Romanians. But there was nothing that I read in the press other than the facts of the sign and the resultant hoo-hah. So I'm very grateful to Nicole for pointing out that the shop had had 3000 euros worth of laptop lifted by a couple of Romanians, and that they were caught on camera but had not been tracked down - yet.

Well, I can understand the store owner being somewhat annoyed. When I had the break-in and the expensive camera was lifted, I wasn't exactly overjoyed. But had the police ever discovered who did it and had that person been of eastern European origin (for sake of argument), it would not have made me harbour the view that all people from that area were burglars. The point about the sign was that, by implication, Romanians were being branded thieves or potential thieves. You cannot do that. And if you were allowed to do so, therein would lie the roots of civil disorder to say nothing of sanctioned racism.

But I am doubly grateful to Nicole as it highlights the risk that we all, myself included, take received information either of a biased or a partial nature (and by partial here I mean in the sense of being incomplete) and form a judgement that may not be accurate. We interpret that information to suit our world view, even if some of us strive for a balance rather than seeing merely black or white. But I admit that I read the story and formed a distinct impression. In fact initially I laughed as it was so preposterous, but then I could conceive of only one word - racism. I still hold with that, but to begin with I had acted without the knowledge of some background. Had the fact of the theft been reported at the time, it would not have changed that impression; indeed it may well have hardened it. At least, however, I would have been acting on complete(-ish) or verging towards complete rather than partial information. For what it's worth though, sympathetic as I am to the store-owner in terms of the theft and of his frustration, I cannot excuse him his action.

There is a whole wider issue here, and it is the fact that rarely do any of us know the full story, and yet we make conclusions, utter opinions, become dogmatic with the benefit of only bits or pieces of information or, worse, information that is flawed, prejudiced, one-sided, wrong and sometimes malicious. The sources of this partial information are clear - gossip, embellished gossip, newspapers, television, the Internet. We take this partial, biased or manipulated information because we want to, because it suits our world view, our prejudices. The McCanns were/are a classic example.

And yet, were we to stop and wish to check every bit of information, we would get nowhere. There is an inevitability about human discourse, that it is incomplete. Of course it is. But this is not to say that there shouldn't be some responsibility, and no more so than on the Internet. I can feel a very long thesis coming on, so I shall close, but you've been warned: I might just publish it here.


QUIZ
Chain - Led Zeppelin to "Stairway to Heaven" to Heaven 17 who basically were the British Electric Foundation. Simple. And so how do you get from Heaven 17 to "Papa Was A Rolling Stone"? Dead easy. Today's title - who?

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The Canal Accident Story

The lady of the lake. Or the lady of the nearly lake. In fact the lady of the canal. It did rather depend on which report. There was one that would have made it lady of the lake as it said "lago esperanza". Unmistakably, it was canal, though I should not approach this matter in this way. It's not right. I'll stop it now.

Imagine you live near to a canal, or could be a stream or even a small river. And imagine you get up in the morning and find the rear of a car sticking out of the water. Well, that's pretty much what happened. How it was found. The exact circumstances are not clear, though one can guess. What is known is that the car left the road by the canal, the road being the Avenida Italia by the Jokers pub near the Viva Sunrise hotel - off The Mile in other words in Puerto Alcúdia. The car embedded its front into the canal bed, the doors jammed, the car flooded, the woman driver drowned. Not all the canals are that deep, but you don't need to drive into the Marianas Trench to drown, a foot or so can be sufficient, though the canal in question was some two metres in depth.

This is not the first time a car has gone into a canal in Alcúdia. It happened a few weeks back, not far from the fatal incident of the week just past. Then, the driver got out. Not this time. One cannot jump to the wrong conclusion, but it is kind of possible to appreciate how this can happen. Go a bit too quickly, not be aware of the sharpness of some of the bends and corners by the canals and ... splash, or worse.

The canals of Alcúdia, made to prettify the place, and to link the lakes and the sea are not always as benign a feature as one might hope. Sometimes they clog up, sometimes they whiff, sometimes the fountains don't function and sometimes someone ends up in one, either in a car or without the aid of motor transport. When was it? Three years ago perhaps. A friend of a friend was fished out. Had fallen in and had not got out until the body was retrieved. And the other day, one early morning, someone in a car hit a curb, jumped that curb and died; died in an awful way.


QUIZ
Yesterday's chain - 10cc to Graham Gouldman to "For Your Love" (which he wrote) to The Yardbirds and therefore to Led Zeppelin. Yesterday's title - Chesney Hawkes. And, smallish world time, it seems that Geoff went to school with Chesney's dad who was of course in The Tremeloes. No quiz today - doesn't quite seem appropriate.

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