Sixteen Military Wives

This is where it starts. The season. Except where it starts on 15, 16 May or even 1 June. The season is more stuttering into action rather than bursting out all over. Typically, everything would be open today and all staff would have been taken on. But not everything is open and those hoofing the streets asking for work may be luckier in June, but even then they will only get four months work. Welcome, season 2009, wherever you are. And some pretty bad news - they're predicting a hot summer in the UK. No, no, no, it will rain. Heavily and often. And it will be cold, very cold. Forget it, ignore it, these forecasts are never right.


The opening to the general public of the military area of Cap des Pinar in Alcúdia has been agreed between the town hall and the ministry of defence. This area, on the northern tip of the town past La Victoria, has been a no-go area for some years. It will still be off-limits from the sea, but access by land will be allowed during the months of June to September, though the numbers allowed in at any one time will be restricted; the environment ministry is also party to the agreement. A commission of the Balearic parliament is addressing the issue as to the civil use of both Cap des Pinar and the military base in Puerto Pollensa.

These two military zones are quite different. Cap des Pinar is remote. Any civil use would be limited by its sheer inaccessibility and so would, presumably, be confined to ramblers and the like. The Puerto Pollensa base, on the other hand, sits on the bay of Pollensa at the far end of the pinewalk. Apart from the Canadair fire-fighting planes, it might not immediately be apparent that there was some sort of installation there, military or civilian. But it represents a sizeable chunk of real estate, and has a history stretching back to the 1930s. One imagines that many a developer would drool at the prospect of getting hold of it. Not that this is likely to happen. Or is it?

What civil use could it be put to? I'm unclear as to how a military base can become some sort of civilian-military hybrid. By definition, a military base is for the military, with all that this entails. If the public were to be permitted to use it, for reasons as yet unspecified, then why keep it as a military base? Yet, how military actually is it? From what I can make out, and I found a piece dating back years from the newspaper "El País" which confirmed this, the base is essentially a centre for schooling in rescue and for housing (if that's the correct word) the Canadairs. And it is also a summer retreat for Spanish military and for those from other countries. All in all, it doesn't sound like it is a particularly sensitive base. There again, if the military believe that it is important, then it may well be. When the King's son, Crown-Prince Felipe, came to the base a couple of weeks ago, there was a great deal more aerial activity than would be normal. One view was that this was all intended as a sort of demonstration of the base's importance. I couldn't comment either way, except to note that even an essentially non-sensitive base, as Pollensa appears to be, could be activated for something rather more serious were the need to ever arise. And that, I suppose, would be the military view.

The context of all this is, as mentioned back on 25 February, that there was a political agreement in 2007 that Spanish military bases would be open to civilian use. Now, the Partido Popular is proposing that there be a study of all military bases in the Balearics and their ongoing "strategic interest". There may not be any strategic interest in having a military holiday camp, but personally it doesn't bother me that military personnel have somewhere to take a pleasant holiday. But they may have to get used to sharing their holiday space with those from Civvy Street, though what these civilians would actually do once they were there I haven't a clue. And ultimately, they may have to get used to taking a holiday somewhere else.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Living In A Box (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHt_GzOgjvA). Today's title - rather more than 16, but they all like holidaying in Puerto Pollensa. Who is this? The band is named after an attempted revolution. And the song ... La-di-dah ...

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Travellin' Soldier

Well, well, well, what do you know? Misery and gloom on the tourism front and then this ... the worst January for tourism to Spain in 15 years and yet the Balearics managed to register an increase in visitors of close on 6%. Let's not get carried away, but any positive sign is worth noting. We do, though, have to place this in context, and that context is as follows: in January, 153,000 tourists came to the Balearics, while the Canaries boasted 782,000. The latter may have seen a decline last month, but the difference in the totals tells us an awful lot. Do visitors in January go to the Canaries for the culture and the gastronomy? I don't think so. Much as there is all this desire to see alternatives to the sun and beach holiday, one only has to consider the respective January figures for the Balearics and the Canaries to see where the priorities lie.


You may be aware that there are no-go areas in Alcúdia and Pollensa. These aren't the local housing projects or sink estates; they are the military zones. That of Puerto Pollensa is pretty obvious. Just past the Playa Mar hotel there is the sign. You can't go in there unless you're from a NATO ally; then you can and have yourself a nice holiday. I forget the numbers now. 40,000 a year. Can that be right? Sounds like a lot. You wonder just what sort of military base is a holiday home for that sort of number. The base is also home to something non-military, the Canadair fire-fighting planes.

Rather less obvious is the military area in Alcúdia, which is at Cap des Pinar, which is the bit at the tip past La Victoria before you turn and start to head down towards Coll Baix and Alcanada. There are a couple of small, secluded beaches around there. Might be very nice, except if you get within 200 metres of the shore you might find yourself being target practice. Perhaps NATO troops and their families based in Puerto Pollensa go on excursions to them.

Back in 2007, it would seem, it was agreed that Spanish military bases would be open to civilian use. The Balearic Government seems not to have noticed. Apparently its parliament is the only one not to have adopted this. So, opposition groups in the parliament have asked that maybe it should be and that possibilities as to civilian use are looked into.

But would you really want them for civilian purposes? Indeed, what would these purposes be? Another tex-mex restaurant almost certainly. And I have a question. If all this NATO personnel really is turning up for hols in Puerto Pollensa, where do they go? Are these travelling soldiers all in the local bars? Or. Or, is it that they don't need to go out. Could it be that they have an all-inclusive deal?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Pigmeat Markham from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Today's title - how long have I waited for an excuse for this (as in the most popular version of the song)? Brilliant, beautiful, sad ... an all-time great song, and one associated with what politically-related controversy?

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