It was almost wistful. But not that much. Passing the school where in May I had cast my vote in the municipal election, I pined, only momentarily, to be allowed to re-enter. As one of the great disenfranchised diaspora I could not. National elections are for nationals. I'm still minded to believe that this is actually how it should be, but one misses the thrills, such as they are, of the Spanish voting system and the confusion for those attending the "tables" when presented with a foreigner who has two Christian names and one surname. Several moments of amusement ensue.
The attendees of these tables are not volunteers. Long before the current days of citizens participating left, right and centre (though mainly left), they decided to make it like jury service. If you're unlucky enough to have your name picked out, then you have to go and do your citizen's duty. I'm unsure if this means if I, or many of those of you reading this, might one day suffer the same fate. Given that the vote is denied, it seems a tad preposterous to demand table attendance. A mate of mine in Barcelona has had to. I must ask him if this was for the general or other elections. Either way, he can only vote for Ada Colau (or not) and not for Artur Mas, so he was doing his duty for something which he can only partially participate in. There must surely be a message here somewhere for the participative new age, or are foreigners classed as citizens or not?
It would make life an awful lot simpler if everywhere in Spain was like Villarroya in La Rioja. There, they don't have to drag everything out for eleven hours before getting down to the results. As there are only six voters out of nine inhabitants of this municipality (one of whom must be the Partido Popular mayor), the polling station was opened and closed within a minute. How many citizens had been called on to attend the tables, one wonders. Presumably, the voters and the table attendants were one and the same.
This was one of the little anecdotes that made a long day vaguely bearable, another one having been the three voters who turned up early doors in Ibiza only to find that there were no table attendants, so they made themselves into attendants, which was very decent of them. True citizen spirit. And participative, to boot.
Spanish election day starts with a bang as the media troops around getting snaps of principal candidates and other political prominenti smiling and casting their votes. Or in the case of Barcelona's mayor Ada Colau not casting her vote, as she had forgotten her ID. Might the police have a word with her? Is it not obligatory to carry this at all times? There were also the traditional photos of nuns voting. Does the church issue its recommendations? Mariano it might be expected to be, but when there's a chap whose name translates as Churches, he must have been good for a few votes among the religious community.
The greatest media scrum was for Mr. Churches, Pablo Iglesias. He was positively beaming, having tweeted earlier that he hoped citizens had risen with a smile and were off to perform their duty for change. There was to be proof that they had, the Podemos Twitter account replete with the happy, smiling faces of those both old and young. The new age was here, and it was all over Twitter. Pablo had gone to the polling station with his chum Íñigo Errejón, a Podemos co-founder, who doesn't look old enough to vote. By about six years. He is actually 32, so fifteen years older than the boy in Badajoz who had turned up wanting to vote and was politely told that he would have to wait nine days until he was 18.
Once this early election euphoria died down, the day dragged on, lightened only by announcements as to turnout. Eventually, this was to be up. Which was reassuring for the advocates of citizen participation. When the end finally came, exit polls were saying what was to be confirmed. It was Podemos who had been the real winners in the head-to-head between the new boys and girls. The opinion polls had got that part wrong.
All that remained was for the leaders' rallying speeches, arranged in pecking order so that they didn't clash. Mariano had to wait till last, as befits the possibly outgoing premier. Not that Mariano's going anywhere. He plans on forming the next government, despite being deprived of a third of his Congress colleagues.
Having been chained to a computer for the whole day and some of the night, it all ended with a massive headache and neck ache. For Spain, the headache now begins. Not one of a hangover. One of who on earth can now govern.
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Saturday, November 07, 2015
Keeping Quiet About The Tax
Travel fairs don't, as a rule, generate enormous interest except among those attending and who are associated with the travel and tourism industry. They can seem like almost ritualistic affairs for business to talk to business, business to talk to governments, and governments and everyone else to talk to the specialist media. London's World Travel Market was different. Magalluf aside, the general interest lay with the tourist tax.
If there had been an expectation, hope even, that the ExCel was going to be the location for an almighty bust-up, then the expectation was misguided. This was never going to happen. The closest call was the set-to between President Armengol and national tourism minister, José Manuel Soria, a somewhat one-sided affair in any event (with Armengol doing the talking). It was one for Balearic public consumption and was of little interest to anyone else, apart from amused passers-by. Moreover, it wasn't specifically to do with the tax but with the withholding of investment, an arcane matter of internal Spanish regional financing of no interest to anyone else in London. Soria may have called the tax a nonsense or a folly, depending on your translation, but what little interest there might have been in internal Spanish affairs would have been supported by knowledge of the political differences at play. No real story there, then.
Of greater importance than Soria were the tour operators, ABTA and indeed the Balearic hoteliers, none of whom have a good word to say about the tax. But they were saying little in the public forum of the fair. They weren't ever going to kick off a rumpus and a ballyhoo because, much though they might dislike the tax, to draw even more attention to it by engaging in great rows with Barceló and Armengol would have been totally counterproductive. Regardless of the tax, there are holidays to be sold, flights to be filled, contracts to yield returns (and the contracts for the Balearics are more valuable than ever).
So, the tax opponents would have buttoned their lips and pretended that it was all business as usual, which it almost certainly will be, given the forecasts for 2016. Why go and potentially spoil this?
Casting an eye over the British media, there seemed to be comparatively little interest in the tax. "Travel Weekly" managed to mistranslate Soria by insisting that he had called the tax "crazy" when he hadn't. The British media wouldn't of course have laboured a point regarding the IVA (VAT) tourist rate, an increase in which had been an "error", Soria conceded. He, as with other opponents of the tourist tax bang on about the harm it will have for competitiveness, blissfully ignoring the fact that the basic tourist rate was upped while various sectors of the tourism industry, previously in the reduced category, were suddenly subject to 21% IVA.
Hypocritical though this might be, it is perhaps proof that taxes have limited, if any impact on tourists. There again, who pays any real attention to the IVA component of the cost of accommodation, meal or attraction?
Magalluf, it seemed, was of greater interest to the British media. Reports sounded like old hat for those of us here who have become used to Meliá telling us how much they're investing and on what and to the town hall in Calvia saying how much better things are. "The Telegraph" couldn't help pointing out that one of the hotels in the Meliá transformation inventory was the site of a British "balconing" death three years ago, while the same journalist noted that a colleague, who had been in Magalluf in September, had reported that the Punta Ballena "was still packed with drunken revellers". One fancies that it is going to be like this for the next couple of seasons at least: claim and counter-claim as to just how effective or not the changes genuinely are.
If there had been an expectation, hope even, that the ExCel was going to be the location for an almighty bust-up, then the expectation was misguided. This was never going to happen. The closest call was the set-to between President Armengol and national tourism minister, José Manuel Soria, a somewhat one-sided affair in any event (with Armengol doing the talking). It was one for Balearic public consumption and was of little interest to anyone else, apart from amused passers-by. Moreover, it wasn't specifically to do with the tax but with the withholding of investment, an arcane matter of internal Spanish regional financing of no interest to anyone else in London. Soria may have called the tax a nonsense or a folly, depending on your translation, but what little interest there might have been in internal Spanish affairs would have been supported by knowledge of the political differences at play. No real story there, then.
Of greater importance than Soria were the tour operators, ABTA and indeed the Balearic hoteliers, none of whom have a good word to say about the tax. But they were saying little in the public forum of the fair. They weren't ever going to kick off a rumpus and a ballyhoo because, much though they might dislike the tax, to draw even more attention to it by engaging in great rows with Barceló and Armengol would have been totally counterproductive. Regardless of the tax, there are holidays to be sold, flights to be filled, contracts to yield returns (and the contracts for the Balearics are more valuable than ever).
So, the tax opponents would have buttoned their lips and pretended that it was all business as usual, which it almost certainly will be, given the forecasts for 2016. Why go and potentially spoil this?
Casting an eye over the British media, there seemed to be comparatively little interest in the tax. "Travel Weekly" managed to mistranslate Soria by insisting that he had called the tax "crazy" when he hadn't. The British media wouldn't of course have laboured a point regarding the IVA (VAT) tourist rate, an increase in which had been an "error", Soria conceded. He, as with other opponents of the tourist tax bang on about the harm it will have for competitiveness, blissfully ignoring the fact that the basic tourist rate was upped while various sectors of the tourism industry, previously in the reduced category, were suddenly subject to 21% IVA.
Hypocritical though this might be, it is perhaps proof that taxes have limited, if any impact on tourists. There again, who pays any real attention to the IVA component of the cost of accommodation, meal or attraction?
Magalluf, it seemed, was of greater interest to the British media. Reports sounded like old hat for those of us here who have become used to Meliá telling us how much they're investing and on what and to the town hall in Calvia saying how much better things are. "The Telegraph" couldn't help pointing out that one of the hotels in the Meliá transformation inventory was the site of a British "balconing" death three years ago, while the same journalist noted that a colleague, who had been in Magalluf in September, had reported that the Punta Ballena "was still packed with drunken revellers". One fancies that it is going to be like this for the next couple of seasons at least: claim and counter-claim as to just how effective or not the changes genuinely are.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Tourist Tax: Support ebbs away
There's been some talk about a tax. You might just have noticed. If only the government could pretend it was all a ploy to divert attention from other matters. It can't because the tax goes to heart of the government - its differences and divisions, its need for increased revenues, its ideologies.
The government can now count on an ever-diminishing number of allies for the tourist tax. Jumping ship, for example, is the Balearic general public, scandalised at the prospect that it will be considered to be among the tourist classes and be forced to pay what will, in effect, be a hotel tax for residents. One of the government's dwindling band of allies is ARCA, the association for the preservation of historic centres. It has voiced its support this week and added that it would like the tax to be spent on preserving buildings and other structures of a heritage nature. There's something else for Biel Barceló to spend the tax on.
Everyone's now wading into the argument. The British press are at it, and amusingly one Spanish report (which should have known better as it came from a normally intelligent source) said that the left-wing press was taking issue. "The Mail"? Since when has "The Mail" been left-wing? ABTA are now at it as well, while the ranks of Spanish politicians and their confidants who are against the tax have been swelled by Mariano Rajoy's chief economics advisor. He's against it, as you would expect him to be.
It was, in a way, a bit rich for a Rajoy advisor to take issue with a tax on the grounds that it will lead to a loss of competitiveness. What about when the PP raised IVA (VAT) on all manner of tourist-related services? What about when the PP didn't stick to their promise to cut the tourist rate of IVA? Were these going to lead to a loss of tourism competitiveness?
As things have turned out, they haven't, and the experience of the IVA rise, which in some instances was to the tune of 13%, tells its own story, as do the price rises by hotels this year and, more so, next year. And as also does the tax on petrol to help fund the Balearic health service. IVA - Value Added Tax - is a terribly dull subject and its payment is, for the most part, not obvious, even if it has meant a price increase. Hotel prices? Well, these are passed on by the tour operators and included in, for example, the price of a package. The price of the package might go up, but is there a big song and dance? The tax on petrol? Not all tourists hire cars, but those who do and have been doing so for the past few years might not be aware that they have been assisting in paying for the health service when filling up at the petrol station.
There is, of course, a fair question to be asked about that petrol tax. Has it gone to the health service? Who can say. But whether it has or it hasn't, its introduction was by and large ignored by the travel industry and the travel media. IVA, hotel prices, petrol, none of them catch the imagination and cause a frothing at the mouth in the same way as a naked and visible tourist tax does.
The government has been coming out with some pretty strange stuff about the tax, which only goes to reinforce the feeling that the tax simply hasn't been thought through. We have President Armengol banging on, as she constantly does on everything, about there being "dialogue" and there not being "imposition". When so many beg to differ with the government over the tax, imposition seems to be exactly what it is. The president then appeared to imply that the 13.5 million tourists who come to the Balearics will be paying the tax out of the generosity of their hearts. Yes, she used the word "generous" and another which can be interpreted as supportive or even charitable.
To cap it all though, and with the British (and German) media poised to thrust the dagger ever deeper, we have government spokesperson and minister for the presidency, Marc Pons, approaching Inma Benito of the hoteliers' federation to ask her and the hoteliers to form a "common front" so that the foreign tourist markets will understand the necessity for the tax and ensure that it doesn't damage the image of the Balearics as a tourist destination. Well, nothing like trying to get your greatest enemy onside, I suppose, but when Benito is constantly reminding the government of the damage that will be caused, how is she supposed to come over as a credible witness for the government's defence? Pons' approach felt like desperation, as was his insistence that the "citizenship" was in agreement with the tax because of the need for additional financing for the Balearics. The citizenship might well have been, before, that is, it discovered that it would be contributing to this additional financing.
To be fair, both camps can choose their words and examples selectively. The anti-camp, as ABTA have shown, can invoke the damage that the old eco-tax caused and the significant fall in tourism that resulted. The main problem with this is that the fall was nothing like legend has it. As I pointed out in an article a couple of months ago ("Eco-Tax Crash: Myth or not myth"), there was a fall in 2002 of 550,000 tourists, a drop of 7.6%, but this was overwhelmingly because the German market slumped by 16%: the UK's went down by 1.2%. The fact was that the German economy had gone into a short recession, and in 2003, the second year of the eco-tax (it wasn't scrapped until the autumn), tourism grew by almost seven per cent, with the German market up by over 4% and the UK's by 7%. In addition, what is always overlooked is that in 2001, the year before the eco-tax came in, there had also been a drop in tourism numbers.
Even allowing for the fact that the decline was not as disastrous as some would suggest, using the experience of the previous tax helps only so much. There is one very big difference to how things were in 2002, and that is the existence of social media. While the established media (British and German) savaged the tax then and will do so once again, it is social media through which the damage could really be done, and the government is revealing itself to be unprepared to the point of ineptitude for the negative publicity assault. Pons making his approach to the hoteliers is, I would suggest, evidence of this.
The government can now count on an ever-diminishing number of allies for the tourist tax. Jumping ship, for example, is the Balearic general public, scandalised at the prospect that it will be considered to be among the tourist classes and be forced to pay what will, in effect, be a hotel tax for residents. One of the government's dwindling band of allies is ARCA, the association for the preservation of historic centres. It has voiced its support this week and added that it would like the tax to be spent on preserving buildings and other structures of a heritage nature. There's something else for Biel Barceló to spend the tax on.
Everyone's now wading into the argument. The British press are at it, and amusingly one Spanish report (which should have known better as it came from a normally intelligent source) said that the left-wing press was taking issue. "The Mail"? Since when has "The Mail" been left-wing? ABTA are now at it as well, while the ranks of Spanish politicians and their confidants who are against the tax have been swelled by Mariano Rajoy's chief economics advisor. He's against it, as you would expect him to be.
It was, in a way, a bit rich for a Rajoy advisor to take issue with a tax on the grounds that it will lead to a loss of competitiveness. What about when the PP raised IVA (VAT) on all manner of tourist-related services? What about when the PP didn't stick to their promise to cut the tourist rate of IVA? Were these going to lead to a loss of tourism competitiveness?
As things have turned out, they haven't, and the experience of the IVA rise, which in some instances was to the tune of 13%, tells its own story, as do the price rises by hotels this year and, more so, next year. And as also does the tax on petrol to help fund the Balearic health service. IVA - Value Added Tax - is a terribly dull subject and its payment is, for the most part, not obvious, even if it has meant a price increase. Hotel prices? Well, these are passed on by the tour operators and included in, for example, the price of a package. The price of the package might go up, but is there a big song and dance? The tax on petrol? Not all tourists hire cars, but those who do and have been doing so for the past few years might not be aware that they have been assisting in paying for the health service when filling up at the petrol station.
There is, of course, a fair question to be asked about that petrol tax. Has it gone to the health service? Who can say. But whether it has or it hasn't, its introduction was by and large ignored by the travel industry and the travel media. IVA, hotel prices, petrol, none of them catch the imagination and cause a frothing at the mouth in the same way as a naked and visible tourist tax does.
The government has been coming out with some pretty strange stuff about the tax, which only goes to reinforce the feeling that the tax simply hasn't been thought through. We have President Armengol banging on, as she constantly does on everything, about there being "dialogue" and there not being "imposition". When so many beg to differ with the government over the tax, imposition seems to be exactly what it is. The president then appeared to imply that the 13.5 million tourists who come to the Balearics will be paying the tax out of the generosity of their hearts. Yes, she used the word "generous" and another which can be interpreted as supportive or even charitable.
To cap it all though, and with the British (and German) media poised to thrust the dagger ever deeper, we have government spokesperson and minister for the presidency, Marc Pons, approaching Inma Benito of the hoteliers' federation to ask her and the hoteliers to form a "common front" so that the foreign tourist markets will understand the necessity for the tax and ensure that it doesn't damage the image of the Balearics as a tourist destination. Well, nothing like trying to get your greatest enemy onside, I suppose, but when Benito is constantly reminding the government of the damage that will be caused, how is she supposed to come over as a credible witness for the government's defence? Pons' approach felt like desperation, as was his insistence that the "citizenship" was in agreement with the tax because of the need for additional financing for the Balearics. The citizenship might well have been, before, that is, it discovered that it would be contributing to this additional financing.
To be fair, both camps can choose their words and examples selectively. The anti-camp, as ABTA have shown, can invoke the damage that the old eco-tax caused and the significant fall in tourism that resulted. The main problem with this is that the fall was nothing like legend has it. As I pointed out in an article a couple of months ago ("Eco-Tax Crash: Myth or not myth"), there was a fall in 2002 of 550,000 tourists, a drop of 7.6%, but this was overwhelmingly because the German market slumped by 16%: the UK's went down by 1.2%. The fact was that the German economy had gone into a short recession, and in 2003, the second year of the eco-tax (it wasn't scrapped until the autumn), tourism grew by almost seven per cent, with the German market up by over 4% and the UK's by 7%. In addition, what is always overlooked is that in 2001, the year before the eco-tax came in, there had also been a drop in tourism numbers.
Even allowing for the fact that the decline was not as disastrous as some would suggest, using the experience of the previous tax helps only so much. There is one very big difference to how things were in 2002, and that is the existence of social media. While the established media (British and German) savaged the tax then and will do so once again, it is social media through which the damage could really be done, and the government is revealing itself to be unprepared to the point of ineptitude for the negative publicity assault. Pons making his approach to the hoteliers is, I would suggest, evidence of this.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Backlash And Uncertainty: Tourist tax
And so it has begun. With inevitable predictability the British press are on the case - that of the tourist tax. Red top and broadsheet alike, The Mirror, The Mail, The Guardian, they are all flagging up a similar message, and it's one that comes with a price tag. 100 euros, 110 euros. Do I hear more? God help us when Bild and the German press work up a full head of media steam.
It isn't only the press. The poll being run on the Bulletin's website currently has an 86% rejection of the tax. Take a look at forums, such as Trip Advisor's Majorca forum, and you will find similar messages. Principally, they reject the tax, but there is also enormous uncertainty. Is it coming in next year? How much will it be? Neither you nor I can say with certainty. Nor, one fancies, can the government, despite Biel Barceló insisting that it will be "applied" in 2016.
Barceló is fast running out of any goodwill that might have surrounded the introduction of the tax, with the main pocket of this goodwill being home-grown. Opinion surveys have shown that a majority of Mallorcans - those who aren't, for instance, hoteliers - support the tax, and the majority hasn't been fractional: it has been in the order of 70%. For Barceló this could be taken as confirmation of what he referred to, in so many words, as the will of the people. As ever when politicians invoke elections and manifesto pledges, they can distort the will. Were people voting for a tourist tax?
At least Barceló can have a clear conscience. Més, his party, and Podemos both had the tax in their manifestos. PSOE weren't as clear. The tourist tax may become this government's TIL trilingual teaching, but it was a potential that was clearly known about before the elections. TIL was a post-election invention of the Partido Popular. Those who claimed it was a manifesto pledge were either ignorant, lying or both: it was not.
So, perhaps Barceló is right, up to a point, in suggesting that the tax was an election "winner", if only with some elements of the electorate. Now, however, he faces a backlash. To avoid potential European challenges and sanctions, the tax cannot discriminate. If you are a resident of Mallorca and you want to spend a weekend in a hotel, you will also pay the tax. The Spanish have a word. "Tontería." Foolishness. An utter nonsense. There has been another survey. Should residents have to pay? No, they should not. The majority is overwhelming.
It is a nonsense, and it is one to which the leader of Podemos, Alberto Jarabo, has made reference, albeit in the context of the frankly insane notion of attempting to collect the tax at airports and ports. Jarabo has said that the tax should be on those who are subsidised in their use of services, resources and infrastructure by local taxpayers. His choice of words was somewhat strident, but the sentiment, the principle is not, in my opinion, totally wrong. If there is any justification for a tourist tax, it is on the moral base of everyone, tourists included, contributing directly to resources that they consume, such as water, and to services from which they benefit, e.g. health provision.
But then Jarabo is alluding to yet another purpose for the tax, one that differs from Barceló and his undefined uses for innovation, resort improvements and the environment. It differs also from President Armengol who appears to believe that the tax will right the wrongs of Madrid's funding.
These differing interpretations are further adding to what is now becoming just as important an issue as the tax itself: the sheer uncertainty. And this uncertainty is arising at a time when bookings for 2016 will be being considered and made. For a tourism minister to allow such uncertainty borders on the irresponsible. Hence, the British press can make an estimation, just as I have, as to how much it will cost. 100 euros, 110 euros would be about right. Fourteen nights for a family of four at two euros a head would in fact be 112 euros. It may not be anything like as much if the levy is not two euros but one and if children are excluded, as is the case in Catalonia, if there is a maximum number of nights (seven), as is also the situation in Catalonia.
The backlash in the foreign press has started, as we all knew that it would start (except, it would seem, the government), and now there is also a backlash from the very people who supposedly, according to Barceló, voted for the tax. It should be ditched, and ditched quickly. It won't be because he's in too deep, but might, if it were to seek one, the local backlash actually give the government a get-out clause?
It isn't only the press. The poll being run on the Bulletin's website currently has an 86% rejection of the tax. Take a look at forums, such as Trip Advisor's Majorca forum, and you will find similar messages. Principally, they reject the tax, but there is also enormous uncertainty. Is it coming in next year? How much will it be? Neither you nor I can say with certainty. Nor, one fancies, can the government, despite Biel Barceló insisting that it will be "applied" in 2016.
Barceló is fast running out of any goodwill that might have surrounded the introduction of the tax, with the main pocket of this goodwill being home-grown. Opinion surveys have shown that a majority of Mallorcans - those who aren't, for instance, hoteliers - support the tax, and the majority hasn't been fractional: it has been in the order of 70%. For Barceló this could be taken as confirmation of what he referred to, in so many words, as the will of the people. As ever when politicians invoke elections and manifesto pledges, they can distort the will. Were people voting for a tourist tax?
At least Barceló can have a clear conscience. Més, his party, and Podemos both had the tax in their manifestos. PSOE weren't as clear. The tourist tax may become this government's TIL trilingual teaching, but it was a potential that was clearly known about before the elections. TIL was a post-election invention of the Partido Popular. Those who claimed it was a manifesto pledge were either ignorant, lying or both: it was not.
So, perhaps Barceló is right, up to a point, in suggesting that the tax was an election "winner", if only with some elements of the electorate. Now, however, he faces a backlash. To avoid potential European challenges and sanctions, the tax cannot discriminate. If you are a resident of Mallorca and you want to spend a weekend in a hotel, you will also pay the tax. The Spanish have a word. "Tontería." Foolishness. An utter nonsense. There has been another survey. Should residents have to pay? No, they should not. The majority is overwhelming.
It is a nonsense, and it is one to which the leader of Podemos, Alberto Jarabo, has made reference, albeit in the context of the frankly insane notion of attempting to collect the tax at airports and ports. Jarabo has said that the tax should be on those who are subsidised in their use of services, resources and infrastructure by local taxpayers. His choice of words was somewhat strident, but the sentiment, the principle is not, in my opinion, totally wrong. If there is any justification for a tourist tax, it is on the moral base of everyone, tourists included, contributing directly to resources that they consume, such as water, and to services from which they benefit, e.g. health provision.
But then Jarabo is alluding to yet another purpose for the tax, one that differs from Barceló and his undefined uses for innovation, resort improvements and the environment. It differs also from President Armengol who appears to believe that the tax will right the wrongs of Madrid's funding.
These differing interpretations are further adding to what is now becoming just as important an issue as the tax itself: the sheer uncertainty. And this uncertainty is arising at a time when bookings for 2016 will be being considered and made. For a tourism minister to allow such uncertainty borders on the irresponsible. Hence, the British press can make an estimation, just as I have, as to how much it will cost. 100 euros, 110 euros would be about right. Fourteen nights for a family of four at two euros a head would in fact be 112 euros. It may not be anything like as much if the levy is not two euros but one and if children are excluded, as is the case in Catalonia, if there is a maximum number of nights (seven), as is also the situation in Catalonia.
The backlash in the foreign press has started, as we all knew that it would start (except, it would seem, the government), and now there is also a backlash from the very people who supposedly, according to Barceló, voted for the tax. It should be ditched, and ditched quickly. It won't be because he's in too deep, but might, if it were to seek one, the local backlash actually give the government a get-out clause?
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Pact-Out: Reporting on government
The Pact, in case you hadn't noticed, is back. It is now in its third Balearic incarnation, its elements having changed but its moniker having not. Previous pacts had been led, as this one is, by PSOE, aka PSIB, but they had not had a singularity of leftist purpose. Past pact members had come from the not-left-wing Unió Mallorquina. The Pact Mark III comprises PSOEPSIB and Més. But this doesn't paint the full picture, as it is a pact with its vitally important hangers-on: Podemos, not actually a part of the government but a pact member in the background, an anything but sleeping partner.
The Pact of parliament is by no means the only pact. Palma has a pact, Calvia has one. Indeed, mostly all local government - island councils, town halls - is now pact-out. There are pacts within pacts - Més is one, as it was already a coalition of parties - and then there are pacts that were specifically created before the elections. Hence, for instance, there are Junts for this or that. Junt means together, a pact, and these Junts (or whatever else they might be called) have subsequently established wider pacts, über-pacts, through which they can govern town halls.
Reporting on this lot is a nightmare, made more terrifying by the existence of offshoots or derivatives. Podemos is the chief offender. As it barred the use of the Podemos name at municipal level, formations at town halls needed related names: Som Palma, Sí Se Puede Calvia and so on. One is faced with the question of whether, whenever there is mention of a governing unit, there has to be an explanation as to its components. In Calvia, for instance, is it always necessary to amplify the meaning of its Pact and so constantly refer to PSOEPSIB, Si Se Puede Calvia (the local wing of Podemos) and Esquerra Oberta, another damn pact within a pact of which Més, its own pact, is a part?
Explanations are, from time to time, required. But they have the propensity to turn reporting of an already confused situation into one of such convolution that the person doing the reporting, so tangled up by explanatory requirements, loses the plot while the poor recipient of the explanation - the reader - loses the will to live.
Consequently, one hankers for the days when things were a lot less muddled. With the Partido Popular enjoying majorities in government, at the Council of Mallorca and in many municipalities, life was much more simple. PP it was and nothing more. Except for the fact, and this is especially observable in the Spanish media, of an obsession with explanation. The PP would frequently come with the note that it was "centre-right", a description that some might, in any event, take issue with: "right" would often be more accurate.
Mission to inform and all that, but does this explanatory obsession betray a patronising tendency, an assumption of ignorance/lack of knowledge on behalf of the reader? Moreover, within the stylising of ruling groups at different levels of Mallorca's local government, is there a further tendency to reach for a pejorative, an underlying expression of disparagement? When, for instance, Palma's council is referred to as "the left", does this imply some contempt or is it merely a statement of fact? A different statement of fact would be to describe the ruling body as just this - the ruling body, the administration. This is, after all, what it is. Whether right, left, in-between, pact or no pact, why the need for embellishment?
There was, though, a similar process when the PP was in government. Many were the references to the "centre-right", as though the readership were in any doubt. And there was also a tendency to style the government under the PP initials. The party and government were obviously distinct entities, but reporting was such that the regional administration was often the Partido Popular, as though government itself was indeed something separate.
So now we have the Pact, a convenient shorthand perhaps but one which appears to deny this coalition its rightful title: that of the government. And within this Pact there exist the elements, always seemingly necessitating some explanation: Podemos, the party of Pablo Iglesias, a grouping forever to be cast in the image of its leader; Més, the "ecosoberanistas", eco-sovereigntists, a title that can be construed as being loaded with insinuation as much as it might be deemed necessary as an explanation.
The point is, though, that by now we surely know what these parties are about. Don't we? Perhaps we don't. But whether we do or we don't, is it not adequate and also respectful to merely refer to government or to administration or to ruling group? It would seem not, and so the Pact it will be, with its veiled implications that are somehow remote from government.
The Pact of parliament is by no means the only pact. Palma has a pact, Calvia has one. Indeed, mostly all local government - island councils, town halls - is now pact-out. There are pacts within pacts - Més is one, as it was already a coalition of parties - and then there are pacts that were specifically created before the elections. Hence, for instance, there are Junts for this or that. Junt means together, a pact, and these Junts (or whatever else they might be called) have subsequently established wider pacts, über-pacts, through which they can govern town halls.
Reporting on this lot is a nightmare, made more terrifying by the existence of offshoots or derivatives. Podemos is the chief offender. As it barred the use of the Podemos name at municipal level, formations at town halls needed related names: Som Palma, Sí Se Puede Calvia and so on. One is faced with the question of whether, whenever there is mention of a governing unit, there has to be an explanation as to its components. In Calvia, for instance, is it always necessary to amplify the meaning of its Pact and so constantly refer to PSOEPSIB, Si Se Puede Calvia (the local wing of Podemos) and Esquerra Oberta, another damn pact within a pact of which Més, its own pact, is a part?
Explanations are, from time to time, required. But they have the propensity to turn reporting of an already confused situation into one of such convolution that the person doing the reporting, so tangled up by explanatory requirements, loses the plot while the poor recipient of the explanation - the reader - loses the will to live.
Consequently, one hankers for the days when things were a lot less muddled. With the Partido Popular enjoying majorities in government, at the Council of Mallorca and in many municipalities, life was much more simple. PP it was and nothing more. Except for the fact, and this is especially observable in the Spanish media, of an obsession with explanation. The PP would frequently come with the note that it was "centre-right", a description that some might, in any event, take issue with: "right" would often be more accurate.
Mission to inform and all that, but does this explanatory obsession betray a patronising tendency, an assumption of ignorance/lack of knowledge on behalf of the reader? Moreover, within the stylising of ruling groups at different levels of Mallorca's local government, is there a further tendency to reach for a pejorative, an underlying expression of disparagement? When, for instance, Palma's council is referred to as "the left", does this imply some contempt or is it merely a statement of fact? A different statement of fact would be to describe the ruling body as just this - the ruling body, the administration. This is, after all, what it is. Whether right, left, in-between, pact or no pact, why the need for embellishment?
There was, though, a similar process when the PP was in government. Many were the references to the "centre-right", as though the readership were in any doubt. And there was also a tendency to style the government under the PP initials. The party and government were obviously distinct entities, but reporting was such that the regional administration was often the Partido Popular, as though government itself was indeed something separate.
So now we have the Pact, a convenient shorthand perhaps but one which appears to deny this coalition its rightful title: that of the government. And within this Pact there exist the elements, always seemingly necessitating some explanation: Podemos, the party of Pablo Iglesias, a grouping forever to be cast in the image of its leader; Més, the "ecosoberanistas", eco-sovereigntists, a title that can be construed as being loaded with insinuation as much as it might be deemed necessary as an explanation.
The point is, though, that by now we surely know what these parties are about. Don't we? Perhaps we don't. But whether we do or we don't, is it not adequate and also respectful to merely refer to government or to administration or to ruling group? It would seem not, and so the Pact it will be, with its veiled implications that are somehow remote from government.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Do They Take Us For Fools?
The word had been that it was going to be more insane than ever. The word may well have been right. How many do you, do we, do they want dead? It's only just begun and yet the emergency services are equating it to high summer. Two dead in Magalluf. One in Santa Ponsa. Another badly injured in Palmanova. Half a dozen have fallen from balconies, two of them put into a body bag. The British media have a video of a dwarf whipping a groom-to-be during some warped S&M session in a bar. The local media have been highlighting gangs of chanting, drunken Germans blocking the main road in Arenal. They are following events in the notorious resorts like never before. It was going to be more insane than ever. Wasn't it?
Civic ordinance in Palma, civic ordinance to be introduced in Calvia. More resources. More powers for the authorities. Greater co-operation between businesses. Greater willingness of businesses to assist in a clean-up. Promises of this. Promises of that. It is more insane than ever. The so-called prostitutes more aggressive than ever. More driven by their criminal gang organisers than ever. The National Police taking measures to identify sources of criminal supply to the lookies who wander the streets of Palma with groundsheets and who lay them down on steps, on squares: Saharan bazaars in the centre of the Balearic capital. Pickpockets, daylight robbers, drug sellers. More of these, or at least they are the more that social media, with its wildfire spread of news, suggest. Who is to say there isn't more?
Reports of a trial into corruption among police, officials from the local authority and businesspeople. Reports replete with orgies and Russian prostitutes, the latter being afforded protection in order to give witness statements. Reports which follow last year - Magalluf and police arrests - and the year before, when Playa de Palma's police first came under investigation.
Write all the above, and there are those who hammer you for negativity, for exaggeration, for choosing only the blackspots. Avoid saying the above, and others lay into you for turning a blind eye and for complicity. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. But avoidance has been part of the problem, as - for so many years - was a form of self-censorship or persuasion to play things down. You can't or shouldn't say that; it would be bad for tourism.
One person's bad is another person's good for tourism. If nothing else, Magalluf has taught us this. But this one-time reticence is no longer possible, not when there are videos of sex acts all over the internet, not when there is sensationalism on the pages of the British and German press, willing accomplices in generating ever more insanity. Too much past reticence and too many apologists, of whom there are still many. Maga, Arenal (and you can add one or two other places): they are what they are, tourists are coming for fun, to party. They are what they are, what they have been and what they will be.
To party, to have fun. Absolutely. Essences of holiday. For thousands upon thousands. For families, for older people, for younger people, none of whom can be blamed, and none of whom wish to be implicated in all the above or have any reason to be. Responsible tourism, a convenience of marketing with its environmental eco-righteousness that cannot disguise the business ambitions of hoteliers, of tour operators, of bar owners. Volume, they need volume, as do the planes. Responsible tourism is a two-way street and not only that of Punta Ballena. Whoever decreed that it was acceptable for foreigners (and Spaniards) to treat parts of Mallorca with such irresponsibility? Who the hell do they think they are?
But the blame game will say it's the fault of others. It is. But the fault stems from that old reticence, that old "persuasion". Bad for tourism. The heads were in the sand for years and years before some tourists - so hacked off with the persistent pestering - started to stick flags in the same sand bearing the legends: "no sunglasses, no massage". Complacency and a complicity of a different type. We all know who to blame.
It will be better, though, not more insane. Just wait for the ordinances to really kick in. For the end to drinking in the street. For the end to balconing because of the fines. Do they take us for fools? Hopefully, they will be right. Hopefully, it will improve. But who's doing the caring? Onieva? Isern? Martínez? All gone at the election. Maybe their replacements will, however, discover the legal wherewithal to deal with the greatest of the insanities - the mugging prostitutes of the streets - and not instead introduce fines for supposed clients. That beggars belief. The equivocation of victimary. Taken for fools.
Civic ordinance in Palma, civic ordinance to be introduced in Calvia. More resources. More powers for the authorities. Greater co-operation between businesses. Greater willingness of businesses to assist in a clean-up. Promises of this. Promises of that. It is more insane than ever. The so-called prostitutes more aggressive than ever. More driven by their criminal gang organisers than ever. The National Police taking measures to identify sources of criminal supply to the lookies who wander the streets of Palma with groundsheets and who lay them down on steps, on squares: Saharan bazaars in the centre of the Balearic capital. Pickpockets, daylight robbers, drug sellers. More of these, or at least they are the more that social media, with its wildfire spread of news, suggest. Who is to say there isn't more?
Reports of a trial into corruption among police, officials from the local authority and businesspeople. Reports replete with orgies and Russian prostitutes, the latter being afforded protection in order to give witness statements. Reports which follow last year - Magalluf and police arrests - and the year before, when Playa de Palma's police first came under investigation.
Write all the above, and there are those who hammer you for negativity, for exaggeration, for choosing only the blackspots. Avoid saying the above, and others lay into you for turning a blind eye and for complicity. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. But avoidance has been part of the problem, as - for so many years - was a form of self-censorship or persuasion to play things down. You can't or shouldn't say that; it would be bad for tourism.
One person's bad is another person's good for tourism. If nothing else, Magalluf has taught us this. But this one-time reticence is no longer possible, not when there are videos of sex acts all over the internet, not when there is sensationalism on the pages of the British and German press, willing accomplices in generating ever more insanity. Too much past reticence and too many apologists, of whom there are still many. Maga, Arenal (and you can add one or two other places): they are what they are, tourists are coming for fun, to party. They are what they are, what they have been and what they will be.
To party, to have fun. Absolutely. Essences of holiday. For thousands upon thousands. For families, for older people, for younger people, none of whom can be blamed, and none of whom wish to be implicated in all the above or have any reason to be. Responsible tourism, a convenience of marketing with its environmental eco-righteousness that cannot disguise the business ambitions of hoteliers, of tour operators, of bar owners. Volume, they need volume, as do the planes. Responsible tourism is a two-way street and not only that of Punta Ballena. Whoever decreed that it was acceptable for foreigners (and Spaniards) to treat parts of Mallorca with such irresponsibility? Who the hell do they think they are?
But the blame game will say it's the fault of others. It is. But the fault stems from that old reticence, that old "persuasion". Bad for tourism. The heads were in the sand for years and years before some tourists - so hacked off with the persistent pestering - started to stick flags in the same sand bearing the legends: "no sunglasses, no massage". Complacency and a complicity of a different type. We all know who to blame.
It will be better, though, not more insane. Just wait for the ordinances to really kick in. For the end to drinking in the street. For the end to balconing because of the fines. Do they take us for fools? Hopefully, they will be right. Hopefully, it will improve. But who's doing the caring? Onieva? Isern? Martínez? All gone at the election. Maybe their replacements will, however, discover the legal wherewithal to deal with the greatest of the insanities - the mugging prostitutes of the streets - and not instead introduce fines for supposed clients. That beggars belief. The equivocation of victimary. Taken for fools.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Spoofing Porn: Feast of the fools
Yesterday was the Day of the Holy Innocents, so named because of the order by King Herod to slaughter all children in Bethlehem under the age of two in the hope that the cull might include the newborn king of the Jews that the Three Wise Men were looking for, Herod having sent them in the direction of Bethlehem with the request to let him know when they found this new king. But of course, the Three Wise Men bumped into an angel who recommended that they kept mum, which they did, while mum herself was busy swaddling the baby king and stashing him away in an ox stall - as you do.
It is highly unlikely that this slaughter occurred, but Matthew knew a thing or two about anti-Roman propaganda and about portraying Herod as an infanticidal lunatic (which, in any event, he was). Had there been a "Bethlehem Times" back then, a front-page story on 28 December announcing the slaughter of the innocents would probably have been taken at its face value. But little might the readers have known that they could have been victims of a hoax story. 28 December, abbreviated to the Day of the Innocents, is the day when people innocently fall victim to pranks, and it is a day which has pagan roots.
The Holy Land might not have had its day of the fools, but Spain has had it for an awfully long time. It is said to date from the Middle Ages, though as it has a pagan background, it is quite possible that this "fiesta de los locos" is considerably older. As with many a pagan carry-on, it involved healthy doses of debauchery. Anything went. The church, none too impressed by this old-time behaviour in a vaguely Magalluf style, decided to graft the fiesta of the fools onto the Day of the Innocents, believing that memories of the alleged infanticide would calm everyone down.
Whether they did all calm down isn't a matter of record, though at some point in time they must have done and so gradually the Day of the Innocents became less eccentric and less extreme. It became what it now is - a day for the prankster akin to April Fools' Day.
The British media love April fools. The most celebrated spoof was that of 1 April 1977 when "The Guardian" produced its travel supplement for the tropical island republic of San Serriffe, a joke that the British press has spent the last thirty-seven years trying to emulate. The San Serriffe joke was only possible because back then it was just about plausible that there was a tropical island republic no one had heard of. The spoof has, therefore, to have an element of believability. In my own small way, I once did an April fool about drilling for oil in the bay of Alcúdia. The exploration company was called Tonto S.A. (which was the giveaway), but this was at a time before there was any talk of oil prospecting in Balearic waters. It was, as things have turned out, somewhat prophetic. When I wrote a story about the Chinese buying Cala San Vicente, "The Bulletin" put a note in the next issue which pointed out that it had been an April fool.
Believability is crucial, and this brings me to the front page of Sunday's "Ultima Hora". The Spanish media have typically not gone in for spoofs on the Day of the Innocents, but occasionally they do. Or do they? "An increase in homemade porn videos set in Mallorca detected." The story said that the emergency services had received complaints over the summer about couples and groups having sex in coastal areas and that the majority of homemade porn videos going on the internet with "Mallorca" in the title were German. "Inocentada!", laughed social media - "jajaja" - though it wasn't a story which played for the laughs, except to suggest that Portals was a place where residents had been complaining of "scandalous sexual activities". (Well, I found it funny that Portals should have been singled out.)
It was a story which was believable. In fact, it was too believable. I can recall a few years ago there having been reports in the local press (not on the Day of the Innocents) about porn films being shot (by Germans) in quiet parts of the island's coast. There is, furthermore, anecdotal evidence of professional porn-making if not the homemade variety, though I daresay that there are anecdotes regarding this as well.
Very believable it was and very much in keeping with the pagan tradition of the feast of the fools when debauchery was the order of the day. I'd like to think the paper had that in mind, though I suspect not, while I'm also rather inclined to think that the spoof had been a double bluff and was true all along. It was simply too believable.
It is highly unlikely that this slaughter occurred, but Matthew knew a thing or two about anti-Roman propaganda and about portraying Herod as an infanticidal lunatic (which, in any event, he was). Had there been a "Bethlehem Times" back then, a front-page story on 28 December announcing the slaughter of the innocents would probably have been taken at its face value. But little might the readers have known that they could have been victims of a hoax story. 28 December, abbreviated to the Day of the Innocents, is the day when people innocently fall victim to pranks, and it is a day which has pagan roots.
The Holy Land might not have had its day of the fools, but Spain has had it for an awfully long time. It is said to date from the Middle Ages, though as it has a pagan background, it is quite possible that this "fiesta de los locos" is considerably older. As with many a pagan carry-on, it involved healthy doses of debauchery. Anything went. The church, none too impressed by this old-time behaviour in a vaguely Magalluf style, decided to graft the fiesta of the fools onto the Day of the Innocents, believing that memories of the alleged infanticide would calm everyone down.
Whether they did all calm down isn't a matter of record, though at some point in time they must have done and so gradually the Day of the Innocents became less eccentric and less extreme. It became what it now is - a day for the prankster akin to April Fools' Day.
The British media love April fools. The most celebrated spoof was that of 1 April 1977 when "The Guardian" produced its travel supplement for the tropical island republic of San Serriffe, a joke that the British press has spent the last thirty-seven years trying to emulate. The San Serriffe joke was only possible because back then it was just about plausible that there was a tropical island republic no one had heard of. The spoof has, therefore, to have an element of believability. In my own small way, I once did an April fool about drilling for oil in the bay of Alcúdia. The exploration company was called Tonto S.A. (which was the giveaway), but this was at a time before there was any talk of oil prospecting in Balearic waters. It was, as things have turned out, somewhat prophetic. When I wrote a story about the Chinese buying Cala San Vicente, "The Bulletin" put a note in the next issue which pointed out that it had been an April fool.
Believability is crucial, and this brings me to the front page of Sunday's "Ultima Hora". The Spanish media have typically not gone in for spoofs on the Day of the Innocents, but occasionally they do. Or do they? "An increase in homemade porn videos set in Mallorca detected." The story said that the emergency services had received complaints over the summer about couples and groups having sex in coastal areas and that the majority of homemade porn videos going on the internet with "Mallorca" in the title were German. "Inocentada!", laughed social media - "jajaja" - though it wasn't a story which played for the laughs, except to suggest that Portals was a place where residents had been complaining of "scandalous sexual activities". (Well, I found it funny that Portals should have been singled out.)
It was a story which was believable. In fact, it was too believable. I can recall a few years ago there having been reports in the local press (not on the Day of the Innocents) about porn films being shot (by Germans) in quiet parts of the island's coast. There is, furthermore, anecdotal evidence of professional porn-making if not the homemade variety, though I daresay that there are anecdotes regarding this as well.
Very believable it was and very much in keeping with the pagan tradition of the feast of the fools when debauchery was the order of the day. I'd like to think the paper had that in mind, though I suspect not, while I'm also rather inclined to think that the spoof had been a double bluff and was true all along. It was simply too believable.
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
Twin Obsessions: Playa de Palma and Magalluf
Playa de Palma in its entirety has getting on for 40,000 hotel places. Palmanova-Magalluf has slightly fewer than 30,000 places. These two resort conurbations account therefore for roughly a quarter of Mallorca's hotel places. In the past few years we have bombarded with news of the redevelopment of Playa de Palma. Over recent weeks, the bombardment has been renewed; new hotels of a luxury variety, so we are told. In Palmanova-Magalluf, or more accurately Magalluf, we have been bombarded endlessly with news. There may have been a time when there was no news bombardment, but when that was is lost in the mists of touristic time.
This coming winter, we are informed, will witness hotel investments and projects the like of which have not been seen for many a long year. They are aimed at increasing hotel prices, increasing profitability and increasing employment. All positive stuff perhaps, but the focus of attention is on projects in these two conurbations. Playa de Palma, Meliá, Viva, BH; the island's tourism news agenda is driven by two resorts. Nowhere else matters.
Both Playa de Palma and Magalluf are news for the wrong reasons, and we all know what these reasons are. The reporting of these wrong reasons is entirely understandable - it is not reporting with which I take issue - but it is separate to the other reporting, that to do with the investments in the resorts. Again, this reporting is perfectly reasonable. When there are developments, they should be discussed. But it is these developments which, because the media reflects the objectives of others, have created an obsessiveness. Playa de Palma and Magalluf are twin obsessions. Not because the media has made them so, but because political and commercial interests have, and they are twin obsessions which are a disguise and a diversion and which are potentially deleterious and prejudicial to the 75% of coastal hotel tourism land which isn't either of them.
Around the coast of Mallorca there are four principal concentrations of tourism: Calvia, Playa de Palma, the bay of Alcúdia and the bay of Cala Millor, to which can be added lesser concentrations such as Capdepera, Pollensa and Santanyí. Not all of these centres are ancient in Mallorcan tourism terms; much of Playa de Muro, for instance, is of more recent vintage. Not all are centres of high-rise, massive hotel construction; Puerto Pollensa, for example. But most of it is ancient and massive.
In Calvia as a whole there are almost 60,000 hotel places. 50% of them are, therefore, neither Palmanova nor Magalluf, but Palmanova, for the purposes of the obsession, is unimportant; just as Peguera and Santa Ponsa seem to be unimportant. The Alcúdia bay conurbation of Alcúdia itself, Playa de Muro and Can Picafort has over 50,000 places; the bay of Cala Millor, over 35,000.
Between 2012 and this year, we are told, 260 million euros have been spent on hotel redevelopments of some form another. They have been spread around: Alcúdia 33, Cala Millor 26 and even Colonia Sant Jordi with 23. It's not as if there isn't and hasn't been investment, but this is not the issue. The type of project is the issue, and it is this which gives rise to the twin obsessions.
Playa de Palma's redevelopment, for so long in the planning and the debating, has essentially been a political investment. Both national and regional governments have bet a great deal on its transformation. Magalluf's is more purely commercial than political. The white knight of Meliá has ridden into town brandishing the standard of saviour and has attracted the fellow-travellers which now also seek the accolade of transformer.
The twin obsessions of transformation are the consequence of political expediency (Playa de Palma) and of proximity (Magalluf). Meliá can attract investors to itself to embark on the beautification of Magalluf because of its man-made physical advantage; that many Meliá hotels in close proximity. Political and commercial sugar daddies are, though, short in supply. Other resorts have neither. It is not as if there isn't a political appreciation of the need for resort modernisation - both the 1999 and 2012 tourism laws spoke of it - but where is it going to come from?
Playa de Palma and Magalluf create disguises of and diversions away from the realities of other resorts - realities such as those of Calas de Mallorca, where Manacor town hall does at least seem to have been shamed into doing something after the criticisms of neglect which were highlighted last week. The self-congratulation that flows like champagne with every new announcement regarding the twin obsessions obscures the falling self-esteem created by the flat beer of under-investment elsewhere. The corks pop and champion the new-age Mallorca. But behind the mask of this shiny future, there is all the other old age, for which obsession does not exist.
This coming winter, we are informed, will witness hotel investments and projects the like of which have not been seen for many a long year. They are aimed at increasing hotel prices, increasing profitability and increasing employment. All positive stuff perhaps, but the focus of attention is on projects in these two conurbations. Playa de Palma, Meliá, Viva, BH; the island's tourism news agenda is driven by two resorts. Nowhere else matters.
Both Playa de Palma and Magalluf are news for the wrong reasons, and we all know what these reasons are. The reporting of these wrong reasons is entirely understandable - it is not reporting with which I take issue - but it is separate to the other reporting, that to do with the investments in the resorts. Again, this reporting is perfectly reasonable. When there are developments, they should be discussed. But it is these developments which, because the media reflects the objectives of others, have created an obsessiveness. Playa de Palma and Magalluf are twin obsessions. Not because the media has made them so, but because political and commercial interests have, and they are twin obsessions which are a disguise and a diversion and which are potentially deleterious and prejudicial to the 75% of coastal hotel tourism land which isn't either of them.
Around the coast of Mallorca there are four principal concentrations of tourism: Calvia, Playa de Palma, the bay of Alcúdia and the bay of Cala Millor, to which can be added lesser concentrations such as Capdepera, Pollensa and Santanyí. Not all of these centres are ancient in Mallorcan tourism terms; much of Playa de Muro, for instance, is of more recent vintage. Not all are centres of high-rise, massive hotel construction; Puerto Pollensa, for example. But most of it is ancient and massive.
In Calvia as a whole there are almost 60,000 hotel places. 50% of them are, therefore, neither Palmanova nor Magalluf, but Palmanova, for the purposes of the obsession, is unimportant; just as Peguera and Santa Ponsa seem to be unimportant. The Alcúdia bay conurbation of Alcúdia itself, Playa de Muro and Can Picafort has over 50,000 places; the bay of Cala Millor, over 35,000.
Between 2012 and this year, we are told, 260 million euros have been spent on hotel redevelopments of some form another. They have been spread around: Alcúdia 33, Cala Millor 26 and even Colonia Sant Jordi with 23. It's not as if there isn't and hasn't been investment, but this is not the issue. The type of project is the issue, and it is this which gives rise to the twin obsessions.
Playa de Palma's redevelopment, for so long in the planning and the debating, has essentially been a political investment. Both national and regional governments have bet a great deal on its transformation. Magalluf's is more purely commercial than political. The white knight of Meliá has ridden into town brandishing the standard of saviour and has attracted the fellow-travellers which now also seek the accolade of transformer.
The twin obsessions of transformation are the consequence of political expediency (Playa de Palma) and of proximity (Magalluf). Meliá can attract investors to itself to embark on the beautification of Magalluf because of its man-made physical advantage; that many Meliá hotels in close proximity. Political and commercial sugar daddies are, though, short in supply. Other resorts have neither. It is not as if there isn't a political appreciation of the need for resort modernisation - both the 1999 and 2012 tourism laws spoke of it - but where is it going to come from?
Playa de Palma and Magalluf create disguises of and diversions away from the realities of other resorts - realities such as those of Calas de Mallorca, where Manacor town hall does at least seem to have been shamed into doing something after the criticisms of neglect which were highlighted last week. The self-congratulation that flows like champagne with every new announcement regarding the twin obsessions obscures the falling self-esteem created by the flat beer of under-investment elsewhere. The corks pop and champion the new-age Mallorca. But behind the mask of this shiny future, there is all the other old age, for which obsession does not exist.
Sunday, May 04, 2014
Prostitute Communications
The season started on Thursday, but before it had even got underway, the news coming out of Magalluf, especially via social media, was the same as always. Worse perhaps. The prostitutes were back and were more brazen than previously. Where were the police? What was Calvia town hall doing? What about those promises of greater security and tougher action?
Magalluf is not the only resort which has problems with prostitution. Playa de Palma is similarly affected. In recognition of this, there was a meeting on Wednesday between police forces in Palma, Calvia and Llucmajor and a group called Gepib (Grupo de estudio de la prostitución de Baleares). It was organised by Palma town hall's social welfare and equality unit.
The principal reason for the meeting was to consider a report produced by Gepib in association with the university in Palma. It is entitled: "Reflections and Recommendations: Good Communication Practices Concerning Prostitution". Essentially, it is a guide for the media, Gepib having called for a "change in treatment" and for an avoidance, through the press, of stigmatising and sensationalising prostitutes and prostitution.
The report itself makes for quite interesting reading. Did you know, for instance, that, while 19% of European men are or have been clients of prostitutes, the figure rises to 39% of Spanish men? Did you know that Spanish law does not recognise or prohibit or regulate prostitution? Legally, it doesn't exist, except when it comes to lack of consent. Forced prostitution is illegal. The law also refers to victims who are foreign women who find themselves in situations of "administrative irregularity" (no papers, therefore) and who, if apprehended, can have a period of thirty days during which they can consider whether they wish to co-operate with the police in investigating suspected criminality.
Did you also know that one out of seven prostitutes is the victim of exploitation and coercion, that Spain has the second highest number of women who have been victims of human trafficking in Europe and that, in a one-year period alone (2009-2010), this number all but quadrupled. The Spanish interior ministry reckons that there are in fact some 12,000 women who are affected. No one knows for sure, though.
It is the case that many if not all the women who engage in prostitution in Magalluf and Playa de Palma are victims of human trafficking, of threats of violence and of abuse by organised criminal gangs. There have been arrests of ringleaders, but the practice continues. Gepib is right to draw attention to the wretched circumstances that women find themselves in and to also seek restraint, greater objectivity and wider and better citing of sources in media reporting. However, what Gepib doesn't go into is the reality of what happens in Magalluf and Playa de Palma. What is ostensibly prostitution isn't prostitution; it is robbery with violence, perpetrated by women in fear of the gangs.
In addressing the "good communication practices", Gepib takes issue with the "over-representation" of street prostitution. (It underlines the word "over-representation" in order to emphasise the point.) Only one in four prostitutes operates on the streets, says the report, but well over a half of news reports analysed in the study dealt with street prostitution. The group says that press coverage often is respectful, insofar as it doesn't always state nationality or circumstance (illegal immigrants), but it quotes examples where it isn't. One was headlined - "New night raid against street prostitution in Magalluf". This was an example of sensationalism and of criminalising the women who practise prostitution, so Gepib maintains. But almost certainly it was a headline that had to do with what are referred to as the mugging prostitutes of Magalluf.
The issue in both Magalluf and Playa de Palma is one of organised crime. The crime of human trafficking has produced its further crimes - not prostitution, because this isn't illegal - but robbery and violence. Gepib can call for "good communication practices" but it, as with so many in Magalluf and Playa de Palma, should be calling for good police practices to stamp out the gangs once and for all. Easier said than done, though. The National Police and Guardia Civil are confronted with a massive problem.
Magalluf is not the only resort which has problems with prostitution. Playa de Palma is similarly affected. In recognition of this, there was a meeting on Wednesday between police forces in Palma, Calvia and Llucmajor and a group called Gepib (Grupo de estudio de la prostitución de Baleares). It was organised by Palma town hall's social welfare and equality unit.
The principal reason for the meeting was to consider a report produced by Gepib in association with the university in Palma. It is entitled: "Reflections and Recommendations: Good Communication Practices Concerning Prostitution". Essentially, it is a guide for the media, Gepib having called for a "change in treatment" and for an avoidance, through the press, of stigmatising and sensationalising prostitutes and prostitution.
The report itself makes for quite interesting reading. Did you know, for instance, that, while 19% of European men are or have been clients of prostitutes, the figure rises to 39% of Spanish men? Did you know that Spanish law does not recognise or prohibit or regulate prostitution? Legally, it doesn't exist, except when it comes to lack of consent. Forced prostitution is illegal. The law also refers to victims who are foreign women who find themselves in situations of "administrative irregularity" (no papers, therefore) and who, if apprehended, can have a period of thirty days during which they can consider whether they wish to co-operate with the police in investigating suspected criminality.
Did you also know that one out of seven prostitutes is the victim of exploitation and coercion, that Spain has the second highest number of women who have been victims of human trafficking in Europe and that, in a one-year period alone (2009-2010), this number all but quadrupled. The Spanish interior ministry reckons that there are in fact some 12,000 women who are affected. No one knows for sure, though.
It is the case that many if not all the women who engage in prostitution in Magalluf and Playa de Palma are victims of human trafficking, of threats of violence and of abuse by organised criminal gangs. There have been arrests of ringleaders, but the practice continues. Gepib is right to draw attention to the wretched circumstances that women find themselves in and to also seek restraint, greater objectivity and wider and better citing of sources in media reporting. However, what Gepib doesn't go into is the reality of what happens in Magalluf and Playa de Palma. What is ostensibly prostitution isn't prostitution; it is robbery with violence, perpetrated by women in fear of the gangs.
In addressing the "good communication practices", Gepib takes issue with the "over-representation" of street prostitution. (It underlines the word "over-representation" in order to emphasise the point.) Only one in four prostitutes operates on the streets, says the report, but well over a half of news reports analysed in the study dealt with street prostitution. The group says that press coverage often is respectful, insofar as it doesn't always state nationality or circumstance (illegal immigrants), but it quotes examples where it isn't. One was headlined - "New night raid against street prostitution in Magalluf". This was an example of sensationalism and of criminalising the women who practise prostitution, so Gepib maintains. But almost certainly it was a headline that had to do with what are referred to as the mugging prostitutes of Magalluf.
The issue in both Magalluf and Playa de Palma is one of organised crime. The crime of human trafficking has produced its further crimes - not prostitution, because this isn't illegal - but robbery and violence. Gepib can call for "good communication practices" but it, as with so many in Magalluf and Playa de Palma, should be calling for good police practices to stamp out the gangs once and for all. Easier said than done, though. The National Police and Guardia Civil are confronted with a massive problem.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Conspiracy Of Silence: The "Stern" report
"Stern" is a German magazine. It isn't sensationalist but nor is it über-serious or über-important, like "Der Spiegel". But like other German publications and media, "Stern" takes an interest in Mallorca which goes beyond the mere holiday angle. Mallorca to the Germans is almost a separate state.
In 2002, "Stern" laid into attitudes on the island which had caused a deterioration in the island's image as a tourist destination. Singled out for criticism was the tourism minister at the time, Celesti Alomar, who had uttered the infamous words - "cheap tourists are no longer wanted in Mallorca". The German consul was so put out by this that he reminded Alomar who it had been who had enriched the island; those "cheap" tourists of whom he had been dismissive.
Alomar was an example, as was Maria Antònia Munar, then at the Council of Mallorca, of a Mallorcan politician who, with their insensitive remarks about "cheap" tourists, totally failed to appreciate the link between the mass of tourism in Mallorca and cost.
And Munar is one who gets a dishonourable mention in the latest "Stern" study of Mallorca. She is referred to as having belonged to a "highly corrupt political caste", corruption being just one theme that "Stern" has chosen to feature in its current edition. The cover of the magazine tells you what to expect: "Mallorca, the dark side of the holiday island". Under the heading "the Mallorcan brand", the leader says that "behind the facade" is "a great mass of misery, criminality and despair".
The report itself, across ten pages of the magazine, features desolate urban scenes in Palma. There is a photo of a drug user, taken, it is said, after a visit to a drug supermarket in the shanty town of Son Banya. There is a photo of a queue for a soup kitchen. You can count around forty people in the queue, but you can't see where the queue ends.
A doctor in Calvia is quoted as saying that "this is an island of problems". He wishes to remain anonymous. The misery being as it is, "important people do not want it to be spoken about". This is one of the more striking observations made by the three journalists responsible for the report. A further one is this: "Business and justice on the island are closely intertwined. There are twelve families who exert significant influence. A quip goes thus - 'Mallorca is Sicily without the guns' ".
It would be revealing to know who these twelve families are and who the important people are, as these two observations allude to conspiracies of silence which demand that as little as possible is said that might harm Mallorca's paradise image and the interests of important people and important families.
In truth, there isn't a great deal in the "Stern" report that one doesn't already know. Drugs, violence, prostitution (reference is made to Arenal as opposed to Magalluf), lack of credit, poverty and the enormous and widening gap between rich and poor. They are known about.
I look through this report and it is as if it has collated things about which I have written over the years. It is not a report into the sensationalist goings-on in resorts like Magalluf. It goes much wider, considering education "it is not an investment, it is considered a waste" and innovation, or the lack of, "you become rich through nepotism and cunning not through innovation".
The report starts by painting a picture of this paradise island and of obscene wealth before revealing the darker side. It ends by considering the paradise that is enjoyed by one wealthy German businesswoman, Heidi Warth of the Mallorca Gold estate agency. It says that she still enjoys the good times, selling Mallorca's crown jewels, but that she has moved her assets to Zürich, fearing a Cyprus may occur, and she complains about a Mallorcan unwillingness to really change anything. She says that the quality of life is unlike that anywhere else but that it is only on the surface; "otherwise it is cruel".
This conclusion is perhaps the most astonishing part of the report. Here's a purveyor of the paradise image who has done very nicely out of it but who admits to the island's superficiality. Beautiful island but a suffering island; the beautiful people who are shallow people. I can already hear the sound of ranks being closed, of righteous, self-delusional denial. It is a report that is less revealing than the magazine might believe, but it is a report, nevertheless, that local media would be most wary of compiling. It contains truths, ones which, because of the conspiracy of silence, are too rarely confronted with honesty.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
In 2002, "Stern" laid into attitudes on the island which had caused a deterioration in the island's image as a tourist destination. Singled out for criticism was the tourism minister at the time, Celesti Alomar, who had uttered the infamous words - "cheap tourists are no longer wanted in Mallorca". The German consul was so put out by this that he reminded Alomar who it had been who had enriched the island; those "cheap" tourists of whom he had been dismissive.
Alomar was an example, as was Maria Antònia Munar, then at the Council of Mallorca, of a Mallorcan politician who, with their insensitive remarks about "cheap" tourists, totally failed to appreciate the link between the mass of tourism in Mallorca and cost.
And Munar is one who gets a dishonourable mention in the latest "Stern" study of Mallorca. She is referred to as having belonged to a "highly corrupt political caste", corruption being just one theme that "Stern" has chosen to feature in its current edition. The cover of the magazine tells you what to expect: "Mallorca, the dark side of the holiday island". Under the heading "the Mallorcan brand", the leader says that "behind the facade" is "a great mass of misery, criminality and despair".
The report itself, across ten pages of the magazine, features desolate urban scenes in Palma. There is a photo of a drug user, taken, it is said, after a visit to a drug supermarket in the shanty town of Son Banya. There is a photo of a queue for a soup kitchen. You can count around forty people in the queue, but you can't see where the queue ends.
A doctor in Calvia is quoted as saying that "this is an island of problems". He wishes to remain anonymous. The misery being as it is, "important people do not want it to be spoken about". This is one of the more striking observations made by the three journalists responsible for the report. A further one is this: "Business and justice on the island are closely intertwined. There are twelve families who exert significant influence. A quip goes thus - 'Mallorca is Sicily without the guns' ".
It would be revealing to know who these twelve families are and who the important people are, as these two observations allude to conspiracies of silence which demand that as little as possible is said that might harm Mallorca's paradise image and the interests of important people and important families.
In truth, there isn't a great deal in the "Stern" report that one doesn't already know. Drugs, violence, prostitution (reference is made to Arenal as opposed to Magalluf), lack of credit, poverty and the enormous and widening gap between rich and poor. They are known about.
I look through this report and it is as if it has collated things about which I have written over the years. It is not a report into the sensationalist goings-on in resorts like Magalluf. It goes much wider, considering education "it is not an investment, it is considered a waste" and innovation, or the lack of, "you become rich through nepotism and cunning not through innovation".
The report starts by painting a picture of this paradise island and of obscene wealth before revealing the darker side. It ends by considering the paradise that is enjoyed by one wealthy German businesswoman, Heidi Warth of the Mallorca Gold estate agency. It says that she still enjoys the good times, selling Mallorca's crown jewels, but that she has moved her assets to Zürich, fearing a Cyprus may occur, and she complains about a Mallorcan unwillingness to really change anything. She says that the quality of life is unlike that anywhere else but that it is only on the surface; "otherwise it is cruel".
This conclusion is perhaps the most astonishing part of the report. Here's a purveyor of the paradise image who has done very nicely out of it but who admits to the island's superficiality. Beautiful island but a suffering island; the beautiful people who are shallow people. I can already hear the sound of ranks being closed, of righteous, self-delusional denial. It is a report that is less revealing than the magazine might believe, but it is a report, nevertheless, that local media would be most wary of compiling. It contains truths, ones which, because of the conspiracy of silence, are too rarely confronted with honesty.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
The Stigmas Of Stacey: Magalluf
Zante's Lagana Beach, Crete's Malia, Mallorca's Magalluf. What do they have in common? They have all been, at different times, flavour of the month for a media desperate to wring whatever sensationalism it can from a drink-sodden youth passed out on a pavement.
They are only three. There are others. And like the British media despatches its packs of journalistic wolves in order to gorge on the bodies that have collapsed under the volume of industrial quantities of what can sometimes be industrial alcohol (as in Zante, for instance) or have taken to a night sky and plunged several floors onto rock-hard concrete, so the media in other countries scavenges for its own stories of sex, drink, drugs and very little rock 'n' roll. Which resort has the reputation for being the drunkest? Not Magalluf. It's Lloret de Mar, and Lloret is where French and Italian youth go to lay into each other. Do the Germans know anything about antics in Magalluf? Not really. They know about Arenal instead; Arenal, where German neo-Nazi skinheads set about black bar workers.
Welcome to the world of tourist post-modernism. Once upon a time, in pre-modern days, Cliff Michelmore introduced an ignorant audience to the attractions of Med resorts. Like Magalluf. They were new, exciting and innocent. Presenters and presentation styles changed along with the modern days of increased familiarity with the resorts. And now the post-modernist age has arrived, one in which the travelogue has been swapped for the reality-show appeal of a camera crew hastily racing to a scene of tourist Sodom and Gomorrah, observed by a girl from Luton who has displaced the Lorraine Chase of long ago (not that Lorraine actually came from Luton).
Poor, naïve Stacey Dooley. She has investigated the already investigated. She could as easily have gone off to Malia, though why would she have needed to bother? It is ten years since Sky put out "Sex On The Beach", a documentary which highlighted the drinking binges and sexual promiscuity of young British holidaymakers. Somewhere was needed for Stacey to go to, and as Magalluf has acquired current media flavour-of-the-month status, Magalluf it was.
Stacey's efforts have been a triumph of unearthing the already known. The lesser known she revealed was that the mayor of Calvià isn't a magician - he admitted to not being one - but then mayors rarely are magicians. The greatest problem she presented to a world already in possession of the facts was that of the mugging prostitutes and their organised-crime pimps. You don't actually need the aid of a shoulder-held video camera to observe their activities; just place yourself on a convenient terrace and you can do so live. Manu Onieva's apparent insouciance may reflect the fact that the professional criminal gangs are a Guardia matter, not one that the local police can handle.
The known knowns about Magalluf have been known for long enough. They may have become more exacerbated knowns, but then who helps to make them so? The Staceys of this media world. And will her investigation make any difference? Possibly it will in that it will increase Magalluf's popularity. Bad publicity? Free publicity. All publicity is etc., etc.
Magalluf is popular with the youth end of the tourism market precisely because of Stacey's stigmas (well, not the prostitutes or death by balcony fall perhaps). Magalluf, like Malia, Lagana, Arenal, Lloret and others, and for youth from different European countries (so please, no singling out of the British alone), is popular as it is represents a rite of passage. It is a location for National Disservice in the name of getting laid, getting drunk and getting admitted to hospital. It is an initiation that becomes habit until such time as youth realises it no longer is youth.
You reap what you sow. How did Magalluf become like Magalluf? Only partly because youthful tourists made it so. But they are mere agents of others' designs, included among whom are tour operators. Ever since Club 18-30 was first conceived (and so the history of such organised alcohol and sex-fuelled youth tourism is now heading towards middle age), tour operators have jumped onto the bandwagon, recognising a fruitful means of filling aircraft and hotel places. Magalluf has been a collective exercise in the exploitation of the easily and willingly exploitable - the youth. And the consequence is what you have, to which one pointless solution is to change its name. Sorry, you can take the dirty water out of the name of Magalluf, but - unless the resort's transformation involves the whole resort - you won't take the dirty dancing, drinking and sex out of the resort.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
They are only three. There are others. And like the British media despatches its packs of journalistic wolves in order to gorge on the bodies that have collapsed under the volume of industrial quantities of what can sometimes be industrial alcohol (as in Zante, for instance) or have taken to a night sky and plunged several floors onto rock-hard concrete, so the media in other countries scavenges for its own stories of sex, drink, drugs and very little rock 'n' roll. Which resort has the reputation for being the drunkest? Not Magalluf. It's Lloret de Mar, and Lloret is where French and Italian youth go to lay into each other. Do the Germans know anything about antics in Magalluf? Not really. They know about Arenal instead; Arenal, where German neo-Nazi skinheads set about black bar workers.
Welcome to the world of tourist post-modernism. Once upon a time, in pre-modern days, Cliff Michelmore introduced an ignorant audience to the attractions of Med resorts. Like Magalluf. They were new, exciting and innocent. Presenters and presentation styles changed along with the modern days of increased familiarity with the resorts. And now the post-modernist age has arrived, one in which the travelogue has been swapped for the reality-show appeal of a camera crew hastily racing to a scene of tourist Sodom and Gomorrah, observed by a girl from Luton who has displaced the Lorraine Chase of long ago (not that Lorraine actually came from Luton).
Poor, naïve Stacey Dooley. She has investigated the already investigated. She could as easily have gone off to Malia, though why would she have needed to bother? It is ten years since Sky put out "Sex On The Beach", a documentary which highlighted the drinking binges and sexual promiscuity of young British holidaymakers. Somewhere was needed for Stacey to go to, and as Magalluf has acquired current media flavour-of-the-month status, Magalluf it was.
Stacey's efforts have been a triumph of unearthing the already known. The lesser known she revealed was that the mayor of Calvià isn't a magician - he admitted to not being one - but then mayors rarely are magicians. The greatest problem she presented to a world already in possession of the facts was that of the mugging prostitutes and their organised-crime pimps. You don't actually need the aid of a shoulder-held video camera to observe their activities; just place yourself on a convenient terrace and you can do so live. Manu Onieva's apparent insouciance may reflect the fact that the professional criminal gangs are a Guardia matter, not one that the local police can handle.
The known knowns about Magalluf have been known for long enough. They may have become more exacerbated knowns, but then who helps to make them so? The Staceys of this media world. And will her investigation make any difference? Possibly it will in that it will increase Magalluf's popularity. Bad publicity? Free publicity. All publicity is etc., etc.
Magalluf is popular with the youth end of the tourism market precisely because of Stacey's stigmas (well, not the prostitutes or death by balcony fall perhaps). Magalluf, like Malia, Lagana, Arenal, Lloret and others, and for youth from different European countries (so please, no singling out of the British alone), is popular as it is represents a rite of passage. It is a location for National Disservice in the name of getting laid, getting drunk and getting admitted to hospital. It is an initiation that becomes habit until such time as youth realises it no longer is youth.
You reap what you sow. How did Magalluf become like Magalluf? Only partly because youthful tourists made it so. But they are mere agents of others' designs, included among whom are tour operators. Ever since Club 18-30 was first conceived (and so the history of such organised alcohol and sex-fuelled youth tourism is now heading towards middle age), tour operators have jumped onto the bandwagon, recognising a fruitful means of filling aircraft and hotel places. Magalluf has been a collective exercise in the exploitation of the easily and willingly exploitable - the youth. And the consequence is what you have, to which one pointless solution is to change its name. Sorry, you can take the dirty water out of the name of Magalluf, but - unless the resort's transformation involves the whole resort - you won't take the dirty dancing, drinking and sex out of the resort.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, January 09, 2012
Shutting The Presses: Local papers in Mallorca
Reports of the death of the local newspaper have not been greatly exaggerated. It was put into intensive care some years ago and has waited for the seemingly inevitable moment when the life-support system has to be switched off. As with the local newspaper almost anywhere, so it is with the Mallorcan local newspaper, and one of its sources of life support, public money, has been switched off.
Does it matter if newspapers which serve local communities in Mallorca cease to be? In Alcúdia, as an example, its local paper (magazine in fact) stopped quite some while back. Whether it has made any difference to the life of the town is debatable.
Local papers do have a role to play. They add to a sense of local identity and they are a key medium for the dissemination of news that is specifically relevant to individual towns. New media have, however, undermined their function, and the withdrawal of advertising revenue has made most virtually untenable.
Though the papers fulfil an important role in local communities, there are questions regarding them that go beyond the selling of advertising and the impact of the internet and social media. One of them has to do with that source of life support - public money.
Would you be surprised to learn that several million euros of grants were paid to newspaper publishers in the Balearics by the previous government? These grants have been ended by the current government, but the decision has more to do with lack of finance than with what the Balearics Supreme Court once described as the arbitrary nature of grants to the press by the former government.
The press, in theory, is independent. It isn't of course because it often operates according to specific agendas. Whether public money influences these agendas or not, the mere fact of it being made available can create a perception of independence being compromised.
As with papers produced for the island as a whole, so it has also been the case that the local papers have received grants - from the government and the Council of Mallorca, from the directorate for language policy and from town halls. With the partial exception of the latter, these grants have also been withdrawn.
A case can be made for public money to support the press, as it does enable there to be means to provide local media. This is especially so with those local papers that don't operate as businesses as such; some are run as cultural societies. Nevertheless, the same perception can be created; that they might not be genuinely independent.
The recent history of local radio and television in Mallorca has been one in which there have been clear suggestions as to political influence and to stations being in effect political mouthpieces. In the same way, it is hard to not at least think that local papers might have been influenced by, for instance, a generous town hall administration.
If the press is merely a medium by which local issues are reported, then it is only performing part of its job. Journalism falls into three general categories. One, reporting, is factual, or should be, but it can be prone to its own inherent bias, dependent upon the source or the paper's agenda. A second is comment and opinion, while a third is more of the investigative or forensic variety, an expensive form of journalism of which there is almost none in Mallorca.
Of the second category, it is fallacious to believe that comment should be balanced; by definition it isn't. To quote the broadcaster and journalist Jonathan Meades: "fairness (aka balance) is a jurisdictive virtue not a journalistic one". But so long as there exists a relationship of trust with the reader that opinion is that of the author and not one that may have been guided by whatever force, including public money, then the reader can accept the writer's integrity, even if he or she may disagree with the opinion. It's known as the freedom of the press, a concept enshrined in the Spanish constitution and a concept that goes beyond the imposition of censorship; it has to do with independence of thought.
But how free is the press in Mallorca? Parts of it are more so than others, and there are some outstanding and challenging local journalists. Other parts are not, and as much as economic hard times and changing media, a failure of independence, one caused by various influences and pressures and not just public money (now no longer a double-edged sword of influence), is what also closes down the life support, especially when there is life elsewhere - on the internet and in social media.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Does it matter if newspapers which serve local communities in Mallorca cease to be? In Alcúdia, as an example, its local paper (magazine in fact) stopped quite some while back. Whether it has made any difference to the life of the town is debatable.
Local papers do have a role to play. They add to a sense of local identity and they are a key medium for the dissemination of news that is specifically relevant to individual towns. New media have, however, undermined their function, and the withdrawal of advertising revenue has made most virtually untenable.
Though the papers fulfil an important role in local communities, there are questions regarding them that go beyond the selling of advertising and the impact of the internet and social media. One of them has to do with that source of life support - public money.
Would you be surprised to learn that several million euros of grants were paid to newspaper publishers in the Balearics by the previous government? These grants have been ended by the current government, but the decision has more to do with lack of finance than with what the Balearics Supreme Court once described as the arbitrary nature of grants to the press by the former government.
The press, in theory, is independent. It isn't of course because it often operates according to specific agendas. Whether public money influences these agendas or not, the mere fact of it being made available can create a perception of independence being compromised.
As with papers produced for the island as a whole, so it has also been the case that the local papers have received grants - from the government and the Council of Mallorca, from the directorate for language policy and from town halls. With the partial exception of the latter, these grants have also been withdrawn.
A case can be made for public money to support the press, as it does enable there to be means to provide local media. This is especially so with those local papers that don't operate as businesses as such; some are run as cultural societies. Nevertheless, the same perception can be created; that they might not be genuinely independent.
The recent history of local radio and television in Mallorca has been one in which there have been clear suggestions as to political influence and to stations being in effect political mouthpieces. In the same way, it is hard to not at least think that local papers might have been influenced by, for instance, a generous town hall administration.
If the press is merely a medium by which local issues are reported, then it is only performing part of its job. Journalism falls into three general categories. One, reporting, is factual, or should be, but it can be prone to its own inherent bias, dependent upon the source or the paper's agenda. A second is comment and opinion, while a third is more of the investigative or forensic variety, an expensive form of journalism of which there is almost none in Mallorca.
Of the second category, it is fallacious to believe that comment should be balanced; by definition it isn't. To quote the broadcaster and journalist Jonathan Meades: "fairness (aka balance) is a jurisdictive virtue not a journalistic one". But so long as there exists a relationship of trust with the reader that opinion is that of the author and not one that may have been guided by whatever force, including public money, then the reader can accept the writer's integrity, even if he or she may disagree with the opinion. It's known as the freedom of the press, a concept enshrined in the Spanish constitution and a concept that goes beyond the imposition of censorship; it has to do with independence of thought.
But how free is the press in Mallorca? Parts of it are more so than others, and there are some outstanding and challenging local journalists. Other parts are not, and as much as economic hard times and changing media, a failure of independence, one caused by various influences and pressures and not just public money (now no longer a double-edged sword of influence), is what also closes down the life support, especially when there is life elsewhere - on the internet and in social media.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Keep Feeling Fascination: Mallorca people
Barbara Walters, the antique American TV presenter and journalist, produces an annual list of her ten most fascinating people, these being ten fascinating people, as chosen by Barbara Walters, who aren't Barbara Walters.
Choosing fascinating people? How fascinating. It's fascinating to know how fascinating is defined. Very interesting? Intriguing? Walters has chosen as those who are über-fascinating, and among others, General David Petraeus (last year), J.K.Rowling, Lance Armstrong and Bill Clinton.
Fascinating does, pretty much by definition I guess, mean famous. In WaltersWorld, it would do, but in other worlds, it might not have to. Who, for instance, have been the ten most facinating people in Mallorca during 2011? Now, there's a question. There would doubtless be many who would consider themselves to be endlessly fascinating, many of them Brits who are anything but.
Having posed myself the task of attempting to do a Walters and come up with a shortlist of Mallorcan fascination, I very quickly ran up against an obstacle; I couldn't think of anyone. Perhaps Mallorca doesn't do fascinating, or I just lead a very sheltered existence, unexposed to all the fascination that adorns the island's nightclubs, yachts and golf courses.
One fancies that it is the glitterati in which many would invest fascination. It all depends, however, on your definition or indeed knowledge of the glitterati, and for sure Mallorca has it in abundance, most of it shallow, self-serving and self-publicising; a celebrity under-class of the non-celebrity.
The Walters top tens have been littered with those from the world of politics. Taking this as a hint, does Mallorca have any politicians who might merit the fascinating tag? Bauzá? Hardly. There is little to fascinate other than his having been perfectly formed out of a PP mould of cloned austerity; he is the Borg of the Balearics, and this isn't a reference to Björn.
What about Carlos Delgado? Perhaps, but only because it's fascinating to understand why so many people dislike him. More left field and more left wing would be Miquel Ensenyat, mayor of Esporles and failed candidate for the national parliament of the PSM Mallorcan socialists. Why him? Because he is an openly gay politician, which in Mallorca, but I might be wrong, doesn't seem like a great career move. Having said that, nor is membership of the PSM.
Away from politics, the year has thrown up the Duke of Palma. Is he fascinating? He most certainly wasn't, as no one had ever heard of him other than those who hold an unhealthy fascination for all things royal. The limelight, though, has not made him fascinating. What is fascinating is the case mounting against him and all the money that seems to have been finding its way to him over the past few years. Fascinating, as once again it asks a question as to what type of society allows people, be they politicians or married into royalty, to feel that they can - allegedly - trample over societal mores in the pursuit of lucre with which to line their pockets. But then the added fascination is - what social mores?
The world of business has some candidates, not least those at the top of the hotel food chains. Miquel Fluxá and the Escarrers, father and son, of Meliá, for instance. The Escarrers, through their plans for Magalluf, have highlighted, if highlighting was indeed necessary, the dominance of the hotel industry in Mallorca. Fluxá is, though, more fascinating, if only because he looks like a Red Indian chief.
Air Berlin's Alvaro Middelmann, a rare voice of unremitting common sense in the tourism industry, might do. But he, as with the politicians and the other businesspeople, is not someone who can be said to touch the life of the common man in the café. The common man in the café reading his newspaper is more inclined to a fascination with Rafa Nadal or to be fascinated by the fascinating and at times bizarre goings-on at Real Mallorca. Or more inclined to be fascinated by someone who is, to no small extent, a newspaper phenomenon. Or was. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the nominee for fascination. Riki Lash.
What has happened to him? His column, compiled with the use of a language he invented - Lashlish - has descended into Reuterised news-feed comprehensibility. For no other reason than the unlashing of Lashlish lexicography and the complete absence of an explanation as to why, the fascination award has to go to the enigma that is Riki.
We hope he's all right, as we want our Lash back.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Choosing fascinating people? How fascinating. It's fascinating to know how fascinating is defined. Very interesting? Intriguing? Walters has chosen as those who are über-fascinating, and among others, General David Petraeus (last year), J.K.Rowling, Lance Armstrong and Bill Clinton.
Fascinating does, pretty much by definition I guess, mean famous. In WaltersWorld, it would do, but in other worlds, it might not have to. Who, for instance, have been the ten most facinating people in Mallorca during 2011? Now, there's a question. There would doubtless be many who would consider themselves to be endlessly fascinating, many of them Brits who are anything but.
Having posed myself the task of attempting to do a Walters and come up with a shortlist of Mallorcan fascination, I very quickly ran up against an obstacle; I couldn't think of anyone. Perhaps Mallorca doesn't do fascinating, or I just lead a very sheltered existence, unexposed to all the fascination that adorns the island's nightclubs, yachts and golf courses.
One fancies that it is the glitterati in which many would invest fascination. It all depends, however, on your definition or indeed knowledge of the glitterati, and for sure Mallorca has it in abundance, most of it shallow, self-serving and self-publicising; a celebrity under-class of the non-celebrity.
The Walters top tens have been littered with those from the world of politics. Taking this as a hint, does Mallorca have any politicians who might merit the fascinating tag? Bauzá? Hardly. There is little to fascinate other than his having been perfectly formed out of a PP mould of cloned austerity; he is the Borg of the Balearics, and this isn't a reference to Björn.
What about Carlos Delgado? Perhaps, but only because it's fascinating to understand why so many people dislike him. More left field and more left wing would be Miquel Ensenyat, mayor of Esporles and failed candidate for the national parliament of the PSM Mallorcan socialists. Why him? Because he is an openly gay politician, which in Mallorca, but I might be wrong, doesn't seem like a great career move. Having said that, nor is membership of the PSM.
Away from politics, the year has thrown up the Duke of Palma. Is he fascinating? He most certainly wasn't, as no one had ever heard of him other than those who hold an unhealthy fascination for all things royal. The limelight, though, has not made him fascinating. What is fascinating is the case mounting against him and all the money that seems to have been finding its way to him over the past few years. Fascinating, as once again it asks a question as to what type of society allows people, be they politicians or married into royalty, to feel that they can - allegedly - trample over societal mores in the pursuit of lucre with which to line their pockets. But then the added fascination is - what social mores?
The world of business has some candidates, not least those at the top of the hotel food chains. Miquel Fluxá and the Escarrers, father and son, of Meliá, for instance. The Escarrers, through their plans for Magalluf, have highlighted, if highlighting was indeed necessary, the dominance of the hotel industry in Mallorca. Fluxá is, though, more fascinating, if only because he looks like a Red Indian chief.
Air Berlin's Alvaro Middelmann, a rare voice of unremitting common sense in the tourism industry, might do. But he, as with the politicians and the other businesspeople, is not someone who can be said to touch the life of the common man in the café. The common man in the café reading his newspaper is more inclined to a fascination with Rafa Nadal or to be fascinated by the fascinating and at times bizarre goings-on at Real Mallorca. Or more inclined to be fascinated by someone who is, to no small extent, a newspaper phenomenon. Or was. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the nominee for fascination. Riki Lash.
What has happened to him? His column, compiled with the use of a language he invented - Lashlish - has descended into Reuterised news-feed comprehensibility. For no other reason than the unlashing of Lashlish lexicography and the complete absence of an explanation as to why, the fascination award has to go to the enigma that is Riki.
We hope he's all right, as we want our Lash back.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, December 02, 2011
The Quiet Man And The Serious Man
Amidst all the euphoria (?) of Mariano's march to victory, the local leadership, i.e. that of President Bauzá, could find itself a sideshow to the main event in Madrid. It could do, but it won't. The inevitable scrutiny that a president is subject to and some personality cultivation for Bauzá make sure that it won't.
Rajoy is the Quiet Man, the brothers Iain and Duncan Smith (to lift an old Paul Merton gag) of Spanish politics. Actually, "quiet" doesn't do him justice. Mute is a bit more like it. Whether he ever gets round to acquiring a personality is questionable, but Bauzá, in the meantime, has been.
The spin médicos have it that Bauzá is "serio", a proper politician, as opposed to one who isn't (and there are plenty of candidates, to be fair). "Serio", but he has also undergone something of a metamorphosis, not just in acquiring the facial-hair trappings of Partido Popular politics but also in being portrayed as being vaguely human, though there are those who would disagree.
Before Bauzá was elevated to party leadership n March 2010, his stock, publicity-wise, wasn't that high. Indeed, it was his relative anonymity and unremarkableness, save for a resemblance to Richard E. Grant and/or Count Dracula (or perhaps because of in the case of the latter), that made him the perfect choice for the PP, determined to appoint anyone but Carlos Delgado, who was said not to be shy in promoting himself.
"Serio", and confronting the serious challenges threatening the Balearics with Armageddon, Bauzá set to work after the elections in May. Since then, the new improved Bauzá has emerged with his designer-stubble beard sprouting from the chin of political ambition.
Bauzá is close to Rajoy, so close in fact that it has been implied that Rajoy has, in spirit if not in body, taken up residence in the regional presidential palace in using the Balearics as a test site for national policy to come.
The closeness has caused the electoral commission to describe Bauzá's call for votes for Rajoy at the national election "inappropriate". It also fuels opposition from within his own party as well as from rival parties. Similarly, it does nothing to hold at bay sections of the media, alert to any opportunity of gaffe akin to that which Bauzá made when he had what he admitted later was a "mental lapse" regarding language policy during a radio interview.
The media has, for example, jumped on a more recent admission, that of having a mortgage of some 800 thousand euros for a property said to be valued at well over a million. There is nothing wrong about the mortgage, but it does send out a confused message to all those who had pressurised the poor banks into handing over fat mortgages for which they haven't got a cat in hell's chance of paying off this side of hell freezing over and who, in the process, precipitated the potential for financial Armageddon.
There has also been the issue of Bauzá on the golf course. Opponents have argued that photos of the president in full fairway-swing mode sent out another confused message. There are more "serio" things he should be doing (like cutting even more public-sector jobs, presumably).
The jibe should have been ignored. But no. It was the right message. Golfers spend 400 euros a day, came the reply, and not the average 97 euros a day of regular tourists. Absolutely. The message, one takes it, is that Mallorca doesn't need damned, cheapskate tourists filling the place up and not running to a daily hundred sobs.
Rajoy has met with the different PP regional presidents, emphasising the need for them to comply with the need to reduce regional deficits. In the Balearics, compliance hasn't needed to be sought. Bauzá can be relied upon; "serio" can, after all, mean reliable.
But this compliance is what threatens Bauzá. His image and personality making since the regional elections has been partly for internal party consumption, because there is someone whose greater "presence" was apparent long before the elections: not Delgado, but Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor.
The PP should be riding the wave of success, but it has been holding back the tide of internal division that was evident last year and which now may break over the party's flimsy beachhead. An "ants nest" is how the local party has been described, with Pastor on one ant hill, that of the malcontents whose murmurings of perceived influence of the party nationally and of the party losing its humanity are starting to become louder.
Euphoria can swiftly turn into dysphoria, and for Bauzá, it could be "serio".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Rajoy is the Quiet Man, the brothers Iain and Duncan Smith (to lift an old Paul Merton gag) of Spanish politics. Actually, "quiet" doesn't do him justice. Mute is a bit more like it. Whether he ever gets round to acquiring a personality is questionable, but Bauzá, in the meantime, has been.
The spin médicos have it that Bauzá is "serio", a proper politician, as opposed to one who isn't (and there are plenty of candidates, to be fair). "Serio", but he has also undergone something of a metamorphosis, not just in acquiring the facial-hair trappings of Partido Popular politics but also in being portrayed as being vaguely human, though there are those who would disagree.
Before Bauzá was elevated to party leadership n March 2010, his stock, publicity-wise, wasn't that high. Indeed, it was his relative anonymity and unremarkableness, save for a resemblance to Richard E. Grant and/or Count Dracula (or perhaps because of in the case of the latter), that made him the perfect choice for the PP, determined to appoint anyone but Carlos Delgado, who was said not to be shy in promoting himself.
"Serio", and confronting the serious challenges threatening the Balearics with Armageddon, Bauzá set to work after the elections in May. Since then, the new improved Bauzá has emerged with his designer-stubble beard sprouting from the chin of political ambition.
Bauzá is close to Rajoy, so close in fact that it has been implied that Rajoy has, in spirit if not in body, taken up residence in the regional presidential palace in using the Balearics as a test site for national policy to come.
The closeness has caused the electoral commission to describe Bauzá's call for votes for Rajoy at the national election "inappropriate". It also fuels opposition from within his own party as well as from rival parties. Similarly, it does nothing to hold at bay sections of the media, alert to any opportunity of gaffe akin to that which Bauzá made when he had what he admitted later was a "mental lapse" regarding language policy during a radio interview.
The media has, for example, jumped on a more recent admission, that of having a mortgage of some 800 thousand euros for a property said to be valued at well over a million. There is nothing wrong about the mortgage, but it does send out a confused message to all those who had pressurised the poor banks into handing over fat mortgages for which they haven't got a cat in hell's chance of paying off this side of hell freezing over and who, in the process, precipitated the potential for financial Armageddon.
There has also been the issue of Bauzá on the golf course. Opponents have argued that photos of the president in full fairway-swing mode sent out another confused message. There are more "serio" things he should be doing (like cutting even more public-sector jobs, presumably).
The jibe should have been ignored. But no. It was the right message. Golfers spend 400 euros a day, came the reply, and not the average 97 euros a day of regular tourists. Absolutely. The message, one takes it, is that Mallorca doesn't need damned, cheapskate tourists filling the place up and not running to a daily hundred sobs.
Rajoy has met with the different PP regional presidents, emphasising the need for them to comply with the need to reduce regional deficits. In the Balearics, compliance hasn't needed to be sought. Bauzá can be relied upon; "serio" can, after all, mean reliable.
But this compliance is what threatens Bauzá. His image and personality making since the regional elections has been partly for internal party consumption, because there is someone whose greater "presence" was apparent long before the elections: not Delgado, but Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor.
The PP should be riding the wave of success, but it has been holding back the tide of internal division that was evident last year and which now may break over the party's flimsy beachhead. An "ants nest" is how the local party has been described, with Pastor on one ant hill, that of the malcontents whose murmurings of perceived influence of the party nationally and of the party losing its humanity are starting to become louder.
Euphoria can swiftly turn into dysphoria, and for Bauzá, it could be "serio".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
The Revolution Is Televised
The riots have claimed Mallorcan victims. Bar Brits. The cancellation of the international footy has deprived them of an important date in their calendars; those, that is, for whom the "season" revolves around the peaks of the football season and England internationals in particular.
Rather than cries of "England till I die", Bar Brits reverberate to the calls of "shoot 'em" and not "shoot, come on Rooney, shoot". These calls mix with demands that the army be brought in, that water cannons be used, that the birch be brought back along with National Service and, for good measure, hanging. Enoch is invoked, as Enoch tends to be invoked at such times.
There isn't a whole load of sympathy as Sky plays over and over scenes of unrest, looting, burning cars, burning buildings and fights with police. The Bar Brit punter doesn't want any of this; he wants to be able to watch the telly in order to vent his frustration at another dismal England performance and to shout abuse about Capello.
Sky though, along with the rest of the media, have played their own part. Social media may have been significant (why should anyone be surprised by this?), but rolling 24-hour news and constant images are also significant. They fuel greater disturbances as the hoody class seeks to find itself captured on camera.
This is, after all, the happy-slapping generation, one brought up on actual and personal depictions of unruliness and violence and on its self-aggrandising glorification. Being seen, albeit with a face masked or covered by a hood, is what counts. Being caught on digital film is the esteem maker for those without esteem. Attacks on reporters are not attacks to prevent filming, but attacks for attacks' sake. To prevent filming would undermine the ethos of riot in 2011; these have been riots by media and not social media. They disprove Gil Scott-Heron's poetry of the revolution not being televised.
And in Bar Brits, as in bars in Britain, the public is served its media diet and only too willingly regurgitates it. Words on the lips of Bar Brit occupants are "pure" and "criminality", a curious juxtaposition of adjective and noun, but one spouted as the on-message spin-bite by police, the Home Secretary and a Prime Minister forced to leave his tennis kit behind in Tuscany.
In 1981 the revolution was televised, too. A difference, however, was that there wasn't the cachet attached to being at the end of a lens. It was a televised revolution which gave an incomplete and at times false picture. Ealing, where I lived then, was caught up but not to anything like the way the trouble was represented. Unlike this time.
The revolution is televised not only on Sky and the BBC but also on Spanish TV. Riot by media is a global event, and the whole world can have its say. Spanish telly and press are lapping it all up, as are the chatterers on news sites. Spanish explanations for the riots cover easy access to benefits, Muslims, British imperialism, Conservative governments, a British mob mentality dating back to the Mods and Rockers, and the absence of a middle class in Britain. Some will be the same explanations of Brits themselves; others will make no sense, like the belief that there is no middle class and only rich and poor.
The Mods and Rockers one initially seems odd, but may not be as the riots are only partially a race thing. Whitey is engaged as well, finally finding a cause about which he can riot, one that The Clash called for as long ago as 1977. And the cause is a pair of Nike trainers.
Buried among the Spanish prescriptions on the internet, which have expanded into a free-for-all aimed at Magalluf and Benidorm tourists and demands for Gibraltar and the Malvinas to be returned, are the occasional voices who wonder if the same thing might happen in Spain. But as Spain has a middle class, and Britain doesn't have, then presumably it won't. You do get some pretty weird and distorted views, as you do from the Brits themselves.
Everyone knows what the causes of the riots are; or rather, they reckon they know. I have my own views as to the causes, but why should you be interested in knowing them? They might be right, they might be wrong. However, unlike 1981, when I lived in a part of London that was caught up in the riots, albeit to nothing like the extent that the media suggested, and lived in a city where I knew well enough the issues in Brent, Brixton, Southall, what do I know now?
Perhaps I know far more, however, because these are riots by media and the revolution is very clearly televised.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Rather than cries of "England till I die", Bar Brits reverberate to the calls of "shoot 'em" and not "shoot, come on Rooney, shoot". These calls mix with demands that the army be brought in, that water cannons be used, that the birch be brought back along with National Service and, for good measure, hanging. Enoch is invoked, as Enoch tends to be invoked at such times.
There isn't a whole load of sympathy as Sky plays over and over scenes of unrest, looting, burning cars, burning buildings and fights with police. The Bar Brit punter doesn't want any of this; he wants to be able to watch the telly in order to vent his frustration at another dismal England performance and to shout abuse about Capello.
Sky though, along with the rest of the media, have played their own part. Social media may have been significant (why should anyone be surprised by this?), but rolling 24-hour news and constant images are also significant. They fuel greater disturbances as the hoody class seeks to find itself captured on camera.
This is, after all, the happy-slapping generation, one brought up on actual and personal depictions of unruliness and violence and on its self-aggrandising glorification. Being seen, albeit with a face masked or covered by a hood, is what counts. Being caught on digital film is the esteem maker for those without esteem. Attacks on reporters are not attacks to prevent filming, but attacks for attacks' sake. To prevent filming would undermine the ethos of riot in 2011; these have been riots by media and not social media. They disprove Gil Scott-Heron's poetry of the revolution not being televised.
And in Bar Brits, as in bars in Britain, the public is served its media diet and only too willingly regurgitates it. Words on the lips of Bar Brit occupants are "pure" and "criminality", a curious juxtaposition of adjective and noun, but one spouted as the on-message spin-bite by police, the Home Secretary and a Prime Minister forced to leave his tennis kit behind in Tuscany.
In 1981 the revolution was televised, too. A difference, however, was that there wasn't the cachet attached to being at the end of a lens. It was a televised revolution which gave an incomplete and at times false picture. Ealing, where I lived then, was caught up but not to anything like the way the trouble was represented. Unlike this time.
The revolution is televised not only on Sky and the BBC but also on Spanish TV. Riot by media is a global event, and the whole world can have its say. Spanish telly and press are lapping it all up, as are the chatterers on news sites. Spanish explanations for the riots cover easy access to benefits, Muslims, British imperialism, Conservative governments, a British mob mentality dating back to the Mods and Rockers, and the absence of a middle class in Britain. Some will be the same explanations of Brits themselves; others will make no sense, like the belief that there is no middle class and only rich and poor.
The Mods and Rockers one initially seems odd, but may not be as the riots are only partially a race thing. Whitey is engaged as well, finally finding a cause about which he can riot, one that The Clash called for as long ago as 1977. And the cause is a pair of Nike trainers.
Buried among the Spanish prescriptions on the internet, which have expanded into a free-for-all aimed at Magalluf and Benidorm tourists and demands for Gibraltar and the Malvinas to be returned, are the occasional voices who wonder if the same thing might happen in Spain. But as Spain has a middle class, and Britain doesn't have, then presumably it won't. You do get some pretty weird and distorted views, as you do from the Brits themselves.
Everyone knows what the causes of the riots are; or rather, they reckon they know. I have my own views as to the causes, but why should you be interested in knowing them? They might be right, they might be wrong. However, unlike 1981, when I lived in a part of London that was caught up in the riots, albeit to nothing like the extent that the media suggested, and lived in a city where I knew well enough the issues in Brent, Brixton, Southall, what do I know now?
Perhaps I know far more, however, because these are riots by media and the revolution is very clearly televised.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Johnny Foreigners
It is fun reading what the British press has to say about expat life. Fun because it can be withering in its damnation. You need to have a thick skin if you live in Mallorca and to accept that you can be the object of satire, and at times vicious satire.
The other day, I mentioned Clarkson and his post office blag gag. There have been others, such as A. A. Gill and his character assassination of the by then ex-Keith Floyd and lampooning of Brits assembling for their all-day benders. The "Daily Mail" whipped up a storm two years ago when it addressed the shallowness of life in Mallorca's Portals Nous, only for it to be accused, at best, of misinterpretation. But it served a purpose. And with any of this, there is some basis in truth, and the truth can hurt.
The British press takes a certain delight in attacking the collective Aunt Sally that is the Brit expat community and giving her a periodic knocking. Fair enough. I do the same. But there is a difference. One of being here or being there. Distance, you might think, lends a greater objectivity. Perhaps. But it can also generate ignorance or prejudice. Not everyone is, for example, a Portals airhead.
On a tangential note, it was "The Sun" what did it over the fallout from the bombs two summers ago. The paper ran a most extraordinary item in which it reckoned that the bombs could spell the end of tourism in Spain and Mallorca. What was doubly extraordinary was that it was written by the paper's travel editor. The item wasn't so much irresponsible as complete drivel.
I treat travel pages in newspapers with great suspicion. Unless the writer is blessed with genius, like Adrian Gill, and demands to be read regardless, I wonder what the agenda is. Generally, and unlike the expat have-a-go, the travel pages are positive towards Mallorca. But there is always the punchline, as in so-and-so travelled with such-or-such a company. And if the writer is not Adrian Gill but, say, Louise Redknapp, then you do really have to wonder, especially when Louise, the boy Jamie in tow, discovered (in "The Mail") some "authentic" Mallorca. Where? Portals Nous.
All of which brings me to Christina Patterson. She's a good writer and penned a recent article in "The Independent" that was, notwithstanding the odd dig at some lousy tapas, highly positive. It still came with the punchline caveat, but it didn't matter. However, Ms. Patterson has some previous.
She once wrote an article about expats, the thrust of which was the old chestnut of integration (expats not speaking the language and all that) and of the expat treating Spain (and therefore also Mallorca) and Johnny Foreigner as though empire still existed and the pith helmet was de rigueur headwear.
I despair of the integration thing, not because it isn't an interesting topic but because it is used as a term without any attempt being made to define it. Suffice it to say, if expats couldn't care less about learning the lingo or prefer to spend their evenings watching "Corrie", then quite frankly who am I, or indeed is anyone, including Ms. Patterson, to say they're wrong.
But what was particularly galling about her invective was that she implied that people who had found their lives ruined because of what had turned out to be illegal housing pretty much had themselves to blame. She then mocked those who, on discovering they were in such a parlous situation, levelled accusations of corruption without appreciating that this is how things are in Spain.
Up to a point, she was right, but she should also know that plenty of Spaniards and Mallorcans complain about corruption and that they also stand to lose, or have lost, as a consequence of both corruption and illegal housing. Furthermore, another ingredient in the strife caused by buildings near the coasts is the old 1988 law, newly interpreted by the Costas' authority. A demand from Mallorcan landowners (not expats) means that the Costas now have to explain themselves to the European Parliament.
There are plenty of expats who do bring upon themselves the ridicule of the stereotype, and it is great fun to indulge in such ridiculing, but sometimes their lot is no laughing matter, especially when there is an issue of natural justice at stake; one that affects expats and also plenty of Spaniards and Mallorcans.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The other day, I mentioned Clarkson and his post office blag gag. There have been others, such as A. A. Gill and his character assassination of the by then ex-Keith Floyd and lampooning of Brits assembling for their all-day benders. The "Daily Mail" whipped up a storm two years ago when it addressed the shallowness of life in Mallorca's Portals Nous, only for it to be accused, at best, of misinterpretation. But it served a purpose. And with any of this, there is some basis in truth, and the truth can hurt.
The British press takes a certain delight in attacking the collective Aunt Sally that is the Brit expat community and giving her a periodic knocking. Fair enough. I do the same. But there is a difference. One of being here or being there. Distance, you might think, lends a greater objectivity. Perhaps. But it can also generate ignorance or prejudice. Not everyone is, for example, a Portals airhead.
On a tangential note, it was "The Sun" what did it over the fallout from the bombs two summers ago. The paper ran a most extraordinary item in which it reckoned that the bombs could spell the end of tourism in Spain and Mallorca. What was doubly extraordinary was that it was written by the paper's travel editor. The item wasn't so much irresponsible as complete drivel.
I treat travel pages in newspapers with great suspicion. Unless the writer is blessed with genius, like Adrian Gill, and demands to be read regardless, I wonder what the agenda is. Generally, and unlike the expat have-a-go, the travel pages are positive towards Mallorca. But there is always the punchline, as in so-and-so travelled with such-or-such a company. And if the writer is not Adrian Gill but, say, Louise Redknapp, then you do really have to wonder, especially when Louise, the boy Jamie in tow, discovered (in "The Mail") some "authentic" Mallorca. Where? Portals Nous.
All of which brings me to Christina Patterson. She's a good writer and penned a recent article in "The Independent" that was, notwithstanding the odd dig at some lousy tapas, highly positive. It still came with the punchline caveat, but it didn't matter. However, Ms. Patterson has some previous.
She once wrote an article about expats, the thrust of which was the old chestnut of integration (expats not speaking the language and all that) and of the expat treating Spain (and therefore also Mallorca) and Johnny Foreigner as though empire still existed and the pith helmet was de rigueur headwear.
I despair of the integration thing, not because it isn't an interesting topic but because it is used as a term without any attempt being made to define it. Suffice it to say, if expats couldn't care less about learning the lingo or prefer to spend their evenings watching "Corrie", then quite frankly who am I, or indeed is anyone, including Ms. Patterson, to say they're wrong.
But what was particularly galling about her invective was that she implied that people who had found their lives ruined because of what had turned out to be illegal housing pretty much had themselves to blame. She then mocked those who, on discovering they were in such a parlous situation, levelled accusations of corruption without appreciating that this is how things are in Spain.
Up to a point, she was right, but she should also know that plenty of Spaniards and Mallorcans complain about corruption and that they also stand to lose, or have lost, as a consequence of both corruption and illegal housing. Furthermore, another ingredient in the strife caused by buildings near the coasts is the old 1988 law, newly interpreted by the Costas' authority. A demand from Mallorcan landowners (not expats) means that the Costas now have to explain themselves to the European Parliament.
There are plenty of expats who do bring upon themselves the ridicule of the stereotype, and it is great fun to indulge in such ridiculing, but sometimes their lot is no laughing matter, especially when there is an issue of natural justice at stake; one that affects expats and also plenty of Spaniards and Mallorcans.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Reflections Of The Way Life Used To Be
Back in the days when The Supremes were singing about reflections, things were very different politically in Spain. They didn't have to worry much about mass demonstrations and they didn't have to worry much about such demonstrations intruding into days of reflection before elections, as there were neither reflections nor elections.
Today is the day of reflection. What it means is that all political campaigning and indeed comment about the elections should cease prior to tomorrow's elections. As a result, I shall not be talking about the elections. Indeed, I hadn't intended talking about the day of reflection until the demonstrations across Spain began to gather momentum and it occurred to me that this day of reflection is archaic.
Let me make it clear. I think a day of reflection, one in which there is an abstinence from campaigning and comment is a very good idea. The trouble is that its practicality has been lost. While the mainstream press will observe the day and while the political parties will be silent, there will be a whole other world chattering away like fury: the Twitter and Blogospheres.
The social networks have been at least partially instrumental in garnering support for the protests that are and have been taking place across Spain. Together with what will continue to be said today on the internet, the power of the social networks is proving to another government, this time Spain's, that when people feel strongly enough about something, the rules can be ripped up and chucked away.
For it is the rule about the day of reflection, sound in principle but outmoded in reality, that is creating a rod for the government's back. As the protests have a political dimension, they have to cease as they break the rule. But try breaking the protests and the day of reflection will cause there to be a far greater political dimension. The government is in an intolerable situation, but it is one that shows how impotent or potentially reactionary governments can actually be, despite the best of intentions as encapsulated in the day of reflection.
The protests, camps in squares around the country, including Palma, and led by a movement called 15-M, have drawn comparison with events in other countries, most obviously Egypt, but such comparisons are pretty fanciful. Nevertheless, they are being taken seriously enough for President Zapatero to have acknowledged that there are reasons for discontent.
Though it is the national government that is taking the brunt of the protests in that it has to decide how to respond, as do the police, the protests are clearly directed at the whole political system. These are not protests against unemployment, cuts in wages or such; they are against the system and against corruption. "The New York Times" has, as an example, drawn comparisons between Silvio Berlusconi and the head of the Valencia regional government, Francisco Camps, who is likely to be re-elected but still faces the probability of being called to account in a court of law.
In the Palma protest, one of the demands made has been that the protesters want governments which deliver obedience: the governments' own. The disobedience of the protesters, crossing into the day of reflection, will unravel in terms of what reaction there is from these different governments and police; the regional electoral commission in the Balearics has backed the central one in declaring protests today illegal.
And that's all I'm going to say. Has this article broken the day of reflection rule? I don't know. But you can't have protests going on without there being comment. If one thing is to come of the protests, it may well be that it is decided that the day of reflection is more trouble than it's worth. Which would be a shame, but these are modern times, and not those of the past.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Today is the day of reflection. What it means is that all political campaigning and indeed comment about the elections should cease prior to tomorrow's elections. As a result, I shall not be talking about the elections. Indeed, I hadn't intended talking about the day of reflection until the demonstrations across Spain began to gather momentum and it occurred to me that this day of reflection is archaic.
Let me make it clear. I think a day of reflection, one in which there is an abstinence from campaigning and comment is a very good idea. The trouble is that its practicality has been lost. While the mainstream press will observe the day and while the political parties will be silent, there will be a whole other world chattering away like fury: the Twitter and Blogospheres.
The social networks have been at least partially instrumental in garnering support for the protests that are and have been taking place across Spain. Together with what will continue to be said today on the internet, the power of the social networks is proving to another government, this time Spain's, that when people feel strongly enough about something, the rules can be ripped up and chucked away.
For it is the rule about the day of reflection, sound in principle but outmoded in reality, that is creating a rod for the government's back. As the protests have a political dimension, they have to cease as they break the rule. But try breaking the protests and the day of reflection will cause there to be a far greater political dimension. The government is in an intolerable situation, but it is one that shows how impotent or potentially reactionary governments can actually be, despite the best of intentions as encapsulated in the day of reflection.
The protests, camps in squares around the country, including Palma, and led by a movement called 15-M, have drawn comparison with events in other countries, most obviously Egypt, but such comparisons are pretty fanciful. Nevertheless, they are being taken seriously enough for President Zapatero to have acknowledged that there are reasons for discontent.
Though it is the national government that is taking the brunt of the protests in that it has to decide how to respond, as do the police, the protests are clearly directed at the whole political system. These are not protests against unemployment, cuts in wages or such; they are against the system and against corruption. "The New York Times" has, as an example, drawn comparisons between Silvio Berlusconi and the head of the Valencia regional government, Francisco Camps, who is likely to be re-elected but still faces the probability of being called to account in a court of law.
In the Palma protest, one of the demands made has been that the protesters want governments which deliver obedience: the governments' own. The disobedience of the protesters, crossing into the day of reflection, will unravel in terms of what reaction there is from these different governments and police; the regional electoral commission in the Balearics has backed the central one in declaring protests today illegal.
And that's all I'm going to say. Has this article broken the day of reflection rule? I don't know. But you can't have protests going on without there being comment. If one thing is to come of the protests, it may well be that it is decided that the day of reflection is more trouble than it's worth. Which would be a shame, but these are modern times, and not those of the past.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
All I Want Is A Photograph Of You
Robert Cornelius has a niche in history. An early pioneer of photographic technology, a self-portrait of Cornelius was one of the first, if not the first, photo taken of a person. The year was 1839; the place, Philadelphia.
Cornelius, and other early-movers in the art and science of photography, would have had no idea what they were unleashing. Almost two centuries on, and the human race and its environment has become a continuum of incessant snapping. We are photography. Homo Kodakiens.
The camera is arguably the greatest invention ever. The technology has formed the basis for record and for revision, no more so than nowadays; digital photography makes images two-a-penny and photographic software can alter images in a way that Stalin's airbrushers could never have imagined.
In Mallorca, where would we be without the camera? It has benefited from the same brilliant light in capturing land- and seascapes as that which inspired the post-impressionist school of art in Pollensa in the early twentieth century. It has been the medium for thousands, millions of the photographic cliché: the view to and from the Calvari oratory in Pollensa town; the pine tree hanging off-centre of frame as the lens scans the sweep of Puerto Pollensa's pine walk; the shadow thrown onto the horse promontory of Cala San Vicente's "Cavall Bernat". The cliché of image is as repetitious as the superlatives of adjectives that describe the scenes with the unthinking rote-speak of brochures and websites.
As focused on and clicked as the scenery are the reproduced descendants of Robert Cornelius. People. Mallorcan society, in its widest sense, appears at times to exist for one purpose - to have its picture taken. Little of this is what you might call photo-journalism; it is imagery for the sake of imagery. Its repetitiousness, its pose-style is as loaded with déjà vu as the tourist snap of the pine walk or other so-called "iconic" landscapes.
One such is the photo of long tables, disappearing into the distance, at which are seated any number of uninteresting people with dreary expressions who have gathered together to eat something. There is a recent good example of the art; a Partido Popular lunch in Campos, with, in the foreground, María Salom and José Bauzá. It is the same shot as is regurgitated from the memory cards of suppers at annual fiestas. Who on earth cares?
Politicians are, naturally, the worst when it comes to muscling into frame. The default politician photo comprises several of them, standing shoulder to shoulder, inaugurating something, standing on a platform, making some declaration or other. Just one problem with these photos is that many of the subjects, the blokes especially, are so badly dressed. Jeans really aren't politician attire, but they are in Mallorca. And the wearers look as though they've just walked in from the fields or the building site, which is probably because they have.
No more idiotic in the formulaic, side-by-side, on-stage photo is one from Artà the other day. It looks as though the whole town is in it, celebrating the almost completely unnewsworthy fact that the town has finally got round to having a tourism website. I exaggerate the numbers. They are not the whole of Artà, but they are that great that they equate to a World Cup football squad. It is so supremely old-fashioned and silly, you half expect them to launch into a chorus of "Back Home". This is photography by parish newsletter, which just about sums up the level of local politics and the sophistication that it attracts and displays.
But worse, far worse, are the photos of alleged VIPs and celebrities. They form a constant collage of the dicky-bow, the low-slung, the suntan, the champagne flute and the expensive trip to the hairdressers. These are the snaps of the faux-"Hello", misguided notion that anyone is actually interested. They are interested, if the subjects happen to be famous, but not when they are the famous unfamous or the simply unfamous. Most you have neither heard of nor care about, and if you have heard of them, you would probably prefer not to have. It is these images, though, which speak more, far more about Mallorca than the landscape clichés. Well, about a Mallorca, at any rate.
In 1839, Robert Cornelius conducted an experiment. One would doubt that he had in mind his own vanity. But what he unleashed, other than merely matters of record, was the vanity of others. One does have to distinguish between the photographing of Mallorcan society and of society Mallorca. The latter is the domain of the vain and the vaininglorious. The act of the photographer is not to inform an audience but to bow to the bows and frills of the subject. But most of this act is irrelevant, superficial and shallow; as shallow as the subjects through the lens and with even less depth of focus.
All I want is a photograph of you, something to remind me. Actually, I don't.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Cornelius, and other early-movers in the art and science of photography, would have had no idea what they were unleashing. Almost two centuries on, and the human race and its environment has become a continuum of incessant snapping. We are photography. Homo Kodakiens.
The camera is arguably the greatest invention ever. The technology has formed the basis for record and for revision, no more so than nowadays; digital photography makes images two-a-penny and photographic software can alter images in a way that Stalin's airbrushers could never have imagined.
In Mallorca, where would we be without the camera? It has benefited from the same brilliant light in capturing land- and seascapes as that which inspired the post-impressionist school of art in Pollensa in the early twentieth century. It has been the medium for thousands, millions of the photographic cliché: the view to and from the Calvari oratory in Pollensa town; the pine tree hanging off-centre of frame as the lens scans the sweep of Puerto Pollensa's pine walk; the shadow thrown onto the horse promontory of Cala San Vicente's "Cavall Bernat". The cliché of image is as repetitious as the superlatives of adjectives that describe the scenes with the unthinking rote-speak of brochures and websites.
As focused on and clicked as the scenery are the reproduced descendants of Robert Cornelius. People. Mallorcan society, in its widest sense, appears at times to exist for one purpose - to have its picture taken. Little of this is what you might call photo-journalism; it is imagery for the sake of imagery. Its repetitiousness, its pose-style is as loaded with déjà vu as the tourist snap of the pine walk or other so-called "iconic" landscapes.
One such is the photo of long tables, disappearing into the distance, at which are seated any number of uninteresting people with dreary expressions who have gathered together to eat something. There is a recent good example of the art; a Partido Popular lunch in Campos, with, in the foreground, María Salom and José Bauzá. It is the same shot as is regurgitated from the memory cards of suppers at annual fiestas. Who on earth cares?
Politicians are, naturally, the worst when it comes to muscling into frame. The default politician photo comprises several of them, standing shoulder to shoulder, inaugurating something, standing on a platform, making some declaration or other. Just one problem with these photos is that many of the subjects, the blokes especially, are so badly dressed. Jeans really aren't politician attire, but they are in Mallorca. And the wearers look as though they've just walked in from the fields or the building site, which is probably because they have.
No more idiotic in the formulaic, side-by-side, on-stage photo is one from Artà the other day. It looks as though the whole town is in it, celebrating the almost completely unnewsworthy fact that the town has finally got round to having a tourism website. I exaggerate the numbers. They are not the whole of Artà, but they are that great that they equate to a World Cup football squad. It is so supremely old-fashioned and silly, you half expect them to launch into a chorus of "Back Home". This is photography by parish newsletter, which just about sums up the level of local politics and the sophistication that it attracts and displays.
But worse, far worse, are the photos of alleged VIPs and celebrities. They form a constant collage of the dicky-bow, the low-slung, the suntan, the champagne flute and the expensive trip to the hairdressers. These are the snaps of the faux-"Hello", misguided notion that anyone is actually interested. They are interested, if the subjects happen to be famous, but not when they are the famous unfamous or the simply unfamous. Most you have neither heard of nor care about, and if you have heard of them, you would probably prefer not to have. It is these images, though, which speak more, far more about Mallorca than the landscape clichés. Well, about a Mallorca, at any rate.
In 1839, Robert Cornelius conducted an experiment. One would doubt that he had in mind his own vanity. But what he unleashed, other than merely matters of record, was the vanity of others. One does have to distinguish between the photographing of Mallorcan society and of society Mallorca. The latter is the domain of the vain and the vaininglorious. The act of the photographer is not to inform an audience but to bow to the bows and frills of the subject. But most of this act is irrelevant, superficial and shallow; as shallow as the subjects through the lens and with even less depth of focus.
All I want is a photograph of you, something to remind me. Actually, I don't.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Come Fly With Me - Or Not
Come fly with me. Just as I get an email about the Sinatra show and its lift-off for the coming season, so I also hear about flights grounded. Or rather, flights not flying. Don't fly with me.
The availability of flights has been an issue throughout the winter. There have been fewer flights and what there have been have not always been as convenient as previously. Stansted with Ryanair. I'd rather not have, but that was how it was. "The problem's the lack of flights. Look, there's hardly anyone walking past." I did look. The street outside the estate agency in Pollensa. No, I suppose there weren't that many people walking past. And the problem is, even at the luxury end of the property market (which is the end occupied by this particular estate agency), that the lack of flights means less potential for sales. The luxury end, which is meant to have remained buoyant. "Mike Oldfield has dropped the price of his place by a million," I say. Might not be representative of the market, they say. The celebs whack on a premium in the belief that someone will pay it in order to wallow in the reflected kudos. Casa Tubular Bells. Getting an extra million for your gaff. Like chasing moonlight shadows. At another agency at the luxury, luxury end of the market, there are a number of showings. I guess a number of showings is a euphemism.
Having been told about the sorry state of the airline industry, I find further support in "The Bulletin". "Majorca pays the price for a lack of flights," it front pages. Easter may not be that good if there aren't the flights. The paper's got its tourism insider at it again. The chap from Cosmos etc. etc. Talk about downbeat. Talk also about what we knew wouldn't be the case and the bleeding obvious. What did we know wouldn't be the case? That all the hotels in Mallorca would be open on 1 April. Thus reckoned the head of the hotel federation some while back. It was a daft statement, an April Fool. It was never going to happen. And isn't.
What do we know that is the bleeding obvious? That there will be a hiatus between Easter and when the season really kicks in some time in May. Hence, hotels - and airlines - schedule accordingly. We know all this. Why should it even be worthy of comment? Because someone - the hoteliers' boss - made the statement. And it seemed to be taken as fact. By some. Not by me. You just had to ask one or two hotels to get the answer and paint a more accurate picture. The press though. Ah yes, the press, as in The Bulletin. Never seems to question the statements. Taken as fact. And then there's the promotion. The tourism promotion for the islands. The Rafael Nadal adverts. They have not been screened in the UK and Germany. We know all this. And we know why the ads haven't been screened. Because of the upheavals at the tourism ministry and because one of the various tourism ministers, Ferrer, seemed to want to cut costs.
Just like Sky can put up some dolt of a footballer to say nothing or to say the bleeding obvious with no insight or no originality - and presumably pay handsomely - so the default position of the press is to front up with a so-called "name", be it the head of a tourism organisation or company, who offers a similar lack of originality or lack of anything challenging or controversial. It's mediocre. At best.
Tourism insiding. Same old, same old. The press's treatment is as depressingly familiar, repetitious, undemanding as the messages themselves can be depressing. But wait. This does not accord with other messages. That some hotels are reporting almost solid bookings through the season - already; that some businesses are feeling very optimistic and are going for new approaches and new ideas. I feel that old song by Allan Sherman coming on. "Camp Granada." The depressing refrain of "take me home, oh muddah, fadduh". Then suddenly, guys are swimming, guys are sailing. It's never as bad as you think, everyone, or as the press might portray it, or as depressingly familiar, repetitious and undemanding as the treatment.
Kindly disregard this letter.
Captain Chris Mackintosh
I'm extremely grateful to John Maclean for sending an obituary for a friend, someone who was well-known to many in Alcúdia. Captain Chris has died suddenly. I'm holding the obit back as it will go into "Talk Of The North" next week. But thanks, John, and for the lovely touch at the end:
"Farewell, my friend and fair winds. Fair winds."
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The availability of flights has been an issue throughout the winter. There have been fewer flights and what there have been have not always been as convenient as previously. Stansted with Ryanair. I'd rather not have, but that was how it was. "The problem's the lack of flights. Look, there's hardly anyone walking past." I did look. The street outside the estate agency in Pollensa. No, I suppose there weren't that many people walking past. And the problem is, even at the luxury end of the property market (which is the end occupied by this particular estate agency), that the lack of flights means less potential for sales. The luxury end, which is meant to have remained buoyant. "Mike Oldfield has dropped the price of his place by a million," I say. Might not be representative of the market, they say. The celebs whack on a premium in the belief that someone will pay it in order to wallow in the reflected kudos. Casa Tubular Bells. Getting an extra million for your gaff. Like chasing moonlight shadows. At another agency at the luxury, luxury end of the market, there are a number of showings. I guess a number of showings is a euphemism.
Having been told about the sorry state of the airline industry, I find further support in "The Bulletin". "Majorca pays the price for a lack of flights," it front pages. Easter may not be that good if there aren't the flights. The paper's got its tourism insider at it again. The chap from Cosmos etc. etc. Talk about downbeat. Talk also about what we knew wouldn't be the case and the bleeding obvious. What did we know wouldn't be the case? That all the hotels in Mallorca would be open on 1 April. Thus reckoned the head of the hotel federation some while back. It was a daft statement, an April Fool. It was never going to happen. And isn't.
What do we know that is the bleeding obvious? That there will be a hiatus between Easter and when the season really kicks in some time in May. Hence, hotels - and airlines - schedule accordingly. We know all this. Why should it even be worthy of comment? Because someone - the hoteliers' boss - made the statement. And it seemed to be taken as fact. By some. Not by me. You just had to ask one or two hotels to get the answer and paint a more accurate picture. The press though. Ah yes, the press, as in The Bulletin. Never seems to question the statements. Taken as fact. And then there's the promotion. The tourism promotion for the islands. The Rafael Nadal adverts. They have not been screened in the UK and Germany. We know all this. And we know why the ads haven't been screened. Because of the upheavals at the tourism ministry and because one of the various tourism ministers, Ferrer, seemed to want to cut costs.
Just like Sky can put up some dolt of a footballer to say nothing or to say the bleeding obvious with no insight or no originality - and presumably pay handsomely - so the default position of the press is to front up with a so-called "name", be it the head of a tourism organisation or company, who offers a similar lack of originality or lack of anything challenging or controversial. It's mediocre. At best.
Tourism insiding. Same old, same old. The press's treatment is as depressingly familiar, repetitious, undemanding as the messages themselves can be depressing. But wait. This does not accord with other messages. That some hotels are reporting almost solid bookings through the season - already; that some businesses are feeling very optimistic and are going for new approaches and new ideas. I feel that old song by Allan Sherman coming on. "Camp Granada." The depressing refrain of "take me home, oh muddah, fadduh". Then suddenly, guys are swimming, guys are sailing. It's never as bad as you think, everyone, or as the press might portray it, or as depressingly familiar, repetitious and undemanding as the treatment.
Kindly disregard this letter.
Captain Chris Mackintosh
I'm extremely grateful to John Maclean for sending an obituary for a friend, someone who was well-known to many in Alcúdia. Captain Chris has died suddenly. I'm holding the obit back as it will go into "Talk Of The North" next week. But thanks, John, and for the lovely touch at the end:
"Farewell, my friend and fair winds. Fair winds."
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Just Another Day - tourism scene and corruption
Here's a potentially useful addition to the coverage in "The Bulletin" - a regular thing on tourism. You might wonder why there hasn't been such a column before. If you haven't wondered, I most certainly have. Amidst the pages of questionable relevance and of British and international politics, there are few that actually deal with issues of direct relevance to Mallorca. Tourism is not exactly irrelevant. But now there is a column, of sorts. It is in the form of an interview with the paper's tame tour operator chappie, the guy from the Co-Op-Monarch-Cosmos group. The first one is not uninteresting, albeit that it says much that is fairly obvious or known.
The same chap was recently reported in the paper as saying that bookings to Mallorca were down by some 15%. At the time (25 January: I'm Anti, Fly Me), I questioned whether this would continue to prove to be the case, and continue to prove it has not - the current fall is around half that figure, while - in all likelihood - there will ultimately prove to be no fall and possibly even a slight increase. It isn't really tourist industry rocket science to suggest that there will be later bookings that contribute to a reasonable, if not spectacular, tourism season. The Turkish situation is an interesting aspect that will play a part in this. There is under-supply in Turkey and, just as importantly, prices have gone up there. I read on a forum someone saying that prices were "outrageous"; that person was looking for a villa in Mallorca as an alternative. Something that may have escaped many of the doom-mongers is the enduring strength of the Mallorca brand and product, despite the tourism authorities' best attempts at trying to undermine it or to not promote it adequately. One thing the tour operators know is that they can get that supply, which they cannot necessarily obtain elsewhere.
To have a regular feature is a good enough idea; to give some facts is a good enough idea. To have an industry insider supplying the information is also a good enough idea, but it is only one insider and one who represents a specific company. Inevitably, there might be a bit of a "take" on matters that are - how should one say it - skewed towards that company. But don't let me get too critical. It is a useful addition, but even more so would be a real feature or column, one that takes the insider information and forms a discussion, one that might be - dare I say it - rather more journalistic. Heaven knows, there is enough cracking off in the island's tourism industry to fill a paper, let alone just one page. And, slightly tangential but still within the industry orbit, comes the oh-no-not-more-of-it moment. Corruption. This time it is Inestur. Which is? The Balearics institute for tourism strategy, an institute within the ambit of the regional government's ministry of tourism. An investigation is now under way into this institute. The facts are not yet clear, nor is it clear if any alleged corruption refers to the current ministry administration - under the Unió Mallorquina party - or the previous one of the Partido Popular. It hardly seems to matter any longer. Just another day in Mallorca. Another day, another corruption allegation. And this time, tourism's in the front line. Regular feature. Yep. The daily scandal feature.
QUIZ
Yesterday: "Riders On The Storm", The Doors, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbPUzhWeeI. Today's title: could be a few, but this one - Cuban-American - had a gold seller with "Just Another Day".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The same chap was recently reported in the paper as saying that bookings to Mallorca were down by some 15%. At the time (25 January: I'm Anti, Fly Me), I questioned whether this would continue to prove to be the case, and continue to prove it has not - the current fall is around half that figure, while - in all likelihood - there will ultimately prove to be no fall and possibly even a slight increase. It isn't really tourist industry rocket science to suggest that there will be later bookings that contribute to a reasonable, if not spectacular, tourism season. The Turkish situation is an interesting aspect that will play a part in this. There is under-supply in Turkey and, just as importantly, prices have gone up there. I read on a forum someone saying that prices were "outrageous"; that person was looking for a villa in Mallorca as an alternative. Something that may have escaped many of the doom-mongers is the enduring strength of the Mallorca brand and product, despite the tourism authorities' best attempts at trying to undermine it or to not promote it adequately. One thing the tour operators know is that they can get that supply, which they cannot necessarily obtain elsewhere.
To have a regular feature is a good enough idea; to give some facts is a good enough idea. To have an industry insider supplying the information is also a good enough idea, but it is only one insider and one who represents a specific company. Inevitably, there might be a bit of a "take" on matters that are - how should one say it - skewed towards that company. But don't let me get too critical. It is a useful addition, but even more so would be a real feature or column, one that takes the insider information and forms a discussion, one that might be - dare I say it - rather more journalistic. Heaven knows, there is enough cracking off in the island's tourism industry to fill a paper, let alone just one page. And, slightly tangential but still within the industry orbit, comes the oh-no-not-more-of-it moment. Corruption. This time it is Inestur. Which is? The Balearics institute for tourism strategy, an institute within the ambit of the regional government's ministry of tourism. An investigation is now under way into this institute. The facts are not yet clear, nor is it clear if any alleged corruption refers to the current ministry administration - under the Unió Mallorquina party - or the previous one of the Partido Popular. It hardly seems to matter any longer. Just another day in Mallorca. Another day, another corruption allegation. And this time, tourism's in the front line. Regular feature. Yep. The daily scandal feature.
QUIZ
Yesterday: "Riders On The Storm", The Doors, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbPUzhWeeI. Today's title: could be a few, but this one - Cuban-American - had a gold seller with "Just Another Day".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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