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.

Empire Of The Sun: Balearics poverty

The Spanish word "miseria" can have different meanings. Whichever one you take, they amount to much the same thing. Misery, wretchedness, poverty; they are indistinguishable.

The latest survey of poverty makes the Balearics the fourth poorest region of Spain or, if you prefer your translation, the region which, after the Canaries, Extremadura and Andalucía, is the fourth most miserable and the fourth most wretched. Such a conclusion doesn't do much for all the paradise island guff. It also doesn't do much for the poor who are about to be slammed with a rise in the cost of living because of the increase in IVA. To put this rise in some sort of context, it is estimated that it will cost each household a bit over 700 euros more a year. This in a country where the minimum salary is under 700 (it is in fact around 640 euros per month).

The poverty statistics for the Balearics are bad enough, but if you take them for Spain as a whole, then they are even worse. Spain has the highest index of poverty in the whole of the European Union. And this is a country that is meant to be among the world's richest countries, if only determined by IMF figures for GDP. Yet it isn't surprising. I drew a comparison yesterday with the French minimum salary. This comparison, and comparisons with other European countries, together with their respective general rates of value added tax, are being widely made. There is a very good reason why. Rajoy in his address on Black Wednesday had the brass neck to say that the French rate of VAT was higher than Spain's. Yes, it is, but it won't be once the 21% rate comes in, but more pertinent is the comparative level of income. It is typical for politicians to be economic with their facts, and Rajoy is certainly no different.

The misery and additional poverty that the Spanish Government is about to inflict on the Balearics (and the nation) are not matched by the demeanour of these politicians. The PSOE party locally has gone on Facebook to show a photo of an Italian politician in tears when the announcement had to be made of cuts. It is compared with a truly abhorrent, horrible photo of Rajoy being applauded by members of his cabinet after his address on Wednesday. How dare they? They should hang their heads in shame. Italian politicians could empathise with the misery by being miserable. The Spanish ones can't. They are a disgrace.

In addition to the survey on poverty, another report has been issued. This one calculates that one in four people in the Balearics is at the risk of poverty, a figure that has risen by around 20,000 people in three years. And while this risk increases, the aid, what little there is because Spain isn't particularly generous anyway, is being cut. It is said that the cut to unemployment benefit, another element of the Black Wednesday announcement which Rajoy's cronies were so determined to applaud, will hit the Balearics harder than anywhere because of the dependence upon tourism and therefore the high level of seasonal employment (and unemployment).

The Balearics may not be the worst affected, but if not, this will be because either the Canaries or Andalucía is more affected. Two other regions with the highest levels of poverty, misery and wretchedness.

Yet, how can this all be, some will ask. The wonderful weather, the wonderful lifestyle, the wonderful people, the wonderful ... . Oh, do shut up. It is no coincidence that the Balearics, the Canaries and the region that is home to the Costa del Sol have such high levels of poverty. Each is dependent upon tourism and each employs people on low wages who are finding it increasingly difficult to even obtain employment contracts long enough to enable them to qualify for benefit.

The paradise island line is a facade, a statement of unreality. It is one trotted out by ignorant or smug expatriates who have not the faintest idea. Or one used by visitors who are similarly ignorant. They at least can be excused.

It is the facade, the superficiality of beach lifestyle, of the yacht club, of the golf club, of the doing lunch, of the doing dinner. It is one behind which many can shield themselves. Yet it is a facade that is showing signs of cracking. The Empire of the Sun on the paradise island may not be subject to anything as dramatic as an invasion force turning a world of smug aloofness and parties upside down, but the sun is lowering. It is not going down and never will, but no empire ever lasted.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.