The July-August 1989 issue of a publication devoted to Palmanova and Magalluf offered its thoughts about Magalluf. The publication was "Entre Tots". The main article had to do with "everything being in a mess". There was building work going on in the middle of summer. The then deputy mayor was quoted as saying that the town hall (Calvia) was wanting to "beautify" Magalluf. The plan was for a transformation into green areas with a boulevard of fountains, new street lighting, more trees, more benches within three years. That would have meant 1992.
It may not have escaped your attention that there has been a transformation in Magalluf. It started to take place nineteen years after the previous one was meant to have been completed. You surely have to know about this transformation, because it is constantly referred to. The town hall and hoteliers, a mix of public and private sector, have brought into being the "new" Magalluf.
That same edition in 1989 also featured an interview with the local police. There was a reference to there being a "restructuring of the force". Sounds familiar? Yes, because there's now another one. This restructuring, as with the current one, was in response to specific needs. In 1989, these were identified, inter alia, as illegal street selling, the activities of PRs ("tiqueteros"), night-time noise and public order and security on the beaches. The police would not be engaging in "repressive" action, it was said, but with "preventive" action.
Twenty-seven years on, and what has changed? Well, as part of the transformation into "new" Magalluf, bylaws and commands are issued with regularity. Together with police restructuring, these will deal with anti-social behaviour and the sort of petty illegality, such as street selling, that had existed well before "Entre Tots" was talking about it in 1989. Bylaws are made. Enforcing compliance is another issue.
There have been big changes since the late 1980s. Back then in what was still a pre-internet era, there were no videos of sexual activities to be disseminated via YouTube and other social networks. There was no specific talk of the phenomenon of "balconing". If there was prostitution, then it was prostitution as it was described on the tin: selling sex and that was all.
If you consider these three aspects, you get a clear impression of how the "new" Magalluf is working, or isn't working, and of what the main messages from the town hall (and others) have focused on and are focusing on. One of the latest attempts is "#Magalive". How to be responsible (young) tourists, how to have fun without getting totally bladdered or totally off the head on drugs or both. Well intentioned enough, but there will have been those not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
The petty illegality is as it was in 1989, but since then something very much more sinister has emerged. Everyone knows what it is, and yet the town hall (and others) bang on endlessly about anything but. Behind the campaigns to stop the use of laughing gas or people falling off balconies, there is the very much darker side - the muggings, the violence, the drugs.
I once wrote that there was a situation of the three wise monkeys' see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil in Magalluf: a situation of heads in sand, hoping that no one pays any heed to people being assaulted by violent prostitutes and others. Amidst all the campaigns and notices that have emanated from the town hall in recent months, where have been ones addressing the prostitutes and the other attendant sinister aspects of the resort? Three wise monkeys. The question is: who are they?
There is a new Facebook page (see how things have changed since 1989). It is called Calvia Crimewatch. Essentially, it is Magalluf with some Santa Ponsa thrown into the mix. Since being launched last Friday, it has at time of writing (Sunday lunchtime) almost 500 group members.
It would be easy for me to simply quote from this page, but to do so would not do justice to the overwhelming sense of outrage and to the numerous anecdotes related to violence, theft and more, or to some of the photos that are appearing and the threats targeted at those who attempt to photograph acts of criminality. No, it would be far too simple. You can see for yourselves anyway. So can the town hall, were it of a mind to. So can foreign media. So can police, so can the national government's delegation to the Balearics. So can anyone who might want to actually gain an appreciation as to realities in "new" Magalluf.
We've heard the excuses, we've heard the announcements of action to be taken which seem rarely or ever to materialise. Excuses, reasons are no longer acceptable. What does it take? People to get killed?
Showing posts with label Prostitution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prostitution. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Friday, June 06, 2014
This Is Not Magalluf
Puerto Alcúdia. Puerto Pollensa. Can Picafort. Playa de Muro. What do they have in common? If you answer that they are all resorts in the north of Majorca, then you would be right but you would also be wrong. The real answer is that they are not Magalluf. In just the same way as Port Sóller, Cala Millor and Cala d'Or are not Magalluf.
The Mallorca world revolves around a sun of Magalluf obscured by darkness that stalks the night and only around this sun. Am I right or am I right? You would be right, too. Magalluf, always Magalluf. Never here, there or everywhere else. The body of Magalluf is picked over by a scavenging and voracious press endlessly hunting for the bones of a story, one that is preferably sordid, sensational, sad or all three. A plague on both the houses of Magalluf itself and the media it fattens.
I am right but I'm not right. You would be right but you would not be right. The northern resorts, as with more or less all other resorts in Mallorca, may have little more than walk-on parts as extras in the tragi-comedy that has been playing to packed media audiences in Magalluf, but there is something to be said for playing a bit part: no spotlight turned on means no blemishes to be noticed, real or imagined, minor or rather more than minor. Be careful what you wish for by way of attention.
The prostitute thing is not a phenomenon in the northern resorts. Thank God for that. But Magalluf serves as a warning. As perhaps do solutions to its troubles. If not Magalluf, then where? The prostitute thing would be unlikely to gravitate north because of logistics. Where are the women based? Palma. Distances are short to the places of their violence. Besides which, the north's resorts are unlike Magalluf and parts of Playa de Palma that offer fertile drunken, youthful pickings for the women of the night mugging patrols. But there again, it isn't only the drunken and the youthful who fall prey. And also there again, it isn't accurate to suggest that northern resorts are solely "family", a branding which somehow seems to imply that they are spared the worst excesses that Mallorca can offer.
Things do gravitate though. Remember the problems caused by the scratch-card touts? The story went that they had been hounded out of Calvia and so switched operations to Alcúdia, which also meant the other northern resorts. Which year would it have been? 2008 maybe? The office in Puerto Alcúdia suddenly closed towards the end of July. They all disappeared. There was never an adequate explanation as to why, though it was believed to have been because the fines had reached such a level that they had to shut up shop (fines for illegal street touting, that is). A new operation appeared the next year but the worst had passed. There was no longer quite the harassment and the abuse that tourists had been subjected to, and what there has been by way of touting in the past couple of years has been low-key compared to what it once was. But though there were supposedly the fines, it wasn't really police action that stopped the worst of the scratch-card operators. It was more because the level of business wasn't good enough.
The looky-lookies are something else. They have been a feature for years, and complaints against them, as in Magalluf, are increasing. And just as in Magalluf, there are occasional police actions, and they're back on the streets in no time. There are bar owners who are sick and tired of them, but there are some bar owners who have to look at themselves. Those ones who have encouraged the lookies. And we all know that it is not just fake goods that they sell. They've been selling other stuff for years as well, and if a tourist doesn't happen to know what else they sell, there is always someone on hand to tell that tourist. I shan't identify the shop, but let me just say that I overheard its owner telling a couple of Swedish lads the other day about the lookies. "The black guys?" asked one of the Swedish boys. "They sell gear?" "Yes." It's always nice to be helpful to tourists.
We may feel in the north that it's all about Magalluf, but then we have to ask why that is the case. The concentration on Magalluf may offend as much as the negative nature of the reporting offends and so doesn't reflect all that is positive, but again one has to ask why. There are serious issues in Magalluf. Be thankful that it is Magalluf which gets the attention. But also wish Magalluf well.
The Mallorca world revolves around a sun of Magalluf obscured by darkness that stalks the night and only around this sun. Am I right or am I right? You would be right, too. Magalluf, always Magalluf. Never here, there or everywhere else. The body of Magalluf is picked over by a scavenging and voracious press endlessly hunting for the bones of a story, one that is preferably sordid, sensational, sad or all three. A plague on both the houses of Magalluf itself and the media it fattens.
I am right but I'm not right. You would be right but you would not be right. The northern resorts, as with more or less all other resorts in Mallorca, may have little more than walk-on parts as extras in the tragi-comedy that has been playing to packed media audiences in Magalluf, but there is something to be said for playing a bit part: no spotlight turned on means no blemishes to be noticed, real or imagined, minor or rather more than minor. Be careful what you wish for by way of attention.
The prostitute thing is not a phenomenon in the northern resorts. Thank God for that. But Magalluf serves as a warning. As perhaps do solutions to its troubles. If not Magalluf, then where? The prostitute thing would be unlikely to gravitate north because of logistics. Where are the women based? Palma. Distances are short to the places of their violence. Besides which, the north's resorts are unlike Magalluf and parts of Playa de Palma that offer fertile drunken, youthful pickings for the women of the night mugging patrols. But there again, it isn't only the drunken and the youthful who fall prey. And also there again, it isn't accurate to suggest that northern resorts are solely "family", a branding which somehow seems to imply that they are spared the worst excesses that Mallorca can offer.
Things do gravitate though. Remember the problems caused by the scratch-card touts? The story went that they had been hounded out of Calvia and so switched operations to Alcúdia, which also meant the other northern resorts. Which year would it have been? 2008 maybe? The office in Puerto Alcúdia suddenly closed towards the end of July. They all disappeared. There was never an adequate explanation as to why, though it was believed to have been because the fines had reached such a level that they had to shut up shop (fines for illegal street touting, that is). A new operation appeared the next year but the worst had passed. There was no longer quite the harassment and the abuse that tourists had been subjected to, and what there has been by way of touting in the past couple of years has been low-key compared to what it once was. But though there were supposedly the fines, it wasn't really police action that stopped the worst of the scratch-card operators. It was more because the level of business wasn't good enough.
The looky-lookies are something else. They have been a feature for years, and complaints against them, as in Magalluf, are increasing. And just as in Magalluf, there are occasional police actions, and they're back on the streets in no time. There are bar owners who are sick and tired of them, but there are some bar owners who have to look at themselves. Those ones who have encouraged the lookies. And we all know that it is not just fake goods that they sell. They've been selling other stuff for years as well, and if a tourist doesn't happen to know what else they sell, there is always someone on hand to tell that tourist. I shan't identify the shop, but let me just say that I overheard its owner telling a couple of Swedish lads the other day about the lookies. "The black guys?" asked one of the Swedish boys. "They sell gear?" "Yes." It's always nice to be helpful to tourists.
We may feel in the north that it's all about Magalluf, but then we have to ask why that is the case. The concentration on Magalluf may offend as much as the negative nature of the reporting offends and so doesn't reflect all that is positive, but again one has to ask why. There are serious issues in Magalluf. Be thankful that it is Magalluf which gets the attention. But also wish Magalluf well.
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.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Tackling Chaos In Magalluf
So, Calvià town hall has come up with a cunning plan to beef up security and to tackle delinquency in Magalluf next summer. For the record, these measures will include illuminating the beach at night (assuming this does not affect aircraft), closing the Punta Ballena to traffic at night, installing surveillance cameras and extra policing. The town hall also intends talking with the "responsible authorities" to deal with the matter of party boats and with businesses to address issues to do with bar crawls.
To say that the town hall has come in for a fair share of criticism this summer would be an understatement. Whether measures it has now announced will satisfy its critics and whether they will have any real effect will only be known next summer. At least it has reacted, though.
The problems in Magalluf are that well-known that they really don't require my repeating them. It is the fact that they are well-known, however, that has prompted the level of criticism aimed at the town hall as well as the kind of accusations made about local police which will only go away if future action is concerted and is seen to be applied with evenhanded rigour.
For all this, the town hall, as with Palma and Llucmajor town halls, deserves some sympathy. The problems in Magalluf, Playa de Palma and Arenal are many, and not all of them are ones that town halls or local police forces are equipped to deal with or should even be expected to deal with; people falling off balconies comes into the latter category, organised criminality comes into the former.
These many problems can be defined in two main ways. One is that of what might be called anti-social behaviour (drunkenness and its attendant issues). The second is crime pure and simple. Anti-social behaviour may slip into crime when violence occurs but it is essentially, if not always in practice, containable by the different police bodies. A manifestation of such behaviour which could have become violent but which didn't was the way in which cars on Punta Ballena have been surrounded by drunk and offensive young tourists. The videos of this - and Javier Pierotti was the one who did most to draw attention to it - were shocking. The town hall will now close the street to traffic. It's a simple enough measure, thus proving that some incidents can be contained and even prevented.
It is the crime, though, which is by far the greater problem. It is one that the town halls cannot tackle. Only the National Police and Guardia Civil can, but even they are presented with obstacles. The most obvious criminality is that of the mugging prostitutes. These women, for the most part, ply their trade against their will. It has been shown by the arrest of gang organisers in Playa de Palma that women had been brought from Nigeria and forced into what they do.
The police can round up these women, just as they can round up looky-looky men who are in Mallorca illegally, but doing anything with them is a very different matter. The impotence of police forces - the National Police, the Guardia and local police - is mirrored elsewhere on the island where problems are not as they are in Magalluf but are there nonetheless. Lock a looky-looky man up for the night, and then what? Fine him? How's he going to pay? Deport him? It's a very long, complex and expensive business. It is the same with the women in Magalluf or Playa de Palma. Many of the looky-looky men are exploited, most of the women are, and in the women's case, they have essentially been victims of human trafficking for subsequent exploitation. This is the prime criminality. Not what they themselves might do.
The success that the National Police had in arresting gang leaders involved in mugging prostitution in Playa de Palma has to be repeated. It is the only way to try and bring an end to all of this, and in Magalluf there is surely one very powerful business interest that will want it stamped out there.
Meliá are transforming Magalluf. They and their partners are investing heavily in bringing about a change to a resort which, even since Meliá's plans for it were revealed two years ago, seems to have deteriorated. This cannot be good for Meliá when the manifestations of crime are right there on the doorsteps of their new up-market creations.
Gabriel Escarrer, the boss of Meliá, apparently spent his summer holiday in a "chalet" in Magalluf. One wonders what he saw at night. Or maybe he didn't need to see. More than the small bar owners who complain about the looky-looky men and about alleged local police inaction or favouritism, it is Meliá which have the muscle to force improvements in Magalluf. Over to you, Sr. Escarrer.
* The video, "Magaluf Caos 2013", was the first posted by Javier Pierotti this summer.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Unbelievable Remedies: Magalluf
Incidents centred on Magalluf's Punta Ballena have decreased considerably. Thus spake a newspaper report of 15 August. "Great evils" require "grand remedies", it was said. These great evils were implied rather than defined and they were hyperbole; the committing of great evils in modern-day Mallorca is a rare occurrence.
But never let it be said that exaggerated words cannot exaggerate situations. This is why there is such a thing as exaggeration. Its purpose is distortion or disproportion. From great evils do grand or great remedies come. The greater the evil, the grander the remedy and so therefore the greater the rejoicing at deliverance from evil.
The grand remedies (equally disproportionate insofar as there can be such a thing as an equal measure of disproportion) can be counted. Counted on fewer than the total number of fingers on both hands. Take away the thumbs and you have the numerical value of the remedies. Eight. Eight local police officers. The magnificent seven plus one. Incidents have decreased considerably.
It would be nice to believe that Punta Ballena has been or is being delivered from evil. Or evils. Nice to believe, but there are plenty of unbelievers. Decreased considerably? Depends. The report's evils were related to the great drunken unwashed. The lesser of evils in that remedies are less grand. They don't have to be super-grand where youthful tourists who are off their faces are concerned. It is, nevertheless, reasonable to ask why the not so grand remedy of a few more cops to tackle the lagering, Jägerbombing, shot-shooting, laughing-gassing invasion force took as long as it did to occur to anyone. Not, or so it would seem, that the eight make a great deal of difference. Despite what the considerable-decrease report suggests to the contrary.
Four days before this report, Javier Pierotti posted again on his "Magaluf Caos" blog. His video with this post was as troubling as the one he had originally posted of a driver trapped by a mob along the strip. It would take far too long to summarise what Javier said in his entry for 11 August, but if you go to the bottom of it, you will see that, in addition to Calvia town hall, he has sent his complaint to television and other media organisations in Spain as well as to the Spanish Government, the Interior Ministry, police agencies, the regional government in the Balearics, the courts in Palma, the Attorney-General, the British Consulate and the Complaints Office of the European Community.
Four days later came the report in the local press. Not about Javier's complaint but about incidents having decreased considerably, a considerable decrease that appears at variance with what is being said by those who aren't in positions of authority. The considerable-decrease report, moreover, did not mention the problems of prostitutes, looky-looky men and violence. There are plenty of people who have mentioned them. Before and since the report of 15 August. Are these the greater evils; greater because they go un-decreased?
Javier Pierotti does not seek to attach blame to the local police. Others do. It is wise that I don't repeat some of the things said on social media, but from what is said, there is clear frustration and anger in Magalluf. The police are one target for this discontent but the greater one is the body politic, in particular that which, to paraphrase some of the sentiments, lies inert in a bunker in Calvia.
What happens in Mallorca stays in Mallorca. It's a ridiculous saying because nothing can stay in Mallorca any longer. The reactions to Stacey Dooley (and to "Bild" on Playa de Palma) were absurd for various reasons, one of which was that they neglected the fact that conventional media are only one part of the story. Through social media, nothing stays in Mallorca. Regular on-the-spot reports by those who have not taken the media shilling and who have no axe to grind other than that they have had it with all the problems are constantly reinforced and added to: hourly, daily, weekly. They too can be prone to exaggeration or distortion. They can be and often are far more accusatory than conventional media. There may be exaggerations, but why would people who work and live in Magalluf invent things? They stand to lose, which is why they draw attention to what they see as inertia and indifference. And why when, four days after Javier Pierotti* posted that he had notified who he had notified, the report of incidents decreasing considerably was greeted with disbelief.
* http://javierpierotti.blogspot.com.es/2013/08/magaluf-caos-ii.html
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
But never let it be said that exaggerated words cannot exaggerate situations. This is why there is such a thing as exaggeration. Its purpose is distortion or disproportion. From great evils do grand or great remedies come. The greater the evil, the grander the remedy and so therefore the greater the rejoicing at deliverance from evil.
The grand remedies (equally disproportionate insofar as there can be such a thing as an equal measure of disproportion) can be counted. Counted on fewer than the total number of fingers on both hands. Take away the thumbs and you have the numerical value of the remedies. Eight. Eight local police officers. The magnificent seven plus one. Incidents have decreased considerably.
It would be nice to believe that Punta Ballena has been or is being delivered from evil. Or evils. Nice to believe, but there are plenty of unbelievers. Decreased considerably? Depends. The report's evils were related to the great drunken unwashed. The lesser of evils in that remedies are less grand. They don't have to be super-grand where youthful tourists who are off their faces are concerned. It is, nevertheless, reasonable to ask why the not so grand remedy of a few more cops to tackle the lagering, Jägerbombing, shot-shooting, laughing-gassing invasion force took as long as it did to occur to anyone. Not, or so it would seem, that the eight make a great deal of difference. Despite what the considerable-decrease report suggests to the contrary.
Four days before this report, Javier Pierotti posted again on his "Magaluf Caos" blog. His video with this post was as troubling as the one he had originally posted of a driver trapped by a mob along the strip. It would take far too long to summarise what Javier said in his entry for 11 August, but if you go to the bottom of it, you will see that, in addition to Calvia town hall, he has sent his complaint to television and other media organisations in Spain as well as to the Spanish Government, the Interior Ministry, police agencies, the regional government in the Balearics, the courts in Palma, the Attorney-General, the British Consulate and the Complaints Office of the European Community.
Four days later came the report in the local press. Not about Javier's complaint but about incidents having decreased considerably, a considerable decrease that appears at variance with what is being said by those who aren't in positions of authority. The considerable-decrease report, moreover, did not mention the problems of prostitutes, looky-looky men and violence. There are plenty of people who have mentioned them. Before and since the report of 15 August. Are these the greater evils; greater because they go un-decreased?
Javier Pierotti does not seek to attach blame to the local police. Others do. It is wise that I don't repeat some of the things said on social media, but from what is said, there is clear frustration and anger in Magalluf. The police are one target for this discontent but the greater one is the body politic, in particular that which, to paraphrase some of the sentiments, lies inert in a bunker in Calvia.
What happens in Mallorca stays in Mallorca. It's a ridiculous saying because nothing can stay in Mallorca any longer. The reactions to Stacey Dooley (and to "Bild" on Playa de Palma) were absurd for various reasons, one of which was that they neglected the fact that conventional media are only one part of the story. Through social media, nothing stays in Mallorca. Regular on-the-spot reports by those who have not taken the media shilling and who have no axe to grind other than that they have had it with all the problems are constantly reinforced and added to: hourly, daily, weekly. They too can be prone to exaggeration or distortion. They can be and often are far more accusatory than conventional media. There may be exaggerations, but why would people who work and live in Magalluf invent things? They stand to lose, which is why they draw attention to what they see as inertia and indifference. And why when, four days after Javier Pierotti* posted that he had notified who he had notified, the report of incidents decreasing considerably was greeted with disbelief.
* http://javierpierotti.blogspot.com.es/2013/08/magaluf-caos-ii.html
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Years Of Doing Nothing: Trouble in Magalluf
Something that was conveniently ignored when there was all the absurd ballyhoo regarding the BBC's "Truth About Magalluf" documentary was the fact that it is not only the British media which takes an interest in the seamier side of Mallorcan tourism. Germany's is pretty keen to as well. And so is the Spanish, which includes, therefore, Mallorcan.
The attitude towards Magalluf among Mallorcans is far from positive. I don't recall a Mallorcan ever having had a good word to say about the place. There must be some, maybe those who make a living from Magalluf's tourism, but the resort's name has been dragged through as much local mud as it has foreign mud.
For the Mallorcan, Magalluf is drunkenness and hooliganism, and primarily British drunkenness and hooliganism. The average Mallorcan may never have even been to Magalluf because, rather like pompous Brits who manage to pontificate about Magalluf despite never having set foot in the place, they have no desire to be confronted by lagered-up, tattoo-ed-up moronism. This average Mallorcan can express his or her displeasure, despite being in close proximity to similar moronism elsewhere. And it's not just moronism. There are all those tacky bars in Magalluf, aren't there, of which of course there are no examples anywhere else in Mallorca.
Fair do's, Magalluf is extreme in that its excesses are worse than other resorts. This much is undeniable, but its extremism and its excesses are partly the consequence of a laxity that exists all over Mallorca, one that has, for years, permitted or turned a blind eye to poor behaviour, drunkenness, prostitution and illegal street-selling. Magalluf is the repugnant tip of a not always pleasant iceberg. A key reason for it having become this tip is that there will always be specific locations in which there is a concentration of the less than pleasant. It just so happens that Magalluf is Mallorca's.
The season barely underway, and there are already reports concerning the resort's prostitutes. One has been arrested for attacking attacking two British tourists, striking one on the back with a beer bottle, and stealing their mobiles. Everyone knows that these prostitutes are not on the game but are mobile mobile-robbers and robbers of anything else they can lay their hands on. Calvià town hall has made much of its intention to get to grips with the problem this summer, and maybe it will. But it is a problem that has arisen through a build-up over several years of what was initially just roguish petty criminality (that of the looky-looky men with their fake gear) into something rather more serious.
Magalluf bears the brunt of this more serious crime because of what it is. Clean it up, though, and will the problem go away or will it just go elsewhere? Things have a habit of doing so. Take scratch card, time-share touts. They were driven out and so turned up in Puerto Alcúdia, and it took a few years for them to be moved on; the particularly aggressive ones, that is.
The police, far from being idle or far from deserving criticism for being inactive, have a devil's own job. As do town halls. Street criminals can be picked up, they can be slung in a cell, but then what? They rarely have means to pay fines. They often have no fixed abodes. What do the police do with them? They could denounce them, haul them up in front of a judge, ask for a prison term, but they would end up costing money. They could request their deportation, but how long would that procedure take? How much would it cost? No, the police deserve an awful lot of sympathy.
Where there can be criticism for inaction dates back many years. It was a failure way back when to come to terms with the relatively minor street-selling infractions of the lookies which has now spiralled up to what can occur in Magalluf. This failure was not only one of officialdom, it was one also of tourists, who played along with the looky game, and of residents, among whom were and are Mallorcans, who would happily buy fake goods and still do buy them.
Magalluf is, therefore, a localised culmination of historical blind-eyeing. And because it's Magalluf and because also of the BBC ballyhoo, the Spanish media are even more on the case. Another report just into the season speaks of the "hooligans" having returned. It also speaks of counting 25 street-sellers (lookies, in other words) and 15 Asian massage girls. Shocking? Of course not. You can go to somewhere genteel like Puerto Pollensa and you would be able to count similar numbers were you to hang around long enough. And the reason why is because nothing was done years ago.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The attitude towards Magalluf among Mallorcans is far from positive. I don't recall a Mallorcan ever having had a good word to say about the place. There must be some, maybe those who make a living from Magalluf's tourism, but the resort's name has been dragged through as much local mud as it has foreign mud.
For the Mallorcan, Magalluf is drunkenness and hooliganism, and primarily British drunkenness and hooliganism. The average Mallorcan may never have even been to Magalluf because, rather like pompous Brits who manage to pontificate about Magalluf despite never having set foot in the place, they have no desire to be confronted by lagered-up, tattoo-ed-up moronism. This average Mallorcan can express his or her displeasure, despite being in close proximity to similar moronism elsewhere. And it's not just moronism. There are all those tacky bars in Magalluf, aren't there, of which of course there are no examples anywhere else in Mallorca.
Fair do's, Magalluf is extreme in that its excesses are worse than other resorts. This much is undeniable, but its extremism and its excesses are partly the consequence of a laxity that exists all over Mallorca, one that has, for years, permitted or turned a blind eye to poor behaviour, drunkenness, prostitution and illegal street-selling. Magalluf is the repugnant tip of a not always pleasant iceberg. A key reason for it having become this tip is that there will always be specific locations in which there is a concentration of the less than pleasant. It just so happens that Magalluf is Mallorca's.
The season barely underway, and there are already reports concerning the resort's prostitutes. One has been arrested for attacking attacking two British tourists, striking one on the back with a beer bottle, and stealing their mobiles. Everyone knows that these prostitutes are not on the game but are mobile mobile-robbers and robbers of anything else they can lay their hands on. Calvià town hall has made much of its intention to get to grips with the problem this summer, and maybe it will. But it is a problem that has arisen through a build-up over several years of what was initially just roguish petty criminality (that of the looky-looky men with their fake gear) into something rather more serious.
Magalluf bears the brunt of this more serious crime because of what it is. Clean it up, though, and will the problem go away or will it just go elsewhere? Things have a habit of doing so. Take scratch card, time-share touts. They were driven out and so turned up in Puerto Alcúdia, and it took a few years for them to be moved on; the particularly aggressive ones, that is.
The police, far from being idle or far from deserving criticism for being inactive, have a devil's own job. As do town halls. Street criminals can be picked up, they can be slung in a cell, but then what? They rarely have means to pay fines. They often have no fixed abodes. What do the police do with them? They could denounce them, haul them up in front of a judge, ask for a prison term, but they would end up costing money. They could request their deportation, but how long would that procedure take? How much would it cost? No, the police deserve an awful lot of sympathy.
Where there can be criticism for inaction dates back many years. It was a failure way back when to come to terms with the relatively minor street-selling infractions of the lookies which has now spiralled up to what can occur in Magalluf. This failure was not only one of officialdom, it was one also of tourists, who played along with the looky game, and of residents, among whom were and are Mallorcans, who would happily buy fake goods and still do buy them.
Magalluf is, therefore, a localised culmination of historical blind-eyeing. And because it's Magalluf and because also of the BBC ballyhoo, the Spanish media are even more on the case. Another report just into the season speaks of the "hooligans" having returned. It also speaks of counting 25 street-sellers (lookies, in other words) and 15 Asian massage girls. Shocking? Of course not. You can go to somewhere genteel like Puerto Pollensa and you would be able to count similar numbers were you to hang around long enough. And the reason why is because nothing was done years ago.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Life For Rent
Tugging hard at the bottom-hugging short skirts of tart life Magalluf-style (27 August, "Pros and Cons") has come the police bust of a male-prostitution network in Palma. "The Boys From Brazil" was a documentary about Brazilian rent boys, produced by Trudie Styler, Mrs Sting. The latest generation has found its way to Mallorca, seduced by offers of work, only to discover that it wasn't quite what the brochure said.
Gay or straight, prostitution is flourishing. "The Guardian" yesterday ran a feature on the growth of sex for sale. It was in light of Potato Head's latest playing of an away fixture, but it dealt not just with Premier League footballers. There was, though, a footballing analogy. Free internet porn has created an appetite. "Like watching Match of the Day, and then being inspired to go out and play football, and try out something you've seen."
By coincidence, the day before there had been an interview in "The Diario" with a member of a group which studies prostitution in the Balearics. He was an organiser of a congress at the university in Palma which went under the seemingly alarming title of "good practices in prostitution". Chiming perhaps with what "The Guardian" discovered, he believes that attitudes towards prostitution among young adults (males) have not become more rejective; the opposite appears to be the case.
The Spanish Government has talked of banning sex advertising in newspapers, but it may well be shooting at the wrong target. The internet fuels much of the sex industry, be it in the UK or in Spain or Mallorca. And then you have the clubs.
Prostitution is not illegal, but nor is it sanctioned. The situation is a not untypical Spanish legal muddle. What is illegal, supposedly, is pimping or the existence of brothels. It is this that has caught the rent boys' controllers out, as it has been used to net others charged with exploitation. Yet there is a tolerance, allied to the grey area of the lap dancing or show girls' clubs. Everyone knows what their real purpose is, but they exist all the same. One of the clubs in Alcúdia has a large billboard by the horse roundabout. It's just up the road.
The tolerance is starting to erode, however. Recently, the police raided a well-known "establishment" on an industrial estate in Palma (see, these industrial estates have all sorts of entertainment, as I've mentioned previously). Whether this is a precursor to a more rigorous police approach elsewhere remains to be seen. But some might argue that to get tough with the clubs would be bad for business - tourism business; I once wrote here about the staggering level of sex tourism that Mallorca is meant to attract.
This can all be overplayed, though. While the clubs may hint at seediness, they don't have a negative impact on tourism in places like Alcúdia. They're not rammed down your throat, so to speak, despite the billboards. But the tourism angle isn't really the point. To talk of greater social acceptance of prostitution is probably wrong. The lessening of stigma is more accurate; in the UK at any rate. In Mallorca it is rather different. There hasn't been the same stigma associated with going to a girls' club, a situation that shows little sign of changing.
QUIZ -
"Life For Rent". Who?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Gay or straight, prostitution is flourishing. "The Guardian" yesterday ran a feature on the growth of sex for sale. It was in light of Potato Head's latest playing of an away fixture, but it dealt not just with Premier League footballers. There was, though, a footballing analogy. Free internet porn has created an appetite. "Like watching Match of the Day, and then being inspired to go out and play football, and try out something you've seen."
By coincidence, the day before there had been an interview in "The Diario" with a member of a group which studies prostitution in the Balearics. He was an organiser of a congress at the university in Palma which went under the seemingly alarming title of "good practices in prostitution". Chiming perhaps with what "The Guardian" discovered, he believes that attitudes towards prostitution among young adults (males) have not become more rejective; the opposite appears to be the case.
The Spanish Government has talked of banning sex advertising in newspapers, but it may well be shooting at the wrong target. The internet fuels much of the sex industry, be it in the UK or in Spain or Mallorca. And then you have the clubs.
Prostitution is not illegal, but nor is it sanctioned. The situation is a not untypical Spanish legal muddle. What is illegal, supposedly, is pimping or the existence of brothels. It is this that has caught the rent boys' controllers out, as it has been used to net others charged with exploitation. Yet there is a tolerance, allied to the grey area of the lap dancing or show girls' clubs. Everyone knows what their real purpose is, but they exist all the same. One of the clubs in Alcúdia has a large billboard by the horse roundabout. It's just up the road.
The tolerance is starting to erode, however. Recently, the police raided a well-known "establishment" on an industrial estate in Palma (see, these industrial estates have all sorts of entertainment, as I've mentioned previously). Whether this is a precursor to a more rigorous police approach elsewhere remains to be seen. But some might argue that to get tough with the clubs would be bad for business - tourism business; I once wrote here about the staggering level of sex tourism that Mallorca is meant to attract.
This can all be overplayed, though. While the clubs may hint at seediness, they don't have a negative impact on tourism in places like Alcúdia. They're not rammed down your throat, so to speak, despite the billboards. But the tourism angle isn't really the point. To talk of greater social acceptance of prostitution is probably wrong. The lessening of stigma is more accurate; in the UK at any rate. In Mallorca it is rather different. There hasn't been the same stigma associated with going to a girls' club, a situation that shows little sign of changing.
QUIZ -
"Life For Rent". Who?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Pros And Cons: Whoring in Magalluf
Pros and cons. Not many for, plenty against. Pros and cons. Prostitutes and to-be or ex-convicts, about to be again. Magalluf is suffering an invasion of bodysnatchers and snatches; the snatch snatches the body of a pink pot-bellied pig of a tourist, lagered and vodka-ed up, egged on by a whip-round of scrunched-up notes from his braying companions. The con pockets the cash; the wretched whore, dragged out of a slum in Senegal, has to mop up more than just the vomit. There's a further snatch, too - the wallet.
Magalluf. Shagalluf. It's always been a place for tarting. Paid or unpaid. The streetwalking of the resort has, though, become street running and hassling. The tarts are terrorising tourists, so it is said. Residents have had enough. They've begun attacking cars "associated" with the prostitutes.
The mayor of Calvia (Magalluf is a part of Calvia, in case you didn't know) is being criticised for being on holiday at this time of moral crisis. What's he going to do? Open a mission for fallen women? The police have been doing their best, but there's only so much they can do. Like the lookies, detain a prostitute and try and fine her, and see where that gets you. She won't be able to pay and there'll always be another one to offer business.
The prostitution problem is, apparently, causing tourists to "boycott" Magalluf. Are they really? According to "The Bulletin", they are. "British families are staying clear." It may not have meant to have done so, but in reporting that this so-called boycott is "fuelling a rise in demand for package holidays in the north east of the island", there was a sense of its being pissed off that elsewhere on the island might derive some benefit from the presence of slappers on the Maga strip. The north east, let's call it Alcúdia shall we, gains, while the paper's southern heartland of interest suffers. The paper's lamentable insouciance where matters others than the incestuousness of what we should really call its home market is exposed yet again. Would there be the same level of reporting or indeed concern, were the reverse to be the case?
If demand for holidays in the north has indeed increased because of Maga's whoring, then it should be encouraged. But let's not indulge in this schadenfreude for too long. Magalluf was successful in getting rid of the timeshare scratch-cardists, and they shifted their attentions to the north, resorting - at times - to an aggressive form of hassling employed by the prostitutes. There is little to choose between them. The scratch-cardists may ultimately mug you of thousands if you happen to get sucked in, but that's your decision; you're a willing if unwitting victim of pickpocketing. It's not quite the same with the prostitutes: they aren't all on the game, they're just gangs of muggers. It doesn't matter if you have your trousers down; they'll lift regardless. "The Bulletin" wants plod to run the whores out of town. Good for it, but rid the Magalluf streets of prostitutes, and they'll find somewhere else to go.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Magalluf. Shagalluf. It's always been a place for tarting. Paid or unpaid. The streetwalking of the resort has, though, become street running and hassling. The tarts are terrorising tourists, so it is said. Residents have had enough. They've begun attacking cars "associated" with the prostitutes.
The mayor of Calvia (Magalluf is a part of Calvia, in case you didn't know) is being criticised for being on holiday at this time of moral crisis. What's he going to do? Open a mission for fallen women? The police have been doing their best, but there's only so much they can do. Like the lookies, detain a prostitute and try and fine her, and see where that gets you. She won't be able to pay and there'll always be another one to offer business.
The prostitution problem is, apparently, causing tourists to "boycott" Magalluf. Are they really? According to "The Bulletin", they are. "British families are staying clear." It may not have meant to have done so, but in reporting that this so-called boycott is "fuelling a rise in demand for package holidays in the north east of the island", there was a sense of its being pissed off that elsewhere on the island might derive some benefit from the presence of slappers on the Maga strip. The north east, let's call it Alcúdia shall we, gains, while the paper's southern heartland of interest suffers. The paper's lamentable insouciance where matters others than the incestuousness of what we should really call its home market is exposed yet again. Would there be the same level of reporting or indeed concern, were the reverse to be the case?
If demand for holidays in the north has indeed increased because of Maga's whoring, then it should be encouraged. But let's not indulge in this schadenfreude for too long. Magalluf was successful in getting rid of the timeshare scratch-cardists, and they shifted their attentions to the north, resorting - at times - to an aggressive form of hassling employed by the prostitutes. There is little to choose between them. The scratch-cardists may ultimately mug you of thousands if you happen to get sucked in, but that's your decision; you're a willing if unwitting victim of pickpocketing. It's not quite the same with the prostitutes: they aren't all on the game, they're just gangs of muggers. It doesn't matter if you have your trousers down; they'll lift regardless. "The Bulletin" wants plod to run the whores out of town. Good for it, but rid the Magalluf streets of prostitutes, and they'll find somewhere else to go.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Lie Back And Think Of ... : Ban on sex advertising
So, the Spanish Government is planning to ban the advertising of sex for sale from newspapers. The government is almost certainly right to wish to do so, even if this sounds rather puritanical, a streak I am rarely inclined to display.
There is something of the bizarre about the pages of classifieds for call girls, "massage" and a smattering of rent boys that are to be found in mostly all newspapers locally. The two Spanish dailies in Mallorca have them, as do the nationals, including "El País", which "The Guardian" points out is of a similar left-leaning nature to itself and thus, you would think, in the PC category, and also "ABC", a paper with more than a hint of religious righteousness.
The government, though, is going to cause itself some problems. The newspaper proprietors are unlikely to take a ban lying down, either on their backs or in any other position you may care to imagine. "El País", for example, is a natural ally of the Zapatero government, which can do with all the support it can muster at the moment. There is also a view that banning such advertising would be a curb on free speech, which may be a legitimate argument were it not for the censorious nature of the media when it comes to anything to do with the royal family; overstep the mark and it will land a journalist, or a cartoonist, in the dock before a beak. If the press was wishing to seek a free-speech battleground, this might well be it, and not sleazy ads for well-endowed females.
The sheer volume of these ads can be overwhelming. How much sex can actually be sold? Not enough where the papers are concerned, which already derive significant revenues from the advertising. The papers are also at pains to point out that if the government wants to stop the ads, it should make prostitution illegal. But this argument begins to move into rather murkier territory. Were it the case that the ads were just being placed by some local slapper, then there wouldn't necessarily be much harm in it. However, though a punter calling an ad might indeed end up with the woman of his dreams as opposed to one who might once have appealed to Wayne Rooney, or worse still, looks like Rooney, between that punter and the bed sheets is usually a third-party; pimps of frequently overseas origin - Russian, Nigerian, South American. The anti-ad lobby argues that the ads represent a form of "slavery" for women caught up in the "industry" (and it might add, presumably, some men as well).
The government's move to initiate a ban comes against a background of what seems like a growing willingness on the behalf of the police to move against some so-called "relax" or "alternative" clubs; prostitution may not be illegal, but exploitation and trafficking are. And there is a further dimension to this - the potential link to organised crime.
In one respect, the adverts reflect a rather reassuringly un-PC element in local society, but it is what lies behind the ads that the government (and police) are right to take an interest in. The papers may not like a ban, but they are probably going to have to learn to live without the income that prostitute advertising brings them.
* I acknowledge the source of some of the above from "The Guardian" - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/16/spain-sex-adverts-newspapers
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
There is something of the bizarre about the pages of classifieds for call girls, "massage" and a smattering of rent boys that are to be found in mostly all newspapers locally. The two Spanish dailies in Mallorca have them, as do the nationals, including "El País", which "The Guardian" points out is of a similar left-leaning nature to itself and thus, you would think, in the PC category, and also "ABC", a paper with more than a hint of religious righteousness.
The government, though, is going to cause itself some problems. The newspaper proprietors are unlikely to take a ban lying down, either on their backs or in any other position you may care to imagine. "El País", for example, is a natural ally of the Zapatero government, which can do with all the support it can muster at the moment. There is also a view that banning such advertising would be a curb on free speech, which may be a legitimate argument were it not for the censorious nature of the media when it comes to anything to do with the royal family; overstep the mark and it will land a journalist, or a cartoonist, in the dock before a beak. If the press was wishing to seek a free-speech battleground, this might well be it, and not sleazy ads for well-endowed females.
The sheer volume of these ads can be overwhelming. How much sex can actually be sold? Not enough where the papers are concerned, which already derive significant revenues from the advertising. The papers are also at pains to point out that if the government wants to stop the ads, it should make prostitution illegal. But this argument begins to move into rather murkier territory. Were it the case that the ads were just being placed by some local slapper, then there wouldn't necessarily be much harm in it. However, though a punter calling an ad might indeed end up with the woman of his dreams as opposed to one who might once have appealed to Wayne Rooney, or worse still, looks like Rooney, between that punter and the bed sheets is usually a third-party; pimps of frequently overseas origin - Russian, Nigerian, South American. The anti-ad lobby argues that the ads represent a form of "slavery" for women caught up in the "industry" (and it might add, presumably, some men as well).
The government's move to initiate a ban comes against a background of what seems like a growing willingness on the behalf of the police to move against some so-called "relax" or "alternative" clubs; prostitution may not be illegal, but exploitation and trafficking are. And there is a further dimension to this - the potential link to organised crime.
In one respect, the adverts reflect a rather reassuringly un-PC element in local society, but it is what lies behind the ads that the government (and police) are right to take an interest in. The papers may not like a ban, but they are probably going to have to learn to live without the income that prostitute advertising brings them.
* I acknowledge the source of some of the above from "The Guardian" - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/16/spain-sex-adverts-newspapers
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Who's Gonna Drive You Home?
"Cyclists, blah, blah, cyclists all over the road, blah, blah, cyclists going the wrong way, blah, blah." It didn't actually say this, but a letter to "The Bulletin" was along these lines. Crikey, never heard of this problem before. But not that I will disagree. I have said as much myself here on many an occasion. Someone said to me the other day that cyclists "play games". Pretty dangerous games, taking on a Mallorcan car driver, or indeed a car driver of any nationality. Cyclists here are untouchables. You touch them, or rather your car touches them, and you are at fault, even if they have ridden straight at you on the wrong side of the road. It's an uneven playing-field or open road if you prefer.
There are certain stretches of road that tempt both cyclists and drivers into ever more dangerous games. Take the road going from Can Picafort to Son Serra. Much of it is nice and straight and relatively quiet. The local Alonsos hack along as though it were the Mulsanne straight and the cyclists treat both lanes as their own personal fiefdom. Like many other stretches of road, it is an accident in the making.
I'm not here to defend drivers. There are enough arseholes here who defy defence, but many a cyclist might well be defined with an abbreviation - F.T. I'll leave it to you to fathom out what F.T. stands for. Maybe there is some mathematical equation that measures the level of F.T. It is related to the size of the brain that determines awareness of and courtesy towards others. F.T. = X (brain) divided by A + C. Or something like that.
While on roads, the bit of the carretera going towards Can Picafort from Playa de Muro, newly laid out with chicanes and whatever, is to be a 50kph zone between the months of April and October. Fair enough I suppose. But some bits of road at 50kph do seem especially slow. I had some practice today. Behind a driver of exceptionally advanced years. Still, 50 it will be, so you have been warned.
But so much for the joys of roads. Never let it be said that I do not respond to being corrected. Someone emailed me about the number of "relax houses" in Alcúdia. Apparently, there are seven, not four. How about that? Seven knocking shops in little old Alcúdia. You don't get this sort of information in your average brochure you know.
QUIZ
Last time - "Woodstock", Joni Mitchell. Today's title - Who did it? And what made it particularly and rather oddly famous?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
There are certain stretches of road that tempt both cyclists and drivers into ever more dangerous games. Take the road going from Can Picafort to Son Serra. Much of it is nice and straight and relatively quiet. The local Alonsos hack along as though it were the Mulsanne straight and the cyclists treat both lanes as their own personal fiefdom. Like many other stretches of road, it is an accident in the making.
I'm not here to defend drivers. There are enough arseholes here who defy defence, but many a cyclist might well be defined with an abbreviation - F.T. I'll leave it to you to fathom out what F.T. stands for. Maybe there is some mathematical equation that measures the level of F.T. It is related to the size of the brain that determines awareness of and courtesy towards others. F.T. = X (brain) divided by A + C. Or something like that.
While on roads, the bit of the carretera going towards Can Picafort from Playa de Muro, newly laid out with chicanes and whatever, is to be a 50kph zone between the months of April and October. Fair enough I suppose. But some bits of road at 50kph do seem especially slow. I had some practice today. Behind a driver of exceptionally advanced years. Still, 50 it will be, so you have been warned.
But so much for the joys of roads. Never let it be said that I do not respond to being corrected. Someone emailed me about the number of "relax houses" in Alcúdia. Apparently, there are seven, not four. How about that? Seven knocking shops in little old Alcúdia. You don't get this sort of information in your average brochure you know.
QUIZ
Last time - "Woodstock", Joni Mitchell. Today's title - Who did it? And what made it particularly and rather oddly famous?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Life For Rent
When they go on about new and different tourism markets, the emphasis is - as you will well know if you've been coming to this blog for many a month - on culture, sport, gastronomy etc. But there is one sector that appears to be doing very nicely thank you but that never gets a mention by the various authorities. Hardly surprising, given the nature of it, but on the back of the gay-sex scandal featuring the Palma councillor and his visits to gay bars, it's good to know that the girlie bars are also well-frequented. That's the nature of the tourism. Sex tourism to Mallorca. Don't get much about this is in official circles, but apparently it's thriving. Can't imagine why it doesn't get more prominence though, having said that, there has been some press talk on the subject, not least in the German freebie with the confusingly Spanish title "El Aviso".
According to this paper, Balearics sex tourism is worth between 300 and 400 million euros a year, which sounds like an awful lot of money being handed over for some rumpy. How do they actually measure this anyway? And can we really accept that top-earners in the industry are taking over 100,000 a year, albeit that much of it then finds its way to others?
They talk about sex tourism, and by implication this suggests that there are those flocking to Mallorca for precisely this purpose. It is something I find quite difficult to believe, but perhaps the Internet is instrumental in fuelling this alternative (and seemingly lucrative) line of tourism. Maybe the authorities should get on the bandwagon - Magaluf has long been known as "shagaluf"; why not brand the whole island similarly?
It's not as if the island is short of venues for such tourism. There are, for example, four that I am aware of in Alcúdia, but I'm not naming them or saying where they are. A couple of years ago, I wrote about an approach to advertise one "relax house". I turned it down. Alcúdia is a family resort, not a bordello on the bay. And so of course the tourist authorities would want to distance themselves from such tourism, despite the money it attracts - if one believes the figures.
QUIZ
Last time - "Man", The Smiths. Today's title - album by?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
According to this paper, Balearics sex tourism is worth between 300 and 400 million euros a year, which sounds like an awful lot of money being handed over for some rumpy. How do they actually measure this anyway? And can we really accept that top-earners in the industry are taking over 100,000 a year, albeit that much of it then finds its way to others?
They talk about sex tourism, and by implication this suggests that there are those flocking to Mallorca for precisely this purpose. It is something I find quite difficult to believe, but perhaps the Internet is instrumental in fuelling this alternative (and seemingly lucrative) line of tourism. Maybe the authorities should get on the bandwagon - Magaluf has long been known as "shagaluf"; why not brand the whole island similarly?
It's not as if the island is short of venues for such tourism. There are, for example, four that I am aware of in Alcúdia, but I'm not naming them or saying where they are. A couple of years ago, I wrote about an approach to advertise one "relax house". I turned it down. Alcúdia is a family resort, not a bordello on the bay. And so of course the tourist authorities would want to distance themselves from such tourism, despite the money it attracts - if one believes the figures.
QUIZ
Last time - "Man", The Smiths. Today's title - album by?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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