Slightly delayed from the previously announced mid-May starting-point, paid parking will return to Puerto Pollensa from the start of June, the delay having been as a result of negotiations with the ports authority over the parking spaces near to the nautical club. These will be ceded to the town hall and its contractor in return for a percentage of the tariffs. Some 40% of street parking spaces will be included in the paid-parking scheme - from La Gola to the Bocchoris area and including the front and roads such as Joan XXIII. The green zone for residents' parking will, as previously announced, not come in until next year. For the regular blue zone, coming back in June, the rate will be a minimum of 50 cents up to a maximum of two euros, which will also determine a maximum length of parking time.
Meanwhile, the plan to partially pedestrianise the front is likely to be implemented in 2013, following an agreement struck between the town hall and the Council of Mallorca, assuming there is money to facilitate the scheme, which would result in the creation of a one-way traffic system.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 May 2012
A warm one for the Ironman triathletes in Alcúdia today. 21 degrees by 09:00 and back into the mid-20s later on. Sun all the way. And pretty much sun all the way for the foreseeable future.
Afternoon update: The barrier of 80 degrees in old money broken today, a high of 27.4 C. The question is: does this weather herald a summer like 2003 when it was so hot and it cranked up like this in May?
Afternoon update: The barrier of 80 degrees in old money broken today, a high of 27.4 C. The question is: does this weather herald a summer like 2003 when it was so hot and it cranked up like this in May?
Guarding Lives - Or Not
The exceptionally warm weather for early May has led to the beaches being busier than might normally be the case. But not all beaches are as busy as they might be, because there is an absence of personnel one would hope would be there. We are, I'm afraid, back once again to Pollensa's beaches.
It is simply no good the town hall trotting out one of its annual excuses as to the tardiness with which beach management is finalised, the excuse of gaining clearance by the Costas. The town hall has no credibility in this regard, not, that is, when other town halls in the area can manage to commence arrangements for beach management in time for the official 1 May start of the tourism season (or earlier in some instances).
Personally, I couldn't care less whether there were sunbeds and umbrellas, but then I am far from being everyone. They form a service that is expected, and one that is expected to operate throughout the season and not once the town hall finally gets its backside into gear.
It isn't just the beds and parasols, though. There are also the lifeguards. On Pollensa town hall's website, the announcement of the tender for beach safety had allowed for submission up to 7 May, a week after the season started. The website also announced that this was "urgent". I'd say it was urgent.
The fiasco with Pollensa's beach management is such that the town's mayor should have the courtesy to issue a clear explanation as to why Pollensa is so lethargic when other towns are not. This should not be an explanation made in a town hall meeting, but in wider communication with the public, the whole of the public, including the town's many foreign residents and tourists.
Unfortunately, the town hall doesn't go in for this sort of communication. Very few town halls in Majorca do. Their press and public relations are poor to the point of being negligible. And then they wonder why dissatisfaction grows.
To return to the issue of the lifeguards, there is a further PR dimension to this, i.e. the fact that there was a spate of drownings last summer in Muro, Can Picafort and Pollensa. These were not attributable to inaction by lifeguards or emergency services, as they were as a consequence of cardiac arrest being suffered by mainly elderly swimmers. But any drowning isn't good for business, and if lifeguards are not to be found, then it's worse for business.
At least Pollensa appears to be allowing for the possibility of contracts running for three years when it comes to beach management, which will be something, but not for the safety service, which will still be renewable annually. Why? Who knows? It will probably be because of the Costas Authority; but then it always is.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It is simply no good the town hall trotting out one of its annual excuses as to the tardiness with which beach management is finalised, the excuse of gaining clearance by the Costas. The town hall has no credibility in this regard, not, that is, when other town halls in the area can manage to commence arrangements for beach management in time for the official 1 May start of the tourism season (or earlier in some instances).
Personally, I couldn't care less whether there were sunbeds and umbrellas, but then I am far from being everyone. They form a service that is expected, and one that is expected to operate throughout the season and not once the town hall finally gets its backside into gear.
It isn't just the beds and parasols, though. There are also the lifeguards. On Pollensa town hall's website, the announcement of the tender for beach safety had allowed for submission up to 7 May, a week after the season started. The website also announced that this was "urgent". I'd say it was urgent.
The fiasco with Pollensa's beach management is such that the town's mayor should have the courtesy to issue a clear explanation as to why Pollensa is so lethargic when other towns are not. This should not be an explanation made in a town hall meeting, but in wider communication with the public, the whole of the public, including the town's many foreign residents and tourists.
Unfortunately, the town hall doesn't go in for this sort of communication. Very few town halls in Majorca do. Their press and public relations are poor to the point of being negligible. And then they wonder why dissatisfaction grows.
To return to the issue of the lifeguards, there is a further PR dimension to this, i.e. the fact that there was a spate of drownings last summer in Muro, Can Picafort and Pollensa. These were not attributable to inaction by lifeguards or emergency services, as they were as a consequence of cardiac arrest being suffered by mainly elderly swimmers. But any drowning isn't good for business, and if lifeguards are not to be found, then it's worse for business.
At least Pollensa appears to be allowing for the possibility of contracts running for three years when it comes to beach management, which will be something, but not for the safety service, which will still be renewable annually. Why? Who knows? It will probably be because of the Costas Authority; but then it always is.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, May 11, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 May 2012
Yet again, a fine and sunny morn. 19.6 C the inland high at 08:30. Low to mid-20s for later, with the UV going to nine, and it has been very noticeable how many pink bodies there are. Outlook remaining good.
Afternoon update: A high of 26.3 C in Pollensa today, a bit lower on the coasts. Very warm, in other words.
Afternoon update: A high of 26.3 C in Pollensa today, a bit lower on the coasts. Very warm, in other words.
Why Is My Friend Different, Mummy?
Cuts? What cuts? Education in the Balearics is supposedly being attacked with a governmental knife, but you wouldn't think so. Not when the government can afford to employ around 100 new teachers at a cost of three million euros.
This was the figure that was bandied around when the regional government's education minister, Rafael Bosch, was announcing the rolling-out of "free selection" of teaching language. A hundred doesn't sound that many when you consider what this free selection is going to amount to.
From the start of the next school year, parents will be able to opt for their children to be taught, as the main language of education, in either Castellano or Catalan. The government had created some confusion with previous announcements as to the extent of this language selection. Originally, it had excluded secondary education, then it included it (though not for the baccalaureate), but only from 2013. Whether selection at secondary level is indeed introduced next year is questionable, but for now - or rather from this September - the free selection will be confined to infant schools and the junior primary level.
What this means is that there will be separate classes, those conducted in Castellano and those in Catalan. It will not mean separate schools, for which the taxpayer should be immensely grateful. But the taxpayer is going to have to foot the bill for all the additional teachers that will be needed, of which there will need to be even more, as and when free selection is extended upward.
At a time of financial constraint, it seems perverse that the government should be embarking on an expansion of parts of the education system, while slashing budgets from others, e.g. the university. It is reasonable to argue that education is an investment in the future, but is it really wise to be doing this right now? In fact, is it wise to be doing it at all?
The government was committed to formalising free selection. Ideologically wedded to being pro-Castellano and anti-Catalan (or at least less pro-Catalan than pro-Castellano), a promise would have been broken had it not now gone ahead. But there are serious questions that arise from free selection, and not just ones of cost.
Firstly, the endless argument over Castellano or Catalan skirts around a more important issue in terms of the investment in the future, which is that of introducing English as a language of instruction and of cementing a system of trilingualism. Bosch and President Bauzá recently visited Switzerland to see how multilingualism operates in the school environment, something for which they copped some flak, unfairly in my view.
Trilingualism would require a far greater additional investment, but the benefit from such an investment could be immense. The Castellano-Catalan argument also helps to obscure the fact that the public education system in the Balearics is rotten. Performance levels are below the Spanish average and well below most European countries. Trilingualism wouldn't alone transform the system, but it might go some way to doing so. Fundamentally though, the government should be addressing the standard of education as a priority and not whether kids are taught in Castellano or Catalan.
Secondly, free selection means a system of educational apartheid, one that could have consequences for the normal functioning of schools as social organisms. Infant and primary children might not be aware of the politics that are involved, but they will be aware that other children are "different". "Why does little Juany go to that class, mummy?" Extend the system upwards to secondary level, and bolshie teenagers, very much aware of the politics and of tribalism, could see this apartheid as an excuse for all manner of rivalry. It's a system that could end up creating trouble within schools and fomenting even more the tensions between Castellano and Catalan outside of schools.
Thirdly, the Partido Popular may have won the last election and may have had a mandate for free selection, but support for free selection among the people of the Balearics, including therefore parents, resides with a minority. A general survey of opinion has shown there to be majority opposition to free selection and more specific research has shown that a majority of parents do not wish to switch or intend to switch from Catalan to Castellano as the language for their children's education.
Apart from costing more money, avoiding the key issue of educational standards, potentially creating social division and enjoying less than majority appeal, free selection is a brilliant idea. Or so the government would argue. But it is free selection predicated not on educational principles but on political dogma.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
This was the figure that was bandied around when the regional government's education minister, Rafael Bosch, was announcing the rolling-out of "free selection" of teaching language. A hundred doesn't sound that many when you consider what this free selection is going to amount to.
From the start of the next school year, parents will be able to opt for their children to be taught, as the main language of education, in either Castellano or Catalan. The government had created some confusion with previous announcements as to the extent of this language selection. Originally, it had excluded secondary education, then it included it (though not for the baccalaureate), but only from 2013. Whether selection at secondary level is indeed introduced next year is questionable, but for now - or rather from this September - the free selection will be confined to infant schools and the junior primary level.
What this means is that there will be separate classes, those conducted in Castellano and those in Catalan. It will not mean separate schools, for which the taxpayer should be immensely grateful. But the taxpayer is going to have to foot the bill for all the additional teachers that will be needed, of which there will need to be even more, as and when free selection is extended upward.
At a time of financial constraint, it seems perverse that the government should be embarking on an expansion of parts of the education system, while slashing budgets from others, e.g. the university. It is reasonable to argue that education is an investment in the future, but is it really wise to be doing this right now? In fact, is it wise to be doing it at all?
The government was committed to formalising free selection. Ideologically wedded to being pro-Castellano and anti-Catalan (or at least less pro-Catalan than pro-Castellano), a promise would have been broken had it not now gone ahead. But there are serious questions that arise from free selection, and not just ones of cost.
Firstly, the endless argument over Castellano or Catalan skirts around a more important issue in terms of the investment in the future, which is that of introducing English as a language of instruction and of cementing a system of trilingualism. Bosch and President Bauzá recently visited Switzerland to see how multilingualism operates in the school environment, something for which they copped some flak, unfairly in my view.
Trilingualism would require a far greater additional investment, but the benefit from such an investment could be immense. The Castellano-Catalan argument also helps to obscure the fact that the public education system in the Balearics is rotten. Performance levels are below the Spanish average and well below most European countries. Trilingualism wouldn't alone transform the system, but it might go some way to doing so. Fundamentally though, the government should be addressing the standard of education as a priority and not whether kids are taught in Castellano or Catalan.
Secondly, free selection means a system of educational apartheid, one that could have consequences for the normal functioning of schools as social organisms. Infant and primary children might not be aware of the politics that are involved, but they will be aware that other children are "different". "Why does little Juany go to that class, mummy?" Extend the system upwards to secondary level, and bolshie teenagers, very much aware of the politics and of tribalism, could see this apartheid as an excuse for all manner of rivalry. It's a system that could end up creating trouble within schools and fomenting even more the tensions between Castellano and Catalan outside of schools.
Thirdly, the Partido Popular may have won the last election and may have had a mandate for free selection, but support for free selection among the people of the Balearics, including therefore parents, resides with a minority. A general survey of opinion has shown there to be majority opposition to free selection and more specific research has shown that a majority of parents do not wish to switch or intend to switch from Catalan to Castellano as the language for their children's education.
Apart from costing more money, avoiding the key issue of educational standards, potentially creating social division and enjoying less than majority appeal, free selection is a brilliant idea. Or so the government would argue. But it is free selection predicated not on educational principles but on political dogma.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 May 2012
19.1 C inland high at 09:00 and only slightly lower on the coast. Sun all day and less of a breeze, highs towards 26 or 27.
Afternoon update: Not as warm as had been thought. Fine, sunny day, but highs ranging between 21.3 on the coast (Puerto Pollensa) and 25.3 inland in Pollensa, so quite a marked difference.
Afternoon update: Not as warm as had been thought. Fine, sunny day, but highs ranging between 21.3 on the coast (Puerto Pollensa) and 25.3 inland in Pollensa, so quite a marked difference.
Corombo Or Colom: The Columbus conundrum
Christopher Columbus wasn't born Christopher Columbus. He was born Christoffa Corombo. Or he was born Cristòfor Colom. Let's go with the latter.
Some time in 1460, Cristòfor Colom was born in the Mallorcan town of Felanitx. The exact location was the finca of s'Alqueria Roja. His father was an Aragonese nobleman, the brother of Fernando who was to become king of Aragon and of Castile and Léon, and his mother was called Margarita Colom. Cristòfor was the bastard nephew of the Spanish king. This bloodline, unknown to others at the royal court, was to prove vital in giving Cristòfor the patronage to sail to what he thought was Japan or China, but which turned out to be the Caribbean, and in his being named a viceroy and becoming governor of Hispaniola.
There are certain things wrong with this. Wrong, that is, unless you subscribe to the theory that Columbus was indeed born in Felanitx.
Some time in 1451, Christoffa Corombo was born in Genoa, an independent republic which eventually became part of Italy. His father was called Domenico, and he was a lowly weaver who later became an innkeeper. Christoffa's mother, Susanna, was also a weaver. Somehow, Corombo managed to rise from these humble origins to find a place in the Spanish court and acquire the patronage that he did in order to sail to find China in a direction opposite to the one that was already known about.
There is nothing wrong with this, unless you subscribe to the theory that Columbus was born, not in Genoa, but in Felanitx.
Which is right and which is wrong? The Genoa version is the accepted version. The Felanitx version is one that has been proposed by the Mallorcan historian Gabriel Verd Martorell. He has devoted more or less his life's work in seeking to prove that Corombo was Colom and that he was born in Felanitx.
I have huge admiration for Verd's scholarship and for his persistence. His Felanitx theory is not without persuasiveness. It is one that has arisen from what remain legitimate questions as to Columbus' background and specifically how he acquired a strange speaking voice (and it is argued that this was because of Catalan origins) and how he came to be given a title (that of viceroy) that would have been reserved for the Spanish nobility.
Verd has challenged the orthodox view of Columbus, but part of the problem he has had in making a truly convincing case for there to be a complete revision of history is that his theory is just one of many which place Columbus' birthplace as anywhere but Genoa.
Undeterred by the fact that Verd has yet to convince a sceptical world that Christoffa from Genoa was indeed Cristòfor from Felanitx, the town of Felanitx has co-opted Columbus as an "illustrious son" and is to open an exhibition in Portocolom (note the Colom). This exhibition, conveniently near to the tourist office, is to be dedicated to Columbus and to his Mallorcan connection.
While the exhibition may well assist in promoting Verd's theory, there is another benefit; one to the town of Felanitx. Even without definitive proof of Columbus' association with the town, there is presumably a gain to be made by promoting the association. A tourism gain. Or so the town hall would hope.
Its mayor, Gabriel Tauler, has been pushing the Columbus association for some time. He has wanted Columbus "routes" this and no doubt Columbus souvenir mini-carabela ships that. The routes, one imagines, wouldn't involve taking a carabela and heading off to Genoa. He has managed, however, to fall foul of linguistic dogma in issuing invites to the opening of the Columbus-expo. They've gone out in Castellano and not in Catalan. They are more widely understandable, says the mayor. Which is true, but much of the Columbus-from-Felanitx argumentation has to do with that strange speaking voice. If he was indeed originally a Catalan speaker, then Catalan as at least part of the invite was probably warranted.
Who knows? Maybe Columbus did come from Felanitx. His Catalan connection is at least intriguing, but that he also often wrote in Catalan isn't necessarily so much of a surprise. He could well have acquired the language and, if one accepts his origins in Genoa, then he wouldn't have written in Ligurian, the language of Genoa, as it wasn't a written language. It would also, as a tongue, have given him a strange speaking voice.
Christoffa Corombo or Cristòfor Colom, who can tell? Verd would insist that it were the latter. I wish him well in continuing to try and prove his theory.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Some time in 1460, Cristòfor Colom was born in the Mallorcan town of Felanitx. The exact location was the finca of s'Alqueria Roja. His father was an Aragonese nobleman, the brother of Fernando who was to become king of Aragon and of Castile and Léon, and his mother was called Margarita Colom. Cristòfor was the bastard nephew of the Spanish king. This bloodline, unknown to others at the royal court, was to prove vital in giving Cristòfor the patronage to sail to what he thought was Japan or China, but which turned out to be the Caribbean, and in his being named a viceroy and becoming governor of Hispaniola.
There are certain things wrong with this. Wrong, that is, unless you subscribe to the theory that Columbus was indeed born in Felanitx.
Some time in 1451, Christoffa Corombo was born in Genoa, an independent republic which eventually became part of Italy. His father was called Domenico, and he was a lowly weaver who later became an innkeeper. Christoffa's mother, Susanna, was also a weaver. Somehow, Corombo managed to rise from these humble origins to find a place in the Spanish court and acquire the patronage that he did in order to sail to find China in a direction opposite to the one that was already known about.
There is nothing wrong with this, unless you subscribe to the theory that Columbus was born, not in Genoa, but in Felanitx.
Which is right and which is wrong? The Genoa version is the accepted version. The Felanitx version is one that has been proposed by the Mallorcan historian Gabriel Verd Martorell. He has devoted more or less his life's work in seeking to prove that Corombo was Colom and that he was born in Felanitx.
I have huge admiration for Verd's scholarship and for his persistence. His Felanitx theory is not without persuasiveness. It is one that has arisen from what remain legitimate questions as to Columbus' background and specifically how he acquired a strange speaking voice (and it is argued that this was because of Catalan origins) and how he came to be given a title (that of viceroy) that would have been reserved for the Spanish nobility.
Verd has challenged the orthodox view of Columbus, but part of the problem he has had in making a truly convincing case for there to be a complete revision of history is that his theory is just one of many which place Columbus' birthplace as anywhere but Genoa.
Undeterred by the fact that Verd has yet to convince a sceptical world that Christoffa from Genoa was indeed Cristòfor from Felanitx, the town of Felanitx has co-opted Columbus as an "illustrious son" and is to open an exhibition in Portocolom (note the Colom). This exhibition, conveniently near to the tourist office, is to be dedicated to Columbus and to his Mallorcan connection.
While the exhibition may well assist in promoting Verd's theory, there is another benefit; one to the town of Felanitx. Even without definitive proof of Columbus' association with the town, there is presumably a gain to be made by promoting the association. A tourism gain. Or so the town hall would hope.
Its mayor, Gabriel Tauler, has been pushing the Columbus association for some time. He has wanted Columbus "routes" this and no doubt Columbus souvenir mini-carabela ships that. The routes, one imagines, wouldn't involve taking a carabela and heading off to Genoa. He has managed, however, to fall foul of linguistic dogma in issuing invites to the opening of the Columbus-expo. They've gone out in Castellano and not in Catalan. They are more widely understandable, says the mayor. Which is true, but much of the Columbus-from-Felanitx argumentation has to do with that strange speaking voice. If he was indeed originally a Catalan speaker, then Catalan as at least part of the invite was probably warranted.
Who knows? Maybe Columbus did come from Felanitx. His Catalan connection is at least intriguing, but that he also often wrote in Catalan isn't necessarily so much of a surprise. He could well have acquired the language and, if one accepts his origins in Genoa, then he wouldn't have written in Ligurian, the language of Genoa, as it wasn't a written language. It would also, as a tongue, have given him a strange speaking voice.
Christoffa Corombo or Cristòfor Colom, who can tell? Verd would insist that it were the latter. I wish him well in continuing to try and prove his theory.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 May 2012
Less of a breeze than yesterday morning and a high of 18.9 C by 09:00. Sunny and temperatures into the mid-20s today. The outlook for the rest of the week is for the same until Sunday when temperatures are likely to come down.
Afternoon update: Very much warming up and unusually for so early in May, a high of 26.8 C.
Afternoon update: Very much warming up and unusually for so early in May, a high of 26.8 C.
Stupid And Crazy: Spain's airports
Following the previous feature about the profitability of Palma's Son Sant Joan, more on airports and this time their lack of profitability.
The national government's minister for development (which covers transport) has announced that there is to be a study of the viability and profitability of the whole of Spain's network of airports. The number of airports that this network comprises varies depending on which report you come across. It fluctuates between 46 and 49. Whatever the actual figure (and let's get round the confusion by saying that there are nearly 50), the fact is that there are way more airports in Spain than in, just as an example, Germany. Way more to the tune of there being twice as many for a population almost half the size.
At the end of the previous article, I concluded by sounding a warning for Menorca. Its airport is heavily in debt and its losses last year were among the highest of any airport in the Spanish network. It would, however, be most unlikely that Menorca would lose its airport, given that it is essential and that it would qualify for being maintained under a criterion of "public benefit", but there are plenty of airports within the network that could well face the axe.
The minister, Ana Pastor, has admitted that any adjustment to or rationalisation of the airport network would be "complicated". The complication is created by an infrastructure of airports which is, in her words, "stupid and crazy". There are far too many airports and far too many that came into being for no particularly good reason.
The growth in the airport network was symptomatic of the construction-led infrastructure boom in Spain which has been partly responsible for the mess the country is now in. While the continuance of older airports, such as Menorca's, despite its loss-making, is fully justifiable, the continuance of some newer ones is much harder to justify. Only ten of the airports in the network make a positive return, and of those which don't there are examples of airports having been built which were as a result of sheer folly. Which brings us to the case of Castellón airport.
This airport, less than an hour away from Valencia's main airport, was built at a cost of 150 million euros. It was opened in March last year. To date, there has not been a single flight. The reasons why not are many, one of them having been the absence of the necessary licence. It is said that Castellón now has an agreement with Jet2 to start flights next year and that negotiations are ongoing with other airlines, but in the meantime, and in addition to the cost of its construction, the runway will have to be re-built as it is too narrow, 30 million euros have apparently been eaten up on advertising the airport and 300,000 euros have been spent on a truly hideous sculpture.
The sculpture tells its own tale. Featured within it is the face of Carlos Fabra, a leading Partido Popular politician and a prime mover behind the airport's construction. Fabra has been implicated, on more than one occasion, in corruption cases.
Castellón is perhaps an extreme example of the profligacy of the development of Spain's airport network. It is an example also, however, of how regional administrations have contributed to Spain's economic plight by embarking on wholly unnecessary projects.
Flavour of the month it is to give the regional governments a good kicking, but a recent and insightful article by a Spanish journalist writing in English for the "El Pais" newspaper's English website argued that the problem lies not with the system of regional government but with the politicians it gives rise to. It is a fair point, but the trouble is that if you give someone a toy then they will play with it, which is precisely what has happened. Hence the pointless, expensive and sometimes unused infrastructure projects that proliferate across Spain, of which regional airports are a case in point.
When the development minister speaks of "stupid and crazy" infrastructure, she could as easily be referring to projects other than just airports. Mallorca has its own examples, the current building of the Palacio de Congresos in Palma being one. The impression has been given that the only reason for it coming into existence is because other Spanish cities have got similar convention centres; an exercise in me-too in other words.
Me-too has been the real impulse behind all the airports, and of the new ones, none are profitable. Stupid and crazy? Discuss.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The national government's minister for development (which covers transport) has announced that there is to be a study of the viability and profitability of the whole of Spain's network of airports. The number of airports that this network comprises varies depending on which report you come across. It fluctuates between 46 and 49. Whatever the actual figure (and let's get round the confusion by saying that there are nearly 50), the fact is that there are way more airports in Spain than in, just as an example, Germany. Way more to the tune of there being twice as many for a population almost half the size.
At the end of the previous article, I concluded by sounding a warning for Menorca. Its airport is heavily in debt and its losses last year were among the highest of any airport in the Spanish network. It would, however, be most unlikely that Menorca would lose its airport, given that it is essential and that it would qualify for being maintained under a criterion of "public benefit", but there are plenty of airports within the network that could well face the axe.
The minister, Ana Pastor, has admitted that any adjustment to or rationalisation of the airport network would be "complicated". The complication is created by an infrastructure of airports which is, in her words, "stupid and crazy". There are far too many airports and far too many that came into being for no particularly good reason.
The growth in the airport network was symptomatic of the construction-led infrastructure boom in Spain which has been partly responsible for the mess the country is now in. While the continuance of older airports, such as Menorca's, despite its loss-making, is fully justifiable, the continuance of some newer ones is much harder to justify. Only ten of the airports in the network make a positive return, and of those which don't there are examples of airports having been built which were as a result of sheer folly. Which brings us to the case of Castellón airport.
This airport, less than an hour away from Valencia's main airport, was built at a cost of 150 million euros. It was opened in March last year. To date, there has not been a single flight. The reasons why not are many, one of them having been the absence of the necessary licence. It is said that Castellón now has an agreement with Jet2 to start flights next year and that negotiations are ongoing with other airlines, but in the meantime, and in addition to the cost of its construction, the runway will have to be re-built as it is too narrow, 30 million euros have apparently been eaten up on advertising the airport and 300,000 euros have been spent on a truly hideous sculpture.
The sculpture tells its own tale. Featured within it is the face of Carlos Fabra, a leading Partido Popular politician and a prime mover behind the airport's construction. Fabra has been implicated, on more than one occasion, in corruption cases.
Castellón is perhaps an extreme example of the profligacy of the development of Spain's airport network. It is an example also, however, of how regional administrations have contributed to Spain's economic plight by embarking on wholly unnecessary projects.
Flavour of the month it is to give the regional governments a good kicking, but a recent and insightful article by a Spanish journalist writing in English for the "El Pais" newspaper's English website argued that the problem lies not with the system of regional government but with the politicians it gives rise to. It is a fair point, but the trouble is that if you give someone a toy then they will play with it, which is precisely what has happened. Hence the pointless, expensive and sometimes unused infrastructure projects that proliferate across Spain, of which regional airports are a case in point.
When the development minister speaks of "stupid and crazy" infrastructure, she could as easily be referring to projects other than just airports. Mallorca has its own examples, the current building of the Palacio de Congresos in Palma being one. The impression has been given that the only reason for it coming into existence is because other Spanish cities have got similar convention centres; an exercise in me-too in other words.
Me-too has been the real impulse behind all the airports, and of the new ones, none are profitable. Stupid and crazy? Discuss.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Delgado's girlfriend loses her job at tourism ministry
Lourdes Reynés, the girlfriend of Balearics tourism minister Carlos Delgado, has been removed from her post as technical advisor in the ministry, only days after her appointment was received with outrage and calls for Delgado to resign. The parliamentary spokesperson for the Partido Popular has admitted that the appointment was an error, but has said that her removal (resignation in fact, or so it would appear) was not on account of any ethical code having been broken.
MALLORCA TODAY - Policeman involved in cyclist death accident freed on bail
One of the two members of the National Police who was placed in custody following the death of a German woman cyclist in March has been freed on bail of 5,000 euros. The police officer is accused, among other things, of accidental homicide.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Victim of lightning strike remains critical
More has emerged of the incident on Sunday morning when two people in the bay of Pollensa were struck by lightning. One of the victims remains in a critical condition in Son Espases hospital. It appears he was holding onto metal railing of their boat when the lightning hit.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 May 2012
A bright and warm morning at 17.7 C by 09:00. Breeze already up and likely to be quite windy through the day with highs into the mid-20s.
Afternoon update: The wind from the south that has blown all day has brought with it warmer temperatures, a high today of 24.9 C.
Afternoon update: The wind from the south that has blown all day has brought with it warmer temperatures, a high today of 24.9 C.
At The Blood Test Centre
The public health service in Mallorca and the Balearics is in crisis. It had in fact been in crisis before anyone had thought of crisis some four years ago. For years, it has leaked money like a patient in ICU leaks blood when the needle and catheter fall out. It has gone all over the place.
Something had to give. I am with those who believe that health and education should be sacrosanct when it comes to provision by the state, but this provision, in total totality, exists only in an ideal world. And the world is currently far from ideal, especially in Mallorca and even more especially in its health service.
Protests as to hospital closures are as understandable as they are predictable, as it was also predictable that the government would effect some sort of health-service rationalisation. The disappearance of around 300 hospital beds during the peak summer months was less predictable. But the headline of the temporary loss of these beds at Son Espases and at other hospitals obscures a not unreasonable decision to delay non-urgent operations and so save some money.
The dire financial situation in which the islands' health service finds itself has been known about for years. Known about but given very little attention, until economic crisis kicked in and revealed just how much debt it had been stacking up. By the end of 2011, this debt had reached 550 million euros.
The hospital closures, together with adjustments to personnel numbers and working and opening hours within the health service, suggest a health service that is truly in crisis. Yet if this crisis really exists, no one has told the local facility in Muro town.
The new PAC centre was opened last year (and note that it was opened last year, well into the period of "crisis" therefore). A two-storey building of functional modernity, its service, based admittedly on very little personal use, cannot be faulted.
I had reason a week ago to make an appointment with my GP. The appointment was made for the day after I had rung up to make it. There was no delay in seeing him on the day; indeed I got in before the appointed time. A blood test was arranged and this was for yesterday.
A previous occasion on which I had needed a blood test involved going to the private hospital in Muro. I am beginning to wonder why I continue to bother with the private health scheme, and had every reason to wonder then. The delay and sheer chaos were not what you might hope for when voluntarily handing over a goodly sum of money to a private health insurer. I understand things have got better, but the chaos was more what one might expect of a public health unit.
The visit to the blood test centre was as painless as it could possibly have been, notwithstanding the slight pain of the needle. The PAC building's modernity is incongruous in a rural Mallorcan backwater such as Muro town, and this modernity cannot disguise the fact that, as with most things in the rural communities, the centre doubles as a social club. The only real problem with the centre is being able to hear your name called over the hubbub as one old farmer shouts at another old farmer on the other side of the waiting area; the justified ancients of Muro can make a hell of a racket, one accentuated in a confined space.
The appointment was bang on time. A production line of three nurses (not the one nurse that the private hospital had) ensured that it all went with a bang. Needle in, needle out, bit of cotton wool and on your way.
Driving back from the centre, I had to concede that the introduction of the health petrol tax at the beginning of the month might in fact be worth it. At 4.8 cents per litre, and given a journey there and back of roughly 25 kilometres, the health service had probably earned at least these 4.8 cents, thanks to my visit to the blood test centre. This may overlook what is already chucked into the social security pot, to say nothing of the other cost of a litre, but for sheer efficiency, 4.8 cents represented pretty good value for money.
How much these 4.8 cents that everyone pays (bar of course all those who are exempt) will eat into the 550 million euros debt, who knows. How much these cents will contribute to maintaining a generally fine standard of public health is another unknown. But if crisis there is in Mallorca's health service, it certainly hasn't reached Muro.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Something had to give. I am with those who believe that health and education should be sacrosanct when it comes to provision by the state, but this provision, in total totality, exists only in an ideal world. And the world is currently far from ideal, especially in Mallorca and even more especially in its health service.
Protests as to hospital closures are as understandable as they are predictable, as it was also predictable that the government would effect some sort of health-service rationalisation. The disappearance of around 300 hospital beds during the peak summer months was less predictable. But the headline of the temporary loss of these beds at Son Espases and at other hospitals obscures a not unreasonable decision to delay non-urgent operations and so save some money.
The dire financial situation in which the islands' health service finds itself has been known about for years. Known about but given very little attention, until economic crisis kicked in and revealed just how much debt it had been stacking up. By the end of 2011, this debt had reached 550 million euros.
The hospital closures, together with adjustments to personnel numbers and working and opening hours within the health service, suggest a health service that is truly in crisis. Yet if this crisis really exists, no one has told the local facility in Muro town.
The new PAC centre was opened last year (and note that it was opened last year, well into the period of "crisis" therefore). A two-storey building of functional modernity, its service, based admittedly on very little personal use, cannot be faulted.
I had reason a week ago to make an appointment with my GP. The appointment was made for the day after I had rung up to make it. There was no delay in seeing him on the day; indeed I got in before the appointed time. A blood test was arranged and this was for yesterday.
A previous occasion on which I had needed a blood test involved going to the private hospital in Muro. I am beginning to wonder why I continue to bother with the private health scheme, and had every reason to wonder then. The delay and sheer chaos were not what you might hope for when voluntarily handing over a goodly sum of money to a private health insurer. I understand things have got better, but the chaos was more what one might expect of a public health unit.
The visit to the blood test centre was as painless as it could possibly have been, notwithstanding the slight pain of the needle. The PAC building's modernity is incongruous in a rural Mallorcan backwater such as Muro town, and this modernity cannot disguise the fact that, as with most things in the rural communities, the centre doubles as a social club. The only real problem with the centre is being able to hear your name called over the hubbub as one old farmer shouts at another old farmer on the other side of the waiting area; the justified ancients of Muro can make a hell of a racket, one accentuated in a confined space.
The appointment was bang on time. A production line of three nurses (not the one nurse that the private hospital had) ensured that it all went with a bang. Needle in, needle out, bit of cotton wool and on your way.
Driving back from the centre, I had to concede that the introduction of the health petrol tax at the beginning of the month might in fact be worth it. At 4.8 cents per litre, and given a journey there and back of roughly 25 kilometres, the health service had probably earned at least these 4.8 cents, thanks to my visit to the blood test centre. This may overlook what is already chucked into the social security pot, to say nothing of the other cost of a litre, but for sheer efficiency, 4.8 cents represented pretty good value for money.
How much these 4.8 cents that everyone pays (bar of course all those who are exempt) will eat into the 550 million euros debt, who knows. How much these cents will contribute to maintaining a generally fine standard of public health is another unknown. But if crisis there is in Mallorca's health service, it certainly hasn't reached Muro.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, May 07, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 May 2012
A mist early on, but the sun breaking through. Local best of 11.8 C at 07:15. A sunny and warmish day on the cards with temperatures into the low-20s. The week's prospects are good, highs into the mid-20s and plenty of sunshine.
Afternoon update: Breeze getting up again in the afternoon. Some cloud this morning gave way to good sunshine and a high of 23 degrees.
The Year Of The Friar: Junípero Serra
The Council of Mallorca has declared that 2013 is to be the year of Fray Junípero Serra. The Franciscan friar, born in 1713 in the town of Petra, acquired his fame by establishing missions in California. His name is as known there as it is in Mallorca. Or not known, as the case may be.
Mallorca does a pretty lousy job of letting people know about the very few Mallorcans with genuine claims to fame. It doesn't need to do much when it comes to Rafael Nadal, he's quite capable of spreading his fame without any local help, but for historical figures, such as the friar, it does need to help. Unfortunately, what help it does give goes largely unnoticed.
If you were to ask a hundred tourists at random if they had ever heard of Serra, what do you suppose their response would be? If you were to ask a hundred Brit expats at random the same question, what would their response be? Junípero who? If you were to then explain that he was a Franciscan missionary to the USA, you should be prepared for a glazing over of the eyes. Sorry to have to say this, but some old monk doesn't really do it in tourist or expat terms.
The historical fame game in Mallorca operates from a pretty small pool and given the fact that famous Mallorcans are, generally speaking, not famous, non-Mallorcans of fame are co-opted with an eye on the main chance of generating tourism revenue; hence, Chopin and his stupid cell at Valldemossa, or the cell that used to be thought to have been his cell but now turns out not to have been.
Serra, three hundred years of his birth and all that, means tourism revenue. Or an attempt at getting some. But where are these tourists going to come from? America, it would be hoped. And more specifically, California. To what extent Serra is known to Americans outside of the sunshine state, though, is a good question. A group of Americans with whom I became acquainted recently had never heard of him. I had suggested that they would probably wish to go to Petra, and of course they hadn't heard of Petra either.
However, one imagines there are goodly numbers of devout American (Californian) Catholics, chomping at the bit to come to Mallorca in order to pay homage. If there indeed are, then they face one small problem; the roundabout way of getting to Mallorca. The Americans of my recent acquaintance came in via Madrid and only managed to get their Iberia connection as scheduled, thanks to Iberia pilots having been kind enough to have been flying to Palma on a day when they weren't flying anywhere else because they were on strike.
Air Berlin's boss in Spain and Portugal, Alvaro Middelmann, has gone on record as saying that he wishes to develop a route from California, but it still wouldn't mean direct flights. It's a shame. American tourism, of whatever variety, would be an immense boost for Mallorca. Not all Americans are everyone's cup of tea, but overwhelmingly they are unfailingly polite, highly inquisitive and therefore minded to take note of aspects of Mallorca not solely of a beach nature, and more often than not, they are loaded. If Serra is the sprat to catch the American mackerel, then everything should be done to exploit the three-hundredth anniversary of his birth.
One drawback with Serra is that he, as with other figures from the past, has been subjected to revision. Like Columbus (a would-be Mallorcan, some would insist), whose achievements have been sullied by the knowledge that he in effect engaged in a spot of genocide, so Serra's reputation has become tainted. It doesn't play particularly well in the US, or elsewhere come to that, that he treated American Indians in a brutal fashion. If they were going to be converted to Christianity, then they were going to be beaten into conversion, which is pretty much what happened.
There again, back in the eighteenth century, mistreating some heathen natives in the name of the church and of Christ was considered fair enough. Serra can't really be blamed for having been a product of his time. Even those who have criticised him have admitted that when it came to religion and to piety, he was from the top drawer. He was apparently possessed of a formidable intellect and of no little courage.
2013 will be the year of the friar. At the end of the year though, apart from a few more American tourists having perhaps ventured to Mallorca, will anything have changed? Will non-Mallorcans be any the wiser and know who Junípero was? Well, will they?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Mallorca does a pretty lousy job of letting people know about the very few Mallorcans with genuine claims to fame. It doesn't need to do much when it comes to Rafael Nadal, he's quite capable of spreading his fame without any local help, but for historical figures, such as the friar, it does need to help. Unfortunately, what help it does give goes largely unnoticed.
If you were to ask a hundred tourists at random if they had ever heard of Serra, what do you suppose their response would be? If you were to ask a hundred Brit expats at random the same question, what would their response be? Junípero who? If you were to then explain that he was a Franciscan missionary to the USA, you should be prepared for a glazing over of the eyes. Sorry to have to say this, but some old monk doesn't really do it in tourist or expat terms.
The historical fame game in Mallorca operates from a pretty small pool and given the fact that famous Mallorcans are, generally speaking, not famous, non-Mallorcans of fame are co-opted with an eye on the main chance of generating tourism revenue; hence, Chopin and his stupid cell at Valldemossa, or the cell that used to be thought to have been his cell but now turns out not to have been.
Serra, three hundred years of his birth and all that, means tourism revenue. Or an attempt at getting some. But where are these tourists going to come from? America, it would be hoped. And more specifically, California. To what extent Serra is known to Americans outside of the sunshine state, though, is a good question. A group of Americans with whom I became acquainted recently had never heard of him. I had suggested that they would probably wish to go to Petra, and of course they hadn't heard of Petra either.
However, one imagines there are goodly numbers of devout American (Californian) Catholics, chomping at the bit to come to Mallorca in order to pay homage. If there indeed are, then they face one small problem; the roundabout way of getting to Mallorca. The Americans of my recent acquaintance came in via Madrid and only managed to get their Iberia connection as scheduled, thanks to Iberia pilots having been kind enough to have been flying to Palma on a day when they weren't flying anywhere else because they were on strike.
Air Berlin's boss in Spain and Portugal, Alvaro Middelmann, has gone on record as saying that he wishes to develop a route from California, but it still wouldn't mean direct flights. It's a shame. American tourism, of whatever variety, would be an immense boost for Mallorca. Not all Americans are everyone's cup of tea, but overwhelmingly they are unfailingly polite, highly inquisitive and therefore minded to take note of aspects of Mallorca not solely of a beach nature, and more often than not, they are loaded. If Serra is the sprat to catch the American mackerel, then everything should be done to exploit the three-hundredth anniversary of his birth.
One drawback with Serra is that he, as with other figures from the past, has been subjected to revision. Like Columbus (a would-be Mallorcan, some would insist), whose achievements have been sullied by the knowledge that he in effect engaged in a spot of genocide, so Serra's reputation has become tainted. It doesn't play particularly well in the US, or elsewhere come to that, that he treated American Indians in a brutal fashion. If they were going to be converted to Christianity, then they were going to be beaten into conversion, which is pretty much what happened.
There again, back in the eighteenth century, mistreating some heathen natives in the name of the church and of Christ was considered fair enough. Serra can't really be blamed for having been a product of his time. Even those who have criticised him have admitted that when it came to religion and to piety, he was from the top drawer. He was apparently possessed of a formidable intellect and of no little courage.
2013 will be the year of the friar. At the end of the year though, apart from a few more American tourists having perhaps ventured to Mallorca, will anything have changed? Will non-Mallorcans be any the wiser and know who Junípero was? Well, will they?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, May 06, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Swimmers near Alcúdia struck by lightning
The storm that struck late on this morning (6 May) led to two young men swimming from a boat off Alcúdia being struck by lightning. One of the men was in a serious condition, and both are in Son Espases hospital.
MALLORCA TODAY - Young British woman dies in Magalluf hotel fall
A 23-year-old female British tourist, identified as Charlotte C.S.L.F, died yesterday after falling from the third floor of a balcony at the Hotel Teix in Magalluf. The incident occurred at around 4:30am, and the woman, who had seemingly fallen head first, was pronounced dead 45 minutes later. Police have ruled out foul play.
In another incident, a 30-year-old British man fell from a fourth floor in a building in Palma. His fall was broken by a palm tree and he has survived. The death in Magalluf brings to three the fatalities of British tourists in the past couple of weeks following falls from hotel balconies.
In another incident, a 30-year-old British man fell from a fourth floor in a building in Palma. His fall was broken by a palm tree and he has survived. The death in Magalluf brings to three the fatalities of British tourists in the past couple of weeks following falls from hotel balconies.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 May 2012
Pretty much totally cloudy start, a bit of rain in parts, and the temperature 16.8 C at 08:45. Rain and possible storm anticipated, clearing in the later afternoon and a high of around 21. Fine from tomorrow with temperatures rising.
Afternoon update: The forecast was pretty accurate. A storm hit the area in mid-morning, depositing over 20mm of rain, and bringing the temperatures down; the day's high a mere 17.4 C.
Afternoon update: The forecast was pretty accurate. A storm hit the area in mid-morning, depositing over 20mm of rain, and bringing the temperatures down; the day's high a mere 17.4 C.
Brainless In Plaza
You know those photos you get of solitary beaches, the turquoise sea lapping against the velvety white sands, a rare fluffy cloud in a sky of deep blue partially hidden by palm trees gently bent by the prevailing wind. These beaches don't really exist, or rather they do exist in adverts for luxury holidays in Sunday colour supplements. No one goes to such beaches, unless they happen to have been washed up on them following the sinking of a cruise ship, and they find, to their horror, that the idyll is disturbed by a marauding bunch of English public schoolboys roaring around with pigs' heads and claiming speaking rights when one of them grabs the conch.
Were anyone to actually find such a beach by regular means, they would be able to indulge themselves in what one is supposed to indulge oneself in on such beaches and in the holiday resorts that accompany them. For these resorts would be of the hut under the palms variety. Smiling natives would serenade guests with the accompaniment of some primitive string instrument as the sun dips towards the horizon and everyone drinks fruit cocktails out of a coconut shell. And nowhere would there be a road, a pavement or any mess; just miles upon miles of velvety white sands on which the holidaymaker can walk - without shoes.
Barefoot on holiday is one thing if you are indeed at an isolated beach or resort. It is quite another when you aren't. I'm sorry to have to say this but, for all the paradise island stuff, Mallorca doesn't actually have resorts like this. True, there may be small seaside enclaves that haven't been invaded by concrete, buildings, roads, traffic and enormous numbers of people, but for the most part the resorts have been invaded thus. Yet despite this, you will still find people walking around without shoes. Walking around as though they were in a second life of Sunday colour supplementing.
What on earth are they thinking of? Why, for example, would you knowingly walk through a square such as Puerto Pollensa's plaza or cross a main road like that which runs parallel to the bay of Alcúdia without anything on your feet? One can understand it if drink has been taken and flip-flops have been carelessly mislaid, but to consciously undertake the walk back from the beach, minus footwear, requires that the barefooted have never been made aware of all those complaints regarding the movement of Rover's bowels. Or blindness as to the presence of a shattered Saint Mick bottle, a volume of vomit and the remnants of what the bin men managed to scatter around.
There is a simple enough answer to this bizarre practice. It lies with those photos of solitary beaches. Solitary the beaches in Mallorca may not be, huts under palms there may also not be, but the holiday mind assumes they are there. The holiday mind manages to make a leap of imagination - and faith, when it comes to walking barefoot - in perceiving the urbanised resorts of Mallorca as though they were stuck in the middle of the Pacific with development confined to no more than Robinson Crusoe's karaoke bar.
Brainless in plaza it is to bare the soles to a potentially tetanoid tread, but then brainlessness equates to holiday. It's fair enough, I suppose. For the same reason as the trainers may be discarded en route back to the hotel (" 'cos I'm on 'oliday"), so the shirt is left behind when planning a trip to the supermarket. You can't or wouldn't go to the Tesco in Watford stripped to the waist, but on holiday you can. Not that there is a Tesco, which may be part of the problem. Were there, then one suspects that great acres of exposed white flesh gone pink wouldn't be lumbering about the local supermarkets gathering bags of crisps.
What you have in the resorts is a reconciliation that has never been made. What came first, the resort or the non-resort? Regardless of the answer, the collision between working and residential urbanisation and holidaymaking has always created a tension of mutual living space. The two are basically incompatible. Not because there is disharmony, but because of the co-existence of two opposing cultures - one on holiday and one that isn't.
It is fully understandable that there is brainless in plaza. The holidaymaker makes of the urbanised resorts what he or she can. Ideally and idyllically, he or she would be on that solitary beach. But this isn't possible. The local culture may look upon holidaymakers as though they were mad, but when this local culture heads off for its holidays it does the same and has to try and reconcile its colliding with someone else's urbanisation. And it does so flip-flop-less.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Were anyone to actually find such a beach by regular means, they would be able to indulge themselves in what one is supposed to indulge oneself in on such beaches and in the holiday resorts that accompany them. For these resorts would be of the hut under the palms variety. Smiling natives would serenade guests with the accompaniment of some primitive string instrument as the sun dips towards the horizon and everyone drinks fruit cocktails out of a coconut shell. And nowhere would there be a road, a pavement or any mess; just miles upon miles of velvety white sands on which the holidaymaker can walk - without shoes.
Barefoot on holiday is one thing if you are indeed at an isolated beach or resort. It is quite another when you aren't. I'm sorry to have to say this but, for all the paradise island stuff, Mallorca doesn't actually have resorts like this. True, there may be small seaside enclaves that haven't been invaded by concrete, buildings, roads, traffic and enormous numbers of people, but for the most part the resorts have been invaded thus. Yet despite this, you will still find people walking around without shoes. Walking around as though they were in a second life of Sunday colour supplementing.
What on earth are they thinking of? Why, for example, would you knowingly walk through a square such as Puerto Pollensa's plaza or cross a main road like that which runs parallel to the bay of Alcúdia without anything on your feet? One can understand it if drink has been taken and flip-flops have been carelessly mislaid, but to consciously undertake the walk back from the beach, minus footwear, requires that the barefooted have never been made aware of all those complaints regarding the movement of Rover's bowels. Or blindness as to the presence of a shattered Saint Mick bottle, a volume of vomit and the remnants of what the bin men managed to scatter around.
There is a simple enough answer to this bizarre practice. It lies with those photos of solitary beaches. Solitary the beaches in Mallorca may not be, huts under palms there may also not be, but the holiday mind assumes they are there. The holiday mind manages to make a leap of imagination - and faith, when it comes to walking barefoot - in perceiving the urbanised resorts of Mallorca as though they were stuck in the middle of the Pacific with development confined to no more than Robinson Crusoe's karaoke bar.
Brainless in plaza it is to bare the soles to a potentially tetanoid tread, but then brainlessness equates to holiday. It's fair enough, I suppose. For the same reason as the trainers may be discarded en route back to the hotel (" 'cos I'm on 'oliday"), so the shirt is left behind when planning a trip to the supermarket. You can't or wouldn't go to the Tesco in Watford stripped to the waist, but on holiday you can. Not that there is a Tesco, which may be part of the problem. Were there, then one suspects that great acres of exposed white flesh gone pink wouldn't be lumbering about the local supermarkets gathering bags of crisps.
What you have in the resorts is a reconciliation that has never been made. What came first, the resort or the non-resort? Regardless of the answer, the collision between working and residential urbanisation and holidaymaking has always created a tension of mutual living space. The two are basically incompatible. Not because there is disharmony, but because of the co-existence of two opposing cultures - one on holiday and one that isn't.
It is fully understandable that there is brainless in plaza. The holidaymaker makes of the urbanised resorts what he or she can. Ideally and idyllically, he or she would be on that solitary beach. But this isn't possible. The local culture may look upon holidaymakers as though they were mad, but when this local culture heads off for its holidays it does the same and has to try and reconcile its colliding with someone else's urbanisation. And it does so flip-flop-less.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)