If the Spanish Government, rather than bailing out Bankia, were to give everyone in Spain an equal share of the sum it will end up pumping into the bank, everyone would be better off to the tune of 25 million euros.
Well, actually no, they wouldn't be. Toss large numbers around with lots of noughts, and chances are that there will be a miscalculation along the way. Everyone would end up with around 250 euros, which is quite a difference.
The 25 million thing has been doing the rounds as indignation grows as to the parlous state of Bankia and most of Spain's banking sector. To indignation, one can add genuine fear. It's finally happening.
The crisis at Bankia is not one of the past few days. It has been brewing. A solution to the problems with what had been a merger of various banks (i.e. Bankia) was to have been a further merger - of Bankia with La Caixa. This had been on the table since at least March, but nothing happened because the now ex-president of Bankia, Rodrigo Rato, wouldn't countenance a merger that would have resulted in power over what would have become Spain's main bank residing in Barcelona with La Caixa. In Catalonia.
There was a further reason why nothing happened. Rajoy dithered, as Rajoy always dithers. For once though, his indecisiveness might not have been a bad thing. Why it was thought that a merger with La Caixa was sensible, who knows. While many of the problems with the Spanish banking sector have been put down to the debts held by small savings banks, another problem is that the sheer size of some banks threatens to collapse the whole banking edifice in Spain.
Bankia's toxic debt would have been added to what La Caixa has. And what might this be? Good question, but it should be recalled that, as an example, it was La Caixa which was at the vanguard of aggressive mortgage selling that led to the bursting of the property bubble in the Andalusian town of Benalup, the town in Spain with the highest level of young-person unemployment.
Rajoy has at least ordered there to be independent audits of Spanish banks. It's something, but Rajoy's credibility, crumbling as rapidly as the Spanish banking system, has been severely undermined by the fact that he has gone back on his word that there wouldn't be bailouts for banks. Other promises broken, such as that on IVA, and Rajoy is heading towards his own crisis. He should have acted sooner, before Bankia's crisis deepened and continues to deepen. The only solution was a bailout.
Amidst this crisis, Rajoy insists that he's the man for the crisis as he is a rarity among European leaders in having a strong parliamentary majority. He hasn't taken at all kindly to suggestions as to what he should be doing from Italy's prime minister who doesn't have a majority as he wasn't actually elected.
Rajoy may be right, but what has he been doing with his majority? Monti may have been parachuted in as unelected leader, but he does at least give the impression of knowing what he's doing, unlike Rajoy. And while Rajoy may have a majority, support in the country is ebbing away. He does little to try and reassure his supporters as he is so rarely visible. It may be his style to work behind the scenes, but Spain is crying out for a leader who is credible and who can carry the country through what is now at the point of being its worst moment of the whole economic crisis. Increasingly, there is little alternative for Rajoy than to have to go cap in hand to the IMF or the European Financial Stability Facility.
There is probably also little alternative to the Spanish Government having to step in and support some other major Spanish banks, but would it have the wherewithal to be able to do so?
Politically, there is a worry that Rajoy, shielding himself behind his whistling-in-the-dark majority boast and having dismissed an offer from the leader of PSOE, Alfredo Rubalcaba, to form a pact, has created a vacuum of economic and financial leadership. His own inaction, combined with confusion as to who within his cabinet is really in charge of economic affairs, unnerves everyone: the markets, Frau Merkel, anyone you care to mention.
Rato is the rat who left the sinking ship of Bankia. He's been blamed for a lot, but who was it who got him appointed at Caja Madrid before Bankia? The man with a majority, the man who dithered.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - La Gola and Pollensa beaches sorted
Two of Pollensa's most pressing tourism issues have been resolved. The information centre in the La Gola park has been re-opened with an attendant provided by the Espais de Natura Balear (environment ministry), while the town hall will look after cleaning in the park.
The management of beaches in Puerto Pollensa and Cala San Vicente will be under local residents' associations. This used to be the case in Puerto Pollensa, but wasn't last year, something which helped to contribute to the problems of beach management, and will be the case for the first time in Cala San Vicente. A contract is also being drawn up to provide lifeguards. Final submissions for this contract were not until 7 May, a week after the official season had started.
The management of beaches in Puerto Pollensa and Cala San Vicente will be under local residents' associations. This used to be the case in Puerto Pollensa, but wasn't last year, something which helped to contribute to the problems of beach management, and will be the case for the first time in Cala San Vicente. A contract is also being drawn up to provide lifeguards. Final submissions for this contract were not until 7 May, a week after the official season had started.
MALLORCA TODAY - Briton dies after Alcúdia hotel accident
A 77-year-old British tourist who fell down stairs at a hotel in Alcúdia last Thursday died on Tuesday morning as a result of the injuries he incurred.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 17 May 2012
15.5 C at 09:00. Sunny morning though. Highs into the low-20s. Tomorrow cloudy, Sunday may be rainy.
Afternoon update: Cranked up again. 24.3 C the top.
Afternoon update: Cranked up again. 24.3 C the top.
Killing The Shops: Discretionary spend
I bumped into someone in Puerto Pollensa the other day who I have known ever since he opened his first shop some years ago. Back then, and we're talking probably eight years ago, he was full of enthusiasm. Mallorcan, he spoke perfect English in an often vivid fashion and was imbued with an American mentality of the can-do.
He expanded and opened further shops. It would be totally unfair to make these shops recognisable, but suffice it to say that they weren't (still aren't) the usual fare. They are different, in other words. An Americanisation of marketing had taken over and with it had come differentiation and other expressions from the marketing lexicon. It all seemed like it was progressive, innovative, new. And for a time, it all worked.
The person I met the other day was not the same one I had first come to know those years ago. He's keeping the Puerto Pollensa shop going for the season, but at the end of the season is likely to close it.
It is of course only early into the season, too soon perhaps to make a judgement, but he was saying that the evenings, in terms of passing trade, were like those he had once known in March. He asked me what I thought. I shook my head, not because I was unable to supply an explanation but because I have all but given up bothering to offer one.
A strengthening pound, and Puerto Pollensa is very British, and you would think there would be more action. There again, word coming from some sources suggest that all the forecasts as to volume of British tourism that were emanating from the trade fairs during the winter are proving to have been wide of the mark. There is also a good deal of concern being voiced by local tourism sources as to the "chauvinistic" campaign by David Cameron to impress upon the Brits the value of the staycation.
There are always reasons one can latch onto. One that doesn't obtain in Puerto Pollensa to anything like the extent that it does in other resorts is that of the all-inclusive. It has grown in the resort but remains only a small contributor to the overall market.
The main reason, and despite a strengthening pound, is that shops have born the brunt of the economic downturn, more so than bars and restaurants. The only shops which have remained on an even keel or even flourished have been the chemists, the tobacconists and the supermarkets, the latter thanks to a growth in eat-in by tourists.
Tourism spend has always been discretionary. During the boom times, this spend found its way into shop tills for products that were rarely or if at all essential. It is the rise in consumer discretion that has been as significant a factor as all-inclusives and downturn in determining the impact on resorts' shops, and this rise pre-dates economic crisis.
This rise in spending discretion also draws into question the viability of revised opening hours, such as in Palma, and especially where larger stores are concerned. The tourism market, when it does spend in shops, tends to look for the more unusual or the local. Larger stores tend to deal in the familiar and in the domestic market; the benefits they are likely to make from tourism, when set against higher operational costs, are debatable.
But even the spend on the unusual or the different has been affected. The shops of the chap I bumped into in the street trade in the different. As such, they conform with a call for the wider tourism trade to innovate, yet they have not proven to be sustainable. And it is discretionary spend, more than anything, which is killing them.
The starkest change to this shopowner is in the way his enthusiasm has ebbed away. He admitted that he has lost his motivation, that he has become sick of it all. Not because he has lost enthusiasm or motivation for what he sells, but because of the way in which the market has changed over the past few years and which has sapped him of the motivation. He is not alone, and to the economic factors you can add, in Puerto Pollensa, the arrival of an evening market. It might benefit other businesses, but it does nothing for the shops. They have been strangled by economic factors, and there is little life left and likely to be little life in the future.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
He expanded and opened further shops. It would be totally unfair to make these shops recognisable, but suffice it to say that they weren't (still aren't) the usual fare. They are different, in other words. An Americanisation of marketing had taken over and with it had come differentiation and other expressions from the marketing lexicon. It all seemed like it was progressive, innovative, new. And for a time, it all worked.
The person I met the other day was not the same one I had first come to know those years ago. He's keeping the Puerto Pollensa shop going for the season, but at the end of the season is likely to close it.
It is of course only early into the season, too soon perhaps to make a judgement, but he was saying that the evenings, in terms of passing trade, were like those he had once known in March. He asked me what I thought. I shook my head, not because I was unable to supply an explanation but because I have all but given up bothering to offer one.
A strengthening pound, and Puerto Pollensa is very British, and you would think there would be more action. There again, word coming from some sources suggest that all the forecasts as to volume of British tourism that were emanating from the trade fairs during the winter are proving to have been wide of the mark. There is also a good deal of concern being voiced by local tourism sources as to the "chauvinistic" campaign by David Cameron to impress upon the Brits the value of the staycation.
There are always reasons one can latch onto. One that doesn't obtain in Puerto Pollensa to anything like the extent that it does in other resorts is that of the all-inclusive. It has grown in the resort but remains only a small contributor to the overall market.
The main reason, and despite a strengthening pound, is that shops have born the brunt of the economic downturn, more so than bars and restaurants. The only shops which have remained on an even keel or even flourished have been the chemists, the tobacconists and the supermarkets, the latter thanks to a growth in eat-in by tourists.
Tourism spend has always been discretionary. During the boom times, this spend found its way into shop tills for products that were rarely or if at all essential. It is the rise in consumer discretion that has been as significant a factor as all-inclusives and downturn in determining the impact on resorts' shops, and this rise pre-dates economic crisis.
This rise in spending discretion also draws into question the viability of revised opening hours, such as in Palma, and especially where larger stores are concerned. The tourism market, when it does spend in shops, tends to look for the more unusual or the local. Larger stores tend to deal in the familiar and in the domestic market; the benefits they are likely to make from tourism, when set against higher operational costs, are debatable.
But even the spend on the unusual or the different has been affected. The shops of the chap I bumped into in the street trade in the different. As such, they conform with a call for the wider tourism trade to innovate, yet they have not proven to be sustainable. And it is discretionary spend, more than anything, which is killing them.
The starkest change to this shopowner is in the way his enthusiasm has ebbed away. He admitted that he has lost his motivation, that he has become sick of it all. Not because he has lost enthusiasm or motivation for what he sells, but because of the way in which the market has changed over the past few years and which has sapped him of the motivation. He is not alone, and to the economic factors you can add, in Puerto Pollensa, the arrival of an evening market. It might benefit other businesses, but it does nothing for the shops. They have been strangled by economic factors, and there is little life left and likely to be little life in the future.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 16 May 2012
Cloudy but no rain planned. A top of 16.7 C at 08:45.
Afternoon update: The morning cloud lingered well into the afternoon. One the sun appeared, the temperature didn't rise appreciably, a high of only 17 degrees today. Warmer tomorrow, or so it is forecast, but cloud at times and heavier on Friday, while projections into Sunday suggest the odd shower.
Afternoon update: The morning cloud lingered well into the afternoon. One the sun appeared, the temperature didn't rise appreciably, a high of only 17 degrees today. Warmer tomorrow, or so it is forecast, but cloud at times and heavier on Friday, while projections into Sunday suggest the odd shower.
The Disgrace Of Son Real
It may not have escaped your attention that I have written quite frequently about the Son Real finca in Santa Margalida. I suspect that most of you will never have been to the finca and that most of you would not normally have the slightest interest in it. Which does of course tell its own story. But interested in the finca or not, its management, or absence of management, and its recent history are the story of government organisation in a Mallorcan style. Profligate, confused, unfocussed, negligent, political. If you want a metaphor for Mallorcan government, you will find it at Son Real, not that you would find it as you wouldn't be bothered to go there.
Son Real, in terms of its volume of ancient remains, is the most important archaeological site on Mallorca. Period. Yet this most important of sites has been treated in a manner, since its acquisition by the Balearic Government in 2002, which amounts to a total and utter disgrace.
The finca was bought out of funds raised by the old eco-tax. Which is interesting in itself, as much of what should have been handed over from the tax wasn't and still hasn't been handed over because hotels which collected it have refused to. Let's give the government of the time (Francesc Antich's first PSOE-led coalition) the benefit of the doubt and accept that the eco-tax was the source of the funds. The finca cost 17.4 million euros.
It then cost a further three million euros for various works to be performed on the finca, including the old buildings that are there and the visitors' centre, a visitors' centre which has been closed for some months.
The cost, while high, can be justified because of the finca's heritage, assuming of course that its value and the value of the work performed were themselves justified. What cannot be justified is the fact that, since the acquisition, precious little has been done in making Son Real a genuine site to attract visitors. Self-financing via entrance fees, even over a period of several years, has simply not happened. The finca's visitor numbers are low, and its promotion, especially to tourists, is lamentable.
Much of the blame for the recent history can be attached to the decision to create the Fundació Balears Sostenible (sustainable Balearics foundation) in 2003. This foundation was designed to administer the eco-tax and, as a consequence, it ended up with overseeing different sites on Mallorca, of which Son Real was one. It was where the foundation was located that has come to be seen as having been the issue: within the tourism ministry.
It is arguable whether the tourism ministry was the correct one to have ultimate responsibility. But perhaps accepting that it wasn't the right one, the current government is to transfer management to the Espais de Natura Balear, which is an organisation within the environment ministry. Whether tourism or environment ministry just highlights the lack of focus in respect of the finca's management. Is it a tourist attraction or is it a place of environmental protection? The new management will hopefully improve the running of the finca, but whether it makes the slightest bit of difference to the number of visitors it attracts must be open to question.
More than just its place on the government's organisational chart, the foundation, created by the Jaume Matas administration, became embroiled in the corruption scandals at the tourism ministry that erupted three years ago. Unlike other agencies within the ministry that were also caught up in these scandals, it wasn't disbanded, but its future has been uncertain. And with this uncertainty has come a lack of direction and, more recently, a highly political direction that made the finca the focus of all manner of discontent.
The decision by the current government to appoint Jorge Campos as the director of the foundation and therefore the boss of the finca seemed somewhat strange. Though Campos had a background in environmental matters, he was far better known as having founded the right-wing, anti-Catalan Circulo Balear. Once in office, he made some provocative moves, such as insisting that the Spanish flag be flown at the entrance to the finca. Son Real became a political battleground between left and right, while Santa Margalida town hall got highly brassed off by what it saw as negligent administration.
Campos has now resigned his post. It was going to disappear anyway, along with the foundation, but his resignation owes nothing to issues related to the running of Son Real; it stems from his dissatisfaction with the Bauzá administration in not being more aggressive in pushing an anti-Catalan line. The question must be asked. Why was he ever appointed?
The environment ministry now assuming control, one would hope that a new and better era beckons for Son Real. It deserves far better. Whether it gets it, we'll find out.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Son Real, in terms of its volume of ancient remains, is the most important archaeological site on Mallorca. Period. Yet this most important of sites has been treated in a manner, since its acquisition by the Balearic Government in 2002, which amounts to a total and utter disgrace.
The finca was bought out of funds raised by the old eco-tax. Which is interesting in itself, as much of what should have been handed over from the tax wasn't and still hasn't been handed over because hotels which collected it have refused to. Let's give the government of the time (Francesc Antich's first PSOE-led coalition) the benefit of the doubt and accept that the eco-tax was the source of the funds. The finca cost 17.4 million euros.
It then cost a further three million euros for various works to be performed on the finca, including the old buildings that are there and the visitors' centre, a visitors' centre which has been closed for some months.
The cost, while high, can be justified because of the finca's heritage, assuming of course that its value and the value of the work performed were themselves justified. What cannot be justified is the fact that, since the acquisition, precious little has been done in making Son Real a genuine site to attract visitors. Self-financing via entrance fees, even over a period of several years, has simply not happened. The finca's visitor numbers are low, and its promotion, especially to tourists, is lamentable.
Much of the blame for the recent history can be attached to the decision to create the Fundació Balears Sostenible (sustainable Balearics foundation) in 2003. This foundation was designed to administer the eco-tax and, as a consequence, it ended up with overseeing different sites on Mallorca, of which Son Real was one. It was where the foundation was located that has come to be seen as having been the issue: within the tourism ministry.
It is arguable whether the tourism ministry was the correct one to have ultimate responsibility. But perhaps accepting that it wasn't the right one, the current government is to transfer management to the Espais de Natura Balear, which is an organisation within the environment ministry. Whether tourism or environment ministry just highlights the lack of focus in respect of the finca's management. Is it a tourist attraction or is it a place of environmental protection? The new management will hopefully improve the running of the finca, but whether it makes the slightest bit of difference to the number of visitors it attracts must be open to question.
More than just its place on the government's organisational chart, the foundation, created by the Jaume Matas administration, became embroiled in the corruption scandals at the tourism ministry that erupted three years ago. Unlike other agencies within the ministry that were also caught up in these scandals, it wasn't disbanded, but its future has been uncertain. And with this uncertainty has come a lack of direction and, more recently, a highly political direction that made the finca the focus of all manner of discontent.
The decision by the current government to appoint Jorge Campos as the director of the foundation and therefore the boss of the finca seemed somewhat strange. Though Campos had a background in environmental matters, he was far better known as having founded the right-wing, anti-Catalan Circulo Balear. Once in office, he made some provocative moves, such as insisting that the Spanish flag be flown at the entrance to the finca. Son Real became a political battleground between left and right, while Santa Margalida town hall got highly brassed off by what it saw as negligent administration.
Campos has now resigned his post. It was going to disappear anyway, along with the foundation, but his resignation owes nothing to issues related to the running of Son Real; it stems from his dissatisfaction with the Bauzá administration in not being more aggressive in pushing an anti-Catalan line. The question must be asked. Why was he ever appointed?
The environment ministry now assuming control, one would hope that a new and better era beckons for Son Real. It deserves far better. Whether it gets it, we'll find out.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Son Real under new management
The management of the Son Real finca in Santa Margalida is now passing, as had been previously signalled, from the Balearics Sustainable Foundation (within the tourism ministry) to the Espais de Natura Balear, which is within the environment ministry. It is being hoped that this will actually mean that the finca is managed, which it hasn't been.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 15 May 2012
What's going on with the forecast? Another brief storm and some rain last night. Not that you would know it this morning. 17.7 C the best at 08:30 and clear, sunny skies.
Afternoon update: A mild day with a high of 21 degrees; more the norm for this time in May than the high temperatures of the weekend.
Afternoon update: A mild day with a high of 21 degrees; more the norm for this time in May than the high temperatures of the weekend.
Publicity Seekers: Leafleting in Sa Pobla
You may have noticed that there are certain things that you have to do according to what date it is or what period of a month it is. One such thing is where you can park on some streets. During the first half of the month, it is one side, during the second half, the other. Why is this? If someone can offer a sensible explanation, I'd love to know. I guess I know the answer - street cleaning - but when does this happen?
There is to be something else that is to be determined by day and time of the month and even by the hours of days. This something else is to be introduced in Sa Pobla and it concerns the distribution of publicity material. The town hall is introducing a local by-law which stipulates that such material can only be distributed between the hours of eight in the morning and two in the afternoon on the first and third Tuesdays of each month. Seriously, I'm not making this up.
The publicity material concerned is, or at least I think it is, the type that gets deposited in letter-boxes, or not as the case may be. It could, therefore, be the I'm Pedro, I'll paint your house for 200 euros type of thing or the I'm Juan, I'll perform house reforms (sic) and then not charge you when the place collapses because I forgot to put an RSJ up.
What actually is the problem? According to Sa Pobla town hall, there have been many complaints because of the lack of control regarding the distribution of such material. It is perhaps understandable. Wander past an apartment-block entrance and the letter-boxes will be stuffed with literature and the entrance itself is likely to be littered with it. Most of it isn't of the type by which local builders, gardeners, painters or whatever are trying to get some work; most of it is for shops, electrical ones or supermarkets in particular.
But as I neither live in Sa Pobla nor in an apartment block, I can't personally say I have any complaint about the distribution of publicity material. Indeed, so little is there, that what there is does tend to grab my attention. And it seems harsh if local people trying to drum up business (of the Pedro and Juan type) should be penalised because of severe limitations as to when they can distribute publicity, as will be the case in Sa Pobla. And of course penalties there will be. Up to six grand for the worst offenders.
Sa Pobla isn't confining its clampdown on publicity to what gets delivered door to door. It is also going to prohibit that which uses the likes of lamp posts and also prohibit display units on the "public way". Is there really an overabundance of all this in Sa Pobla? What harm is there if a display stand is stuck on the edge of a pavement? You just ignore what's in it or not. Don't you? Of course, there is a further reason why the town hall would object to this type of display. Public way means belonging to the town hall, which in turn means you should pay the town hall for the privilege of using its space; it was this argument that Alcúdia town hall once used to stop people parking cars with damn great for-sale signs in the windows.
Sa Pobla town hall is justifying its move in part on environmental grounds and on account of the cost of collecting the rubbish that all the bits of publicity create. It may have a point, but one reason why there is so much rubbish from promotional literature is because so many houses don't have letterboxes. Perhaps the town hall might consider insisting that they do.
While I am not in the slightest bit concerned about publicity distribution, there is one example that I have long wondered about. It's probably not an issue in Sa Pobla, but have you ever seen those leaflets for excursions that are often just left on low walls under stones. Some Scandinavian thing. How does this work exactly? As in, how is it possible to just place the leaflets all over the place and then let them fly all over the place when the stone gets dislodged and the wind gets up? Like the monthly parking restrictions, if anyone can explain to me how this is permitted, I would dearly like to know.
To come back to Sa Pobla, my guess is that the town hall is sensing the opportunity of an earner. Its burka ban having been a failure in that it hasn't been able to issue a single fine, it's been on the lookout for other sources of income. First it was the introduction of the plainclothes police doggy-doo patrols and now the publicity seekers. And the town hall will need some seekers. Won't it? I mean, how does anyone know if a leaflet gets placed in a letterbox at one minute past two on the first or third Tuesday of each month?
More than this, how many businesses will be aware that they should only be delivering between eight and two on these days each month. Sa Pobla town hall will hope that it won't be many. A six grand fine, anyone?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
There is to be something else that is to be determined by day and time of the month and even by the hours of days. This something else is to be introduced in Sa Pobla and it concerns the distribution of publicity material. The town hall is introducing a local by-law which stipulates that such material can only be distributed between the hours of eight in the morning and two in the afternoon on the first and third Tuesdays of each month. Seriously, I'm not making this up.
The publicity material concerned is, or at least I think it is, the type that gets deposited in letter-boxes, or not as the case may be. It could, therefore, be the I'm Pedro, I'll paint your house for 200 euros type of thing or the I'm Juan, I'll perform house reforms (sic) and then not charge you when the place collapses because I forgot to put an RSJ up.
What actually is the problem? According to Sa Pobla town hall, there have been many complaints because of the lack of control regarding the distribution of such material. It is perhaps understandable. Wander past an apartment-block entrance and the letter-boxes will be stuffed with literature and the entrance itself is likely to be littered with it. Most of it isn't of the type by which local builders, gardeners, painters or whatever are trying to get some work; most of it is for shops, electrical ones or supermarkets in particular.
But as I neither live in Sa Pobla nor in an apartment block, I can't personally say I have any complaint about the distribution of publicity material. Indeed, so little is there, that what there is does tend to grab my attention. And it seems harsh if local people trying to drum up business (of the Pedro and Juan type) should be penalised because of severe limitations as to when they can distribute publicity, as will be the case in Sa Pobla. And of course penalties there will be. Up to six grand for the worst offenders.
Sa Pobla isn't confining its clampdown on publicity to what gets delivered door to door. It is also going to prohibit that which uses the likes of lamp posts and also prohibit display units on the "public way". Is there really an overabundance of all this in Sa Pobla? What harm is there if a display stand is stuck on the edge of a pavement? You just ignore what's in it or not. Don't you? Of course, there is a further reason why the town hall would object to this type of display. Public way means belonging to the town hall, which in turn means you should pay the town hall for the privilege of using its space; it was this argument that Alcúdia town hall once used to stop people parking cars with damn great for-sale signs in the windows.
Sa Pobla town hall is justifying its move in part on environmental grounds and on account of the cost of collecting the rubbish that all the bits of publicity create. It may have a point, but one reason why there is so much rubbish from promotional literature is because so many houses don't have letterboxes. Perhaps the town hall might consider insisting that they do.
While I am not in the slightest bit concerned about publicity distribution, there is one example that I have long wondered about. It's probably not an issue in Sa Pobla, but have you ever seen those leaflets for excursions that are often just left on low walls under stones. Some Scandinavian thing. How does this work exactly? As in, how is it possible to just place the leaflets all over the place and then let them fly all over the place when the stone gets dislodged and the wind gets up? Like the monthly parking restrictions, if anyone can explain to me how this is permitted, I would dearly like to know.
To come back to Sa Pobla, my guess is that the town hall is sensing the opportunity of an earner. Its burka ban having been a failure in that it hasn't been able to issue a single fine, it's been on the lookout for other sources of income. First it was the introduction of the plainclothes police doggy-doo patrols and now the publicity seekers. And the town hall will need some seekers. Won't it? I mean, how does anyone know if a leaflet gets placed in a letterbox at one minute past two on the first or third Tuesday of each month?
More than this, how many businesses will be aware that they should only be delivering between eight and two on these days each month. Sa Pobla town hall will hope that it won't be many. A six grand fine, anyone?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, May 14, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 May 2012
Last night things changed for the worse and there was a brief storm and some heavy rain. Where had that come from? Certainly hadn't been forecast. Anyway, back to normality this morning. Bright and warm, 19.1 C the top at 09:15.
Afternoon update: A much cooler day, with a high of only 20.1 C.
Afternoon update: A much cooler day, with a high of only 20.1 C.
Property For Free: Taxing the church
Who is the largest landowner in Spain? The answer is not a who but a what. It is the Catholic church.
Knowing exactly how much property holding the church has and how much it is worth is not only difficult, it is virtually impossible. An estimate that has been placed on the value to the Spanish church is, in total, 158 billion US dollars, of which 16 billion are "visible", the rest being in networks of trusts and companies.
This estimate comes from a source which is a vehement critic of the church, both in Spain and elsewhere, so it has to be treated with a good deal of caution (and indeed scepticism). Whatever the real value (and another estimate puts it at around seven billion euros, so quite a difference), there is no doubting that in property terms (and others) the church is extremely wealthy. And under an agreement drawn up in 1979, it doesn't pay property tax.
Just think about this for a moment. Apart from the fact that the largest landowner is exempt from tax, whereas private individuals and businesses are all meant to pay it, if the church were to pay the tax, a not insignificant hole in the nation's finances might well be filled. How big the hole might be, who can tell? But big enough, you would imagine.
It is easy perhaps to look at a figure such as the one above and be either amazed or outraged by the scale of the holdings and by the exemption, but one has to take into account what some of the church's property is: magnificent churches and their works of art, part of the national heritage and which require an awful lot of looking after.
On these grounds, the exemption is partially justifiable, but whether complete exemption is justified, is a different matter, especially at a time of such economic hardship. And there are plenty of local authorities which are wondering just this and which are trying to figure out ways of getting a piece of the church's property action.
Two cities, Valladolid and León, are examining what they might be able to tax, while another, Zamora, is going to charge church-owned buildings for rubbish collection. These cities are following a lead set by the government in Italy where the church is also exempt from property tax. The Monti administration has announced that tax will be paid on any property that doesn't have a totally religious function; the estimated tax bill is 720 million euros on holdings of some nine billion euros.
There may be a benefit in having a politically non-aligned technocrat as prime minister. Monti is not beholden to anyone or any organisation. The same, however, cannot be said for the Spanish prime minister.
The Partido Popular came to power with the implicit (almost explicit) support of the church. For its government to now turn round and slap a property tax bill on the church is pretty much unthinkable, and were it to be even thinking of doing so, the church has been digging its heels in and rejecting any such notion.
One local authority which isn't contemplating seeking a means of taxing the church is that of Madrid. Its mayor, Ana Botella, has dismissed the idea. There again, Madrid is home to the most powerful of Spain's cardinals, while it might be remembered who Sra. Botella is: the wife of former prime minister José María Aznar, a former Partido Popular prime minister.
The church does play and is playing a significant role in providing assistance to those worst affected by economic crisis. The demands made on the Caritas charity have grown greatly, and the church's charitable work should not be underestimated in a country where there isn't the level of social benefit elsewhere. This is a further reason perhaps for looking charitably on the church and how it is taxed, or not.
But with austerity, to which one might add a tendency to greater transparency (as with the King declaring his income), the church would score enormous numbers of PR brownie points if it were to suggest that it would contribute some property tax. It's not as though it is in penury, unlike many of its flock. Not when it can count on 250 million euros a year raised from contributions through the income tax system.
It's unlikely, though, to volunteer to start paying property tax, just as it is unlikely that prime minister Rajoy will come with a tax demand. Perhaps Spain really does need the full Monti.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Knowing exactly how much property holding the church has and how much it is worth is not only difficult, it is virtually impossible. An estimate that has been placed on the value to the Spanish church is, in total, 158 billion US dollars, of which 16 billion are "visible", the rest being in networks of trusts and companies.
This estimate comes from a source which is a vehement critic of the church, both in Spain and elsewhere, so it has to be treated with a good deal of caution (and indeed scepticism). Whatever the real value (and another estimate puts it at around seven billion euros, so quite a difference), there is no doubting that in property terms (and others) the church is extremely wealthy. And under an agreement drawn up in 1979, it doesn't pay property tax.
Just think about this for a moment. Apart from the fact that the largest landowner is exempt from tax, whereas private individuals and businesses are all meant to pay it, if the church were to pay the tax, a not insignificant hole in the nation's finances might well be filled. How big the hole might be, who can tell? But big enough, you would imagine.
It is easy perhaps to look at a figure such as the one above and be either amazed or outraged by the scale of the holdings and by the exemption, but one has to take into account what some of the church's property is: magnificent churches and their works of art, part of the national heritage and which require an awful lot of looking after.
On these grounds, the exemption is partially justifiable, but whether complete exemption is justified, is a different matter, especially at a time of such economic hardship. And there are plenty of local authorities which are wondering just this and which are trying to figure out ways of getting a piece of the church's property action.
Two cities, Valladolid and León, are examining what they might be able to tax, while another, Zamora, is going to charge church-owned buildings for rubbish collection. These cities are following a lead set by the government in Italy where the church is also exempt from property tax. The Monti administration has announced that tax will be paid on any property that doesn't have a totally religious function; the estimated tax bill is 720 million euros on holdings of some nine billion euros.
There may be a benefit in having a politically non-aligned technocrat as prime minister. Monti is not beholden to anyone or any organisation. The same, however, cannot be said for the Spanish prime minister.
The Partido Popular came to power with the implicit (almost explicit) support of the church. For its government to now turn round and slap a property tax bill on the church is pretty much unthinkable, and were it to be even thinking of doing so, the church has been digging its heels in and rejecting any such notion.
One local authority which isn't contemplating seeking a means of taxing the church is that of Madrid. Its mayor, Ana Botella, has dismissed the idea. There again, Madrid is home to the most powerful of Spain's cardinals, while it might be remembered who Sra. Botella is: the wife of former prime minister José María Aznar, a former Partido Popular prime minister.
The church does play and is playing a significant role in providing assistance to those worst affected by economic crisis. The demands made on the Caritas charity have grown greatly, and the church's charitable work should not be underestimated in a country where there isn't the level of social benefit elsewhere. This is a further reason perhaps for looking charitably on the church and how it is taxed, or not.
But with austerity, to which one might add a tendency to greater transparency (as with the King declaring his income), the church would score enormous numbers of PR brownie points if it were to suggest that it would contribute some property tax. It's not as though it is in penury, unlike many of its flock. Not when it can count on 250 million euros a year raised from contributions through the income tax system.
It's unlikely, though, to volunteer to start paying property tax, just as it is unlikely that prime minister Rajoy will come with a tax demand. Perhaps Spain really does need the full Monti.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Real Madrid 4 : 1 Real Mallorca
A European place up for grabs. Last day of the season. Where better or easier for Mallorca than a trip to champions to Real Madrid.
The story of the match could probably have been pre-written. Madrid all over Mallorca who had opted for a set-up to try and frustrate; it was never going to work, and it didn't. Özil's first strike just after the half-time break pretty much settled things after Ronaldo and Benzema had given Madrid a two-goal lead after 45 minutes. Castro got one back, only for Özil to do with his right foot after 57 minutes what he had done with his left nine minutes earlier.
It was always going to be a long shot for Mallorca, the European place. Away at Madrid on the final day of the season was the worst possible game, and so it proved. Mallorca finish eighth, Levante taking the sixth slot after a 3-0 beating of Bilbao. Elsewhere, Villarreal are relegated, following a home defeat to Atletico Madrid, a result that will give Mallorca some consolation, as they remember all the bad blood with Villarreal over a European place from two seasons ago.
But a brave effort by Mallorca. Really brave. Relegation beckoned not so long ago, but the team put itself in with an unexpected chance of European representation. But brave also because the team achieves things in spite of all the ridiculous shenanigans off the field. If these were put right, who knows, maybe the team could be a real contender. Congratulations, Mallorca and coach Caparrós, a valiant effort; eighth is actually an achievement.
Madrid:
Casillas; Arbeloa (Albiol 43), Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo (Coentrao 76); Khedira, Alonso; Benzema, Özil, Ronaldo; Higuain (Di María 66)
Goals: Ronaldo (19), Benzema (22), Özil (48, 57)
Mallorca:
Aouate (Calatayud 82); Cendrós, Chico, Ramis, Cáceres; Pina, Martí; Pereira (Alfaro 45), Castro, Bigas (Tissone 53); Victor
Goal: Castro (51)
Yellow: Castro (62)
The story of the match could probably have been pre-written. Madrid all over Mallorca who had opted for a set-up to try and frustrate; it was never going to work, and it didn't. Özil's first strike just after the half-time break pretty much settled things after Ronaldo and Benzema had given Madrid a two-goal lead after 45 minutes. Castro got one back, only for Özil to do with his right foot after 57 minutes what he had done with his left nine minutes earlier.
It was always going to be a long shot for Mallorca, the European place. Away at Madrid on the final day of the season was the worst possible game, and so it proved. Mallorca finish eighth, Levante taking the sixth slot after a 3-0 beating of Bilbao. Elsewhere, Villarreal are relegated, following a home defeat to Atletico Madrid, a result that will give Mallorca some consolation, as they remember all the bad blood with Villarreal over a European place from two seasons ago.
But a brave effort by Mallorca. Really brave. Relegation beckoned not so long ago, but the team put itself in with an unexpected chance of European representation. But brave also because the team achieves things in spite of all the ridiculous shenanigans off the field. If these were put right, who knows, maybe the team could be a real contender. Congratulations, Mallorca and coach Caparrós, a valiant effort; eighth is actually an achievement.
Madrid:
Casillas; Arbeloa (Albiol 43), Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo (Coentrao 76); Khedira, Alonso; Benzema, Özil, Ronaldo; Higuain (Di María 66)
Goals: Ronaldo (19), Benzema (22), Özil (48, 57)
Mallorca:
Aouate (Calatayud 82); Cendrós, Chico, Ramis, Cáceres; Pina, Martí; Pereira (Alfaro 45), Castro, Bigas (Tissone 53); Victor
Goal: Castro (51)
Yellow: Castro (62)
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 May 2012
20.2 C at 08:30 on a rather hazier morning, but plenty of sun again and some warm temperatures heading to the high-20s.
Afternoon update: A high of 27.8 C; another warm one, then.
Afternoon update: A high of 27.8 C; another warm one, then.
Regional Differences: Mallorca's political centre
What's the difference between regionalism and nationalism?
I pose the question in the context of Mallorcan/Balearics politics. Nationalism has an unfortunate connotation, one of the extreme right, but this is not what we are talking about in Mallorca. In essence, nationalism and regionalism are one of the same thing. Both ideologies espouse regional government and autonomy (as is currently the case in the Balearics). The principle difference between the two is that nationalism implies a wish for greater independence. Regionalism, on the other hand, is federalism by another name.
Mostly all political parties in the Balearics have a regionalist philosophy, and they include a significant number of Partido Popular supporters and politicians. Of the nationalists, there are two parties, the PSM Mallorcan socialists and the Convergència, the former and disgraced Unió Mallorquina. There is a further nationalism, which is that founded on the notion of the independence of the Catalan lands, one commonly associated with the Republican Left (Esquerra Republicana) and one that has very little popular support.
The Convergència was given a good old kicking at the regional elections last year. Despite its name change, it didn't fool anyone. It was still the corrupt UM. But it has attempted to distance itself from all the former UM politicians who are still being dragged through the courts and to try and re-establish itself as the third force in Mallorcan politics.
In seeking to do so, it has edged towards what may be a formal merger with La Lliga Regionalista. This party is headed by Jaume Font, a former PP politician who fell out with the current leadership over various issues, one of them being attitudes towards regionalism. It fared almost as badly as the Convergència at the last election, but as it was a new party, it was asking a lot for it to have performed any better.
Despite the difference in emphasis between the two parties, there is much common ground. The old UM, and thus the new Convergència, was barely distinguishable from the Partido Popular in many respects, except for the key issue of nationalism. It was, and therefore now is, a centre-right party in terms of many of its policies, and the same applies to Font and La Lliga. Where it did also distinguish itself from the PP was in the fact that it didn't have a nutty wing. The PP in the Balearics generally doesn't have a lunatic right, but nationally it does.
But it is what is perceived as a decidedly rightist agenda on behalf of President Bauzá and one of the local PP's main ideologues, tourism minister Delgado, in their being cool towards regionalism that gives a party of the centre-right with an identifiable regionalist identity the possibility of becoming something of a power. Bauzá's anti-regionalism is his Achilles heel (one of them), as regionalism enjoys popular support.
Could, however, a combined Convergència-La Lliga really hope to make significant inroads into the dominance of the two-party system of the PP and the Balearics version of PSOE? The old UM managed to up to a point, but whether the electorate can ever forgive them, even under a new name, has to be questionable. Much as the leaders of the two parties, Font and the Convergència's Josep Melià, may suggest that they are able to reconcile their ideological difference, a merger would seem like a marriage of convenience between two parties which, by themselves, would in all likelihood remain marginal players. Tensions over that difference might well emerge, just as they have emerged within the PP.
For the type of party Font and Melià envisage to succeed, much would depend upon what happens with the PP in the Balearics. Historically, the local PP has been supportive of regionalism, and the chances are that it might become so again. Were it to, then much of the point of La Lliga in particular would be undermined.
There is a political figure who may well hold the key, and this is Antoni Pastor. Formerly an ally of Font's within the PP, he opted to stick with the PP rather than sign up to La Lliga, and despite his differences with Bauzá, one fancies he will continue to stick with the party. One feels sure he has his eye on the leadership, regardless of his decision not to challenge Bauzá at next month's congress.
Regionalism, as much if not more than the Catalan question, is likely to be a huge factor at the next election (assuming the national PP hasn't scrapped it by then). It is supported by a majority of the population, whereas nationalism isn't, which makes it hard for a united La Lliga-Convergència to present a coherent message, one that would be made even more difficult were Pastor to head a pro-regionalist PP and to drag the party back from its movement off to the right.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I pose the question in the context of Mallorcan/Balearics politics. Nationalism has an unfortunate connotation, one of the extreme right, but this is not what we are talking about in Mallorca. In essence, nationalism and regionalism are one of the same thing. Both ideologies espouse regional government and autonomy (as is currently the case in the Balearics). The principle difference between the two is that nationalism implies a wish for greater independence. Regionalism, on the other hand, is federalism by another name.
Mostly all political parties in the Balearics have a regionalist philosophy, and they include a significant number of Partido Popular supporters and politicians. Of the nationalists, there are two parties, the PSM Mallorcan socialists and the Convergència, the former and disgraced Unió Mallorquina. There is a further nationalism, which is that founded on the notion of the independence of the Catalan lands, one commonly associated with the Republican Left (Esquerra Republicana) and one that has very little popular support.
The Convergència was given a good old kicking at the regional elections last year. Despite its name change, it didn't fool anyone. It was still the corrupt UM. But it has attempted to distance itself from all the former UM politicians who are still being dragged through the courts and to try and re-establish itself as the third force in Mallorcan politics.
In seeking to do so, it has edged towards what may be a formal merger with La Lliga Regionalista. This party is headed by Jaume Font, a former PP politician who fell out with the current leadership over various issues, one of them being attitudes towards regionalism. It fared almost as badly as the Convergència at the last election, but as it was a new party, it was asking a lot for it to have performed any better.
Despite the difference in emphasis between the two parties, there is much common ground. The old UM, and thus the new Convergència, was barely distinguishable from the Partido Popular in many respects, except for the key issue of nationalism. It was, and therefore now is, a centre-right party in terms of many of its policies, and the same applies to Font and La Lliga. Where it did also distinguish itself from the PP was in the fact that it didn't have a nutty wing. The PP in the Balearics generally doesn't have a lunatic right, but nationally it does.
But it is what is perceived as a decidedly rightist agenda on behalf of President Bauzá and one of the local PP's main ideologues, tourism minister Delgado, in their being cool towards regionalism that gives a party of the centre-right with an identifiable regionalist identity the possibility of becoming something of a power. Bauzá's anti-regionalism is his Achilles heel (one of them), as regionalism enjoys popular support.
Could, however, a combined Convergència-La Lliga really hope to make significant inroads into the dominance of the two-party system of the PP and the Balearics version of PSOE? The old UM managed to up to a point, but whether the electorate can ever forgive them, even under a new name, has to be questionable. Much as the leaders of the two parties, Font and the Convergència's Josep Melià, may suggest that they are able to reconcile their ideological difference, a merger would seem like a marriage of convenience between two parties which, by themselves, would in all likelihood remain marginal players. Tensions over that difference might well emerge, just as they have emerged within the PP.
For the type of party Font and Melià envisage to succeed, much would depend upon what happens with the PP in the Balearics. Historically, the local PP has been supportive of regionalism, and the chances are that it might become so again. Were it to, then much of the point of La Lliga in particular would be undermined.
There is a political figure who may well hold the key, and this is Antoni Pastor. Formerly an ally of Font's within the PP, he opted to stick with the PP rather than sign up to La Lliga, and despite his differences with Bauzá, one fancies he will continue to stick with the party. One feels sure he has his eye on the leadership, regardless of his decision not to challenge Bauzá at next month's congress.
Regionalism, as much if not more than the Catalan question, is likely to be a huge factor at the next election (assuming the national PP hasn't scrapped it by then). It is supported by a majority of the population, whereas nationalism isn't, which makes it hard for a united La Lliga-Convergència to present a coherent message, one that would be made even more difficult were Pastor to head a pro-regionalist PP and to drag the party back from its movement off to the right.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Puerto Pollensa's paid parking starts in June
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, May 05, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Real Mallorca 1 : 0 Levante
After all the worries of possible relegation, Mallorca went in to this evening's game in seventh place on 49 points, two places and three points behind opponents Levante. The possibility of a Europa League spot had opened up, but with the final match of the season next week away at champions Real Madrid, Mallorca had to win in order to give themselves a realistic shot at European football.
Levante had two chances early on, Mallorca gained the ascendant in the first half and the domination continued into the second period and was confirmed by Pina putting the home side ahead on 54 minutes. Not exactly an open and flowing game, but Mallorca were rarely troubled. And so they took three points, going above Levante and finding themselves in sixth place.
Mallorca:
Aouate; Nsue (Cendrós 80), Crespí, Chico, Cáceres; Pina, Martí; Pereira, Alfaro (Hemed 45), Castro; Victor (Marí 87)
Goal: Pina (54)
Yellow: Pereira (90)
Levante:
Munúa; Venta, Ballesteros, Navarro, López (Suárez 72); Torres, Iborra (Juanlu 77); Valdo, Barkero, Botelho; Ghezzal
Yellows: Iborra (60), Munúa (83), Botelho (90)
Levante had two chances early on, Mallorca gained the ascendant in the first half and the domination continued into the second period and was confirmed by Pina putting the home side ahead on 54 minutes. Not exactly an open and flowing game, but Mallorca were rarely troubled. And so they took three points, going above Levante and finding themselves in sixth place.
Mallorca:
Aouate; Nsue (Cendrós 80), Crespí, Chico, Cáceres; Pina, Martí; Pereira, Alfaro (Hemed 45), Castro; Victor (Marí 87)
Goal: Pina (54)
Yellow: Pereira (90)
Levante:
Munúa; Venta, Ballesteros, Navarro, López (Suárez 72); Torres, Iborra (Juanlu 77); Valdo, Barkero, Botelho; Ghezzal
Yellows: Iborra (60), Munúa (83), Botelho (90)
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 May 2012
Similar to yesterday in that there is cloud as well as sun. 16.9 C at 09.30, but without the breeze of yesterday. Remaining cloudy and tomorrow there is a greater risk of a shower, after which, from Monday, the pattern is for sun and warmer temperatures. Today's anticipated high around 22.
Afternoon update: The wind got up again, gusting to up to 50kph, but it brought it in a high of 23.6 C.
Afternoon update: The wind got up again, gusting to up to 50kph, but it brought it in a high of 23.6 C.
Our Tourism Lady Of Lourdes
I don't think there are many Saint Bernadettes wandering around the Balearic tourism ministry. I imagine there aren't many ladies called Lourdes there either. Notably though, there is one. The apparition of a lady called Lourdes has been possible since she was named as a technical advisor at the ministry.
The appointment of Lourdes Reynés would not have caused there to be a moment's notice were it not for the fact that she has an intimate relationship with someone whose apparition in the tourism ministry has been more obvious for the past few months. Carlos Delgado, the tourism minister, and la belle Reynés are an item.
The news of the appointment and of Delgado and Reynés' relationship is manna from heaven. Well, it is to the likes of myself, and should be to many a Spanish journalist as it is of course to the opposition parties. But there is, and not the first time, a slight curiosity. Delgado's girlfriend, as a subject, appears to be being avoided by one newspaper group. Why? Well, I do know why, but I'm not going to tell you. Suffice it to say that, for various reasons, local newspapers are sometimes reluctant to engage in scrutinising the affairs (of different types) of politicians and others.
Not all newspapers, though. The "Diario de Mallorca", not normally cowed, has offered its opinion, and so shall I, if only via this blog. The affair is a bloody disgrace. There, I've said it.
I couldn't care less about Delgado's personal relationship with Reynés, though he did go on record as saying as recently as last summer that he was happily married, only to seemingly soon not be. It would also seem that he didn't know Reynés last summer. Well, he does now.
Be this as it may, the appointment should be an acute embarrassment. Here is a government that has made much of turning its back on sleaze (where have we heard this sort of thing before?) and is in the process of squeezing the life out of the people of the Balearics, out of jobs, out of the health service, out of you name it, and a minister goes and gives a job to his partner.
Reynés, so we are told, is eminently suited to the post to which she has been appointed, and there is no reason to believe that she isn't. What the post actually is, I'm not entirely sure. Technical advisor, but much is being made of the fact that she is a journalist and speaks five languages, so I think we can assume it's something to do with communication.
But on these criteria, as I am also a journalist and speak different languages and know a hell of a lot about tourism, I should be given the job. Go on, Carlos, gis a job. I am willing to do it for less than the 46 grand that Lourdes is going to trouser.
The salary forms part of the Delgado defence. How about this for spin? Because Lourdes was getting a few grand more in a previous post with the Playa de Palma consortium, a post that now no longer exists, her new appointment represents a saving to the ministry. Brilliant. Unfortunately, it completely misses the point, which is that Carlos has made an almighty great gaffe. Qualified for the job or not, she's his bloody girlfriend. Can't he see that this is a PR error? He should speak to Lourdes if he doesn't, given that she is an expert in communication.
Not only does Carlos not seem to get it nor also does his party. The PP upper echelons see nothing wrong with the live-in being handed the best part of 50,000 euros by a senior minister. It sees nothing wrong because it doesn't want to see anything wrong. See no evil etc. Not that there is anything evil. Of course there isn't. Just very poor public relations.
The opposition has demanded Delgado's head. It is natural at such times for resignation to be called for. It is most unlikely to happen. Nor should it. But Carlos should do the honourable thing and find Lourdes some other gainful employment. One feels sure that he is in a position to swing it for her somewhere, so long as it isn't in the tourism ministry. The point is that, despite certain criticisms of the new tourism law, Delgado seems to be doing a reasonable job at tourism. And for him to go now, just as the new bill is heading towards parliament, would be unfortunate. But this doesn't excuse him. The appointment is a mistake, and if he doesn't realise that it is, then his political judgement is badly compromised.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The appointment of Lourdes Reynés would not have caused there to be a moment's notice were it not for the fact that she has an intimate relationship with someone whose apparition in the tourism ministry has been more obvious for the past few months. Carlos Delgado, the tourism minister, and la belle Reynés are an item.
The news of the appointment and of Delgado and Reynés' relationship is manna from heaven. Well, it is to the likes of myself, and should be to many a Spanish journalist as it is of course to the opposition parties. But there is, and not the first time, a slight curiosity. Delgado's girlfriend, as a subject, appears to be being avoided by one newspaper group. Why? Well, I do know why, but I'm not going to tell you. Suffice it to say that, for various reasons, local newspapers are sometimes reluctant to engage in scrutinising the affairs (of different types) of politicians and others.
Not all newspapers, though. The "Diario de Mallorca", not normally cowed, has offered its opinion, and so shall I, if only via this blog. The affair is a bloody disgrace. There, I've said it.
I couldn't care less about Delgado's personal relationship with Reynés, though he did go on record as saying as recently as last summer that he was happily married, only to seemingly soon not be. It would also seem that he didn't know Reynés last summer. Well, he does now.
Be this as it may, the appointment should be an acute embarrassment. Here is a government that has made much of turning its back on sleaze (where have we heard this sort of thing before?) and is in the process of squeezing the life out of the people of the Balearics, out of jobs, out of the health service, out of you name it, and a minister goes and gives a job to his partner.
Reynés, so we are told, is eminently suited to the post to which she has been appointed, and there is no reason to believe that she isn't. What the post actually is, I'm not entirely sure. Technical advisor, but much is being made of the fact that she is a journalist and speaks five languages, so I think we can assume it's something to do with communication.
But on these criteria, as I am also a journalist and speak different languages and know a hell of a lot about tourism, I should be given the job. Go on, Carlos, gis a job. I am willing to do it for less than the 46 grand that Lourdes is going to trouser.
The salary forms part of the Delgado defence. How about this for spin? Because Lourdes was getting a few grand more in a previous post with the Playa de Palma consortium, a post that now no longer exists, her new appointment represents a saving to the ministry. Brilliant. Unfortunately, it completely misses the point, which is that Carlos has made an almighty great gaffe. Qualified for the job or not, she's his bloody girlfriend. Can't he see that this is a PR error? He should speak to Lourdes if he doesn't, given that she is an expert in communication.
Not only does Carlos not seem to get it nor also does his party. The PP upper echelons see nothing wrong with the live-in being handed the best part of 50,000 euros by a senior minister. It sees nothing wrong because it doesn't want to see anything wrong. See no evil etc. Not that there is anything evil. Of course there isn't. Just very poor public relations.
The opposition has demanded Delgado's head. It is natural at such times for resignation to be called for. It is most unlikely to happen. Nor should it. But Carlos should do the honourable thing and find Lourdes some other gainful employment. One feels sure that he is in a position to swing it for her somewhere, so long as it isn't in the tourism ministry. The point is that, despite certain criticisms of the new tourism law, Delgado seems to be doing a reasonable job at tourism. And for him to go now, just as the new bill is heading towards parliament, would be unfortunate. But this doesn't excuse him. The appointment is a mistake, and if he doesn't realise that it is, then his political judgement is badly compromised.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, May 04, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - 2013 to be the year of Junípero Serra
The Council of Mallorca has decided that 2013 will be the year of Fray Junípero Serra, the Franciscan monk from Petra who was born in November 1713; next year will therefore be the tricentennial of his birth. Serra, who founded missions in Alta (upper) California, is honoured in the USA as he is in Mallorca and Spain. His name is given to many streets and other features in California.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Nematode threat to pine trees
A type of nematode worm that attacks pines is the latest threat to Mallorca's trees. Measures are to be taken to prevent the spread of the worm which was first detected in Portugal in 1999, having come from North America.
See more: El Mundo
See more: El Mundo
MALLORCA TODAY - Catalan bow in Alcúdia
Carme Garcia, the former PSM (Majorcan socialist) member who became independent and sided with the Partido Popular at Alcúdia town hall has joined with the opposition PSOE and CxI to force the administration to permit the hanging of a Catalan bow outside the town hall as an expression of defence of the Catalan language. The PP had rejected the move, the mayor saying that the town hall building is a "house for everyone".
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 May 2012
Quite a deal of cloud but also sun on a warm morning, 16.8 C at 09.00, a breeze coming in from the south. A risk of a spot of rain this evening and tomorrow, but otherwise fine. Temperatures remaining at just over the 20 mark.
Afternoon update: Helped by a stiff southerly, the high has been 23.4 C today, but at times feeling a bit chilly in the breeze.
Afternoon update: Helped by a stiff southerly, the high has been 23.4 C today, but at times feeling a bit chilly in the breeze.
Harming Tourism: Government policies
Hugh Morgan, director-general of Cosmos Holidays, bemoans the fact that British reservations for holidays in Spain this summer are down by 5%. Spanish tourism, as a whole, will enter its own recession in 2012, experiencing a fall of 0.3%. In Greece, airport taxes have been scrapped for nine months. In Egypt, these taxes have been reduced, there has been "aggressive promotion" and in the first quarter of 2012 the level of arrivals increased by over 30% compared with the same quarter of 2011.
These different stories are inter-related. In the case of Spanish tourism, the reason for it experiencing negative growth in 2012 is due to a fall in demand from the domestic market, one that will not be compensated for by overseas markets. This local demand is being affected, among other things, by the rise in airport taxes in Spain. British reservations are not being helped for the same reason. Yet in Greece and Egypt ... .
There is more to the British story than just the taxes, there is also the fact that joint promotions between the Spanish tourism agency, Turespaña, and tour operators have all but ceased. Not because the tour operators have wanted them to, but because the Spanish Government has slashed the tourism promotional budget to the extent that it has. And for the Spanish Government, read also the Balearic Government. Yet in Greece and Egypt ... "aggressive promotion."
There are of course other factors affecting a fall in British tourism, but if the boss of Cosmos argues that a lack of joint promotion and a rise in taxes are major ones, then I am not about to disagree with him. It's when you put these different stories together, though, that a picture emerges that paints a scene of governmental ineptitude and one-dimensionality of economic strategy, both nationally and regionally in the Balearics.
Neither Madrid nor Palma are showing the slightest sign of doing anything to inspire growth. Both are interested solely in austerity and in measures that will do nothing to help growth. Tourism, for all that it is a double-edged sword in being a key driver of the economy and being an industry sector on which there is an over-reliance, cannot be treated, should not be treated with the apparent disregard with which it currently is. Attitudes in Madrid and Palma are perverse.
It may prove to be that, with people being killed again in Egypt, the best intentions of Egyptian tourism leaders are dashed. The beneficial effects of the Arab spring on Spanish and Mallorcan tourism had been expected to continue this year, and they may indeed now do so. But it is poor strategic thinking if a reliance is placed on external factors, such as events in Africa, to the detriment of proactivity, e.g. in promotion, or of use of the fiscal system in aiming for growth in the key Spanish tourism sector.
The perversity of attitudes towards tourism is indicative of a serious malaise within governmental circles. Current policies are being aimed mostly at symptoms of Spanish economic troubles and indeed at making these symptoms worse, e.g. by increasing IVA, rather than attacking causes. I have great sympathy for the arguments regarding a rationalisation of public administration, e.g. repatriation of certain responsibilities to central government, elimination of tiers of government or mergers of existing local authorities. I have said previously that a solution is staring the national government in its face, i.e. the system of regional government and decentralisation as it is currently practised, but as I said more recently, in connection with the tiny administration of the village of Búger, it isn't anything like as simple as one might think for this system to be changed.
Political expedience doesn't rule out a change, but would any Spanish government, including the current one, be bold enough to take remedial measures that would, almost at a stroke, have a highly positive effect on the deficits nationally and regionally? The answer is almost certainly no. So instead, the government takes the easy options to do nothing, where promotion to drive tourism and therefore growth is concerned, or to hammer everyone arbitrarily through indirect taxation and to further hammer tourism by raising airport taxes. They are economics of the madhouse, determined by a total absence of political courage in effecting a major change to a root cause of Spain's troubles.
Over in Greece, they know all about economics of the madhouse, but remarkably they also seem to know something about tourism. The Spanish Government clearly doesn't. But then what do you expect if you appoint a property expert as a tourism secretary of state?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
These different stories are inter-related. In the case of Spanish tourism, the reason for it experiencing negative growth in 2012 is due to a fall in demand from the domestic market, one that will not be compensated for by overseas markets. This local demand is being affected, among other things, by the rise in airport taxes in Spain. British reservations are not being helped for the same reason. Yet in Greece and Egypt ... .
There is more to the British story than just the taxes, there is also the fact that joint promotions between the Spanish tourism agency, Turespaña, and tour operators have all but ceased. Not because the tour operators have wanted them to, but because the Spanish Government has slashed the tourism promotional budget to the extent that it has. And for the Spanish Government, read also the Balearic Government. Yet in Greece and Egypt ... "aggressive promotion."
There are of course other factors affecting a fall in British tourism, but if the boss of Cosmos argues that a lack of joint promotion and a rise in taxes are major ones, then I am not about to disagree with him. It's when you put these different stories together, though, that a picture emerges that paints a scene of governmental ineptitude and one-dimensionality of economic strategy, both nationally and regionally in the Balearics.
Neither Madrid nor Palma are showing the slightest sign of doing anything to inspire growth. Both are interested solely in austerity and in measures that will do nothing to help growth. Tourism, for all that it is a double-edged sword in being a key driver of the economy and being an industry sector on which there is an over-reliance, cannot be treated, should not be treated with the apparent disregard with which it currently is. Attitudes in Madrid and Palma are perverse.
It may prove to be that, with people being killed again in Egypt, the best intentions of Egyptian tourism leaders are dashed. The beneficial effects of the Arab spring on Spanish and Mallorcan tourism had been expected to continue this year, and they may indeed now do so. But it is poor strategic thinking if a reliance is placed on external factors, such as events in Africa, to the detriment of proactivity, e.g. in promotion, or of use of the fiscal system in aiming for growth in the key Spanish tourism sector.
The perversity of attitudes towards tourism is indicative of a serious malaise within governmental circles. Current policies are being aimed mostly at symptoms of Spanish economic troubles and indeed at making these symptoms worse, e.g. by increasing IVA, rather than attacking causes. I have great sympathy for the arguments regarding a rationalisation of public administration, e.g. repatriation of certain responsibilities to central government, elimination of tiers of government or mergers of existing local authorities. I have said previously that a solution is staring the national government in its face, i.e. the system of regional government and decentralisation as it is currently practised, but as I said more recently, in connection with the tiny administration of the village of Búger, it isn't anything like as simple as one might think for this system to be changed.
Political expedience doesn't rule out a change, but would any Spanish government, including the current one, be bold enough to take remedial measures that would, almost at a stroke, have a highly positive effect on the deficits nationally and regionally? The answer is almost certainly no. So instead, the government takes the easy options to do nothing, where promotion to drive tourism and therefore growth is concerned, or to hammer everyone arbitrarily through indirect taxation and to further hammer tourism by raising airport taxes. They are economics of the madhouse, determined by a total absence of political courage in effecting a major change to a root cause of Spain's troubles.
Over in Greece, they know all about economics of the madhouse, but remarkably they also seem to know something about tourism. The Spanish Government clearly doesn't. But then what do you expect if you appoint a property expert as a tourism secretary of state?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Technical Note Re Spam Referral Sites
For anyone operating a blog through Blogger, Wordpress or other server, there is an issue with spam referral sites. Basically, these are blank web pages which hook onto a blog or particular posts on a blog for whatever reason. One effect is that the stats for visits to a blog, such as this one, can be distorted. The page views for this blog are updated daily and overwhelmingly are real views, but the spam referral sites can constitute about 1% at any given time. Because specific posts are hooked onto, the facility to see "Popular Posts" has been taken down from this blog, as it is misleading.
If you have a blog yourself and you see referrals from sites, usually with a www3 or www4 prefix, ignore them and do not click on them. They are harmless but might not be if clicked on. They are annoying and that's all.
If you have a blog yourself and you see referrals from sites, usually with a www3 or www4 prefix, ignore them and do not click on them. They are harmless but might not be if clicked on. They are annoying and that's all.
MALLORCA TODAY - Call for Delgado to resign over girlfriend appointment
Opposition parties have today demanded the resignation of Balearics tourism minister Carlos Delgado following the appointment as a technical adviser within the tourism ministry of his girlfriend, Lourdes Reynés. The tourism ministry has issued a statement in which it explains that the position had fallen vacant and that Reynés will be remunerated to the tune of 46,200 euros per annum, which is less than she had been receiving in a post with the Playa de Palma consortium.
MALLORCA TODAY - Government loans to hard-up councils
Two local councils in Mallorca that have been unable to pay suppliers and which are in particularly heavy debt - Inca and Sa Pobla - will, thanks to a plan approved by central government in Madrid, be able to start paying these suppliers this month. In the case of Inca, the government will make available 4.7 million euros, but it is only in the form of a loan.
MALLORCA TODAY - Son Espases cuts back; hospitals could be privatised
More evidence of the turmoil in the public health service in Mallorca. Son Espases, the island's main public health hospital, will reduce by 50% its non-urgent operations between July and September and close 150 beds during the same period. In all, 300 beds in different hospitals will be closed over the summer. Meanwhile, the UGT union is stating again its belief that the regional government intends to privatise the public health hospitals in Inca and Manacor and to sell the Joan March hospital, closure of which has already been announced.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 May 2012
14.6 C the high at 08:45 on another sunny morning. Day time highs still nothing remarkable, 21 at best possibly but the UV scale is up today - to 8.
Afternoon update: A best of just 19.6 C on a fine but only mild day.
Afternoon update: A best of just 19.6 C on a fine but only mild day.
Overtaken By The Fear: Holiday lets
Some people are just too helpful in cyberland. Along comes a request, one which asks for advice on renting an apartment as a holiday let, and the help flows in. The help cannot be faulted. It is informative, and the information can be trusted, especially when a respondent displays his or her credentials as an owner of an apartment for rent as a holiday let. Another respondent says that such apartments can be found on a map, and intimates where this map and therefore properties can be located. Great. This is really helpful. Thanks very much. Oh, and by the way, the one who made the request was from the Balearics tourism ministry.
I've made this last bit up. But you never know in cyberland, do you. I read the help being offered with my jaw firmly dropped. Admission as to private apartment being rented out as a holiday let and a map to help find it. Are you kidding!? Would it not be simpler to just put a flashing neon sign outside the apartment in the shape of a finger pointing at the apartment and which says "tourism ministry, we're here"?
The Balearic Government, in case you hadn't noticed, doesn't much care for private apartments being rented out as holiday lets. So little does it care for them that, in strictly legal terms, they don't exist. They haven't been airbrushed out of existence, as they have never been formally identified as existing under tourism law. By not mentioning them, they are therefore excluded from the categories of tourism accommodation which do exist in law.
The government has been saying, as it has said in the past, that it intends to be rigorous in identifying this illegal holiday accommodation. And this rigour is being reserved in particular for the internet and even more particularly for English websites.
But will the government be as rigorous as it has said that it will be? Does it in fact need to be? Create enough publicity about illegal holiday lets and there will be those, including myself, who help to spread this publicity more widely. It's a brilliant strategy: put the fear of God into property owners, and you get rid of the problem of holiday lets without lifting a finger.
Well, possibly. Or possibly the government will in fact be as rigorous as it has suggested it will be but hasn't necessarily been in the past. This said, it takes a fair old amount of resources to keep tabs on all the property that is knocking around which is being rented out without official clearance. Something else you might have noticed is that the government is boracic and that one ministry to have its budget heavily slashed is the tourism ministry which polices accommodation.
It could all be that the government's announcements about rigour are PR aimed at its friends from the hotel sector. It says it's going to do this and that, but in the end it doesn't. The trouble is that there is always the worry that it keeps to its word. Plus there is an additional worry, as also alluded to by government, of other ministries joining in with the rigour, namely the Hacienda which enjoys the benefit of the cunning collection of copies of electricity bills.
There is, despite all the publicity, a widely held view that the government's announcements are all bluster and that there is no possible way that it can check on all the hundreds, thousands of apartments. This may be the case, and it may also be the case that what rigour there is, is confined to parts of Mallorca and not to others. By which I mean? Well, let's consider somewhere like Pollensa. Mayor Cifre has made clear to the government that Pollensa relies heavily on holiday rentals, and not just those that are regulated.
I am willing to wager that, if the government does apply its rigour, Puerto Pollensa will escape its attentions. The damage that just one publicised case of action against an illegal let in the resort would cause would potentially be disastrous. Cifre knows this and the government will know this, as it will know that the mayor is a member of its party. Everyone knows, moreover, that the hotel lobby in Pollensa isn't as strong as elsewhere. There aren't the hotels of other resorts, and the hotels seem quite content to co-exist with the holiday-let market.
I would also be willing to wager that there would be apartments in Mallorca which would escape the rigour because of who owns them. How many apartments, do you imagine, belong to politicians, their families or friends, or those from executive or shareholding ranks of the hotel industry?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I've made this last bit up. But you never know in cyberland, do you. I read the help being offered with my jaw firmly dropped. Admission as to private apartment being rented out as a holiday let and a map to help find it. Are you kidding!? Would it not be simpler to just put a flashing neon sign outside the apartment in the shape of a finger pointing at the apartment and which says "tourism ministry, we're here"?
The Balearic Government, in case you hadn't noticed, doesn't much care for private apartments being rented out as holiday lets. So little does it care for them that, in strictly legal terms, they don't exist. They haven't been airbrushed out of existence, as they have never been formally identified as existing under tourism law. By not mentioning them, they are therefore excluded from the categories of tourism accommodation which do exist in law.
The government has been saying, as it has said in the past, that it intends to be rigorous in identifying this illegal holiday accommodation. And this rigour is being reserved in particular for the internet and even more particularly for English websites.
But will the government be as rigorous as it has said that it will be? Does it in fact need to be? Create enough publicity about illegal holiday lets and there will be those, including myself, who help to spread this publicity more widely. It's a brilliant strategy: put the fear of God into property owners, and you get rid of the problem of holiday lets without lifting a finger.
Well, possibly. Or possibly the government will in fact be as rigorous as it has suggested it will be but hasn't necessarily been in the past. This said, it takes a fair old amount of resources to keep tabs on all the property that is knocking around which is being rented out without official clearance. Something else you might have noticed is that the government is boracic and that one ministry to have its budget heavily slashed is the tourism ministry which polices accommodation.
It could all be that the government's announcements about rigour are PR aimed at its friends from the hotel sector. It says it's going to do this and that, but in the end it doesn't. The trouble is that there is always the worry that it keeps to its word. Plus there is an additional worry, as also alluded to by government, of other ministries joining in with the rigour, namely the Hacienda which enjoys the benefit of the cunning collection of copies of electricity bills.
There is, despite all the publicity, a widely held view that the government's announcements are all bluster and that there is no possible way that it can check on all the hundreds, thousands of apartments. This may be the case, and it may also be the case that what rigour there is, is confined to parts of Mallorca and not to others. By which I mean? Well, let's consider somewhere like Pollensa. Mayor Cifre has made clear to the government that Pollensa relies heavily on holiday rentals, and not just those that are regulated.
I am willing to wager that, if the government does apply its rigour, Puerto Pollensa will escape its attentions. The damage that just one publicised case of action against an illegal let in the resort would cause would potentially be disastrous. Cifre knows this and the government will know this, as it will know that the mayor is a member of its party. Everyone knows, moreover, that the hotel lobby in Pollensa isn't as strong as elsewhere. There aren't the hotels of other resorts, and the hotels seem quite content to co-exist with the holiday-let market.
I would also be willing to wager that there would be apartments in Mallorca which would escape the rigour because of who owns them. How many apartments, do you imagine, belong to politicians, their families or friends, or those from executive or shareholding ranks of the hotel industry?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Real Mallorca 1 : 0 Rayo Vallecano
Mallorca, now suddenly with European ambitions, against Vallecano, the Madrid club still with relegation worries. Coach Caparrós started with an adventurous line-up, Nsue at right back again and two strikers on the park. It was Rayo, though, which made most of the play in the first half, striking the woodwork and creating far more chances than Mallorca. Better from the home side at the start of the second period, and it got better when Castro struck in the 61st minute. Three points and, well well, maybe it's game on for Europe from the final two matches: Levante at home and - maybe not - Real Madrid away.
Mallorca:
Aouate; Nsue (Bigas 87), Chico, Ramis, Cáceres; Martí, Pina, Pereira (Cendrós 83), Castro; Victor (Alfaro 45), Hemed
Goal: Castro (61)
Yellows: Chico (44), Ramis (67)
Rayo:
Cobeño; Tito, Arribas, Labaka, Pulido (Lass 67), Casado; Trashorras, Movilla (Michel 84), Michu; Tamudo (Delibasic 81), Costa
Yellows: Casado (8), Pulido (62), Arribas (76)
Mallorca:
Aouate; Nsue (Bigas 87), Chico, Ramis, Cáceres; Martí, Pina, Pereira (Cendrós 83), Castro; Victor (Alfaro 45), Hemed
Goal: Castro (61)
Yellows: Chico (44), Ramis (67)
Rayo:
Cobeño; Tito, Arribas, Labaka, Pulido (Lass 67), Casado; Trashorras, Movilla (Michel 84), Michu; Tamudo (Delibasic 81), Costa
Yellows: Casado (8), Pulido (62), Arribas (76)
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 May 2012
Sunny with some light cloud and 15.8 C at 08:45. Up to 20 or more later, the outlook is still good, but given yesterday's unexpected rain you can never be totally sure.
Afternoon update: A generally fine day with occasional cloud cover. Not especially warm, a high of just 18.7 inland and a little lower on the coast.
Afternoon update: A generally fine day with occasional cloud cover. Not especially warm, a high of just 18.7 inland and a little lower on the coast.
Flying Into Money: Palma airport
Which is the most profitable airport in Spain? The answer is neither of the two airports with the greatest passenger numbers - Madrid's Barajas and Barcelona's El Prat. It is the third airport on the passenger list, i.e. Palma's Son Sant Joan, which also happens to be the fifteenth busiest airport in Europe.
This is the second year running that Palma has claimed the airport profitability crown, its operating profit for 2011 up fractionally to 44.68 million euros. Palma has been vying with Alicante for the top spot, the airport in the Valencia region having held the crown in 2009.
That Palma's main rival has been Alicante probably tells a story. Both are airports with high volumes of tourism traffic, serving some of the densest populations of tourism; Benidorm being one in the case of Alicante.
The profit tells only part of the story. In 2011 Palma airport turned over more than 200 million euros; a profit percentage of some 20% on revenue generated is healthy for any type of business. The revenue and the profit help to explain why the regional government has been so keen to get its hands on the airport and manage it at least in partnership.
The ambitions of Balearic politicians to be able to add the airport to the region's balance sheet and profit and loss account (mainly or in fact totally a loss of course) have been dashed for varying reasons. Firstly, it was because the airport, despite its traffic, didn't meet the level of passenger numbers to qualify it for regional government management. Secondly, and more recently, there has been the threat (or promise, if you prefer) of privatisation or partial privatisation.
It was this threat that brought about the air-traffic controllers' strike, the fallout from which is still going through the courts. But it is a threat that is more on the cards than before. National government has its eyes on privatisation as a means of helping to cut the national burden. Airports, such as Palma's, would be prime targets, one would have to believe.
Palma can manage to generate such healthy profit for a number of reasons. Its income, as with all airports, is derived through numerous revenue streams, and some - all probably - are from services and concessions that come at a high price. Without putting an actual figure on them, someone I know well who runs a car-hire agency (without an office in the airport) alluded the other day to the astronomical rents for these offices. And these are but one of the many revenue streams that filter through to making Palma airport such a profitable business.
Charges that the airport can make are not solely due to demand. There is also the fact that it occupies a vast area of prime real estate. As a consequence, it commands premium prices, and these are ones that are demanded of other concessions. Its value as real estate is a further reason why the government would wish to have a piece of the action. Assets are as valuable to a government as they are to a corporation.
This property value adds a further dimension to any privatisation. Through a combination of the land premium and the premium that Palma airport can demand of airlines by way of landing fees, the potential for any future movement (downwards) of these fees would be questionable. Yet this is exactly what airlines have been calling for, if the airport is to create greater traffic in the winter, which, by extension, would mean greater numbers of winter tourists.
It is perhaps instructive to appreciate that, despite the lower volume of winter traffic, Palma can still be the most profitable of Spain's airports. In purely business terms, being more amenable to airline demands wouldn't necessarily make sense, though one might think that additional revenue from other streams of business, also currently affected by lower winter traffic, would compensate for any discount on landing fees.
While Palma is the jewel in the crown of Spanish airports, the same cannot be said for other airports in the Balearics. Ibiza does reasonably well. It made a profit of almost 3.5 million euros, but it also operates with a debt. Not a huge one, but debt nevertheless. Palma, on the other hand, has no such worries. But then there is Menorca. It made a loss of getting on for eleven million last year. It has an accumulated debt of over 161 million euros.
This is perhaps an example of have and have not in Balearics tourism. Menorca has been suffering badly in all sorts of ways. And in these times of austerity and of government looking on drains on resources, the airport in Menorca might need to watch out. So also might Menorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
This is the second year running that Palma has claimed the airport profitability crown, its operating profit for 2011 up fractionally to 44.68 million euros. Palma has been vying with Alicante for the top spot, the airport in the Valencia region having held the crown in 2009.
That Palma's main rival has been Alicante probably tells a story. Both are airports with high volumes of tourism traffic, serving some of the densest populations of tourism; Benidorm being one in the case of Alicante.
The profit tells only part of the story. In 2011 Palma airport turned over more than 200 million euros; a profit percentage of some 20% on revenue generated is healthy for any type of business. The revenue and the profit help to explain why the regional government has been so keen to get its hands on the airport and manage it at least in partnership.
The ambitions of Balearic politicians to be able to add the airport to the region's balance sheet and profit and loss account (mainly or in fact totally a loss of course) have been dashed for varying reasons. Firstly, it was because the airport, despite its traffic, didn't meet the level of passenger numbers to qualify it for regional government management. Secondly, and more recently, there has been the threat (or promise, if you prefer) of privatisation or partial privatisation.
It was this threat that brought about the air-traffic controllers' strike, the fallout from which is still going through the courts. But it is a threat that is more on the cards than before. National government has its eyes on privatisation as a means of helping to cut the national burden. Airports, such as Palma's, would be prime targets, one would have to believe.
Palma can manage to generate such healthy profit for a number of reasons. Its income, as with all airports, is derived through numerous revenue streams, and some - all probably - are from services and concessions that come at a high price. Without putting an actual figure on them, someone I know well who runs a car-hire agency (without an office in the airport) alluded the other day to the astronomical rents for these offices. And these are but one of the many revenue streams that filter through to making Palma airport such a profitable business.
Charges that the airport can make are not solely due to demand. There is also the fact that it occupies a vast area of prime real estate. As a consequence, it commands premium prices, and these are ones that are demanded of other concessions. Its value as real estate is a further reason why the government would wish to have a piece of the action. Assets are as valuable to a government as they are to a corporation.
This property value adds a further dimension to any privatisation. Through a combination of the land premium and the premium that Palma airport can demand of airlines by way of landing fees, the potential for any future movement (downwards) of these fees would be questionable. Yet this is exactly what airlines have been calling for, if the airport is to create greater traffic in the winter, which, by extension, would mean greater numbers of winter tourists.
It is perhaps instructive to appreciate that, despite the lower volume of winter traffic, Palma can still be the most profitable of Spain's airports. In purely business terms, being more amenable to airline demands wouldn't necessarily make sense, though one might think that additional revenue from other streams of business, also currently affected by lower winter traffic, would compensate for any discount on landing fees.
While Palma is the jewel in the crown of Spanish airports, the same cannot be said for other airports in the Balearics. Ibiza does reasonably well. It made a profit of almost 3.5 million euros, but it also operates with a debt. Not a huge one, but debt nevertheless. Palma, on the other hand, has no such worries. But then there is Menorca. It made a loss of getting on for eleven million last year. It has an accumulated debt of over 161 million euros.
This is perhaps an example of have and have not in Balearics tourism. Menorca has been suffering badly in all sorts of ways. And in these times of austerity and of government looking on drains on resources, the airport in Menorca might need to watch out. So also might Menorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Urdangarin negotiates to stay out of prison
The King's son-in-law, The Duke of Palma, aka Iñaki Urdangarin, is, according to his lawyer, willing to enter a guilty plea to charges with which he has been implicated in return for a sentence of less than two years which, as has occurred under previous precedent, would mean that he would avoid going to prison.
See more: El Mundo
See more: El Mundo
MALLORCA TODAY - Balearic Government cuts costs by over 250 million euros
The Balearic Government announced cuts yesterday amounting to 263 million euros and an anticipated increase of 83 million euros in its effort to reduce the region's deficit. The cuts will include the closure of two hospitals - the General and Joan March. There will also be adjustment to times of opening of local health centres (they will be reduced), the regional health authority losing in all 68 million euros from its budget.
MALLORCA TODAY - Sa Pobla tackles rising crime
The local police in Sa Pobla will work more closely with the Guardia Civil in an effort to stamp out an increase in crime in the town, one of the measures announced being that the local police will be able to share computer-based information held by the Guardia.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 May 2012
And on this first official day of the summer season, we have a local top of 13.2 C early on at 08.00 and a fresh, bright and sunny morning. The May day weather is for sun with the odd bits of cloud and a high of 21. Breezes from the south.
Afternoon update: It hadn't been forecast, but there was a burst of thunder and lightning around midday and a sharp shower. The sun came out again to give a high of 19.1 C.
Afternoon update: It hadn't been forecast, but there was a burst of thunder and lightning around midday and a sharp shower. The sun came out again to give a high of 19.1 C.
The Disposable Tourist
The first of May, the first day of the season. On 1 May, the hopes and fears of all the years - fears mostly in the past few years - are aroused.
On the first of May, the first great influx of tourists is awaited. Eyes scan the carreteras for the transfer coaches and for their contents. How many are there? The coaches don't look that full. Where are they going? The coaches' occupants are disgorged in their paleness, eyes blinking against the piercing luminescence of a Mallorcan spring.
So it begins. As it begins every year. And as every year, the first wave of tourism is like watching aliens land. The tourism mass, moulded from varying shapes and styles, manages to meld itself into one. It moves and it morphs in a constant state of transmogrification, but despite its transience it retains this mass, a production line of humanity processed at the airport, distributed by coach, packaged into hotels and ultimately recycled.
Tourism is a disposable commodity. It exists for only a short period of time. For a temporary period. It is migratory. It arrives in flocks, flutters for a time, and then flies away again, to be replaced by further flocks. During its brief stay, it co-habits with the indigenous species who feed off it, or so they hope.
The rules of this co-habitation, cultivated over years, have altered. There has always been exploitation from both sides, but who now is the greater exploiter? A one-time symbiotic relationship of mutual exploitation has been disrupted by the packaging part of the mass tourism production line, that which now packages with all included. The feeding has turned to hunger, a need to scavenge from the scraps tossed over the walls of a hotel ghetto. This is not how it was meant to be. This is not how it was.
Co-habitation was convivial. The festive spirit that took hold on the first of May, and earlier in times gone by, has been diminished and eroded by a resentment at the dismantling of the relationship.
There is a further reason, though, why the rules of co-habitation have changed. In the same way as tourism is disposable, so also is Mallorca. But it is disposable in a different way. The disposability of tourism lies in its short life span; it is once used and then thrown away, until, with any luck, it performs its own recycling and returns. Mallorca is disposable because there are other Mallorcas. It can be got rid of. The mass can move elsewhere. Once upon a time, its options were limited. It made the best of a limited supply; it no longer has to.
There was also, once upon a time, a shared sense of gratitude and a sharing of newness and adventure. For the tourist, Mallorca was a new world, a different world, a world beyond the imagination of the drudge of home. For Mallorca, the tourist was indeed like an alien, a new being from afar, destined to make for the island a better life.
This is all in the past. With changes in the rules of co-habitation, familiarity has bred familiarity, and Mallorca is treated not so much as though it were disposable but as a mere commodity, a vehicle for sun, for beach, for bar, for all-inclusive.
How did it come to this? Perhaps it was inevitable. Once tourism was unleashed, it was bound to undergo a transmogrification through market forces. It could never have remained the same. But faults lie on both sides of what was once the mutual relationship. For Mallorca, it used to be the case that a tourist was a friend, which he or she still is, but this sloganising disguised a fundamental, semantic error. A tourist was never and should still not be "a tourist". It is "the tourist". Definite, not indefinite. Individual, different, even amidst the great mass. And the tourist was never and still isn't a tourist; he or she is a holidaymaker. The distinction is marked. Tourists make tours. Holidaymakers go on holiday, and holidays are fun.
The tourist has been at fault, too. He or she has forgotten the adventure of holiday. Forgotten the discovery, lulled into the belief that being corralled into a hotel of all-inclusive convenience does not amount to being commoditised, to being processed and packaged.
If there is hope, now that the first of May has arrived, it is that there is a rejection of disposability and of the tourist as a commodity. The tourist, all tourists are friends, are unique. And for all tourists (sorry, holidaymakers), Mallorca, all of Mallorca and not just all-inclusive Mallorca, is a friend.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
On the first of May, the first great influx of tourists is awaited. Eyes scan the carreteras for the transfer coaches and for their contents. How many are there? The coaches don't look that full. Where are they going? The coaches' occupants are disgorged in their paleness, eyes blinking against the piercing luminescence of a Mallorcan spring.
So it begins. As it begins every year. And as every year, the first wave of tourism is like watching aliens land. The tourism mass, moulded from varying shapes and styles, manages to meld itself into one. It moves and it morphs in a constant state of transmogrification, but despite its transience it retains this mass, a production line of humanity processed at the airport, distributed by coach, packaged into hotels and ultimately recycled.
Tourism is a disposable commodity. It exists for only a short period of time. For a temporary period. It is migratory. It arrives in flocks, flutters for a time, and then flies away again, to be replaced by further flocks. During its brief stay, it co-habits with the indigenous species who feed off it, or so they hope.
The rules of this co-habitation, cultivated over years, have altered. There has always been exploitation from both sides, but who now is the greater exploiter? A one-time symbiotic relationship of mutual exploitation has been disrupted by the packaging part of the mass tourism production line, that which now packages with all included. The feeding has turned to hunger, a need to scavenge from the scraps tossed over the walls of a hotel ghetto. This is not how it was meant to be. This is not how it was.
Co-habitation was convivial. The festive spirit that took hold on the first of May, and earlier in times gone by, has been diminished and eroded by a resentment at the dismantling of the relationship.
There is a further reason, though, why the rules of co-habitation have changed. In the same way as tourism is disposable, so also is Mallorca. But it is disposable in a different way. The disposability of tourism lies in its short life span; it is once used and then thrown away, until, with any luck, it performs its own recycling and returns. Mallorca is disposable because there are other Mallorcas. It can be got rid of. The mass can move elsewhere. Once upon a time, its options were limited. It made the best of a limited supply; it no longer has to.
There was also, once upon a time, a shared sense of gratitude and a sharing of newness and adventure. For the tourist, Mallorca was a new world, a different world, a world beyond the imagination of the drudge of home. For Mallorca, the tourist was indeed like an alien, a new being from afar, destined to make for the island a better life.
This is all in the past. With changes in the rules of co-habitation, familiarity has bred familiarity, and Mallorca is treated not so much as though it were disposable but as a mere commodity, a vehicle for sun, for beach, for bar, for all-inclusive.
How did it come to this? Perhaps it was inevitable. Once tourism was unleashed, it was bound to undergo a transmogrification through market forces. It could never have remained the same. But faults lie on both sides of what was once the mutual relationship. For Mallorca, it used to be the case that a tourist was a friend, which he or she still is, but this sloganising disguised a fundamental, semantic error. A tourist was never and should still not be "a tourist". It is "the tourist". Definite, not indefinite. Individual, different, even amidst the great mass. And the tourist was never and still isn't a tourist; he or she is a holidaymaker. The distinction is marked. Tourists make tours. Holidaymakers go on holiday, and holidays are fun.
The tourist has been at fault, too. He or she has forgotten the adventure of holiday. Forgotten the discovery, lulled into the belief that being corralled into a hotel of all-inclusive convenience does not amount to being commoditised, to being processed and packaged.
If there is hope, now that the first of May has arrived, it is that there is a rejection of disposability and of the tourist as a commodity. The tourist, all tourists are friends, are unique. And for all tourists (sorry, holidaymakers), Mallorca, all of Mallorca and not just all-inclusive Mallorca, is a friend.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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