In 1984, a group of us went on holiday to what we called Yugoslavia but to what was Croatia, except that no one made much reference to Croatia in 1984, as the Big Brother Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was still intact. Two years later, the SFR started to finally creak. Serbia's SANU Memorandum was issued and so began the unravelling of the SFR and the descent into war.
We really didn't know a great deal about where we were going, other than the fact that the place was called Umag, which didn't sound particularly delightful. The resort where we stayed had a distinctly Communist feel to it. There was one vast refectory-type restaurant which specialised in nothing in particular, a vast concrete "entertainment" complex with as little appeal and ambience as a 1960s John Poulson-designed English shopping centre, and a beach that wasn't a beach. It was like a car park. Concrete. The only redeeming feature was the accommodation - wooden chalets set amidst pine trees which fortunately had barbecues, meaning that the restaurant could be given a deservedly wide berth.
As Umag demonstrated, Yugoslavia was a tourism destination stuck in something of a time-warp, but though ostensibly Communist, Yugoslavia had long been open to tourism, and Croatia, as one could observe in Umag, was popular with German and Austrian visitors who could travel easily by road. It was the existence of a tourism infrastructure (albeit one in need of updating) and a previous tourism reputation that enabled Croatia to quickly establish itself on the European tourism map once hostilities came to an end.
Croatia as a competitor to Mallorca has long been spoken about, but it has recently been spoken about less. Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia have all assumed higher profiles and interest, even if this interest, where Egypt and Tunisia have been concerned, has been one of reaping the benefits of revolt. But Croatia's competitiveness has not been diminished. Quite the reverse. It also benefited from the Arab spring, and while Turkey and Egypt do tend to dominate much of the tourism discussion in Mallorca, Croatia is arguably the biggest single competitive threat to Mallorca.
The Banca March, in its recent report looking at tourism going forward to 2030, is one organisation which has identified Croatia as the island's main competitor. It isn't difficult to see why this might be. The advantage of easy transport links which existed before the Yugoslav Wars remains a key advantage, which is why German, Austrian and Italian tourism is so strong, while these links enable Croatia to benefit far more now than it did in 1984 from tourists from the one Communist country who were able to move relatively freely, the Hungarians. And Hungary as a market for Mallorca is virtually unknown.
Apart from the transport links, the tourism infrastructure in Croatia has been totally transformed. I have searched to see what remains of Umag in its 1984 style, and I think the car-park beach might still be there, but otherwise, the place looks largely unrecognisable, while I imagine that the town's shops, which in 1984 appeared not to actually have anything to sell, would also be unrecognisable. The growth of Croatian tourism is such that its level of overnight stays quadrupled in fifteen years from 1996, and there is no hint that this growth might level off. Hotel quality keeps getting better, there is scope for more development and prices are generally and for now quite low.
Mallorca makes a virtue of aspects of its tourism, as though these aspects were somehow unique to it, when they aren't. Croatia has folk traditions, it has fiestas, it has mountains, it has wetlands and wildlife, it has rivers (which Mallorca doesn't), it has mediaeval and Roman remains, it has sport (and Umag now boasts the staging of the Croatia Open tennis championship). It doesn't have a great gastronomical tradition (or if it did in 1984, it was keeping quiet about it), but gastronomy, despite what Mallorca's tourism bodies would believe and would have everyone else believe, is not considered to be that important by tourists (and surveys have shown that isn't).
What Mallorca does have and what Croatia doesn't are any number of fantastic beaches. They had to build car-park beaches because of the rocks. There is no beach in Croatia that can compare with, say, Es Trenc or Alcúdia's. Yet, in the face of competition from Croatia and elsewhere, there has been a perversely determined effort to promote anything which isn't beach tourism, so disregarding Mallorca's greatest asset. Sun and beach may be old hat, but it still sells. Indeed, for many tourists, it is all that sells. And where the beaches are concerned, Croatia can't compete.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Son Real visitors' centre re-opens
After being closed for nearly six months, the visitors' centre at the Son Real finca near Can Picafort is open again but only on weekdays between 09.00 and 16.00. The price of entrance to the centre is three euros for everyone over the age of 12. Entrance to the finca itself and to its walks, such as to the ancient necropolis, will be free, as will be parking. The finca will be open from 10.00 to 19.00 until the end of September and to 17.00 between October and March.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 June 2012
21.9C the best at 09.00 on another fairly cloudy morning but one that will give way to mostly clear blue skies and the higher 20s.
Afternoon update: A high of 26C on a day which stayed partly cloudy before giving way to good sunshine in the afternoon. Felt quite fresh though despite the temperature.
Afternoon update: A high of 26C on a day which stayed partly cloudy before giving way to good sunshine in the afternoon. Felt quite fresh though despite the temperature.
A State Of Welfare? Circus animals
If you happened to be driving along a Mallorcan road one evening and you were confronted by the sight of two tons of hippopotamus lumbering in your general direction, you might have cause to be somewhat surprised. It isn't common to just come across a hippopotamus in Mallorca, as it also isn't common to just come across a camel or a lion cub. But it isn't unknown, and the reason why is that they have all escaped in the past from circuses; Pipo the melon-eating hippo on more than one occasion.
Pipo's most recent excursion occurred in January. He (or possibly she) had previously made him or herself acquainted with Felanitx before taking a look around Marratxí. Where next? Alcúdia possibly, as Pipo has taken up residence as part of the Circo Roma Dola.
Places in Mallorca where Pipo or the odd camel or lion cub might decide to become an animal tourist are gradually becoming fewer. Capdepera is the most recent municipality to ban circuses with animals. In Spain, unlike quite a number of countries, there is no ban on animals; it is down to town halls to decide whether circuses can bring wildlife with them or not. Alcúdia says they can, Pollensa says they can't, as they also can't in Artà, Consell, Manacor, Palma, Puigpunyent, Santa María del Camí, Sóller and Valldemossa.
Pollensa town hall approved a ban in late October last year. This provoked a challenge by the association of Spanish circuses and a Balearics circus company which drew into question the legality of the ban, especially if a circus were to take place on private land. The challenge also questioned the validity of the ban as there was some alleged duress applied by the presence of AnimaNaturalis animal-rights protesters at the open session at which the ban was agreed.
AnimaNaturalis has certainly been instrumental in seeking to have animals removed from circuses. Without mentioning the group specifically, the Circo Roma Dola on its Facebook page stated that the decision to ban animals in Capdepera was one brought about solely by the desire of animal-rights organisations to generate publicity.
Well, yes, the animal-rights organisations probably are seeking to generate publicity. This tends to be what they do when they wish to draw attention to what they consider to be a contravention of animal rights. For circuses, such as the Circo Roma Dola, a different right is being contravened as a consequence, or so it continues to say in its Facebook page statement, and this is the right of the "classic circus" to work with animals. It also says that this work is recognised as an important part of European culture by the European Parliament and that the welfare of animals is not being considered (by the animal-rights objectors, that is).
It is this last bit, about animal welfare, that AnimaNaturalis would quite naturally disagree with. In addition to concerns about security, as evidenced by instances in which animals have escaped, it flatly rejects the circuses' welfare claim. The Capdepera decision, adopted unanimously by the town hall administration, was couched in terms that AnimaNaturalis would have approved (and did); the "seeking of a society free from animal mistreatment".
AnimaNaturalis has staged protests against both the Circo Roma Dola and the Circo Williams. The Williams circus has been a regular visitor to Alcúdia, and Roma Dola is camped in the town until later this month. But it isn't only animal-rights groups which are voicing their protests. I am told that British tourists are as well, in that some have been walking out of the Roma Dola circus while others have expressed their disgust. What the tourists have objected to in particular (or at least what is alleged to have occurred during one show) was the whipping of lions and the beating of camels' legs in order to make the camels kneel down. While the lions were being hit, I understand, the announcer was calling for calm, as in "tranquilo". One assumes he wasn't addressing the lions.
British sensitivity towards animals is different to that in Spain, though the British Government is dragging its heels over what was intended to be a total ban on wild animals in circuses from the start of this July. But the circuses are also sensitive. Are they not? One comes back to that statement about animal welfare, to which one can add the defence that circuses comply with instructions from veterinary officials at the Council of Mallorca and the Guardia Civil's Seprona division. This defence was one that was made in challenging Pollensa town hall's ban.
I have no reason to believe that the circuses do mistreat their animals, but there is the animals' general welfare and their welfare while "performing". Some tourists, at least, would disagree with the welfare argument.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Pipo's most recent excursion occurred in January. He (or possibly she) had previously made him or herself acquainted with Felanitx before taking a look around Marratxí. Where next? Alcúdia possibly, as Pipo has taken up residence as part of the Circo Roma Dola.
Places in Mallorca where Pipo or the odd camel or lion cub might decide to become an animal tourist are gradually becoming fewer. Capdepera is the most recent municipality to ban circuses with animals. In Spain, unlike quite a number of countries, there is no ban on animals; it is down to town halls to decide whether circuses can bring wildlife with them or not. Alcúdia says they can, Pollensa says they can't, as they also can't in Artà, Consell, Manacor, Palma, Puigpunyent, Santa María del Camí, Sóller and Valldemossa.
Pollensa town hall approved a ban in late October last year. This provoked a challenge by the association of Spanish circuses and a Balearics circus company which drew into question the legality of the ban, especially if a circus were to take place on private land. The challenge also questioned the validity of the ban as there was some alleged duress applied by the presence of AnimaNaturalis animal-rights protesters at the open session at which the ban was agreed.
AnimaNaturalis has certainly been instrumental in seeking to have animals removed from circuses. Without mentioning the group specifically, the Circo Roma Dola on its Facebook page stated that the decision to ban animals in Capdepera was one brought about solely by the desire of animal-rights organisations to generate publicity.
Well, yes, the animal-rights organisations probably are seeking to generate publicity. This tends to be what they do when they wish to draw attention to what they consider to be a contravention of animal rights. For circuses, such as the Circo Roma Dola, a different right is being contravened as a consequence, or so it continues to say in its Facebook page statement, and this is the right of the "classic circus" to work with animals. It also says that this work is recognised as an important part of European culture by the European Parliament and that the welfare of animals is not being considered (by the animal-rights objectors, that is).
It is this last bit, about animal welfare, that AnimaNaturalis would quite naturally disagree with. In addition to concerns about security, as evidenced by instances in which animals have escaped, it flatly rejects the circuses' welfare claim. The Capdepera decision, adopted unanimously by the town hall administration, was couched in terms that AnimaNaturalis would have approved (and did); the "seeking of a society free from animal mistreatment".
AnimaNaturalis has staged protests against both the Circo Roma Dola and the Circo Williams. The Williams circus has been a regular visitor to Alcúdia, and Roma Dola is camped in the town until later this month. But it isn't only animal-rights groups which are voicing their protests. I am told that British tourists are as well, in that some have been walking out of the Roma Dola circus while others have expressed their disgust. What the tourists have objected to in particular (or at least what is alleged to have occurred during one show) was the whipping of lions and the beating of camels' legs in order to make the camels kneel down. While the lions were being hit, I understand, the announcer was calling for calm, as in "tranquilo". One assumes he wasn't addressing the lions.
British sensitivity towards animals is different to that in Spain, though the British Government is dragging its heels over what was intended to be a total ban on wild animals in circuses from the start of this July. But the circuses are also sensitive. Are they not? One comes back to that statement about animal welfare, to which one can add the defence that circuses comply with instructions from veterinary officials at the Council of Mallorca and the Guardia Civil's Seprona division. This defence was one that was made in challenging Pollensa town hall's ban.
I have no reason to believe that the circuses do mistreat their animals, but there is the animals' general welfare and their welfare while "performing". Some tourists, at least, would disagree with the welfare argument.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, June 04, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Eden Playa hotel sold
The Eden Playa hotel in Playa de Muro has been sold to hotel chain Allsun Hotels which is owned by the German tour operator Alltours. The sale of the Eden Playa, one of four hotels run by Eden Hotels, which is based right opposite the Eden Playa, has been more or less forced on the company which has filed for temporary creditor protection. The sale does not affect the running of the hotel which remains open and will continue to be open through the season.
MALLORCA TODAY - Delgado and his personal trainer
The subject of tourism minister Carlos Delgado and his personal trainer flared up while Delgado was still mayor of Calvià, and it has come up again. The trainer, Younes Ouriaghli, has been appointed as consultant to the Balearics School of Sport (Delgado is also minister responsible for sport), and "Ultima Hora" has revealed that Ouriaghli and his sister, through a company operated by his sister, received some 800,000 euros from Calvià town hall for various projects between 2007 and 2011.
This revelation comes after the recent controversy surrounding Delgado's appointment of his girlfriend to a post in the tourism minister, which was later reversed because of the outcry.
See more: Ultima Hora
This revelation comes after the recent controversy surrounding Delgado's appointment of his girlfriend to a post in the tourism minister, which was later reversed because of the outcry.
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 June 2012
Cooler this morning, a high of only 21.7C at 08.30. A mix of cloud and blue sky, becoming clearer and the temperature back up to the high 20s. Warmer later in the week at the 30 mark.
Afternoon update: An inland high of 24.4C today. Pretty decent day, plenty of sun, little cooler by the coasts, and warming up later in the week.
Afternoon update: An inland high of 24.4C today. Pretty decent day, plenty of sun, little cooler by the coasts, and warming up later in the week.
Bauzá And The Horns Of A Bull
When you get 94.5% of the vote in being re-elected as dear leader, you should be pretty pleased with yourself. José Ramón Bauzá has received 94.5% of the vote. He remains leader of the Balearics Partido Popular with the sort of ringing endorsement that should enable him to boast of the type of achievement dear leaders normally manage, such as registering eleven holes-in-one while shooting 38 under par.
Unfortunately, 94.5% of the vote doesn't mean that 94.5% of the party membership voted for the current president of the Balearics. Nothing like it. The turnout was only 35.9%. Given that there were no other candidates other than A.B.Stention, the endorsement was one that rang with the mufflers on. At least he can say that the percentage has risen - by 25.5% over 2010 when he gave Carlos Slim a good kicking to the tune of 38% more votes in the leadership run-off.
One of those he thanked at the party's congress for the muffled endorsement (all a bit like a BAFTA winner's speech) was minister Slim (and by the way I shall now only ever be referring to politicians and others by their official Google Translate titles, so you'd better get used to them) with whom, so he stressed, he had been working closely on the new tourism law. So, it's good to see that Bauzá has managed to set one rivalry to the side in the pursuit of the total hotelification of Mallorca, unlike another, that with the mayor of Manacor, Anthony Shepherd, who appeared to have better things to do, addressing the Catalan-youth-strop tendency at the annual let's-all-camp-for-Catalan do that has been held this year in Manacor, rather than bothering with frivolous matters such as the party congress.
Politicians from wherever they are, including inconsequential backwaters like the Balearics, come out with pretty much the same old guff, and Bauzá is no different. As part of his winner's oration, he said: "There is no improvisation, only rigour in decision-making; there is courage and we are taking the bull by the horns, because society has ordered us to". What this means is that they aren't making things up as they go along, which is just one accusation that has been levelled at the government (and not only the Balearic Government; Rajoy's is a work of total improvisation). No, they are not doing things on the hoof, and not even a bull's hoof, as instead the government have the bull by the horns, though I'm not sure that society did actually order them to do this.
Still, taking a bull by the horns, especially if it's a raging bull of raging debt such as that which has been rampaging across the Balearics, does demand courage, and Bauzá's government have this, because he says they have. And at the head of the government, there he is, a Captain Courageous, right out of a Kipling adventure story.
When you are presiding over a region that is bankrupt, adventure is the last thing that is needed, and were there any adventurousness, society would have every right to ask what on earth the government were doing. Thankfully, we do know what they're doing, because Bauzá, moving on in the great oration, has made this abundantly clear. "We are doing things well." Not brilliantly, but well. Things. Whatever things are. Inspirational. Even more inspirational is the fact that things are being done well and much better than it appears. Seriously, he said this. Had it not occurred to him that appearance is pretty important to a society demanding that bulls' horns be grabbed? What this can translate as is: "we've been lousy at doing nothing in particular". Which is unquestionably the case. He did also say at the congress that messages needed to be put across with greater strength. A further admission that they haven't been doing things well.
There was more inspiration from the Captain. "Unity despite the differences" (of which there are huge ones within the local PP). "A party that is humble, hard-working, independent." "A party that defends the weakest, equal opportunities, the welfare state and personal liberty." Yea, whatever. What's this independent bit, by the way? He's surely not advocating independence for the Balearics. And defence of the welfare state? This is defence which comes with a ten-euro charge for your health card and a 4.8 cents tax for a litre of petrol. Now, that's what I call taking the bull by the horns. Or is it just a load of old bull?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Unfortunately, 94.5% of the vote doesn't mean that 94.5% of the party membership voted for the current president of the Balearics. Nothing like it. The turnout was only 35.9%. Given that there were no other candidates other than A.B.Stention, the endorsement was one that rang with the mufflers on. At least he can say that the percentage has risen - by 25.5% over 2010 when he gave Carlos Slim a good kicking to the tune of 38% more votes in the leadership run-off.
One of those he thanked at the party's congress for the muffled endorsement (all a bit like a BAFTA winner's speech) was minister Slim (and by the way I shall now only ever be referring to politicians and others by their official Google Translate titles, so you'd better get used to them) with whom, so he stressed, he had been working closely on the new tourism law. So, it's good to see that Bauzá has managed to set one rivalry to the side in the pursuit of the total hotelification of Mallorca, unlike another, that with the mayor of Manacor, Anthony Shepherd, who appeared to have better things to do, addressing the Catalan-youth-strop tendency at the annual let's-all-camp-for-Catalan do that has been held this year in Manacor, rather than bothering with frivolous matters such as the party congress.
Politicians from wherever they are, including inconsequential backwaters like the Balearics, come out with pretty much the same old guff, and Bauzá is no different. As part of his winner's oration, he said: "There is no improvisation, only rigour in decision-making; there is courage and we are taking the bull by the horns, because society has ordered us to". What this means is that they aren't making things up as they go along, which is just one accusation that has been levelled at the government (and not only the Balearic Government; Rajoy's is a work of total improvisation). No, they are not doing things on the hoof, and not even a bull's hoof, as instead the government have the bull by the horns, though I'm not sure that society did actually order them to do this.
Still, taking a bull by the horns, especially if it's a raging bull of raging debt such as that which has been rampaging across the Balearics, does demand courage, and Bauzá's government have this, because he says they have. And at the head of the government, there he is, a Captain Courageous, right out of a Kipling adventure story.
When you are presiding over a region that is bankrupt, adventure is the last thing that is needed, and were there any adventurousness, society would have every right to ask what on earth the government were doing. Thankfully, we do know what they're doing, because Bauzá, moving on in the great oration, has made this abundantly clear. "We are doing things well." Not brilliantly, but well. Things. Whatever things are. Inspirational. Even more inspirational is the fact that things are being done well and much better than it appears. Seriously, he said this. Had it not occurred to him that appearance is pretty important to a society demanding that bulls' horns be grabbed? What this can translate as is: "we've been lousy at doing nothing in particular". Which is unquestionably the case. He did also say at the congress that messages needed to be put across with greater strength. A further admission that they haven't been doing things well.
There was more inspiration from the Captain. "Unity despite the differences" (of which there are huge ones within the local PP). "A party that is humble, hard-working, independent." "A party that defends the weakest, equal opportunities, the welfare state and personal liberty." Yea, whatever. What's this independent bit, by the way? He's surely not advocating independence for the Balearics. And defence of the welfare state? This is defence which comes with a ten-euro charge for your health card and a 4.8 cents tax for a litre of petrol. Now, that's what I call taking the bull by the horns. Or is it just a load of old bull?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, June 03, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia reduces its debt by eight million
An interview with Coloma Terrassa, the lady mayor of Alcúdia, in which she says that during her first year in office, her administration has reduced the municipal debt by eight million euros and that budgeting is now realistic for a time of austerity as opposed to the period of bonanza that previous administrations (not Partido Popular-led) had enjoyed. As ever with these things, there isn't much detail and nor is there anything particularly controversial.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 June 2012
24.5C the top at 08.30 on a sunny enough morning but with some cloud about and the wind having swung from the south to a north-westerly, which might just be what provokes a possible storm bringing in some unsettled stuff over the mainland.
Afternoon update: A high of 26.6C on a day that has remained mostly cloudy. Some spots of rain but nothing more.
Afternoon update: A high of 26.6C on a day that has remained mostly cloudy. Some spots of rain but nothing more.
The Day I Met The Queen
It was suggested to me that, as I originate from where I do originate (Surrey), it would be appropriate for me to be sporting a Union Jack tie as part of my own personal regalia to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Geezerdom. Coming from Surrey does not, I can assure you, mean that one is automatically a fervent royalist, and I am proof of the fact.
I had been aware of course that Her Madge was due a 60-year bash at some stage, but quite when it was to be I had no idea. Only on receiving an invitation to the Bulletin's drink-for-the-Queenathon at La Residencia did it dawn on me that the Jubilee party bags were due for an outing in early June. And so the Jubilee has duly arrived, and there appear to be several of them. I would have thought that the Jubilee would be one day, but it isn't. So many events are there that it appears to last for 60 days, one for every year of the reign.
Despite a general indifference towards the royals, I do have form when it comes to them, and not just the Queen. And that Surrey background explains why. But before getting to that, there is one very good reason why even I might wish to celebrate the Jubilee, and that is because the Queen has always been there. She was there before I was and she has remained there, a comforting piece of the national furniture sitting benignly in a corner of one's British psyche. There not being the Queen seems barely imaginable, as there has always been the Queen.
I was exposed to the Queen, or at least brief glimpses of her from behind a rear window of the royal Bentley, from an early age. The Queen used to make (she probably still makes but goes via the M3) an annual trek down the A30 to the military academy at Sandhurst for the passing-out. Consequently, schools along the route, and my primary school was, would disgorge their pupils and we would head off to a roadside speck next to the A30 where we could wave small paper Union Jacks held aloft on lolly sticks on which we had spent the previous week in earnest manufacture.
It all lasted a matter of seconds, even if the Bentley was only moving at suitably slow regal pace, and so the paper Union Jacks would be put away for the following year or more likely filed in the dustbin and all the mothers who had also lined the route in lavishly floral frocks and wide-brimmed hats would head home, put the frocks and hats back in the wardrobe and put their curlers back in.
It was some years later when, having left school, I ended up working in royal inner sanctums. This came about thanks to Surrey being able to boast the UK and European headquarters of S.C. Johnson, i.e. Johnson Wax. My association with Johnson came about through my post-A Level, gap year (before gap years were invented) employment with the temp agency Manpower. I got the delightful job of toilet cleaner at the Johnson factory and offices.
So efficient was I at maintaining the hygiene and cleanliness of the male lavatories and rest rooms that the supervisor, a splendidly military sort with a small, clipped moustache by the name of Bill Cullen, would specifically request me for special jobs, and these special jobs involved the royal palaces. Not the lavs, unfortunately with hindsight, but all manner of floors. Johnson was polisher by royal appointment, and the appointments meant Kensington Palace and Buck House.
Margaret and Snowdon's gaff was the first of the two, and I can reveal that all the talk of Margaret being a total lush was absolutely true. Drunk? Is the Queen an Anglican?
After the Kensington Palace gig, we moved on to Buckingham Palace and to its Grand Hall which formed the main part of the polishing job. During one particular rest period, I decided to indulge in a spot of exploration and came across a corridor with offices. On their doors were the names of the occupants: the Prince of Wales, who, not of course having any gainful employment, still lived with his parents; the Duke of Edinburgh; and the Queen.
It was while on this exploration that the door to one office opened and out stepped Her Majesty and some secretary type. I was rooted to the spot, firstly because I suspected I shouldn't have been where I was, and secondly because, blimey, it was the Queen. The exchange, and there was one, went something along the lines of: "Can I help you?" (the secretary type); "Er, er, bluh, bluh" (me); "Are you with the polishers?" (the secretary type); "Er, er, yes." "The polishers, ma'am. Johnson." "Oh yes, of course. The polishers." (the Queen).
And that was about that. Off went the Queen to wherever she was going, leaving behind a startled and tongue-tied seventeen-year-old who was to later receive regular ribbings from his mates who were, like the seventeen-year-old, avowedly anti-monarchist. But anti-monarchist or not, suddenly put the Queen in front of you, and you go gooey. Happy Jubilee, your Madge, and thanks for always having been there.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I had been aware of course that Her Madge was due a 60-year bash at some stage, but quite when it was to be I had no idea. Only on receiving an invitation to the Bulletin's drink-for-the-Queenathon at La Residencia did it dawn on me that the Jubilee party bags were due for an outing in early June. And so the Jubilee has duly arrived, and there appear to be several of them. I would have thought that the Jubilee would be one day, but it isn't. So many events are there that it appears to last for 60 days, one for every year of the reign.
Despite a general indifference towards the royals, I do have form when it comes to them, and not just the Queen. And that Surrey background explains why. But before getting to that, there is one very good reason why even I might wish to celebrate the Jubilee, and that is because the Queen has always been there. She was there before I was and she has remained there, a comforting piece of the national furniture sitting benignly in a corner of one's British psyche. There not being the Queen seems barely imaginable, as there has always been the Queen.
I was exposed to the Queen, or at least brief glimpses of her from behind a rear window of the royal Bentley, from an early age. The Queen used to make (she probably still makes but goes via the M3) an annual trek down the A30 to the military academy at Sandhurst for the passing-out. Consequently, schools along the route, and my primary school was, would disgorge their pupils and we would head off to a roadside speck next to the A30 where we could wave small paper Union Jacks held aloft on lolly sticks on which we had spent the previous week in earnest manufacture.
It all lasted a matter of seconds, even if the Bentley was only moving at suitably slow regal pace, and so the paper Union Jacks would be put away for the following year or more likely filed in the dustbin and all the mothers who had also lined the route in lavishly floral frocks and wide-brimmed hats would head home, put the frocks and hats back in the wardrobe and put their curlers back in.
It was some years later when, having left school, I ended up working in royal inner sanctums. This came about thanks to Surrey being able to boast the UK and European headquarters of S.C. Johnson, i.e. Johnson Wax. My association with Johnson came about through my post-A Level, gap year (before gap years were invented) employment with the temp agency Manpower. I got the delightful job of toilet cleaner at the Johnson factory and offices.
So efficient was I at maintaining the hygiene and cleanliness of the male lavatories and rest rooms that the supervisor, a splendidly military sort with a small, clipped moustache by the name of Bill Cullen, would specifically request me for special jobs, and these special jobs involved the royal palaces. Not the lavs, unfortunately with hindsight, but all manner of floors. Johnson was polisher by royal appointment, and the appointments meant Kensington Palace and Buck House.
Margaret and Snowdon's gaff was the first of the two, and I can reveal that all the talk of Margaret being a total lush was absolutely true. Drunk? Is the Queen an Anglican?
After the Kensington Palace gig, we moved on to Buckingham Palace and to its Grand Hall which formed the main part of the polishing job. During one particular rest period, I decided to indulge in a spot of exploration and came across a corridor with offices. On their doors were the names of the occupants: the Prince of Wales, who, not of course having any gainful employment, still lived with his parents; the Duke of Edinburgh; and the Queen.
It was while on this exploration that the door to one office opened and out stepped Her Majesty and some secretary type. I was rooted to the spot, firstly because I suspected I shouldn't have been where I was, and secondly because, blimey, it was the Queen. The exchange, and there was one, went something along the lines of: "Can I help you?" (the secretary type); "Er, er, bluh, bluh" (me); "Are you with the polishers?" (the secretary type); "Er, er, yes." "The polishers, ma'am. Johnson." "Oh yes, of course. The polishers." (the Queen).
And that was about that. Off went the Queen to wherever she was going, leaving behind a startled and tongue-tied seventeen-year-old who was to later receive regular ribbings from his mates who were, like the seventeen-year-old, avowedly anti-monarchist. But anti-monarchist or not, suddenly put the Queen in front of you, and you go gooey. Happy Jubilee, your Madge, and thanks for always having been there.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, June 02, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 June 2012
A cloudy sort of start, but the sun's out and clearing the cloud away. A local top of 21.2C at 08.15, set to rise to close to 30. Cloud likely tomorrow, though only an outside chance of some rain.
Afternoon update: Genuine heat today. Very noticeable with the southerly blowing and taking the high to 32.7C. There may well be an isolated storm tomorrow, but settling down again on Monday.
Afternoon update: Genuine heat today. Very noticeable with the southerly blowing and taking the high to 32.7C. There may well be an isolated storm tomorrow, but settling down again on Monday.
Make Mine An Estrella
What a video. If you haven't seen the Estrella Damm commercial, then why haven't you? Get on YouTube now, and watch it. It is the best promotional video since Thomson's brilliant "Time For A Holiday" ad for this summer was launched last year, and the Estrella one was shot on Mallorca, unlike Thomson's.
I say promotional video, but it isn't a promotional video for Mallorca. Not officially at any rate. It is a promotion for Estrella Damm beer. I don't know what sort of impact these commercials have on Estrella sales (the commercials are now an annual and much anticipated event), but if nothing else, an immense amount of gratitude should be extended to the Catalonian brewery; the 2012 video does more in terms of Mallorcan promotion than any advert that has ever been the product of governmental control.
Remember the cheesy Nadal-on-a-boat thing? The soundtrack which sounded like it was by The Corrs? Predictable and unimaginative it was. The Estrella video isn't. It tells a story and manages simultaneously to capture all manner of facets of Mallorca that are not confined to its locations (in and around Banyalbufar, it would appear).
The Nadal thing was a total and utter waste of money, a video created in the misguided belief that celebrity sells, when it doesn't. What does sell is emotion, and Estrella's video, like Thomson's, has this by the bucket-load, not sentimentally as was the case with the Thomson ad, but more subliminally. It is charming and a creative work of art of which Estrella, and its agency, should be extremely proud.
While Estrella will anticipate a boost to beer sales, the video is about far more than selling. Estrella has caused something of a sensation with its annual ads. The anticipation of their release matches the anticipation of where they are to be shot and what they will be about. When it was known that Estrella would be coming to Mallorca to shoot this year's video, there was a huge buzz, and the buzz that surrounds the videos extends all the way across the social media spectrum. Estrella goes viral via Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
For Estrella Damm, it is primarily about image and brand awareness and brand enhancement. The video is not solely youthful but mainly it is. The brewery has been astute in cultivating a hip image, one that can be clearly seen on its website. Here, there are examples of bold bottle design and of associations with youth culture and music - Lana Del Ray, Dizzee Rascal, The Chemical Brothers, they all find their way into the Estrella orbit, along with, for an older market, the Human League and Roxy Music. Posters for music events, such as that staged at the old brewery in 2010 and which featured Belle and Sebastian, are retro in a style reminiscent of the 1930s; the one for the 2010 event looks as though a giant young woman has replaced King Kong.
It is very, very clever marketing, and its cleverness, innovation, image creation, brand enhancement, use of internet and social media contrasts massively with the staid approach of official Mallorcan and Balearic promotion. Tired, uninspiring websites, an apparent indifference to social media, a lack of innovation. Amidst all the debate about what should be promoted about Mallorca, e.g. for boosting winter tourism, it is all too easy to forget about how it should be promoted. Instead of the introspective and formulaic approach that is normally adopted, a leaf out of the Estrella book should be taken.
Estrella's advertising campaign is apparently costing 2.5 million euros, and its advert is to be aired for the first time in the UK this year (I'm not sure if it is the whole video or a cut-down version or whether it might just be for cinemas). This isn't a huge amount, but it's rather more than the Balearic Government has at its disposal. Yet, if a similar buzz could be created by an advert that is official promotion for Mallorca, the costs of production and advertising would all be worthwhile. The Estrella video is not just an advert, it is an event; this is the cleverness of it, a cleverness that has eluded those responsible for official tourism promotions.
Still, the Balearic Government will doubtless be grateful to Estrella for doing its job for them. Maybe in fact the video is an example of tourism privatisation. And why not? That there are some beer bottles being handed around, well fine. Beer is drunk on holiday, it is very much part of a holiday. Let Estrella do Mallorca's advertising for it, and one thing's for sure, it would do an altogether more effective job than has been the case up to now.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I say promotional video, but it isn't a promotional video for Mallorca. Not officially at any rate. It is a promotion for Estrella Damm beer. I don't know what sort of impact these commercials have on Estrella sales (the commercials are now an annual and much anticipated event), but if nothing else, an immense amount of gratitude should be extended to the Catalonian brewery; the 2012 video does more in terms of Mallorcan promotion than any advert that has ever been the product of governmental control.
Remember the cheesy Nadal-on-a-boat thing? The soundtrack which sounded like it was by The Corrs? Predictable and unimaginative it was. The Estrella video isn't. It tells a story and manages simultaneously to capture all manner of facets of Mallorca that are not confined to its locations (in and around Banyalbufar, it would appear).
The Nadal thing was a total and utter waste of money, a video created in the misguided belief that celebrity sells, when it doesn't. What does sell is emotion, and Estrella's video, like Thomson's, has this by the bucket-load, not sentimentally as was the case with the Thomson ad, but more subliminally. It is charming and a creative work of art of which Estrella, and its agency, should be extremely proud.
While Estrella will anticipate a boost to beer sales, the video is about far more than selling. Estrella has caused something of a sensation with its annual ads. The anticipation of their release matches the anticipation of where they are to be shot and what they will be about. When it was known that Estrella would be coming to Mallorca to shoot this year's video, there was a huge buzz, and the buzz that surrounds the videos extends all the way across the social media spectrum. Estrella goes viral via Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
For Estrella Damm, it is primarily about image and brand awareness and brand enhancement. The video is not solely youthful but mainly it is. The brewery has been astute in cultivating a hip image, one that can be clearly seen on its website. Here, there are examples of bold bottle design and of associations with youth culture and music - Lana Del Ray, Dizzee Rascal, The Chemical Brothers, they all find their way into the Estrella orbit, along with, for an older market, the Human League and Roxy Music. Posters for music events, such as that staged at the old brewery in 2010 and which featured Belle and Sebastian, are retro in a style reminiscent of the 1930s; the one for the 2010 event looks as though a giant young woman has replaced King Kong.
It is very, very clever marketing, and its cleverness, innovation, image creation, brand enhancement, use of internet and social media contrasts massively with the staid approach of official Mallorcan and Balearic promotion. Tired, uninspiring websites, an apparent indifference to social media, a lack of innovation. Amidst all the debate about what should be promoted about Mallorca, e.g. for boosting winter tourism, it is all too easy to forget about how it should be promoted. Instead of the introspective and formulaic approach that is normally adopted, a leaf out of the Estrella book should be taken.
Estrella's advertising campaign is apparently costing 2.5 million euros, and its advert is to be aired for the first time in the UK this year (I'm not sure if it is the whole video or a cut-down version or whether it might just be for cinemas). This isn't a huge amount, but it's rather more than the Balearic Government has at its disposal. Yet, if a similar buzz could be created by an advert that is official promotion for Mallorca, the costs of production and advertising would all be worthwhile. The Estrella video is not just an advert, it is an event; this is the cleverness of it, a cleverness that has eluded those responsible for official tourism promotions.
Still, the Balearic Government will doubtless be grateful to Estrella for doing its job for them. Maybe in fact the video is an example of tourism privatisation. And why not? That there are some beer bottles being handed around, well fine. Beer is drunk on holiday, it is very much part of a holiday. Let Estrella do Mallorca's advertising for it, and one thing's for sure, it would do an altogether more effective job than has been the case up to now.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, June 01, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Estrella Damm video unveiled
The making of the annual commercial for Estrella Damm beer is quite a thing in the Balearics. The Catalonian brewery chooses locations on the islands for shooting the commercials, which are, as with the one this year, the length of a typical music video. So, spot the locations, if you can. The video is excellent.
MALLORCA TODAY - Cockroaches in Pollensa
There will apparently be more evidence than usual of cockroaches wandering around Pollensa and Puerto Pollensa. This is on account of treatment against the cockroaches to prevent them colonising in sewers.
Fine, but what happens to them once they are out and about, and where do they go?
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Fine, but what happens to them once they are out and about, and where do they go?
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 June 2012
Up a degree on yesterday morning, your big Mallorca morning high by 08.00 is 21.6C, heading up to around 28 later on. Forecast remains good, just a hint of a possible shower on Sunday but remote.
Afternoon update: 28.1C has been the day's best. Summer is most definitely here.
Afternoon update: 28.1C has been the day's best. Summer is most definitely here.
Leadership Lost: After Mallorca's industrial revolution
The business world knows all about the concept of the first mover, the company that grabs a hold of a particular market by being the first one to enter it and therefore creating it. The first-mover concept in business bears a similarity to the now ancient one of industrial revolution. Britain was the first mover in being the first nation to undergo a true industrial revolution, and look where it is now.
The great achievements of the industrial revolution could not disguise the mistakes that were made. These mistakes were inevitable. A first mover has no model to draw on; it is making things up as it goes along. Subsequent industrial revolutions elsewhere could draw on the lessons of the British industrial revolution and create more efficient versions of their own.
The business world has been full of first movers. IBM was the first genuine mover in the computer industry. Later, despite being slow to react to the arrival of the personal computer (which IBM had pretty much invented), once it did react, it made itself the industry standard. It remains a massive business and has done so by reinventing itself in a rapidly evolving industry. The first mover has to keep changing in order to maintain competitiveness. In a similar way, Britain has had to adapt by junking much of its old industrial base, but unlike IBM it has slipped down the competitiveness charts.
Mallorca never underwent a real industrial revolution. The island had industrialised, but the real revolution occurred with the arrival of mass tourism in the 1960s. Mallorca, along with the main Costas - Brava, Blanca, Sol - spearheaded an industrial revolution in tourism. The island invented tourism as it is now understood and it, together with the Costas, was the first mover in a whole new industry.
This collision of industrial revolution and first movement brought about with great suddenness Arenal, Playa de Palma, Magalluf, Lloret de Mar, Benidorm and Torremolinos. The first-mover resorts endure but all have reputations for varying levels of naffness. To the Mallorcan resorts, one can add Lloret's reputation for having the drunkest tourists, the Benidorm of the Garveys and Johnny Vegas, and Eric Idle's Watney's Red Barrel that Torremolinos has never shaken off.
Despite the reputations, Mallorca and the Costas retained the competitiveness that came with being industrial revolutionaries and with being first movers. For years, they remained industry leaders and unchallenged until they started to lose their way. Competition grew and spread, but critically Mallorca was unable to react. It had become bogged down by the complacency of its success and by the stasis and lack of agility caused by differing interests and the absence of clear vision, especially on behalf of politicians.
IBM was willing to accept that change meant that leadership may have to be relinquished (it is behind both Apple and Microsoft in terms of market value), but the company's change was one predicated on innovation. It is this latter factor that has maintained its reputation as one of the world's great companies. But it has been a lack of innovation that has helped to undermine Mallorca, along with the fact of its own industrial revolution (that of mass tourism) having been one that other countries could observe, copy or amend. From Mallorca's mistakes came Portugal, Greece, Turkey and gradually everywhere else.
Banca March has just released a report about tourism going forward to 2030. It highlights the huge growth of near competitors - Croatia, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco - and their anticipated growth. Banca March reckons that Croatia is in fact the greatest competitive threat to Mallorca and Spain because of easy land transport links to other European countries.
The bank observes that Mallorca does have the genuine capacity to innovate and that this resides with its hotels, and there is evidence of this in the spurt of innovation in the likes of Magalluf. But the hotels face certain pressures. Their profitability in Mallorca has been reduced for various reasons. There are richer pickings for them elsewhere, and it has been an irony that a good deal of competition that has arisen in other countries has come thanks to the exporting of Mallorcan hotel know-how and investment. Like IBM, which made its system open and so became the industry standard for PCs (and not doing this was what killed Apple's chances of being industry leader back in the early '80s), the hotels have reinvented themselves through their technology.
While the hotels have changed, Mallorca as a whole hasn't. It is crucial that it now does. If not, then like Britain, the leader of an industrial revolution will gradually slip and slip.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The great achievements of the industrial revolution could not disguise the mistakes that were made. These mistakes were inevitable. A first mover has no model to draw on; it is making things up as it goes along. Subsequent industrial revolutions elsewhere could draw on the lessons of the British industrial revolution and create more efficient versions of their own.
The business world has been full of first movers. IBM was the first genuine mover in the computer industry. Later, despite being slow to react to the arrival of the personal computer (which IBM had pretty much invented), once it did react, it made itself the industry standard. It remains a massive business and has done so by reinventing itself in a rapidly evolving industry. The first mover has to keep changing in order to maintain competitiveness. In a similar way, Britain has had to adapt by junking much of its old industrial base, but unlike IBM it has slipped down the competitiveness charts.
Mallorca never underwent a real industrial revolution. The island had industrialised, but the real revolution occurred with the arrival of mass tourism in the 1960s. Mallorca, along with the main Costas - Brava, Blanca, Sol - spearheaded an industrial revolution in tourism. The island invented tourism as it is now understood and it, together with the Costas, was the first mover in a whole new industry.
This collision of industrial revolution and first movement brought about with great suddenness Arenal, Playa de Palma, Magalluf, Lloret de Mar, Benidorm and Torremolinos. The first-mover resorts endure but all have reputations for varying levels of naffness. To the Mallorcan resorts, one can add Lloret's reputation for having the drunkest tourists, the Benidorm of the Garveys and Johnny Vegas, and Eric Idle's Watney's Red Barrel that Torremolinos has never shaken off.
Despite the reputations, Mallorca and the Costas retained the competitiveness that came with being industrial revolutionaries and with being first movers. For years, they remained industry leaders and unchallenged until they started to lose their way. Competition grew and spread, but critically Mallorca was unable to react. It had become bogged down by the complacency of its success and by the stasis and lack of agility caused by differing interests and the absence of clear vision, especially on behalf of politicians.
IBM was willing to accept that change meant that leadership may have to be relinquished (it is behind both Apple and Microsoft in terms of market value), but the company's change was one predicated on innovation. It is this latter factor that has maintained its reputation as one of the world's great companies. But it has been a lack of innovation that has helped to undermine Mallorca, along with the fact of its own industrial revolution (that of mass tourism) having been one that other countries could observe, copy or amend. From Mallorca's mistakes came Portugal, Greece, Turkey and gradually everywhere else.
Banca March has just released a report about tourism going forward to 2030. It highlights the huge growth of near competitors - Croatia, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco - and their anticipated growth. Banca March reckons that Croatia is in fact the greatest competitive threat to Mallorca and Spain because of easy land transport links to other European countries.
The bank observes that Mallorca does have the genuine capacity to innovate and that this resides with its hotels, and there is evidence of this in the spurt of innovation in the likes of Magalluf. But the hotels face certain pressures. Their profitability in Mallorca has been reduced for various reasons. There are richer pickings for them elsewhere, and it has been an irony that a good deal of competition that has arisen in other countries has come thanks to the exporting of Mallorcan hotel know-how and investment. Like IBM, which made its system open and so became the industry standard for PCs (and not doing this was what killed Apple's chances of being industry leader back in the early '80s), the hotels have reinvented themselves through their technology.
While the hotels have changed, Mallorca as a whole hasn't. It is crucial that it now does. If not, then like Britain, the leader of an industrial revolution will gradually slip and slip.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Legality of floating hotels questioned
The possibility that floating hotels might be created in ports in the Balearics, one raised by the new tourism law that is going through its phase of parliamentary adoption, has been drawn into question, as the final say on such a development would lie with national government.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Barriers to be removed from the old Pollensa to Lluc track
The Council of Mallorca has issued an ultimatum to those who have erected barriers along the old road between Pollensa and Lluc that these must be removed by 14 June, so restoring open access to the walk which has been the subject of controversy for years.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 31 May 2012
Coming in at a top of 20.6C at 07.45, it's another rocking morning, to be followed by another rocking day, a big 28 on the cards. The outlook is pretty much the same for the next few days, that chance of a spot of rain either Sunday or Monday or both having receded.
Afternoon update: 27.5C has been your big inland high today, a couple of degrees lower by the coast.
Afternoon update: 27.5C has been your big inland high today, a couple of degrees lower by the coast.
Fake Adele: Mallorcan unreality
Radio One's Chris Moyles Show got its news presenter to conduct a recent interview with the American comedian and actor Chris Rock in the guise of a fake Adele. A high-pitched voice and some daft questions were mingled with a game, "what's in my sock, Chris Rock?"
Adele, being the international singing star that she is, can anticipate all manner of faking, and it is probably occurring right at this moment on the streets of Mallorca, in its bars and in its hotels. Faking is a way of life in Mallorca. The lookies sell you fake Adele CDs; karaoke bars are filled with fake, wannabe Adeles; hotel entertainment shows perpetrate the greatest entertainment horror known to man - the playback - and so Adele being mimed to. Fake Adele.
There is probably a fake Adele trib act knocking around as well. In fact, I would be amazed if there weren't one, or several. Given that, with the honourable exception of when I wrote a piece about Rud Stewart (as opposed to Rod) and received the Rud spiked haircut of approval, someone takes exception (normally the acts themselves) whenever I write about trib acts, I shall desist in saying anything negative on the matter of a fake Adele act or acts. Suffice it to say, some tribs tend to take themselves rather more seriously than they perhaps should.
It comes as a blow to the island's self-esteem, when you realise that Mallorca is built on fakery. Little of it is in fact real. To the fake CDs, DVDs, watches, sunglasses and other ware, you can add the fake karaoke-ists, the fake playbackers, the fake tribs, and then you can add even more - the fake gas inspectors, the occasional fake copper, the fake fifty euro notes, the fake invoices, the fake footy shirts, the pale tourist with the bottle of fake tan.
There is also the faking it. Faking an injury or an illness. Pulling a sicky in other words. The bane of the bar owner's life. The fake ankle twist, the fake food poisoning, the fake sore throat and high temperature. Really? Who was that who was doing a fake Adele while standing on a bar table, having polished off several vodka shots (and probably not fake vodka, though even this is not unknown)? And if the illness was that bad, how come the tan has come on so well over the past few days? More fake tan?
Then there are the über-fakes. In Mallorca, you can become someone else. There are all sorts of "other" people knocking about. At its most extreme, the creation of whole new personas or the previous persona having been consigned to history or not being admitted to can lead to the worst sort of fakes - the criminal ones. A court in Yorkshire is soon to hear about one such fake - an alleged fake, one should add, but one that involved millions of mainly Calvia euros. No one had the faintest idea until collars were being felt and the past was revealed.
In Mallorca's courts, fakes committed in the past are being investigated, sentences are being demanded. The fall of former politicians, tumbling from grace through fake accounting, is the come-uppance (or lowerance) for what has been institutionalised fakery. Has this had its day? We should applaud President Bauzá for attempting to, if not putting an end to it, at least limiting the chances of it occurring. Institutionalised fakery is what begets other fakery and legitimises it, or is it the other way round? Society's fakery has produced the politicians it deserves, ones who have merely mirrored the society from which they came.
The fake of selling a car that doesn't belong to you, the fake of selling a business that doesn't belong to you or a property that doesn't belong to you; or attempting to do one or all of these. So much faking, you don't know what is real. Nothing, or little, is as it seems. There's always something behind it (whatever it is), or you suspect there is.
Even when something is authentic, or says it is, you begin to wonder. Authentic cuisine? Well, most authentic cuisine is authentic, but some might not be. It might be fake. The restaurant itself might not be authentic. It is a restaurant, but what is its real purpose? You don't need me to spell out this possible real purpose. Do you?
From the innocent, the silly, the frivolous to the less innocent, silly and frivolous. From fake Adele to real fakes, if a fake can ever be described as real. And what was in the sock, Chris Rock? It was a stapler. Ah, but was it a fake?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for May 2012
Airport profitability - 2 May 2012, 9 May 2012
Andrés Rábago: cartoonist - 27 May 2012
Bankia crisis - 18 May 2012
Beach management and lifeguards - 12 May 2012
Carlos Delgado's girlfriend - 5 May 2012
Catholic church and property tax - 14 May 2012
Christopher Columbus: Felanitx - 10 May 2012
Discretionary tourism spend and shops - 17 May 2012
Fakes - 31 May 2012
Fray Junípero Serra - 7 May 2012
Free selection of teaching language - 11 May 2012
Google Translate: odd names - 28 May 2012
Health service in crisis? - 8 May 2012
Holiday lets - 3 May 2012
Holidaymakers and urbanised resorts - 6 May 2012
La Gola visit by politicians - 26 May 2012
La Lliga and Convergència - 13 May 2012
Magalluf's preferential treatment - 22 May 2012
Protests against President Bauzá - 19 May 2012, 26 May 2012
Refuges on dry stone route - 21 May 2012
Sa Pobla publicity distribution - 15 May 2012
Son Real - 16 May 2012
Staff drinking in bars - 30 May 2012
Tourism: disposability and commodity - 1 May 2012
Tourism: harmful government policies - 4 May 2012
Tourism prospects for summer 2012 - 29 May 2012
Towns or cities - 20 May 2012
Utz Claassen and Real Mallorca - 23 May 2012
What if tourism had developed differently - 25 May 2012
Adele, being the international singing star that she is, can anticipate all manner of faking, and it is probably occurring right at this moment on the streets of Mallorca, in its bars and in its hotels. Faking is a way of life in Mallorca. The lookies sell you fake Adele CDs; karaoke bars are filled with fake, wannabe Adeles; hotel entertainment shows perpetrate the greatest entertainment horror known to man - the playback - and so Adele being mimed to. Fake Adele.
There is probably a fake Adele trib act knocking around as well. In fact, I would be amazed if there weren't one, or several. Given that, with the honourable exception of when I wrote a piece about Rud Stewart (as opposed to Rod) and received the Rud spiked haircut of approval, someone takes exception (normally the acts themselves) whenever I write about trib acts, I shall desist in saying anything negative on the matter of a fake Adele act or acts. Suffice it to say, some tribs tend to take themselves rather more seriously than they perhaps should.
It comes as a blow to the island's self-esteem, when you realise that Mallorca is built on fakery. Little of it is in fact real. To the fake CDs, DVDs, watches, sunglasses and other ware, you can add the fake karaoke-ists, the fake playbackers, the fake tribs, and then you can add even more - the fake gas inspectors, the occasional fake copper, the fake fifty euro notes, the fake invoices, the fake footy shirts, the pale tourist with the bottle of fake tan.
There is also the faking it. Faking an injury or an illness. Pulling a sicky in other words. The bane of the bar owner's life. The fake ankle twist, the fake food poisoning, the fake sore throat and high temperature. Really? Who was that who was doing a fake Adele while standing on a bar table, having polished off several vodka shots (and probably not fake vodka, though even this is not unknown)? And if the illness was that bad, how come the tan has come on so well over the past few days? More fake tan?
Then there are the über-fakes. In Mallorca, you can become someone else. There are all sorts of "other" people knocking about. At its most extreme, the creation of whole new personas or the previous persona having been consigned to history or not being admitted to can lead to the worst sort of fakes - the criminal ones. A court in Yorkshire is soon to hear about one such fake - an alleged fake, one should add, but one that involved millions of mainly Calvia euros. No one had the faintest idea until collars were being felt and the past was revealed.
In Mallorca's courts, fakes committed in the past are being investigated, sentences are being demanded. The fall of former politicians, tumbling from grace through fake accounting, is the come-uppance (or lowerance) for what has been institutionalised fakery. Has this had its day? We should applaud President Bauzá for attempting to, if not putting an end to it, at least limiting the chances of it occurring. Institutionalised fakery is what begets other fakery and legitimises it, or is it the other way round? Society's fakery has produced the politicians it deserves, ones who have merely mirrored the society from which they came.
The fake of selling a car that doesn't belong to you, the fake of selling a business that doesn't belong to you or a property that doesn't belong to you; or attempting to do one or all of these. So much faking, you don't know what is real. Nothing, or little, is as it seems. There's always something behind it (whatever it is), or you suspect there is.
Even when something is authentic, or says it is, you begin to wonder. Authentic cuisine? Well, most authentic cuisine is authentic, but some might not be. It might be fake. The restaurant itself might not be authentic. It is a restaurant, but what is its real purpose? You don't need me to spell out this possible real purpose. Do you?
From the innocent, the silly, the frivolous to the less innocent, silly and frivolous. From fake Adele to real fakes, if a fake can ever be described as real. And what was in the sock, Chris Rock? It was a stapler. Ah, but was it a fake?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for May 2012
Airport profitability - 2 May 2012, 9 May 2012
Andrés Rábago: cartoonist - 27 May 2012
Bankia crisis - 18 May 2012
Beach management and lifeguards - 12 May 2012
Carlos Delgado's girlfriend - 5 May 2012
Catholic church and property tax - 14 May 2012
Christopher Columbus: Felanitx - 10 May 2012
Discretionary tourism spend and shops - 17 May 2012
Fakes - 31 May 2012
Fray Junípero Serra - 7 May 2012
Free selection of teaching language - 11 May 2012
Google Translate: odd names - 28 May 2012
Health service in crisis? - 8 May 2012
Holiday lets - 3 May 2012
Holidaymakers and urbanised resorts - 6 May 2012
La Gola visit by politicians - 26 May 2012
La Lliga and Convergència - 13 May 2012
Magalluf's preferential treatment - 22 May 2012
Protests against President Bauzá - 19 May 2012, 26 May 2012
Refuges on dry stone route - 21 May 2012
Sa Pobla publicity distribution - 15 May 2012
Son Real - 16 May 2012
Staff drinking in bars - 30 May 2012
Tourism: disposability and commodity - 1 May 2012
Tourism: harmful government policies - 4 May 2012
Tourism prospects for summer 2012 - 29 May 2012
Towns or cities - 20 May 2012
Utz Claassen and Real Mallorca - 23 May 2012
What if tourism had developed differently - 25 May 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 30 May 2012
19.8C at 08.00. Sun, bit of cloud. Sun all day. Mid-20s.
Afternoon update: A pretty big one today. A high of 27.8C.
Afternoon update: A pretty big one today. A high of 27.8C.
Drunk On The Job
Bar work and booze are inseparable. Booze is the stock in trade of the bar, but when the stocks of the trade start to disappear in directions that they shouldn't, the trade itself is damaged. This should be obvious, but laxity of controls suggests otherwise.
I first became aware of bar stock control, or the lack of it, when I was at university. You would think that a university would, because of its well-educated staff, have a grip on the basics of control, but not in my college they didn't, and the same went for other colleges on the campus. Of the eight campus bars, there was constant debate as to which one held the honour of having the drunkest bar manager (the word "manager" was only loosely applied).
The bar manager in my college had a face the colour of which fluctuated in its shades of purple. It wasn't the incident when he was hurled through a patio window that lost him his job - he survived - it was when the college's senior staff, who were meant to supervise the bar's operation, finally cottoned on to the level of "shrinkage". His parting gift was to urinate into the pipes.
As student president of the college, I was shown the books, such as they were. They made no sense. Nothing tallied, nothing balanced. There were apparent losses per unit (be it barrel or bottle), and the reason why was that there was no control.
It is pretty difficult to make a loss on a barrel of beer. A bar in Mallorca might pay around 50 euros for a 50-litre barrel of Saint Mick (the list price is higher, while the actual price can be lower than 50 euros). From this barrel, the bar can extract the equivalent of almost 90 pints. Even at a low price of two euros a pint, the direct contribution of beer sold should be edging up towards 130 euros. Yet a loss can be made. The reason? All the beer that isn't paid for.
A bar owner who is on the premises all or most of the time who chooses to give away free beer or free whatever and/or to drink him or herself into an early grave (and there have been the odd one or two) does at least exercise some control, even if it is control that is out of the control. He or she only has him or herself to blame if the return on a barrel, a bottle, a bag of sausages, whatever it might be, is not what it should be. Exercise firm control, on the other hand, and the return will be more or less as it should be, notwithstanding the inevitable, pretty much expected freebies that are extended to the likes of suppliers.
Where loss is more likely to occur is when control is lax or absent and the owner is also absent. Unless there are strict controls and strict rules as to what is or isn't permissible in terms of staff drinking (or eating) on duty, the losses accrue. I know they do, because I know examples, as I know examples of staff ostensibly in charge who are in a state of pretty much permanent inebriation; it is only the scale of the inebriation which tends to vary.
Apart from the loss, there are other factors when the hired hands are helping themselves to the beer pumps. It may all seem very convivial to join customers for a drink, but does every customer want to be greeted by someone who stinks of Saint Mick? And what about, for example, a chef who has too much juice? There may not be many who go so far as Kurt in "Fawlty Towers" who drank himself unconscious because Manuel wouldn't give him a kiss, but there are examples of those who can pack a fair amount away while in charge of equipment that could cause a serious accident, to say nothing of damage to customers' meals.
Time was when there were few controls. Things have changed. There is far less allowance to staff to drink while on duty. It's right that this should be restricted or totally barred. A bar is a business for all the reasons of control, profit, image and customer service outlined above. Bar owners who have made the rules tighter have sometimes met with resistance; if that's how it is to be, then stick the job. Fine. Why though should anyone drink alcohol while working? Bar it may be, but it doesn't mean drinking it.
If a return, and a pretty decent return at that, cannot be made from a barrel, then there is something seriously amiss. The bar owner is probably in the wrong business, and if drinking staff can't or won't be confronted because this might upset them, then he or she is definitely in the wrong business. Times are tough enough as it is without the profits being drunk. And ultimately, where the customer is concerned, does anyone really like a drunk?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I first became aware of bar stock control, or the lack of it, when I was at university. You would think that a university would, because of its well-educated staff, have a grip on the basics of control, but not in my college they didn't, and the same went for other colleges on the campus. Of the eight campus bars, there was constant debate as to which one held the honour of having the drunkest bar manager (the word "manager" was only loosely applied).
The bar manager in my college had a face the colour of which fluctuated in its shades of purple. It wasn't the incident when he was hurled through a patio window that lost him his job - he survived - it was when the college's senior staff, who were meant to supervise the bar's operation, finally cottoned on to the level of "shrinkage". His parting gift was to urinate into the pipes.
As student president of the college, I was shown the books, such as they were. They made no sense. Nothing tallied, nothing balanced. There were apparent losses per unit (be it barrel or bottle), and the reason why was that there was no control.
It is pretty difficult to make a loss on a barrel of beer. A bar in Mallorca might pay around 50 euros for a 50-litre barrel of Saint Mick (the list price is higher, while the actual price can be lower than 50 euros). From this barrel, the bar can extract the equivalent of almost 90 pints. Even at a low price of two euros a pint, the direct contribution of beer sold should be edging up towards 130 euros. Yet a loss can be made. The reason? All the beer that isn't paid for.
A bar owner who is on the premises all or most of the time who chooses to give away free beer or free whatever and/or to drink him or herself into an early grave (and there have been the odd one or two) does at least exercise some control, even if it is control that is out of the control. He or she only has him or herself to blame if the return on a barrel, a bottle, a bag of sausages, whatever it might be, is not what it should be. Exercise firm control, on the other hand, and the return will be more or less as it should be, notwithstanding the inevitable, pretty much expected freebies that are extended to the likes of suppliers.
Where loss is more likely to occur is when control is lax or absent and the owner is also absent. Unless there are strict controls and strict rules as to what is or isn't permissible in terms of staff drinking (or eating) on duty, the losses accrue. I know they do, because I know examples, as I know examples of staff ostensibly in charge who are in a state of pretty much permanent inebriation; it is only the scale of the inebriation which tends to vary.
Apart from the loss, there are other factors when the hired hands are helping themselves to the beer pumps. It may all seem very convivial to join customers for a drink, but does every customer want to be greeted by someone who stinks of Saint Mick? And what about, for example, a chef who has too much juice? There may not be many who go so far as Kurt in "Fawlty Towers" who drank himself unconscious because Manuel wouldn't give him a kiss, but there are examples of those who can pack a fair amount away while in charge of equipment that could cause a serious accident, to say nothing of damage to customers' meals.
Time was when there were few controls. Things have changed. There is far less allowance to staff to drink while on duty. It's right that this should be restricted or totally barred. A bar is a business for all the reasons of control, profit, image and customer service outlined above. Bar owners who have made the rules tighter have sometimes met with resistance; if that's how it is to be, then stick the job. Fine. Why though should anyone drink alcohol while working? Bar it may be, but it doesn't mean drinking it.
If a return, and a pretty decent return at that, cannot be made from a barrel, then there is something seriously amiss. The bar owner is probably in the wrong business, and if drinking staff can't or won't be confronted because this might upset them, then he or she is definitely in the wrong business. Times are tough enough as it is without the profits being drunk. And ultimately, where the customer is concerned, does anyone really like a drunk?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - British tourist in serious condition after hotel fall
Another British tourist has fallen from a hotel balcony in Magalluf. A 26-year-old, named as Daniel Jerry, fell from a second floor on Sunday night, having drunk excessively and been, according to witnesses, performing "odd games" on the balcony. His injuries, though serious, are not believed to be life-threatening.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Manacor hospital director resigns
More evidence of the tensions in the Balearics health service. The medical director of Manacor hospital has resigned over cuts to both funding and personnel.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 29 May 2012
A local top of 21.6C at 08.45, due to climb to the higher 20s (27) on a fine morning. Some inland cloud but sunny otherwise.
Afternoon update: Not as warm as had been suggested, a high of 25.6C inland and a bit cooler on the coasts. The forecast is looking fine through the week and into the weekend, though there could be some rain come Monday.
Afternoon update: Not as warm as had been suggested, a high of 25.6C inland and a bit cooler on the coasts. The forecast is looking fine through the week and into the weekend, though there could be some rain come Monday.
You Pays Your Money: Tourism prospects
You pays your money, you takes your choice. Or you pays rather less of your money than previously and you takes less of a choice. Or you pays less of your money, you takes a similar choice but you takes one that involves you paying less. Whatever.
Much though no one much believes tourism spend statistics, and they have good reason not to, given the way in which the data for the statistics are gathered and to what they relate, you can't accuse the statisticians of seeking to cook the books and wishing to issue feelgood stats regardless of realities, though some people have in the past been inclined to accuse them of just this, when these tourism spend statistics have revealed a scenario that appeared to bear little relation to what was in fact happening on the street or on the terrace.
Tourism spend in the Balearics was down by 8.6% in April (compared with April 2011). Oh woe. However, demonstrating that comparing one month per year with the same month in a previous year can be like comparing chalk with cheese, in April last year the spend rocketed by comparison with 2010. Why? There was no ash cloud last April and the Arab spring had fully sprung. For the first four months of this year, or so says the Egatur survey (which is the one that deals with these tourism spend stats), spend is actually up on last year. Oh joy.
I think I have in the past promised to never quote these spend statistics ever again, given that they only partially deal with what is spent on the ground by tourists (a goodly proportion relates to costs of packages etc.). I am only breaking my promise and doing so now as a means of highlighting what is a confused picture of expectations for this summer. We have already been variously told that 2012 would be a "record" year, outstripping last year's record, then we were told that it might not be a record year because the Brits were all planning on taking a staycation, then we were told ... . Sorry, I have rather lost track of what we have been told.
A survey which came out last week, that by the Mallorcan research organisation Gadeso, suggested that this summer would be pretty much the same as last year and that there was in fact a rise in business optimism. Then the hoteliers went and spoiled things by issuing their own findings in hinting that occupancy figures weren't as strong as had been anticipated.
What does seem to be the case, insofar as one can draw anything like firm conclusions, is that the domestic Spanish market is dragging things down and so is the Brit market. Prospects for the summer suggest that the volume of domestic tourists coming to the Balearics will be down by 20%, while the Brits will show a decline of just over 5%, this coming on top of an appreciable fall in the first four months of 2012.
Neither is particularly surprising, the domestic market especially. Yet countering this gloomy outlook, there are - as ever - the good old Germans to keep things bobbing along reasonably well, but far more spectacularly there are the Russians and the Scandinavians who are both knocking in increases of 30% more tourists. The Italians are also looking good, as are the Dutch and the Swiss, while events elsewhere may yet lead to the usual last-minute rush; there is overbooking in Turkey and Tunisia, while there are continuing worries about unrest in Egypt and now also in Greece.
If you put all the other markets together, they do tend to compensate for losses elsewhere, though whether they are sufficient to fully compensate is another matter. The Spanish and British markets are two of the top three tourism markets by some fair old distance. Russian tourism up by 30% sounds good, but it is an increase from a comparatively low base, and while this 30% may well come laden with gold (most of it around their wrists or necks), it tends to end up in better quality all-inclusives. This accommodation will, because of the way in which the tourism spend stats are made up, help to probably show an increase in spend, but this is one reason why these statistics paint a false picture.
So, will 2012 be a better year than 2011, about the same or slightly down? Well, don't ask me, because I don't know. And nor does anyone else. It could be one thing, it could be another. You pays your money.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Much though no one much believes tourism spend statistics, and they have good reason not to, given the way in which the data for the statistics are gathered and to what they relate, you can't accuse the statisticians of seeking to cook the books and wishing to issue feelgood stats regardless of realities, though some people have in the past been inclined to accuse them of just this, when these tourism spend statistics have revealed a scenario that appeared to bear little relation to what was in fact happening on the street or on the terrace.
Tourism spend in the Balearics was down by 8.6% in April (compared with April 2011). Oh woe. However, demonstrating that comparing one month per year with the same month in a previous year can be like comparing chalk with cheese, in April last year the spend rocketed by comparison with 2010. Why? There was no ash cloud last April and the Arab spring had fully sprung. For the first four months of this year, or so says the Egatur survey (which is the one that deals with these tourism spend stats), spend is actually up on last year. Oh joy.
I think I have in the past promised to never quote these spend statistics ever again, given that they only partially deal with what is spent on the ground by tourists (a goodly proportion relates to costs of packages etc.). I am only breaking my promise and doing so now as a means of highlighting what is a confused picture of expectations for this summer. We have already been variously told that 2012 would be a "record" year, outstripping last year's record, then we were told that it might not be a record year because the Brits were all planning on taking a staycation, then we were told ... . Sorry, I have rather lost track of what we have been told.
A survey which came out last week, that by the Mallorcan research organisation Gadeso, suggested that this summer would be pretty much the same as last year and that there was in fact a rise in business optimism. Then the hoteliers went and spoiled things by issuing their own findings in hinting that occupancy figures weren't as strong as had been anticipated.
What does seem to be the case, insofar as one can draw anything like firm conclusions, is that the domestic Spanish market is dragging things down and so is the Brit market. Prospects for the summer suggest that the volume of domestic tourists coming to the Balearics will be down by 20%, while the Brits will show a decline of just over 5%, this coming on top of an appreciable fall in the first four months of 2012.
Neither is particularly surprising, the domestic market especially. Yet countering this gloomy outlook, there are - as ever - the good old Germans to keep things bobbing along reasonably well, but far more spectacularly there are the Russians and the Scandinavians who are both knocking in increases of 30% more tourists. The Italians are also looking good, as are the Dutch and the Swiss, while events elsewhere may yet lead to the usual last-minute rush; there is overbooking in Turkey and Tunisia, while there are continuing worries about unrest in Egypt and now also in Greece.
If you put all the other markets together, they do tend to compensate for losses elsewhere, though whether they are sufficient to fully compensate is another matter. The Spanish and British markets are two of the top three tourism markets by some fair old distance. Russian tourism up by 30% sounds good, but it is an increase from a comparatively low base, and while this 30% may well come laden with gold (most of it around their wrists or necks), it tends to end up in better quality all-inclusives. This accommodation will, because of the way in which the tourism spend stats are made up, help to probably show an increase in spend, but this is one reason why these statistics paint a false picture.
So, will 2012 be a better year than 2011, about the same or slightly down? Well, don't ask me, because I don't know. And nor does anyone else. It could be one thing, it could be another. You pays your money.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, May 28, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 28 May 2012
Quite cloudy, as had been forecast, but also some sun. 18.9C at 08:15. The forecast has changed, though, and the cloud should pretty much clear up later with temperatures into the mid-20s.
Afternoon update: Moderate highs despite the cloud going away, a top of 23.7C.
Afternoon update: Moderate highs despite the cloud going away, a top of 23.7C.
Lost In Google Translation
Google Translate is a wonderful tool. Wonderful, that is, for the howlers it produces. My advice: steer clear of Google Translate, unless you want to be held up to ridicule, or if you don't steer clear, do not, under any circumstances, take it as the final (strangely translated) word.
Google Translate is a machine. It is the Captain Larry Dart of cyberspace. An unseen on-chest translator of the type that "Space Patrol" deployed in order to turn Martian into perfectly comprehensible English with a mechanical-sounding, mid-Atlantic drawl. Larry Dart's translator had one advantage over Google Translate. It was generally correct, unless a technical hitch required the intervention of Galasphere 347's on-board boffin, Professor Heggarty.
One of Google Translate's biggest problems is that it cannot always make sense of verb conjugation. From Spanish to English, therefore, this means that the third person singular, as an example, comes out as he, she or even you, when none of these may actually apply (because it should be "it") or when he should be she, or vice versa.
This amusing little grammatical foible is nothing, however, when compared with what Google Translate does with some names. There is no doubting that as a tool, Google Translate has made more accessible information that is available only in Spanish, or indeed Catalan, to an English-speaking audience with only a rudimentary understanding of either language, if that. So it serves a useful purpose up to a point, but when whole tracts of articles or news items are then posted to the internet, some of the glaring errors scream out at you. As with some recent ones with a Pollensa angle.
Pollensa's mayor is Tomeu Cifre, but he isn't according to Google Translate. He is Tomeu Encrypt. In a way, it is appropriate. Mayors of most towns deal with speaking in code, a lack of transparency and obfuscation. In Santa Margalida, its mayor is Miguel Encrypt. The joke of the name of the local DJs, Two Many Cifres (nicked from 2 Many DJs and an observation on the fact that there are an awful lot of Cifres), would be an even better joke were they to name themselves Two Many Encrypts.
Other politicians suffer similar fates. Take tourism minister Carlos Delgado. Put Delgado into Google Translate - and on no account try this with Catalan to English, as he wouldn't like that at all (and besides which it wouldn't work) - and out pops Carlos Slim. In continuing the "Space Patrol" association, Slim was an elf-like creature from Venus on Galasphere 347. So maybe Delgado is in fact a Venusian. It would explain a lot. Delgado could also, so Google Translate informs us, be thin, flimsy or spidery. I leave it to you to apply your own preference.
The man in charge of the mega-ministry of agriculture, environment, land and transport, Gabriel Company, does not emerge in fully businesslike fashion from a Catalan to English Google translation. He is merely a companion or a colleague, but having recently renounced his independent status within the regional government's cabinet and become a card-carrying member of the Partido Popular, he is now a genuine PP companion and colleague, a transport minister who has become a fellow traveller.
Going back to Mayor Encrypt, the Pollensa one, his predecessor was Joan Cerdà. Joan offers an awful lot of scope when it comes to his English meaning, not all of it terribly complimentary. From Spanish, minus the accent, he is either hairy or porcine (and feminine porcine, to boot). Bristle or sow. Much as many like to poke fun, he is no pig in a poke. Cerdà, in Catalan terms, comes from someone who was a native of La Cerdanya in the Pyrenees.
It isn't only politicians of course who suffer fates of humiliation or nominal corruption by Google Translate. Who is the most famous Mallorcan of all? One of the world's greatest sportspeople. Rafael Nadal. Not quite. He is Rafael Christmas (though you do have to enter Nadal by itself to turn him into a yule-tide festival; Google Translate can sometimes cope with proper names and therefore not translate them).
Yes, Google Translate is a wonderful tool. One that offers hours of endless amusement. But Larry Dart's translator was still superior. What, though, would have happened had Galasphere 347 landed at a wintertime fiesta in Pollensa, overseen by Mayor Encrypt, and had Husky, its sausage-loving Martian crew member, consulted the Martian via Catalan to English translator? Botifarró? The mind boggles. Remarkably enough, though, Google Translate does it. Sausage. Just don't mention this to Pollensa's former mayor.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Google Translate is a machine. It is the Captain Larry Dart of cyberspace. An unseen on-chest translator of the type that "Space Patrol" deployed in order to turn Martian into perfectly comprehensible English with a mechanical-sounding, mid-Atlantic drawl. Larry Dart's translator had one advantage over Google Translate. It was generally correct, unless a technical hitch required the intervention of Galasphere 347's on-board boffin, Professor Heggarty.
One of Google Translate's biggest problems is that it cannot always make sense of verb conjugation. From Spanish to English, therefore, this means that the third person singular, as an example, comes out as he, she or even you, when none of these may actually apply (because it should be "it") or when he should be she, or vice versa.
This amusing little grammatical foible is nothing, however, when compared with what Google Translate does with some names. There is no doubting that as a tool, Google Translate has made more accessible information that is available only in Spanish, or indeed Catalan, to an English-speaking audience with only a rudimentary understanding of either language, if that. So it serves a useful purpose up to a point, but when whole tracts of articles or news items are then posted to the internet, some of the glaring errors scream out at you. As with some recent ones with a Pollensa angle.
Pollensa's mayor is Tomeu Cifre, but he isn't according to Google Translate. He is Tomeu Encrypt. In a way, it is appropriate. Mayors of most towns deal with speaking in code, a lack of transparency and obfuscation. In Santa Margalida, its mayor is Miguel Encrypt. The joke of the name of the local DJs, Two Many Cifres (nicked from 2 Many DJs and an observation on the fact that there are an awful lot of Cifres), would be an even better joke were they to name themselves Two Many Encrypts.
Other politicians suffer similar fates. Take tourism minister Carlos Delgado. Put Delgado into Google Translate - and on no account try this with Catalan to English, as he wouldn't like that at all (and besides which it wouldn't work) - and out pops Carlos Slim. In continuing the "Space Patrol" association, Slim was an elf-like creature from Venus on Galasphere 347. So maybe Delgado is in fact a Venusian. It would explain a lot. Delgado could also, so Google Translate informs us, be thin, flimsy or spidery. I leave it to you to apply your own preference.
The man in charge of the mega-ministry of agriculture, environment, land and transport, Gabriel Company, does not emerge in fully businesslike fashion from a Catalan to English Google translation. He is merely a companion or a colleague, but having recently renounced his independent status within the regional government's cabinet and become a card-carrying member of the Partido Popular, he is now a genuine PP companion and colleague, a transport minister who has become a fellow traveller.
Going back to Mayor Encrypt, the Pollensa one, his predecessor was Joan Cerdà. Joan offers an awful lot of scope when it comes to his English meaning, not all of it terribly complimentary. From Spanish, minus the accent, he is either hairy or porcine (and feminine porcine, to boot). Bristle or sow. Much as many like to poke fun, he is no pig in a poke. Cerdà, in Catalan terms, comes from someone who was a native of La Cerdanya in the Pyrenees.
It isn't only politicians of course who suffer fates of humiliation or nominal corruption by Google Translate. Who is the most famous Mallorcan of all? One of the world's greatest sportspeople. Rafael Nadal. Not quite. He is Rafael Christmas (though you do have to enter Nadal by itself to turn him into a yule-tide festival; Google Translate can sometimes cope with proper names and therefore not translate them).
Yes, Google Translate is a wonderful tool. One that offers hours of endless amusement. But Larry Dart's translator was still superior. What, though, would have happened had Galasphere 347 landed at a wintertime fiesta in Pollensa, overseen by Mayor Encrypt, and had Husky, its sausage-loving Martian crew member, consulted the Martian via Catalan to English translator? Botifarró? The mind boggles. Remarkably enough, though, Google Translate does it. Sausage. Just don't mention this to Pollensa's former mayor.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Private money may finance further rail electrification
The Balearic Government is hoping that it will be able to electrify the two branches from the Palma-Inca railway - to Sa Pobla and Manacor - with private money under a scheme that would see the government pay a charge based on passenger numbers.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Volunteers will clean Pollensa beaches
Pollensa town hall has struck an arrangement with Gadma, the local friends of the environment group, to keep clean inlets and the storm stream (torrent) at three beaches, Cala Bóquer and Calas Carbó and Barques in Cala San Vicente.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 27 May 2012
Another fine and warm day ahead, the local high at 08.30 being 20.9C. Clear, sunny skies with some hazy cloud over the hinterland.
Afternoon update: A top today of 24.7C, occasional cloud but otherwise sunny. Tomorrow is now due to be largely cloudy though there is very little chance of rain.
Afternoon update: A top today of 24.7C, occasional cloud but otherwise sunny. Tomorrow is now due to be largely cloudy though there is very little chance of rain.
The Broken: Spain's greatest cartoonist
Andrés Rábago. Who he?
Rábago is a cartoonist. Spain's most famous cartoonist. He is not a creator of cartoon strips, but of the usually one-off satirical, social commentary or otherwise pointed cartoon. He has gone under different pseudonyms, changing one well-known nom de plume for another well-known one and simultaneously changing the style of his message. He is now 65 years old and his oeuvre is being celebrated in an exhibition at Madrid's Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
65 years old is telling. Rábago was still a young man when Franco died, but he was active in the later years of the dictator. For a cartoonist with a satirical streak, this might have represented a dangerous occupation, but Rábago forged a reputation in the late '60s and into the 1970s nevertheless.
In truth, his satire began to emerge later. During Franco's time and for some years after, he traded in a style of cartoon that had echoes perhaps of Gerald Scarfe and of The Scream paintings of Edvard Munch. It was a style that dealt with the human condition, human fears and terrors, the subconscious and panic in particular; hence the possible link to Munch. It was one that also owed something to the surrealism of Dalí and Miró but much more to the later work of Goya, the Spanish painter more commonly thought of as a romantic but who created frightening imagery, such as in his oil on tin called the "Yard with Lunatics". Ken Russell, the film director, one would have to guess, was probably also influenced by Goya's hellish imagination and subliminal attacks on the reign of the then Spanish king.
References to artists of fame might seem strange when talking about a cartoonist, but Rábago was not and isn't a cartoonist in the way that one immediately understands the term to mean. It is only right that the Academy should honour him with a showing and only right that the art-world establishment, often haughty when it comes to cartoon works and even comic strips, should recognise the intrinsic artistic value of his contributions.
Rábago's first pseudonym was OPS. I have tried to find out the derivation of this pseudonym but without success, and Rábago himself seems to have been evasive in supplying an explanation. It might not have had anything to do with it, but put a "u" into OPS and what do you get? Opus. Rábago as OPS appears to have got away with a great deal during the final years of Franco's rule, partly because he didn't attempt to be a humorous cartoonist and so therefore didn't obviously expose himself as a critic of the regime, partly because he seemed to work in an artistic style reminiscent of Dalí who was generally sympathetic to Franco, and partly because Franco and his cronies simply didn't understand what he was doing. And among those who seemed not to have would have been fundamentalists within the church, such as Opus Dei.
OPS was killed off in the early 1980s, as the messages and style were no longer suited to a changing society. The underlying theme of allegorical repression that OPS displayed and the fears that this repression induced had given way to the more open, democratic society, but it was one that demanded a more direct political style, and so was born El Roto.
Literally meaning "the broken", El Roto is still at work, appropriately enough for an observer of the current rightist tendencies in Spain, in the left-leaning "El País". It is a time when sharp commentary, be it through cartoon, the written word or other means, is needed more than ever, especially in Spain. A desperate economy; an inadequate government; a clueless, ineffectual and anonymous prime minister; a church on the move that is seeking to regain its power; a monarchy plagued with controversy and gaffes; a banking sector in a partial state of collapse; unemployment the highest in Europe; poverty the worst in Europe with the exception of Romania and Bulgaria.
And later this year, in the Catalonian town of Hospitalet de Llobregat, there is to be a further exhibition that features Rábago's work. It will be called "a journey of a thousand demons", a nod in the direction of the OPS era. But the demons are as alive now as they were when they were symbolic of the torment of the Franco regime. Only they are different demons.
El Roto, the broken. How apt.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Rábago is a cartoonist. Spain's most famous cartoonist. He is not a creator of cartoon strips, but of the usually one-off satirical, social commentary or otherwise pointed cartoon. He has gone under different pseudonyms, changing one well-known nom de plume for another well-known one and simultaneously changing the style of his message. He is now 65 years old and his oeuvre is being celebrated in an exhibition at Madrid's Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
65 years old is telling. Rábago was still a young man when Franco died, but he was active in the later years of the dictator. For a cartoonist with a satirical streak, this might have represented a dangerous occupation, but Rábago forged a reputation in the late '60s and into the 1970s nevertheless.
In truth, his satire began to emerge later. During Franco's time and for some years after, he traded in a style of cartoon that had echoes perhaps of Gerald Scarfe and of The Scream paintings of Edvard Munch. It was a style that dealt with the human condition, human fears and terrors, the subconscious and panic in particular; hence the possible link to Munch. It was one that also owed something to the surrealism of Dalí and Miró but much more to the later work of Goya, the Spanish painter more commonly thought of as a romantic but who created frightening imagery, such as in his oil on tin called the "Yard with Lunatics". Ken Russell, the film director, one would have to guess, was probably also influenced by Goya's hellish imagination and subliminal attacks on the reign of the then Spanish king.
References to artists of fame might seem strange when talking about a cartoonist, but Rábago was not and isn't a cartoonist in the way that one immediately understands the term to mean. It is only right that the Academy should honour him with a showing and only right that the art-world establishment, often haughty when it comes to cartoon works and even comic strips, should recognise the intrinsic artistic value of his contributions.
Rábago's first pseudonym was OPS. I have tried to find out the derivation of this pseudonym but without success, and Rábago himself seems to have been evasive in supplying an explanation. It might not have had anything to do with it, but put a "u" into OPS and what do you get? Opus. Rábago as OPS appears to have got away with a great deal during the final years of Franco's rule, partly because he didn't attempt to be a humorous cartoonist and so therefore didn't obviously expose himself as a critic of the regime, partly because he seemed to work in an artistic style reminiscent of Dalí who was generally sympathetic to Franco, and partly because Franco and his cronies simply didn't understand what he was doing. And among those who seemed not to have would have been fundamentalists within the church, such as Opus Dei.
OPS was killed off in the early 1980s, as the messages and style were no longer suited to a changing society. The underlying theme of allegorical repression that OPS displayed and the fears that this repression induced had given way to the more open, democratic society, but it was one that demanded a more direct political style, and so was born El Roto.
Literally meaning "the broken", El Roto is still at work, appropriately enough for an observer of the current rightist tendencies in Spain, in the left-leaning "El País". It is a time when sharp commentary, be it through cartoon, the written word or other means, is needed more than ever, especially in Spain. A desperate economy; an inadequate government; a clueless, ineffectual and anonymous prime minister; a church on the move that is seeking to regain its power; a monarchy plagued with controversy and gaffes; a banking sector in a partial state of collapse; unemployment the highest in Europe; poverty the worst in Europe with the exception of Romania and Bulgaria.
And later this year, in the Catalonian town of Hospitalet de Llobregat, there is to be a further exhibition that features Rábago's work. It will be called "a journey of a thousand demons", a nod in the direction of the OPS era. But the demons are as alive now as they were when they were symbolic of the torment of the Franco regime. Only they are different demons.
El Roto, the broken. How apt.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Company joins the PP
Balearic Government environment, agriculture and transport minister Gabriel Company, who was appointed as an independent to the government given in particular his links to the farming sector, has now officially joined the Partido Popular. It is believed that this move will help to make the PP seem more "regionalist", a source of the government's problems having been that it is looked upon as being anti-regionalist.
MALLORCA TODAY - Opinion divided on Cala Rajada gay promotion
The second Mr Gay Pride España contest being celebrated in Cala Rajada tonight (how can they stage this when Eurovision is on?), opinion is divided as to whether the resort should be promoted as a gay destination. While opinion is in favour of gay and lesbian tourists, it is the promotion and therefore reputation that some residents are worried about.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - An average 300 lightning strikes per annum
The Balearics division of the Spanish met office has explained that there is an average of 300 lightning strikes onto Mallorcan land or sea per annum and that the Tramuntana mountains and the north-east of the island are the most affected. The met office has issued general recommendations to avoid being struck by lightning and to take precautions at home or in the office, such as switching off electrical appliances (internet routers and computers should definitely be switched off during a storm).
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa square reductions to tables
Pollensa town hall is to take measures to limit what is described as over-occupation of the Plaça Major in Pollensa town of bar and restaurant chairs and tables. The number has grown in contravention of a by-law of 2002, which was never truly implemented but now will be. Mayor Cifre says that there have been complaints about the number of tables. The whole issue of terrace seating was given an extra dimension when it was previously suggested that certain establishments in the square would gain under a new terrace law, one being that of the Hotel Juma, which belongs to the mayor's family.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 26 May 2012
19.3C top at 08:00. Summer appears to be here possibly in that there is a reasonably stable weather pattern for the next few days. Some cloud but consistently warm in the mid-20s. A high today of 25 or 26.
Afternoon update: A day's best of 25.6C, but clouded over somewhat later on.
Afternoon update: A day's best of 25.6C, but clouded over somewhat later on.
Putting In And Keeping Up Appearances
What do protests against President Bauzá and a visit by Pollensa's mayor to the nature park of La Gola in Puerto Pollensa have to do with each other? Very little on the face of it, but both can be considered as good PR.
Why are the protests good PR? The answer is simple. Get crowds of the youth stroppy mob indulging in some chanting and lobbing the odd missile and the propaganda value is incalculable. It all works in the president's favour. Kick up enough fuss about violent demonstrators and everyone will start tutting and having sympathy for a president battling against problems of economic crisis. The demonstrators would be far better served going along and standing in silence or with their backs to Bauzá when he arrives. This would send out a very different message, and the interpretation of the demonstration would be very different.
Bauzá has been putting in appearances all over the place, conducting a Cook's tour of the provinces. One day Pollensa and Santa Margalida, the next day Artà and Cala Ratjada. The tour is all in aid of getting around the local Partido Popular branches, but it has another, more cynical side to it. The president and his advisors could have expected a spot of bother and demonstrators duly obliged on the first stop of the tour in Inca. They couldn't have hoped for better. One demo spawns another. Copycatism. When politicians then condemn violence (and there has been little or no real violence) and start chucking around insults of their own at opposition parties which don't appear to be as inclined to do some condemning of their own, don't be fooled into believing that they aren't anything but delighted.
The additional PR benefit to Bauzá is that once the demos had started in Inca and then Manacor, he can then say that he will not be cowed or deterred by the "violence" and will continue on his tour. Were he not to, then democracy would be undermined and besides he is the democratically elected president; all this sort of guff. People are astonishingly naïve if they fail to see the propaganda purposes of Bauzá's tour, while the demonstrators have been astonishingly naïve, not to say stupid, in falling into the trap.
Then there was the visit of mayor Cifre to La Gola. He was accompanied by the government's environment minister, Biel Company. No demos, but instead a photo opportunity for the two men who essentially run the nature park. One fancies they were there more out of sufferance rather than really wanting to be there. As someone had decided that Thursday was European Day of Nature Parks, something would have to have been done to acknowledge the fact. Why not go to La Gola as a way of marking the day? At a stroke, not only could the day be given an official stamp of celebration, so also could it be shown that the town hall and the ministry were there at La Gola, taking seriously their responsibilities for its operation and its visitors' centre, a centre which is hardly ever open and will still be open for only parts of the year; it's going to shut again for two months at the end of June.
So, it was all good PR again, designed to quell the criticisms of town hall and ministry alike regarding their management of La Gola. Once more, if anyone truly believes the visit represents a more proactive attitude on behalf of these institutions towards La Gola, then they are being naïve. The visit was about putting in and keeping up appearances by making an appearance that wouldn't normally have been made, had it not been for the fortuitous coincidence of nature parks day.
Back to the Bauzá protests. These have also been somewhat embarrassing for all concerned. The number of school kids shown in a video issued by "Ultima Hora" attending the demo in Santa Margalida suggested that this was far from a protest of real militants and was not something of any "violence". But there is a more serious side to this, which is that the mere presence of those school kids does perhaps represent an example of a growing radicalisation of Mallorca's youth who are embracing more the Catalanist message. This radicalisation is one I have suggested has been occurring before through seemingly innocent events such as the "Acampallengua", the annual camp for promoting Catalan culture and the Catalan language among Mallorca's youth. The next one is to be held over the first weekend of June in Manacor, one of the main centres of opposition to Bauzá. It may not be as innocent as previous ones.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Why are the protests good PR? The answer is simple. Get crowds of the youth stroppy mob indulging in some chanting and lobbing the odd missile and the propaganda value is incalculable. It all works in the president's favour. Kick up enough fuss about violent demonstrators and everyone will start tutting and having sympathy for a president battling against problems of economic crisis. The demonstrators would be far better served going along and standing in silence or with their backs to Bauzá when he arrives. This would send out a very different message, and the interpretation of the demonstration would be very different.
Bauzá has been putting in appearances all over the place, conducting a Cook's tour of the provinces. One day Pollensa and Santa Margalida, the next day Artà and Cala Ratjada. The tour is all in aid of getting around the local Partido Popular branches, but it has another, more cynical side to it. The president and his advisors could have expected a spot of bother and demonstrators duly obliged on the first stop of the tour in Inca. They couldn't have hoped for better. One demo spawns another. Copycatism. When politicians then condemn violence (and there has been little or no real violence) and start chucking around insults of their own at opposition parties which don't appear to be as inclined to do some condemning of their own, don't be fooled into believing that they aren't anything but delighted.
The additional PR benefit to Bauzá is that once the demos had started in Inca and then Manacor, he can then say that he will not be cowed or deterred by the "violence" and will continue on his tour. Were he not to, then democracy would be undermined and besides he is the democratically elected president; all this sort of guff. People are astonishingly naïve if they fail to see the propaganda purposes of Bauzá's tour, while the demonstrators have been astonishingly naïve, not to say stupid, in falling into the trap.
Then there was the visit of mayor Cifre to La Gola. He was accompanied by the government's environment minister, Biel Company. No demos, but instead a photo opportunity for the two men who essentially run the nature park. One fancies they were there more out of sufferance rather than really wanting to be there. As someone had decided that Thursday was European Day of Nature Parks, something would have to have been done to acknowledge the fact. Why not go to La Gola as a way of marking the day? At a stroke, not only could the day be given an official stamp of celebration, so also could it be shown that the town hall and the ministry were there at La Gola, taking seriously their responsibilities for its operation and its visitors' centre, a centre which is hardly ever open and will still be open for only parts of the year; it's going to shut again for two months at the end of June.
So, it was all good PR again, designed to quell the criticisms of town hall and ministry alike regarding their management of La Gola. Once more, if anyone truly believes the visit represents a more proactive attitude on behalf of these institutions towards La Gola, then they are being naïve. The visit was about putting in and keeping up appearances by making an appearance that wouldn't normally have been made, had it not been for the fortuitous coincidence of nature parks day.
Back to the Bauzá protests. These have also been somewhat embarrassing for all concerned. The number of school kids shown in a video issued by "Ultima Hora" attending the demo in Santa Margalida suggested that this was far from a protest of real militants and was not something of any "violence". But there is a more serious side to this, which is that the mere presence of those school kids does perhaps represent an example of a growing radicalisation of Mallorca's youth who are embracing more the Catalanist message. This radicalisation is one I have suggested has been occurring before through seemingly innocent events such as the "Acampallengua", the annual camp for promoting Catalan culture and the Catalan language among Mallorca's youth. The next one is to be held over the first weekend of June in Manacor, one of the main centres of opposition to Bauzá. It may not be as innocent as previous ones.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, May 25, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Politicians visit La Gola
A day out for mayor Cifre and environment minister Company to the La Gola park in Puerto Pollensa yesterday. Nice for them. 70 different species of bird have visited the park as well, they heard, and said that the visitors' centre will close again at the end of June because it gets too hot for birds to come during the summer and then re-open in September.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 25 May 2012
A big 22.4C high at 09:45, inland anyway, heading up to mid-20s on a lovely, sunny day. Happy, happy.
Afternoon update: A best of 25.9C on a fine day. The weekend looks generally fine, there might be some cloud, but temperatures similar to today.
Afternoon update: A best of 25.9C on a fine day. The weekend looks generally fine, there might be some cloud, but temperatures similar to today.
What If? Tourism after the wars
1936 and all that. But what might have happened to tourism had things after 1936 been rather different? What-ifs are pure hypothesis but they are still intriguing, and when one considers how Mallorca's tourism was disrupted by 1936, it is intriguing to wonder whether the island's tourism would be like it is today.
Mallorca's tourism can be traced back to the Archduke Luis Salvador, who invited a collection of intellectual and creative friends to Ramon Llull's Miramar in Valldemossa. This was in the nineteenth century, though, and it was a very specific and high-brow type of tourism. Mallorca's first tourism era as such began in the 1920s. There have been two tourism eras, because of what got in the way to cause there to be two.
Of articles I have written previously, there have been those about the old golf course in Alcúdia, about the first tourism seaplane flights from France to Alcúdia, about the first passenger flights from Italy to Puerto Pollensa, about the abandonment of plans for the rail extension to Alcúdia. These are all linked to 1936 which meant that the golf course was built on, the French flights ceased, the Italian ones started and the railway wasn't to be given serious further attention for 70 years.
War obviously has an impact on economic life, and tourism was an economic victim in that it was killed stone dead in 1936. It didn't help that the Civil War was followed immediately by the World War, but, and notwithstanding the relatively small amount of tourism in the 1950s, there was a hiatus of some 25 years between the two tourism eras. War can explain or excuse only so much, though; the rest of the explanation was political and economic.
Accepting the fact of both the Civil and World Wars and their intervention in the first and nascent Mallorcan tourism era, what if the political regime had been more benign, less inward-looking and less economically parochial from the end of World War Two?
A different type of regime wouldn't have brought about the earlier creation of mass tourism, as this was only possible once air transport and general living standards in northern Europe were sufficiently advanced to allow it, but had it been progressive from the late 1940s, more outward-looking and embraced what had started to be shaped before 1936, a different tourism would in all likelihood have been developed.
From the examples above, take golf. This only truly reappeared on the Mallorcan agenda under a tourism plan of the 1980s. Arguably, this was too late, as competitors, such as Portugal, were already far more advanced. Yet had it been given genuine attention much earlier, Mallorca's winter tourism might now not suffer to the extent that it does.
Then take the railway and the flights: infrastructure on Mallorca was neglected; Air France didn't come back; the Italian flights ceased in 1943 and there weren't more (British) until the second half of the 1950s. Had, however, there been a resumption of flights into Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa and had the northern rail line been established, the accessibility of the north of Mallorca would have been considerably greater than it was and would have altered the balance between north and south in tourism development.
But perhaps most important of all would have been how tourism as a whole would have developed. Mass tourism to Mallorca, the second era, came about through economic necessity, once Franco's technocrats had convinced him that autarky and parochialism were not the way forward. And it led to wholesale environmental destruction in the mad dash to create an economy worthy of the name. Had, though, general economic management not been the total disaster it was until the change of tack in the late '50s and had tourism development been smoother and more along French lines, might the massive resorts have ever been created?
The French model of tourism differs to that of Mallorca and to parts of Spain. Its relatively few purpose-built resorts, such as Cap d'Agde, primarily came into being only as a response to the challenge posed by the Costas. Otherwise, it is more diverse and less ruled by interests of hoteliers.
Mallorca may have ended up with exactly the same tourism it did in the 1960s, regardless of the style of political regime, but it might not have. Had the development been more on a straight line of a continuous tourism era (save for the interruption of war) and had there not been the economic need for the suddenness of what occurred in the 1960s, Mallorca's tourism and indeed whole economy might now be very different.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Mallorca's tourism can be traced back to the Archduke Luis Salvador, who invited a collection of intellectual and creative friends to Ramon Llull's Miramar in Valldemossa. This was in the nineteenth century, though, and it was a very specific and high-brow type of tourism. Mallorca's first tourism era as such began in the 1920s. There have been two tourism eras, because of what got in the way to cause there to be two.
Of articles I have written previously, there have been those about the old golf course in Alcúdia, about the first tourism seaplane flights from France to Alcúdia, about the first passenger flights from Italy to Puerto Pollensa, about the abandonment of plans for the rail extension to Alcúdia. These are all linked to 1936 which meant that the golf course was built on, the French flights ceased, the Italian ones started and the railway wasn't to be given serious further attention for 70 years.
War obviously has an impact on economic life, and tourism was an economic victim in that it was killed stone dead in 1936. It didn't help that the Civil War was followed immediately by the World War, but, and notwithstanding the relatively small amount of tourism in the 1950s, there was a hiatus of some 25 years between the two tourism eras. War can explain or excuse only so much, though; the rest of the explanation was political and economic.
Accepting the fact of both the Civil and World Wars and their intervention in the first and nascent Mallorcan tourism era, what if the political regime had been more benign, less inward-looking and less economically parochial from the end of World War Two?
A different type of regime wouldn't have brought about the earlier creation of mass tourism, as this was only possible once air transport and general living standards in northern Europe were sufficiently advanced to allow it, but had it been progressive from the late 1940s, more outward-looking and embraced what had started to be shaped before 1936, a different tourism would in all likelihood have been developed.
From the examples above, take golf. This only truly reappeared on the Mallorcan agenda under a tourism plan of the 1980s. Arguably, this was too late, as competitors, such as Portugal, were already far more advanced. Yet had it been given genuine attention much earlier, Mallorca's winter tourism might now not suffer to the extent that it does.
Then take the railway and the flights: infrastructure on Mallorca was neglected; Air France didn't come back; the Italian flights ceased in 1943 and there weren't more (British) until the second half of the 1950s. Had, however, there been a resumption of flights into Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa and had the northern rail line been established, the accessibility of the north of Mallorca would have been considerably greater than it was and would have altered the balance between north and south in tourism development.
But perhaps most important of all would have been how tourism as a whole would have developed. Mass tourism to Mallorca, the second era, came about through economic necessity, once Franco's technocrats had convinced him that autarky and parochialism were not the way forward. And it led to wholesale environmental destruction in the mad dash to create an economy worthy of the name. Had, though, general economic management not been the total disaster it was until the change of tack in the late '50s and had tourism development been smoother and more along French lines, might the massive resorts have ever been created?
The French model of tourism differs to that of Mallorca and to parts of Spain. Its relatively few purpose-built resorts, such as Cap d'Agde, primarily came into being only as a response to the challenge posed by the Costas. Otherwise, it is more diverse and less ruled by interests of hoteliers.
Mallorca may have ended up with exactly the same tourism it did in the 1960s, regardless of the style of political regime, but it might not have. Had the development been more on a straight line of a continuous tourism era (save for the interruption of war) and had there not been the economic need for the suddenness of what occurred in the 1960s, Mallorca's tourism and indeed whole economy might now be very different.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 24 May 2012
Nice, sunny day, a top of 20.6 C at 09:45. So, at least the sun's shining. That's about all that is. Have a nice day.
Afternoon update: Thermometer moving up a notch. 25.8 C the high this afternoon.
Afternoon update: Thermometer moving up a notch. 25.8 C the high this afternoon.
Owing To Circumstances ...
Well, what can I say? For once, I have been beaten. Put it this way, you try sitting in front of a computer for stretches twenty hours a time with barely a break, getting little sleep for four consecutive nights, eating hardly at all, and ending up with pretty much sod all into the bargain, other, that is, than severe cramps, a stiff neck and a virtual inability to speak. Yep, you try doing this and then putting together 750 or so words about whatever it might be.
So, apologies. Normal service will resume tomorrow with any luck.
Otherwise, up above is the weather.
So, apologies. Normal service will resume tomorrow with any luck.
Otherwise, up above is the weather.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Bauzá protest in Pollensa
President Bauzá, continuing his protestathon of Mallorca, whereby he turns up at different towns in order that some people can abuse him, yesterday attracted 300 protesters in Pollensa and the odd egg. Santa Margalida did less well, only 200 gathering near a bar where the president was dining.
MALLORCA TODAY - Sun loungers are vandalised again
Beach management concessionaire Bernat Riutort, who operates parts of Playa de Muro beach and Can Picafort's beach, has suffered another outbreak of sun lounger vandalism, around 150 beds having been slashed early yesterday morning.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 23 May 2012
Quite a bit of cloud around, but sun's out and the temperature is knocking in a top of 19.1 C at 08:45. Forecast to be calm, wind-wise, with temperatures climbing to the mid-20s with some cloud. The next few days are mostly the same but getting warmer.
Twenty-Twenty Vision: Real Mallorca
Utz Claassen has an unfortunate haircut. It is one sheared from a recent German tradition of hairstyling that bears no relation to convention or contemporaneousness. It veers towards the mulletist tendency of head furniture, combining an element of balding; it is Phil Collins of the 1980s with a light perm.
One shouldn't judge someone on haircut alone, but it is hard to ignore doing so in Utz's case. Indeed, it is hard to ignore Utz full stop. He's been popping up with great regularity recently, his ongoing clashes with other owners of Real Mallorca football club and his desire to put his side of the story having guaranteed his column inches.
Were it solely down to him, Utz would probably be the proud sole or majority owner of Real Mallorca, though what it might cost him to prise shares away from others, who can tell. Given that he has sought to find legal redress, and failed, in his claim that he paid over the odds for his current shareholding, you would imagine he might be reluctant to part with more than a few euros.
Undeterred by the fact that he isn't the club's major shareholder and by all his wrangling with his fellow shareholders (or perhaps because of it), Utz has been putting forward his vision for the club. This is a vision, one suspects, very much for PR purposes. German and therefore foreign, were he to ever become the largest shareholder, he would need to have a sceptical and parochial local fan base onside, its scepticism raised by all the recent history involving foreign suitors.
One of these was of course The Plumber. The Paul Davidson fiasco made a laughing stock out of many, and not just those associated with the club which, in any case, has been adept in achieving laughing-stock status on its own and without the intervention of some Mitty-like character.
Davidson had a vision as well. Part of this involved constructing a plastics recycling plant and slapping the Real Mallorca brand name (sic) onto all manner of business ideas. And of course, Real Mallorca was going to become a big cheese of a football team. League titles, European titles, and so on.
Utz has now gone public in presenting his vision going forward to the year 2020. This twenty-twenty vision includes Real Mallorca becoming the third force in Spanish football (behind, one supposes, Real Madrid and Barça) and generating extra income through the building of day care centres, chapels and cemeteries. You what!? Apparently, there are such things in the grounds of some German clubs' stadia, so we will have to take Utz's word that having a cemetery behind one end of Mallorca's stadium might be a sound idea.
This does beg a question (in fact, it begs several), and that is - which stadium? Moreover, plans for building this and that have a tendency to get bound up in local politics and red tape; Davidson's idea for a recycling plant was crackers, as he would never have got permission for it.
On the footballing side, it is not uncommon for wannabe club owners to have visions of league and European glory, but for Mallorca to be taking part habitually in the Champions League, which is what Utz envisions, something pretty dramatic would have to occur. Like finding a load of money. You can't knock a chap for having a vision, like you can't knock him for having a daft haircut, but the scepticism level will surely have been raised several more notches as a consequence of Utz dreaming of Europe.
The best that Mallorca could hope for would be to be like Stoke City, a well-run club and team that knocks on the doors of the Europa League and has gained admission. But this, apart from the well-run bit, is what Mallorca have been and are. The club and team are two separate things. The club has been in turmoil, while the team, if it hasn't necessarily thrived, has still managed to achieve, and very nearly qualifying for a Europa League spot this season was an achievement.
Utz is playing the PR game in seeking support from the fan base and the wider Mallorcan public in his battles with other club owners. Whether he convinces is questionable. Building cemeteries comes on the back of previous ideas, such as bringing great plane loads of Germans to watch Mallorca, one that was greeted with derision in some quarters of the press. And now there is also his vision of the team being bolstered by star players from Spain, England and Germany, all part of trying to drum up foreign supporters. But which star players? Utz isn't like the Venkys, who had in mind Ronaldinho and Beckham, but is his vision just a PR strategy pure and simple?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
One shouldn't judge someone on haircut alone, but it is hard to ignore doing so in Utz's case. Indeed, it is hard to ignore Utz full stop. He's been popping up with great regularity recently, his ongoing clashes with other owners of Real Mallorca football club and his desire to put his side of the story having guaranteed his column inches.
Were it solely down to him, Utz would probably be the proud sole or majority owner of Real Mallorca, though what it might cost him to prise shares away from others, who can tell. Given that he has sought to find legal redress, and failed, in his claim that he paid over the odds for his current shareholding, you would imagine he might be reluctant to part with more than a few euros.
Undeterred by the fact that he isn't the club's major shareholder and by all his wrangling with his fellow shareholders (or perhaps because of it), Utz has been putting forward his vision for the club. This is a vision, one suspects, very much for PR purposes. German and therefore foreign, were he to ever become the largest shareholder, he would need to have a sceptical and parochial local fan base onside, its scepticism raised by all the recent history involving foreign suitors.
One of these was of course The Plumber. The Paul Davidson fiasco made a laughing stock out of many, and not just those associated with the club which, in any case, has been adept in achieving laughing-stock status on its own and without the intervention of some Mitty-like character.
Davidson had a vision as well. Part of this involved constructing a plastics recycling plant and slapping the Real Mallorca brand name (sic) onto all manner of business ideas. And of course, Real Mallorca was going to become a big cheese of a football team. League titles, European titles, and so on.
Utz has now gone public in presenting his vision going forward to the year 2020. This twenty-twenty vision includes Real Mallorca becoming the third force in Spanish football (behind, one supposes, Real Madrid and Barça) and generating extra income through the building of day care centres, chapels and cemeteries. You what!? Apparently, there are such things in the grounds of some German clubs' stadia, so we will have to take Utz's word that having a cemetery behind one end of Mallorca's stadium might be a sound idea.
This does beg a question (in fact, it begs several), and that is - which stadium? Moreover, plans for building this and that have a tendency to get bound up in local politics and red tape; Davidson's idea for a recycling plant was crackers, as he would never have got permission for it.
On the footballing side, it is not uncommon for wannabe club owners to have visions of league and European glory, but for Mallorca to be taking part habitually in the Champions League, which is what Utz envisions, something pretty dramatic would have to occur. Like finding a load of money. You can't knock a chap for having a vision, like you can't knock him for having a daft haircut, but the scepticism level will surely have been raised several more notches as a consequence of Utz dreaming of Europe.
The best that Mallorca could hope for would be to be like Stoke City, a well-run club and team that knocks on the doors of the Europa League and has gained admission. But this, apart from the well-run bit, is what Mallorca have been and are. The club and team are two separate things. The club has been in turmoil, while the team, if it hasn't necessarily thrived, has still managed to achieve, and very nearly qualifying for a Europa League spot this season was an achievement.
Utz is playing the PR game in seeking support from the fan base and the wider Mallorcan public in his battles with other club owners. Whether he convinces is questionable. Building cemeteries comes on the back of previous ideas, such as bringing great plane loads of Germans to watch Mallorca, one that was greeted with derision in some quarters of the press. And now there is also his vision of the team being bolstered by star players from Spain, England and Germany, all part of trying to drum up foreign supporters. But which star players? Utz isn't like the Venkys, who had in mind Ronaldinho and Beckham, but is his vision just a PR strategy pure and simple?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 22 May 2012
Sunny but blustery morning with a high of 18.2 C at 09:30. Remaining quite windy with highs of up to 24 anticipated but might be hard to achieve.
Afternoon update: It did warm up and the high has been 23.7 C, but breezy for most of the day.
Afternoon update: It did warm up and the high has been 23.7 C, but breezy for most of the day.
Preferential Treatment: Magalluf
"These project innovators are going to distinguish us as a preferential tourist destination." Thus spake Manuel Onieva, mayor of Calviá, and with his words, he probably put a considerable number of noses out of joint, those belonging to mayors of other resort towns. These other mayors will already know that they are second-class tourist-resort citizens, but they don't need their noses being rubbed in it as well as being put out of joint.
Onieva was speaking in the context of the announcement of the venture between Meliá Hotels International and Katmandu Park whereby the Sol Magalluf Park hotel will become the Sol Katmandu Resort. Themed hotels have become the vogue and when you have a theme virtually on your doorstep, i.e. the House of Katmandu, why not integrate it as a theme?
Innovative it is and Meliá are going further in introducing a so-called "Sol Fun Pass", an entertainment card that will apparently guarantee the best prices for entrance to Katmandu and to Golf Fantasia to clients of its Sol brand of hotels in Magalluf and Palmanova. In essence, this is a dose of added value to guests as well an added incentive for tourists to choose Meliá, and is part also of Meliá's vision of the Sol Calviá Resort and its transformation of Magalluf.
It is a further example as well of the extent to which Meliá seems to be taking Magalluf over. I suggested from the outset, when Meliá's plans were first announced for its major upgrade, that Magalluf may as well be renamed Sol Calviá Resort. Little did I know that the town hall were thinking along similar lines, though the Nova Calviá suggestion that's been doing the rounds misses the point. It is Meliá which is providing the wherewithal for the new Magalluf, so why not indeed just rename the place Sol Calviá Resort?
To come back to Onieva's preferential tourist destination; how mayors in other resort towns must be looking on at what is happening in Magalluf with envy and probably no small amount of anxiety. The revamp, which now includes the new Katmandu theme, is going to make other resorts look tired by comparison, and some of them are tired enough without the bright, shiny new beast of Magalluf beaming lights of innovation.
The anxiety would stem from the fact that Magalluf is not only becoming a preferential tourist destination in the sense that tourists will prefer to go there than elsewhere it has also been granted preferential status in terms of the attention being lavished on it. But this is not preferential treatment as a consequence of governmental favouritism, it owes everything to Meliá.
Another old resort, Alcúdia (just to take an example), would bite the hands off a hotel chain that came up with similar plans. Meliá would be most unlikely to be that chain, as it operates only one hotel in Alcúdia. Magalluf and Meliá go together like the horse and carriage.
It is the concentration of hotels under the same ownership that has facilitated Meliá's plans. Such concentration of ownership doesn't necessarily occur elsewhere. In Alcúdia, it certainly doesn't. In its main tourist centre, that part of the resort some three kilometres away from its port centre, ownership is fragmented, but there is always the Bellevue question.
This vast complex, saddled with debt and all manner of horrors for years, would, were a visionary organisation with massively deep pockets to contemplate such a thing, make an ideal location for some transformational theming. If not on the same scale as that in Magalluf, there is nevertheless tremendous scope, which includes the fact that currently the site can accommodate around 5,000 people.
There again, perhaps simply seeking to ape what is occurring in Magalluf is not the right approach. Magalluf will end up, even if it doesn't have its name changed, as a re-branded resort with an emphasis on holiday fun of a less unsophisticated type than it is currently known for. Fun should always be uppermost in delivering the goods to hoildaymakers, but there are different types of fun, so perhaps Alcúdia really should go all out to make itself what it has wanted to, which is a centre of sports tourism, rather than do it in the half-baked fashion it has been doing until now.
Whatever other resorts might dream up, there is one aspect in which they find it hard to be competitive, and this is the level of attraction that exists both within Magalluf and close by it. These attractions are an additional means by which Magalluf has preferential status bestowed on it. And with the onset of themed hotels as attractions, it enhances this status. Mayor Onieva is not wrong.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Onieva was speaking in the context of the announcement of the venture between Meliá Hotels International and Katmandu Park whereby the Sol Magalluf Park hotel will become the Sol Katmandu Resort. Themed hotels have become the vogue and when you have a theme virtually on your doorstep, i.e. the House of Katmandu, why not integrate it as a theme?
Innovative it is and Meliá are going further in introducing a so-called "Sol Fun Pass", an entertainment card that will apparently guarantee the best prices for entrance to Katmandu and to Golf Fantasia to clients of its Sol brand of hotels in Magalluf and Palmanova. In essence, this is a dose of added value to guests as well an added incentive for tourists to choose Meliá, and is part also of Meliá's vision of the Sol Calviá Resort and its transformation of Magalluf.
It is a further example as well of the extent to which Meliá seems to be taking Magalluf over. I suggested from the outset, when Meliá's plans were first announced for its major upgrade, that Magalluf may as well be renamed Sol Calviá Resort. Little did I know that the town hall were thinking along similar lines, though the Nova Calviá suggestion that's been doing the rounds misses the point. It is Meliá which is providing the wherewithal for the new Magalluf, so why not indeed just rename the place Sol Calviá Resort?
To come back to Onieva's preferential tourist destination; how mayors in other resort towns must be looking on at what is happening in Magalluf with envy and probably no small amount of anxiety. The revamp, which now includes the new Katmandu theme, is going to make other resorts look tired by comparison, and some of them are tired enough without the bright, shiny new beast of Magalluf beaming lights of innovation.
The anxiety would stem from the fact that Magalluf is not only becoming a preferential tourist destination in the sense that tourists will prefer to go there than elsewhere it has also been granted preferential status in terms of the attention being lavished on it. But this is not preferential treatment as a consequence of governmental favouritism, it owes everything to Meliá.
Another old resort, Alcúdia (just to take an example), would bite the hands off a hotel chain that came up with similar plans. Meliá would be most unlikely to be that chain, as it operates only one hotel in Alcúdia. Magalluf and Meliá go together like the horse and carriage.
It is the concentration of hotels under the same ownership that has facilitated Meliá's plans. Such concentration of ownership doesn't necessarily occur elsewhere. In Alcúdia, it certainly doesn't. In its main tourist centre, that part of the resort some three kilometres away from its port centre, ownership is fragmented, but there is always the Bellevue question.
This vast complex, saddled with debt and all manner of horrors for years, would, were a visionary organisation with massively deep pockets to contemplate such a thing, make an ideal location for some transformational theming. If not on the same scale as that in Magalluf, there is nevertheless tremendous scope, which includes the fact that currently the site can accommodate around 5,000 people.
There again, perhaps simply seeking to ape what is occurring in Magalluf is not the right approach. Magalluf will end up, even if it doesn't have its name changed, as a re-branded resort with an emphasis on holiday fun of a less unsophisticated type than it is currently known for. Fun should always be uppermost in delivering the goods to hoildaymakers, but there are different types of fun, so perhaps Alcúdia really should go all out to make itself what it has wanted to, which is a centre of sports tourism, rather than do it in the half-baked fashion it has been doing until now.
Whatever other resorts might dream up, there is one aspect in which they find it hard to be competitive, and this is the level of attraction that exists both within Magalluf and close by it. These attractions are an additional means by which Magalluf has preferential status bestowed on it. And with the onset of themed hotels as attractions, it enhances this status. Mayor Onieva is not wrong.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, May 21, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 21 May 2012
A thunderstorm came in late on yesterday evening and persisted until after midnight. The morning is soggy, there having been more rain, the top is 15 degrees at 08:45, and it feels chilly. No great shakes temperature-wise today, windy with a yellow advice out for adverse coastal conditions. The higher temperatures forecast for later in the week remain in the cards together with this short burst of instability passing.
Afternoon update: Pretty disappointing day, a top of only 19.5 C, the cloud mainly disappeared by the later afternoon but the breeze remained, making things feel more like March than May.
Afternoon update: Pretty disappointing day, a top of only 19.5 C, the cloud mainly disappeared by the later afternoon but the breeze remained, making things feel more like March than May.
Taking Refuge: Dry stone routes
I've been there. Ivebeenthere. Co.uk. This "Guardian" operated website, which allows those who have been somewhere to tell others where they have been, is, like most recommendation websites, quite useful. Being the "Guardian", the places travellers have been to tend not to be the usual fare. Chris2005 who is, to use the ivebeenthere vernacular, its "top tipper", has been to 235 places, while the second top tipper, Sissi, has seemingly spent an entire lifetime travelling the world and notching up 196 places to which he or she has been. "I've been everywhere, man."
Chavan, on the other hand, hasn't been everywhere. He or she has only ever been to one place. Or had, as of 9 May. It's never easy to understand the derivation of website nicknames, but one supposes that Chavan is not a chav. You don't get many chavs hacking along the GR221 dry stone route in the Tramuntana mountains. Regardless of the origin of the moniker, Chavan has taken to the route and joins other Mallorcan tippers (74 in all), who invariably seem never to have set foot in a karaoke bar, in informing us as to where he has been (let's just settle on a he, shall we, as I can't be bothered keep on typing he or she).
GR 221, and this is the main point of Chavan's tips, takes in not just dry stones along the route it also takes in refuges, five of them in all. You can stay in one at a ludicrously cheap price. Eleven euros a night. Chavan tells us that the government in Mallorca (by which is meant the Council of Mallorca) "provides stunning refuge accommodation for hikers", one of the refuges being in Pollensa. Near to the Roman bridge, it had a slight problem with the roof in that part of it fell in, or to be more accurate, the skylight fell in to the dining area where, as Chavan points out, you can have an "optional dinner at 8.50 euros", which is indeed "brilliant value for three courses including a carafe of wine", but then so are many menus of the day. Or it would be brilliant value, assuming the refuge had actually reopened. Maybe I've missed something, but as far as I know it is still closed. Perhaps someone can advise.
The value for money that the refuges offer has not gone unnoticed. If you were to pitch up any time in the next few days and look to unlace your sensible walking shoes, unhitch your rucksack and seek to relax in eleven-euros-a-night stunning accommodation, you would in all likelihood be told that there is no room at the inn. The refuges get booked up in advance, and at eleven euros a night this isn't surprising.
But for how much longer might the refuges operate in such a fashion? Two of them, including Pollensa's, are up for some privatisation. The Council of Mallorca may currently provide stunning accommodation, but it's costing them an arm and a leg to do so. There is a shortfall of some 600 grand per annum, again not surprising when the nightly charge is so low and the refuges themselves are fine old piles that require a fine old amount of looking after or repairing, as in when the skylight falls in.
The spectre of privatisation hasn't gone down that well in Pollensa. The refuge, so some local businesses suggest, represents unfair competition. In private hands and the competition would be more unfair. It is hard to see how, though. Even in private hands, the refuge can only accommodate a maximum of 38 people. If anything, a private operator might want to up the rates, though it presumably wouldn't be allowed to (or not significantly), which would draw into question whether privatisation would in fact be feasible. Moreover, as far as accommodation is concerned, Pollensa town is hardly awash with hotels, and those that there are, apart from the larger Son Brull on the outskirts, are small boutique-style establishments.
The omens for Pollensa's refuge and indeed the others aren't that good. If the Council cannot find private operators for the two it is lining up, there has to be the possibility that they would be closed. Noises from the Council have hardly been reassuring either recently or in the past; the previous administration's councillor for the environment described the hostels as not being economically profitable.
If privatisation were to go ahead and were operators allowed to bump up rates substantially, then the whole ethos of the refuges would change. Chavan, clearly grateful to a local government, for its stunning accommodation, might, when he is there in future, be disappointed to find that they have changed. This would be a huge shame. There is much to be said for the refuges, their character, their style and their appeal to a certain type of visitor. The dry stone routes are a minority interest for Mallorca's tourists, but it is a form of tourism that deserves supporting. Rather than fewer or no refuges, there should be more of them.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Chavan, on the other hand, hasn't been everywhere. He or she has only ever been to one place. Or had, as of 9 May. It's never easy to understand the derivation of website nicknames, but one supposes that Chavan is not a chav. You don't get many chavs hacking along the GR221 dry stone route in the Tramuntana mountains. Regardless of the origin of the moniker, Chavan has taken to the route and joins other Mallorcan tippers (74 in all), who invariably seem never to have set foot in a karaoke bar, in informing us as to where he has been (let's just settle on a he, shall we, as I can't be bothered keep on typing he or she).
GR 221, and this is the main point of Chavan's tips, takes in not just dry stones along the route it also takes in refuges, five of them in all. You can stay in one at a ludicrously cheap price. Eleven euros a night. Chavan tells us that the government in Mallorca (by which is meant the Council of Mallorca) "provides stunning refuge accommodation for hikers", one of the refuges being in Pollensa. Near to the Roman bridge, it had a slight problem with the roof in that part of it fell in, or to be more accurate, the skylight fell in to the dining area where, as Chavan points out, you can have an "optional dinner at 8.50 euros", which is indeed "brilliant value for three courses including a carafe of wine", but then so are many menus of the day. Or it would be brilliant value, assuming the refuge had actually reopened. Maybe I've missed something, but as far as I know it is still closed. Perhaps someone can advise.
The value for money that the refuges offer has not gone unnoticed. If you were to pitch up any time in the next few days and look to unlace your sensible walking shoes, unhitch your rucksack and seek to relax in eleven-euros-a-night stunning accommodation, you would in all likelihood be told that there is no room at the inn. The refuges get booked up in advance, and at eleven euros a night this isn't surprising.
But for how much longer might the refuges operate in such a fashion? Two of them, including Pollensa's, are up for some privatisation. The Council of Mallorca may currently provide stunning accommodation, but it's costing them an arm and a leg to do so. There is a shortfall of some 600 grand per annum, again not surprising when the nightly charge is so low and the refuges themselves are fine old piles that require a fine old amount of looking after or repairing, as in when the skylight falls in.
The spectre of privatisation hasn't gone down that well in Pollensa. The refuge, so some local businesses suggest, represents unfair competition. In private hands and the competition would be more unfair. It is hard to see how, though. Even in private hands, the refuge can only accommodate a maximum of 38 people. If anything, a private operator might want to up the rates, though it presumably wouldn't be allowed to (or not significantly), which would draw into question whether privatisation would in fact be feasible. Moreover, as far as accommodation is concerned, Pollensa town is hardly awash with hotels, and those that there are, apart from the larger Son Brull on the outskirts, are small boutique-style establishments.
The omens for Pollensa's refuge and indeed the others aren't that good. If the Council cannot find private operators for the two it is lining up, there has to be the possibility that they would be closed. Noises from the Council have hardly been reassuring either recently or in the past; the previous administration's councillor for the environment described the hostels as not being economically profitable.
If privatisation were to go ahead and were operators allowed to bump up rates substantially, then the whole ethos of the refuges would change. Chavan, clearly grateful to a local government, for its stunning accommodation, might, when he is there in future, be disappointed to find that they have changed. This would be a huge shame. There is much to be said for the refuges, their character, their style and their appeal to a certain type of visitor. The dry stone routes are a minority interest for Mallorca's tourists, but it is a form of tourism that deserves supporting. Rather than fewer or no refuges, there should be more of them.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 20 May 2012
A top of 20.2 C by 09:00 on a sunny morning with a touch of cloud around. Still the possibility of a touch of rain later and also tomorrow. The forecast into next week is for a significant rise in temperature by the end of the week.
Afternoon update: A 24.4 C high on a day of a mix of cloud, sun and breeze.
Afternoon update: A 24.4 C high on a day of a mix of cloud, sun and breeze.
Towns And Cities: Confusing places
Mallorca, like the rest of Spain, has any number of definitions as to places. And being Mallorca, it has these definitions in more than one language. Like Britain, there can be villages, towns or cities, but understanding why a place is one or the other in Mallorca isn't straightforward.
Manacor celebrates on Monday its one-hundredth anniversary of having been named (by royal decree) as a "ciudad". The problem with a ciudad is that it can mean either town or city. In Manacor's case, I am pretty sure it doesn't mean city. There are, or appear to be, similar criteria for a place to be a city in Spain as in Britain, e.g. a cathedral. However, this doesn't prevent Madrid, the capital of Spain that has a damn great cathedral apparently not being a city, or a ciudad. It is in fact a "villa": not somewhere you stay when on holiday with a nice pool and a terrace barbecue, but a town - at least I think it's a town. Madrid can, though, claim to be a villa with a capital V, which other villas can't claim, unless they're from Aston.
Barcelona, on the other hand, is a ciudad, as in a city (possibly). A distinction between a villa and ciudad is that a ciudad enjoys greater privileges than a villa. Which is odd. I mean, how many privileges does Madrid need to acquire to have more than Barcelona; it's the bloody capital after all. And on this basis, Manacor has more privileges than Madrid. Maybe.
Confused? You're not the only one. In Mallorca, its best known city (and probably its only one), Palma, has in the past been known simply as "Ciudad"; it still is among some. City seems reasonable enough in Palma's case. Massive cathedral, university, centre of administration, loads of people; they all fit a city template. Manacor can't claim the same. Yet it is a ciudad, whereas somewhere like Santa Margalida is a villa, or more commonly a "vila", as in the Catalan. Santa Margalida is indeed commonly referred to as vila, though a vila can also, in Catalan, be a village. So maybe Santa Margalida is actually a village. But it, like Madrid, manages to get itself a capital V. Vila. How did that happen?
Ah but, there is another type of village, which is the "pueblo". This is a place with all manner of pretensions as a pueblo is not just a village, it is also the entire state of Spain and/or its people. The pueblo is how one might refer to, for example, Alcúdia town, though a working definition for a ciudad, in its broadest sense through population size, would make it a ciudad. It isn't a village, not with close to 20,000 people it isn't, but this is the population of the whole municipality, and officially this is what Alcúdia is, as is Manacor, which is also, in official terms, a ciudad.
In Mallorca, there is also the "pobla", as in Sa Pobla. What's this? It isn't a Catalan "pueblo", as this would be "poble". A pobla is a population, a place with people if you like. Sa Pobla is sometimes known by a Spanish variant, La Puebla, though it could also be La Población. Pobla, Puebla, Población, it's a municipality nevertheless.
We could also consider the "aldea" or the "lugar", but by now I imagine you've lost the will to live, so we won't. Instead, let's go back a hundred years and to the time when Manacor became a town, or a city; a ciudad at any rate.
It became so because a Mallorcan parliamentary deputy wanted it to be. Alexandre Rosselló petitioned the king of the time, the later-to-be treacherous Alfonso XIII, and he said yes, you shall have your ciudad. And what qualified Manacor for this status? Knowing this might actually help us to understand what makes a ciudad and what doesn't, though you shouldn't bank on it. It all had to do with Majorica Pearls. The company was booming, as also was the local timber trade. Added to this was the fact that Manacor was a town (or city) committed to supporting the crown and had a population - a población, so maybe a pobla or puebla as well - of over 15,000 people.
So there we are. This is how Manacor became a ciudad. But is it a city or a town? I'm going town, but then a town is a villa, but a villa could also be a village, or is this only in Catalan, and a village is a pueblo, but that's also the whole country and its capital is a villa and not a ciudad. A town and not a city. Possibly.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Manacor celebrates on Monday its one-hundredth anniversary of having been named (by royal decree) as a "ciudad". The problem with a ciudad is that it can mean either town or city. In Manacor's case, I am pretty sure it doesn't mean city. There are, or appear to be, similar criteria for a place to be a city in Spain as in Britain, e.g. a cathedral. However, this doesn't prevent Madrid, the capital of Spain that has a damn great cathedral apparently not being a city, or a ciudad. It is in fact a "villa": not somewhere you stay when on holiday with a nice pool and a terrace barbecue, but a town - at least I think it's a town. Madrid can, though, claim to be a villa with a capital V, which other villas can't claim, unless they're from Aston.
Barcelona, on the other hand, is a ciudad, as in a city (possibly). A distinction between a villa and ciudad is that a ciudad enjoys greater privileges than a villa. Which is odd. I mean, how many privileges does Madrid need to acquire to have more than Barcelona; it's the bloody capital after all. And on this basis, Manacor has more privileges than Madrid. Maybe.
Confused? You're not the only one. In Mallorca, its best known city (and probably its only one), Palma, has in the past been known simply as "Ciudad"; it still is among some. City seems reasonable enough in Palma's case. Massive cathedral, university, centre of administration, loads of people; they all fit a city template. Manacor can't claim the same. Yet it is a ciudad, whereas somewhere like Santa Margalida is a villa, or more commonly a "vila", as in the Catalan. Santa Margalida is indeed commonly referred to as vila, though a vila can also, in Catalan, be a village. So maybe Santa Margalida is actually a village. But it, like Madrid, manages to get itself a capital V. Vila. How did that happen?
Ah but, there is another type of village, which is the "pueblo". This is a place with all manner of pretensions as a pueblo is not just a village, it is also the entire state of Spain and/or its people. The pueblo is how one might refer to, for example, Alcúdia town, though a working definition for a ciudad, in its broadest sense through population size, would make it a ciudad. It isn't a village, not with close to 20,000 people it isn't, but this is the population of the whole municipality, and officially this is what Alcúdia is, as is Manacor, which is also, in official terms, a ciudad.
In Mallorca, there is also the "pobla", as in Sa Pobla. What's this? It isn't a Catalan "pueblo", as this would be "poble". A pobla is a population, a place with people if you like. Sa Pobla is sometimes known by a Spanish variant, La Puebla, though it could also be La Población. Pobla, Puebla, Población, it's a municipality nevertheless.
We could also consider the "aldea" or the "lugar", but by now I imagine you've lost the will to live, so we won't. Instead, let's go back a hundred years and to the time when Manacor became a town, or a city; a ciudad at any rate.
It became so because a Mallorcan parliamentary deputy wanted it to be. Alexandre Rosselló petitioned the king of the time, the later-to-be treacherous Alfonso XIII, and he said yes, you shall have your ciudad. And what qualified Manacor for this status? Knowing this might actually help us to understand what makes a ciudad and what doesn't, though you shouldn't bank on it. It all had to do with Majorica Pearls. The company was booming, as also was the local timber trade. Added to this was the fact that Manacor was a town (or city) committed to supporting the crown and had a population - a población, so maybe a pobla or puebla as well - of over 15,000 people.
So there we are. This is how Manacor became a ciudad. But is it a city or a town? I'm going town, but then a town is a villa, but a villa could also be a village, or is this only in Catalan, and a village is a pueblo, but that's also the whole country and its capital is a villa and not a ciudad. A town and not a city. Possibly.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 19 May 2012
17.9 C the best at 08:45 on a cloudy morning, clearing to give a warn day with tops towards 24 degrees. Tomorrow and Monday, rain is possible.
Afternoon update: A high of 21.7 C after the cloud went away and left a reasonably sunny day.
Afternoon update: A high of 21.7 C after the cloud went away and left a reasonably sunny day.
Guns n' Joses: Bauzá under attack
"Fewer guns and more schools." One of the less insulting insults hurled at El Presidente José Ramón Bauzá who has come out of his Palma bunker and deigned to visit the two larger towns in Mallorca most associated with opposition to his anti-Catalanism. Along with the insults was an egg. It landed on a police bodyguard, a baldy who, on first look, bore a strong resemblance to Bauzá's potential nemesis, Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor.
It didn't seem to have been primarily anti-Catalanism that had stoked the flames of protest in Inca, though it played a part. Here was some good old-fashioned agitprop, a list of subjects for complaint as long as your arm, one that can hurl an egg. "More schools." Well, you never know, there might have to be more schools to cope with the government's potty decision to allow two systems of education to run alongside each other. The fewer-guns demand presumably had something to do with the police. The guns stayed firmly in holster in front of the baying crowd, though in truth it wasn't really all that baying. It was a crowd like crowds normally are. "Bastard" went one of the insults. Bauzá has been called worse and usually by trade union leaders - one in particular.
The Inca agitators were out on what was the second leg of a Bauzá protestathon that comprised only Inca and Manacor. Inca, it would appear, came in a fairly poor second. It could only muster 250 indignant youths (and they were mainly youths), whereas Manacor could stretch to 500. Well, Manacor is a bigger town, so this would explain the higher numbers among the rent-a-mobs. Manacor also outdid Inca in terms of its weaponry - pigs' tongues and full bottles of water went in the Bauzá direction.
A fair old amount of fuss has been kicked up by Bauzá avoiding the odd egg. It's undemocratic - all that sort of guff. It's quite the opposite. Protest is, or should be, part of the democratic process, especially when jobs are going down the pan, and the president in question hasn't got the faintest idea as to how they might be flushed out. Violent demonstration is no answer. Well, no it isn't, but there's violence and there's violence. An egg. This is violence in low-key Mallorcan demo terms. And low-key it all is. Manacor has a population of around 40,000. This would mean that 1.25% of the population turned out to demonstrate violently or in fact to just do what demonstrators do. Of the 1.25%, a number would almost certainly not have come from Manacor. Yet this is meant to be the main centre of dissent, thanks to Pastor.
The Inca and Manacor gatherings are just the latest manifestations of dissatisfaction with Bauzá, but like previous protests, such as in Palma, the numbers were hardly great. In fact, they have been distinctly disappointing. If there are to be demos, at least do them properly and gather more people than might meander through the turnstiles at a Scottish Second Division football match. Perish the thought that Bauzá might extend his protestathon and pitch up at some much smaller places in Mallorca. They'd be lucky to muster a man and his dog, which would not be good in agitprop PR terms.
And those who have been gathering have primarily been the youth, the usual suspects on such occasions therefore, who have come up against an opposition consisting of further youth, members of Nuevas Generaciones, who are like the Young Conservatives. Whereas the anti-Bauzá brigade all have dreadlocks and beards and earnestly attempt to find careers as graphic designers or potters, the Nuevas Generaciones are the Mallorcan versions of Tory Boy Hagues, preposterous haircuts (in the days when the boy Hague had hair), smug jokes and the wearing of ties.
For all that Mallorcans will protest about any damn thing, they don't really do protests. Not very well at any rate. You'd think that from the sheer number of protests that there are for this, that or the other thing, they'd have learnt some of the art by now. Forget the pigs' tongues, just hurl the whole pig's head. Don't stop at an egg, chuck an entire shopping-trolley load of perishables and produce, and then chuck the trolley as well for good measure.
There again, and on second thoughts, maybe not. "Fewer guns." Oh yes, I forgot about those.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It didn't seem to have been primarily anti-Catalanism that had stoked the flames of protest in Inca, though it played a part. Here was some good old-fashioned agitprop, a list of subjects for complaint as long as your arm, one that can hurl an egg. "More schools." Well, you never know, there might have to be more schools to cope with the government's potty decision to allow two systems of education to run alongside each other. The fewer-guns demand presumably had something to do with the police. The guns stayed firmly in holster in front of the baying crowd, though in truth it wasn't really all that baying. It was a crowd like crowds normally are. "Bastard" went one of the insults. Bauzá has been called worse and usually by trade union leaders - one in particular.
The Inca agitators were out on what was the second leg of a Bauzá protestathon that comprised only Inca and Manacor. Inca, it would appear, came in a fairly poor second. It could only muster 250 indignant youths (and they were mainly youths), whereas Manacor could stretch to 500. Well, Manacor is a bigger town, so this would explain the higher numbers among the rent-a-mobs. Manacor also outdid Inca in terms of its weaponry - pigs' tongues and full bottles of water went in the Bauzá direction.
A fair old amount of fuss has been kicked up by Bauzá avoiding the odd egg. It's undemocratic - all that sort of guff. It's quite the opposite. Protest is, or should be, part of the democratic process, especially when jobs are going down the pan, and the president in question hasn't got the faintest idea as to how they might be flushed out. Violent demonstration is no answer. Well, no it isn't, but there's violence and there's violence. An egg. This is violence in low-key Mallorcan demo terms. And low-key it all is. Manacor has a population of around 40,000. This would mean that 1.25% of the population turned out to demonstrate violently or in fact to just do what demonstrators do. Of the 1.25%, a number would almost certainly not have come from Manacor. Yet this is meant to be the main centre of dissent, thanks to Pastor.
The Inca and Manacor gatherings are just the latest manifestations of dissatisfaction with Bauzá, but like previous protests, such as in Palma, the numbers were hardly great. In fact, they have been distinctly disappointing. If there are to be demos, at least do them properly and gather more people than might meander through the turnstiles at a Scottish Second Division football match. Perish the thought that Bauzá might extend his protestathon and pitch up at some much smaller places in Mallorca. They'd be lucky to muster a man and his dog, which would not be good in agitprop PR terms.
And those who have been gathering have primarily been the youth, the usual suspects on such occasions therefore, who have come up against an opposition consisting of further youth, members of Nuevas Generaciones, who are like the Young Conservatives. Whereas the anti-Bauzá brigade all have dreadlocks and beards and earnestly attempt to find careers as graphic designers or potters, the Nuevas Generaciones are the Mallorcan versions of Tory Boy Hagues, preposterous haircuts (in the days when the boy Hague had hair), smug jokes and the wearing of ties.
For all that Mallorcans will protest about any damn thing, they don't really do protests. Not very well at any rate. You'd think that from the sheer number of protests that there are for this, that or the other thing, they'd have learnt some of the art by now. Forget the pigs' tongues, just hurl the whole pig's head. Don't stop at an egg, chuck an entire shopping-trolley load of perishables and produce, and then chuck the trolley as well for good measure.
There again, and on second thoughts, maybe not. "Fewer guns." Oh yes, I forgot about those.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, May 18, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Police press for Alcúdia hotel security
Alcúdia's local police force has met with hoteliers to impress upon the need to apply control measures in their establishments in order to prevent crime and possible incidents.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 18 May 2012
Cloud again. Clearing later. 17.6 C the high at 08:45, rising to the mid-20s perhaps. The weekend is likely to be mostly sunny and warm but there is a chance of rain on Sunday.
Afternoon update: A best of 21.7 C on a day when cloud got up in the afternoon and deposited a slight drop of rain.
Afternoon update: A best of 21.7 C on a day when cloud got up in the afternoon and deposited a slight drop of rain.
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