Chris Moyles had been presenting his Radio One breakfast show for over eight years when it came to an end yesterday morning. It's a long time, longer even than I have been providing insights into Mallorcan life that make me the most astute and regarded writer on Mallorcan matters of a generation. (I can, if pushed, be as immodest as Moyles.) Unlike Moyles, these insights were not originally daily. They have only been so five years. Still a long time though.
I'm not about to perform an act of sympathy with Moyles and announce my retirement, if for no other reason than I don't have a successor lined up. There is no "youthful" replacement, a likely Nick Grimshaw to fill my incomparable writing boots and attract a whole new, younger audience, eager to acquire knowledge about Mallorca. It falls to me and the Photo Blog's Klaus to be the ageing imparters of daily awareness. Such is our lot.
The daily exercise of writing about Mallorca brings with it vast knowledge. It can't help but do so. But in the process of acquiring this vast knowledge and then disseminating it, one might think that I have also undergone a process of having gone native, of having forgotten, neglected or distanced myself from aspects of British life and culture. One might think this, but then there is Chris Moyles. Had I undergone this process of nativisation, there would be no daily listening to Moyles nor would there be listening to Five Live or Talk Sport.
Being knowledgeable is not the same thing as being integrated, whatever this means. God knows, I have devoted articles to considering the concept of integration, but I am left to believe that it is, at its most diplomatic, illusory, and at its least diplomatic, a colossal load of old cock. Moreover, I couldn't care in the least bit, when I even think about the subject, whether I am integrated or not. It just doesn't matter.
Or perhaps it matters insofar as not being integrated facilitates the observational process. Observer is how I have tended to describe myself when people ask me what I think I am. I was described recently (by Paul Danks, financial person of the parish of Puerto Pollensa) as a diarist, which is accurate in terms of practice, but I prefer observer. It means looking on, digesting, accumulating but also interpreting. It is a more abstract state of being, and through non-nativisation one is able to retain a capacity for abstraction. Integration, at its fascistic and totalitarian worst, means a loss of objectivity, a being sucked in, a groupthink mentality, a failure to question, a blackening and whitening.
What happens in reality is that one cherry picks one's cultural alliances and in my case this is cherry-picking of a multitasking type. I can listen to Moyles whilst reading Spanish news websites. It creates a hybrid of appreciation of local society and culture, a quite deep appreciation, that is still suffused with an alien's perspective. Intellectually, one is acutely aware that observation solely through British eyes is wrongheaded. I understand this, but it is the distance that comes from having a strong but not innate appreciation that enables observational objectivity. It's why I challenge so often an insular parochialism in Mallorca. Not because I wish to be deliberately critical but because the conceptualising of issues (tourism, for example) should require a stepping outside of such parochial mentality and the assumption of the onlooker's role.
I'm not sure how Moyles' blokishness fits with any of this. Except for influencing how one perceives aspects of Mallorcan life with chameleonic and multifaceted cultural references from Britain which one can adapt to help explain this Mallorcan life in terms that resonate with an English-speaking (and predominantly British) audience. Moyles is a blokish extreme but it is an undercurrent of how one seeks to convey this life by alluding to football, music, soaps and some slightly less Philistine manifestations of British culture.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 September 2012
Rain overnight and still some rain about. But hey, forget the weather, I'm watching the last Chris Moyles show on live stream (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/) and not worrying about the rain. Laters.
Oh, ok, so there's a break following Fearne Cotton in her swimsuit. Time, therefore, to say that it chucked down last night. According to the forecast it is sun all the way today, except there's no sign of it at 8.52. High of 20 or so.
Afternoon update: An area high of 25.7 once the sun had truly come out this afternoon to give clear, blue skies which are likely to be around throughout the weekend.
Oh, ok, so there's a break following Fearne Cotton in her swimsuit. Time, therefore, to say that it chucked down last night. According to the forecast it is sun all the way today, except there's no sign of it at 8.52. High of 20 or so.
Afternoon update: An area high of 25.7 once the sun had truly come out this afternoon to give clear, blue skies which are likely to be around throughout the weekend.
The Rubbish Dump Of Europe
On the scale of rubbish ideas, the one by which Europe's rubbish will be shipped into Puerto Alcúdia for incineration at Son Reus in Palma is one of the more rubbish you are likely to come across. This, at any rate, is how the approval by the Council of Mallorca to permit the importing of combustible waste from other countries is being styled and is being styled, moreover, with a rare show of local political unity, Alcúdia's Partido Popular mayor having been on the phone to the environment councillor to tell her to forget the whole idea and politicians from parties to the left having waded in with their own objections.
The first question that came to mind when this was all first being announced was not to do with whether it was right or wrong to bring this rubbish to Mallorca but why on earth it was going to be shipped into Alcúdia. Palma has a ruddy great port that is much closer to Son Reus, so wouldn't it make more sense for the rubbish to be offloaded in Palma? Pere Malondra, leader of PSOE in Alcúdia, has implied that it would cause more of a fuss in Palma because there are that many more people to make a fuss. He may well be right. The feeling is that Alcúdia's being kicked around.
There again, Alcúdia is both an industrial and a passenger port, though there is a legitimate issue as to whether the industrial element should be expanded when Alcúdia already receives gas and coal for the butane plant and the power station and when it is also a port for the export of material (especially wood) for recycling on the mainland and which has a habit of being piled up and becoming an eyesore in August because mainland plants reduce operations on account of holidays, so causing a backlog (so to speak) in the shipping of the woody refuse.
The logistics of transporting the waste aside, the rhetoric has gone into overdrive. Mallorca will be the rubbish dump of Europe. It will be environmental and economic suicide. Less emotional has been Mayor Terrassa's observation that the waste doesn't fit with the tourism image of Alcúdia. Which is true, but equally nor do the rotting old power station (absurdly supposed to be partially preserved as it represents industrial heritage) and the coal trucks that shuttle between the port and the current power station.
As there seems to be no intention to import the waste during the summer, the tourism argument loses some strength. Malondra has asked, though, whether what is wanted is the promotion of tourism to tackle seasonality or the importing of waste. Which is a fair point, or would be if one could be convinced that something was genuinely being done to tackle the absence of tourism out of season.
There are, as is the norm with Mallorca's politicians, some pretty odd things being said about the waste import. María Salom, the president of the Council of Mallorca, has come out with a belter. She has observed that in Germany there are treatment plants which take waste from other countries, as would be the case at Son Reus, and that the Germans who come to Mallorca would know that this is perfectly normal. Erm, yes, María, German tourists and indeed tourists from other countries might know that it is normal to treat waste in their own countries but it doesn't follow that they would consider it normal as a backdrop to their holidays on what the Germans have long insisted on calling the "paradise island".
There is undoubtedly a disconnect between Mallorca, the paradise island, and Mallorca, a place with industry. It does seem incongruous that there should be an enormous and expensive waste-treatment plant on the paradise tourist island, but something has to be done with waste even on a paradise island.
It is the scale of the waste treatment, however, that goes to explain why Mallorca is about to become the recipient of some European rubbish. Tirme, the company which is owned by among others Endesa and which has the concession (a monopoly one) on waste treatment until 2041, has invested vast sums in incineration at Son Reus. This investment has placed its activities under the environmental-watchdog microscope. GOB, for example, has accused Tirme of concentrating on incineration instead of recycling. Friends Of The Earth say that its capacity for incineration exceeds the level of waste that is generated on Mallorca.
María Salom has pointed out that Tirme was given the go-ahead by the previous (non-PP) administration to invest some 300 million euros in new incineration plant, an investment, the environmentalists would argue, that was unnecessary. But having ploughed the investment in, Tirme needs its payback. According to Salom, Tirme has been seeking an increase of 50% in its charges for waste treatment. These charges filter down to the town halls and ultimately to taxpayers. An alternative - the only alternative, says Salom - is the import of waste and payments from other countries which will mean that Tirme doesn't have to impose its increase.
But is Salom entirely accurate in her reference to the previous administration? The person who she says gave final authorisation for work on the new incinerator was Marilena Tugores of Els Verds (the Greens), and she said so in an interview with the Mallorcadiario website on 8 September. Yet Tugores only assumed the role of environment councillor in February 2010. It may have fallen to the Greens to oversee the incinerator coming on-stream (purely because someone had to step in when all politicians from the discredited Unió Mallorquina were booted out of positions), but the Bloc, which includes the Greens, and PSOE's Francina Armengol, former president of the Council of Mallorca, have made it clear that it was the Matas PP government at the fag end of its administration in 2007 which had authorised the incinerator, the investment and the extension of Tirme's contract to 2041.
These contradictory versions only add to the political arguments that the importing of waste is engendering. In Alcúdia, the arguments are primarily to do with tourism, but they go very much wider and raise other questions, such as why did Tirme invest in new incineration facilities if they weren't really necessary.
The new plant is said to be one of the most advanced in Europe and the treatment of the waste will not, says the present environment councillor, Catalina Soler, smell or be dirty. However, ecologists argue that incineration, while it reduces the amount of waste, leaves contaminants that are harmful to humans, animals and vegetation. The Balearics association for licensed environmental scientists believes that the import should not be an option for an island with a "fragile ecosystem".
The import is, therefore, raising once more the whole issue of how Mallorca should deal with waste from whatever source. Tirme has invested in incineration, one imagines, as it believes that it is a cheaper option than recycling, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Tirme is right. Moreover, it removes waste, unlike landfill, and can generate some energy. But environmentalist groups like GOB would maintain that Tirme devotes far too little of its own energies on recycling, which is part of its obligations. By concentrating on incineration and making massive investment that was arguably unnecessary, it has required a means of getting a payback - the import of waste.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The first question that came to mind when this was all first being announced was not to do with whether it was right or wrong to bring this rubbish to Mallorca but why on earth it was going to be shipped into Alcúdia. Palma has a ruddy great port that is much closer to Son Reus, so wouldn't it make more sense for the rubbish to be offloaded in Palma? Pere Malondra, leader of PSOE in Alcúdia, has implied that it would cause more of a fuss in Palma because there are that many more people to make a fuss. He may well be right. The feeling is that Alcúdia's being kicked around.
There again, Alcúdia is both an industrial and a passenger port, though there is a legitimate issue as to whether the industrial element should be expanded when Alcúdia already receives gas and coal for the butane plant and the power station and when it is also a port for the export of material (especially wood) for recycling on the mainland and which has a habit of being piled up and becoming an eyesore in August because mainland plants reduce operations on account of holidays, so causing a backlog (so to speak) in the shipping of the woody refuse.
The logistics of transporting the waste aside, the rhetoric has gone into overdrive. Mallorca will be the rubbish dump of Europe. It will be environmental and economic suicide. Less emotional has been Mayor Terrassa's observation that the waste doesn't fit with the tourism image of Alcúdia. Which is true, but equally nor do the rotting old power station (absurdly supposed to be partially preserved as it represents industrial heritage) and the coal trucks that shuttle between the port and the current power station.
As there seems to be no intention to import the waste during the summer, the tourism argument loses some strength. Malondra has asked, though, whether what is wanted is the promotion of tourism to tackle seasonality or the importing of waste. Which is a fair point, or would be if one could be convinced that something was genuinely being done to tackle the absence of tourism out of season.
There are, as is the norm with Mallorca's politicians, some pretty odd things being said about the waste import. María Salom, the president of the Council of Mallorca, has come out with a belter. She has observed that in Germany there are treatment plants which take waste from other countries, as would be the case at Son Reus, and that the Germans who come to Mallorca would know that this is perfectly normal. Erm, yes, María, German tourists and indeed tourists from other countries might know that it is normal to treat waste in their own countries but it doesn't follow that they would consider it normal as a backdrop to their holidays on what the Germans have long insisted on calling the "paradise island".
There is undoubtedly a disconnect between Mallorca, the paradise island, and Mallorca, a place with industry. It does seem incongruous that there should be an enormous and expensive waste-treatment plant on the paradise tourist island, but something has to be done with waste even on a paradise island.
It is the scale of the waste treatment, however, that goes to explain why Mallorca is about to become the recipient of some European rubbish. Tirme, the company which is owned by among others Endesa and which has the concession (a monopoly one) on waste treatment until 2041, has invested vast sums in incineration at Son Reus. This investment has placed its activities under the environmental-watchdog microscope. GOB, for example, has accused Tirme of concentrating on incineration instead of recycling. Friends Of The Earth say that its capacity for incineration exceeds the level of waste that is generated on Mallorca.
María Salom has pointed out that Tirme was given the go-ahead by the previous (non-PP) administration to invest some 300 million euros in new incineration plant, an investment, the environmentalists would argue, that was unnecessary. But having ploughed the investment in, Tirme needs its payback. According to Salom, Tirme has been seeking an increase of 50% in its charges for waste treatment. These charges filter down to the town halls and ultimately to taxpayers. An alternative - the only alternative, says Salom - is the import of waste and payments from other countries which will mean that Tirme doesn't have to impose its increase.
But is Salom entirely accurate in her reference to the previous administration? The person who she says gave final authorisation for work on the new incinerator was Marilena Tugores of Els Verds (the Greens), and she said so in an interview with the Mallorcadiario website on 8 September. Yet Tugores only assumed the role of environment councillor in February 2010. It may have fallen to the Greens to oversee the incinerator coming on-stream (purely because someone had to step in when all politicians from the discredited Unió Mallorquina were booted out of positions), but the Bloc, which includes the Greens, and PSOE's Francina Armengol, former president of the Council of Mallorca, have made it clear that it was the Matas PP government at the fag end of its administration in 2007 which had authorised the incinerator, the investment and the extension of Tirme's contract to 2041.
These contradictory versions only add to the political arguments that the importing of waste is engendering. In Alcúdia, the arguments are primarily to do with tourism, but they go very much wider and raise other questions, such as why did Tirme invest in new incineration facilities if they weren't really necessary.
The new plant is said to be one of the most advanced in Europe and the treatment of the waste will not, says the present environment councillor, Catalina Soler, smell or be dirty. However, ecologists argue that incineration, while it reduces the amount of waste, leaves contaminants that are harmful to humans, animals and vegetation. The Balearics association for licensed environmental scientists believes that the import should not be an option for an island with a "fragile ecosystem".
The import is, therefore, raising once more the whole issue of how Mallorca should deal with waste from whatever source. Tirme has invested in incineration, one imagines, as it believes that it is a cheaper option than recycling, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Tirme is right. Moreover, it removes waste, unlike landfill, and can generate some energy. But environmentalist groups like GOB would maintain that Tirme devotes far too little of its own energies on recycling, which is part of its obligations. By concentrating on incineration and making massive investment that was arguably unnecessary, it has required a means of getting a payback - the import of waste.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Opposition to Europe's rubbish being brought into Alcúdia's port
Unity among political parties, in Alcúdia at least. PSOE, supported by the party's island secretary-general, and the Partido Popular, in the form of mayor Coloma Terrassa, have expressed their opposition to the arrangement whereby rubbish from other European countries will be shipped to Mallorca for incineration at Son Reus and which would involve these consignments being brought into Alcúdia's port rather than into Palma's port.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Real Mallorca is haemorrhaging fans
Sid Lowe of "The Guardian" once famously (or infamously) said that Real Mallorca had no fans (a joke that the po-faced fans that there are didn't get). It does of course have fans but the number of members has dropped alarmingly, there having been a loss of more than 8,000 members since the 2005-2006 season when there were 18,000 or so.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 September 2012
Forecast was pretty much spot-on, though it was late evening before the rain and storm arrived. Heavy downpours but nothing that unusual, rainfalls of 15 to 20mm, depending on location. Quite blustery and very cloudy but dry at 7.45am with a high of 21C. There is no longer a yellow alert for rain today, though there is one for adverse coastal conditions. An improvement during the day and the forecast for the next few days seems pretty reasonable.
Afternoon update: Some quite heavy showers this morning but sun came out in the afternoon giving an area high of 25.8C.
Afternoon update: Some quite heavy showers this morning but sun came out in the afternoon giving an area high of 25.8C.
The Un-Complementary Sector
Back in February I wrote about the hatchet having been buried in a war between Mallorca's hoteliers and the complementary sector. The two sides agreed to present a united front in making representations to the government prior to the final drafting of the new tourism law. I suggested at the time that though "the hatchet may have been buried, it (could) just as easily be dug up again". And I wasn't wrong.
It was difficult to understand quite what the complementary sector thought that it stood to gain by getting into bed with the hoteliers, other than to believe that by being nice the hoteliers would be nice in return as in, for instance, persuading the government not to allow them (the hoteliers, that is) to be able to introduce activities open to the general public that were the domain of the complementary sector. If it did believe this, then the complementary sector was incredibly stupid.
In February the hoteliers were making conciliatory noises by implying that the introduction of "secondary activities" (discos, restaurants, whatever) should be limited, but they didn't of course attempt to persuade the government to not allow them. So now the complementary offer finds itself having to try and get some limitations, the tourism law having been approved. It's a bit late but not perhaps too late.
The tourism law does still require that some meat is put on some bones. The complementary sector, comprising restaurants, clubs, attractions and travel agencies, is issuing proposals designed to limit some of the law's damage, as it applies to them. Another aspect of the law other than that regarding secondary activities in hotels which exercised the complementary sector back in February is that to do with all-inclusives. The law is quite vague where they are concerned, precise requirements for quality plans that hotels will be required to draw up not having yet been made clear.
The complementary sector knows that it has to live with all-inclusives but its hope is that requirements of the quality plans will be that tough that some hotels might be forced to abandon the all-inclusive offer. It's a hope but whether it will be anything more than a hope is another matter.
There is a need for such quality plans and for effective ones that hotels are made to implement. In my recent article "Holiday Let Hysteria" I spoke about a generally high standard of hotel stock in Mallorca. It is generally high but there are examples of where it isn't. The hoteliers federation argument against holiday lets falls down, and not for the first time, when it insists that private accommodation can be poor and so present a bad image of Mallorca while at the same time it neglects the examples of poor hotels and their bad image. Some are all-inclusive ghettoes, and we all know which they are. If the hoteliers federation doesn't, then I can help out by pointing its president in the direction of forums and social media which will inform her.
This lack of quality covers sub-standard accommodation, inadequate service provision, repetitious meals, low-grade drinks, lengthy queues. It is a lack of quality that has been known about for years, but what has been a typical government reaction? Under the last government, the then tourism minister Joana Barceló said that inspections had not revealed a lack of quality. God knows what the inspectors were doing or where they were going then.
Such governmental complacency is not entirely unexpected. Genuinely tough quality standards could result in Mallorca's all-inclusive stock being slashed significantly. Tour operators do not benefit from a lack of quality, but they still manage to sell holidays to all-inclusives which fall below standard, and neither they nor the government have a wish to see some hotels removed from the brochures. There are other things to think of such as selling seats on airlines and generating traffic through the airport.
The current government is making much of the new law's provisions for modernising obsolete hotel stock and for overall quality enhancements, but would it really be so insistent on quality for some all-inclusives that might mean they are withdrawn from brochures? I very much doubt it, just as I very much doubt that its inspections would be as rigorous as those it intends to make in order to stamp out illegal holiday accommodation.
The complementary offer might hope that the government will be tough but the complementary sector should look at itself. Only now is it really attempting to get its voice heard after years of ineffective lobbying and after its error in February. There was never any chance of the hatchet having been buried.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It was difficult to understand quite what the complementary sector thought that it stood to gain by getting into bed with the hoteliers, other than to believe that by being nice the hoteliers would be nice in return as in, for instance, persuading the government not to allow them (the hoteliers, that is) to be able to introduce activities open to the general public that were the domain of the complementary sector. If it did believe this, then the complementary sector was incredibly stupid.
In February the hoteliers were making conciliatory noises by implying that the introduction of "secondary activities" (discos, restaurants, whatever) should be limited, but they didn't of course attempt to persuade the government to not allow them. So now the complementary offer finds itself having to try and get some limitations, the tourism law having been approved. It's a bit late but not perhaps too late.
The tourism law does still require that some meat is put on some bones. The complementary sector, comprising restaurants, clubs, attractions and travel agencies, is issuing proposals designed to limit some of the law's damage, as it applies to them. Another aspect of the law other than that regarding secondary activities in hotels which exercised the complementary sector back in February is that to do with all-inclusives. The law is quite vague where they are concerned, precise requirements for quality plans that hotels will be required to draw up not having yet been made clear.
The complementary sector knows that it has to live with all-inclusives but its hope is that requirements of the quality plans will be that tough that some hotels might be forced to abandon the all-inclusive offer. It's a hope but whether it will be anything more than a hope is another matter.
There is a need for such quality plans and for effective ones that hotels are made to implement. In my recent article "Holiday Let Hysteria" I spoke about a generally high standard of hotel stock in Mallorca. It is generally high but there are examples of where it isn't. The hoteliers federation argument against holiday lets falls down, and not for the first time, when it insists that private accommodation can be poor and so present a bad image of Mallorca while at the same time it neglects the examples of poor hotels and their bad image. Some are all-inclusive ghettoes, and we all know which they are. If the hoteliers federation doesn't, then I can help out by pointing its president in the direction of forums and social media which will inform her.
This lack of quality covers sub-standard accommodation, inadequate service provision, repetitious meals, low-grade drinks, lengthy queues. It is a lack of quality that has been known about for years, but what has been a typical government reaction? Under the last government, the then tourism minister Joana Barceló said that inspections had not revealed a lack of quality. God knows what the inspectors were doing or where they were going then.
Such governmental complacency is not entirely unexpected. Genuinely tough quality standards could result in Mallorca's all-inclusive stock being slashed significantly. Tour operators do not benefit from a lack of quality, but they still manage to sell holidays to all-inclusives which fall below standard, and neither they nor the government have a wish to see some hotels removed from the brochures. There are other things to think of such as selling seats on airlines and generating traffic through the airport.
The current government is making much of the new law's provisions for modernising obsolete hotel stock and for overall quality enhancements, but would it really be so insistent on quality for some all-inclusives that might mean they are withdrawn from brochures? I very much doubt it, just as I very much doubt that its inspections would be as rigorous as those it intends to make in order to stamp out illegal holiday accommodation.
The complementary offer might hope that the government will be tough but the complementary sector should look at itself. Only now is it really attempting to get its voice heard after years of ineffective lobbying and after its error in February. There was never any chance of the hatchet having been buried.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Millions bring Barcelona to a standstill in independence protest
Two million say the organisers. 1.5 million say the Mossos police. 600,000 say the National Police. Choose which one, but whichever it is, there were an awful lot of people who took to the streets of Barcelona yesterday to call for Catalonian independence.
See more: El Mundo
See more: El Mundo
MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia's financial situation shown on town hall website
Alcúdia town hall, with a surplus of 11 million euros, has set out an analysis of its financial situation since 2007 on the municipality's website (http://www.alcudia.net), a development that is quite unusual in it providing some transparency as to town hall financing.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 September 2012
24 the area high at 7.45, which is on the warm side, some mist early on but due to be fine until later when, and to reiterate yesterday's afternoon update, a yellow alert for rain is due to kick in, average rainfalls being predicted of between 5 and 10 mm. Thursday's forecast also has a yellow alert for rain with a maximum rainfall up to 20 mm.
Afternoon update: 27.7 the high today. Good amounts of sun all day but cloud increasing this afternoon. Rain hasn't appeared yet (7pm) but is still due, and tomorrow is looking distinctly ropey.
Afternoon update: 27.7 the high today. Good amounts of sun all day but cloud increasing this afternoon. Rain hasn't appeared yet (7pm) but is still due, and tomorrow is looking distinctly ropey.
Adios, Mariano
Mariano Rajoy would never stand for a question about cocktails. He would never place himself in a position of potential lampooning by a Paxman. Rajoy is stiff, aloof, inaccessible and has taken the Iain Duncan Smith "quiet man" principle to a faux-hardman extreme. The deaf, dumb and blind PM sure plays a mean (but ineffectual) financial hardball. And when, on the rare occasion that he does venture before the people, as he did the other evening for his first television interview as prime minister (his first, note), he attempts to slap the hardball with all the authority, nervelessness and confidence that comes from using a particularly soggy piece of old rag.
The European Central Bank has announced its plan to buy up debt of virtual junk status from hard-pressed economies such as the Spanish in return for complying with a list of demands. Rajoy said that if Spain were to need a rescue (the subjunctive is pretty much irrelevant), he would not accede to conditions imposed from outside, i.e. those of the ECB and/or IMF.
Hardball? Not in the slightest. It was a statement for public consumption from a prime minister who lacks even the capacity for softball. Not if but when a rescue is needed, the terms and conditions will apply, and Rajoy knows it. The other night he dug his political grave by refusing to accept these conditions with a performance of hesitation that was without any persuasiveness. He is a lousy communicator and a lousy leadership figure.
Some time ago I was told that Rajoy believes he may not be prime minister much beyond the end of the year. I can't vouch for the veracity of this but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true, and if, more likely when, the ECB has to perform its bailout with all the Ts & Cs attached, then Rajoy would have to bail out. His position would be untenable.
Supportive noises from Frau Merkel, who has said she has confidence in the Rajoy government's cuts, are to be expected. Merkel needs to bolster Rajoy in order to try and avoid instability that might come were he to be cast aside. But Rajoy has always appeared to be a kind of post-Mourinho Avram Grant figure, a dead man walking, installed as a front man but also as a fall guy. He inspires little confidence, whatever Frau Merkel might say for spin purposes, and never has done. It's the lads in the PP dressing-room who seem to determine tactics; the gaffer is out on a limb having lost a dressing-room that he has never been truly in charge of.
One of the more extraordinary challenges to Rajoy from within his own party has come from Extremadura where the region's Partido Popular president has said that the 21% rate of IVA will not be applied and that a 13% rate will be instead. If this is evidence of gathering implosion within PP ranks, then having to bow to ECB demands could prove terminal, but one wonders if pre-emptive action might be taken with Rajoy a willing participant if he concedes that he is out of his depth.
A constructive vote of no confidence in Congress that is accompanied with the nomination of a candidate as a prime ministerial successor and so a continuation of government without resort to an election is technically possible. I'm not saying this will happen, just that it might or could, as Rajoy's performance on Spanish television will have done little to reassure nervous PP grandees, despite his attempt at hardball.
Where Rajoy succeeds in being a man of the people, or rather being like the people, is in conveying an impression of demoralisation, so capturing a national mood and one analysed in a remarkable article in "El País" which sought comparisons with the great loss of Spanish self-esteem when Cuba was lost in the 1898 war with the United States.
A bailout would be the final straw in this collective loss of esteem. One needs to appreciate the degree to which Spain, once something of a power, has struggled for years to regain some of this esteem only to now see it potentially blown apart by the humiliation that a bailout would represent. This is why Rajoy needs to be seen to be playing hardball. But he is not the man for the task as he suffers himself from the national affliction, forced into virtual silence and introspection, incapable of inspiring. Someone else is needed. A man (or woman) of the people. The question is who.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The European Central Bank has announced its plan to buy up debt of virtual junk status from hard-pressed economies such as the Spanish in return for complying with a list of demands. Rajoy said that if Spain were to need a rescue (the subjunctive is pretty much irrelevant), he would not accede to conditions imposed from outside, i.e. those of the ECB and/or IMF.
Hardball? Not in the slightest. It was a statement for public consumption from a prime minister who lacks even the capacity for softball. Not if but when a rescue is needed, the terms and conditions will apply, and Rajoy knows it. The other night he dug his political grave by refusing to accept these conditions with a performance of hesitation that was without any persuasiveness. He is a lousy communicator and a lousy leadership figure.
Some time ago I was told that Rajoy believes he may not be prime minister much beyond the end of the year. I can't vouch for the veracity of this but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true, and if, more likely when, the ECB has to perform its bailout with all the Ts & Cs attached, then Rajoy would have to bail out. His position would be untenable.
Supportive noises from Frau Merkel, who has said she has confidence in the Rajoy government's cuts, are to be expected. Merkel needs to bolster Rajoy in order to try and avoid instability that might come were he to be cast aside. But Rajoy has always appeared to be a kind of post-Mourinho Avram Grant figure, a dead man walking, installed as a front man but also as a fall guy. He inspires little confidence, whatever Frau Merkel might say for spin purposes, and never has done. It's the lads in the PP dressing-room who seem to determine tactics; the gaffer is out on a limb having lost a dressing-room that he has never been truly in charge of.
One of the more extraordinary challenges to Rajoy from within his own party has come from Extremadura where the region's Partido Popular president has said that the 21% rate of IVA will not be applied and that a 13% rate will be instead. If this is evidence of gathering implosion within PP ranks, then having to bow to ECB demands could prove terminal, but one wonders if pre-emptive action might be taken with Rajoy a willing participant if he concedes that he is out of his depth.
A constructive vote of no confidence in Congress that is accompanied with the nomination of a candidate as a prime ministerial successor and so a continuation of government without resort to an election is technically possible. I'm not saying this will happen, just that it might or could, as Rajoy's performance on Spanish television will have done little to reassure nervous PP grandees, despite his attempt at hardball.
Where Rajoy succeeds in being a man of the people, or rather being like the people, is in conveying an impression of demoralisation, so capturing a national mood and one analysed in a remarkable article in "El País" which sought comparisons with the great loss of Spanish self-esteem when Cuba was lost in the 1898 war with the United States.
A bailout would be the final straw in this collective loss of esteem. One needs to appreciate the degree to which Spain, once something of a power, has struggled for years to regain some of this esteem only to now see it potentially blown apart by the humiliation that a bailout would represent. This is why Rajoy needs to be seen to be playing hardball. But he is not the man for the task as he suffers himself from the national affliction, forced into virtual silence and introspection, incapable of inspiring. Someone else is needed. A man (or woman) of the people. The question is who.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 September 2012
A 21.6 and humid high at 7.45am. A fair amount of light cloud but plenty of sun today with temperatures up to 30 or over. The rain for Thursday is looking more likely now but after that, back to decent, sunny weather.
Afternoon update: A high of just over 30 degrees, the forecast for tomorrow now includes a risk of rain, a yellow alert having been issued and average rainfalls being predicted of between 5 and 10 mm. Thursday's forecast also has a yellow alert for rain with a maximum rainfall up to 20 mm. The rain tomorrow, assuming it arrives, is likely to be in the evening, the rest of the day, at the moment, looking reasonable.
Afternoon update: A high of just over 30 degrees, the forecast for tomorrow now includes a risk of rain, a yellow alert having been issued and average rainfalls being predicted of between 5 and 10 mm. Thursday's forecast also has a yellow alert for rain with a maximum rainfall up to 20 mm. The rain tomorrow, assuming it arrives, is likely to be in the evening, the rest of the day, at the moment, looking reasonable.
One Hundred Years Of Multitude
The population of Mallorca has grown by 240% over the last 100 years. Such growth is not in the least bit surprising but what requires some explanation is why certain towns have grown while others have shrunk and so why towns that were more populous in 1910 are now less so.
The town that has experienced the greatest percentage increase is not Palma, as you might think, but Calvià. In 1910 its population was under 3,000; it is now over 50,000, making it the largest town in Mallorca after Palma. Calvia's growth is easy to explain - tourism and a related increase in the residential population. But this growth has been far from smooth; Calvià's boom has occurred over the past 30 years, 41,000 people added to a 1979 population of just over 11,000.
This growth can also be explained by the fact that Calvià is a satellite of Palma, as also are Marratxí and Llucmajor. While the rise in population in the latter is also due to tourism, Marratxí's 700% rise over 100 years is almost solely the result of the spread of the island's southern conurbation. The two other main towns on the island - Inca and Manacor - have experienced rises in population of similar degree, 260% and 230% respectively. Of the two, Inca's is more dramatic. Manacor has coastal tourism that Inca doesn't. Industry, and especially the leather industry, has made Inca the fifth largest town after Palma.
Industrial concentration and therefore migration and better infrastructure probably explain why some towns in Mallorca's interior have suffered from de-population since 1910; Sineu and Petra have declined, along with Selva and Llubí which are close to Inca.
Behind Calvià and Marratxí in terms of percentage growth comes Alcúdia. A population of slightly less than 3,000 in 1910 is now just under 20,000, and Alcúdia offers an interesting case example of how growth was engineered, both tourist and residential.
Alcúdia is the largest of the small towns in Mallorca, by which is meant that its population is less than 20,000, the threshold for towns to be reclassified in terms of municipal responsibilities and size of town hall administrations. Its growth has different explanations. Before mass tourism, it was Alcúdia, with its port potential, that was selected as the site for north-coast industrialisation; the original power station and the gas factory being located close to the port.
The power station was to prove important to what then occurred in the engineering of the purpose-built tourism and residential centre that created the sprawl away from the port area and along the coast. Ash from the power station was used in the reclamation of a huge part of Albufera and from which rose the Bellevue and Magic areas in the early 1970s.
Contrast this with neighbouring Pollensa. It was over twice the size of Alcúdia in 1910 but now has 3,000 fewer inhabitants. There was no similar tourism engineering, or none that was on the same scale as Alcúdia's. Contrast Alcúdia also with another neighbour, Muro. It was larger than Alcúdia in 1910 but its population today is only 2,350 greater than 100 years ago (just under 7,000). Unlike Alcúdia, there was no base from which to grow tourism and residential real estate. Playa de Muro didn't properly exist until the 1960s and when it came into existence there was crucially comparatively little reclamation of Albufera across the municipal boundary with Alcúdia.
Another town with an intriguing population history is Sóller. In 1910 it was the sixth largest town overall. It is still the eleventh largest but its population growth of 64% is way down on the total growth. Sóller is in a way a case of a place that peaked early. It grew in the nineteenth century on the back of its port and the export of oranges and olives and then again in the early twentieth century, partly thanks to the train tackling its isolation. But that isolation has never truly been overcome.
Then there are the interior towns that have experienced de-population. Industrial concentration elsewhere is one reason, but there are others: Sineu's population was slashed when the original rail line that had served the town was closed in the 1970s; Petra suffered from a failure to develop a wine industry; Llubí lost people due to emigration to the US.
Except for industrial towns such as Inca and towns with heavy tourism dependence, Mallorca's population has been surprisingly stable over the past one hundred years, decline in some towns compensated by modest growth in others. But the single most important reason for the overall population growth can be attributed to one place - Palma. Of an increase a touch over 600,000 people since 1910 to a Mallorca total today of 873,000, Palma is responsible for over half of it.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The town that has experienced the greatest percentage increase is not Palma, as you might think, but Calvià. In 1910 its population was under 3,000; it is now over 50,000, making it the largest town in Mallorca after Palma. Calvia's growth is easy to explain - tourism and a related increase in the residential population. But this growth has been far from smooth; Calvià's boom has occurred over the past 30 years, 41,000 people added to a 1979 population of just over 11,000.
This growth can also be explained by the fact that Calvià is a satellite of Palma, as also are Marratxí and Llucmajor. While the rise in population in the latter is also due to tourism, Marratxí's 700% rise over 100 years is almost solely the result of the spread of the island's southern conurbation. The two other main towns on the island - Inca and Manacor - have experienced rises in population of similar degree, 260% and 230% respectively. Of the two, Inca's is more dramatic. Manacor has coastal tourism that Inca doesn't. Industry, and especially the leather industry, has made Inca the fifth largest town after Palma.
Industrial concentration and therefore migration and better infrastructure probably explain why some towns in Mallorca's interior have suffered from de-population since 1910; Sineu and Petra have declined, along with Selva and Llubí which are close to Inca.
Behind Calvià and Marratxí in terms of percentage growth comes Alcúdia. A population of slightly less than 3,000 in 1910 is now just under 20,000, and Alcúdia offers an interesting case example of how growth was engineered, both tourist and residential.
Alcúdia is the largest of the small towns in Mallorca, by which is meant that its population is less than 20,000, the threshold for towns to be reclassified in terms of municipal responsibilities and size of town hall administrations. Its growth has different explanations. Before mass tourism, it was Alcúdia, with its port potential, that was selected as the site for north-coast industrialisation; the original power station and the gas factory being located close to the port.
The power station was to prove important to what then occurred in the engineering of the purpose-built tourism and residential centre that created the sprawl away from the port area and along the coast. Ash from the power station was used in the reclamation of a huge part of Albufera and from which rose the Bellevue and Magic areas in the early 1970s.
Contrast this with neighbouring Pollensa. It was over twice the size of Alcúdia in 1910 but now has 3,000 fewer inhabitants. There was no similar tourism engineering, or none that was on the same scale as Alcúdia's. Contrast Alcúdia also with another neighbour, Muro. It was larger than Alcúdia in 1910 but its population today is only 2,350 greater than 100 years ago (just under 7,000). Unlike Alcúdia, there was no base from which to grow tourism and residential real estate. Playa de Muro didn't properly exist until the 1960s and when it came into existence there was crucially comparatively little reclamation of Albufera across the municipal boundary with Alcúdia.
Another town with an intriguing population history is Sóller. In 1910 it was the sixth largest town overall. It is still the eleventh largest but its population growth of 64% is way down on the total growth. Sóller is in a way a case of a place that peaked early. It grew in the nineteenth century on the back of its port and the export of oranges and olives and then again in the early twentieth century, partly thanks to the train tackling its isolation. But that isolation has never truly been overcome.
Then there are the interior towns that have experienced de-population. Industrial concentration elsewhere is one reason, but there are others: Sineu's population was slashed when the original rail line that had served the town was closed in the 1970s; Petra suffered from a failure to develop a wine industry; Llubí lost people due to emigration to the US.
Except for industrial towns such as Inca and towns with heavy tourism dependence, Mallorca's population has been surprisingly stable over the past one hundred years, decline in some towns compensated by modest growth in others. But the single most important reason for the overall population growth can be attributed to one place - Palma. Of an increase a touch over 600,000 people since 1910 to a Mallorca total today of 873,000, Palma is responsible for over half of it.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, September 10, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa beach services co-ordinator contract denounced
Nothing runs smoothly with the management of Pollensa's beaches. The Alternativa per Pollença has now complained about the contract for the co-ordinator of services (to ensure low risk through safety and emergency procedures), the same person having been contracted for seven years which apparently is a breach of how such contracts should be awarded (presumably because of a need for periodic tender processes). The Alternativa, which does lend its voting support to the Partido Popular-La Lliga coalition because the coalition rules the town hall in minority, abstained against the most recent confirmation of this contract (on 21 August), and insists that the situation cannot be allowed to persist next year.
MALLORCA TODAY - More criticism of illegal beach selling in Muro
The Convergència has added its voice to those of others who have complained about the high levels of illegal beach selling on the beaches of Playa de Muro. Mayor Fornés maintains that the situation hasn't changed from previous years and that Muro is a town hall that does much to effect detentions of those involved in illegal selling.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 September 2012
Just like yesterday. Between 18 and 21 locally at 8am. Staying up around the 30 mark today, but likely to fall a bit later in the week. Otherwise no obvious change to the pattern of sun with some hazy cloud.
Afternoon update: Hotter today, a local high of 31.3C. A bit of a change has appeared for later in the week, rain looking likely on Thursday.
Afternoon update: Hotter today, a local high of 31.3C. A bit of a change has appeared for later in the week, rain looking likely on Thursday.
Viva Eurovegas!
Sheldon Adelson is an extraordinarily wealthy man. Self-made, "Forbes" magazine ranked him as the sixteenth richest person in the world in 2011. Chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, Spain may finally be on the point of receiving some of his colossal wealth.
Adelson is the man behind Eurovegas. Originally intended to be located in Catalonia near to Barcelona, the location has shifted. Madrid is now likely to be the beneficiary of a project that would create a tourist and gambling resort in the style of Las Vegas. Barcelona has been ruled out because plans for enormous skyscrapers would have posed a safety risk, given that the site would have been close to El Prat airport. Madrid, it would seem, doesn't pose such a risk.
The figures for Eurovegas are impressive. It would comprise six casinos, twelve tourist complexes each with up to 3,000 hotel places, restaurants, museums, convention centres, attractions and no doubt other things. Its cost would be in the region of 17,000 million euros. It would create 260,000 jobs and would, when completely finished, attract 11 million tourists annually.
Adelson has yet to finally decide whether to go ahead, but Eurovegas is becoming more of a probability, its first phase to be completed by 2016 and the whole project to be finished by 2022. If the numbers stack up, you would think that politicians would be lining up to bite his hand off.
There are plenty of people of course who would argue with the figures. What they can't argue with is that Las Vegas Sands has been extremely successful in developing similar resorts in Las Vegas itself and also in Macao and Singapore. Opponents might argue that Mr. Adelson is inflating the figures, but the investment required would not seem to be a deterrent given investment elsewhere, while returns have been such that the Macao project realised a payback in its first year of operation. This is a serious businessman, whatever people might think of him.
It is what people think of him that might yet scupper Eurovegas. Adelson hasn't exactly escaped the attention of courts, including the Nevada Supreme Court, but he has fought allegations to the extent that the "Daily Mail" was forced to pay out four million pounds in damages for libel. Accusations that were levelled by "The Mail" have kind of been echoed in Spain. A judge, José Manuel Gómez Benítez, who is a senior figure with the General Council of the Judiciary, has said that Eurovegas would be a "source of corruption and mafia-style activities" and that it would be "difficult to control" (I quote from a report from the EFE news agency of 12 July this year.) Benítez's position was in contrast to that of the director of Catalonia's anti-fraud office who praised the Eurovegas project, not that this seems to have done much good as Barcelona has been given the boot.
Even without the controversies that have attached themselves to Mr. Adelson, Eurovegas has always been and will remain a highly controversial project. It is one, for example, that places the Partido Popular up against the church (and Madrid is run by the PP with former prime minister Aznar's wife in charge). The church charity Caritas has been one of the most outspoken critics of the probably doomed Gran Scala project near Zaragoza. Yet for all that the church might disagree with gambling, the Spanish are one of the most gambling obsessed people in Europe, largely, one presumes, because of the vast amounts that are spent on lotteries.
But Eurovegas would be less a project for Spanish visitors than it would be for tourists from overseas: from European countries, from Russia (which might just set some alarm bells going) as well possibly from the Middle East and even China given that Chinese tourism to Spain is expected to increase significantly. And tourism from the US couldn't presumably also be ruled out.
The project would clearly stand or fall on its ability to generate the number of visitors being spoken about, but who's to say that it wouldn't. One doesn't know how the annual eleven million is arrived at, but it would be stupid to believe that an operation as successful as Las Vegas Sands doesn't have a sound idea as to the numbers.
There's a long way to go yet for Eurovegas and it will be the subject of intense debate, but one thing it has going for it is that in Madrid it probably won't be faced with a xenophobic attitude to foreign investment. Imagine what would happen in Mallorca, where the garlic and crosses would be brandished at the very mention of such a project.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Adelson is the man behind Eurovegas. Originally intended to be located in Catalonia near to Barcelona, the location has shifted. Madrid is now likely to be the beneficiary of a project that would create a tourist and gambling resort in the style of Las Vegas. Barcelona has been ruled out because plans for enormous skyscrapers would have posed a safety risk, given that the site would have been close to El Prat airport. Madrid, it would seem, doesn't pose such a risk.
The figures for Eurovegas are impressive. It would comprise six casinos, twelve tourist complexes each with up to 3,000 hotel places, restaurants, museums, convention centres, attractions and no doubt other things. Its cost would be in the region of 17,000 million euros. It would create 260,000 jobs and would, when completely finished, attract 11 million tourists annually.
Adelson has yet to finally decide whether to go ahead, but Eurovegas is becoming more of a probability, its first phase to be completed by 2016 and the whole project to be finished by 2022. If the numbers stack up, you would think that politicians would be lining up to bite his hand off.
There are plenty of people of course who would argue with the figures. What they can't argue with is that Las Vegas Sands has been extremely successful in developing similar resorts in Las Vegas itself and also in Macao and Singapore. Opponents might argue that Mr. Adelson is inflating the figures, but the investment required would not seem to be a deterrent given investment elsewhere, while returns have been such that the Macao project realised a payback in its first year of operation. This is a serious businessman, whatever people might think of him.
It is what people think of him that might yet scupper Eurovegas. Adelson hasn't exactly escaped the attention of courts, including the Nevada Supreme Court, but he has fought allegations to the extent that the "Daily Mail" was forced to pay out four million pounds in damages for libel. Accusations that were levelled by "The Mail" have kind of been echoed in Spain. A judge, José Manuel Gómez Benítez, who is a senior figure with the General Council of the Judiciary, has said that Eurovegas would be a "source of corruption and mafia-style activities" and that it would be "difficult to control" (I quote from a report from the EFE news agency of 12 July this year.) Benítez's position was in contrast to that of the director of Catalonia's anti-fraud office who praised the Eurovegas project, not that this seems to have done much good as Barcelona has been given the boot.
Even without the controversies that have attached themselves to Mr. Adelson, Eurovegas has always been and will remain a highly controversial project. It is one, for example, that places the Partido Popular up against the church (and Madrid is run by the PP with former prime minister Aznar's wife in charge). The church charity Caritas has been one of the most outspoken critics of the probably doomed Gran Scala project near Zaragoza. Yet for all that the church might disagree with gambling, the Spanish are one of the most gambling obsessed people in Europe, largely, one presumes, because of the vast amounts that are spent on lotteries.
But Eurovegas would be less a project for Spanish visitors than it would be for tourists from overseas: from European countries, from Russia (which might just set some alarm bells going) as well possibly from the Middle East and even China given that Chinese tourism to Spain is expected to increase significantly. And tourism from the US couldn't presumably also be ruled out.
The project would clearly stand or fall on its ability to generate the number of visitors being spoken about, but who's to say that it wouldn't. One doesn't know how the annual eleven million is arrived at, but it would be stupid to believe that an operation as successful as Las Vegas Sands doesn't have a sound idea as to the numbers.
There's a long way to go yet for Eurovegas and it will be the subject of intense debate, but one thing it has going for it is that in Madrid it probably won't be faced with a xenophobic attitude to foreign investment. Imagine what would happen in Mallorca, where the garlic and crosses would be brandished at the very mention of such a project.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, September 09, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - At least 50 deliberate fires on the Balearics this summer
The figure could rise as the causes of some fires are still being investigated, but the number of cases of known deliberate fires on the Balearics between May and August is at least 50 out of a total of 129, the great majority of them on Mallorca. The current number up to the end of August makes 2012 the worst year for fires since 2004.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Politicians join swim in protest at military base access
The swim to the limit to civilian access in front of Puerto Pollensa's military base, arranged as a means of protest against the base being off-limits to the public, went ahead yesterday afternoon. Some 50 people took part, including local opposition politicians.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 September 2012
19 degrees at 8am on another hazy, slightly misty morn. The weather seems stuck for the time being, producing days with plenty of hazy sun, quite hot in the upper 20s but the heat rather clammy thanks to the haze.
Afternoon update: A repeat of yesterday. Highs just under 30 degrees, haze over the sun but still plenty of sun even if the UV level has been down.
Afternoon update: A repeat of yesterday. Highs just under 30 degrees, haze over the sun but still plenty of sun even if the UV level has been down.
Los Kinks: Mallorca and sixties pop
Francesc Vicens can't be accused of not being eclectic in his musical interests. Two years ago, the views of this Mallorcan musicologist were being widely sought when the Sibil·la chant was placed on UNESCO's list of practices which add to the "intangible cultural heritage of humanity". He has now produced a book on a subject far removed from the folk and religious heritage of the Sibil·la. Entitled "Paradise of Love", it deals with pop music and culture in the Mallorca of the sixties.
The book's subtitle is "L'Illa imaginada". From this, I take it that the book is in Catalan. It sounds as if consideration should be given to publishing it in English as well. Sixties pop groups from Mallorca would be unfamiliar to almost anyone who wasn't Mallorcan, but the groups themselves are only as important as the cultural context of the growth of tourism, the influence of pop culture from the UK and the US and the social climate of Mallorca under Franco. As such, it appears to be as much a social history as it is a musical one. Its story deserves to be told more widely.
Spanish pop music in the sixties, as far as a British audience was concerned, was of little consequence. There may have been others but the only hit song that comes to mind is Los Bravos' "Black Is Black". Los Bravos weren't completely Spanish in that the singer, Michael Kogel, was German, but Los Bravos had a connection with Mallorca. It was at the Jaima nightclub in Cala Mayor that Kogel met members of a group called Los Sonor from Madrid. They joined forces and eventually changed their name to Los Bravos.
Otherwise, Spanish popular music meant that from Latin America and the US. "Guantanamera" was a hit in 1966 for the American group The Sandpipers whose version retained some Spanish lyrics from a song that was originally Cuban; the song's title means, by the way, woman from Guantánamo, a place that has since acquired an altogether different reputation. There was Herb Alpert, who was American, and his "Spanish Flea" and very little else.
Mallorcan pop groups of the time that Vicens has chronicled will mean very little, but the names of the groups of that era certainly reflected the era: Los Bohemios; Los Millionarios, who apparently had a big hit with "Jardín de Rosas", a cover of Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden"; Los Geminis who did their own take on Tommy James & The Shondells' "Mony, Mony"; Los Telstars who were part of Beatlemania in a Mallorcan style, though they dared to venture into Troggs territory by recording "A Girl Like You". There was also a duo, Juan and Junior; Juan was from Palma and Junior was from The Philippines and they were about as big as it got in Mallorca in those days. They were for a time part of Los Brincos who recorded a song called "El Pasaporte" which was apparently critical of Franco.
I've listened to a not terribly good quality recording of "El Pasaporte" (its English version) and it wasn't bad, though it's difficult to make the lyrics out, and I have to thank, as I also do for names of artists listed above, a remarkable resource at http://66spanishgarage.blogspot.com.es for making it available. I urge you to visit this website as it is full of absolute gems.
Being critical of Franco wasn't the best career move a pop group or anyone could make in the 1960s, but the fact that there may have been some criticism, albeit almost subliminal, does indicate the way in which the sixties brought about social change in Mallorca, and especially in Mallorca and the Costas because of tourism. Allied to nudges from the US for more liberalism in return for all the aid that was coming Franco's way, tourism plus pop culture began to erode Francoism. Yet, as Vicens appears to point out in his book, protest wasn't a facet of this new pop culture. It may not have been openly expressed in the music, but it surely played its part in altering society, given that protest had moved into the pop mainstream and away from its folk roots of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and others.
Occasionally, you stumble across an item in the local press that pulls you up and makes you think: "now that's really interesting". So it was with the piece about Vicens' book in "Ultima Hora", replete with a poster for The Kinks (and not Los Kinks) at Palma's bullring on 17 July 1966. The combination of the sixties (with all the baggage the sixties imply), tourism, a society in change, music and pop culture is a heady and vibrant mix. I do hope a way is found to publish this book in English.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The book's subtitle is "L'Illa imaginada". From this, I take it that the book is in Catalan. It sounds as if consideration should be given to publishing it in English as well. Sixties pop groups from Mallorca would be unfamiliar to almost anyone who wasn't Mallorcan, but the groups themselves are only as important as the cultural context of the growth of tourism, the influence of pop culture from the UK and the US and the social climate of Mallorca under Franco. As such, it appears to be as much a social history as it is a musical one. Its story deserves to be told more widely.
Spanish pop music in the sixties, as far as a British audience was concerned, was of little consequence. There may have been others but the only hit song that comes to mind is Los Bravos' "Black Is Black". Los Bravos weren't completely Spanish in that the singer, Michael Kogel, was German, but Los Bravos had a connection with Mallorca. It was at the Jaima nightclub in Cala Mayor that Kogel met members of a group called Los Sonor from Madrid. They joined forces and eventually changed their name to Los Bravos.
Otherwise, Spanish popular music meant that from Latin America and the US. "Guantanamera" was a hit in 1966 for the American group The Sandpipers whose version retained some Spanish lyrics from a song that was originally Cuban; the song's title means, by the way, woman from Guantánamo, a place that has since acquired an altogether different reputation. There was Herb Alpert, who was American, and his "Spanish Flea" and very little else.
Mallorcan pop groups of the time that Vicens has chronicled will mean very little, but the names of the groups of that era certainly reflected the era: Los Bohemios; Los Millionarios, who apparently had a big hit with "Jardín de Rosas", a cover of Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden"; Los Geminis who did their own take on Tommy James & The Shondells' "Mony, Mony"; Los Telstars who were part of Beatlemania in a Mallorcan style, though they dared to venture into Troggs territory by recording "A Girl Like You". There was also a duo, Juan and Junior; Juan was from Palma and Junior was from The Philippines and they were about as big as it got in Mallorca in those days. They were for a time part of Los Brincos who recorded a song called "El Pasaporte" which was apparently critical of Franco.
I've listened to a not terribly good quality recording of "El Pasaporte" (its English version) and it wasn't bad, though it's difficult to make the lyrics out, and I have to thank, as I also do for names of artists listed above, a remarkable resource at http://66spanishgarage.blogspot.com.es for making it available. I urge you to visit this website as it is full of absolute gems.
Being critical of Franco wasn't the best career move a pop group or anyone could make in the 1960s, but the fact that there may have been some criticism, albeit almost subliminal, does indicate the way in which the sixties brought about social change in Mallorca, and especially in Mallorca and the Costas because of tourism. Allied to nudges from the US for more liberalism in return for all the aid that was coming Franco's way, tourism plus pop culture began to erode Francoism. Yet, as Vicens appears to point out in his book, protest wasn't a facet of this new pop culture. It may not have been openly expressed in the music, but it surely played its part in altering society, given that protest had moved into the pop mainstream and away from its folk roots of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and others.
Occasionally, you stumble across an item in the local press that pulls you up and makes you think: "now that's really interesting". So it was with the piece about Vicens' book in "Ultima Hora", replete with a poster for The Kinks (and not Los Kinks) at Palma's bullring on 17 July 1966. The combination of the sixties (with all the baggage the sixties imply), tourism, a society in change, music and pop culture is a heady and vibrant mix. I do hope a way is found to publish this book in English.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, September 08, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Pop music in Mallorca in the sixties
Seemingly in Catalan, a new book entitled "Paradise of Love or the Imagined Island" sounds interesting nevertheless, as it looks at the influence of sixties music and culture in Mallorca, making observations about the way in which this culture was assimilated within a society still under dictatorship. Fascinating. Shame it's not in English.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 September 2012
Early haze and a touch of mist, the haze is likely to stay on a warm day with temperatures up towards 30 degrees. At 7.30, variation between 17 and 21 locally. The forecast for tomorrow is similar, sunny but with hazy cloud and warm.
Afternoon update: Highs a touch under 30 degrees both inland and on the coast. Mostly sunny all day but with that hazy cloud intruding now and then.
Afternoon update: Highs a touch under 30 degrees both inland and on the coast. Mostly sunny all day but with that hazy cloud intruding now and then.
Holiday Let Hysteria
(This article was asked for by "The Bulletin". It comes, as you will see, on the back of previous articles I have written on the holiday-let issue and following a meeting with some press by the hoteliers federation at which, so I am led to believe, some fairly odd things were said.)
The Majorcan hoteliers federation is hysterical. Not hysterical funny (though one could argue this to be the case) but hysterical uncontrolled. This uncontrolled hysteria stems from the lack of control of private accommodation for holiday rental and from the federation's propaganda war against the "oferta ilegal".
Let me be clear, I have no axe to grind with the federation, with any hotel chain or any hotel. I am full of admiration for the generally high standards of Majorca's hotel industry, for its innovation, for its contributions to the local economy and to employment, for the enhancement of Majorca's image through these standards and innovation and for the enhancement of Majorca's reputation overseas through the exporting of hotel know-how and ingenuity. I understand fully the investment that hotels need to make, the hoops they have to go through in terms of inspection and bureaucracy, the taxes they have to pay, the liabilities they have to assume.
I can accept that hotels are not the real villains of the piece when it comes to all-inclusive. Not all want to be all-inclusive but have had to bow to pressures that came initially from tour operators and now from a market that has grown used to requiring all-inclusive. I can accept that hotels are faced with an intolerable situation whereby their valuable real estate stands empty for much of the year, that their overall productivity is therefore diminished because of seasonality and that they have to maximise their returns in the summer season.
I have, therefore, sympathy as well as admiration and gratitude. Which is what makes my exasperation at the hoteliers' hysteria and crusade against the "oferta ilegal" that much greater, as it undoes all the goodwill that the hotels deserve and undermines all the good work that they undertake.
The week before last, I wrote a series of articles in which I took the hoteliers federation to task for what I consider to be misleading information and also took the local media to task for not querying the federation's information. On Friday this week, there was a further example of both, and the mere fact that the federation was once more ripping into the "oferta ilegal" led me to consider that it was becoming hysterical.
In "Ultima Hora" (sister newspaper of "The Bulletin"), a page was devoted to the federation's argument that economic crisis was fuelling further the supply of illegal accommodation because owners of second (holiday) homes were preferring to rent them out (illegally) rather than to stay in them. This conclusion, derived apparently from estate-agency sources and as a logical extension of increased passenger numbers passing through Palma airport, was used as further evidence of the unfair competition to the hotels and of owners avoiding paying tax. The report also stated, and I quote: "hotel occupancy has not benefited from this increase in the number of passengers in the airports".
However, and as I pointed out in those articles, July's occupancy was at a record level while August's was, at worst, about average. But occupancy figures are only part of the story; the full story is that tourists opt to stay in different types of accommodation and not only hotels.
What this report highlighted, yet again, was the fact that the level of tourism is such that it is way beyond the capabilities of the hotels to cater for it. And yet again, the obvious question was not being addressed. If Majorca (and the Balearics) want the number of tourists that the islands attract, where are they all meant to stay? They can't all stay in hotels because there are too few hotel places. This is a question I have asked on numerous occasions and one that writers of letters to this newspaper have also rightly asked.
The report also highlighted the narrative that surrounds the issue of the "oferta ilegal". A photo caption said: "Alcudia and Pollensa, the most affected zones". There is no loss in translation; affected implies a negative. The narrative, and one compounded by the local press, is that illegal is automatically wrong. Normally, I would agree, but illegal, in the case of holiday lets, is taken as a means of demonising not just of pointing out illegality. Moreover, its very use impedes querying. Illegal equals wrong equals must not question the hoteliers' point of view.
Key to tackling this illegality, so the report added, is a law on urban leases and key to its implementation in eradicating the "fraud" that is being committed is the collaboration of town halls. In fact, mayors have been brought on board by the regional government. The creation of a "mesa" (table) of mayors is intended, in part, to facilitate information gathering in the pursuit of illegal accommodation.
I wonder, however, what a mayor such as Pollensa's Tomeu Cifre makes of this. His town is the most affected zone; most affected by the crusade against private accommodation as holiday rental. And he tried unsuccessfully to get the government to shift on the issue when drafting the new tourism law. Cifre will know, as will mayors of other zones that are "most affected" (Alcúdia and Calvià), that businesses other than hotels have a great dependence upon tourism which is not hotel-based. When the overall level of all-inclusive occupancy on the island is around 30% or so (but much higher in certain resorts), this tourism is fundamental to local economies.
I understand that last week the president of the hoteliers federation met with members of the press and that the issue of the "oferta ilegal" came up. But why is it that the press insists, or seems to insist, on meeting only with the hoteliers? To take another of the "most affected" zones, Alcúdia, it was here that Acotur, the tourist businesses association, launched its campaign a few weeks ago against all-inclusives. Why not talk to Acotur and ask it what it thinks about the persecution of property owners who permit tourism that can compensate for loss of business as a consequence of all-inclusive? Why not talk to the association for holiday homes? Why not even talk to Jaime Martínez, the Balearics director-general of tourism? It was he who mainly drafted the new tourism law. Political figure he may be, but at least he should be able to give accurate information regarding the situation on holiday lets, unlike the hoteliers federation, as I understand that at that press meeting the federation was giving wrong information.
The hoteliers do have a case in opposing holiday lets. Not all private accommodation is of a high standard and some owners will, under any circumstance, try and avoid paying tax. But it's a Catch 22. Because the accommodation is deemed illegal and cannot be licensed, it cannot be inspected and it cannot be subject to tax, albeit there exists the truly absurd situation by which there are owners who declare and pay tax on property which is illegal. But the opposition takes no account of the reality, which is that to accommodate Majorca's tourists there has to be a substantial stock of property other than hotels. It is this key issue which is left up in the air, it is the key question which is never answered. Instead, there is the supply of wrong information, either deliberate or inadvertent, and the selectivity and manipulation of information. And this supply of information has now become hysterical.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The Majorcan hoteliers federation is hysterical. Not hysterical funny (though one could argue this to be the case) but hysterical uncontrolled. This uncontrolled hysteria stems from the lack of control of private accommodation for holiday rental and from the federation's propaganda war against the "oferta ilegal".
Let me be clear, I have no axe to grind with the federation, with any hotel chain or any hotel. I am full of admiration for the generally high standards of Majorca's hotel industry, for its innovation, for its contributions to the local economy and to employment, for the enhancement of Majorca's image through these standards and innovation and for the enhancement of Majorca's reputation overseas through the exporting of hotel know-how and ingenuity. I understand fully the investment that hotels need to make, the hoops they have to go through in terms of inspection and bureaucracy, the taxes they have to pay, the liabilities they have to assume.
I can accept that hotels are not the real villains of the piece when it comes to all-inclusive. Not all want to be all-inclusive but have had to bow to pressures that came initially from tour operators and now from a market that has grown used to requiring all-inclusive. I can accept that hotels are faced with an intolerable situation whereby their valuable real estate stands empty for much of the year, that their overall productivity is therefore diminished because of seasonality and that they have to maximise their returns in the summer season.
I have, therefore, sympathy as well as admiration and gratitude. Which is what makes my exasperation at the hoteliers' hysteria and crusade against the "oferta ilegal" that much greater, as it undoes all the goodwill that the hotels deserve and undermines all the good work that they undertake.
The week before last, I wrote a series of articles in which I took the hoteliers federation to task for what I consider to be misleading information and also took the local media to task for not querying the federation's information. On Friday this week, there was a further example of both, and the mere fact that the federation was once more ripping into the "oferta ilegal" led me to consider that it was becoming hysterical.
In "Ultima Hora" (sister newspaper of "The Bulletin"), a page was devoted to the federation's argument that economic crisis was fuelling further the supply of illegal accommodation because owners of second (holiday) homes were preferring to rent them out (illegally) rather than to stay in them. This conclusion, derived apparently from estate-agency sources and as a logical extension of increased passenger numbers passing through Palma airport, was used as further evidence of the unfair competition to the hotels and of owners avoiding paying tax. The report also stated, and I quote: "hotel occupancy has not benefited from this increase in the number of passengers in the airports".
However, and as I pointed out in those articles, July's occupancy was at a record level while August's was, at worst, about average. But occupancy figures are only part of the story; the full story is that tourists opt to stay in different types of accommodation and not only hotels.
What this report highlighted, yet again, was the fact that the level of tourism is such that it is way beyond the capabilities of the hotels to cater for it. And yet again, the obvious question was not being addressed. If Majorca (and the Balearics) want the number of tourists that the islands attract, where are they all meant to stay? They can't all stay in hotels because there are too few hotel places. This is a question I have asked on numerous occasions and one that writers of letters to this newspaper have also rightly asked.
The report also highlighted the narrative that surrounds the issue of the "oferta ilegal". A photo caption said: "Alcudia and Pollensa, the most affected zones". There is no loss in translation; affected implies a negative. The narrative, and one compounded by the local press, is that illegal is automatically wrong. Normally, I would agree, but illegal, in the case of holiday lets, is taken as a means of demonising not just of pointing out illegality. Moreover, its very use impedes querying. Illegal equals wrong equals must not question the hoteliers' point of view.
Key to tackling this illegality, so the report added, is a law on urban leases and key to its implementation in eradicating the "fraud" that is being committed is the collaboration of town halls. In fact, mayors have been brought on board by the regional government. The creation of a "mesa" (table) of mayors is intended, in part, to facilitate information gathering in the pursuit of illegal accommodation.
I wonder, however, what a mayor such as Pollensa's Tomeu Cifre makes of this. His town is the most affected zone; most affected by the crusade against private accommodation as holiday rental. And he tried unsuccessfully to get the government to shift on the issue when drafting the new tourism law. Cifre will know, as will mayors of other zones that are "most affected" (Alcúdia and Calvià), that businesses other than hotels have a great dependence upon tourism which is not hotel-based. When the overall level of all-inclusive occupancy on the island is around 30% or so (but much higher in certain resorts), this tourism is fundamental to local economies.
I understand that last week the president of the hoteliers federation met with members of the press and that the issue of the "oferta ilegal" came up. But why is it that the press insists, or seems to insist, on meeting only with the hoteliers? To take another of the "most affected" zones, Alcúdia, it was here that Acotur, the tourist businesses association, launched its campaign a few weeks ago against all-inclusives. Why not talk to Acotur and ask it what it thinks about the persecution of property owners who permit tourism that can compensate for loss of business as a consequence of all-inclusive? Why not talk to the association for holiday homes? Why not even talk to Jaime Martínez, the Balearics director-general of tourism? It was he who mainly drafted the new tourism law. Political figure he may be, but at least he should be able to give accurate information regarding the situation on holiday lets, unlike the hoteliers federation, as I understand that at that press meeting the federation was giving wrong information.
The hoteliers do have a case in opposing holiday lets. Not all private accommodation is of a high standard and some owners will, under any circumstance, try and avoid paying tax. But it's a Catch 22. Because the accommodation is deemed illegal and cannot be licensed, it cannot be inspected and it cannot be subject to tax, albeit there exists the truly absurd situation by which there are owners who declare and pay tax on property which is illegal. But the opposition takes no account of the reality, which is that to accommodate Majorca's tourists there has to be a substantial stock of property other than hotels. It is this key issue which is left up in the air, it is the key question which is never answered. Instead, there is the supply of wrong information, either deliberate or inadvertent, and the selectivity and manipulation of information. And this supply of information has now become hysterical.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, September 07, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Rise in illegal accommodation this summer
The Mallorcan hoteliers federation is keeping up its propaganda war about illegal tourist accommodation. It now says that economic crisis has led owners with second homes have been renting out rather than staying in these homes this summer. The hoteliers insist that this has affected occupancy, even though July's occupancy was higher than usual and August's will be around the norm.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Attempted robbery from sunbeds seller in Can Picafort
A "hamaquero" who sells tickets for sunbeds on Can Picafort beach was the victim of a failed attempt at robbery on Wednesday. At the end of his shift, he went to his car when someone described as having an Argentinian accent pulled a gun and demanded his cash. He managed to fight the robber off who fled on a motorbike when a colleague of the seller came to his aid.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Via Cintura delays because of Manacor road tunnel work
The construction of a tunnel to alleviate traffic jams from the Via Cintura in Palma onto the Carretera Manacor (near to the Balearics stadium and IKEA) will from today and for a period of about two months produce some delays, especially at peak times. This is on account of a diversion with reduced speed that has been introduced for traffic heading in the direction of the airport.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia criticism of help to families in need
The opposition PSOE and Convergència at Alcúdia town hall has attacked the Partido Popular-led administration for allocating only 22,500 euros for families in need in the town when a surplus of eleven million euros has been budgeted for.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 September 2012
Warmer overnight than it has been for a few nights, fresh again this morning, but temperatures still a bit higher - 22.5 the area maximum at 8.30am. Set to be a fine, sunny day, up to 30 degrees, with more of the same over the weekend.
Afternoon update: Up to 28.7 today and 30.1 inland in Sa Pobla. Plenty of sun but a hazy edge to it most of the day. Likely to be so over the weekend as well.
Afternoon update: Up to 28.7 today and 30.1 inland in Sa Pobla. Plenty of sun but a hazy edge to it most of the day. Likely to be so over the weekend as well.
Ventura Fairway: Binissalem and golf
The arguments surrounding the development of more golf courses on Mallorca are never far away from the shouts of "fore" as the business of golf hurtles towards environmentalists lurking in the rough who are forced to dash for cover and bury their heads in a sand bunker.
Four years ago, I wrote an article the title of which was "Heart and Soul". It was mainly to do with the projected golf course in Campos. Without going into the detail of that article, I concluded by saying that "the Campos case is important as it goes to the heart of many issues, namely what sort of developments are needed, the intransigence of a non-pragmatic environmental lobby, the incoherence of political decision-making and the needs of local communities. It is a story not just about a golf course but also about the future soul of Mallorca."
Nothing has changed to make me think otherwise. Golfing factionalism is as it was and political decision-making remains incoherent as well as being subject to whim, revisionism and dominant political party complexion. The future soul of Mallorca is still undecided, but we are edging more towards a state in which the treasure island becomes Leisure Island.
The Campos project has always made some sense. The town has little by way of tourism, so in purely economic terms the project has advantages, the same advantages that would accrue from the highly contentious hotel development near Es Trenc beach. Another disputed development, in Muro, has always made less sense, if only because of the existence of other courses nearby, Alcanada and Pollensa.
These two projects have dominated the arguments regarding further golfing development, but there is now a third, and one that threatens to become as mired in the endless to-ing and fro-ing that Muro's has. It is the strange case of the Binissalem golf course, a case made stranger because the golf course would lie less in Binissalem than it would in neighbouring Sencelles.
In May 2010, the Council of Mallorca supported a proposal by Binissalem town hall to modify local planning regulations in order to stop the construction of a golf course on rustic land. The town hall, buoyed by the Council's support, revelled in being able to say that it was the first town in Mallorca to have modified planning regulations in order to expressly forbid golf development on rustic land. Meanwhile, Sencelles town hall had already imposed a moratorium of a year on any construction and in April 2011, it followed Binissalem's lead in prohibiting the construction.
The course seemed dead in the water, therefore. Until, that is, the Council of Mallorca, now under a different political regime (the Partido Popular), opened the way for the course to once more be developed. This was in January this year. And now, all of a sudden, Binissalem town hall has performed a complete U-turn and approved the development of sporting activities on rustic land, meaning the golf course. Sencelles would presumably have to follow suit, and it is here where the story becomes that bit more interesting as the promoter of the golf course is one Ventura Rubí. And he is? The president of the Partido Popular in Sencelles.
The political make-up of both town halls has changed since the prohibitions of 2010 and 2011, as also has that of the Council of Mallorca. So, here you have it: whim, dominant political party complexion and also some revisionism; the decision to prohibit construction had all been a mistake. Presumably, therefore, no one had actually meant to prohibit construction.
Further background to all this is the new tourism law and the provision for more agrotourism whereby existing properties on rustic land can be converted to tourist use (and Binissalem town hall has also agreed that there should be more agrotourism). Just by way of interest, who is the honorary president of the agrotourism association? Ventura Rubí.
Putting agrotourism together with a golf course and the fact that Binissalem and Sencelles are at the centre of Mallorca's wine industry, then the town hall's U-turn makes sense. It would open the area up to an upmarket brand of tourism that would benefit from the synergy of golf and wine.
But go back to 2008 and there were arguments that Mallorca had already reached golfing saturation point in terms of courses while these courses were being under-utilised. Golfing tourism has tended to grow but not hugely, while agrotourism has suffered from a fall in demand from its key mainland Spanish market. The Binissalem course makes some sense, but so does the one in Campos; more so perhaps. However, the question is less whether Binissalem's course makes sense and more whether any more courses on Mallorca make sense.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Four years ago, I wrote an article the title of which was "Heart and Soul". It was mainly to do with the projected golf course in Campos. Without going into the detail of that article, I concluded by saying that "the Campos case is important as it goes to the heart of many issues, namely what sort of developments are needed, the intransigence of a non-pragmatic environmental lobby, the incoherence of political decision-making and the needs of local communities. It is a story not just about a golf course but also about the future soul of Mallorca."
Nothing has changed to make me think otherwise. Golfing factionalism is as it was and political decision-making remains incoherent as well as being subject to whim, revisionism and dominant political party complexion. The future soul of Mallorca is still undecided, but we are edging more towards a state in which the treasure island becomes Leisure Island.
The Campos project has always made some sense. The town has little by way of tourism, so in purely economic terms the project has advantages, the same advantages that would accrue from the highly contentious hotel development near Es Trenc beach. Another disputed development, in Muro, has always made less sense, if only because of the existence of other courses nearby, Alcanada and Pollensa.
These two projects have dominated the arguments regarding further golfing development, but there is now a third, and one that threatens to become as mired in the endless to-ing and fro-ing that Muro's has. It is the strange case of the Binissalem golf course, a case made stranger because the golf course would lie less in Binissalem than it would in neighbouring Sencelles.
In May 2010, the Council of Mallorca supported a proposal by Binissalem town hall to modify local planning regulations in order to stop the construction of a golf course on rustic land. The town hall, buoyed by the Council's support, revelled in being able to say that it was the first town in Mallorca to have modified planning regulations in order to expressly forbid golf development on rustic land. Meanwhile, Sencelles town hall had already imposed a moratorium of a year on any construction and in April 2011, it followed Binissalem's lead in prohibiting the construction.
The course seemed dead in the water, therefore. Until, that is, the Council of Mallorca, now under a different political regime (the Partido Popular), opened the way for the course to once more be developed. This was in January this year. And now, all of a sudden, Binissalem town hall has performed a complete U-turn and approved the development of sporting activities on rustic land, meaning the golf course. Sencelles would presumably have to follow suit, and it is here where the story becomes that bit more interesting as the promoter of the golf course is one Ventura Rubí. And he is? The president of the Partido Popular in Sencelles.
The political make-up of both town halls has changed since the prohibitions of 2010 and 2011, as also has that of the Council of Mallorca. So, here you have it: whim, dominant political party complexion and also some revisionism; the decision to prohibit construction had all been a mistake. Presumably, therefore, no one had actually meant to prohibit construction.
Further background to all this is the new tourism law and the provision for more agrotourism whereby existing properties on rustic land can be converted to tourist use (and Binissalem town hall has also agreed that there should be more agrotourism). Just by way of interest, who is the honorary president of the agrotourism association? Ventura Rubí.
Putting agrotourism together with a golf course and the fact that Binissalem and Sencelles are at the centre of Mallorca's wine industry, then the town hall's U-turn makes sense. It would open the area up to an upmarket brand of tourism that would benefit from the synergy of golf and wine.
But go back to 2008 and there were arguments that Mallorca had already reached golfing saturation point in terms of courses while these courses were being under-utilised. Golfing tourism has tended to grow but not hugely, while agrotourism has suffered from a fall in demand from its key mainland Spanish market. The Binissalem course makes some sense, but so does the one in Campos; more so perhaps. However, the question is less whether Binissalem's course makes sense and more whether any more courses on Mallorca make sense.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, September 06, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Real Mallorca could yet be forced out of business
Real Mallorca football club faces the prospect that it could be wound up if an appeal by a major creditor, Delta Sport, is upheld by the provincial court in the Balearics that would nullify a creditors' agreement drawn up at the end of last year. Despite Delta Sport having expressed an intention to withdraw its appeal against this agreement, it hasn't been and is due to be ruled on next month. If the ruling goes in favour of Delta, Real Mallorca's assets would be liquidated and the club would go out of business.
See more: El Mundo
See more: El Mundo
MALLORCA TODAY - The second hottest August on record
The past month of August was the second hottest across Spain as a whole since records were formally started in 1961. The hottest August remains that of the blistering summer of 2003. In the Balearics, average temperatures were up to two degrees higher than normal. The average temperature for the country was 25.4 degrees.
See more: El Mundo
See more: El Mundo
MALLORCA TODAY - Greater study of small birds in Albufera
The study of small birds in the Albufera nature park, about which little is known, is to be extended. Some 30 species are included in this study, the birds being difficult to observe on account of their size and colour.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Complaints about kitesurfers grow
More on the complaints of residents of the La Marina area of Alcúdia on Pollensa Bay who are fed up with the proliferation of kitesurfers (made greater since the establishment of kitesurfing schools) who prevent them from swimming and who pose a risk of accident. Previous on this - 19 August, "Go Fly A Kite, Kitesurfers": http://alcudiapollensa.blogspot.com.es/2012/08/go-fly-kite-kitesurfers.html
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 September 2012
Another fresh morning, temperatures from 16 to 21 at 8.45am, mainly clear and should be mostly clear for much of the day and feeling warmer, highs getting to the 30 mark. The outlook is for days of partial cloud and good deals of sun and temperatures in the upper 20s or around 30 degrees.
Afternoon update: Nice day. Highs just under 30 degrees by the coast and just over in inland parts such as Sa Pobla.
Afternoon update: Nice day. Highs just under 30 degrees by the coast and just over in inland parts such as Sa Pobla.
Just Another Normal Return To School
It hardly seems any time since the youth of northern Mallorca were descending on Puerto Alcúdia for their end-of-school-year drinkathon in June. The long hot summer has all but passed the island's minors by. Return to school. "Vuelta al cole" is just around the corner.
The start of the school year is always given a great deal of prominence by the media. One is tempted to think that this is due to the fact that some schooling is actually taking place for once, though, as has been pointed out (not least by myself), total school hours in Spain aren't that far behind those in England where annual school hours are among the longest. And as a reflection of this media prominence, I, as has now become traditional, add to the column inches.
The return to school is fascinating because of its ritualistic nature and because of all the raft of statistics which are trotted out and political statements which accompany it. The greatest ritual is to declare on the day of the return to school that it has been "normal", which has long led me to wonder what would constitute an abnormal return to school. Thanks to the regional government, education minister Rafael Bosch, stroppy parents, stroppy teachers, the endless language argument, Catalan bows, the Balearics Institute of Family Policy and the rise in IVA, we are about to find out.
By the start of this school year, or so said Herr Bosch at this time last year, there was meant to have been equality between Catalan and Castellano in Mallorca's educational system. This less than normal state of affairs, given that Catalan has dominated, is not about to come to pass. The wholesale introduction of "free selection" of language was watered down, the free selection where it was to be applied (infant and early primary) has been largely rejected by parents who continue to favour Catalan, and where there is to be equality, the teachers for the most part seem unsure how it is going to be implemented.
The language argument may seem to have dominated the educational agenda, but the teachers have other concerns which are just as controversial. They are expected to teach for longer, to teach larger classes and to be paid less. Which sounds wonderful for morale, as indeed does the fact that the government have been less than forthcoming in handing over money to schools since April this year.
It is the purely educational matter of class sizes and teaching resources that has inspired a campaign known as "Así no empieza mi hijo" promoted by the parents federation. It means that some parents are threatening to boycott the start of the school year by keeping their children at home, which does sound decidedly abnormal.
Into the fray on this particular abnormality has entered the Institute of Family Policy. It has denounced the parents to the ombudsman, claiming that fundamental rights of children will be violated by this boycott. Which is all quite interesting; an institute for family policy denouncing families, but such is how things work here. But then, the institute is an interesting body. A couple of years ago it was to the fore in seeking to ban topless sunbathing (rights and protection of children and all that). If you can be bothered to (and I have), some judicious Googling can reveal some just as interesting associations that this institute has. Let's simply say that it isn't exactly liberal.
I'm not sure what the institute has to say on the matter of IVA but there are plenty of families in Mallorca and in Spain that have been presented with a greatly increased bill for this school year. If you think a three per cent rise on the general rate is steep, then it is nothing compared with the 17% rise (4% to 21%) for school material (with the exception of books).
So, what have we got? Teachers hacked off, larger class sizes, schools not getting money they are owed, the language policy in disarray, parents being denounced, cost of sending children to school increasing. Enough for you? Well, there is also the matter of the Catalan bows hanging outside some schools to be made more of an issue of, a minor issue in truth when compared with the continuing poor performance of the state education sector in Mallorca, a problem which consultants McKinsey have been addressing by arguing in favour of the adoption of an English system (God help the local schools if this means performance league tables).
Yep, the return to school sounds as though it will be perfectly normal.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The start of the school year is always given a great deal of prominence by the media. One is tempted to think that this is due to the fact that some schooling is actually taking place for once, though, as has been pointed out (not least by myself), total school hours in Spain aren't that far behind those in England where annual school hours are among the longest. And as a reflection of this media prominence, I, as has now become traditional, add to the column inches.
The return to school is fascinating because of its ritualistic nature and because of all the raft of statistics which are trotted out and political statements which accompany it. The greatest ritual is to declare on the day of the return to school that it has been "normal", which has long led me to wonder what would constitute an abnormal return to school. Thanks to the regional government, education minister Rafael Bosch, stroppy parents, stroppy teachers, the endless language argument, Catalan bows, the Balearics Institute of Family Policy and the rise in IVA, we are about to find out.
By the start of this school year, or so said Herr Bosch at this time last year, there was meant to have been equality between Catalan and Castellano in Mallorca's educational system. This less than normal state of affairs, given that Catalan has dominated, is not about to come to pass. The wholesale introduction of "free selection" of language was watered down, the free selection where it was to be applied (infant and early primary) has been largely rejected by parents who continue to favour Catalan, and where there is to be equality, the teachers for the most part seem unsure how it is going to be implemented.
The language argument may seem to have dominated the educational agenda, but the teachers have other concerns which are just as controversial. They are expected to teach for longer, to teach larger classes and to be paid less. Which sounds wonderful for morale, as indeed does the fact that the government have been less than forthcoming in handing over money to schools since April this year.
It is the purely educational matter of class sizes and teaching resources that has inspired a campaign known as "Así no empieza mi hijo" promoted by the parents federation. It means that some parents are threatening to boycott the start of the school year by keeping their children at home, which does sound decidedly abnormal.
Into the fray on this particular abnormality has entered the Institute of Family Policy. It has denounced the parents to the ombudsman, claiming that fundamental rights of children will be violated by this boycott. Which is all quite interesting; an institute for family policy denouncing families, but such is how things work here. But then, the institute is an interesting body. A couple of years ago it was to the fore in seeking to ban topless sunbathing (rights and protection of children and all that). If you can be bothered to (and I have), some judicious Googling can reveal some just as interesting associations that this institute has. Let's simply say that it isn't exactly liberal.
I'm not sure what the institute has to say on the matter of IVA but there are plenty of families in Mallorca and in Spain that have been presented with a greatly increased bill for this school year. If you think a three per cent rise on the general rate is steep, then it is nothing compared with the 17% rise (4% to 21%) for school material (with the exception of books).
So, what have we got? Teachers hacked off, larger class sizes, schools not getting money they are owed, the language policy in disarray, parents being denounced, cost of sending children to school increasing. Enough for you? Well, there is also the matter of the Catalan bows hanging outside some schools to be made more of an issue of, a minor issue in truth when compared with the continuing poor performance of the state education sector in Mallorca, a problem which consultants McKinsey have been addressing by arguing in favour of the adoption of an English system (God help the local schools if this means performance league tables).
Yep, the return to school sounds as though it will be perfectly normal.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Sóller mayor's car is set fire to
The BMW belonging to Carlos Simarro (Partido Popular), the mayor of Sóller, was last night burned out after apparently having been deliberately set fire to shortly after he returned to his home in the town. Simarro has called it an act of terrorism and has said there is no reason to believe there is any social alarm in the town. Sóller has, in the past weeks, suffered acts of vandalism against new parking meters in the town.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 September 2012
Quite chilly this morning at between 16 and 19 degrees at 8am. Mainly clear with some light cloud, a shower later is possible. Temperatures bumping up to higher 20s. Should be fairly stable from tomorrow with a mix of some cloud and sun and up to 30 degrees.
Afternoon update: A spot of rain this afternoon but only a spot. A fair bit of cloud but only light as well as sun. Highs today of 28 and 29.
Afternoon update: A spot of rain this afternoon but only a spot. A fair bit of cloud but only light as well as sun. Highs today of 28 and 29.
Prefab Sprout: Colonia Sant Pere
I once had a brainstorm in a shop's music department. I had gone in with the intention of buying a Primal Scream CD. When I got home, I realised that I had one by Prefab Sprout. I could only attribute the error to some form of temporary alphabetic dyslexia. Or more likely, the CDs had been next to each other in the rack and I hadn't been paying attention.
Character similarity apart, Primal Scream and Prefab Sprout bore no similarity, especially as Paddy McAloon had by now embarked upon his reinvention as a singing cowboy; in total contrast, therefore, to Bobby Gillespie. You might find it odd that the decidedly odd little coastal town of Colonia Sant Pere should bring this recollection to mind, but trust me, there is some sense as to why it should.
Colonia Sant Pere is one of the last stops on the bay of Alcúdia. Being one of the last stops, no one takes a great deal of notice of it, which probably helps to explain its oddness. The great sweep of the bay has at either end rocky coastline and mountainous elevation. In between are the miles of virtually unbroken sandy beach that Puerto Alcúdia, Playa de Muro and Can Picafort boast.
This sandy beach starts to break down as you head east past Can Picafort. There are still stretches of beach, including an artificial one in Colonia, but rocks become more evident as do small coves dotted along the bay as it reaches its end at Cap Farrutx. Colonia is Mallorca resort land that time forgot, rather like its neighbours Son Serra de Marina and the disturbingly named Betlem which, even if its name wasn't derived from Bedlam, sounds as though it should have been.
If the resorts of the bay of Alcúdia were rock groups, then Puerto Alcúdia would be Primal Scream and "Get Your Rocks Off". Colonia, on the other hand, would be Prefab Sprout, either in its sweetly gentle "Steve McQueen" phase or once McAloon had decided he was Jesse James with the Steve McQueen later-life full set. It is Wild West resort land without the wild, a one-horse town just like Son Serra except when Son Serra's beach is full of horses from Rancho Grande, the owner of which I once described, in good Bon Jovi terms, as a cowboy on a steel horse (he rides a quad as well as a horse, you see).
Colonia Sant Pere didn't exist until the late nineteenth century. It was a colony created specifically so that people could move from the island's interior at a time when there was a need for new parts of the island to be settled and cultivated. It went into decline and between 1940 and 1970 its population fell by a quarter. Tourism revived Colonia but only up to a point. Off the main highway between Alcúdia and Artà by several kilometres of narrow road, it has never been somewhere capable of supporting anything more than a small tourism industry. Nevertheless, in the late 1990s came the expansion of its marina together with another development - tourist bungalows.
The first few bungalows were made of wood but then a whole load more - prefabs - sprouted up, creating a tourist enclave like a superior Jaywick Sands. They could only have emerged in somewhere such as Colonia, stuck away on the bay, right off the beaten track and largely unnoticed by anyone. Except of course that the prefabs didn't go unnoticed. By 2006 the legal system had swung into operation, and six years later a demolition notice hangs over the prefabs that have been unused for years.
The owners have the right to appeal against the Council of Mallorca demolition order, though as the prefabs have apparently been illegal all along, it is hard to see what grounds there are for appeal.
It's a shame. Colonia is a part of weird Mallorca, which is why I like it. It is somewhere, as with Son Serra, that I struggle, as do others, to make sense of. But its oddness is what makes it, and its sense lies with the fact that it isn't a Puerto Alcúdia, full of primal scream and dominating hotels. Colonia is a small, quiet place in which a bloke with a long beard can pluck on an acoustic guitar and sing cowboy songs. It doesn't really have hotels, it doesn't have anything much at all, apart from a strange enchantment, and if this also means some unusual little prefabs, then why not. It is a place that exists outside of Mallorca's hotelism and is evidence as to why this hotelism is not the be all and end all.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Character similarity apart, Primal Scream and Prefab Sprout bore no similarity, especially as Paddy McAloon had by now embarked upon his reinvention as a singing cowboy; in total contrast, therefore, to Bobby Gillespie. You might find it odd that the decidedly odd little coastal town of Colonia Sant Pere should bring this recollection to mind, but trust me, there is some sense as to why it should.
Colonia Sant Pere is one of the last stops on the bay of Alcúdia. Being one of the last stops, no one takes a great deal of notice of it, which probably helps to explain its oddness. The great sweep of the bay has at either end rocky coastline and mountainous elevation. In between are the miles of virtually unbroken sandy beach that Puerto Alcúdia, Playa de Muro and Can Picafort boast.
This sandy beach starts to break down as you head east past Can Picafort. There are still stretches of beach, including an artificial one in Colonia, but rocks become more evident as do small coves dotted along the bay as it reaches its end at Cap Farrutx. Colonia is Mallorca resort land that time forgot, rather like its neighbours Son Serra de Marina and the disturbingly named Betlem which, even if its name wasn't derived from Bedlam, sounds as though it should have been.
If the resorts of the bay of Alcúdia were rock groups, then Puerto Alcúdia would be Primal Scream and "Get Your Rocks Off". Colonia, on the other hand, would be Prefab Sprout, either in its sweetly gentle "Steve McQueen" phase or once McAloon had decided he was Jesse James with the Steve McQueen later-life full set. It is Wild West resort land without the wild, a one-horse town just like Son Serra except when Son Serra's beach is full of horses from Rancho Grande, the owner of which I once described, in good Bon Jovi terms, as a cowboy on a steel horse (he rides a quad as well as a horse, you see).
Colonia Sant Pere didn't exist until the late nineteenth century. It was a colony created specifically so that people could move from the island's interior at a time when there was a need for new parts of the island to be settled and cultivated. It went into decline and between 1940 and 1970 its population fell by a quarter. Tourism revived Colonia but only up to a point. Off the main highway between Alcúdia and Artà by several kilometres of narrow road, it has never been somewhere capable of supporting anything more than a small tourism industry. Nevertheless, in the late 1990s came the expansion of its marina together with another development - tourist bungalows.
The first few bungalows were made of wood but then a whole load more - prefabs - sprouted up, creating a tourist enclave like a superior Jaywick Sands. They could only have emerged in somewhere such as Colonia, stuck away on the bay, right off the beaten track and largely unnoticed by anyone. Except of course that the prefabs didn't go unnoticed. By 2006 the legal system had swung into operation, and six years later a demolition notice hangs over the prefabs that have been unused for years.
The owners have the right to appeal against the Council of Mallorca demolition order, though as the prefabs have apparently been illegal all along, it is hard to see what grounds there are for appeal.
It's a shame. Colonia is a part of weird Mallorca, which is why I like it. It is somewhere, as with Son Serra, that I struggle, as do others, to make sense of. But its oddness is what makes it, and its sense lies with the fact that it isn't a Puerto Alcúdia, full of primal scream and dominating hotels. Colonia is a small, quiet place in which a bloke with a long beard can pluck on an acoustic guitar and sing cowboy songs. It doesn't really have hotels, it doesn't have anything much at all, apart from a strange enchantment, and if this also means some unusual little prefabs, then why not. It is a place that exists outside of Mallorca's hotelism and is evidence as to why this hotelism is not the be all and end all.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Ullal owners seek compensation from government
A different and ongoing dispute in Puerto Pollensa, that of the development of the Ullal wetland area. This complicated issue is bound up in provisions for land development that would have swapped development in Cala Carbó for development in Ullal. This led to land in Cala Carbó being bought by owners in the Ullal area in order that they could then develop in Ullal, this now having been blocked. As a result, owners are seeking compensation from the regional government.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Cifre accused of politicising La Beata procession
In the end the La Beata procession, attended by President Bauzá, went off without any real incident, but former mayor of Santa Margalida, Martí Torres (Partido Popular) has accused socialist mayor, Miquel Cifre, of politicising the event through the presence of "senyera" bows and of having provoked conflict over several months.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - The Calas de Mallorca drowning tragedy
The local press now personalising the tragedy in Calas de Mallorca on Saturday when a British man and his six-year-old son drowned when the boy was swept away and the man, who couldn't swim, died in attempting to save him.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Swim in protest at Puerto Pollensa's military base
The ongoing argument that the military base in Puerto Pollensa should be open to public access is reaching a new level, a protest swim up to the zone that prohibits entry to be staged this coming Saturday. Discontent with the base and lack of access is exacerbated by the fact that it doubles as holiday accommodation for the military from Spain and other countries.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 September 2012
The morning cloud is not the dark stuff of yesterday, so despite the possibility of rain, it may stay away. Otherwise, quite bright with highs around 20 degrees. Morning shower a possibility also tomorrow but more stability to the weather from tomorrow with temperatures moving back towards 30.
Afternoon update: Well, the rain didn't stay away. There was some heavy stuff this morning. Sunny in the afternoon and highs breaking 28 but the weather still variable.
Afternoon update: Well, the rain didn't stay away. There was some heavy stuff this morning. Sunny in the afternoon and highs breaking 28 but the weather still variable.
Island Of Dreamers
"Far, far away on the island of dreams." Far, far away on the island of dreamers. Far, far away is what Mallorca once was. It is why I said of the American painter Ritch Miller, who had come to Mallorca in the early 1960s but of whom virtually nothing was known, that it was once comparatively easy to make a break with the past. I say once. It shouldn't be so easy now, but there are those who still try. As I also said in my article about Miller: "Mallorca is a home to those who, for various reasons, have something to forget. It is a home also to those who can turn this forgetfulness into a revision of their own histories. They become other people."
In a different article (in June), I considered the existence of "über-fakes": "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 ... one that involved millions of mainly Calvia euros. No one had the faintest idea until collars were being felt and the past was revealed."
I had never heard of John Hirst. But I came to hear about him when I started to receive messages about him. About Allied Dunbar. It was some days later that this connection became public knowledge in that it was presented in the British press. But of course, it was already public knowledge. You had to put two and two together, but the information was there. Reports from the early 1990s were just a click or two away on the internet.
I know about not finding out. In Germany I was the one who recommended appointing someone who, it was discovered some time later, was (or had been) the head of strategy for the British National Party. There had been no mention of this past. It was very understandable that there wouldn't have been, especially as the person in question, one also learned later, was a Holocaust denier. You don't make a point of being known for denying the Holocaust in Germany, unless you want the police to pay you a visit.
So yes, I know how pasts can be overlooked either because it doesn't occur to anyone to check or because someone seems plausible. There again, appointing a BNP activist (either ex or current) is not the same as handing over life savings.
John Hirst is an extreme example, but there are other John Hirsts. Most are harmless. Inventing a past, neglecting to mention one, embellishing or altering one don't mean wrongdoing, but Mallorca is somewhere to gravitate to for charlatans, flim-flammers and the downright crooked, whether there is a crooked past that needs obscuring or not.
You come across them. And they include those who, for whatever motive, will seek to portray a picture of Mallorcan expatriate social life which isn't strictly accurate. Take the one who wore a good deal of bling, made reference to the boat and to the Porsche he used to drive "when in the city" and yet insisted that no one was bothered in Mallorca about who you were or what you had. Well, if you don't want people to be bothered about what you might have once been, then you probably would say this. The point is that people are bothered if it is a case of having one-upmanship challenged or implied.
The expatriate social life isn't as egalitarian as this bling-wearer claimed. John Hirst, I suspect, understood this only too well. While he was guilty of running an illegal scheme that was a get-rich-quick one for him, those he took advantage of were only too content to buy into a getting-rich scheme, if on a far lower level than Hirst was. If returns of the sort that Hirst had been offering were so easily made, then why weren't (and aren't) all investment schemes realising such returns?
The desire for wealth creation will exist anywhere, but the impulse is accentuated within communities where wealth can often be the currency of status, and within the expatriate community, especially that which encompasses the signs and symbols of wealth in and around Calvià, a craving for such status will exist; not among all, of course not, but among some, certainly.
Combine this desire with the throwing together of expatriates into a social world of the yacht, the cricket, the golf club, the regular charity events, the associations, the Rotary, the you name it, and you have a ready-made target market. Hirst was stupid in thinking his scheme could ever last but he wasn't stupid in recognising the social elements and dynamics that could make it work.
There will be other Hirsts. Not those running Ponzi schemes necessarily but those who are, nevertheless, fake in some way, with a past that is hidden perhaps. The island of dreams attracts them and their peddling of dreams.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
In a different article (in June), I considered the existence of "über-fakes": "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 ... one that involved millions of mainly Calvia euros. No one had the faintest idea until collars were being felt and the past was revealed."
I had never heard of John Hirst. But I came to hear about him when I started to receive messages about him. About Allied Dunbar. It was some days later that this connection became public knowledge in that it was presented in the British press. But of course, it was already public knowledge. You had to put two and two together, but the information was there. Reports from the early 1990s were just a click or two away on the internet.
I know about not finding out. In Germany I was the one who recommended appointing someone who, it was discovered some time later, was (or had been) the head of strategy for the British National Party. There had been no mention of this past. It was very understandable that there wouldn't have been, especially as the person in question, one also learned later, was a Holocaust denier. You don't make a point of being known for denying the Holocaust in Germany, unless you want the police to pay you a visit.
So yes, I know how pasts can be overlooked either because it doesn't occur to anyone to check or because someone seems plausible. There again, appointing a BNP activist (either ex or current) is not the same as handing over life savings.
John Hirst is an extreme example, but there are other John Hirsts. Most are harmless. Inventing a past, neglecting to mention one, embellishing or altering one don't mean wrongdoing, but Mallorca is somewhere to gravitate to for charlatans, flim-flammers and the downright crooked, whether there is a crooked past that needs obscuring or not.
You come across them. And they include those who, for whatever motive, will seek to portray a picture of Mallorcan expatriate social life which isn't strictly accurate. Take the one who wore a good deal of bling, made reference to the boat and to the Porsche he used to drive "when in the city" and yet insisted that no one was bothered in Mallorca about who you were or what you had. Well, if you don't want people to be bothered about what you might have once been, then you probably would say this. The point is that people are bothered if it is a case of having one-upmanship challenged or implied.
The expatriate social life isn't as egalitarian as this bling-wearer claimed. John Hirst, I suspect, understood this only too well. While he was guilty of running an illegal scheme that was a get-rich-quick one for him, those he took advantage of were only too content to buy into a getting-rich scheme, if on a far lower level than Hirst was. If returns of the sort that Hirst had been offering were so easily made, then why weren't (and aren't) all investment schemes realising such returns?
The desire for wealth creation will exist anywhere, but the impulse is accentuated within communities where wealth can often be the currency of status, and within the expatriate community, especially that which encompasses the signs and symbols of wealth in and around Calvià, a craving for such status will exist; not among all, of course not, but among some, certainly.
Combine this desire with the throwing together of expatriates into a social world of the yacht, the cricket, the golf club, the regular charity events, the associations, the Rotary, the you name it, and you have a ready-made target market. Hirst was stupid in thinking his scheme could ever last but he wasn't stupid in recognising the social elements and dynamics that could make it work.
There will be other Hirsts. Not those running Ponzi schemes necessarily but those who are, nevertheless, fake in some way, with a past that is hidden perhaps. The island of dreams attracts them and their peddling of dreams.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, September 03, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Concern over delay to Puerto Pollensa pool tender
The Alternativa per Pollença party has expressed its concern over the apparent delay in initiating the tender process for a new contract to operate the covered swimming-pool in Puerto Pollensa. The party supports a new tender but has pointed out that a further option exists in addition to a new tender or simply the awarding of a new contract similar to the one that was annulled in July, this option being the closure of the pool and the waste of investment for a facility that has been in operation for only three years.
Announcement of a tender was due to have been made in the middle of August but to date the tender process has not been initiated, so making it difficult to see how the pool can be functional this month.
Announcement of a tender was due to have been made in the middle of August but to date the tender process has not been initiated, so making it difficult to see how the pool can be functional this month.
MALLORCA TODAY - Bauzá and Pastor meet at La Beata procession
President Bauzá attended the La Beata celebrations in Santa Margalida yesterday after all, briefly greeting Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor who was expelled from the Partido Popular because of his stance on Catalan. The "senyera" flag was in evidence at the celebrations, the main part of which was the annual procession by La Beata (Santa Catalina Thomàs).
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Two detained in Bellevue robbery
A security guard managed to detain two members of a gang of five who were in the act of attempting to rob a bar on the Bellevue hotel site in Puerto Alcúdia.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 September 2012
21.6 the high on another fresh morning with banks of dark cloud as well as blue sky and sun. The storm alert for today has now been stepped down, but rain is still likely (and also tomorrow). The outlook for the week is for an improvement from Wednesday with small risks of rain and getting warmer.
Heavy rain that fell yesterday missed the north of the island again, the Palma area again taking the brunt of the bad weather.
Afternoon update: After a fair bit of morning rain, the sun appeared and dominated proceedings, highs up to 27 degrees. Forecast is still unsettled until Wednesday, but mainly good.
Heavy rain that fell yesterday missed the north of the island again, the Palma area again taking the brunt of the bad weather.
Afternoon update: After a fair bit of morning rain, the sun appeared and dominated proceedings, highs up to 27 degrees. Forecast is still unsettled until Wednesday, but mainly good.
From Sackcloth To Ashes: IVA
Let's say that you are prime minister of a basket-case European economy. You need to hold the begging bowl out in order that you can capture the flood of coins when wealthy institutions pull the lever on the fruit machine and hit the jackpot. Clonk, clonk, clonk. Loadsamoney. Ta very much. Your thanks and gratitude are moderated, however, by the knowledge that the jackpot comes with a caveat or two. It is one that makes you the victim of a bastardised principle of the caveat emptor. Into your empty bowl flow the coins of salvation (albeit only temporarily probably) but you've got something into the bargain that makes the salvation rather less of a bargain for the people you are allegedly governing. You have to raise taxes. Because you are told you have to.
The institutions want their pound of flesh in return for their largesse. They demand evidence that the coins won't just be frittered away, all put on a 2-1 favourite at Haydock which pulls up lame. They demand that you wear the sackcloth of austerity for the world to jeer at. You are willing to suffer this humiliation because you know, because the institutions must presumably have told you, that the raising of taxes will bring forth riches that will enable you to swap your sackcloth for an Armani suit.
Well, this is the theory. Unfortunately, it's not a very good theory, as it is a theory which rather ignores the practice. As prime minister of this basket-case economy (let's call it Portugal), you go along with the exigencies of the institutions, and you raise the level of value added tax. You manage to keep a rate of 6% for your hotels but your bars and restaurants must now apply 23%. You proudly announce that changes to this tax will indeed bring forth riches. An increase of revenues to the tune of 11.6%. You discover, to your horror and with egg firmly splattered on face, that you can't even now afford the sackcloth. Astonishingly, your revenues haven't met the 11.6% level, they haven't gone up at all. In fact, they have gone down by 1.1%. To make matters worse, although you have enjoyed an 11% increase in the number of tourists (thanks to not penalising the hotels), your tax rise has resulted in the loss of some 200,000 jobs in the general hostelry sector. See, told you it wasn't a very good theory.
Spain's tax rise of 2% in the tourism sector (hotels as well as bars and restaurants) means the rate differs to Portugal's but the result could be similar. Exceltur, the alliance for touristic excellence, believes that it will be: the loss of 2,000 million euros and 18,700 jobs. These losses, assuming they are accurate, would represent some achievement by the Spanish Government, even by its miserably low standards.
Why is the government messing around with IVA therefore? The simple answer is because it has been told that it has to; it's the pound of flesh, and one that leaves you asking whether any of the external bodies insisting on a rise in IVA have any more of an idea what they are doing than the Spanish Government, which hasn't got any.
You might think that I am just being rather unkind to poor old Mr. Rajoy and that Uncle Alfredo, had he become prime minister, wouldn't have done any better or anything different. Quite possibly not, but Rubalcaba hadn't promised before the election to cut the tourist rate of IVA and hadn't promised not to put income tax up. So, what did Rajoy do at the start of the year? Put income tax up, arguing this was a measure that would be less damaging to the economy than putting IVA up. Sorry, what was that? Less damaging than putting IVA up? Yes, I thought that was what he said, too. And Uncle Alfredo may have had someone in charge of economic affairs who didn't come out with pearls of wisdom similar to those of Luis de Guindos (Rajoy's man who seems to not have even managed to acquire his 101 Basic Economics). Shall I remind you of what he said in April? "Next year (2013) will be the time to increase the tax burden (IVA) on consumption, once the economy starts to grow again." Yes, he really did say this, a sentence in which everything was wrong.
Of course, one can argue, by way of a defence, that Rajoy and his unmerry men didn't appreciate the scale of the problem and the consequent demands to be placed upon them by Frau Merkel. One could argue this, but I would argue that they had a pretty shrewd idea, not that it prevented them coming out with the nonsense they did and continue to come out with. I give in evidence Rajoy's recent comparison with France and its rate of VAT, one that took no account of average salaries being double those of Spain. You don't whack IVA up in a country where people are paid a pittance as it is and expect to raise revenues and in a country where the avoidance of paying IVA is a national pastime.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The institutions want their pound of flesh in return for their largesse. They demand evidence that the coins won't just be frittered away, all put on a 2-1 favourite at Haydock which pulls up lame. They demand that you wear the sackcloth of austerity for the world to jeer at. You are willing to suffer this humiliation because you know, because the institutions must presumably have told you, that the raising of taxes will bring forth riches that will enable you to swap your sackcloth for an Armani suit.
Well, this is the theory. Unfortunately, it's not a very good theory, as it is a theory which rather ignores the practice. As prime minister of this basket-case economy (let's call it Portugal), you go along with the exigencies of the institutions, and you raise the level of value added tax. You manage to keep a rate of 6% for your hotels but your bars and restaurants must now apply 23%. You proudly announce that changes to this tax will indeed bring forth riches. An increase of revenues to the tune of 11.6%. You discover, to your horror and with egg firmly splattered on face, that you can't even now afford the sackcloth. Astonishingly, your revenues haven't met the 11.6% level, they haven't gone up at all. In fact, they have gone down by 1.1%. To make matters worse, although you have enjoyed an 11% increase in the number of tourists (thanks to not penalising the hotels), your tax rise has resulted in the loss of some 200,000 jobs in the general hostelry sector. See, told you it wasn't a very good theory.
Spain's tax rise of 2% in the tourism sector (hotels as well as bars and restaurants) means the rate differs to Portugal's but the result could be similar. Exceltur, the alliance for touristic excellence, believes that it will be: the loss of 2,000 million euros and 18,700 jobs. These losses, assuming they are accurate, would represent some achievement by the Spanish Government, even by its miserably low standards.
Why is the government messing around with IVA therefore? The simple answer is because it has been told that it has to; it's the pound of flesh, and one that leaves you asking whether any of the external bodies insisting on a rise in IVA have any more of an idea what they are doing than the Spanish Government, which hasn't got any.
You might think that I am just being rather unkind to poor old Mr. Rajoy and that Uncle Alfredo, had he become prime minister, wouldn't have done any better or anything different. Quite possibly not, but Rubalcaba hadn't promised before the election to cut the tourist rate of IVA and hadn't promised not to put income tax up. So, what did Rajoy do at the start of the year? Put income tax up, arguing this was a measure that would be less damaging to the economy than putting IVA up. Sorry, what was that? Less damaging than putting IVA up? Yes, I thought that was what he said, too. And Uncle Alfredo may have had someone in charge of economic affairs who didn't come out with pearls of wisdom similar to those of Luis de Guindos (Rajoy's man who seems to not have even managed to acquire his 101 Basic Economics). Shall I remind you of what he said in April? "Next year (2013) will be the time to increase the tax burden (IVA) on consumption, once the economy starts to grow again." Yes, he really did say this, a sentence in which everything was wrong.
Of course, one can argue, by way of a defence, that Rajoy and his unmerry men didn't appreciate the scale of the problem and the consequent demands to be placed upon them by Frau Merkel. One could argue this, but I would argue that they had a pretty shrewd idea, not that it prevented them coming out with the nonsense they did and continue to come out with. I give in evidence Rajoy's recent comparison with France and its rate of VAT, one that took no account of average salaries being double those of Spain. You don't whack IVA up in a country where people are paid a pittance as it is and expect to raise revenues and in a country where the avoidance of paying IVA is a national pastime.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, September 02, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Colonia Sant Pere bungalows to be knocked down
The prefab tourist bungalows in Colonia Sant Pere, closed for some years, have been condemned to demolition, subject to appeal. The bungalows, put up at the end of the last century, were judged in 2006 to be illegal.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 September 2012
Some rain during the night, a morning that is a mix of blue sky and darkish clouds, temperatures at 8.30 varying between 18 and 22 degrees. An alert out for storms for today, the forecast remains poor as far as Tuesday. Wednesday should be better, though showers are going to still be a possibility.
Afternoon update: No sign of the storms that were being forecast, it has been a mix of sun and cloud all day, fresh, with winds gusting to 50kph, low humidity and general high around 22 degrees, though the best has been 23.8C. Storms now being forecast for tomorrow.
Afternoon update: No sign of the storms that were being forecast, it has been a mix of sun and cloud all day, fresh, with winds gusting to 50kph, low humidity and general high around 22 degrees, though the best has been 23.8C. Storms now being forecast for tomorrow.
MALLORCA TODAY - Real Mallorca 1 : 0 Real Sociedad
A tedious game enlivened eventually in the second half by Mallorca whose direct style brought a winner through a Victor header that temporarily puts them on top of La Liga. Seven points from three games. A decent start to the season.
Mallorca:
Aouate; Ximo, Nunes, Coincençao, López; Pereira, Márquez (Martí 87), Pina (Joao Victor 79), Nsue (Alfaro 64); Victor, Hemed
Goal: Victor (75)
Yellows: Pereira (27), López (72), Victor (75), Márquez (80), Martí (89)
Sociedad:
Bravo; Estrada, Ansotegui, González, De la Bella (Ifrán 78); Pardo, Bergara, Illarramendi (Ángel 85), Prieto; Vela (Griezmann 69), Agirretxe
Yellows: Bergara (29), Ansotegui (70)
Mallorca:
Aouate; Ximo, Nunes, Coincençao, López; Pereira, Márquez (Martí 87), Pina (Joao Victor 79), Nsue (Alfaro 64); Victor, Hemed
Goal: Victor (75)
Yellows: Pereira (27), López (72), Victor (75), Márquez (80), Martí (89)
Sociedad:
Bravo; Estrada, Ansotegui, González, De la Bella (Ifrán 78); Pardo, Bergara, Illarramendi (Ángel 85), Prieto; Vela (Griezmann 69), Agirretxe
Yellows: Bergara (29), Ansotegui (70)
When The World Went Mad
George Monbiot is either a lunatic or the New Prophet. This, I suspect, is how impressions of him divide, but as with many in the world of journalism he is somewhere in between, a slightly mad proselytizer. George can't be that mad as he earns a good-sized wedge from being an environmental doom merchant and all-round conscientious objector. He does, however, have some grounds for being mad. Having variously been placed in a coma by hornets, been pronounced dead because of cerebral malaria and had a metal spike driven into a foot, he can be excused for being hopping mad, if only moderately.
George, though, is now truly nuts, the consequence of the world having gone raving mad. This happened - you may not have noticed - on 28 August. Who says so? Well, George does. On Tuesday last week, three separate events coalesced to cause George to believe in globalisation for the first time; the globalisation of insanity, that is. These were the debate regarding the third runway at Heathrow, the postponement by a day of the Republican Party convention because of Hurricane Isaac and the announcement of a record ice melt in the Arctic. If the connection between the three is not apparent, then you won't know about or believe in man-made climate change and you probably think that George is indeed a lunatic.
I happen to think that he isn't. He is one of the sanest journalists I can think of, if only because of his ability to make some get as hopping mad with his proselytizing as he himself was with that spike in his foot. George is a regular and willing contributor to a grand debate going on in the blue sky world of the intellectualati regarding the world after capitalism. The environment, climate change and the use of resources are all aspects of this grand debate, but they are arguably of less immediate importance than economies.
At the same time as the world was going mad, the Spanish were adding to the ever-increasing insanity of the collapsing financial system in Europe. Recession was deeper than had been thought, Spain was heading towards finally admitting that it needed bailing out and the Catalonians had put in their demand for five billion to tide them over for a few months.
The Spanish Government, with the ever anonymous Rajoy closeted in his bunker of delusion and donning his Nero disguise and reaching for his fiddle, has been in a state of denial. It has spun the yarn of growth returning, while doing everything in its power to bring growth from the spinning mule to a stubborn and braying halt.
Rajoy, as with other Western leaders, spins the solutions to recession as being between the black and white of austerity or growth, while failing to appreciate that the narrative of recession and therefore the solutions may not in fact be true or attainable. What if this isn't a recession? What if this is how it is and how it will be?
Accepting that economic crisis has an inevitable solution through either the path of austerity or growth is akin to the denial of man-made climate change (and Rajoy knows all about this because he has denied it). The reason why is that there is a denial as to how the crisis came about. Nuancing it as a failure of banking systems and as initially the fallout from exposure to toxic, sub-prime debt is to identify the effect and not the cause.
For this, one has to go back to the 1980s. A desire for global inclusion, for free trade, for deregulation (especially of finance and banking sectors), for de-industrialisation and a shift to intangible services, and for the exporting of Western political philosophy in the fallacious pursuit of global democraticisation came together under umbrellas of Reaganomics and Thatcherism. Market liberalism was founded on sound enough principles, but it was founded also on unknowns, as was the whole European monetary union project.
We now know the unknowns, but despite this there is a persistence in styling solutions according to principles that pre-dated the 1980s and so which pay scant regard to the fundamental alteration of global power, industrially, financially and in terms of resources.
Climate change is largely irreversible. In the same way, economic change with the transfer of power to China and elsewhere is also largely irreversible. It is why Monbiot and others search for a model that is "after capitalism". It is one in which neither the prescription of austerity nor growth can hope to succeed. A radical new model is required.
The world didn't go raving mad on 28 August. It started to go loopy in the 1980s. We didn't know it then, but we do now. And I for one am hopping mad.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
George, though, is now truly nuts, the consequence of the world having gone raving mad. This happened - you may not have noticed - on 28 August. Who says so? Well, George does. On Tuesday last week, three separate events coalesced to cause George to believe in globalisation for the first time; the globalisation of insanity, that is. These were the debate regarding the third runway at Heathrow, the postponement by a day of the Republican Party convention because of Hurricane Isaac and the announcement of a record ice melt in the Arctic. If the connection between the three is not apparent, then you won't know about or believe in man-made climate change and you probably think that George is indeed a lunatic.
I happen to think that he isn't. He is one of the sanest journalists I can think of, if only because of his ability to make some get as hopping mad with his proselytizing as he himself was with that spike in his foot. George is a regular and willing contributor to a grand debate going on in the blue sky world of the intellectualati regarding the world after capitalism. The environment, climate change and the use of resources are all aspects of this grand debate, but they are arguably of less immediate importance than economies.
At the same time as the world was going mad, the Spanish were adding to the ever-increasing insanity of the collapsing financial system in Europe. Recession was deeper than had been thought, Spain was heading towards finally admitting that it needed bailing out and the Catalonians had put in their demand for five billion to tide them over for a few months.
The Spanish Government, with the ever anonymous Rajoy closeted in his bunker of delusion and donning his Nero disguise and reaching for his fiddle, has been in a state of denial. It has spun the yarn of growth returning, while doing everything in its power to bring growth from the spinning mule to a stubborn and braying halt.
Rajoy, as with other Western leaders, spins the solutions to recession as being between the black and white of austerity or growth, while failing to appreciate that the narrative of recession and therefore the solutions may not in fact be true or attainable. What if this isn't a recession? What if this is how it is and how it will be?
Accepting that economic crisis has an inevitable solution through either the path of austerity or growth is akin to the denial of man-made climate change (and Rajoy knows all about this because he has denied it). The reason why is that there is a denial as to how the crisis came about. Nuancing it as a failure of banking systems and as initially the fallout from exposure to toxic, sub-prime debt is to identify the effect and not the cause.
For this, one has to go back to the 1980s. A desire for global inclusion, for free trade, for deregulation (especially of finance and banking sectors), for de-industrialisation and a shift to intangible services, and for the exporting of Western political philosophy in the fallacious pursuit of global democraticisation came together under umbrellas of Reaganomics and Thatcherism. Market liberalism was founded on sound enough principles, but it was founded also on unknowns, as was the whole European monetary union project.
We now know the unknowns, but despite this there is a persistence in styling solutions according to principles that pre-dated the 1980s and so which pay scant regard to the fundamental alteration of global power, industrially, financially and in terms of resources.
Climate change is largely irreversible. In the same way, economic change with the transfer of power to China and elsewhere is also largely irreversible. It is why Monbiot and others search for a model that is "after capitalism". It is one in which neither the prescription of austerity nor growth can hope to succeed. A radical new model is required.
The world didn't go raving mad on 28 August. It started to go loopy in the 1980s. We didn't know it then, but we do now. And I for one am hopping mad.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, September 01, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - John Hirst sentencing: the Hirst case and this blog
John Hirst has been jailed for nine years, Richard Pollett to six and a half years and Hirst's estranged wife, Linda, to two and a half years. The sentences relate to money laundering and fraud, the consequence of the illegal Ponzi scheme that Hirst established with its base in Calvià.
This case wouldn't necessarily have been one that I would have followed as closely as I have, had it not been for the fact that back in November 2009 a series of messages were sent to this blog with regard to Hirst and his wife.
These messages followed a short news item on the blog referring to an investigation that had been launched by the Serious Fraud Office. The most revealing were a couple which, because of a photo that had been published of Hirst, said that he was the same John Hirst who had committed a fraud when working for Allied Dunbar in the early 1990s. There were others, e.g. "what about Linda?"
The point is that these messages came before the Allied Dunbar connection was made public in the established press, the first mention of which, as far as I was aware, was on 22 November. I thought hard about whether to publish these messages and decided not to in case they might compromise the SFO investigation and advised those who sent messages to contact the SFO.
Had I published them, then, again as far as I am aware, this would have been the first time the Allied Dunbar connection would have become known. Perhaps I should have done, but it was to be only a few days later that the "Sunday Telegraph" mentioned Hirst and Allied Dunbar.
The other point is that the messages showed how powerful the internet can be. A simple item posted on the blog was picked up on widely, and the messages came in. Those who sent the messages will now feel vindicated by the fact that Hirst and others have received their sentences.
This case wouldn't necessarily have been one that I would have followed as closely as I have, had it not been for the fact that back in November 2009 a series of messages were sent to this blog with regard to Hirst and his wife.
These messages followed a short news item on the blog referring to an investigation that had been launched by the Serious Fraud Office. The most revealing were a couple which, because of a photo that had been published of Hirst, said that he was the same John Hirst who had committed a fraud when working for Allied Dunbar in the early 1990s. There were others, e.g. "what about Linda?"
The point is that these messages came before the Allied Dunbar connection was made public in the established press, the first mention of which, as far as I was aware, was on 22 November. I thought hard about whether to publish these messages and decided not to in case they might compromise the SFO investigation and advised those who sent messages to contact the SFO.
Had I published them, then, again as far as I am aware, this would have been the first time the Allied Dunbar connection would have become known. Perhaps I should have done, but it was to be only a few days later that the "Sunday Telegraph" mentioned Hirst and Allied Dunbar.
The other point is that the messages showed how powerful the internet can be. A simple item posted on the blog was picked up on widely, and the messages came in. Those who sent the messages will now feel vindicated by the fact that Hirst and others have received their sentences.
MALLORCA TODAY - Intrigue surrounds Sóller's Rocamar hotel
The Rocamar hotel in Puerto Sóller is one of Mallorca's best-known eyesores. Closed since 1999, its fate has been a matter of intrigue ever since. Now it emerges that the Balearic Government will be paying nearly one million euros for its acquisition (which will allow its demolition). The recipient of the money will be the father of the current inspector of tourism and under terms of the purchase agreement, a loan of nearly one million euros to the owner of the hotel will be cancelled. The person who extended the loan was Jaume Ensenyat, the father of the tourism inspector, who will now receive the government's money.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Airport luggage trolleys to cost a euro from next year
Described by the USO union as a form of tax collection, the airports authority AENA is to introduce the payment of a euro for the use of luggage trolleys at Palma's Son Sant Joan airport from January 2013. The measure is not confined to Palma; at four others, all significant tourism airports, the charge will also apply.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 September 2012
A growling looking sky, rain about during the night, heavier inland than on the coasts where it has been only light. Highs of just on 21 degrees at 7.45 and no great shakes later on - mid 20s at best. The chance of showers receding by the later afternoon, but showers a possibility for the next couple of days with Tuesday or Wednesday seeing a return to hotter weather, though still with some risk of rain.
Afternoon update: The rain held off until midday and then there was a goodly amount. Up to 16mm inland, not as heavy on the coasts. Temperatures way down. 16 or 17 at 7pm. The risk of a storm tomorrow and no obvious improvement on what has been a poor first day of September.
Afternoon update: The rain held off until midday and then there was a goodly amount. Up to 16mm inland, not as heavy on the coasts. Temperatures way down. 16 or 17 at 7pm. The risk of a storm tomorrow and no obvious improvement on what has been a poor first day of September.
It Might As Well Have Rained Until September
Damn, damn, damn. It's happened again. September has started. Summer is going, fading, being forgotten. It's no use saying it's still summer because it feels different. What a difference a day makes. From one with an A to one with an S. It happens every year. The first of September, and all the regrets start flooding in along with the floods that the predictable change in the weather brings. When it was still June and July, there was always the next day, the next week, the next month even for whatever it was. Summer stretched for an eternity. September would never come. Nightswimming. Remembering that night. September wasn't coming soon. All of a sudden it was. And now it has.
September is deep-rooted in the consciousness. It is what makes it even more unbearable. We all know what September meant. An end and an unwanted beginning. And as it wound on, September became, if you were lucky, the misty morning giving way to an early autumn heat. But it was also always the month of gathering and swifter twilight. The twilight of summer.
A Mallorcan September is not very different, but there is the added poignancy, as 31 August turns into 1 September, of vitality being sucked out, of a draining, of an enervation. Life starts to go because people wish it to go, wish it to pass with the days being counted down until the shutters are pulled down, until the chairs and tables are piled away for one last time, until the cleaning-up is performed one final time. Wishing time away, wishing the onset of winter desolation, the non-time of a Mallorcan winter, deprived of a life force. How strange that this desolation should be so craved.
Come September and remember a dream from back in May when you panicked that it was September and that the summer had been missed. All those forgotten or missed fiestas. All those forgotten or missed sultry nights. All those forgotten or missed beaches. All those forgotten or missed tumbles in the surf. All those forgotten or missed shouts and laughs amidst the splashes.
And the end of August change in weather is the perfect storm to create the perfect end to what cannot any longer truly be summer. September is the half month. Half here, half there, not knowing which way it is really going. Unreliable. Unpredictable. The perfect storm brings down the curtain on the final act of colossal heat and immediately it has finished, you want it reinstated, want more, want an encore.
Come back.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
September is deep-rooted in the consciousness. It is what makes it even more unbearable. We all know what September meant. An end and an unwanted beginning. And as it wound on, September became, if you were lucky, the misty morning giving way to an early autumn heat. But it was also always the month of gathering and swifter twilight. The twilight of summer.
A Mallorcan September is not very different, but there is the added poignancy, as 31 August turns into 1 September, of vitality being sucked out, of a draining, of an enervation. Life starts to go because people wish it to go, wish it to pass with the days being counted down until the shutters are pulled down, until the chairs and tables are piled away for one last time, until the cleaning-up is performed one final time. Wishing time away, wishing the onset of winter desolation, the non-time of a Mallorcan winter, deprived of a life force. How strange that this desolation should be so craved.
Come September and remember a dream from back in May when you panicked that it was September and that the summer had been missed. All those forgotten or missed fiestas. All those forgotten or missed sultry nights. All those forgotten or missed beaches. All those forgotten or missed tumbles in the surf. All those forgotten or missed shouts and laughs amidst the splashes.
And the end of August change in weather is the perfect storm to create the perfect end to what cannot any longer truly be summer. September is the half month. Half here, half there, not knowing which way it is really going. Unreliable. Unpredictable. The perfect storm brings down the curtain on the final act of colossal heat and immediately it has finished, you want it reinstated, want more, want an encore.
Come back.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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