Shouting lager, lager, lager; shouting mega, mega white thing. Shouting lager, lager, lager; shouting mega, mega beer park.
Underworld's frenetic, drum-driven techno anthem may be too frenetic for even Arenal's Mega Park when the annual bierfest gets underway and drinks itself into a month-long binge from 20 September. Schlagermusik may be more the order of the month or perhaps it will be Peter Wackel's insane "Scheiss drauf (Mallorca ist nur einmal im Jahr)".
It's that time of the year again. When September pretends it is October (or "Oktober" to be Germanically correct), attaches the suffix "fest" to the tenth month of the year and Germans get astonishingly drunk. Not one, not two but three fests - Arenal, Palma and Santa Ponsa - and all in the name of beer. A great deal of it. Palma gets lagered up from 26 September, while Santa Ponsa will have to wait until it really is October (the tenth day of the tenth month) for it to celebrate browny liquid with a white froth in a Masskrug. (There may also be one in Cala Millor; there was last year, but I can't confirm that it is taking place again this year.)
Arenal starts it all off, its poster for the event showing a suitably blonde, pigtailed Mädchen wearing a Dirndl, thrusting out a large glass of cold drink and sporting a welcoming smile. The image of a beer-holding girl in traditional Bavarian dress is synonymous with the bierfest wherever it might be held, and she is always beaming except on the occasions when she might not be. Fortunately, I don't recall the full impact of a cuff that was delivered at Munich's Hofbräu house many years ago.
Say beer to the Brit tourist and the names Tetley, Fosters and Guinness will come to mind. The more cosmopolitan of Britain's human exports will think San Miguel, Estrella or Cruzcampo (other Spanish branded beers are available). The German tourist will have his own imported brands, but the limited supply of German beers around and about on the island disguises the sheer volume of beers available back in Deutschland.
Go to pretty much any town or even village in Germany and you will find a brewery. The beer-making tradition of Germany partly stemmed from the belief (a not entirely unjustified belief) that beer was a vital form of sustenance. Beer-drinking may long ago have also become a means of getting drunk but it remains a part of the rhythm of a German healthy lifestyle. Every bit as important in warding of the crankiness of "Krankheit" as driving on motorways without speed limits, consuming industrial quantities of red meat, and nudism.
The German town brewery is not a microbrewery. There is a trend towards this miniaturisation of beer manufacture, as there is in other countries, and the microbrewery has increasingly come into its own in places where there isn't an obvious tradition of brewing. Places like Mallorca.
The first brewery in Mallorca was founded in 1905 and it was to become, in 1927, the Rosa Blanca brewery. In 1971 Rosa Blanca was sold to Pripps Española, a brewing company which had arrived on the island in the 1960s. Further acquisition - by Damm - eventually led to the brewery being closed in 1998.
A positive consequence of economic crisis has been the revival of artisan cottage industries and one of these has been the emergence in Mallorca of the microbrewery. At Palma's beer festival last year, four Mallorcan breweries were represented, one of them, the Tramuntana Cerveza Artesanal de Mallorca in Selva, being the microbrewery which has perhaps attracted most attention. The developing interest in beer and the growth of this artisan business has inspired events dedicated to beer which is "made in Mallorca". The fiesta in Maria de la Salut a couple of years back made artisan beer a part of the celebrations, and in Mancor de la Vall there was a beer show last weekend with fifteen brands and thirty types of beer, one of the breweries represented having been Beer Lovers, based in Alcúdia old town and launched in May this year.
The bierfests that are about to take place on the island will predominantly be corporate in style. The well-known brands will conceal what is a small but growing industry in Mallorca. Lager, lager, lager may be shouted at Mega Park, and the unwary may slip on beer slopped from a Masskrug, but elsewhere, born out of a craft revival, is a sort of beer underworld, now being discovered and coming into the light, that of the Mallorcan microbrewery.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Draw may not be enough to keep Oltra as Mallorca coach
Real Mallorca's coach José Luis Oltra was looking at getting his P45 had Mallorca fared badly away at moderate Hércules this evening, so he will be on tenterhooks following a 2-2 draw in a match that Mallorca were winning thanks to goals in the first half from Gerard Moreno and in the second from Thomas Partey. But De Lucas pulled one back for the hosts with ten minutes to go and Dionisio equalised with two minutes to go. Now with four points from five games, Mallorca are in eighteenth position (from 22) in the second division.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 15 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (7.15am): 20C
Forecast high: 28C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 3 to 4 veering Northeast 4 during the morning, easing 2 to 3 by the evening. Swells for a time to one metre in the afternoon. Probable rain and storm.
Cloudy skies. While sun is forecast for today, there is a warning for rain and storms from 9am until the evening. The week's outlook is mainly good with highs in the mid-20s but gradually lower.
Evening update (18.45): Strange old day. It looked at one point as though there might indeed have been a storm coming but it didn't. Sun at times and fluctuations in temperature depending on when it was out and when it was overcast. A high of 28.8C.
In A Bad Way: Balearics education and TIL
The Pau Casesnoves secondary school in Inca is located in a residential area of the town behind the grand edifice of the Garcia printing company. As one drives past the school there is a wall on which graffiti has been sprayed. Or it had been when I last went past perhaps three months ago. This graffiti declared opposition to attacks on Catalan teaching in the school and the Balearics as a whole. The school in Inca has been one of the more prominent in making its opposition to language reforms known. On Friday, the day of the return to school, teachers from Pau Casesnoves gathered for a photo. They were wearing green t-shirts from a body known as the Plataforma Crida. The t-shirts supported the teachers' strike and called for "quality public education". The objectives of the Plataforma, in addition to quality in education, include education in Catalan. The teachers in the photo at Pau Casesnoves were wearing the t-shirt and they were also holding a flag - the Catalan flag.
The strike by teachers in the Balearics, which may last until the end of the month, is styled as one against the introduction of TIL - the integrated treatment of languages - the lack of preparation for TIL, and the heavy-handed, non-consultative approach of the regional government (which culminated in the High Court's rejection of its procedure for implementation and the immediate declaration of a government decree to get around the court's decision).
This is, however, an over-simplification. There are indeed grave misgivings and justifiable misgivings about TIL and especially the haste in which it has been introduced. Some teachers, perhaps even a majority of them, will consider this to the prime reason for strike action, but I doubt that were it just about TIL that a strike would be happening. There is more to it.
Teaching in Catalan is also an educational issue, but it is also very much a political issue. The teachers at Pau Casesnoves did, in a sense, give the game away by holding up the Catalan flag. This is a strike, where some teachers are concerned (and again it may be a majority or it may not be), about teaching in Catalan.
If it is concerns about Catalan which are really at the heart of the strike, then it is a strike which been months in the making. Despite attacks by the regional government on Catalan in other ways - reducing or eliminating requirements to speak Catalan in some public-sector jobs, banning the use of "symbols" (such as the Catalan flag) and the display of the flag on public buildings, even the nonsensical proposal to change place names to Castellano (now forgotten about it seems) - there hasn't been concerted industrial action. The teachers' strike is that concerted action, and it has been action that unions and some opposition political parties have been angling for. They now have it.
It will be lamented that schoolchildren will be the ones to suffer and are the ones who least deserve to be in the firing-line of the divisions caused over Catalan. But there are a great number of parents who support the teachers, not just over TIL but also over Catalan teaching. This is not a strike without popular support, and the unions know this.
A reflection of this support lies with what was the government's first "assault" on Catalan teaching. This was the so-called free selection of teaching language whereby parents (at primary levels) could choose between Catalan and Castellano as the language they wished their children to be taught in. It has been a colossal flop in that the percentage of parents opting for Castellano has been nothing like that which the government would have hoped.
In the space of two years since it came to power, the Partido Popular government has introduced two major changes to education - one was free selection, the second is TIL. I am convinced that TIL, and its rushed agenda, is a direct response to the failure of free selection. The government has sought a different way to reduce Catalan teaching and has found it in trilingualism. It is for this reason that the strike is as much political as it is educational.
But then there are also grounds for believing that teachers might have taken strike action had the issue solely been an educational matter to do with TIL. It would have been an extreme form of protest but one must ask why the government appears to think that introducing TIL, and especially in the ham-fisted way in which it has been introduced, will be successful in the Balearics when the islands start from a position of disadvantage when it comes to trilingualism - a disadvantage from generally low educational standards anyway and the absence of a true foreign language culture. Why also does the government believes this might be a success where the Basque Country and other parts of Europe have demonstrated that trilingual education is far from straightforward. Has the government genuinely consulted with educationalists and academics? If it has, it should present the findings of its research. It should be transparent in pointing to how, educationally, trilingualism will be rolled out effectively.
I doubt that it will because I doubt that it has any findings. Not ones that would be convincing. TIL has merits, but the government has gone about it in the wrong way. A very bad way.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The strike by teachers in the Balearics, which may last until the end of the month, is styled as one against the introduction of TIL - the integrated treatment of languages - the lack of preparation for TIL, and the heavy-handed, non-consultative approach of the regional government (which culminated in the High Court's rejection of its procedure for implementation and the immediate declaration of a government decree to get around the court's decision).
This is, however, an over-simplification. There are indeed grave misgivings and justifiable misgivings about TIL and especially the haste in which it has been introduced. Some teachers, perhaps even a majority of them, will consider this to the prime reason for strike action, but I doubt that were it just about TIL that a strike would be happening. There is more to it.
Teaching in Catalan is also an educational issue, but it is also very much a political issue. The teachers at Pau Casesnoves did, in a sense, give the game away by holding up the Catalan flag. This is a strike, where some teachers are concerned (and again it may be a majority or it may not be), about teaching in Catalan.
If it is concerns about Catalan which are really at the heart of the strike, then it is a strike which been months in the making. Despite attacks by the regional government on Catalan in other ways - reducing or eliminating requirements to speak Catalan in some public-sector jobs, banning the use of "symbols" (such as the Catalan flag) and the display of the flag on public buildings, even the nonsensical proposal to change place names to Castellano (now forgotten about it seems) - there hasn't been concerted industrial action. The teachers' strike is that concerted action, and it has been action that unions and some opposition political parties have been angling for. They now have it.
It will be lamented that schoolchildren will be the ones to suffer and are the ones who least deserve to be in the firing-line of the divisions caused over Catalan. But there are a great number of parents who support the teachers, not just over TIL but also over Catalan teaching. This is not a strike without popular support, and the unions know this.
A reflection of this support lies with what was the government's first "assault" on Catalan teaching. This was the so-called free selection of teaching language whereby parents (at primary levels) could choose between Catalan and Castellano as the language they wished their children to be taught in. It has been a colossal flop in that the percentage of parents opting for Castellano has been nothing like that which the government would have hoped.
In the space of two years since it came to power, the Partido Popular government has introduced two major changes to education - one was free selection, the second is TIL. I am convinced that TIL, and its rushed agenda, is a direct response to the failure of free selection. The government has sought a different way to reduce Catalan teaching and has found it in trilingualism. It is for this reason that the strike is as much political as it is educational.
But then there are also grounds for believing that teachers might have taken strike action had the issue solely been an educational matter to do with TIL. It would have been an extreme form of protest but one must ask why the government appears to think that introducing TIL, and especially in the ham-fisted way in which it has been introduced, will be successful in the Balearics when the islands start from a position of disadvantage when it comes to trilingualism - a disadvantage from generally low educational standards anyway and the absence of a true foreign language culture. Why also does the government believes this might be a success where the Basque Country and other parts of Europe have demonstrated that trilingual education is far from straightforward. Has the government genuinely consulted with educationalists and academics? If it has, it should present the findings of its research. It should be transparent in pointing to how, educationally, trilingualism will be rolled out effectively.
I doubt that it will because I doubt that it has any findings. Not ones that would be convincing. TIL has merits, but the government has gone about it in the wrong way. A very bad way.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (9.00am): 20C
Forecast high: 29C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West 2 to 3 increasing and backing South and Southwest 3 to 4 by the afternoon.
A fine, dewy morning. Plenty of sun today and staying mainly fine tomorrow as well. The outlook into next week - mostly sunny with temperatures coming down a touch.
Evening update (20.30): A really fine day with a high of 30.3C. There is though a weather warning for storms for the middle of the day tomorrow.
Nuts In September: Santa Margalida
Ok, so Matt did have a conversion and saw the errors of his ways, but he has been unfortunate enough to have been lumbered with all this patronage for the past couple of thousand years. Why couldn't he have had something altogether more pleasant to watch over? Like almonds. As far as I am aware, Saint Matt does not have and never has had anything to do with almonds. For all I know, he may never have eaten one or sampled the delights of the Battenberg cake or the Bakewell tart. But this hasn't stopped Santa Margalida using almonds as the excuse for putting on a few days celebration in his honour. Or maybe it's the other way round. Either way, from the 19th to the 28th of September there is to be the second almond "show" (for Sant Mateu) in the town and next Saturday (the big Matt day) and Sunday there will be a "picametla", which involves local bars and restaurants serving snacks and meals made with almonds. "Ametla" means almond.
Almonds are important to the economy of Santa Margalida, as they are important to Mallorca's agricultural economy as a whole. But this traditional fruit crop is under threat. In the five years to the end of 2011, the total amount of land that had been devoted to almond growing had fallen by a quarter. The almond was a victim of a number of factors - foreign competition and the Common Agricultural Policy being of greatest importance.
Olive production benefited as a result of CAP subsidies and minimum prices. Though subsidies are no longer as they were, olive growing has continued to increase, pushing aside more traditional crops, such as almonds. In addition, a subsidy known as coupled payment suppression meant a 13% reduction on margins for Spanish nut farmers.
Santa Margalida's celebration of the almond is, therefore, more than just a typical fair devoted to local produce, as with, for instance, Sa Pobla's potato fair. It is about a fruit which, while not endangered with extinction, is being lessened in its traditional importance.
If the growing of almonds is cut back further, it might be that some traditional local food is affected. It is the almond which went into the making of the original Mallorcan ice-cream (almond milk at any rate) along with ice gathered from the mountains. Almond goes into "turrón", the nougaty thing which is especially popular at Christmas, and into "gató", the local sponge cake.
There probably wouldn't be any effect on this in that substitutes would be used. That, though, would be sacrilege, especially if the Californian imported almond were to be used instead. You can tell a Mallorcan almond from most others and certainly from a Californian one. Why? It doesn't taste as good.
Almonds and hazelnuts, these are Mallorca's main nuts. They shouldn't be lost. Go to Santa Margalida and support your local almond, therefore. And if you see some beardy bloke who says he isn't a tax collector but who might be snooping around the stalls selling almond produce, tell him he's a banker.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, September 13, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - No surveillance cameras for Llenaire beach
The government delegation to the Balearics has rejected the request by Pollensa town hall to install surveillance cameras on Llenaire beach in Puerto Pollensa and on the street by the zone reserved for beach users with pets. This request came after two cases of dogs having been poisoned on the beach. The cameras are considered disproportionate. The delegation has responsibility for security and police matters in the Balearics.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.00am): 17C
Forecast high: 28C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Variable 2 to 3 and Northeast 3 during the middle of the day. Swells to one metre.
Bright, sunny morning and a bright, sunny day on the cards. Saturday much the same, Sunday cloudy.
Evening update (19.15): Warmer day today. High of 28.1C.
Weakening The Links In The Chain: Catalonia
José Manuel García Margallo is not Britain's favourite Spanish politician. He is not the favourite Spanish politician of the people of Gibraltar. He is, you may know, the Spanish minister for foreign affairs. It was he, among the Spanish Government, who really kicked things off in Gibraltar.
Margallo, so suggests the newspaper "El País", is the least diplomatic of all the ministers in the Spanish Government. Diplomacy, you might have thought, would be useful for a foreign minister, but Margallo, where Gibraltar was concerned, went tramping in with heavy and distinctly undiplomatic boots. The government's boot boy, putting an end to the party on the Peñón.
A line of argument that has been used against Margallo is that Spain has its own territorial issues, not simply those in Africa but also in Spain itself. One of them is Catalonia, and there have been many Catalan voices raised in support of Gibraltar's rejection of Spanish claims to the rock.
On Wednesday, Catalonia celebrated its national day. Describing this as "national" is somewhat misleading. There is no Catalonian nation, only that which exists as an abstract concept and an ideal for many a Catalonian who has learned from history that there once used to be something approximating a Catalonian nation. Many Catalonians, at least 400,000, joined a human chain that stretched some 400 kilometres from the French border to Tarragona. This was the highlight of the day's celebration. Its purpose? To demonstrate solidarity with the call for Catalonian independence.
It was a hugely impressive display, reminiscent of the chain formed by people in the Baltic states who demanded independence from the Soviet Union in 1989. You cannot simply ignore 400,000 people. Margallo, to his credit, hasn't ignored them. Indeed, Margallo, perhaps because he is undiplomatic, has been honest about the demonstration. He was worried and saddened by it, but he has admitted that it was a success in terms of its organisation, logistics and communication. In other words, he has appreciated that the people of Catalonia can be mobilised to show their support for independence.
The figure of 400,000 may well have been considerably higher, but then these figures are always open to question, but if one accepts the 400,000, it was actually lower than the lowest figure given for the national day demonstration in Barcelona last year. That was 600,000, though it was probably (and reasonably accurately) around one million.
So in fact, one could argue that there has been a fall in support for independence. Measured in terms of actual bodies, maybe, but the figures may not reflect sentiment as a whole. Which is something to which government vice-president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has alluded. The government will listen to everyone, including the silent majority. She has implied, therefore, that the weight of support for independence as shown on the streets is not matched off of the streets.
After last year's demonstration Mariano Rajoy's reaction was to blather on about the constitution and to seemingly pay no attention to the masses protesting. Santamaría has at least acknowledged their presence on the streets this year, but Margallo, undiplomatic Margallo, has gone very much further. The people on the streets have to be listened to, and he has proposed that there be a reflection not just about the situation in Catalonia but about territorial organisation in Spain as a whole. It is an extraordinary suggestion for a Partido Popular politician to make, as it implies a diminution of nationalism, and the PP has always been wedded to the notion of the Spanish nation without exception.
In addition to recognising Catalonia's language and culture, Margallo has indicated he would be in favour of changes to Catalonia's financing, which was really the cause of the recent clamour for a referendum on independence. He has also suggested that there be fewer limits on responsibilities of regional administrations, so not just Catalonia's. He has, in one intervention, turned PP attitudes towards the regions on their head.
The question is does he speak for the government or is he just wildly off-message? If it's the former, then something truly remarkable is going on, and it may be that something is going on. Artur Mas, the president of Catalonia, wants to put back any referendum to 2016. It had been promised for next year. It is still, strictly speaking, illegal to hold a referendum, but Mas has been talking with Rajoy. His delay of the referendum has been greeted with disgust by the left who keep him in power, but it could just be that a major reform of the state's relationship with Catalonia and the other regions is on the cards; a reform that would, it might be hoped, kill off calls for independence.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Margallo, so suggests the newspaper "El País", is the least diplomatic of all the ministers in the Spanish Government. Diplomacy, you might have thought, would be useful for a foreign minister, but Margallo, where Gibraltar was concerned, went tramping in with heavy and distinctly undiplomatic boots. The government's boot boy, putting an end to the party on the Peñón.
A line of argument that has been used against Margallo is that Spain has its own territorial issues, not simply those in Africa but also in Spain itself. One of them is Catalonia, and there have been many Catalan voices raised in support of Gibraltar's rejection of Spanish claims to the rock.
On Wednesday, Catalonia celebrated its national day. Describing this as "national" is somewhat misleading. There is no Catalonian nation, only that which exists as an abstract concept and an ideal for many a Catalonian who has learned from history that there once used to be something approximating a Catalonian nation. Many Catalonians, at least 400,000, joined a human chain that stretched some 400 kilometres from the French border to Tarragona. This was the highlight of the day's celebration. Its purpose? To demonstrate solidarity with the call for Catalonian independence.
It was a hugely impressive display, reminiscent of the chain formed by people in the Baltic states who demanded independence from the Soviet Union in 1989. You cannot simply ignore 400,000 people. Margallo, to his credit, hasn't ignored them. Indeed, Margallo, perhaps because he is undiplomatic, has been honest about the demonstration. He was worried and saddened by it, but he has admitted that it was a success in terms of its organisation, logistics and communication. In other words, he has appreciated that the people of Catalonia can be mobilised to show their support for independence.
The figure of 400,000 may well have been considerably higher, but then these figures are always open to question, but if one accepts the 400,000, it was actually lower than the lowest figure given for the national day demonstration in Barcelona last year. That was 600,000, though it was probably (and reasonably accurately) around one million.
So in fact, one could argue that there has been a fall in support for independence. Measured in terms of actual bodies, maybe, but the figures may not reflect sentiment as a whole. Which is something to which government vice-president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has alluded. The government will listen to everyone, including the silent majority. She has implied, therefore, that the weight of support for independence as shown on the streets is not matched off of the streets.
After last year's demonstration Mariano Rajoy's reaction was to blather on about the constitution and to seemingly pay no attention to the masses protesting. Santamaría has at least acknowledged their presence on the streets this year, but Margallo, undiplomatic Margallo, has gone very much further. The people on the streets have to be listened to, and he has proposed that there be a reflection not just about the situation in Catalonia but about territorial organisation in Spain as a whole. It is an extraordinary suggestion for a Partido Popular politician to make, as it implies a diminution of nationalism, and the PP has always been wedded to the notion of the Spanish nation without exception.
In addition to recognising Catalonia's language and culture, Margallo has indicated he would be in favour of changes to Catalonia's financing, which was really the cause of the recent clamour for a referendum on independence. He has also suggested that there be fewer limits on responsibilities of regional administrations, so not just Catalonia's. He has, in one intervention, turned PP attitudes towards the regions on their head.
The question is does he speak for the government or is he just wildly off-message? If it's the former, then something truly remarkable is going on, and it may be that something is going on. Artur Mas, the president of Catalonia, wants to put back any referendum to 2016. It had been promised for next year. It is still, strictly speaking, illegal to hold a referendum, but Mas has been talking with Rajoy. His delay of the referendum has been greeted with disgust by the left who keep him in power, but it could just be that a major reform of the state's relationship with Catalonia and the other regions is on the cards; a reform that would, it might be hoped, kill off calls for independence.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - 22-year-old British tourist dead after Magalluf balcony fall
And another one ... A 22-year-old British tourist died early yesterday morning after a fall of only two metres from a balcony at the Villa Sol in Magalluf. He has been named as Samuel Peter Hill.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (9.15am): 21C
Forecast high: 27C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northeast 3, and 4 at intervals. Variable by the afternoon with swells to one metre.
Sunny but with quite a bit of cloud. A mix of sun and cloud today. Tomorrow and Saturday warmer and sunnier.
Evening update (20.30): A high of 25.6C. Not a great deal of sun until later in the day and then clouded over again.
Representation Of The People?: Balearics Parliament
President Bauzá wishes to reduce the number of deputies in the Balearic parliament from 59 to 41. Good for President Bauzá. It all sounds terribly sensible. Lop a few MPs off and save a few million euros into the bargain. But why stop at eighteen? Why do the Balearics need 41 deputies let alone the 59 that there are at present?
59 deputies mean one for almost 19,000 people on the islands. 41 would increase this ratio to one per 27,000. 59, 41, either might sound a lot, but are they? And who is to say or decide if they are a lot? Bauzá obviously thinks 59 are too many, but cutting the number to 41 wouldn't make a huge difference to the overall ranking of the autonomous regions of Spain and the ratios between their populations and numbers of parliamentary deputies. The Balearics are currently in twelfth spot (out of 17). The change to 41 would mean a rise to tenth, but so what?
There is considerable variance between the regions as to the sizes of their respective parliamentary representations. Catalonia has the most deputies (135) but the ratio is one deputy per 54,500 people, significantly lower than Andalusia (109 deputies) and a ratio of one per 75,000. The closest to the Balearics in terms of number of deputies are the Canary Islands. They have 60 deputies, but the ratio is almost double because the total population of the Canaries is almost double that of the Balearics.
So why this inconsistency? Indeed, how did the number of deputies ever come to be decided upon? And why, in the Balearics, are there 33 deputies (55% of them) for Mallorca when Mallorca has 80% of the islands' total population?
The answer to these questions is that there aren't really any answers. Not hard and fast ones at any rate. The basis for forming "constituencies" (used in a loose sense, as there are no constituencies as would be understood in the UK) was, in the case of the Balearics, the four islands, three of which were granted multi-deputy representation. Formentera has only ever had one MP. Arriving at the number of deputies in Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza mirrored, in essence, the system applied nationally for determining "constituencies", i.e. they were assigned on a territorial-population basis but, as noted by Paul Heywood, professor of European politics at the University of Nottingham, "without any guiding orientation". In other words, they just picked a number out of a hat.
That's a trivialisation of course but it's not a million miles away from how the decision as to the number of deputies was arrived at. Roughly speaking, very roughly, whatever guiding orientation there has or hasn't been has placed representation in the various regional parliaments at one deputy for every 40,000 people. As might be observed, 40,000 have been interpreted very liberally in the Balearics.
Bauzá's trimming of the number of deputies has been met with outrage by the usual suspects, namely anyone who or any party which opposes him. The loss of 18 deputies diminishes democracy, it takes government further away from the people, it is a move towards centralisation of government. None of this opposition makes any sense, partly because the basis for the number of deputies has never made a great deal of sense but especially because an increase of 9,000 people per deputy is neither here nor here. Bear in mind that these deputies represent political parties, they don't represent specific parts of the islands (though those in the lesser-represented islands might be said to). They aren't close to the people, they are just elected; on the basis of little more than a calculation made on the back of a fag packet. Had Bauzá wanted to trim the number of deputies by 80% rather than 20%, the opposition arguments might be worth listening to, but he doesn't want to do this. He is proposing a rationalisation that few rational observers could argue against.
There is a question that goes beyond the mysterious way in which the Balearics ended up with 59 MPs. It is rather more fundamental than how many deputies there are. It is this - what do they actually do? Representation of the people should be a given, and no one would seriously oppose that idea other than old-guard anti-parliamentarian fascists, but as the deputies don't represent specific towns, who actually do they represent?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
59 deputies mean one for almost 19,000 people on the islands. 41 would increase this ratio to one per 27,000. 59, 41, either might sound a lot, but are they? And who is to say or decide if they are a lot? Bauzá obviously thinks 59 are too many, but cutting the number to 41 wouldn't make a huge difference to the overall ranking of the autonomous regions of Spain and the ratios between their populations and numbers of parliamentary deputies. The Balearics are currently in twelfth spot (out of 17). The change to 41 would mean a rise to tenth, but so what?
There is considerable variance between the regions as to the sizes of their respective parliamentary representations. Catalonia has the most deputies (135) but the ratio is one deputy per 54,500 people, significantly lower than Andalusia (109 deputies) and a ratio of one per 75,000. The closest to the Balearics in terms of number of deputies are the Canary Islands. They have 60 deputies, but the ratio is almost double because the total population of the Canaries is almost double that of the Balearics.
So why this inconsistency? Indeed, how did the number of deputies ever come to be decided upon? And why, in the Balearics, are there 33 deputies (55% of them) for Mallorca when Mallorca has 80% of the islands' total population?
The answer to these questions is that there aren't really any answers. Not hard and fast ones at any rate. The basis for forming "constituencies" (used in a loose sense, as there are no constituencies as would be understood in the UK) was, in the case of the Balearics, the four islands, three of which were granted multi-deputy representation. Formentera has only ever had one MP. Arriving at the number of deputies in Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza mirrored, in essence, the system applied nationally for determining "constituencies", i.e. they were assigned on a territorial-population basis but, as noted by Paul Heywood, professor of European politics at the University of Nottingham, "without any guiding orientation". In other words, they just picked a number out of a hat.
That's a trivialisation of course but it's not a million miles away from how the decision as to the number of deputies was arrived at. Roughly speaking, very roughly, whatever guiding orientation there has or hasn't been has placed representation in the various regional parliaments at one deputy for every 40,000 people. As might be observed, 40,000 have been interpreted very liberally in the Balearics.
Bauzá's trimming of the number of deputies has been met with outrage by the usual suspects, namely anyone who or any party which opposes him. The loss of 18 deputies diminishes democracy, it takes government further away from the people, it is a move towards centralisation of government. None of this opposition makes any sense, partly because the basis for the number of deputies has never made a great deal of sense but especially because an increase of 9,000 people per deputy is neither here nor here. Bear in mind that these deputies represent political parties, they don't represent specific parts of the islands (though those in the lesser-represented islands might be said to). They aren't close to the people, they are just elected; on the basis of little more than a calculation made on the back of a fag packet. Had Bauzá wanted to trim the number of deputies by 80% rather than 20%, the opposition arguments might be worth listening to, but he doesn't want to do this. He is proposing a rationalisation that few rational observers could argue against.
There is a question that goes beyond the mysterious way in which the Balearics ended up with 59 MPs. It is rather more fundamental than how many deputies there are. It is this - what do they actually do? Representation of the people should be a given, and no one would seriously oppose that idea other than old-guard anti-parliamentarian fascists, but as the deputies don't represent specific towns, who actually do they represent?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Magalluf security guard hospitalised after attack by British "hooligans"
A 20-year-old security guard in Magalluf who reproached a Briton who was urinating in the street was set upon by five people and punched and kicked and required hospitalisation as a result of the attack which took place at around 6am on Monday.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.30am): 20.5C
Forecast high: 27C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northeast 4. Swells to two metres from midday. Rain and threat of storms easing this morning.
A damp and grey morning, heavy rain and thunder having set in for a time around 5am. The alert is still in place for poor weather though this may only be precautionary; the satellite shows the storm front moving away. Should brighten up by the afternoon, and the forecast for the next few days is generally better.
Evening update (22.30): Well, not a great day. A high of 23C, some sun but also a lot of dark cloud and occasional rain and thunder.
A Relaxing Cup Of Café Con Leche
We should have expected the worse, let's be honest. All those residents of Madrid sitting around on bar terraces doing very little while some Andalusians were giving it large with some flamenco dancing and camera crews were milling about shooting footage to come up with a God-awful Olympics bid promo video. It wasn't the flamenco so much, though that, by tradition and origin, has nothing to do with Madrid, it was those lay-abouts on the terraces. What were they doing? Drinking relaxing cups of café con leche. This is why we should have expected the worse. In the end, however, it turned out to be even worse.
Ana Botella is the lady mayor of Madrid. Her surname means bottle. Her message to the ranks of the International Olympic Committee, their relatives, their friends, their mistresses and their, erm, contacts was one that should have remained firmly in the bottle. No one should have removed the stopper and let what was inside come out. Someone did, though.
The "relaxing cup of café con leche" has become an internet favourite. Señora Botella bottled it. She gave it a go but she should have kept it bottled. All of it. In English. Especially the "relaxing cup of café con leche". Some communications "expert", however, had the bright idea to train Ana in delivering the most important speech she would ever make and ensure that she sounded like a hyper-gushing Moldovan TV presenter enthusing about how amazing the Eurovision Song Contest was and whipping herself into a frenzy to announce that Romania had been awarded twelve points. "Oh." "Ah." "A relaxing cup of café con leche." "Oh." "Ah."
The café con leche should have nothing to do with the merits or otherwise of Madrid's bid. It shouldn't have even been mentioned of course, but it was. It still shouldn't have mattered, however, and much though apportioning blame for the bid debacle has fallen on Ana's hamming-up of English pronunciation and intonation, the blame is perfectly ludicrous. Madrid had lost the bid the moment they made that damn video.
Experts other than the communications expert, who can anticipate that his invoice (plus IVA) will now be filed in the bin, have dissected the English and body language performances of others who were hauled up in front of the IOC's invited guests and general freeloaders and made to demonstrate how well or not they had learned their presentation skills. Prince Felipe. What a star. Good English. Good assertive hand gestures, good eye contact (not that he was looking at anyone in particular), confident and amiable expression. Like the best man at a wedding who has the superior gags and remembers everyone's names and who should be allowed to do the bride's father's speech rather than letting the old man ramble on, forget everyone's name and then throw up, Felipe should have flown presentationally solo.
At least Ana gave it her best shot, though. Well actually, no she didn't. It was a shot but it couldn't be described as best as it wasn't even good. However, it was an awful lot better than Mariano. He came, he looked sheepish (as he always does), he mumbled. In Spanish. Nary a word in English. Good for him. No pandering to the bloody British while they're occupying the Peñón. What did he say, though? Even in Spanish. Very little. As one astute observer has commented, Mariano manages to say nothing in several languages.
Isn't this all a bit unfair, though? Why should there be an expectation that English should be needed at all or, if it is, that it might be anything more than dreadful? It shouldn't matter and, for Spanish commentators, it almost certainly wouldn't have mattered, had it not been for the massive great hole that Spanish politicians have dug for themselves in respect of language learning. English language learning. It's all very well them coming up with mad schemes to unleash teachers who have no grasp of the English language beyond that of John Cleese's hapless Manuel on a generation of schoolchildren, but they should lead from the front and show off their English prowess. Mariano doesn't, but then he doesn't even lead from behind.
It is unfair. Can Dave converse fluently in Spanish? Perhaps he can, but we know that Major, despite having been a frequent semi-resident in Spain for twenty years, can't even put two words together, let alone demand a "relaxing cup of café con leche". But then Major was never expected to go in front of the IOC and deliver a speech in Spanish. It would have been in English.
Ana Botella and her cup of coffee? Give the poor woman a break.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Ana Botella is the lady mayor of Madrid. Her surname means bottle. Her message to the ranks of the International Olympic Committee, their relatives, their friends, their mistresses and their, erm, contacts was one that should have remained firmly in the bottle. No one should have removed the stopper and let what was inside come out. Someone did, though.
The "relaxing cup of café con leche" has become an internet favourite. Señora Botella bottled it. She gave it a go but she should have kept it bottled. All of it. In English. Especially the "relaxing cup of café con leche". Some communications "expert", however, had the bright idea to train Ana in delivering the most important speech she would ever make and ensure that she sounded like a hyper-gushing Moldovan TV presenter enthusing about how amazing the Eurovision Song Contest was and whipping herself into a frenzy to announce that Romania had been awarded twelve points. "Oh." "Ah." "A relaxing cup of café con leche." "Oh." "Ah."
The café con leche should have nothing to do with the merits or otherwise of Madrid's bid. It shouldn't have even been mentioned of course, but it was. It still shouldn't have mattered, however, and much though apportioning blame for the bid debacle has fallen on Ana's hamming-up of English pronunciation and intonation, the blame is perfectly ludicrous. Madrid had lost the bid the moment they made that damn video.
Experts other than the communications expert, who can anticipate that his invoice (plus IVA) will now be filed in the bin, have dissected the English and body language performances of others who were hauled up in front of the IOC's invited guests and general freeloaders and made to demonstrate how well or not they had learned their presentation skills. Prince Felipe. What a star. Good English. Good assertive hand gestures, good eye contact (not that he was looking at anyone in particular), confident and amiable expression. Like the best man at a wedding who has the superior gags and remembers everyone's names and who should be allowed to do the bride's father's speech rather than letting the old man ramble on, forget everyone's name and then throw up, Felipe should have flown presentationally solo.
At least Ana gave it her best shot, though. Well actually, no she didn't. It was a shot but it couldn't be described as best as it wasn't even good. However, it was an awful lot better than Mariano. He came, he looked sheepish (as he always does), he mumbled. In Spanish. Nary a word in English. Good for him. No pandering to the bloody British while they're occupying the Peñón. What did he say, though? Even in Spanish. Very little. As one astute observer has commented, Mariano manages to say nothing in several languages.
Isn't this all a bit unfair, though? Why should there be an expectation that English should be needed at all or, if it is, that it might be anything more than dreadful? It shouldn't matter and, for Spanish commentators, it almost certainly wouldn't have mattered, had it not been for the massive great hole that Spanish politicians have dug for themselves in respect of language learning. English language learning. It's all very well them coming up with mad schemes to unleash teachers who have no grasp of the English language beyond that of John Cleese's hapless Manuel on a generation of schoolchildren, but they should lead from the front and show off their English prowess. Mariano doesn't, but then he doesn't even lead from behind.
It is unfair. Can Dave converse fluently in Spanish? Perhaps he can, but we know that Major, despite having been a frequent semi-resident in Spain for twenty years, can't even put two words together, let alone demand a "relaxing cup of café con leche". But then Major was never expected to go in front of the IOC and deliver a speech in Spanish. It would have been in English.
Ana Botella and her cup of coffee? Give the poor woman a break.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.15am): 20C
Forecast high: 28C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): East 2 to 3; temporarily 4 in the afternoon. Rain and storms.
A grey morning. Though there are alerts in place for rain and storms today, the forecast suggests that the day will be sunny, which is a slight contradiction. The alert continues into tomorrow, so at some point there is likely to be some heavy weather, which, as any keen Mallorcan weather observer will know, is typical for the middle of September; there is often a very heavy storm around the 12th of the month, so it may be a little early this year.
Evening update (19.30): A high of 28.9C and the forecast was quite accurate in that there was a good deal of sun, though there were also some rumbles of thunder which didn't come to anything. Still might be some bad weather overnight, though.
Walking On Broken Glass: Mallorca's tourism
It all looks so good. Everything in the tourism garden is rosy. A very good summer, a record even, and September and October bookings are strong, much stronger than usual. Some hotels are thinking of staying open into November, eating into the savage deadness of the off-season. Next year is looking fab as well. The hotels have secured revenue increases of up to 5% from tour operators keen to secure beds for next summer. Even tour operators from markets which send fewer tourists than the market colossi of the UK and Germany, such as those in Russia and Norway, are doing business with the hotels early. Everyone wants a piece of Mallorca in 2014. Everything in the tourism garden is rosy.
Go back to political events of the 1990s, and which ones dominated European thinking? Well, there were plenty of course, but among them were events in what had been Yugoslavia. These weren't just political events, these were war. There is no war as such in Egypt at present, but events have a habit of having an impact on tourism. In the '90s it was Croatia which suffered along with other coastal parts of the former Yugoslavia. Now it is north Africa, and Lord alone knows what might erupt if things go really wrong in Syria.
Mallorca is reaping the benefits and has been doing so since the Arab spring; just as it did when Yugoslavia was consumed by war. Whatever some commentators have warned about Spain and a descent into civil unrest, whatever wilder claims have been made about intervention in Catalonia, whatever the ropy image that has come with corruption, whatever bad publicity (in truth, never actually that bad) which comes courtesy of sections of the media, Mallorca (and Spain) rise above such negatives. Mallorca is reliable and it is safe. The politicians and those in the tourist industry keep reminding everyone of this, and they are right to do so.
Such reliability and such safety explain why the current season will prove to have been highly successful and also explain why tour operators have acted swiftly to ensure places for next year even if this might mean paying some more. The hotels and the local economy generally should be happy. Greater hotel profitability (and the hotels have been complaining for ages that they have been losing profitability) can only benefit the wider economy. Or so the theory might go.
The practice is a different matter. Higher prices and so greater profitability from all-inclusives do not mean wider benefits. Nor do they mean longer and more stable employment contracts. Nor do they mean that seasonality is lessened. And nor do they mean that the improvements to hotel stock and to resorts will be effected in the ways that the regional government had hoped when it passed the 2012 tourism act.
Everything in the tourism garden is rosy, but the roses are emitting fragrances that obliterate only temporarily the smells of decay. The rosy rose bushes of the tourism industry cannot disguise the thorns that attack the vulnerable and exposed parts of the industry, and one of these, ironically, is what might be perceived as an industry strength - the almost 300,000 hotel places in Mallorca.
Safe and reliable, Mallorca's reliability is founded in part on its capacity. For all that Croatia is now a competitor and no longer undermined by strife, it can compete only partially; it doesn't have the capacity. So surely Mallorca's capacity must be a strength. It is, but only if one adheres to the notion of tourism that is sharply divided between the glass slipper and slipping over broken glass. Magalluf is managing to demonstrate this divide. It is intended as a benchmark for modernised, transformed and beautified four and five-starring, but how can it truly ever be when glass is shattered along the strip within screaming distance of a five-star palacete playing host to Cinderellas and Prince Charmings bejewelled with the ostentation acquired from a Gucci store on Moscow's Tverskaya?
The rose garden conceals the compost of resorts grown old and too many hotels in need of radical facelifts. The tourism act was meant to have tackled this, but will it? There is many an observer who would aver that Mallorca simply has too many hotels and too many hotel places. They can't all be transformed. To remodel the industry in the shape of a glass slipper demands taking broken glass to the capacity and slashing it, but then what? Loss of jobs, loss of further business in a complementary sector already battered by all-inclusive and the conspicuously low consumption that comes with excess capacity?
It all looks so good. And for now, let's be thankful that it is. But then thinking about now has long been a Mallorcan failure. There's a whole tourism future that too few people have seen. But what will come as a shock to the blind is that the future is already here. It all looks so good but only because there are parts of the world which are suffering from an absence of goodness.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Go back to political events of the 1990s, and which ones dominated European thinking? Well, there were plenty of course, but among them were events in what had been Yugoslavia. These weren't just political events, these were war. There is no war as such in Egypt at present, but events have a habit of having an impact on tourism. In the '90s it was Croatia which suffered along with other coastal parts of the former Yugoslavia. Now it is north Africa, and Lord alone knows what might erupt if things go really wrong in Syria.
Mallorca is reaping the benefits and has been doing so since the Arab spring; just as it did when Yugoslavia was consumed by war. Whatever some commentators have warned about Spain and a descent into civil unrest, whatever wilder claims have been made about intervention in Catalonia, whatever the ropy image that has come with corruption, whatever bad publicity (in truth, never actually that bad) which comes courtesy of sections of the media, Mallorca (and Spain) rise above such negatives. Mallorca is reliable and it is safe. The politicians and those in the tourist industry keep reminding everyone of this, and they are right to do so.
Such reliability and such safety explain why the current season will prove to have been highly successful and also explain why tour operators have acted swiftly to ensure places for next year even if this might mean paying some more. The hotels and the local economy generally should be happy. Greater hotel profitability (and the hotels have been complaining for ages that they have been losing profitability) can only benefit the wider economy. Or so the theory might go.
The practice is a different matter. Higher prices and so greater profitability from all-inclusives do not mean wider benefits. Nor do they mean longer and more stable employment contracts. Nor do they mean that seasonality is lessened. And nor do they mean that the improvements to hotel stock and to resorts will be effected in the ways that the regional government had hoped when it passed the 2012 tourism act.
Everything in the tourism garden is rosy, but the roses are emitting fragrances that obliterate only temporarily the smells of decay. The rosy rose bushes of the tourism industry cannot disguise the thorns that attack the vulnerable and exposed parts of the industry, and one of these, ironically, is what might be perceived as an industry strength - the almost 300,000 hotel places in Mallorca.
Safe and reliable, Mallorca's reliability is founded in part on its capacity. For all that Croatia is now a competitor and no longer undermined by strife, it can compete only partially; it doesn't have the capacity. So surely Mallorca's capacity must be a strength. It is, but only if one adheres to the notion of tourism that is sharply divided between the glass slipper and slipping over broken glass. Magalluf is managing to demonstrate this divide. It is intended as a benchmark for modernised, transformed and beautified four and five-starring, but how can it truly ever be when glass is shattered along the strip within screaming distance of a five-star palacete playing host to Cinderellas and Prince Charmings bejewelled with the ostentation acquired from a Gucci store on Moscow's Tverskaya?
The rose garden conceals the compost of resorts grown old and too many hotels in need of radical facelifts. The tourism act was meant to have tackled this, but will it? There is many an observer who would aver that Mallorca simply has too many hotels and too many hotel places. They can't all be transformed. To remodel the industry in the shape of a glass slipper demands taking broken glass to the capacity and slashing it, but then what? Loss of jobs, loss of further business in a complementary sector already battered by all-inclusive and the conspicuously low consumption that comes with excess capacity?
It all looks so good. And for now, let's be thankful that it is. But then thinking about now has long been a Mallorcan failure. There's a whole tourism future that too few people have seen. But what will come as a shock to the blind is that the future is already here. It all looks so good but only because there are parts of the world which are suffering from an absence of goodness.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, September 09, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.30am): 23.5C
Forecast high: 28C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northwest 3 increasing and veering Northeast 4 then easing by the afternoon to 2 to 3 and veering Southeast by the evening. Swells of up to one metre with some rain and possible storm.
Cloudy. There has been some rain in parts. Should clear to give a mostly sunny day but the outlook for tomorrow is for rain with a yellow alert in place from midnight for storms.
Evening update (20.15): A high of 27.7C on a mainly cloudy day. Bad weather anticipated overnight and into tomorrow and on into Wednesday.
A Balearic Lesson In Making Education Worse
I spoke the other day with a British woman whose children are at school locally. I asked her about the introduction of teaching in English. Her reaction did not surprise me. How can it work when neither teachers nor pupils can speak English well enough?
There will be exceptions. There will be teachers whose English is excellent. There will be pupils whose English is excellent, but don't be fooled into believing that children with English-speaking parents (or one parent) will necessarily be excellent. If these children have grown up in Mallorca, their English, especially their written English, may well be poor. Multilingualism, genuine multilingualism, requires immersion and constant reinforcement. If even English-speaking children aren't brilliant, then what possible hope is there for Mallorcan children?
There are of course educational regimes which operate multilingualism well, but they tend to be those which have promoted English (or other languages) for very many years and which have cultures highly geared to acceptance and use of other languages. In the Netherlands, as an example, watching the BBC has long been a common practice in Dutch homes. The Dutch, though, are a pragmatic people. As the person at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange with whom I collaborated some years ago once remarked: "we speak English because no one else speaks Dutch".
Mallorca and the Balearics are not known for their high levels of pragmatism, other than the pragmatism that is demanded to not rock the boat, and the boat that should not be rocked is one commanded by ideology, self-interest and power. Introducing trilingualism may sound as though it is a pragmatic response to tackling what has for too long been an underperforming state education system, but it is not pragmatic. Not when the right skills do not exist. Not when a culture of language acquisition does not exist. And not when the introduction is undertaken in an incoherent and hasty fashion with too little attention paid to practicalities but with a great deal of attention paid to ideology. For trilingualism to work, a considerable amount of ground work has to be done. For it to work, it needs to be introduced incrementally. Bit by bit. Evolution rather than revolution.
It is easy to be persuaded that there is a culture of language acquisition when one encounters the many Mallorcans who can speak English. Yes, there is a good deal of English ability knocking around but too little which is of a standard required to teach in English. There is much English spoken but as a survey of students at the University of the Balearic Islands revealed in 2010, two-thirds of these students admitted to not understanding English.
This failure is not unique to the Balearics. A professor from the University of Navarre pointed out not so long ago that great numbers of Spanish pupils, despite being taught English (as opposed to being taught in English), were leaving school still not able to speak English to any decent level.
The Balearic Government is right to try and confront the issue but it has gone about it in a wholly unsatisfactory manner. It wants trilingual revolution but will end up with a different type of revolution. It is already facing one. The revolt of teachers against the TIL scheme. The government has used the introduction of trilingualism to shield its antipathy towards Catalan and has so insisted on revolution as a fast-track device to bring Catalan to heel. This is the ideology. One that is wrapped up as securing the future of the children of the Balearics, or so the president would have everyone believe.
The teachers are using the same ideology but in reverse. They are aghast at the potential for Catalan to be undermined, but in their defence they do also appreciate, far better than the government, the pedagogical problems raised by trilingualism. But because the teachers (their unions at any rate) are a bunch of lefty, Catalanist agitators, the government has ignored them. And it was this disregard which led the Balearics High Court to tell the government that its procedure for scheduling the implementation of TIL was wrong. The government had not consulted properly, just as, only hours after the court's decision, it revealed it had not consulted at all in magicking up some decree to permit TIL to go ahead as of this Friday.
The principle of TIL is not wrong but the implementation is totally wrong. Blind dogma has led the government down a path towards chaos in the classrooms, chaos that will be even greater if PSOE were to return to power in 2015 and scrap TIL (they have said they will). The government, far from taking measures to improve educational performance, has adopted one that will worsen it.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
There will be exceptions. There will be teachers whose English is excellent. There will be pupils whose English is excellent, but don't be fooled into believing that children with English-speaking parents (or one parent) will necessarily be excellent. If these children have grown up in Mallorca, their English, especially their written English, may well be poor. Multilingualism, genuine multilingualism, requires immersion and constant reinforcement. If even English-speaking children aren't brilliant, then what possible hope is there for Mallorcan children?
There are of course educational regimes which operate multilingualism well, but they tend to be those which have promoted English (or other languages) for very many years and which have cultures highly geared to acceptance and use of other languages. In the Netherlands, as an example, watching the BBC has long been a common practice in Dutch homes. The Dutch, though, are a pragmatic people. As the person at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange with whom I collaborated some years ago once remarked: "we speak English because no one else speaks Dutch".
Mallorca and the Balearics are not known for their high levels of pragmatism, other than the pragmatism that is demanded to not rock the boat, and the boat that should not be rocked is one commanded by ideology, self-interest and power. Introducing trilingualism may sound as though it is a pragmatic response to tackling what has for too long been an underperforming state education system, but it is not pragmatic. Not when the right skills do not exist. Not when a culture of language acquisition does not exist. And not when the introduction is undertaken in an incoherent and hasty fashion with too little attention paid to practicalities but with a great deal of attention paid to ideology. For trilingualism to work, a considerable amount of ground work has to be done. For it to work, it needs to be introduced incrementally. Bit by bit. Evolution rather than revolution.
It is easy to be persuaded that there is a culture of language acquisition when one encounters the many Mallorcans who can speak English. Yes, there is a good deal of English ability knocking around but too little which is of a standard required to teach in English. There is much English spoken but as a survey of students at the University of the Balearic Islands revealed in 2010, two-thirds of these students admitted to not understanding English.
This failure is not unique to the Balearics. A professor from the University of Navarre pointed out not so long ago that great numbers of Spanish pupils, despite being taught English (as opposed to being taught in English), were leaving school still not able to speak English to any decent level.
The Balearic Government is right to try and confront the issue but it has gone about it in a wholly unsatisfactory manner. It wants trilingual revolution but will end up with a different type of revolution. It is already facing one. The revolt of teachers against the TIL scheme. The government has used the introduction of trilingualism to shield its antipathy towards Catalan and has so insisted on revolution as a fast-track device to bring Catalan to heel. This is the ideology. One that is wrapped up as securing the future of the children of the Balearics, or so the president would have everyone believe.
The teachers are using the same ideology but in reverse. They are aghast at the potential for Catalan to be undermined, but in their defence they do also appreciate, far better than the government, the pedagogical problems raised by trilingualism. But because the teachers (their unions at any rate) are a bunch of lefty, Catalanist agitators, the government has ignored them. And it was this disregard which led the Balearics High Court to tell the government that its procedure for scheduling the implementation of TIL was wrong. The government had not consulted properly, just as, only hours after the court's decision, it revealed it had not consulted at all in magicking up some decree to permit TIL to go ahead as of this Friday.
The principle of TIL is not wrong but the implementation is totally wrong. Blind dogma has led the government down a path towards chaos in the classrooms, chaos that will be even greater if PSOE were to return to power in 2015 and scrap TIL (they have said they will). The government, far from taking measures to improve educational performance, has adopted one that will worsen it.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, September 08, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - And two more falls in Magalluf
They're coming thick and fast. Yesterday morning at around 4am there were two incidents in Magalluf involving tourists falling from a balcony or down stairs which occurred almost simultaneously and at the same apartments complex on the Avenida s'Olivera. Neither has been identified. Both were taken to Son Espases, one having been injured fairly seriously, the other one less so.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.30am): 21C
Forecast high: 30C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southeast 3 to 4 easing East and Northeast 2 to 3 by the afternoon.
Rain. Not looking like it will be a particularly good Sunday, and unsettled weather forecast through the week with further possible showers and temperatures falling a touch.
Evening update (18.45): A high of 30.1C on a day mainly of cloud and occasional sun. Rain abated in the morning but heavy weather is coming this way. Storm alert from midnight tomorrow.
Thieves Like Us: Madrid's failed Olympic bid
Third time is not always lucky. The tears of those gathered at Madrid's Puerta de Alcalá told us that the luck had run out. In truth, it had never started. Luck does not play a part in the decision-making of the International Olympic Committee. More than luck had been needed.
Third time. Try, try, try again, and it might have been assumed that it would have been third time lucky. It had been close before, hadn't it. Last year's Olympics could have been held in Madrid if it hadn't been for ... . Hadn't been for what is now lost in the mists of Olympic politicking and prime ministerial intervention in Singapore. Possibly. It doesn't matter what happened eight years ago. Buenos Aires 2013 was what mattered. This was Madrid's time. But it wasn't.
"Disappointment." This was the word that headed the news reports as soon as Madrid was eliminated. It had been thought that Madrid was the favourite, the potential gold medallist. Disappointment in Spanish is "decepción". It is a false friend for English speakers. It doesn't mean what it seems. But it could mean what it seems. The deception of expectation. Of belief. Of hope. Of the presence of Prince Felipe. Of Mariano Rajoy. Of thousands by the Puerta de Alcalá. It was all a deception, one cruelly made by the tie for the first elimination and the resultant tie-breaker. Bronze medal for Madrid. But no bronze medal. There is no medal for coming third and for missing out for the third time. The dream was over.
Dream for some but not for others. Spanish sportspeople, among them Mallorca's Sete Benavides, expressed what was more than disappointment. There was anger. But opinion polls, rapidly taken via websites, suggested otherwise. A majority felt that it had not been unfair. Madrid was unlucky, but it hadn't deserved the Games.
That is unfair, though. Madrid may well have deserved the Games. It had been trying so hard for so long. Much of the infrastructure was in place, though not all. Perhaps, though, this was part of the reason for the decision going against Madrid. A new stadium on which work had stopped. All the work that needed to be done to build an Olympic Village. Seven years to do this, but maybe these counted against Madrid.
Finance was one reason. But there was another. It won't be stated, but there was. It has to do with Spain's image. Of all those projects built over the past years. Of vast amounts of money wasted. Of innumerable allegations of corruption. Create something in the name of the Olympics, and the Olympic movement, hardly one familiar with total transparency, would have worried about that image. About how projects for the Olympics would benefit whom and in what ways.
And there, in Buenos Aires, capital of the country with which Spain has sought a new Hispanic alliance against the imperialism of Great Britain but with which Spain has its disputes because of Argentinian nationalist nationalising of Repsol interests in the country, was Mariano Rajoy. Prime minister. Suspected of less than honourable dealings. Listed by Barcenas. Alleged recipient of illegal payments.
Rajoy offered a guarantee that there was political and social support for the bid. He dismissed concerns about Spain's financial capabilities. The adjustment in public finances has been better than any other advanced country, he said. And the IOC may have believed him. But they might have worried about him, as there is still good reason to worry about him. Barcenas hasn't finished yet.
Prince Felipe looked shocked. Poor Felipe. Madrid 2020 could have been his crowning glory as he will surely have assumed the crown before then. But it's that image again. Felipe, brother-in-law of Urdangarin, the accursed Urdangarin, former Olympian and in the eye of a corruption storm for so many years now.
The financing of the Games, one feels, was not the deal-breaker. Madrid was to have been an austerity Games. It would have been tough, but the IOC is aware that it is tough for whichever city stages the Olympics. The deal-breaker was not the money, other than a concern as to where the money might go and into whose pockets it might end up (which is not to say that the Turks or the Japanese aren't equally capable and so potentially culpable in this regard). It was the image. That of Spain. It was not Madrid's image so much as that of the country's. And to corruption can be added a Spanish sporting legacy of recent years, that of a rather different form of corruption - doping. The IOC takes the moral high ground when it suits the IOC to do so.
Madrid has failed. It isn't Madrid's failure, though. It is a Spanish failure. There will be recriminations. This was to have been third time lucky. Madrid was favourite. How could it possibly have failed? There need to be honest answers as to why. As one of those at the Puerta de Alcalá observed, "this is a country full of thieves; it is better not to give it to us".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Third time. Try, try, try again, and it might have been assumed that it would have been third time lucky. It had been close before, hadn't it. Last year's Olympics could have been held in Madrid if it hadn't been for ... . Hadn't been for what is now lost in the mists of Olympic politicking and prime ministerial intervention in Singapore. Possibly. It doesn't matter what happened eight years ago. Buenos Aires 2013 was what mattered. This was Madrid's time. But it wasn't.
"Disappointment." This was the word that headed the news reports as soon as Madrid was eliminated. It had been thought that Madrid was the favourite, the potential gold medallist. Disappointment in Spanish is "decepción". It is a false friend for English speakers. It doesn't mean what it seems. But it could mean what it seems. The deception of expectation. Of belief. Of hope. Of the presence of Prince Felipe. Of Mariano Rajoy. Of thousands by the Puerta de Alcalá. It was all a deception, one cruelly made by the tie for the first elimination and the resultant tie-breaker. Bronze medal for Madrid. But no bronze medal. There is no medal for coming third and for missing out for the third time. The dream was over.
Dream for some but not for others. Spanish sportspeople, among them Mallorca's Sete Benavides, expressed what was more than disappointment. There was anger. But opinion polls, rapidly taken via websites, suggested otherwise. A majority felt that it had not been unfair. Madrid was unlucky, but it hadn't deserved the Games.
That is unfair, though. Madrid may well have deserved the Games. It had been trying so hard for so long. Much of the infrastructure was in place, though not all. Perhaps, though, this was part of the reason for the decision going against Madrid. A new stadium on which work had stopped. All the work that needed to be done to build an Olympic Village. Seven years to do this, but maybe these counted against Madrid.
Finance was one reason. But there was another. It won't be stated, but there was. It has to do with Spain's image. Of all those projects built over the past years. Of vast amounts of money wasted. Of innumerable allegations of corruption. Create something in the name of the Olympics, and the Olympic movement, hardly one familiar with total transparency, would have worried about that image. About how projects for the Olympics would benefit whom and in what ways.
And there, in Buenos Aires, capital of the country with which Spain has sought a new Hispanic alliance against the imperialism of Great Britain but with which Spain has its disputes because of Argentinian nationalist nationalising of Repsol interests in the country, was Mariano Rajoy. Prime minister. Suspected of less than honourable dealings. Listed by Barcenas. Alleged recipient of illegal payments.
Rajoy offered a guarantee that there was political and social support for the bid. He dismissed concerns about Spain's financial capabilities. The adjustment in public finances has been better than any other advanced country, he said. And the IOC may have believed him. But they might have worried about him, as there is still good reason to worry about him. Barcenas hasn't finished yet.
Prince Felipe looked shocked. Poor Felipe. Madrid 2020 could have been his crowning glory as he will surely have assumed the crown before then. But it's that image again. Felipe, brother-in-law of Urdangarin, the accursed Urdangarin, former Olympian and in the eye of a corruption storm for so many years now.
The financing of the Games, one feels, was not the deal-breaker. Madrid was to have been an austerity Games. It would have been tough, but the IOC is aware that it is tough for whichever city stages the Olympics. The deal-breaker was not the money, other than a concern as to where the money might go and into whose pockets it might end up (which is not to say that the Turks or the Japanese aren't equally capable and so potentially culpable in this regard). It was the image. That of Spain. It was not Madrid's image so much as that of the country's. And to corruption can be added a Spanish sporting legacy of recent years, that of a rather different form of corruption - doping. The IOC takes the moral high ground when it suits the IOC to do so.
Madrid has failed. It isn't Madrid's failure, though. It is a Spanish failure. There will be recriminations. This was to have been third time lucky. Madrid was favourite. How could it possibly have failed? There need to be honest answers as to why. As one of those at the Puerta de Alcalá observed, "this is a country full of thieves; it is better not to give it to us".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, September 07, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Moreno double gives Mallorca first points of the season
Real Mallorca 2 : 1 Alcorcón
Striker Gerard Moreno, on a season-long loan from Villarreal, scored twice to give Real Mallorca their first win and first points of the season at home to the leaders of Liga Adelante, Alcorcón. There was a symmetry with Moreno's goals; the first came after nine minutes of the match and the second after nine minutes of the second half. An error by Alcorcón keeper Giménez had gifted Moreno his second, and Mallorca's Miño reciprocated this goalie generosity in the 87th minute, Verdés pegging one back, shortly after Moreno had the chance of a hat-trick. A win for Mallorca, though, and a further plus point was that all the team for once stayed on the pitch and there were no red cards.
Striker Gerard Moreno, on a season-long loan from Villarreal, scored twice to give Real Mallorca their first win and first points of the season at home to the leaders of Liga Adelante, Alcorcón. There was a symmetry with Moreno's goals; the first came after nine minutes of the match and the second after nine minutes of the second half. An error by Alcorcón keeper Giménez had gifted Moreno his second, and Mallorca's Miño reciprocated this goalie generosity in the 87th minute, Verdés pegging one back, shortly after Moreno had the chance of a hat-trick. A win for Mallorca, though, and a further plus point was that all the team for once stayed on the pitch and there were no red cards.
MALLORCA TODAY - Another British tourist falls from a Magalluf balcony
An 18-year-old British holidaymaker who fell from the third floor of apartments on the Avenida Magalluf appears to have escaped lightly, suffering a broken arm and other injuries. He was conscious when emergency crews arrived on the scene at around 5am yesterday morning.
MALLORCA TODAY - Balearics health service third worst in Spain
According to an opinion poll of patients and a survey of indicators such as waiting lists, the Balearics have the third worst health service of the regions of Spain, level in terms of deficiencies with Murcia and underperformed only by the Canaries and Valencia. The rating given to the Balearics represents a fall of two positions compared with the previous survey.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.45am): 22C
Forecast high: 30C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): South 2 to 3 and temporarily Southeast 4 during the morning. Possible shower.
Another bright morning but may well get rather cloudy later on, this cloud lingering into tomorrow and next week. Bad weather on the mainland for today appears to be going north of Mallorca today and tomorrow.
Evening update (19.15): Pretty steamy, a high of 29.7C. Cloud most of the day, a few spits of rain.
Another Fine Mess: Balearics' trilingualism
The Balearics High Court did indeed move swiftly in responding to the call from unions to suspend the introduction of TIL ("tratamiento integrado de lenguas") and so prevent it from being applied from the start of the new school year. The court agreed with the unions, who had argued that the Balearic Government had not consulted in the way that it should have done in finalising the legislation that enacted the implementation of TIL (trilingualism) in June this year. The court considered that the appendix to the bill which set out the schedule for implementation amounted to a "fraud" in that relevant educational bodies were not involved in the scheduling decision.
The court's decision was made around midday yesterday. By late afternoon, the government announced that an extraordinary meeting of the government's council had ratified an amendment which annulled the offending appendix. The minister for education, Joana Maria Camps, explained that the problem had all been one of a procedural error but that it was one which had no political consequences as it was the type of slip-up any government administration could make.
Yes, she really did say this. Now, having realised that there had been a cock-up and having been told that there had been by the high court, the government has merely removed the appendix from the bill, said that consultation didn't matter anyway and that, as the court had only said that the scheduling was wrong, will still go full speed ahead with implementation minus any scheduling apart from that which will involve TIL being brought in at the start of the school year. The court did not consider that the principle of TIL was at fault, just the procedure.
If you are lost by the legal logic of all this, then you are not the only one. But regardless of this logic or absence of logic, the children of the Balearics will, as from 13 September (and then 16 September, which is when the school year really gets underway) be taught in three languages - Catalan, Castellano and English; those children to whom TIL applies, as it doesn't apply at all levels.
Whether this teaching does in fact start on time will depend on the unions, of which there is more than one, in addition to the assembly of teachers on the Balearics. It overwhelmingly called for strike action against the introduction of TIL. There has been some union movement to hold back on strikes because of a question raised as to its legality (a question mainly asked by the right-wing Balearics Institute for Family Policy), but this in itself has raised accusations that the government is acting in a "dictatorial" fashion in applying legal interpretations that wouldn't normally be applied to the notification of strike action.
One of the unions, STEI-i, believes that there has been "dictatorial" behaviour by the government in the way in which it has circumvented the High Court's decision, and all unions and the opposition PSOE party are in agreement that the government has acted in a unilateral fashion in not having come out and engaged in a full and proper debate over the past few months.
PSOE has called for all the leading politicians at the education ministry to resign or to be dismissed, which of course won't happen, and for President Bauzá to come and front up in public about the whole affair. Not untypically for political leaders in Spain (think Rajoy for example), Bauzá just melts into the background when the heat is on. Instead, he leaves the spin and the explanations to the unfortunate Joana María Camps; unfortunate because she is clearly out of her depth. It should be remembered that she only became education minister a few months ago when the previous minister, Rafael Bosch, lost his job in a cabinet re-shuffle. Bosch lost his job because he was not a fanatical proponent of linguistic policy that might undermine Catalan (and the fuss about TIL has less to do with English being brought in than with Catalan being downgraded). Camps was parachuted in because she would do she was told, even if she has little idea what she is doing.
The chances are that the new school year will witness total chaos and that the chaos will last. Who in all of this is most to blame? Both government and teachers. The government because of its mismanagement of its own policy and the teachers, who are just too obstinate to accept a system which might actually be of educational value.
It is a total mess, and the underperforming public education system in the Balearics is about to become more underperforming. It can't be anything else if the teachers are on strike.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The court's decision was made around midday yesterday. By late afternoon, the government announced that an extraordinary meeting of the government's council had ratified an amendment which annulled the offending appendix. The minister for education, Joana Maria Camps, explained that the problem had all been one of a procedural error but that it was one which had no political consequences as it was the type of slip-up any government administration could make.
Yes, she really did say this. Now, having realised that there had been a cock-up and having been told that there had been by the high court, the government has merely removed the appendix from the bill, said that consultation didn't matter anyway and that, as the court had only said that the scheduling was wrong, will still go full speed ahead with implementation minus any scheduling apart from that which will involve TIL being brought in at the start of the school year. The court did not consider that the principle of TIL was at fault, just the procedure.
If you are lost by the legal logic of all this, then you are not the only one. But regardless of this logic or absence of logic, the children of the Balearics will, as from 13 September (and then 16 September, which is when the school year really gets underway) be taught in three languages - Catalan, Castellano and English; those children to whom TIL applies, as it doesn't apply at all levels.
Whether this teaching does in fact start on time will depend on the unions, of which there is more than one, in addition to the assembly of teachers on the Balearics. It overwhelmingly called for strike action against the introduction of TIL. There has been some union movement to hold back on strikes because of a question raised as to its legality (a question mainly asked by the right-wing Balearics Institute for Family Policy), but this in itself has raised accusations that the government is acting in a "dictatorial" fashion in applying legal interpretations that wouldn't normally be applied to the notification of strike action.
One of the unions, STEI-i, believes that there has been "dictatorial" behaviour by the government in the way in which it has circumvented the High Court's decision, and all unions and the opposition PSOE party are in agreement that the government has acted in a unilateral fashion in not having come out and engaged in a full and proper debate over the past few months.
PSOE has called for all the leading politicians at the education ministry to resign or to be dismissed, which of course won't happen, and for President Bauzá to come and front up in public about the whole affair. Not untypically for political leaders in Spain (think Rajoy for example), Bauzá just melts into the background when the heat is on. Instead, he leaves the spin and the explanations to the unfortunate Joana María Camps; unfortunate because she is clearly out of her depth. It should be remembered that she only became education minister a few months ago when the previous minister, Rafael Bosch, lost his job in a cabinet re-shuffle. Bosch lost his job because he was not a fanatical proponent of linguistic policy that might undermine Catalan (and the fuss about TIL has less to do with English being brought in than with Catalan being downgraded). Camps was parachuted in because she would do she was told, even if she has little idea what she is doing.
The chances are that the new school year will witness total chaos and that the chaos will last. Who in all of this is most to blame? Both government and teachers. The government because of its mismanagement of its own policy and the teachers, who are just too obstinate to accept a system which might actually be of educational value.
It is a total mess, and the underperforming public education system in the Balearics is about to become more underperforming. It can't be anything else if the teachers are on strike.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, September 06, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.00am): 19C
Forecast high: 30C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Variable 2 to 3, locally Northeast 3 to 4 by the afternoon.
Bright morning with the odd pocket of early mist. A nice day in prospect. The weekend is due to see a fair deal of cloud at times but only a small risk of a shower.
Evening update (18.30): A high of 30.7C on a sunny day. There is a threat of storms coming in later in the weekend, though the met office map shows these to be more likely in Menorca. There is no alert, as yet, for parts of Mallorca, though there is some pretty heavy weather due in the north-east of the mainland tomorrow.
The Best Little Whorehouse In Muro
Burt Reynolds played Sheriff Ed Earl. Dolly Parton was Miss Mona. The brothel was known as the Chicken Ranch. It was the best little whorehouse in Texas. It was illegal, but because Burt and Dolly (Ed and Mona) had a thing going on, Ed took no notice. Mona ran the Chicken Ranch.
In Muro there is a finca house called La Barraca. It doesn't mean Chicken Ranch. It means barrack, or it can also mean shack. Chicken Shack perhaps. There aren't, as a rule, people called Ed or Mona or Burt or Dolly in Muro. (Actually, Dolly, as in Dolores, I'll give you.) There isn't a town sheriff as such, though there is a mayor. He's called Martí. He isn't played by Burt Reynolds.
Martí doesn't know what goes on at Chicken Shack. There is no record of a commercial activity registered there, he says. Neighbours reckon they know what goes on. Cars come and go at night. There is a business card. It has a photo of a horse mounting another horse. Chicken Shack isn't a stables though.
The Chicken Shack opened - if opened is the right word, because there is of course no record of a business there - on the day of Santa Margalida. Very religious. In the short time that it has been "open", there have been inspections and even a visit from the marshals of the Guardia Civil. A neighbour had complained. Despite these inspections and visit, Martí still says that it has not been possible to confirm what, if any, business activity is going on at Chicken Shack. But the deputies have been instructed to keep a lookout.
Even if the local politicians are saying nothing or saying very little, neighbours along the "camino" Ses Barraquetes (little shacks) are speaking of little else other than the whorehouse. Neighbours on the street called Organist Rafel Femenías are speaking of little else other than an increase in traffic and in incidents. They would like there to be some signposting. Drivers are driving around not sure where they should be going. To find Chicken Shack, one presumes.
It is doubtful there will be any signs, but for those drivers who might be experiencing some difficulty in locating the brothel (alleged brothel), reports have been quite helpful. Head out on a rural road in the direction of the sewage plant. Somewhere out there is the best little whorehouse in Muro. But not according to the mayor.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
In Muro there is a finca house called La Barraca. It doesn't mean Chicken Ranch. It means barrack, or it can also mean shack. Chicken Shack perhaps. There aren't, as a rule, people called Ed or Mona or Burt or Dolly in Muro. (Actually, Dolly, as in Dolores, I'll give you.) There isn't a town sheriff as such, though there is a mayor. He's called Martí. He isn't played by Burt Reynolds.
Martí doesn't know what goes on at Chicken Shack. There is no record of a commercial activity registered there, he says. Neighbours reckon they know what goes on. Cars come and go at night. There is a business card. It has a photo of a horse mounting another horse. Chicken Shack isn't a stables though.
The Chicken Shack opened - if opened is the right word, because there is of course no record of a business there - on the day of Santa Margalida. Very religious. In the short time that it has been "open", there have been inspections and even a visit from the marshals of the Guardia Civil. A neighbour had complained. Despite these inspections and visit, Martí still says that it has not been possible to confirm what, if any, business activity is going on at Chicken Shack. But the deputies have been instructed to keep a lookout.
Even if the local politicians are saying nothing or saying very little, neighbours along the "camino" Ses Barraquetes (little shacks) are speaking of little else other than the whorehouse. Neighbours on the street called Organist Rafel Femenías are speaking of little else other than an increase in traffic and in incidents. They would like there to be some signposting. Drivers are driving around not sure where they should be going. To find Chicken Shack, one presumes.
It is doubtful there will be any signs, but for those drivers who might be experiencing some difficulty in locating the brothel (alleged brothel), reports have been quite helpful. Head out on a rural road in the direction of the sewage plant. Somewhere out there is the best little whorehouse in Muro. But not according to the mayor.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, September 05, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Cala Carbó owners will get lower compensation than demanded
The Balearics High Court has set a figure of 22.5 million euros as compensation to owners in Cala Carbó (Cala San Vicente) who were unable to develop land once a law of 2008 was introduced. 29 million had been demanded.
The High Court has thrown out a claim for compensation of 107 million euros by the company Ullal Parc Natural Apartaments S.L. which had been laid because the company believed that under land plans in Pollensa the development in Cala Carbó would switch to the area of Ullal in Puerto Pollensa.
See more: ARA Balears
The High Court has thrown out a claim for compensation of 107 million euros by the company Ullal Parc Natural Apartaments S.L. which had been laid because the company believed that under land plans in Pollensa the development in Cala Carbó would switch to the area of Ullal in Puerto Pollensa.
See more: ARA Balears
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (9.00am): 21.5C
Forecast high: 30C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): East and Northeast 3 to 4 easing to Variable 2 by the evening.
Sunny morning, clear skies, and another good day in prospect. Looking ahead to the weekend, Saturday may well be mostly cloudy with an improvement on Sunday. Temperatures falling slightly into next week.
Evening update (19.45): A high of 28C.
Supermarket Sweep And The Costs Of Education
Four years ago the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) in the Balearics was given school material to the value of 11,310 euros. This donation formed part of a benefit "return to school" campaign in which the Cruz Roja was also able to put out tables to receive personal donations of school materials, which were destined to go to hard-up families. These different donations were arranged by the charitable foundation operated by the Carrefour supermarket chain.
Last week, SAT, the Andalusian Workers' Union, organised a "raid" on a Carrefour supermarket in Seville. Activists swept through the store, lifting school materials that were to be given to families in need and which were said to have been worth around 2,000 euros. The union has asked the store to treat this haul of school materials as a donation.
Whether the store agrees or doesn't agree and so whether charges will be pressed or aren't pressed, SAT's act (and it is not the first time it has arranged such a raid on a store) was theft. Robin Hood it may have been, but it was still shoplifting.
One can appreciate that the raid was a spectacular way of drawing attention to the plight of needy families, and much though one might sympathise with these needy families and even with the action taken by SAT, it cannot be condoned. If it were to be, then what?
Carrefour in the Balearics showed four years ago that help can be arranged via normal charitable means. It didn't have to arrange such help and nor does it have to now. Retailers are not the cause of financial hardship, but they are in its frontline. SAT's raids earlier this year bagged food and other staple items that were intended for distribution to NGOs for their ultimate distribution to the needy. The NGOs, just like Carrefour, were placed in a very awkward position. Apart from anything else, they would have been liable for handling stolen goods. SAT's spectaculars are counterproductive, as they alienate the very organisations who shouldn't be alienated when it comes to helping the needy, and these include large retailers with charitable divisions.
There have been no raids of this type in Mallorca, but the fact that Carrefour was organising charitable acts demonstrated that economic crisis had made things difficult for families in the Balearics who were faced by the costs of their childrens' education. Four years on, things are more difficult.
The increase in IVA (VAT) last September meant that school materials were to attract 21% tax where they had only been taxed at 4% (books were kept at the 4% rate but other educational materials rose by 17%). Because the increase was well publicised, purchases could be made before the increase kicked in, but that was last year. Now, in addition to more expensive school materials, families in the Balearics face another additional cost, that of books in English to meet the demands of TIL (the "tratamiento integrado de lenguas"), which is the decree for trilingual education, meaning that certain classes will be taught in English. These books are more expensive than those in Castellano, in some instances by almost ten euros.
Consumer groups have estimated that the cost of this year's return to school will in any event rise by up to 3%. In itself this might not seem that burdensome, but household budgets, squeezed as they are, don't need further costs for textbooks in English as well.
The introduction of TIL seems to have overlooked the fact that families will have to spend more, just as it has overlooked some other factors, such as how ill-prepared some schools are to meet its demands. The Balearics High Court is going to have to move swiftly in making a decision whether to back a suspension to the implementation of TIL, as called for by unions which maintain that there has been insufficient time to prepare; the new school year starts on 13 September. Two unions have already announced that teachers will strike from that date.
The Balearic Government says that there is no "Plan B" if the TIL implementation is suspended. Whether it is suspended or not, the new school year, only a matter of a few days away, is likely to be chaotic.
I have in the past drawn attention to how news reports of this new school year are typified by announcements that the return to school has been "normal". I have often wondered what might constitute an abnormal return to school. It may be that, in Mallorca, I am about to find out. Meanwhile in Andalusia, the return to school is marked by raids on supermarkets.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Last week, SAT, the Andalusian Workers' Union, organised a "raid" on a Carrefour supermarket in Seville. Activists swept through the store, lifting school materials that were to be given to families in need and which were said to have been worth around 2,000 euros. The union has asked the store to treat this haul of school materials as a donation.
Whether the store agrees or doesn't agree and so whether charges will be pressed or aren't pressed, SAT's act (and it is not the first time it has arranged such a raid on a store) was theft. Robin Hood it may have been, but it was still shoplifting.
One can appreciate that the raid was a spectacular way of drawing attention to the plight of needy families, and much though one might sympathise with these needy families and even with the action taken by SAT, it cannot be condoned. If it were to be, then what?
Carrefour in the Balearics showed four years ago that help can be arranged via normal charitable means. It didn't have to arrange such help and nor does it have to now. Retailers are not the cause of financial hardship, but they are in its frontline. SAT's raids earlier this year bagged food and other staple items that were intended for distribution to NGOs for their ultimate distribution to the needy. The NGOs, just like Carrefour, were placed in a very awkward position. Apart from anything else, they would have been liable for handling stolen goods. SAT's spectaculars are counterproductive, as they alienate the very organisations who shouldn't be alienated when it comes to helping the needy, and these include large retailers with charitable divisions.
There have been no raids of this type in Mallorca, but the fact that Carrefour was organising charitable acts demonstrated that economic crisis had made things difficult for families in the Balearics who were faced by the costs of their childrens' education. Four years on, things are more difficult.
The increase in IVA (VAT) last September meant that school materials were to attract 21% tax where they had only been taxed at 4% (books were kept at the 4% rate but other educational materials rose by 17%). Because the increase was well publicised, purchases could be made before the increase kicked in, but that was last year. Now, in addition to more expensive school materials, families in the Balearics face another additional cost, that of books in English to meet the demands of TIL (the "tratamiento integrado de lenguas"), which is the decree for trilingual education, meaning that certain classes will be taught in English. These books are more expensive than those in Castellano, in some instances by almost ten euros.
Consumer groups have estimated that the cost of this year's return to school will in any event rise by up to 3%. In itself this might not seem that burdensome, but household budgets, squeezed as they are, don't need further costs for textbooks in English as well.
The introduction of TIL seems to have overlooked the fact that families will have to spend more, just as it has overlooked some other factors, such as how ill-prepared some schools are to meet its demands. The Balearics High Court is going to have to move swiftly in making a decision whether to back a suspension to the implementation of TIL, as called for by unions which maintain that there has been insufficient time to prepare; the new school year starts on 13 September. Two unions have already announced that teachers will strike from that date.
The Balearic Government says that there is no "Plan B" if the TIL implementation is suspended. Whether it is suspended or not, the new school year, only a matter of a few days away, is likely to be chaotic.
I have in the past drawn attention to how news reports of this new school year are typified by announcements that the return to school has been "normal". I have often wondered what might constitute an abnormal return to school. It may be that, in Mallorca, I am about to find out. Meanwhile in Andalusia, the return to school is marked by raids on supermarkets.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.45am): 22C
Forecast high: 30C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southeast 2 to 3 increasing and backing Northeast 3 to 4 by the afternoon.
Bright, fresh and dewy morning. Staying mostly fine and sunny today. Tomorrow is due to be rather cloudy with a slight risk of a shower. Into the weekend, looking reasonable and staying very warm.
Evening update (20.15): A high of 29.4C on a very pleasant day.
The Futility Of Banning: All-inclusives
There is a Facebook page entitled "BAN ALL Inclusive". It asks: "Why would anyone wish to spend there (sic) holiday in all inclusive holiday in Mallorca!!! It's beautiful here get out of the hotel and enjoy 'your' time on this beautiful island. This was the original destination for the package holiday for millions".
The page hasn't attracted a great deal of liking, which may be because it hasn't been that visible on Facebook. In terms of sentiment, however, there is little doubt that there would be a significant level of liking, but this is not the first type of all-inclusive protest page which has appeared on social media and it won't be the last.
Ban all-inclusive. Question. To whom does one address a demand for all-inclusive to be banned? Second question. Even if a Facebook page were to amass thousands of "likes", what would it achieve? The two questions tie in. A massive level of support for an all-inclusive ban would have to be demonstrated to decision-makers who matter. A talking-shop on the internet among mainly like-minded opponents of all-inclusive achieves nothing other than to reinforce these feelings of opposition.
There are other talking-shops, such as one that the Acotur business association sought to establish last year. They met (very few of them; bar owners, that is), talked for a time, realised that talk was all that would happen and did nothing more. As with talk of bans, protests, of whatever sort (and no one has ever come up with a good one) are pretty pointless.
Even with a massive amount of support for a Facebook page, a ban will never happen. It cannot happen. Just as the market drove the popularity of all-inclusive, so it would have to be the market which would drive a loss of popularity and the eventual demise of all-inclusive. One can argue that the market for all-inclusive wasn't created by customer demand, but that it is an historical argument. Today's tourism market has such demand and it shows no sign of going away or of lessening.
The only stakeholders who matter under a hypothetical all-inclusive banning scenario are those stakeholders without whom there would be no all-inclusive - holidaymakers and tour operators. Other stakeholders matter less and in ever-reducing importance - hotels, local government, town halls.
It is the tour operators who, above all, have the greatest interest. One of them, First Choice, was made into an all-inclusive brand. It was the decision to undertake this branding which inspired a BBC report into all-inclusive in Mallorca two years ago. This has had a recent mention on the Facebook page I have referred to. Its message would still apply, and it was one, as an advisor to the programme, to which I contributed.
In that programme, a First Choice executive had to respond to a question about an advertising slogan which ran - "leave your wallet at home". There was an acceptance that this might not have been the most diplomatic of slogans, but it did of course sum up how all-inclusive is often perceived. This perception is one that tour operators try to modify. They say they offer trips out to local markets and so on, they point to their environmental commitments, they highlight the ecological soundness of their establishments and of local sourcing, they refer to local employment opportunities, but none of this convinces.
Tour operators make a great deal of their social responsibility and of how this operates in destinations, but their arguments are thin. And, one would presume, because tour operators aren't stupid, they know that these arguments are thin. Social responsibility is a broad concept, and acting in a truly responsible fashion does not include transporting people hundreds or thousands of miles only for them to occupy a certain amount of real estate for a fortnight and to do little else. This is one-way parasitic tourism and not the formerly two-way symbiosis between hotel and local community and economy. Its ethics are highly questionable.
To whom are tour operators responsible? Ultimately, to themselves and to their shareholders. Yet, for all that tour operators might be seen as the devil of the piece, they are not alone. Mallorca as a tourist destination is equally at fault.
The Facebook page inadvertently alluded to why Mallorca is at fault. "The original destination for the package holiday for millions." Exactly. And it was the destination for masses because of its cheapness. The island's tourism model is and was, from the 1960s, predicated on mass, but once the real cheapness of early years started to be replaced by less cheapness, by a more questioning approach to spending by tourists, to monetary union and to simple economics, keeping hold of the mass required the introduction of a package which promised or at least hinted at cheapness. And that was the all-inclusive: "leave your wallet at home".
You can't ban all-inclusive because it is the logical outcome of the tourism model. You can't ban it unless that model changes, and that will not happen. Just as a ban will never happen.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The page hasn't attracted a great deal of liking, which may be because it hasn't been that visible on Facebook. In terms of sentiment, however, there is little doubt that there would be a significant level of liking, but this is not the first type of all-inclusive protest page which has appeared on social media and it won't be the last.
Ban all-inclusive. Question. To whom does one address a demand for all-inclusive to be banned? Second question. Even if a Facebook page were to amass thousands of "likes", what would it achieve? The two questions tie in. A massive level of support for an all-inclusive ban would have to be demonstrated to decision-makers who matter. A talking-shop on the internet among mainly like-minded opponents of all-inclusive achieves nothing other than to reinforce these feelings of opposition.
There are other talking-shops, such as one that the Acotur business association sought to establish last year. They met (very few of them; bar owners, that is), talked for a time, realised that talk was all that would happen and did nothing more. As with talk of bans, protests, of whatever sort (and no one has ever come up with a good one) are pretty pointless.
Even with a massive amount of support for a Facebook page, a ban will never happen. It cannot happen. Just as the market drove the popularity of all-inclusive, so it would have to be the market which would drive a loss of popularity and the eventual demise of all-inclusive. One can argue that the market for all-inclusive wasn't created by customer demand, but that it is an historical argument. Today's tourism market has such demand and it shows no sign of going away or of lessening.
The only stakeholders who matter under a hypothetical all-inclusive banning scenario are those stakeholders without whom there would be no all-inclusive - holidaymakers and tour operators. Other stakeholders matter less and in ever-reducing importance - hotels, local government, town halls.
It is the tour operators who, above all, have the greatest interest. One of them, First Choice, was made into an all-inclusive brand. It was the decision to undertake this branding which inspired a BBC report into all-inclusive in Mallorca two years ago. This has had a recent mention on the Facebook page I have referred to. Its message would still apply, and it was one, as an advisor to the programme, to which I contributed.
In that programme, a First Choice executive had to respond to a question about an advertising slogan which ran - "leave your wallet at home". There was an acceptance that this might not have been the most diplomatic of slogans, but it did of course sum up how all-inclusive is often perceived. This perception is one that tour operators try to modify. They say they offer trips out to local markets and so on, they point to their environmental commitments, they highlight the ecological soundness of their establishments and of local sourcing, they refer to local employment opportunities, but none of this convinces.
Tour operators make a great deal of their social responsibility and of how this operates in destinations, but their arguments are thin. And, one would presume, because tour operators aren't stupid, they know that these arguments are thin. Social responsibility is a broad concept, and acting in a truly responsible fashion does not include transporting people hundreds or thousands of miles only for them to occupy a certain amount of real estate for a fortnight and to do little else. This is one-way parasitic tourism and not the formerly two-way symbiosis between hotel and local community and economy. Its ethics are highly questionable.
To whom are tour operators responsible? Ultimately, to themselves and to their shareholders. Yet, for all that tour operators might be seen as the devil of the piece, they are not alone. Mallorca as a tourist destination is equally at fault.
The Facebook page inadvertently alluded to why Mallorca is at fault. "The original destination for the package holiday for millions." Exactly. And it was the destination for masses because of its cheapness. The island's tourism model is and was, from the 1960s, predicated on mass, but once the real cheapness of early years started to be replaced by less cheapness, by a more questioning approach to spending by tourists, to monetary union and to simple economics, keeping hold of the mass required the introduction of a package which promised or at least hinted at cheapness. And that was the all-inclusive: "leave your wallet at home".
You can't ban all-inclusive because it is the logical outcome of the tourism model. You can't ban it unless that model changes, and that will not happen. Just as a ban will never happen.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, September 03, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (7.30am): 22.5C
Forecast high: 30C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northwest 3 to 4 easing Variable 2 to 3 during the morning and increasing East 3 to 4 during the afternoon.
Some cloud but mostly clear skies and should be a decent day with plenty of hot sunshine. The temperatures destined to decrease a bit by the weekend.
Evening update (19.15): A high of 28.8C on what has been a pretty decent day.
The Sun Never Shines On Solar Energy
Between 2006 and 2008, almost 30,000 solar farms were built across Spain. They were the eco-friendly symbols of a renewable-energy policy that made Spain the second largest producer of solar power in the world and they were facilitated by subsidies and the anticipation of spectacular returns on investment. By 2009, police authorities, public prosecutors and investigating judges were reaping their own rewards from Spain's solar boom; they were gainfully employed in pursuing cases of "eco-corruption".
The boom was also fuelled by the issuing of licences to both build the farms and to connect to the grid system. Land where connection points were to be created to dump solar energy into the grid became highly sought after, as was the information as to where these connection points would be. Trafficking in licences resulted as did the trafficking of money; a bent construction industry was able to launder illegal earnings into this new boom market and to look forward to even greater earnings in the process.
At the end of 2010, the Spanish Government stated its intention to attack the so-called "tariff deficit", which is the debt incurred from the cost of running the nation's electricity system relative to revenues from the sale of energy. The government wished to do so in order to be able to cut consumers' energy bills by 2013. In May this year, the tariff deficit stood at 26 billion euros. At the end of 2010, the deficit was said to have been 14.6 billion euros.
An economic fiasco brought about by the apparently benign intention to develop clean, green energy was being forecast even before prosecutors started to dig into corrupt practices by public officials and construction companies eyeing up more than just nice little earners from solar. The Zapatero administration was being fingered for its economically unsustainable but ecologically idealistic policies. Subsidies in the form of the premiums paid for solar-generated electricity outstripped by ten times the payments for conventionally supplied energy. Though the Zapatero government decided to cut revenues earned by photovoltaic plants by 30% at the back end of 2010 (thus delivering a blow to the renewables industry and its own green policy), subsidies did not end. They have continued under the current government.
If government policy was already well under scrutiny before "eco-corruption" reared its ugly head, less attention was paid to the private sector and in particular to the role of the banks. As with other construction projects, the banks started to chuck money around to speculators. Spanish financial institutions are said to be in for some 20 billion euros worth of loans to renewables projects.
The banking system, still attempting to right itself from the fallout of debt toxicity brought about by its zealous funding of the construction boom and by cheap and unsupportable loans, now faces a further potential crisis - that of default by solar companies which will have subsidies slashed. Tackling the tariff deficit is one aim, another is to cut the amount of solar power that is generated - its capacity exceeds demand by 60%.
In the Balearics, there was a scheme by which the regional government was issuing grants of up to 30% of the cost of renewable-energy installations by householders. The period for applications for these grants ended in January last year. By this time, national government was already putting in place plans to tackle the deficit and excess solar capacity, part of which came from householders' own excess energy being sold to producers.
Such sales will now stop. But more than just stop paying householders to help supply the electricity system, these same householders will, under new laws, be obliged to connect solar panels to the grid. Why? In order to tax the use of solar panels. The result will be that it will become more expensive for households to use solar than to take from conventional energy supplies. And if consumers don't hook their panels up, they will be liable to fines running into the millions.
The absurdity of the situation beggars belief. Legal challenges are bound to result and they may include those in the Balearics, where there was the recent incentive scheme which now turns out to be all but worthless. It is a situation that has come about because of the government's desperate need to cut the tariff deficit, one that it, and not consumers, caused and because of governmental idealism that wished to use an energy supply that is available in such abundance. The sun always shines except when the government decrees that it shouldn't. Utter madness.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The boom was also fuelled by the issuing of licences to both build the farms and to connect to the grid system. Land where connection points were to be created to dump solar energy into the grid became highly sought after, as was the information as to where these connection points would be. Trafficking in licences resulted as did the trafficking of money; a bent construction industry was able to launder illegal earnings into this new boom market and to look forward to even greater earnings in the process.
At the end of 2010, the Spanish Government stated its intention to attack the so-called "tariff deficit", which is the debt incurred from the cost of running the nation's electricity system relative to revenues from the sale of energy. The government wished to do so in order to be able to cut consumers' energy bills by 2013. In May this year, the tariff deficit stood at 26 billion euros. At the end of 2010, the deficit was said to have been 14.6 billion euros.
An economic fiasco brought about by the apparently benign intention to develop clean, green energy was being forecast even before prosecutors started to dig into corrupt practices by public officials and construction companies eyeing up more than just nice little earners from solar. The Zapatero administration was being fingered for its economically unsustainable but ecologically idealistic policies. Subsidies in the form of the premiums paid for solar-generated electricity outstripped by ten times the payments for conventionally supplied energy. Though the Zapatero government decided to cut revenues earned by photovoltaic plants by 30% at the back end of 2010 (thus delivering a blow to the renewables industry and its own green policy), subsidies did not end. They have continued under the current government.
If government policy was already well under scrutiny before "eco-corruption" reared its ugly head, less attention was paid to the private sector and in particular to the role of the banks. As with other construction projects, the banks started to chuck money around to speculators. Spanish financial institutions are said to be in for some 20 billion euros worth of loans to renewables projects.
The banking system, still attempting to right itself from the fallout of debt toxicity brought about by its zealous funding of the construction boom and by cheap and unsupportable loans, now faces a further potential crisis - that of default by solar companies which will have subsidies slashed. Tackling the tariff deficit is one aim, another is to cut the amount of solar power that is generated - its capacity exceeds demand by 60%.
In the Balearics, there was a scheme by which the regional government was issuing grants of up to 30% of the cost of renewable-energy installations by householders. The period for applications for these grants ended in January last year. By this time, national government was already putting in place plans to tackle the deficit and excess solar capacity, part of which came from householders' own excess energy being sold to producers.
Such sales will now stop. But more than just stop paying householders to help supply the electricity system, these same householders will, under new laws, be obliged to connect solar panels to the grid. Why? In order to tax the use of solar panels. The result will be that it will become more expensive for households to use solar than to take from conventional energy supplies. And if consumers don't hook their panels up, they will be liable to fines running into the millions.
The absurdity of the situation beggars belief. Legal challenges are bound to result and they may include those in the Balearics, where there was the recent incentive scheme which now turns out to be all but worthless. It is a situation that has come about because of the government's desperate need to cut the tariff deficit, one that it, and not consumers, caused and because of governmental idealism that wished to use an energy supply that is available in such abundance. The sun always shines except when the government decrees that it shouldn't. Utter madness.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, September 02, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Two more deaths after falls in Magalluf
Police are investigating the deaths of two tourists, both believed to be British and in their early twenties, in Magalluf yesterday morning. One young man was found on a patio at the Dolphin building off Punta Ballena and the second fell from a balcony at the Mallorca Rocks hotel.
Update: The victim of the fall at the Dolphin building is still believed to be British. He fell eight metres on to the roof of a bar, which appears to have been Lennon's. He was wearing a wristband from a hotel elsewhere in Magalluf. The victim at Mallorca Rocks is now said to be Italian and to have fallen down a stairwell.
Update: The Dolphin building victim is now said to be German.
See more: Ultima Hora
Update: The victim of the fall at the Dolphin building is still believed to be British. He fell eight metres on to the roof of a bar, which appears to have been Lennon's. He was wearing a wristband from a hotel elsewhere in Magalluf. The victim at Mallorca Rocks is now said to be Italian and to have fallen down a stairwell.
Update: The Dolphin building victim is now said to be German.
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - German businessman dies after violent attempted robbery in Sa Coma
A German businessman, Rainer Völker, aged 65, has died following an attempted robbery at his flat in Sa Coma. The victim was subjected to what amounted to torture and appears to have died through suffocation after a 15-hour ordeal which left his wife in hospital after she endured a severe beating. Their attackers, disguised in black clothing with their faces covered, seemed to know what they were looking for. Herr Völker had sold his restaurant for 300,000 euros, but a part of this amount (probably one hundred thousand) was in black, and it was this that the attackers were after.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (9.00am): 25C
Forecast high: 30C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northeast 4 backing Northwest by the evening.
After a rather disappointing Sunday, today looks better. Some cloud due but at present it is fine and sunny. The prospects for the week are good though there may be a bit of rain cloud come the weekend.
Evening update (19.45): Nice day, a high of 29.1C. May be a build-up of cloud overnight and lingering into tomorrow.
John Major Avenue, Candeleda, Spain
The Spaniards love British politicians, don't they. Their love is reserved in particular for British prime ministers, and the greatest love of all is for Conservative British prime ministers. My, how much they loved Dave being in Puerto Pollensa last summer. They couldn't get enough of him and of his long-sleeved blue shirt and sensible shoes outside the Club Pollença when the thermometer was nudging a hundred. They lapped up his building of sandcastles on Llenaire beach. Family man Cameron, a prime minister of the people, unlike Spain's cigar-chomping misery guts.
This greatest love of all has soured slightly. Apparently there is some little local difficulty down Gibraltar way, causing some Spaniards to get the hump with Britain and with Dave. "Are you Palmerston in disguise?" they don't shout from the terraces at the Bernabéu. It would be pretty stupid if they were to. Palmerston was a political vacillator. One moment a Tory, the next moment a Liberal. Dave and Cleggy in one body, but more Cleggy than Dave once gunboat diplomacy came to top Lord P's agenda.
Love for Margaret Thatcher could never be true love once the Malvinas became a Spanish issue as well as one for the poor conscripts of the Argentinian army, but this did not prevent Madrid town hall from deciding, some days after her death, to re-name a street after her. Residents were not entirely delighted at the prospect of living in a new street and one, moreover, named after a defender of British rights to Gibraltar. "Gibraltar will always be Spanish," said one of the street's indignants, rather overlooking the fact that it hasn't been for 300 years.
But Ana Botella (Señora Bottle, wife of ex-prime minister Aznar and the lady mayor of Madrid council) stated that Mrs. T had been a great inspiration for her. So Thatcher Street it was going to be, shortly followed by further council initiatives, such as the withdrawal of free school milk, the introduction of a poll tax and a staunch defence of British rights to Gibraltar and the Falklands.
If Thatcher and Cameron have something in common in a pretence that Britain is still something of an imperial power and so manage to get under the skins of Spaniards who have even less reason to suggest that Spain is still a power, then sandwiched between them is John Major, who never knowingly did anything to rile Spanish nationalism and xenophobia. Meek, mild Major. Old maids, cricket on the village green and warm beer. There is nothing offensive about Major, apart from those blue underpants. Which helps to explain why he has scored one over Maggie.
Thatcher, so opponents of Thatcher Street argued (quite reasonably), had no connection whatsoever with Madrid. Major, on the other hand, has a considerable connection with a small town somewhere in the middle of Spain that no one had heard of before its town hall unveiled a new street name on Saturday. And not just a street. A whole bloody avenue. Avenida de John Major.
Candeleda is this town. It is in the region of Castile and León and has a population of something over 5,000 people, one of whom is the former British prime minister when he is in residence there. Candedela is his "second home", he told the various dignitaries and 300 or so locals who had pitched up to witness the handing over of the ornate street sign. Another resident of the town is Tristan Garel-Jones. It was he who introduced John and Norma to Candedela. The Majors have a finca there and have seemingly made a great contribution to the town; hence, John gets his avenue.
In his avenue-naming acceptance speech, Major skirted around the main political topic of the moment. There will always be things that rise above political struggles, he noted, such as Spain's "wonderful beaches and islands", none of which are anywhere near Candeleda. But the town is, he added, "a real jewel", and one which, moreover, has an avenue which marks it down as being forever British.
The Majors have been going to Candeleda for two decades or more. It will be reassuring for all those Brit expats who have spent years studiously avoiding having to learn any Spanish to hear that Major knows not one word of Spanish. Other than "gracias". So there you are. He is a true Hispanophile, an ex-British prime minister who can't even stretch to "dos cervezas, por favor".
What a shame he doesn't have a finca in Majorca. Avenida de John Major Majorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
This greatest love of all has soured slightly. Apparently there is some little local difficulty down Gibraltar way, causing some Spaniards to get the hump with Britain and with Dave. "Are you Palmerston in disguise?" they don't shout from the terraces at the Bernabéu. It would be pretty stupid if they were to. Palmerston was a political vacillator. One moment a Tory, the next moment a Liberal. Dave and Cleggy in one body, but more Cleggy than Dave once gunboat diplomacy came to top Lord P's agenda.
Love for Margaret Thatcher could never be true love once the Malvinas became a Spanish issue as well as one for the poor conscripts of the Argentinian army, but this did not prevent Madrid town hall from deciding, some days after her death, to re-name a street after her. Residents were not entirely delighted at the prospect of living in a new street and one, moreover, named after a defender of British rights to Gibraltar. "Gibraltar will always be Spanish," said one of the street's indignants, rather overlooking the fact that it hasn't been for 300 years.
But Ana Botella (Señora Bottle, wife of ex-prime minister Aznar and the lady mayor of Madrid council) stated that Mrs. T had been a great inspiration for her. So Thatcher Street it was going to be, shortly followed by further council initiatives, such as the withdrawal of free school milk, the introduction of a poll tax and a staunch defence of British rights to Gibraltar and the Falklands.
If Thatcher and Cameron have something in common in a pretence that Britain is still something of an imperial power and so manage to get under the skins of Spaniards who have even less reason to suggest that Spain is still a power, then sandwiched between them is John Major, who never knowingly did anything to rile Spanish nationalism and xenophobia. Meek, mild Major. Old maids, cricket on the village green and warm beer. There is nothing offensive about Major, apart from those blue underpants. Which helps to explain why he has scored one over Maggie.
Thatcher, so opponents of Thatcher Street argued (quite reasonably), had no connection whatsoever with Madrid. Major, on the other hand, has a considerable connection with a small town somewhere in the middle of Spain that no one had heard of before its town hall unveiled a new street name on Saturday. And not just a street. A whole bloody avenue. Avenida de John Major.
Candeleda is this town. It is in the region of Castile and León and has a population of something over 5,000 people, one of whom is the former British prime minister when he is in residence there. Candedela is his "second home", he told the various dignitaries and 300 or so locals who had pitched up to witness the handing over of the ornate street sign. Another resident of the town is Tristan Garel-Jones. It was he who introduced John and Norma to Candedela. The Majors have a finca there and have seemingly made a great contribution to the town; hence, John gets his avenue.
In his avenue-naming acceptance speech, Major skirted around the main political topic of the moment. There will always be things that rise above political struggles, he noted, such as Spain's "wonderful beaches and islands", none of which are anywhere near Candeleda. But the town is, he added, "a real jewel", and one which, moreover, has an avenue which marks it down as being forever British.
The Majors have been going to Candeleda for two decades or more. It will be reassuring for all those Brit expats who have spent years studiously avoiding having to learn any Spanish to hear that Major knows not one word of Spanish. Other than "gracias". So there you are. He is a true Hispanophile, an ex-British prime minister who can't even stretch to "dos cervezas, por favor".
What a shame he doesn't have a finca in Majorca. Avenida de John Major Majorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, September 01, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Real Mallorca suffer third defeat
Third match of the season and the third defeat. Real Mallorca lost 3-0 this afternoon away against Sporting Gijón and ended up once more with only nine players on the pitch, Agus and Ximo both getting their marching orders, Agus being dismissed after only 14 minutes. The way things are going, Mallorca are heading for a second successive relegation.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 September 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.00am): 22.5C
Forecast high: 31C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North and 5 locally 6 during the morning. Roughness easing by the evening.
First of September and summer is still here. Sun all day should be on the cards. The outlook for the week is good until midweek when there is likely to be more cloud and a slight fall in temperature.
Evening update (19.00): Sunny all day it proved not to be. Fair amount of cloud mixed with the sun and a high of 29.2C.
When Business Growth Is Not Positive: Too many bars
Can you ever have too many bars and restaurants? If you spend your entire existence in pursuit of continuous drinking and eating, then maybe not, though even if you are an alcoholic and over-eater (normally the two are mutually exclusive), the number of hostelries is, one would have thought, immaterial.
What is the optimum number of establishments in relation to the size of a town's population? Someone may have come up with a calculation, but it is hard to see how. The criteria for deciding are too diverse. Rather than seeking an ill-defined optimum, are there just simply too many bars?
Intuitively, you would think there are. In Palma, for example, there are 3,008 establishments of varying types. One for every 135 inhabitants. Alcúdia has 257 bars, restaurants, ice-cream parlours, kiosks, what have you. One for every 70 or so people. Calvia boasts 763. In relative terms, it has the most - one for every 67 residents.
Such figures pay no attention to temporary populations - tourists, obviously - and nor do they pay attention to the periods when some bars and restaurants will be shut (for tourism reasons). Of Alcúdia's 257, how many of these are actually open all year? Half of them? When they are all open and when tourism is at its height, the equation is very different; in the order of one establishment for every 175 or so people.
An annual report into economic activity that was published in July revealed that between 2008 and 2011 the total number of bars and restaurants in Spain declined by 20%. All regions of the country registered a fall, one attributed to the impact of economic crisis. In Mallorca last year, however, the number of establishments increased dramatically by more than 15% (466 new businesses). This rise contrasted with an overall increase in the Balearics of only around 3% with both Ibiza and Formentera registering a decline.
How does one explain the increase in Mallorca? The most obvious answer is probably that of economic necessity, yet it seems perverse that so many establishments would open when the general level of consumer spending by residents of Mallorca has fallen as has spending by tourists. And where the tourism element is concerned, the onward march of all-inclusives would be, you would have thought, a deterrence to opening a new bar or café.
There may be other reasons, such as the sheer number of units that are available and which had, before crisis put a stop to much construction, meant that there was an increasing supply of units because of rules that require ground floors of apartment buildings to be reserved for commercial purposes. Another may be just simple opportunism.
Whatever the reasons, the Chamber of Commerce and other business organisations are, rather than being pleased by this growth, concerned because of the high risks involved (turnover is often no more than a few months) and because of falling standards. People are taking on establishments without having the right skills, says the head of the restaurant division of PIMEM, the small to medium-sized business association. One might add that people are taking them on without adequate finance as well and so end up in debt.
These organisations want, therefore, a system of certification to be introduced which would require a new owner to satisfy certain criteria. They also want limits introduced on the number of places, a system which applies to hotels. The tourism ministry has in fact been looking at just such a system.
The Chamber of Commerce and others are convinced that there can be such a thing as too many bars and restaurants. It is difficult to argue against the fact that there is over-supply and that there has been for years, but this over-supply has suddenly risen sharply. However, what would be done with all the units were systems of certification and place limits to come in? They would be left empty, thus giving an impression of abandonment and decline. The over-supply has been, in no small part, the consequence of stupid planning regulations which insist on commercial properties being created but for which there is too little demand and, at present, a falling demand.
Can there be too many bars and restaurants? Yes, there can be, and in Mallorca, there are.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
What is the optimum number of establishments in relation to the size of a town's population? Someone may have come up with a calculation, but it is hard to see how. The criteria for deciding are too diverse. Rather than seeking an ill-defined optimum, are there just simply too many bars?
Intuitively, you would think there are. In Palma, for example, there are 3,008 establishments of varying types. One for every 135 inhabitants. Alcúdia has 257 bars, restaurants, ice-cream parlours, kiosks, what have you. One for every 70 or so people. Calvia boasts 763. In relative terms, it has the most - one for every 67 residents.
Such figures pay no attention to temporary populations - tourists, obviously - and nor do they pay attention to the periods when some bars and restaurants will be shut (for tourism reasons). Of Alcúdia's 257, how many of these are actually open all year? Half of them? When they are all open and when tourism is at its height, the equation is very different; in the order of one establishment for every 175 or so people.
An annual report into economic activity that was published in July revealed that between 2008 and 2011 the total number of bars and restaurants in Spain declined by 20%. All regions of the country registered a fall, one attributed to the impact of economic crisis. In Mallorca last year, however, the number of establishments increased dramatically by more than 15% (466 new businesses). This rise contrasted with an overall increase in the Balearics of only around 3% with both Ibiza and Formentera registering a decline.
How does one explain the increase in Mallorca? The most obvious answer is probably that of economic necessity, yet it seems perverse that so many establishments would open when the general level of consumer spending by residents of Mallorca has fallen as has spending by tourists. And where the tourism element is concerned, the onward march of all-inclusives would be, you would have thought, a deterrence to opening a new bar or café.
There may be other reasons, such as the sheer number of units that are available and which had, before crisis put a stop to much construction, meant that there was an increasing supply of units because of rules that require ground floors of apartment buildings to be reserved for commercial purposes. Another may be just simple opportunism.
Whatever the reasons, the Chamber of Commerce and other business organisations are, rather than being pleased by this growth, concerned because of the high risks involved (turnover is often no more than a few months) and because of falling standards. People are taking on establishments without having the right skills, says the head of the restaurant division of PIMEM, the small to medium-sized business association. One might add that people are taking them on without adequate finance as well and so end up in debt.
These organisations want, therefore, a system of certification to be introduced which would require a new owner to satisfy certain criteria. They also want limits introduced on the number of places, a system which applies to hotels. The tourism ministry has in fact been looking at just such a system.
The Chamber of Commerce and others are convinced that there can be such a thing as too many bars and restaurants. It is difficult to argue against the fact that there is over-supply and that there has been for years, but this over-supply has suddenly risen sharply. However, what would be done with all the units were systems of certification and place limits to come in? They would be left empty, thus giving an impression of abandonment and decline. The over-supply has been, in no small part, the consequence of stupid planning regulations which insist on commercial properties being created but for which there is too little demand and, at present, a falling demand.
Can there be too many bars and restaurants? Yes, there can be, and in Mallorca, there are.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
