Real Jaén 2 : 1 Real Mallorca
Mallorca away at Jaén in Andalusia, Real Jaén four points behind Mallorca and hovering above the relegation area while Mallorca are just below the play-off slots (showing how tight the league is).
A bad start for Mallorca, Juanma putting Jaén ahead on seven minutes. Mallorca responded well enough but Jerez added a second for the home side after 38 minutes. Mallorca, as they have done previously this season, came out strongly in the second period, Alfaro getting one back four minutes after the break. Moreno hit a post with three minutes to go, but Mallorca were unable to get back on equal terms. Not a great result for Mallorca who fall to eleventh spot but still only one point off a play-off position.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 15 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.00am): 9C
Forecast high: 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West 2 to 3.
Mist lifting to give a sunny day. The week's forecast suggests rain coming in by Tuesday and the later part of the week looking poor with rain and the temperature down.
Evening update (20.15): A really good day with a high of 19.9C, but it's downhill for the rest of the week.
Pride And Avarice: The collapse of Eurovegas
Though avarice is addressed in The Bible, gambling is not expressly discussed. Nevertheless, and again taking guidance from writers and thinkers in such matters, it can be interpreted as being contrary to The Tenth Commandment, the one that has to do with covetousness. Moreover, it can bring on sloth, a further Deadly Sin, because it destroys the work ethic. In broader, non-religious terms, but ones nonetheless raised by theologians, gambling can be seen as bad governmental policy. It undermines morals and invites corruption**.
The Spanish newspaper "La Razón" headlined its article about the Eurovegas project in Madrid being dropped thus: "La avaracia de Adelson trunca Eurovegas". Literally, this means Sheldon Adelson's avarice truncates Eurovegas. A better verb than truncate might be sink, but whether truncated or sunk, the consequence is the same: 30 billion dollars will now not be invested in Eurovegas and complementary "integrated" resort projects in the Spanish capital.
The reason why "La Rázon" (which means "reason") has spoken about avarice is that demands which the Las Vegas Sands Corporation had made on the Spanish Government in return for its 30 billion dollar largesse were unacceptable. In financial terms, they were the payment of lower gambling taxes and guarantees of financial compensation in the event that future governments alter legislation which proves disadvantageous to the company. Even had the government been willing to consider the latter, it would have run up against a problem with Brussels. The compensation clause was a non-starter.
The demands were apparently non-negotiable and had also been introduced late on in negotiations. It seems almost inconceivable that the company wouldn't have been aware of European competition law which would have made the compensation demand impossible. Maybe it was unaware, but a conclusion that might be drawn from this demand is that the company either got cold feet about the Madrid project or saw less restriction elsewhere. Las Vegas Sands is looking at Asia as somewhere to pursue its "integrated" gambling resorts, and in Asia there might also not be a similar problem to that in Spain regarding smoking. The company had wanted the smoking ban not to apply to Eurovegas, another demand that was always going to pose a potential problem.
Or had it been the case that Las Vegas Sands would have thought that Spain was that desperate for investment that the government would simply roll over and say yes? It's doubtful. The project would have meant huge money but even Spanish governments have to abide by some rules and to be seen to be at least partially even-handed; it couldn't start making a massive exception on smoking without raising an equally massive objection from all sorts of business sectors across the country.
But, and here one comes back to the Deadly Sin, there is what avarice can inspire, i.e. a manipulation of authority. Perhaps "La Rázon" had adopted a rather more philosophical attitude to its definition than just plain material gain. The demands, it could be argued, were an attempt at manipulation. Then there is the notion that gambling can invite corruption, and here the Eurovegas story gets that bit murkier. A judge, José Manuel Gómez Benitéz, said some time ago that Eurovegas would be a "source of corruption", and let's face it, the last thing that Spain and its government need right now is any further whiff of that.
There were rights and wrongs associated with the Eurovegas project, some of the latter expressed by the Church. It may not have gone down the Deadly Sins line or even invoked The Tenth Commandment, but it is not exactly well disposed to gambling. One does have to wonder if the Church, and the ruling Partido Popular has sought to shift Spain back to more traditional Catholicism, might have been bending some ears at government level.
Even if it had, 30 billion dollars weren't to be sniffed at. Projects of such scale do not come along every day: 11 million tourists annually, most of them well-heeled you would think, 250,000 jobs. These are a lot to lose, though it had been argued that most of the jobs would have been low-paid. Maybe they would have been, but then jobs in the tourism industry tend to be low-paid; they are still jobs and they are still paid.
Las Vegas Sands may have sought to extract pounds of flesh, but one fancies there is more to the project truncation than this alone, and some of it will be on the government's side. The media will blame Sheldon Adelson and his alleged avarice, but has there been a different Deadly Sin at play? Pride perhaps.
** Kirby Anderson from https://bible.org/question/why-gambling-wrong
Photo sourced from "La Vanguardia".
Saturday, December 14, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (9.00am): 13.5C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North 2 to 3; 4 at intervals during the morning.
Touch of mist again, clearing to be mostly sunny. Staying fine for tomorrow.
Evening update (18.00): Clouded over somewhat in the afternoon. A high of 17C.
The 781-Year-Old Professor: Ramon Llull
The university, as is common with many universities, has a Chair, and a Chair, in university parlance, means a professorship. The university may have several Chairs for all I know, but it is one Chair in particular that has come to the attention of the national ministry. The Ramon Llull Chair.
Those of you who have followed my writings over the years may well remember my having mentioned Ramon Llull. He is a not unimportant person in Mallorca's history, but I have wondered about how important he is considered to be elsewhere. By which I have meant other countries. I have assumed that Llull would have been considered important and well known elsewhere in Spain, especially to someone who works for the national education and culture ministry.
Llull, in case you need reminding, was alive in mediaeval times. He was born in 1232 and died either in 1315 or 1316 (more on this below). As such therefore, it is unlikely - nay, impossible - for him to occupy the Chair at the university that is named after him. And this, the naming, gets us to the point of the story. The advisor at the ministry wanted to know what salary this Ramon Llull person was receiving. The Chair, or the director of it anyway, is in fact someone called Joan Antoni Mesquida who is also the director of Catalan philology at the university and so is not Ramon Llull, who died almost 700 years ago and who was born getting on for 800 years ago. The advisor was informed of the name of the director, and his interlocutor decided it wasn't worth spending the time trying to explain to him who Ramon Llull was. One trusts that the advisor doesn't now confuse this Joan Mesquida with the one who was once national secretary-general for tourism and national director-general for the National Police and Guardia Civil. For if he does, the hilarity factor will be raised higher.
Of course, this all been meat and drink to those of a Catalanist tendency (and even to those who aren't). It is indicative of a lack of appreciation of all things educationally and culturally Catalan by the anti-Catalanists in Madrid and those in particular in the department of national education minister José Ignacio Wert (though he, one rather suspects, would know who Ramon Llull was; or would he?).
It could be said it was a simple enough mistake, but then this could have been said of Joana Camps translating PISA into tread on. It was a mistake which shouldn't have been made, and political capital has been made out of it by the same political grouping, Més, which is bothered about the plague of Father Christmases in Porreres. Its spokesperson at the Council of Mallorca made a point of pointing out the mistake, accusing the national ministry and therefore the Partido Popular of being insensitive to Catalan cultural matters. This was done at a Council session to declare the years 2015 and 2016 as the years of Ramon Llull.
Years? Why should the old boy have more than one? Well, for a kick-off the Bishop of Mallorca had proposed some twelve months ago that there be more than one year, and it was a proposal, one imagines, to get round the arguments as to when Llull actually died. The Bishop suggested the "year" should cover two years - from November to November - which would mean from and to 27 November, which is Ramon's feast day. But the starting-point in November will be five months after when it is normally thought that Llull died. i.e. on 29 June, 1315. One says normally thought, but there is a good deal of evidence which suggests that he died quite a bit later; in 1316 in fact.
Anyway, whenever he died or didn't, he will be getting two years to his name, and one hopes that his name will become better known than it currently is, especially among advisors to the national education and culture ministry. "Hello, can I speak to Ramon Llull, please ..."
Friday, December 13, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.15am): 9C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Variable 2 to 3.
A bit misty again this morning, should clear and give another decent day. The forecast has improved somewhat. Temperatures may be down a touch over the next few days but the chances of rain have reduced.
Evening update (19.00): Reasonable enough day, a high of 18.4C.
9/11 In A Catalonian Style
9/11 is about to take on a new relevance. The Spanish love of reducing dates to numbers and/or letters will mean that 9 November is suitably abbreviated. It may be 9-N but 9/11 might, for its potentially seismic consequences, be more appropriate. The president of Catalonia, Artur Mas, has announced that on 9 November next year, there will be a referendum on independence. There will be two questions posed. Do you want Catalonia to become a state? Do you want this state to be independent? Yes or no?
Mas, whose party is the CiU, has been supported in the referendum call by a rag-bag of other parties which represent varying shades of the left and Catalonian nationalism. One of these, the ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia), became a significant force in Catalonia following elections last year. Mas, who thought he was going to enjoy an increased majority for the CiU, misinterpreted a massive demonstration in Barcelona in favour of independence. This wasn't, as things turned out at the polls, necessarily an expression in favour of the CiU leading the march to independence. The CiU lost twelve seats and had to cast around for a partner. It found one in the ERC. In so doing, any possibility that there might have been of Mas, whose party isn't radical, adopting a more softly-softly approach on independence was blown out of the water. The ERC is a fervently pro-independence party. Mas was left with little option but to go full steam ahead on independence, even if there are plenty of commentators who would argue that he has never really been in favour of it and still isn't.
There is by no means total political support for the referendum among Catalonia's numerous political parties. The third strongest party, PSC, the Catalonian branch of the PSOE socialists, is against it. As are the fourth strongest PPC and the sixth strongest C's. Yes, there really are a lot of political parties in Catalonia. Pere Navarro, who is the leader of the PSC, has urged that there be dialogue and negotiations with Madrid and that there is also a dispensing with constantly looking to the past.
But it is this past which forever catches up with politics of a Catalan nature, be the location Mallorca or Catalonia. Navarro has avoided attending a symposium called "Spain against Catalonia: an historical look (1714-2014)". The implication of the symposium's purpose is clear. 1714 marked the start of Catalan repression under King Philip V after the fall of Barcelona in that year which brought to a close the War of the Spanish Succession. Catalonia was never the same again.
Navarro has made a plea for history to be something for historians, but it is a forlorn hope to believe that the past will be consigned to history. 1714 and subsequent repressions make this impossible and so colour the present day and present-day politics.
It has to be remembered, though, how the latest move towards independence came about. It was because Mas failed to secure any change to Catalonia's financing, a change which would have meant it keeping more of the revenues it raised which are then handed over to Madrid. As Mariano Rajoy was not interested in perhaps granting Catalonia a similar status to that of the Basque Country and Navarre (the regions which keep tax revenues but hand over instead what is almost like a management fee to national government), Mas opted to play the independence card. And this has brought us therefore to the 9/11 announcement.
There is of course one major problem with the referendum. It wouldn't be legal, and Spain's Justice Minister has said that it will not be held. But what if it were to be or were to be going to be? What would happen? Rajoy has made some dark mutterings about doing anything to prevent the referendum occurring. Anything?
If Mas had hoped that pressing for independence would extract some changes from Madrid, he has thus far been disappointed. And now that the date has been set, even were Madrid to offer discussions on financing (with a genuine aim to changing it), it is hard to see how the date could be un-set. Mas is in too deep.
The timing of the referendum may well have in mind the independence referendum in Scotland shortly before. If there were a rejection of independence by the Scots, this might influence how the Catalonia referendum would go (polls tend to suggest there is a pretty even split between those for or against independence). Inevitably, there will be, as there already have been, comparisons between the Catalonian and Scottish votes, but there is one very big difference. One is sanctioned, the other isn't. If Catalonia were to vote in favour of independence, assuming it is able to, then things could get rather difficult.
Mas, whose party is the CiU, has been supported in the referendum call by a rag-bag of other parties which represent varying shades of the left and Catalonian nationalism. One of these, the ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia), became a significant force in Catalonia following elections last year. Mas, who thought he was going to enjoy an increased majority for the CiU, misinterpreted a massive demonstration in Barcelona in favour of independence. This wasn't, as things turned out at the polls, necessarily an expression in favour of the CiU leading the march to independence. The CiU lost twelve seats and had to cast around for a partner. It found one in the ERC. In so doing, any possibility that there might have been of Mas, whose party isn't radical, adopting a more softly-softly approach on independence was blown out of the water. The ERC is a fervently pro-independence party. Mas was left with little option but to go full steam ahead on independence, even if there are plenty of commentators who would argue that he has never really been in favour of it and still isn't.
There is by no means total political support for the referendum among Catalonia's numerous political parties. The third strongest party, PSC, the Catalonian branch of the PSOE socialists, is against it. As are the fourth strongest PPC and the sixth strongest C's. Yes, there really are a lot of political parties in Catalonia. Pere Navarro, who is the leader of the PSC, has urged that there be dialogue and negotiations with Madrid and that there is also a dispensing with constantly looking to the past.
But it is this past which forever catches up with politics of a Catalan nature, be the location Mallorca or Catalonia. Navarro has avoided attending a symposium called "Spain against Catalonia: an historical look (1714-2014)". The implication of the symposium's purpose is clear. 1714 marked the start of Catalan repression under King Philip V after the fall of Barcelona in that year which brought to a close the War of the Spanish Succession. Catalonia was never the same again.
Navarro has made a plea for history to be something for historians, but it is a forlorn hope to believe that the past will be consigned to history. 1714 and subsequent repressions make this impossible and so colour the present day and present-day politics.
It has to be remembered, though, how the latest move towards independence came about. It was because Mas failed to secure any change to Catalonia's financing, a change which would have meant it keeping more of the revenues it raised which are then handed over to Madrid. As Mariano Rajoy was not interested in perhaps granting Catalonia a similar status to that of the Basque Country and Navarre (the regions which keep tax revenues but hand over instead what is almost like a management fee to national government), Mas opted to play the independence card. And this has brought us therefore to the 9/11 announcement.
There is of course one major problem with the referendum. It wouldn't be legal, and Spain's Justice Minister has said that it will not be held. But what if it were to be or were to be going to be? What would happen? Rajoy has made some dark mutterings about doing anything to prevent the referendum occurring. Anything?
If Mas had hoped that pressing for independence would extract some changes from Madrid, he has thus far been disappointed. And now that the date has been set, even were Madrid to offer discussions on financing (with a genuine aim to changing it), it is hard to see how the date could be un-set. Mas is in too deep.
The timing of the referendum may well have in mind the independence referendum in Scotland shortly before. If there were a rejection of independence by the Scots, this might influence how the Catalonia referendum would go (polls tend to suggest there is a pretty even split between those for or against independence). Inevitably, there will be, as there already have been, comparisons between the Catalonian and Scottish votes, but there is one very big difference. One is sanctioned, the other isn't. If Catalonia were to vote in favour of independence, assuming it is able to, then things could get rather difficult.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.15am): 9C
Forecast high: 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): South 2 to 3.
Any rain threat for this morning seems to have gone. Looks like being another decent day, but the forecast is a bit dodgy over the weekend.
Evening update (20.00): Quite warm today, a high of 19.6C.
The Non-Existent Lands: Balearics and Catalonia
Cliché it may be but there is some truth to the notion that certain things can only happen in Mallorca. They could also, theoretically, happen in Ibiza, Formentera and Menorca, but in practice they couldn't, as none of those islands can boast having a Balearic Parliament. Only Mallorca can boast such an institution, and so it could indeed only have happened in Mallorca.
You will be delighted to know how wisely taxpayer money is spent on parliament and parliamentary debate, because this week the Balearic Parliament has been considering where or to what the Balearics belong. On the face of it, the answer to the question is pretty simple. For quite a number of years now the Balearics have belonged to Spain. Once the British were finally booted out of Menorca, over 200 years ago, there hasn't been much argument about the fact that the Balearics, all of the islands, are Spanish.
But hold on, what am I saying? Arguments there are, and arguments there were among our honourable friends in Parliament. And these arguments centred on the pretender to Balearics' possession. Which is? No, not is, but are. The Catalan Lands. Yep, Parliament has been debating whether or not the Balearics belong to these Lands and presumably not therefore to Spain.
Just one of the problems with this debate was a fairly crucial one. As some honourable friends - you won't be surprised to learn that they were from the Partido Popular - disputed the very existence of the Catalan Lands, it was difficult to hold a debate. How can one debate the claim that the Balearics belong to the Catalan Lands when there is no such thing as the Catalan Lands? There again, there are any number of people who are prepared to argue that God doesn't exist but will still insist on debating this non-existence rather than saying that because they don't believe in God's existence, there isn't a great deal of point arguing about it.
While the Catalan Lands may in fact only be an abstract or mythical concept, the fact that they are nebulous is no obstacle to wasting time in Parliament discussing something which doesn't exist, especially when there are others who believe in the God of the Catalan Lands. All the parliamentary deputies, more or less, who are not with the PP are, at the very least, prepared to countenance the possibility of the Lands' existence. So, there they were, debate lines drawn between Catalan Lands atheists, some of an agnostic tendency and others who follow the faith.
In purely linguistic terms, there are - and even the PP have to concede this - certain regions where Catalan or a variant thereof is spoken. The Balearics form one such region. (I don't know why I'm telling you this, as I would presume you realise this, but whatever.) Speaking the lingo or a type of the lingo isn't quite the same thing as there being a "Catalan Lands" though, because as a concept this has a political and historical background. And it was the politics that went to the heart of the debate. Eventually, Parliament (i.e. the PP because of its majority) decided that the Balearics did not belong to the Catalan Lands.
The PP's spokesperson in Parliament, Mabel "The Lonely Goatherd" Cabrer had consulted her history texts in being the prime mover behind the atheists. The Catalan Lands didn't exist, she maintained, because Mallorca was once a Kingdom and because Catalonia was once just a part of the Crown of Aragon. No one has ever really put forward the case for the Aragon Lands, mainly one presumes because the Aragonese aren't that bothered. In a way of course, she is right. Mallorca was swallowed up by the Crown of Aragon as well until it was finally and definitively made an Un-Crown under the Nueva Planta of the early eighteenth century, a move which has meant that Mallorca and the Balearics (save for the times when the British were in residence on Menorca and also, one might add, when the French were occupying) have, for three centuries, been Spanish and nothing but Spanish.
The debate about the Catalan Lands, daft though it might seem, does have a serious side to it. If the Parliament were to decide that the Balearics do indeed belong to the Catalan Lands, then, if only in theory, the Balearics might find themselves part of a greater Catalonia, assuming that Catalonia were to become independent. This, the claims of Catalonia, is one of the reasons why President Bauzá and others have such a big downer on Catalonia and therefore Catalan. But such a parliamentary decision would fly in the face of popular opinion. As pointed out previously, a sense of identity with the Catalan Lands among the Balearics' people is all but non-existent. About as non-existent as the Catalan Lands themselves. Possibly.
You will be delighted to know how wisely taxpayer money is spent on parliament and parliamentary debate, because this week the Balearic Parliament has been considering where or to what the Balearics belong. On the face of it, the answer to the question is pretty simple. For quite a number of years now the Balearics have belonged to Spain. Once the British were finally booted out of Menorca, over 200 years ago, there hasn't been much argument about the fact that the Balearics, all of the islands, are Spanish.
But hold on, what am I saying? Arguments there are, and arguments there were among our honourable friends in Parliament. And these arguments centred on the pretender to Balearics' possession. Which is? No, not is, but are. The Catalan Lands. Yep, Parliament has been debating whether or not the Balearics belong to these Lands and presumably not therefore to Spain.
Just one of the problems with this debate was a fairly crucial one. As some honourable friends - you won't be surprised to learn that they were from the Partido Popular - disputed the very existence of the Catalan Lands, it was difficult to hold a debate. How can one debate the claim that the Balearics belong to the Catalan Lands when there is no such thing as the Catalan Lands? There again, there are any number of people who are prepared to argue that God doesn't exist but will still insist on debating this non-existence rather than saying that because they don't believe in God's existence, there isn't a great deal of point arguing about it.
While the Catalan Lands may in fact only be an abstract or mythical concept, the fact that they are nebulous is no obstacle to wasting time in Parliament discussing something which doesn't exist, especially when there are others who believe in the God of the Catalan Lands. All the parliamentary deputies, more or less, who are not with the PP are, at the very least, prepared to countenance the possibility of the Lands' existence. So, there they were, debate lines drawn between Catalan Lands atheists, some of an agnostic tendency and others who follow the faith.
In purely linguistic terms, there are - and even the PP have to concede this - certain regions where Catalan or a variant thereof is spoken. The Balearics form one such region. (I don't know why I'm telling you this, as I would presume you realise this, but whatever.) Speaking the lingo or a type of the lingo isn't quite the same thing as there being a "Catalan Lands" though, because as a concept this has a political and historical background. And it was the politics that went to the heart of the debate. Eventually, Parliament (i.e. the PP because of its majority) decided that the Balearics did not belong to the Catalan Lands.
The PP's spokesperson in Parliament, Mabel "The Lonely Goatherd" Cabrer had consulted her history texts in being the prime mover behind the atheists. The Catalan Lands didn't exist, she maintained, because Mallorca was once a Kingdom and because Catalonia was once just a part of the Crown of Aragon. No one has ever really put forward the case for the Aragon Lands, mainly one presumes because the Aragonese aren't that bothered. In a way of course, she is right. Mallorca was swallowed up by the Crown of Aragon as well until it was finally and definitively made an Un-Crown under the Nueva Planta of the early eighteenth century, a move which has meant that Mallorca and the Balearics (save for the times when the British were in residence on Menorca and also, one might add, when the French were occupying) have, for three centuries, been Spanish and nothing but Spanish.
The debate about the Catalan Lands, daft though it might seem, does have a serious side to it. If the Parliament were to decide that the Balearics do indeed belong to the Catalan Lands, then, if only in theory, the Balearics might find themselves part of a greater Catalonia, assuming that Catalonia were to become independent. This, the claims of Catalonia, is one of the reasons why President Bauzá and others have such a big downer on Catalonia and therefore Catalan. But such a parliamentary decision would fly in the face of popular opinion. As pointed out previously, a sense of identity with the Catalan Lands among the Balearics' people is all but non-existent. About as non-existent as the Catalan Lands themselves. Possibly.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (9.00am): 9C
Forecast high: 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): East 3 veering Southeast by the afternoon and South by the evening.
Early mist. Light cloud. Sun should come out later, though there is an outside chance of a spot of rain during the morning. The forecast points to things going downhill from Saturday.
Evening update (19.15): A high of 16.8C. Reasonable sun at times.
An Evening Down The Club: Holiday rentals
The Diario de Mallorca newspaper empire is headquartered on the Llevant industrial estate in Palma. This is one of those industrial estates with no industry, its layout and roads having taken an inordinately long time to have been re-done three or so years ago. It is an estate which is testimony to the bizarre priorities of urban planning. Spend time and money re-developing something that no one has any interest in using. Except the Diario, whose HQ has been there as long the original estate; longer perhaps. Maybe they built an industrial estate around it. Who knows.
You can't miss the Diario HQ, certainly not when it's dark. Its titles - "Diario de Mallorca" and "Mallorca Zeitung" - shine brightly above the desolate nothingness of the Llevant estate. Beacons of life and industry. The newspaper industry. I had been there before as I had once used its print works: if you need something printed with newsprint, then you use a newspaper printer. I had not been to the Club before. This is a theatre to which the great and good and the less than great and the bad are called to offer their views on matters of importance. The matter of importance yesterday evening was that of holiday rentals, an issue which has somehow become a Mastermind subject where I am concerned.
It was to have been a debate, which in fact it wasn't. The director-general from the tourism ministry had initially been billed but had probably realised that he had a longstanding engagement to wash his hair - not that he has much. So instead a lady called Margarita came along together with a translator. The debate was to be in English. Much of it wasn't. I was told that no one of any significance at the ministry speaks English, which probably says something. I also learned that the director general is in fact an architect by profession, which is useful for tourism and for studying the layout of unused industrial estates. It may not have mattered that he was washing his hair after all.
Margarita spoke, at length, about the Balearics tourism law. The words "permitted" and "not permitted" were uttered often. She was talking specifically about what can and what can't be rented out as tourist accommodation, which was relevant to the debate (such as it was) and which confirmed that the overriding concern of the tourism ministry is to blind everyone with bureaucracy. A lawyer, Javier, spoke, at length, about what was permitted and what wasn't. And in case anyone had fallen asleep, he then repeated all this during what was meant to have been a one-sentence summing up which lasted roughly five minutes. He knew his stuff, though.
Alvaro Middelmann, the former boss of Air Berlin in Spain and Portugal and the one-time president of the Mallorca Tourist Board, spoke with great common sense not about what is or isn't permitted but about tourism, which is rather more important than the intricacies of property law. As he normally speaks common sense, this was not surprising. He is one of a very few people in Mallorca who appear to actually understand tourism. The ministry doesn't; that became abundantly clear.
So, what did we learn? Not a lot. Or rather, I didn't learn anything I didn't already know. But if there was one strong message above all it was that the loophole provided by the tenancy act is a crook's charter. So long as there is a contract with the renter which expressly says there is no service being provided, then the rental is ok. Also assuming the property hasn't been advertised as a holiday rental, which does kind of beg a question. If a property is advertised for rent in a tourist area, regardless of how it is described or isn't, then the chances are that it will be rented by a tourist.
This loophole is useful in another regard. Rent out in this fashion and there's no IVA (VAT) to be paid. Hence, there is a situation which is being abused. Services do get provided, but the owner will make out that it is the tenant who has obtained them, not he. It is a loophole which adds to confusion rather than reduces it, and it is a loophole which is no use to those owners who wish to be up-front in advertising their apartments as a holiday let and in providing services. It is a typically Spanish double-speak legal loophole.
That, therefore, was pretty much it. A debate which didn't address the role of holiday rentals for a diverse tourism market, one which didn't really address tourism at all, despite my attempts to do so and those of Alvaro Middelmann. And what will come of it? Nothing, one imagines. Nice theatre, though.
You can't miss the Diario HQ, certainly not when it's dark. Its titles - "Diario de Mallorca" and "Mallorca Zeitung" - shine brightly above the desolate nothingness of the Llevant estate. Beacons of life and industry. The newspaper industry. I had been there before as I had once used its print works: if you need something printed with newsprint, then you use a newspaper printer. I had not been to the Club before. This is a theatre to which the great and good and the less than great and the bad are called to offer their views on matters of importance. The matter of importance yesterday evening was that of holiday rentals, an issue which has somehow become a Mastermind subject where I am concerned.
It was to have been a debate, which in fact it wasn't. The director-general from the tourism ministry had initially been billed but had probably realised that he had a longstanding engagement to wash his hair - not that he has much. So instead a lady called Margarita came along together with a translator. The debate was to be in English. Much of it wasn't. I was told that no one of any significance at the ministry speaks English, which probably says something. I also learned that the director general is in fact an architect by profession, which is useful for tourism and for studying the layout of unused industrial estates. It may not have mattered that he was washing his hair after all.
Margarita spoke, at length, about the Balearics tourism law. The words "permitted" and "not permitted" were uttered often. She was talking specifically about what can and what can't be rented out as tourist accommodation, which was relevant to the debate (such as it was) and which confirmed that the overriding concern of the tourism ministry is to blind everyone with bureaucracy. A lawyer, Javier, spoke, at length, about what was permitted and what wasn't. And in case anyone had fallen asleep, he then repeated all this during what was meant to have been a one-sentence summing up which lasted roughly five minutes. He knew his stuff, though.
Alvaro Middelmann, the former boss of Air Berlin in Spain and Portugal and the one-time president of the Mallorca Tourist Board, spoke with great common sense not about what is or isn't permitted but about tourism, which is rather more important than the intricacies of property law. As he normally speaks common sense, this was not surprising. He is one of a very few people in Mallorca who appear to actually understand tourism. The ministry doesn't; that became abundantly clear.
So, what did we learn? Not a lot. Or rather, I didn't learn anything I didn't already know. But if there was one strong message above all it was that the loophole provided by the tenancy act is a crook's charter. So long as there is a contract with the renter which expressly says there is no service being provided, then the rental is ok. Also assuming the property hasn't been advertised as a holiday rental, which does kind of beg a question. If a property is advertised for rent in a tourist area, regardless of how it is described or isn't, then the chances are that it will be rented by a tourist.
This loophole is useful in another regard. Rent out in this fashion and there's no IVA (VAT) to be paid. Hence, there is a situation which is being abused. Services do get provided, but the owner will make out that it is the tenant who has obtained them, not he. It is a loophole which adds to confusion rather than reduces it, and it is a loophole which is no use to those owners who wish to be up-front in advertising their apartments as a holiday let and in providing services. It is a typically Spanish double-speak legal loophole.
That, therefore, was pretty much it. A debate which didn't address the role of holiday rentals for a diverse tourism market, one which didn't really address tourism at all, despite my attempts to do so and those of Alvaro Middelmann. And what will come of it? Nothing, one imagines. Nice theatre, though.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.30am): 9.5C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Variable 2 increasing Northeast 3 by the afternoon and veering East by the afternoon.
Another good enough morning, a mix of cloud and early sun. May cloud up overnight and bring a spot of rain into the morning.
Evening update (24.00): A morning high of 17.6C. Went down about after that.
The Decline Of Brand Spain
"A strong brand has become a defining feature of success in the current economic climate. Worldwide hyper competition for business, combined with an increasingly cluttered media environment, means that the clear message carried by a properly managed brand can provide the crucial leverage needed to thrive. The financial uplift provided to a product or corporation from a strong brand is well known, and companies invest heavily in protecting their brands. Nations can adopt similar techniques to capitalise on the economic growth that comes with proper positioning of a nation brand. All nations should working to actively realise this potential."
So says David Haigh, chief executive officer of Brand Finance, a global business which advises on the maximising of value through the effective management of brands and intangible assets. It is a company which produces different reports, and just one of them is its report into "nation brands". The 2013 report has just been published, and it is not one that will spread joy among those who promote the "Marca España" (brand Spain).
Great emphasis has long been placed on the "Marca España". A year ago, a whole new website was launched in its name. At the time, it wasn't available in English. It now is and it is quite an impressive exercise in promotion. But what does "Marca España" mean and entail? According to the website, it is a "state policy, whose efficacy will be proven in the long term". The objective is to "improve the image of our country" in seeking to boost exports, attract foreign investment, support internationalisation of companies and raise tourism. It is a grand objective, but will this "state policy" be proven in the long term?
In the short term, it is not being proven. Spain has, over the past year, lost 20% of brand value, says the report. It is lumped in with nations such as Morocco, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania which have lost similar values. It is still reckoned to be A+, a distinction shared with Turkey, Brazil and India, but it has slipped from thirteenth position to eighteenth in the international ranking, one position ahead of Turkey.
In order to arrive at this evaluation of countries, Brand Finance applies a framework showing internal and external factors for four key segments - investment, tourism, products and services, and people and skills. It is when you look at what these factors are that you begin to appreciate why brand Spain might have suffered the fall it has.
In some respects, Spain is doing quite well. Foreign tourism is most certainly holding up and has indeed been increasing, even if the tourism is uneven because of a dependence on summer tourism (and it certainly isn't only Mallorca which has such a dependence). The export of brands has been instrumental in helping to bring about what slow economic recovery there has been. Inward investment is beginning to increase, although this is not necessarily investment which can be described as productive investment; not yet anyway. Unemployment remains way too high and will stay way too high; it is unlikely to ever come down to the 8 or 9% level that it was before crisis.
It is in other areas, though, where brand Spain has problems. Take domestic investment, i.e. encouraging "local commerce to invest domestically as opposed to investing overseas". In the tourism sector, as is well enough known, leading hoteliers are investing overseas; greater growth prospects exist in foreign markets for Mallorca's big hotel chains. On domestic tourism, encouraging "citizens to explore domestic destinations rather than vacationing abroad" is not being realised in the likes of the Balearics; the domestic market slumped markedly this summer.
When it comes to people and skills, this is the segment where brand Spain probably faces its biggest single challenge. Encouraging "citizens to study and work locally, rather than going overseas, i.e. avoid the brain drain" is not happening. There is an exodus of talent, one caused by lack of opportunity and too often by the absence of systems based on merit; this is the malaise brought about by "amiguismo", to which I have referred before.
The report doesn't say anything specifically about Spain and it doesn't include factors such as corruption, dealt with by the Transparency International report last week, but as noted in the introduction, a "cluttered media environment" requires a clear message. If this clutter includes a load of negativity, then getting a clear message across isn't easy. Though not included by Brand Finance, this negative publicity surely cannot help to portray the "Marca España" in the best light. Other than this, though, perhaps the strongest message for Spain that comes from the report is that to do with people and skills. The country needs talent. It cannot afford to lose it.
So says David Haigh, chief executive officer of Brand Finance, a global business which advises on the maximising of value through the effective management of brands and intangible assets. It is a company which produces different reports, and just one of them is its report into "nation brands". The 2013 report has just been published, and it is not one that will spread joy among those who promote the "Marca España" (brand Spain).
Great emphasis has long been placed on the "Marca España". A year ago, a whole new website was launched in its name. At the time, it wasn't available in English. It now is and it is quite an impressive exercise in promotion. But what does "Marca España" mean and entail? According to the website, it is a "state policy, whose efficacy will be proven in the long term". The objective is to "improve the image of our country" in seeking to boost exports, attract foreign investment, support internationalisation of companies and raise tourism. It is a grand objective, but will this "state policy" be proven in the long term?
In the short term, it is not being proven. Spain has, over the past year, lost 20% of brand value, says the report. It is lumped in with nations such as Morocco, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania which have lost similar values. It is still reckoned to be A+, a distinction shared with Turkey, Brazil and India, but it has slipped from thirteenth position to eighteenth in the international ranking, one position ahead of Turkey.
In order to arrive at this evaluation of countries, Brand Finance applies a framework showing internal and external factors for four key segments - investment, tourism, products and services, and people and skills. It is when you look at what these factors are that you begin to appreciate why brand Spain might have suffered the fall it has.
In some respects, Spain is doing quite well. Foreign tourism is most certainly holding up and has indeed been increasing, even if the tourism is uneven because of a dependence on summer tourism (and it certainly isn't only Mallorca which has such a dependence). The export of brands has been instrumental in helping to bring about what slow economic recovery there has been. Inward investment is beginning to increase, although this is not necessarily investment which can be described as productive investment; not yet anyway. Unemployment remains way too high and will stay way too high; it is unlikely to ever come down to the 8 or 9% level that it was before crisis.
It is in other areas, though, where brand Spain has problems. Take domestic investment, i.e. encouraging "local commerce to invest domestically as opposed to investing overseas". In the tourism sector, as is well enough known, leading hoteliers are investing overseas; greater growth prospects exist in foreign markets for Mallorca's big hotel chains. On domestic tourism, encouraging "citizens to explore domestic destinations rather than vacationing abroad" is not being realised in the likes of the Balearics; the domestic market slumped markedly this summer.
When it comes to people and skills, this is the segment where brand Spain probably faces its biggest single challenge. Encouraging "citizens to study and work locally, rather than going overseas, i.e. avoid the brain drain" is not happening. There is an exodus of talent, one caused by lack of opportunity and too often by the absence of systems based on merit; this is the malaise brought about by "amiguismo", to which I have referred before.
The report doesn't say anything specifically about Spain and it doesn't include factors such as corruption, dealt with by the Transparency International report last week, but as noted in the introduction, a "cluttered media environment" requires a clear message. If this clutter includes a load of negativity, then getting a clear message across isn't easy. Though not included by Brand Finance, this negative publicity surely cannot help to portray the "Marca España" in the best light. Other than this, though, perhaps the strongest message for Spain that comes from the report is that to do with people and skills. The country needs talent. It cannot afford to lose it.
Monday, December 09, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.15am): 9C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North and Northeast 2.
Mix of cloud and blue bits this morning. Very calm, the winds at sea showing just how little the wind is a feature. Should remain fine today, while the forecast for the week hedges its bets somewhat. Likely to stay mostly fine and mild.
Evening update (18.00): High of 18.1C. Quite a bit of good sun.
Forty Years Of Conservation: GOB
On the first of December, a fourtieth anniversary was celebrated. It was one to mark the founding of the Grup Ornitològic de Balears, better known as GOB, an organisation which nowadays wields enormous influence in Mallorca and which has come a long way from its origins in 1973.
The organisation was founded in what was still the Franco era. The regime may have been on its last legs but it was still a time when censorship prevailed along with repression. It would have been impossible to have founded an organisation of the type that GOB has become in 1973.
Originally therefore, it was, as its name implies, a group of nature lovers and especially bird lovers who came together in order to promote knowledge of birds and other wildlife and to also promote what was a nascent sense of natural conservation in the Balearics in face of the environmental impact of tourism. In fact, the original group comprised a mere six people whose principal interest was in the island's vultures.
1973 is often referred to as the year when the first tourism boom ended. There is a good reason why. 1973 was the year of the Yom Kippur War and the year that the oil crisis arose. Tourism, for some three to four years, was affected. Numbers of tourists to Mallorca declined, and the oil crisis was to bring about a change in attitudes on the island both in terms of external relationships with tour operators and airlines and in terms of the environment. GOB's founding was coincidental, but it was extremely prescient.
With the passing of the Franco regime and the move towards democracy and regional autonomy, which was formalised thirty years ago, GOB grew and started to change its character. By the 1980s, it was organising campaigns of a much wider environmental nature. They all had the philosophy of conservation and they were directed initially at ensuring protection for natural areas, such as Albufera, and then at developments, be they roads, hotel complexes or other building and infrastructure. One of the landmark schemes in those early years was the acquisition of the La Trapa biological reserve in the Tramuntana mountain. Public support enabled the acquisition. In 1980, GOB took over La Trapa. The destruction caused by the fire this summer resulted in a new wave of public support to raise funds; La Trapa and so therefore GOB has a position in the Mallorcan consciousness which goes deep.
Though the first regional government might not have admitted it, GOB's influence on it was evident. Along with the first tourism plan came the first real legislation aimed at environmental matters. This wasn't only needed in order to balance the impact of increasing tourism numbers, it was also needed to address the effects of population growth and so therefore resources; between 1960 and 1980, the population of Mallorca had increased by almost 200,000 to over half a million in total.
A more openly political Mallorca, courtesy of regional government, began to mean a more political GOB. In a sense, it was only really taking a lead from other environmental movements, but this political edge is summed up in a dossier that was drawn up only a few years ago. The organisation listed four key objectives. Three were to do with conservation, biodiversity, education about the environment, actions against environmental destruction and in favour of sustainable development. The fourth was to do with facilitating society's participation in a better democracy.
GOB's relationship with governments has, especially in the past few years, been somewhat strained. Yet, in 1997 the national environment ministry of the government of José Maria Aznar (Partido Popular) awarded it the national prize for the environment. Less surprising in political terms perhaps was the awarding of the Balearics Gold Medal by the PSOE-led Balearics Government in 2002.
More recently though, GOB's activities have led to political opponents saying that it should put up or shut up and make itself an official political entity. It does, as an organisation, appear to be close to the Mallorcan nationalist left-wing, represented by the PSM (Mallorcan socialists) now in alliance with others, including the Greens, in the Més grouping. GOB's campaigning has moved away from the purely environmental. It has, for example, been involved with pro-Catalan initiatives and with the effort to prevent the closure of TV Mallorca. Back on firmer environmental ground, GOB staged a protest against the current government's environment policies at the Berlin Travel Fair earlier this year. One of the main issues it wanted to highlight was the planned hotel development near to Es Trenc beach.
GOB has been accused of being anti-tourism. There might be some truth to the accusation, but forty years on from its founding, the issues posed by tourism and also by population growth have changed only in terms of their scale. From tourism numbers in the five millions in the 1980s to the eight to nine millions now; from a population of 550,000 in 1980 to one that is now some 300,000 greater. It may have moved a long way from its original remit but its relevance is stronger than ever.
The organisation was founded in what was still the Franco era. The regime may have been on its last legs but it was still a time when censorship prevailed along with repression. It would have been impossible to have founded an organisation of the type that GOB has become in 1973.
Originally therefore, it was, as its name implies, a group of nature lovers and especially bird lovers who came together in order to promote knowledge of birds and other wildlife and to also promote what was a nascent sense of natural conservation in the Balearics in face of the environmental impact of tourism. In fact, the original group comprised a mere six people whose principal interest was in the island's vultures.
1973 is often referred to as the year when the first tourism boom ended. There is a good reason why. 1973 was the year of the Yom Kippur War and the year that the oil crisis arose. Tourism, for some three to four years, was affected. Numbers of tourists to Mallorca declined, and the oil crisis was to bring about a change in attitudes on the island both in terms of external relationships with tour operators and airlines and in terms of the environment. GOB's founding was coincidental, but it was extremely prescient.
With the passing of the Franco regime and the move towards democracy and regional autonomy, which was formalised thirty years ago, GOB grew and started to change its character. By the 1980s, it was organising campaigns of a much wider environmental nature. They all had the philosophy of conservation and they were directed initially at ensuring protection for natural areas, such as Albufera, and then at developments, be they roads, hotel complexes or other building and infrastructure. One of the landmark schemes in those early years was the acquisition of the La Trapa biological reserve in the Tramuntana mountain. Public support enabled the acquisition. In 1980, GOB took over La Trapa. The destruction caused by the fire this summer resulted in a new wave of public support to raise funds; La Trapa and so therefore GOB has a position in the Mallorcan consciousness which goes deep.
Though the first regional government might not have admitted it, GOB's influence on it was evident. Along with the first tourism plan came the first real legislation aimed at environmental matters. This wasn't only needed in order to balance the impact of increasing tourism numbers, it was also needed to address the effects of population growth and so therefore resources; between 1960 and 1980, the population of Mallorca had increased by almost 200,000 to over half a million in total.
A more openly political Mallorca, courtesy of regional government, began to mean a more political GOB. In a sense, it was only really taking a lead from other environmental movements, but this political edge is summed up in a dossier that was drawn up only a few years ago. The organisation listed four key objectives. Three were to do with conservation, biodiversity, education about the environment, actions against environmental destruction and in favour of sustainable development. The fourth was to do with facilitating society's participation in a better democracy.
GOB's relationship with governments has, especially in the past few years, been somewhat strained. Yet, in 1997 the national environment ministry of the government of José Maria Aznar (Partido Popular) awarded it the national prize for the environment. Less surprising in political terms perhaps was the awarding of the Balearics Gold Medal by the PSOE-led Balearics Government in 2002.
More recently though, GOB's activities have led to political opponents saying that it should put up or shut up and make itself an official political entity. It does, as an organisation, appear to be close to the Mallorcan nationalist left-wing, represented by the PSM (Mallorcan socialists) now in alliance with others, including the Greens, in the Més grouping. GOB's campaigning has moved away from the purely environmental. It has, for example, been involved with pro-Catalan initiatives and with the effort to prevent the closure of TV Mallorca. Back on firmer environmental ground, GOB staged a protest against the current government's environment policies at the Berlin Travel Fair earlier this year. One of the main issues it wanted to highlight was the planned hotel development near to Es Trenc beach.
GOB has been accused of being anti-tourism. There might be some truth to the accusation, but forty years on from its founding, the issues posed by tourism and also by population growth have changed only in terms of their scale. From tourism numbers in the five millions in the 1980s to the eight to nine millions now; from a population of 550,000 in 1980 to one that is now some 300,000 greater. It may have moved a long way from its original remit but its relevance is stronger than ever.
Sunday, December 08, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Ten-man Mallorca play out dull draw versus Numancia
Real Mallorca 0 : 0 Numancia
Mallorca at home to Numancia (from Castile and Leon), both teams pressing for the top six. Not much between the two until Thomas was shown red for a second yellow in the thirtieth minute, reducing Mallorca to ten men. Numancia took control for the final part of the first period, but Mallorca came out in the second looking lively, Nsue blowing a clear scoring chance just after the break. Though Numancia then dominated for periods, a poor game yielded little by way of excitement and few opportunities for either team, though Numancia looked as though they might have broken the deadlock in time added-on, only for Geromel to save things for Mallorca. In the end, all a bit of a bore draw, Mallorca, for now, in eighth spot.
Mallorca at home to Numancia (from Castile and Leon), both teams pressing for the top six. Not much between the two until Thomas was shown red for a second yellow in the thirtieth minute, reducing Mallorca to ten men. Numancia took control for the final part of the first period, but Mallorca came out in the second looking lively, Nsue blowing a clear scoring chance just after the break. Though Numancia then dominated for periods, a poor game yielded little by way of excitement and few opportunities for either team, though Numancia looked as though they might have broken the deadlock in time added-on, only for Geromel to save things for Mallorca. In the end, all a bit of a bore draw, Mallorca, for now, in eighth spot.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.15am): 8C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North 2 to 3.
Chilly, clear morning, likely to cloud over later. The week's forecast is fine for tomorrow but then rain becoming possible during the rest of the week. Highs in the mid-teens.
Evening update (18.45): A high of 18.7C. Cloud coming in after a mostly fine, sunny day.
The Unnecessary Tourism Plan
Algaida is a town of some 5,000 people. Like other parts of Mallorca, it has its prehistory (talayotic period) and its Conquest history; two farms were recorded under the Arabic name "al-gaida", meaning the wood, three years after Jaume I invaded. It has a few sites, such as the Cura sanctuary on the Puig de Randa, but it is not a town known for its tourism. On Algaida town hall's website, though there is supposedly an English section, when it comes to information such as that for fairs and fiestas and cycling routes, the menu lists these in English but the explanatory text is in Catalan. There is no tourism section as such. Of areas of responsibility of the town hall's seven councillors who form the administration, not one of them has any responsibility for tourism. It is a town where tourism, in terms of officialdom, does not exist.
Oddly though, Algaida council has just approved its plan for tourism development. The mayor says that it is a "realistic project" for a municipality in the plain of Mallorca which will preserve the character of the village and its environmental, social and cultural characteristics.
All of which sounds reasonable enough, even if it doesn't actually say what will be developed, if anything. But then, maybe there isn't really anything much to develop when it comes to a tourism plan. If so, then why has the town hall gone to the trouble of approving one.
The reason why is because it was told to. As with every other municipality in the Balearics, Algaida has had to come up with a tourism plan. The Balearics tourism minister, Carlos Delgado, pointed out this summer that under the 2012 Tourism Law, all municipalities had to have one. And he was right to have pointed this out, as many municipalities may not have realised that they had to have a plan. Under Chapter One, Article Eight of the law (to do with competences of various bodies), there was item F, the approval of municipal tourism development plans. And item C of Article Eight refers to the "promotion of tourist activities within the municipality", which in turn will be integrated into "tourism promotion ... in the context of the promotion of each of the Balearic Islands" (item B).
On the principle that tourism is Mallorca's most important industry and so on a further principle that any municipality, even one without a notable tourism industry of its own, should form part of this island-wide industry, it seems fair to expect individual towns to have plans. Fair, but what does having a plan achieve? In Algaida's case, its sites, its Bull, its cuisine (it is reckoned to be the centre of the Mallorcan style of cuisine) are all matters of record with or without a plan. What should Algaida now do? Throw money at promoting them? Money it almost certainly doesn't have.
The national government's attempt at reforming local authorities - one which would see responsibilities being assumed by higher authorities, i.e. the Council of Mallorca, in the case of smaller towns, those with fewer than 20,000 people - is currently stumbling along and not really getting anywhere. This reform points out that the scope of powers for "issues of purely local interest" is limited, and tourism is one such issue for which the scope of powers is limited. This, though, is both vague and too wide. There are towns in Mallorca which have very much stronger local interests in tourism than others, and some of these, like Algaida, are quite small. Muro has only a couple of thousand more inhabitants, but it is firmly a tourist town and one that definitely requires a tourism plan.
While the power remains, even if it is limited, then the Balearic Government can insist that each municipality draws up its own tourism plan, but where Algaida is concerned, how different is it to neighbouring or nearby towns? It isn't particularly.
Now that the Council of Mallorca has finally relented and accepted that it will take on responsibility for tourism promotion (it had said it wouldn't because it didn't have the money), it will presumably be made aware of whatever Algaida has in its plan. And once aware of this, then what?
It's all well and good there being different plans for different towns, some of which don't have much by way of tourism, and there being a moving of the tourism promotion responsibility furniture, but would it not be better if there were an overarching and integrated plan? Maybe there will be, but at present the requirements placed on towns like Algaida, where the absence of a councillor with responsibility for tourism emphasises tourism's relative lack of importance, seem unnecessary. It is a town like many others.
* Photo of Gràcia Sanctuary on the Puig de Randa, Algaida from Wikipedia.
Saturday, December 07, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.00am): 10C
Forecast high: 14C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West and Northwest 3 to 4 easing Variable 2 by the afternoon.
Clear morning, the sun rising and due to be out all day. Chilly morning in areas with lows of three degrees. The good weather now set to continue into tomorrow with possible rain on Monday.
Evening update (17.25): Quite warm, a high of 19.4C.
Puerto Alcúdia beach at around 9am this morning.
Tax Incentives For Hotels Opening All Year?
The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) held its last meeting of the year this week in Madrid. One of the main topics for discussion was the old - very old - chestnut of seasonality. Solutions that the meeting raised included those which are as old as the problems posed by seasonality, ones that are of a financial (tax) nature.
The headlining suggestion from the meeting was that the super-reduced rate of IVA (VAT) should be applied to those hotels which stay open all year, meaning that it would only be 4%. It is believed that this reduction would have a direct effect in increasing revenues.
Playing around with tax has been spoken about for so long and the debilitating effect of seasonality has existed for so long that it seems astonishing that there haven't been measures adopted which might give tax breaks and so incentivise hotel openings. In fact, certain local authorities have brought in tax breaks for those taxes which they have responsibility for. In Marbella, hotels will be credited with 50% of their business tax if they stay open. In Almeria, both business and property tax will be reduced.
Marbella and Almeria are in Andalusia, a region of Spain which attracts greater numbers of off-season tourists than most others. As an example, it receives seven times the number of golf tourists who visit the Balearics. Despite this greater number, Andalusia is and has been mightily concerned about the impact of seasonality. In October, the region's tourism minister met with business and unions in arriving at an agreement for incentives for hotels to stay open. The incentives have yet to be fully worked out, but the very fact that various parties have got together in order to come to an agreement in principle contrasts greatly with the situation in the Balearics. In Andalusia, where the problem of seasonality is less acute, they nevertheless are looking to do something about the problem. There's a lesson here for the Balearics.
Represented at the meeting this week was HOSBEC, the hotel association for Benidorm and the Costa Blanca. Benidorm, widely believed to be a destination that has something approximating to a genuine winter season, has witnessed a decline in this seasonal tourism over the past few years, but this November hotel occupancy in Benidorm was 79%, up by 8.5% over the same month in 2012. In the second half of November, overnight stays by Spanish guests rose by a staggering 42%.
Benidorm does benefit from national tourism in the off-season and most of what it was receiving in November was from the "seniors" market, but the figures for November indicate what can be achievable. HOSBEC, looking to develop on this success, has added to the call for incentives. It wants social security payments to be deferred for hotels which keep open.
Both the Costa Blanca and Andalusia have advantages which Mallorca and the Balearics do not. They are easier to get to for both national and international travellers. There are, for example, that many more international flights, partly a reflection of the existence of much larger populations of foreign nationals (British for instance). But both are looking to be proactive in bringing more off-season tourists and in introducing or pressing for incentives. The Mallorcan hoteliers have spoken about incentives as well, but a key difference is that, where there is talk in Mallorca, in other parts of Spain, they get on and actually do something.
And there is a way in which HOSBEC differs to Mallorca. It, and CEHAT appears to side with it on this one, wants to establish a uniform system of private tourist accommodation, drawing on the experiences in Catalonia and work done there by, yes, the Barcelona Hotel Association. Totally unlike the Balearics, the hoteliers have worked with the private owners to arrive at a system which has now been launched that categorises private accommodation (including and especially apartments) according to a key system. HOSBEC and CEHAT refer to the need to eradicate illegal accommodation, but both appear to accept the sense of there being a properly regulated and marketed private accommodation sector. Again, there should be a lesson here for the Balearics, but of course there almost certainly won't be.
The Catalonian categorisation, were it to be more widely adopted, would in fact fall in line with what the national government had foreseen in its national tourism plan, namely more standardisation of accommodation types and classification. It might, therefore, become a national standard, except that it wouldn't be national, not while the obstinacy of the regional government and hoteliers in the Balearics remains as it is.
The headlining suggestion from the meeting was that the super-reduced rate of IVA (VAT) should be applied to those hotels which stay open all year, meaning that it would only be 4%. It is believed that this reduction would have a direct effect in increasing revenues.
Playing around with tax has been spoken about for so long and the debilitating effect of seasonality has existed for so long that it seems astonishing that there haven't been measures adopted which might give tax breaks and so incentivise hotel openings. In fact, certain local authorities have brought in tax breaks for those taxes which they have responsibility for. In Marbella, hotels will be credited with 50% of their business tax if they stay open. In Almeria, both business and property tax will be reduced.
Marbella and Almeria are in Andalusia, a region of Spain which attracts greater numbers of off-season tourists than most others. As an example, it receives seven times the number of golf tourists who visit the Balearics. Despite this greater number, Andalusia is and has been mightily concerned about the impact of seasonality. In October, the region's tourism minister met with business and unions in arriving at an agreement for incentives for hotels to stay open. The incentives have yet to be fully worked out, but the very fact that various parties have got together in order to come to an agreement in principle contrasts greatly with the situation in the Balearics. In Andalusia, where the problem of seasonality is less acute, they nevertheless are looking to do something about the problem. There's a lesson here for the Balearics.
Represented at the meeting this week was HOSBEC, the hotel association for Benidorm and the Costa Blanca. Benidorm, widely believed to be a destination that has something approximating to a genuine winter season, has witnessed a decline in this seasonal tourism over the past few years, but this November hotel occupancy in Benidorm was 79%, up by 8.5% over the same month in 2012. In the second half of November, overnight stays by Spanish guests rose by a staggering 42%.
Benidorm does benefit from national tourism in the off-season and most of what it was receiving in November was from the "seniors" market, but the figures for November indicate what can be achievable. HOSBEC, looking to develop on this success, has added to the call for incentives. It wants social security payments to be deferred for hotels which keep open.
Both the Costa Blanca and Andalusia have advantages which Mallorca and the Balearics do not. They are easier to get to for both national and international travellers. There are, for example, that many more international flights, partly a reflection of the existence of much larger populations of foreign nationals (British for instance). But both are looking to be proactive in bringing more off-season tourists and in introducing or pressing for incentives. The Mallorcan hoteliers have spoken about incentives as well, but a key difference is that, where there is talk in Mallorca, in other parts of Spain, they get on and actually do something.
And there is a way in which HOSBEC differs to Mallorca. It, and CEHAT appears to side with it on this one, wants to establish a uniform system of private tourist accommodation, drawing on the experiences in Catalonia and work done there by, yes, the Barcelona Hotel Association. Totally unlike the Balearics, the hoteliers have worked with the private owners to arrive at a system which has now been launched that categorises private accommodation (including and especially apartments) according to a key system. HOSBEC and CEHAT refer to the need to eradicate illegal accommodation, but both appear to accept the sense of there being a properly regulated and marketed private accommodation sector. Again, there should be a lesson here for the Balearics, but of course there almost certainly won't be.
The Catalonian categorisation, were it to be more widely adopted, would in fact fall in line with what the national government had foreseen in its national tourism plan, namely more standardisation of accommodation types and classification. It might, therefore, become a national standard, except that it wouldn't be national, not while the obstinacy of the regional government and hoteliers in the Balearics remains as it is.
Friday, December 06, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Phone app for reporting environmental problems in Pollensa
Pollensa town hall has launched a mobile phone app which allows residents to report incidents of an environmental nature, such as dirty streets and abandoned vehicles as well as those related to beaches.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.30am): 11C
Forecast high: 15C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West and Northwest 2 to 4. Swells of between one and two metres.
Constitution Day and it is a bright, sunny morning with a wide range of temperatures from 3.5 to 11 degrees. Sunny for most of the day and staying sunny tomorrow, rain possibly returning by Sunday afternoon.
Evening update (17.20): A high of 18.5C.
When Friendship Is Not Corrupt
Spain has slipped to number 40 in the worldwide ranking of corruption by country issued by Transparency International. This is a ranking which is called the "Corruption Perceptions Index". The title is quite important. While it can be relatively straightforward to highlight cases of corruption - as with those which come to courts - it is less straightforward to make tangible the intangible, an underlying sense of corruption or of not. The perception of corruption.
Some reaction to Spain's fall to number 40 has been predictable enough. On one side, it is a clear consequence of highly publicised corruption cases and is therefore unsurprising. On the other side, it means little because every country is corrupt and Spain is no more so than any other. Both reactions carry elements of truth but where the latter is concerned, it is far too simplistic a reaction. It is also, in a sense, irrelevant. While Spain can see where it ranks in relation to other countries, comparison really isn't the issue. What is, is that there is a stronger perception of corruption in Spain than in many European (and other countries), and such a perception goes beyond the highly publicised cases; it has to, as corruption is a societal matter as much as it is a political one. The perception is, in effect, a measure of the totality of corruption: how pervasive it is or is not; how rooted within society's mores it is or is not.
We are familiar with the highly publicised cases in Spain, be they those related to the caso Gürtel, to the King's son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, and (though only possibly) to Mariano Rajoy, supposedly the recipient of illegal payments, as noted in the ledgers of former Partido Popular treasurer, Luis Bárcenas. That Rajoy has not been charged with anything, and probably never will be charged, does not reduce the perception of corruption. Quite the opposite. It is the very fact that he has appeared in the Bárcenas ledgers which just adds to the perception.
Mallorca has been described as being one of the most if not the most corrupt parts of Spain, the result of the numerous corruption cases that have arisen, especially since the end of the Matas government and the fall of his one-time partners, the old Unió Mallorquina party. Jaume Matas, a former president, is a high-profile case, so he is another reason for the perception of Spain's corruption being as it is. But of the Matas-related cases to have been brought to court thus far, there is evidence of the wider pervasiveness of corruption, even if this is not evidence of what we might typically consider to be corruption or indeed what many people in Mallorca might consider to be less than fully appropriate. Money doesn't have to change hands. Positions of power do not have to be given. All that is needed is a favour, one born out of what might even be thought of as a societal acceptance of the power of friendship - the "amiguismo" network, a phenomenon which is very much more pervasive in Spain and Mallorca than it might be in other countries. It has to be more pervasive. If it were not, then why is it so often referred to when it is not elsewhere?
Matas has just been found guilty of having abused his position in order to secure a job for his wife. His defence was that he was only doing what any "father of the family" would do. He almost certainly believed he wasn't doing anything wrong. Everyone does the same, or so Matas would doubtless believe. Everyone might do the same if they were in a similar position which could be abused and have a similar network of friends of whom a favour could be asked. Not everyone does, and so no, not everyone does the same. Only some.
Maite Areal, Matas's wife, received a salary of 42,000 euros for a job she never carried out. She was on the payroll of the Valparaiso hotel in Palma, a hotel which forms part of the Grupotel chain. Its president and founder, Miguel Ramis, himself a former mayor of Muro who has been disqualified from public office, told the court he had agreed to Matas's request as a favour.
So here is an example of how inappropriate behaviour extends its tentacles into wider society, the business world in this case, and in so doing, it casts a shadow over how that business world and the political world actually operate and interact. It casts a further shadow into Mallorcan society because of connections that a large hotel chain might have. And indeed the court also heard from another Miguel Ramis, one-time mayor of Alcúdia, himself associated with hotels, the PP's Balearics spokesperson and the nephew of the other Miguel Ramis. The appointment of Matas's wife was one based on friendship not on politics, he told the court.
Wheels within wheels, friendships within friendships. Not obviously corrupt. Just how it is. Perceptions count for a great deal.
* For the record, and so by way of comparison, Spain is not the worst of the European countries which once formed the pre-Soviet/Balkans break-up, "democratic" Europe. Italy is 69th, Greece is 80th. The most virtuous of these countries are Denmark (first), Finland, Sweden and Norway (third, fourth and fifth), Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Iceland and, in fourteenth spot, the UK. Of non-European countries ahead of Spain are New Zealand (second), Singapore, Barbados, the USA, Chile, Qatar and Botswana.
Some reaction to Spain's fall to number 40 has been predictable enough. On one side, it is a clear consequence of highly publicised corruption cases and is therefore unsurprising. On the other side, it means little because every country is corrupt and Spain is no more so than any other. Both reactions carry elements of truth but where the latter is concerned, it is far too simplistic a reaction. It is also, in a sense, irrelevant. While Spain can see where it ranks in relation to other countries, comparison really isn't the issue. What is, is that there is a stronger perception of corruption in Spain than in many European (and other countries), and such a perception goes beyond the highly publicised cases; it has to, as corruption is a societal matter as much as it is a political one. The perception is, in effect, a measure of the totality of corruption: how pervasive it is or is not; how rooted within society's mores it is or is not.
We are familiar with the highly publicised cases in Spain, be they those related to the caso Gürtel, to the King's son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, and (though only possibly) to Mariano Rajoy, supposedly the recipient of illegal payments, as noted in the ledgers of former Partido Popular treasurer, Luis Bárcenas. That Rajoy has not been charged with anything, and probably never will be charged, does not reduce the perception of corruption. Quite the opposite. It is the very fact that he has appeared in the Bárcenas ledgers which just adds to the perception.
Mallorca has been described as being one of the most if not the most corrupt parts of Spain, the result of the numerous corruption cases that have arisen, especially since the end of the Matas government and the fall of his one-time partners, the old Unió Mallorquina party. Jaume Matas, a former president, is a high-profile case, so he is another reason for the perception of Spain's corruption being as it is. But of the Matas-related cases to have been brought to court thus far, there is evidence of the wider pervasiveness of corruption, even if this is not evidence of what we might typically consider to be corruption or indeed what many people in Mallorca might consider to be less than fully appropriate. Money doesn't have to change hands. Positions of power do not have to be given. All that is needed is a favour, one born out of what might even be thought of as a societal acceptance of the power of friendship - the "amiguismo" network, a phenomenon which is very much more pervasive in Spain and Mallorca than it might be in other countries. It has to be more pervasive. If it were not, then why is it so often referred to when it is not elsewhere?
Matas has just been found guilty of having abused his position in order to secure a job for his wife. His defence was that he was only doing what any "father of the family" would do. He almost certainly believed he wasn't doing anything wrong. Everyone does the same, or so Matas would doubtless believe. Everyone might do the same if they were in a similar position which could be abused and have a similar network of friends of whom a favour could be asked. Not everyone does, and so no, not everyone does the same. Only some.
Maite Areal, Matas's wife, received a salary of 42,000 euros for a job she never carried out. She was on the payroll of the Valparaiso hotel in Palma, a hotel which forms part of the Grupotel chain. Its president and founder, Miguel Ramis, himself a former mayor of Muro who has been disqualified from public office, told the court he had agreed to Matas's request as a favour.
So here is an example of how inappropriate behaviour extends its tentacles into wider society, the business world in this case, and in so doing, it casts a shadow over how that business world and the political world actually operate and interact. It casts a further shadow into Mallorcan society because of connections that a large hotel chain might have. And indeed the court also heard from another Miguel Ramis, one-time mayor of Alcúdia, himself associated with hotels, the PP's Balearics spokesperson and the nephew of the other Miguel Ramis. The appointment of Matas's wife was one based on friendship not on politics, he told the court.
Wheels within wheels, friendships within friendships. Not obviously corrupt. Just how it is. Perceptions count for a great deal.
* For the record, and so by way of comparison, Spain is not the worst of the European countries which once formed the pre-Soviet/Balkans break-up, "democratic" Europe. Italy is 69th, Greece is 80th. The most virtuous of these countries are Denmark (first), Finland, Sweden and Norway (third, fourth and fifth), Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Iceland and, in fourteenth spot, the UK. Of non-European countries ahead of Spain are New Zealand (second), Singapore, Barbados, the USA, Chile, Qatar and Botswana.
Thursday, December 05, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.10am): 10.5C
Forecast high: 15C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northwest 3 to 4 easing and backing Southwest 2 by the evening.
Clear morning again, quite cold in parts with lows of just over 3 degrees. Should be a good deal of sun today, lasting into the weekend, the forecast having improved for Saturday.
Evening update (17.30): 19.2C today's high. Good amounts of warm sunshine.
Mallorca Missing Out On The Scene?
The 18-30 age group has a classification. It is the Millennial generation. It is also the 18-30 crowd, which means something rather different to the sophistication implied by a categorisation by social and market researchers. This crowd has, in tour operator branding terms, been renamed in different ways. Thomas Cook still clings to 18-30, but Thomson has 2wentys. It is the same however it is named, and it, as a crowd, follows the hordes down to Greece on holiday to Faliraki, to Kavos, to Malia, to Laganas. It allows descends on San Antonio in Ibiza and of course Magalluf in Mallorca.
18-30, 2wentys, call it as you will, this is a tourist segment known for one thing. Well, actually, it's known for several things. Sun, yes, but also sex, drinking, wild antics, full-on partying. 18-30 could just as easily be 24-hour party people. But not everyone aged between 18 and 30, or rather 25 and 30, is necessarily a 24-hour party person. The 25s to 30s align themselves with the 30s to 35s, or they do where Thomson is concerned. There is now a new tourist segment, the Thomson 25-35, and it is going to be called "Scene". Thomson Scene, a new branding concept to be launched this month.
According to Thomson, this segment still enjoys nightlife but would prefer to pursue it in quieter resorts. It wants to holiday in complexes which have relaxed and peaceful swimming-pool areas and free wifi but which are not far from bars, restaurants and shops and which will provide breakfasts until midday.
As such, therefore, the 25-35 segment seems to be exactly the same as the 18-30 segment. Would 18-30 not like free wifi, were it to be offered? I imagine it would. Does it not like staying in bed late and so having breakfast late? Almost certainly it does. Does it not want to be not far from bars and restaurants? The only discernible difference between the two segments, other than the slight age difference, is that one is happy to party in Magalluf and the other isn't. Or so reckons Thomson.
In this, the tour operator probably isn't wrong though. Strange it might seem, but not all young (or youngish) tourists want to go to Magalluf or to be associated with a similar resort, such as Laganas. From Thomson's point of view, the Scene crowd probably makes sense. There is an aspirational and esteem element which attaches itself to any market or social segment, and Magalluf, I'm sorry to have to tell Magalluf, does not fit with such aspiration.
But nor, or so it would appear, does San Antonio fit with such aspiration or anywhere else in Ibiza. Indeed, there is nowhere in the Balearics which fits. The destinations that the Scene crowd will be herded to will be Cancun and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, Corfu, Rhodes, Mykonos, Santorini, Cyrpus and Turkey.
Of these general destinations, there are resorts of a Magalluf style, so why has Thomson apparently excluded Mallorca and the Balearics from its Scene? It's a good question. Why has it? Maybe there is a clue in what the tour operator says about "sophisticated and stylish hotels in incredible locations". Are there none which fit the bill in Mallorca? Or is there some stigma attached to Mallorca, perhaps because of Magalluf, which means that it is excluded? I can't believe this, as Corfu has Kavos, Rhodes has Faliraki, Cyprus has Ayia Napa and Turkey has Bodrum and Gumbet, and one of the Scene's hotels is in Bodrum. In fact, one other is in Ayia Napa.
Maybe more hotels will be added and so maybe Mallorca will be added to the Scene. Does it matter if it isn't? Yes, it does. If the 25-35 segment that Thomson is seeking is a tad more sophisticated than the regular 18-30 crowd (and even this crowd should not be neglected for its future tourism potential) and as it partly forms the new Millennial generation of which so much is anticipated, then Mallorca needs it being brought to the island if only for it to become familiar with somewhere it might wish to return to in the future. It will also typically have a reasonable amount of cash at its disposal (no kids in all likelihood).
It would be interesting to know the rationale behind the selection of the Scene destinations as it would also be interesting to know if there were discussions held with potential hotels in Mallorca. The island needs to keep at the top of the destinations' list. Missing out on the Scene is something it doesn't need.
18-30, 2wentys, call it as you will, this is a tourist segment known for one thing. Well, actually, it's known for several things. Sun, yes, but also sex, drinking, wild antics, full-on partying. 18-30 could just as easily be 24-hour party people. But not everyone aged between 18 and 30, or rather 25 and 30, is necessarily a 24-hour party person. The 25s to 30s align themselves with the 30s to 35s, or they do where Thomson is concerned. There is now a new tourist segment, the Thomson 25-35, and it is going to be called "Scene". Thomson Scene, a new branding concept to be launched this month.
According to Thomson, this segment still enjoys nightlife but would prefer to pursue it in quieter resorts. It wants to holiday in complexes which have relaxed and peaceful swimming-pool areas and free wifi but which are not far from bars, restaurants and shops and which will provide breakfasts until midday.
As such, therefore, the 25-35 segment seems to be exactly the same as the 18-30 segment. Would 18-30 not like free wifi, were it to be offered? I imagine it would. Does it not like staying in bed late and so having breakfast late? Almost certainly it does. Does it not want to be not far from bars and restaurants? The only discernible difference between the two segments, other than the slight age difference, is that one is happy to party in Magalluf and the other isn't. Or so reckons Thomson.
In this, the tour operator probably isn't wrong though. Strange it might seem, but not all young (or youngish) tourists want to go to Magalluf or to be associated with a similar resort, such as Laganas. From Thomson's point of view, the Scene crowd probably makes sense. There is an aspirational and esteem element which attaches itself to any market or social segment, and Magalluf, I'm sorry to have to tell Magalluf, does not fit with such aspiration.
But nor, or so it would appear, does San Antonio fit with such aspiration or anywhere else in Ibiza. Indeed, there is nowhere in the Balearics which fits. The destinations that the Scene crowd will be herded to will be Cancun and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, Corfu, Rhodes, Mykonos, Santorini, Cyrpus and Turkey.
Of these general destinations, there are resorts of a Magalluf style, so why has Thomson apparently excluded Mallorca and the Balearics from its Scene? It's a good question. Why has it? Maybe there is a clue in what the tour operator says about "sophisticated and stylish hotels in incredible locations". Are there none which fit the bill in Mallorca? Or is there some stigma attached to Mallorca, perhaps because of Magalluf, which means that it is excluded? I can't believe this, as Corfu has Kavos, Rhodes has Faliraki, Cyprus has Ayia Napa and Turkey has Bodrum and Gumbet, and one of the Scene's hotels is in Bodrum. In fact, one other is in Ayia Napa.
Maybe more hotels will be added and so maybe Mallorca will be added to the Scene. Does it matter if it isn't? Yes, it does. If the 25-35 segment that Thomson is seeking is a tad more sophisticated than the regular 18-30 crowd (and even this crowd should not be neglected for its future tourism potential) and as it partly forms the new Millennial generation of which so much is anticipated, then Mallorca needs it being brought to the island if only for it to become familiar with somewhere it might wish to return to in the future. It will also typically have a reasonable amount of cash at its disposal (no kids in all likelihood).
It would be interesting to know the rationale behind the selection of the Scene destinations as it would also be interesting to know if there were discussions held with potential hotels in Mallorca. The island needs to keep at the top of the destinations' list. Missing out on the Scene is something it doesn't need.
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa to act on increased youth drug-taking
Pollensa town hall is to activate a plan to tackle an increase in drug and alcohol use by schoolchildren in the town. This comes as a response to a report which suggests that there is 73% use of drugs, tobacco and alcohol among students at the Baccalaureate level in the town and which also identifies the relative ease of obtaining drugs.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.15am): 9C
Forecast high: 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northeast 3 backing Northwest by the afternoon. Swell of one metre decreasing.
This is more like it, a December morning which is quite chilly but which has clear skies. Sun due today, tomorrow and for some of Friday, but rain may return over the weekend along with lower temperatures.
Evening update (19.30): Sunny day it was and there was a whopping high (Pollensa) of 21.3C.
Treading On Balearics' Educational Performance
It's not quite like the anticipation of waiting to hear who has won an Oscar or which countries England have drawn in the World Cup finals, but anticipation there was ahead of the announcement of this year's PISA (Programme for International Student Achievement) survey, published for the first time since 2009 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. It might be said, however, that there was a similar sense of impending doom to that surrounding England's draw for those countries which knew full well that they were far from being seeded and were languishing in the educational international rankings league. Spain, unlike its football team which can look forward with optimism to the World Cup draw, was bracing itself for the worst. Though the Spanish media has suggested that the PISA results show a slight improvement in educational standards, the actual text of the PISA report says otherwise. Mean performance since 2003 remains below average in the key areas of mathematics, science and reading comprehension and is not improving. Indeed, the report suggests that despite improvements in student socioeconomic status since 2003 there is a negative trend in performance.
There has been, you might have noticed, a fair amount of recent interest in education both nationally in Spain and in the Balearics. The new national education bill was introduced and greeted with widespread criticism and protests. The introduction of the Balearic Government's trilingual teaching (TIL) programme has been an utter disaster and is likely to become more rather than less disastrous.
TIL, many appear not to have noticed, has taken the spotlight off what really matters in Balearic public education: its performance. Governmental spin might suggest that TIL is the solution to performance ills, but it has made this suggestion while ignoring a fundamental issue - just why is this performance so bad? The government has made no attempt to address this. All it has done has been to bring in a highly questionable solution of flagship educational reform without tackling the underlying problem.
PISA ranks 65 countries' performance. It also details performance within regions of countries. The Balearics remains in the bottom four in each of the three key areas. It shares the dunces' corner with Murcia, Andalusia and Extremadura. This continuing underperformance is shocking not just because performance remains stubbornly poor in the Balearics but also because the Balearics is an altogether wealthier region than the likes of Extremadura. If general economic performance is supposed to equate to educational performance, then the Balearics is proof that it doesn't.
The estate agent Joana Maria Camps, who just so happens to be the Balearics education minister, stoked up the anticipation for the latest PISA survey results by speaking in the Balearic Parliament the other day about PISA. Or rather, she didn't speak about PISA. Some of you might know that there is a Spanish verb "pisar" which means to tread on. As such, this verb has nothing whatsoever to do with the PISA survey. There is a Catalan verb "trepitjar" which also means to tread on. Somehow, the estate agent managed to mistake PISA for the Spanish verb and then translate it into the Catalan verb. "Trepitja," she said. More than once. Parliamentary deputies, it is understood, were in fits of laughter.
You might say that this was a simple enough mistake, and if you were an estate agent who knows nothing about education, then it probably would be. If, however, you are meant to be a minister for education, it is more than just a mistake. It is an embarrassing howler of such gargantuan size that you should be shamed into returning to selling flats. Not Joana, however. It was, after all, only an error.
While Joana has womanfully been helping to tread on ("trepitjar" or "pisar", depending on your free selection of teaching language) common sense and trample it into floors of Balearics classrooms by insisting on an educational policy that defies common sense, she has failed to respond to the finding that a mere 18% of secondary school children are able to understand English sufficiently well enough to receive oral instruction, i.e. be taught in English. It may, though one can't be certain, that this 18% includes at least some children with one or two English-speaking parents. Furthermore, there has been no good explanation offered as to why testing of English ability has only now been done.
The part of the PISA report which deals with Spain speaks of low morale among teachers. "One in four students in Spain attends a school where the principal reports low teacher morale, compared with one in ten students across OECD countries." The report doesn't detail morale levels by region, but it is not difficult to conclude that in the Balearics this morale might be lower still and is only getting lower along with educational performance, as determined by PISA or "trepitja".
There has been, you might have noticed, a fair amount of recent interest in education both nationally in Spain and in the Balearics. The new national education bill was introduced and greeted with widespread criticism and protests. The introduction of the Balearic Government's trilingual teaching (TIL) programme has been an utter disaster and is likely to become more rather than less disastrous.
TIL, many appear not to have noticed, has taken the spotlight off what really matters in Balearic public education: its performance. Governmental spin might suggest that TIL is the solution to performance ills, but it has made this suggestion while ignoring a fundamental issue - just why is this performance so bad? The government has made no attempt to address this. All it has done has been to bring in a highly questionable solution of flagship educational reform without tackling the underlying problem.
PISA ranks 65 countries' performance. It also details performance within regions of countries. The Balearics remains in the bottom four in each of the three key areas. It shares the dunces' corner with Murcia, Andalusia and Extremadura. This continuing underperformance is shocking not just because performance remains stubbornly poor in the Balearics but also because the Balearics is an altogether wealthier region than the likes of Extremadura. If general economic performance is supposed to equate to educational performance, then the Balearics is proof that it doesn't.
The estate agent Joana Maria Camps, who just so happens to be the Balearics education minister, stoked up the anticipation for the latest PISA survey results by speaking in the Balearic Parliament the other day about PISA. Or rather, she didn't speak about PISA. Some of you might know that there is a Spanish verb "pisar" which means to tread on. As such, this verb has nothing whatsoever to do with the PISA survey. There is a Catalan verb "trepitjar" which also means to tread on. Somehow, the estate agent managed to mistake PISA for the Spanish verb and then translate it into the Catalan verb. "Trepitja," she said. More than once. Parliamentary deputies, it is understood, were in fits of laughter.
You might say that this was a simple enough mistake, and if you were an estate agent who knows nothing about education, then it probably would be. If, however, you are meant to be a minister for education, it is more than just a mistake. It is an embarrassing howler of such gargantuan size that you should be shamed into returning to selling flats. Not Joana, however. It was, after all, only an error.
While Joana has womanfully been helping to tread on ("trepitjar" or "pisar", depending on your free selection of teaching language) common sense and trample it into floors of Balearics classrooms by insisting on an educational policy that defies common sense, she has failed to respond to the finding that a mere 18% of secondary school children are able to understand English sufficiently well enough to receive oral instruction, i.e. be taught in English. It may, though one can't be certain, that this 18% includes at least some children with one or two English-speaking parents. Furthermore, there has been no good explanation offered as to why testing of English ability has only now been done.
The part of the PISA report which deals with Spain speaks of low morale among teachers. "One in four students in Spain attends a school where the principal reports low teacher morale, compared with one in ten students across OECD countries." The report doesn't detail morale levels by region, but it is not difficult to conclude that in the Balearics this morale might be lower still and is only getting lower along with educational performance, as determined by PISA or "trepitja".
Tuesday, December 03, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Windbreaks to preserve sand on Puerto Pollensa's Tamarells beach
The Puerto Pollensa Neighbourhood Association, which operates the main Tamarells beach in Puerto Pollensa in summer, has invested 13,000 euros in installing 1,200 metres of windbreaks on the beach to help preserve sand during winter storms. The need for this measure is especially acute because Tamarells is a man-made beach which lacks natural sediment to bind the sand.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.15am): 15C
Forecast high: 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northeast 6 easing 4 to 5 by midday and 3 by the evening. Rough conditions easing.
A noticeably milder morning, still quite breezy but also quite humid. Grey skies and the likelihood of rain. Tomorrow and Thursday should be sunny, rain due to return at the weekend.
Evening update (17.45): A high of 17.9C, so a fair bit warmer than of late, and there has been a good deal of sun as well as the odd drop of rain.
Just The Way We Are: Balearics identity
I have previously reported on the Gadeso surveys of what the people of the Balearics identify with - the islands, an island or Spain. Previously though, the results might have provoked a resounding so-what. The latest survey is rather more significant. It has been undertaken against a political background which raises issues regarding this identity far more keenly than in the past. This background, that of regional government's apparent indifference to regionalism (and so the political identity of the Balearics) and antagonism towards Catalonia and to Catalan, might well have been expected to have produced results which reflect a backlash against government policies and attitudes. And to some extent, they have.
While the percentage of people (900 interviews were conducted) who feel Spanish and Balearic in equal measure remains unaltered, there has been a rise in the number who say they feel more Balearic than Spanish and a fall in the number who say they feel more Spanish than Balearic; the former group beats the latter by eight percentage points.
The interpretation placed on this shift is precisely for reasons I have outlined above. Government attitudes towards Balearic regionalism have not won the government a great deal of support; the opposite is the case.
But what can one really say about a Balearic identity? The fact is that when asked whether they identify with their island or with the Balearics, a majority (well over a half) in each of the four islands says that it identifies more with the island (62% plays 37% in the case of Mallorca; the identification with Menorca and Formentera is quite a bit stronger). So, how does one interpret these results? One way is by suggesting that an island identity is inevitably going to be stronger than a broader and more nebulous one. But one could argue that they point once more to an essential paradox which exists within Mallorcan/Balearic society. It is for the region in a political sense but it is for the island in a non-political sense; the narrower the scope for identity in terms of an abstract sense of belonging, the stronger that identity will be.
This paradox carries over into language. President Bauzá may have it wrong where regional sentiments are concerned but he isn't wrong when it comes to dialects. The great paradox is the support for Catalan at a political level, as evidenced by the teachers' strike and opposition to the elimination of Catalan as a requirement for public-sector employment, but also the support for the Catalan dialects at a street level; the dialects with which the people of the islands identify with far more than they identify with Catalan or want to identify themselves with Catalonia.
Bauzá, and I've made the point before, appears to be indifferent towards regionalism because he is wedded to an ideology that places Spanish nationalism before regionalism, and this nationalism is the product of the rejection of separatism and especially Catalonian ambitions. He has, therefore, adopted policies which have lost him support for reasons that are essentially unwarranted. Over half the people of the islands are solidly middle of the road, both Spanish and Balearic, while an identity with the notion of the "Catalan Lands" is all but non-existent. It is this identity which Bauzá appears to fear, but it is a fear based on nothing. What percentage of people identify with the Catalan Lands more than the Balearics or their own island? One per cent in Mallorca, one per cent in Menorca and zero per cent in Ibiza and Formentera. And of those who do identify with the Catalan Lands, their profile is as it might be expected. They vote for the left-wing/green parties and they are young. People who vote for the mainstream Partido Popular and PSOE have no interest in the Catalan Lands; the overwhelming majority therefore.
Of other findings in the survey, there isn't much support for a move towards a federal arrangement for the regions of Spain; a mere 8% back such a system. Only 1% wants independence, which confirms the lack of radicalism that exists in the Balearics. The people may not like Bauzá's anti-regionalism but they have no interest in pursuing a line similar to the Catalonians.
Then there is what people think about how government is organised. This shows the greatest divergence of opinion between Mallorca and the other islands. 8% of Mallorcans would like the island councils to have greater responsibilities. 54% of Menorcans would like to see this. 10% of Mallorcans, admittedly not many, would like to see the island councils done away with. Only 1% of Menorcans would.
All in all, a survey which proves that the people of the Balearics are not radical and mostly like things the way they are. There's a message for Bauzá, assuming he takes any notice.
While the percentage of people (900 interviews were conducted) who feel Spanish and Balearic in equal measure remains unaltered, there has been a rise in the number who say they feel more Balearic than Spanish and a fall in the number who say they feel more Spanish than Balearic; the former group beats the latter by eight percentage points.
The interpretation placed on this shift is precisely for reasons I have outlined above. Government attitudes towards Balearic regionalism have not won the government a great deal of support; the opposite is the case.
But what can one really say about a Balearic identity? The fact is that when asked whether they identify with their island or with the Balearics, a majority (well over a half) in each of the four islands says that it identifies more with the island (62% plays 37% in the case of Mallorca; the identification with Menorca and Formentera is quite a bit stronger). So, how does one interpret these results? One way is by suggesting that an island identity is inevitably going to be stronger than a broader and more nebulous one. But one could argue that they point once more to an essential paradox which exists within Mallorcan/Balearic society. It is for the region in a political sense but it is for the island in a non-political sense; the narrower the scope for identity in terms of an abstract sense of belonging, the stronger that identity will be.
This paradox carries over into language. President Bauzá may have it wrong where regional sentiments are concerned but he isn't wrong when it comes to dialects. The great paradox is the support for Catalan at a political level, as evidenced by the teachers' strike and opposition to the elimination of Catalan as a requirement for public-sector employment, but also the support for the Catalan dialects at a street level; the dialects with which the people of the islands identify with far more than they identify with Catalan or want to identify themselves with Catalonia.
Bauzá, and I've made the point before, appears to be indifferent towards regionalism because he is wedded to an ideology that places Spanish nationalism before regionalism, and this nationalism is the product of the rejection of separatism and especially Catalonian ambitions. He has, therefore, adopted policies which have lost him support for reasons that are essentially unwarranted. Over half the people of the islands are solidly middle of the road, both Spanish and Balearic, while an identity with the notion of the "Catalan Lands" is all but non-existent. It is this identity which Bauzá appears to fear, but it is a fear based on nothing. What percentage of people identify with the Catalan Lands more than the Balearics or their own island? One per cent in Mallorca, one per cent in Menorca and zero per cent in Ibiza and Formentera. And of those who do identify with the Catalan Lands, their profile is as it might be expected. They vote for the left-wing/green parties and they are young. People who vote for the mainstream Partido Popular and PSOE have no interest in the Catalan Lands; the overwhelming majority therefore.
Of other findings in the survey, there isn't much support for a move towards a federal arrangement for the regions of Spain; a mere 8% back such a system. Only 1% wants independence, which confirms the lack of radicalism that exists in the Balearics. The people may not like Bauzá's anti-regionalism but they have no interest in pursuing a line similar to the Catalonians.
Then there is what people think about how government is organised. This shows the greatest divergence of opinion between Mallorca and the other islands. 8% of Mallorcans would like the island councils to have greater responsibilities. 54% of Menorcans would like to see this. 10% of Mallorcans, admittedly not many, would like to see the island councils done away with. Only 1% of Menorcans would.
All in all, a survey which proves that the people of the Balearics are not radical and mostly like things the way they are. There's a message for Bauzá, assuming he takes any notice.
Monday, December 02, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Puerto Pollensa pedestrianisation delayed because of lack of tourism ministry agreement
The project to semi-pedestrianise the coast road in Puerto Pollensa is unlikely to be realised either next year or in 2015. The funding for the project is due to come from three sources - the town hall, the Council of Mallorca and the tourism ministry - but the latter has yet to sign the agreement that would give 600,000 euros to a total of 1.7million euros.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.00am): 11.5C
Forecast high: 13C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North 7 easing Northeast later in the day. Rough.
A warmer morning but still windy and grey. Rain likely. The outlook is better for Wednesday and Thursday but rain due to come back by the weekend.
Evening update (19.30): Didn't exactly get much warmer - a high of just 12.1C - but the rain held off, so that was something. Not much, but something.
Being For The Benefit Of The Hoteliers
So, CAEB, the Balearics Business Confederation, has announced that this year's bumper tourism season has only benefited the hoteliers. Talk about making a statement of the bleeding obvious. I have a question for CAEB. Why has it not previously been making a song and dance about the imbalances that exist within the island's tourism industry?
One reason may be because of the diverse range of business interests that CAEB represents. Go back to May of last year, as an example, and CAEB was in a state of internal strife, some associations within it backing the regional government's tourism law and others not.
This lack of unity says much for how tourism operates in Mallorca. There are competing groups with competing self-interests which find it hard to create a coherent and single voice to challenge the business voice which is heard with clarity and one purpose - that of the hoteliers. The tourism law, criticised for having been a law for the hoteliers, was exposed to all too little opposition because of the fragmented nature of what opposition there was.
It is only now that this fragmentation is beginning to coalesce into something like a powerful alternative voice. The association which represents attractions was another which had been largely disregarded until the director of Palma Aquarium assumed its leadership and began to push for a far more co-ordinated approach by businesses from the non-hotel complementary sector. CAEB's announcement, one made in fact by the head of its restaurant association, can be seen as further evidence of dissatisfaction belatedly being expressed by this sector. Other groups which have been saying similar things include the Chamber of Commerce and the islands' major retailers.
A current preoccupation with seasonality and the lack of winter tourism produces debate which is a diversion. Regardless of whatever solutions might or more likely would not be arrived at, would similar dynamics to those of the summer not be at play? Open up more hotels and what type of accommodation might be offered? Bring in more tourists off-season and what sort of spend will they have? Why would trends towards more all-inclusive packages and towards lower spend be any less relevant were there more winter tourism?
The winter tourism debate is a diversion away from the underlying weaknesses of summer tourism. There is no weakness in terms of numbers of tourists, and there is unlikely to ever be such a weakness, but the numbers obscure the real issues, something to which CAEB has now alluded when it questions tourism spending statistics. Why question them now? Why has a professional body for so long apparently failed to appreciate that these statistics are compiled for a particular purpose - in order to satisfy a Bank of Spain requirement for balance of payments measures - that does not correspond with the real tourism economy?
It has also taken an inordinately long time for professional, non-hotel bodies to wise up to the contribution that non-hotel tourism accommodation makes to the Mallorcan economy. The Chamber of Commerce produced very revealing research about the levels of such accommodation way back in 2006, but why does it seem that it took the change in the national tenancy law this summer to shake business associations into beginning to voice strong opposition to the government's pro-hotel stance?
For the good of Mallorca's tourism industry, one would hope that there might be a unified voice which expresses the needs of all the industry's sectors, but there seems little chance of such a hope being fulfilled. The tourism ministry, as with the government as a whole, doesn't do dialogue. Witness what happened when Carlos Delgado said he was looking for consensus with regard to holiday rentals in August. He got it, but from whom? Not the business associations but from town halls and island administrations beaten into submission.
The ministry cannot be totally blamed for there not being a unified voice and a unified view of Mallorca's tourism. In the lead-up to the passing of the tourism law, there was a truce between the hoteliers and the complementary sector, the latter hopeful of gaining from the law by presenting a solid front. It was a naïve hope, and the hoteliers and the complementary sector have been at each other's throats ever since, the complementary sector pausing only to try and wring the ministry's neck.
The sadness in all this is that these three agencies - government, hoteliers and complementary sector - should be sitting together in order to come to an understanding of and to create a vision of Mallorca's tourism over the next couple of decades. The tourism market is constantly evolving and developments can be expected to be more rapid, but where is the unity of purpose to facilitate an appreciation of and response to these developments? There isn't one.
One reason may be because of the diverse range of business interests that CAEB represents. Go back to May of last year, as an example, and CAEB was in a state of internal strife, some associations within it backing the regional government's tourism law and others not.
This lack of unity says much for how tourism operates in Mallorca. There are competing groups with competing self-interests which find it hard to create a coherent and single voice to challenge the business voice which is heard with clarity and one purpose - that of the hoteliers. The tourism law, criticised for having been a law for the hoteliers, was exposed to all too little opposition because of the fragmented nature of what opposition there was.
It is only now that this fragmentation is beginning to coalesce into something like a powerful alternative voice. The association which represents attractions was another which had been largely disregarded until the director of Palma Aquarium assumed its leadership and began to push for a far more co-ordinated approach by businesses from the non-hotel complementary sector. CAEB's announcement, one made in fact by the head of its restaurant association, can be seen as further evidence of dissatisfaction belatedly being expressed by this sector. Other groups which have been saying similar things include the Chamber of Commerce and the islands' major retailers.
A current preoccupation with seasonality and the lack of winter tourism produces debate which is a diversion. Regardless of whatever solutions might or more likely would not be arrived at, would similar dynamics to those of the summer not be at play? Open up more hotels and what type of accommodation might be offered? Bring in more tourists off-season and what sort of spend will they have? Why would trends towards more all-inclusive packages and towards lower spend be any less relevant were there more winter tourism?
The winter tourism debate is a diversion away from the underlying weaknesses of summer tourism. There is no weakness in terms of numbers of tourists, and there is unlikely to ever be such a weakness, but the numbers obscure the real issues, something to which CAEB has now alluded when it questions tourism spending statistics. Why question them now? Why has a professional body for so long apparently failed to appreciate that these statistics are compiled for a particular purpose - in order to satisfy a Bank of Spain requirement for balance of payments measures - that does not correspond with the real tourism economy?
It has also taken an inordinately long time for professional, non-hotel bodies to wise up to the contribution that non-hotel tourism accommodation makes to the Mallorcan economy. The Chamber of Commerce produced very revealing research about the levels of such accommodation way back in 2006, but why does it seem that it took the change in the national tenancy law this summer to shake business associations into beginning to voice strong opposition to the government's pro-hotel stance?
For the good of Mallorca's tourism industry, one would hope that there might be a unified voice which expresses the needs of all the industry's sectors, but there seems little chance of such a hope being fulfilled. The tourism ministry, as with the government as a whole, doesn't do dialogue. Witness what happened when Carlos Delgado said he was looking for consensus with regard to holiday rentals in August. He got it, but from whom? Not the business associations but from town halls and island administrations beaten into submission.
The ministry cannot be totally blamed for there not being a unified voice and a unified view of Mallorca's tourism. In the lead-up to the passing of the tourism law, there was a truce between the hoteliers and the complementary sector, the latter hopeful of gaining from the law by presenting a solid front. It was a naïve hope, and the hoteliers and the complementary sector have been at each other's throats ever since, the complementary sector pausing only to try and wring the ministry's neck.
The sadness in all this is that these three agencies - government, hoteliers and complementary sector - should be sitting together in order to come to an understanding of and to create a vision of Mallorca's tourism over the next couple of decades. The tourism market is constantly evolving and developments can be expected to be more rapid, but where is the unity of purpose to facilitate an appreciation of and response to these developments? There isn't one.
Sunday, December 01, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 December 2013
No Frills Excursions
Morning high (8.15am): 9.5C
Forecast high: 15C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northeast 5 to 7 occasionally easing. Swells to one and two metres. Rain and possible storms.
A horrid morning. Wind and rain, though there is the odd patch of clear sky. The outlook suggests that there should be an improvement from Tuesday afternoon.
Evening update (17.45): The rain of the morning abated but the wind has kept going. A high of 14C.
The Carnival Of Protest: Spain's Citizen Safety Law
General Franco had an inconsistent policy towards traditions. Advocate as he was of strict Catholicism, he didn't much care for some of the traditions of religious fiestas. One which he was particularly unkeen on was the tradition of Carnival. Celebrated just prior to Lent, Carnival was not originally a Spanish tradition but it was one that came to Spain from Venice. This said, the celebration of Carnival has very much older origins than that of the mediaeval masquerade of Italy.
For Franco, Carnival was all a bit too decadent and a bit too much like good fun. He banned it in 1937, taking aim in particular at the Cadiz Carnival, the most decadent of all the Carnivals. Though the ban was primarily imposed in order to deal with Cadiz, it was applied universally. Towns across Spain had, therefore, to pull the plug on the Carnival, even if some managed to keep the tradition going in a somewhat different form.
But Franco wasn't only concerned with decadence. He also didn't like the fact that people wore masks at Carnival time. This disguise, so his regime believed, would allow all manner of miscreants to go without being apprehended, and included among these miscreants might be opponents of his regime with one eye on causing bother and protest while all the time being in disguise.
The traditionally satirical nature of Carnival meant that it was not fully restored until censorship in Spain was lifted after Franco died. When the newly democratic Spain finally abandoned censorship, Carnival became a huge demonstration of liberated expression, and in its satirical guise, it remains such a demonstration.
In September 2011, Sa Pobla became the first town in Mallorca to ban the wearing of the burka. It is still the only town to have introduced such a ban. While it was the burka that caught the headlines, the ban was rather more wide-ranging. Probably in an attempt to not make the burka ban appear to be discriminatory or anti-Muslim, Sa Pobla town hall also banned the wearing of anything which obscured the face. In theory, therefore, a balaclava became illegal. The local by-law made it clear that this banning was on the grounds of public safety.
The Spanish Government is now in the process of passing a law which imposes stricter controls on protest and other forms of street behaviour. Included among the prohibitions under this law will be the wearing of anything which covers the face when a protest is being staged. Fines for doing so could be as high as 30,000 euros. The bill, known as the Citizens Safety Law, is expected to be approved by Congress in the new year.
There is a world of difference between a by-law in a small Mallorcan town and a national law, but there is a strong similarity, and it lies in the justification for the legislation. Public safety has been invoked in both instances but this is not the main reason for the legislation. Where the national law is concerned, the main reason is an attempt to limit protest and to exert governmental control and power. Safety is a convenient argument, because the general public might be willing to swallow something couched in safety terms. If the bill were to have been called Anti-Protest Measures Law, then the public reaction would be different.
As it is, anti-protest measures is just how the law is being described. And the criticism goes further. It is undemocratic. It also seems like an over-reaction. Protests there have been in Spain, but generally speaking, austerity and other aspects of government policy have not provoked extreme protests. So, the question is why does the government feel it necessary to introduce stricter controls? Does it fear that it is in fact losing the battle where austerity is concerned? Does it fear that something will provoke more extreme protests than have thus been witnessed?
Or is the law just the case of another government flexing its muscles and exerting ever more control over the people? It has been a disturbing trend over the past few years for governments which ostensibly operate under a democratic system to do so. Citing safety makes the law appear "democratic" in upholding order for the majority but can all too easily be seen as "undemocratic" as it imposes greater restrictions on the right to protest, and in Spain, the right to protest since Franco's day has been a fundamental means of liberated expression, just as the restoration of the Carnival tradition was.
And indeed, where does this law leave something like Carnival? What happens if there are protests at Carnival time with people wearing masks?
The law could in fact create all sorts of problems that might not be envisaged. One of its provisions is the banning of outdoor drinking parties, i.e. the botellón street parties. Fair enough perhaps, but so widespread are these parties and so inadequately controlled are they, that it is impossible to see how local police forces can really prevent them. They can't at present, even with local by-laws in place. So, one ends up with a national law which, in certain instances, will be ineffective and which, in others, will be used to limit protest against a government which even one conservative commentators has condemned for the "stigma of authoritarianism", an observation which carries a reminder of the days when Carnival was banned.
For Franco, Carnival was all a bit too decadent and a bit too much like good fun. He banned it in 1937, taking aim in particular at the Cadiz Carnival, the most decadent of all the Carnivals. Though the ban was primarily imposed in order to deal with Cadiz, it was applied universally. Towns across Spain had, therefore, to pull the plug on the Carnival, even if some managed to keep the tradition going in a somewhat different form.
But Franco wasn't only concerned with decadence. He also didn't like the fact that people wore masks at Carnival time. This disguise, so his regime believed, would allow all manner of miscreants to go without being apprehended, and included among these miscreants might be opponents of his regime with one eye on causing bother and protest while all the time being in disguise.
The traditionally satirical nature of Carnival meant that it was not fully restored until censorship in Spain was lifted after Franco died. When the newly democratic Spain finally abandoned censorship, Carnival became a huge demonstration of liberated expression, and in its satirical guise, it remains such a demonstration.
In September 2011, Sa Pobla became the first town in Mallorca to ban the wearing of the burka. It is still the only town to have introduced such a ban. While it was the burka that caught the headlines, the ban was rather more wide-ranging. Probably in an attempt to not make the burka ban appear to be discriminatory or anti-Muslim, Sa Pobla town hall also banned the wearing of anything which obscured the face. In theory, therefore, a balaclava became illegal. The local by-law made it clear that this banning was on the grounds of public safety.
The Spanish Government is now in the process of passing a law which imposes stricter controls on protest and other forms of street behaviour. Included among the prohibitions under this law will be the wearing of anything which covers the face when a protest is being staged. Fines for doing so could be as high as 30,000 euros. The bill, known as the Citizens Safety Law, is expected to be approved by Congress in the new year.
There is a world of difference between a by-law in a small Mallorcan town and a national law, but there is a strong similarity, and it lies in the justification for the legislation. Public safety has been invoked in both instances but this is not the main reason for the legislation. Where the national law is concerned, the main reason is an attempt to limit protest and to exert governmental control and power. Safety is a convenient argument, because the general public might be willing to swallow something couched in safety terms. If the bill were to have been called Anti-Protest Measures Law, then the public reaction would be different.
As it is, anti-protest measures is just how the law is being described. And the criticism goes further. It is undemocratic. It also seems like an over-reaction. Protests there have been in Spain, but generally speaking, austerity and other aspects of government policy have not provoked extreme protests. So, the question is why does the government feel it necessary to introduce stricter controls? Does it fear that it is in fact losing the battle where austerity is concerned? Does it fear that something will provoke more extreme protests than have thus been witnessed?
Or is the law just the case of another government flexing its muscles and exerting ever more control over the people? It has been a disturbing trend over the past few years for governments which ostensibly operate under a democratic system to do so. Citing safety makes the law appear "democratic" in upholding order for the majority but can all too easily be seen as "undemocratic" as it imposes greater restrictions on the right to protest, and in Spain, the right to protest since Franco's day has been a fundamental means of liberated expression, just as the restoration of the Carnival tradition was.
And indeed, where does this law leave something like Carnival? What happens if there are protests at Carnival time with people wearing masks?
The law could in fact create all sorts of problems that might not be envisaged. One of its provisions is the banning of outdoor drinking parties, i.e. the botellón street parties. Fair enough perhaps, but so widespread are these parties and so inadequately controlled are they, that it is impossible to see how local police forces can really prevent them. They can't at present, even with local by-laws in place. So, one ends up with a national law which, in certain instances, will be ineffective and which, in others, will be used to limit protest against a government which even one conservative commentators has condemned for the "stigma of authoritarianism", an observation which carries a reminder of the days when Carnival was banned.
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