MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 17 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (8.45am): 25C
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 18 July - Sun, 32C; 19 July - Sun with haze, 36C; 20 July - Sun and cloud, 27C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 increasing East and Southeast 3 to 4 by midday.

Lovely again this morning, and the short heatwave is still on the cards. 36C being forecast now for Saturday, but this exceptionally high temperature will not last and things will be back to what is more like normal from Sunday.

Evening update (19.15): People complaining about the heat - a high of 33.5C - but it's going to be hotter over the next two days. Alerts in place for high temperatures.

No Frills Excursions

A Very Peculiar Summer

It has indeed been a peculiar summer. Following a booming April, there was a May for which all manner of concerns were raised about the level of tourism but which were largely not realised, mainly it would seem because of bookings for private holiday accommodation. Then there was June - pretty good - but further worries about July, and in particular the first two weeks of July. Those worries appear to have been well founded, but they were all the more strange because only two years ago July had registered the highest levels of hotel occupancy in Mallorca since the turn of the century. It might yet be that July hits the heights of occupancy because suddenly things changed during the week. Was it all down to the World Cup after all?

To give an indication, my "manor" is the tourism centre of Alcúdia. One has become used over the years to complaints about the number of tourists and the consequent lack of business and so one has become used to treating these complaints with a touch of scepticism. This early July, however, has given no grounds for scepticism. The area around the Mile has indeed been dead. However, tour operators had suggested that there would be a pick-up from the middle of the month, and they seem to have been spot-on. Bellevue, the bellwether of tourist activity in the zone, has suddenly gone from being under 50% full to being all but full. This turnaround will be attributed to a surge in the British market, which is indeed part of the explanation, but Bellevue, as with the whole of Alcúdia, is by no means British alone.

There have been dark mutterings about a sharp fall in British bookings to Mallorca this summer, but until we know how the season shakes out - and we won't for some while yet - it will be difficult to know for sure. If the second half of July and August rescues the summer, then all well and good, but it is not all well and good if we are really talking about a season of feverish activity which lasts a mere six weeks or so.

The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) has, for its part, announced that this summer will be the best since the pre-crisis summer of 2007. Overbookings for August are said to be on the cards; or at least occupancy of above 90% in most Spanish tourist resorts, representing an overall increase in activity of around 11%. But CEHAT has reminded governments of different sorts of the need for major investment in tourism promotion, pointing to the significant rises in bookings to competitor destinations - Turkey up 17%; Greece, a rise of 22%.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 16 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (6.30am): 21C
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 17 July - Sun, 31C; 18 July - Sun, 32C; 19 July - Sun, 35C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 increasing Northeast 2 to 3 during the morning.

Another splendid morning. Plenty of sun today with the prospect over the next three days of a notable rise in temperature, a high of 35 anticipated by Saturday, followed by a cooling-down.

Evening update (19.30): High of 31.8C.

No Frills Excursions

A Short History Of Wind

The shipping forecast for the bay of Alcúdia at this time of the year varies little from day to day. Its lack of variance doesn't prevent it, though, from saying that winds will be "variable". They are only light winds until some time not long after midday. From then, the winds pick up and become predominantly north-east. If you go to the beach along the bay, you will know this for yourself. You can pretty much set your watch according to when the wind increases. It's getting towards time for lunch.

Though the north-easterly occurs almost every afternoon, it is, and despite the variability of the shipping forecast, the southerlies which dominate in summer. The north-easterly is welcome. It may cause panic if it suddenly blows in and uproots beach umbrellas, it may be annoying in that it throws grains of sand and small pieces of beach detritus on to you, but it is cooling. If there were only southerlies and only African air, afternoons on the beach would be as stifling as they are inland, where the north-easterly rarely penetrates.

Mallorca is sun, sea and beach, but it is also wind. And not just one wind. The eight winds of the Mediterranean are so much a part of Mallorca's existence that they lend their titles to names of streets, to bars and restaurants and even to entire mountain ranges. The northerly tramuntana dominates in winter, along with its north-westerly neighbour, the mestral. The north-easterly gregal is less evident, but it blows nonetheless and can be cold and fierce, bringing with it rain and snow. In summer, it is more benign, more welcome. It lives up more to the summery implications of its meaning from the Latin "graegalis" - coming from Greece.

Though the summer gregal blows each day in the bay, it typically goes no further than the coast. Occasionally it can, if it has enough force. And if it does, the chances are that it encounters a different wind. Eight winds of the Mediterranean there are, but there is a ninth wind in Mallorca. Or different ninth winds, to be more accurate. The brisas marinas, the sea breezes peculiar to Mallorca. They have a collective name - embat - an atmospheric phenomenon caused by the contrasting daytime heat of the interior and the comparative coolness of the sea, which is both predictable and unpredictable. It can go in different directions and come from different coastal areas. Hence, there can be different winds - the brisas marinas - not just the one.

The eight winds, which in clockwise order starting with the tramuntana (the north wind) are gregal, llevant, xaloc, migjorn, llebeig (or garbi), ponent and mestral, were depicted in the "rose" of winds created by the father and son team of Abraham and Jehuda (aka Jafuda) Cresques in the latter part of the fourteenth century. The Cresques were responsible for the "Atlas Catalan", which is held in the French national library, and the rose was one aspect of this mediaeval cartographic masterpiece.

The Cresques were Mallorcan Jews. Jafuda certainly converted to Christianity, taking the name Jaume Riba, though Abraham probably didn't convert; the persecution of Jews in Mallorca was something that started after Abraham died. Their atlas, also known as a "mapamundi" (a map of the world as they knew it), was worked on from 1375. The Cresques received some payment from the Aragon crown for their work, but the atlas was donated to the French king, Charles VI, in 1381. It wasn't until the start of the nineteenth century that it was discovered, lurking unknown in the national library. While the map itself was of huge but seemingly unappreciated importance, the rose of the winds was also hugely important. Though the names on the Cresques' original were not identical to those of today, they bore a very strong resemblance, and the most significant of them was the tramuntana.

There has been much debate as to the origin of the name tramuntana. Its most likely origin was from the Latin "trans montes". Though it is said that it was first documented as an Italian word in the early sixteenth century, it most clearly wasn't. The Cresques used it, and Ramon Llull, the great Mallorcan polymath of the thirteenth century, also used a word that was very similar. Why, you might ask, is this important? Well, it is because the eight winds of the Mediterranean, as they are now known, are also sometimes referred to as the eight Catalan winds of the Mediterranean. In effect, the Cresques invented the "vents", the winds. Or certainly, they invented the tramuntana, no doubt borrowing from what was common usage that had probably been handed down from Llull.

So, when the wind blows in Mallorca, you should know that the winds aren't only part of the Mallorcan climate, they go very much deeper into Mallorcan existence. The winds, made in Mallorca.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 15 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (6.30am): 20C
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 16 July - Sun, 31C; 17 July - Sun, 31C; 18 July - Sun, 31C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 increasing mainly Northeast 3 to 4 by midday.

A fine, clear morning, and the forecast, as it is for the whole of the week, is for pretty much cloudless skies, but as the forecast hasn't been too accurate in this respect just lately, we'll see.

Evening update (20.45): Decent day, some cloud at times. A high of 30.5C.

No Frills Excursions

Young Pedro Versus Young Pablo

In February 2012, I wrote of Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba's re-selection as leader of PSOE that the party had "opted for a safe pair of hands, ones that, in his own peculiar style, play a piano when's he's speaking. For safe pair of hands, read boring. Not for the first time ... Spanish politics has refused to dump a loser". Rubalcaba's continuing as leader following the spanking that Rajoy and the PP had given PSOE was a massive mistake. Consequently, 2012 to 2014 have been the lost years for PSOE, wandering in the wilderness without a compass and having no idea as to which direction it was heading other than in the wrong one. When the European elections this May showed that the sage-like Rubalcaba had been leading the lost tribes of PSOE ever deeper into a political desert, his time was up. His staff has now been kicked away, his sackcloth removed, his beard shaven off. Welcome to new PSOE. Pedro Sánchez. Young PSOE. And hardly a facial hair to be seen.

Much is being made of Sánchez's youth and indeed the youth of leaders of other political parties in Spain, with the very obvious exception of Mariano Rajoy. Will Sánchez, in addition to leading PSOE back to civilisation, also lead them - and the country - towards the sun of a new dawn with youthfulness to the fore in shaping a whole new politics in Spain? Well, some are suggesting something along these lines. But before we get carried away, it should be noted that youth is very much a relative term. Sánchez is 42. He is 17 years younger than Rajoy and 20 years younger than Rubalcaba, so he does represent a bit of a change in the current political scene, but in the wider scheme of things he doesn't.

When Felipe González became prime minister, he genuinely was something new. Apart from being a socialist, he was dynamic and charismatic and young. Youngish. He was 40. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was 43 when he won the 2004 election. And if you want other examples, there is always the Balearics' own José Ramón Bauzá, also 40 when he won. Or how about Tony Blair? 43 on the day, that beautiful spring day when a warm sun shone and a new dawn really did dawn. Or so we thought. Little did we know that we were getting a narcissistic, control-freak lunatic with two heads.

What really has alerted political commentators to this new youth movement in Spanish politics is the younger-than-Sánchez leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, who shouldn't be confused with the Marxist Pablo Iglesias who was the founder of PSOE. He, were he to still be alive, would be 164 in October this year. It might be felt that, in terms of Marxist ideology, there isn't a great deal of clear blue water between the two Pablos, but there is a vast ocean between them when it comes to years. The new-age Pablo is a mere 35. 

This mere stripling of a politico has, along with Podemos, firmly put a very determined cat among the fat, lethargic pigeons of Spanish politics. PSOE has been caught on the hop by Podemos more than the Partido Popular. The left has been invaded and has been, moreover, by a ponytail-wearing populist who looks as though he should be mixing the decks at an Ibiza rave club rather than trying to clear the decks of the detritus of rotting Spanish politics. PSOE, desperate for a new image, turned down the nerdy appeal of Zapatero Mark II, namely Eduardo Madina, and opted instead for Felipe González Mark II, i.e. Pedro Sánchez. What he lacks by comparison with Iglesias in terms of seven years and a ponytail, he makes up with a winning smile, good looks and a name that is about as Spanish as you can get. Pedro. Sánchez. The Catalonians must already hate him.

The Catalonian question is just one that Young Pedro will have to get his head around. Of other questions, we know comparatively few if any answers. One thing we do know is that he has suggested that he "is going to be as left as the membership". What exactly does this mean? It sounds potentially ominous. Or it sounds as though he doesn't have a clear idea. Or it sounds as though he is taking the notion of being customer-driven and placing it in a political context: you tell me how left you want me to be, and I'll lean that way.

Being vague probably suits him. It gives scope to move towards the left and attempt to reclaim the territory occupied by established, more left-wing parties and now Podemos. Alternatively, it gives scope to be centrist. What it doesn't mean, one might hope, is that Young Pedro goes as far to the left as Old Pablo. Young Pablo's out there. Ponytail and all.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (6.30am): 21C
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 15 July - Sun, some cloud, 30C; 16 July - Sun, 27C; 17 July - Sun, 31C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3, locally Northeast 4 during the afternoon.

Fairly cloudy start to the day and the patchy cloud may linger - yesterday produced more cloud than had been anticipated. Otherwise, quite hot, and the general outlook is good with a possible heatwave coming in by the end of the week.

Evening update (21.45): A high of 29.9C. A stuffy sort of day with a fair amount of cloud (and there was a downpour in parts of the area this morning). 

No Frills Excursions

The Lonely Summer Of Jaume Matas

Like other coastal resorts in Mallorca, Colonia Sant Jordi has its fair share of residences which are rarely occupied other than in the height of summer. These are the apartments, houses and villas which are holiday homes. Their owners might typically only stay in them during the month when Mallorca all but closes for business, August. It is a pleasant place, Colonia Sant Jordi, a pleasant place to have a holiday home. It is busy but not too busy. The wonderful beach of Es Trenc is close at hand. A boat can take you to the island of Cabrera.

Sometimes you wonder about these holiday homes. They seem like a lavish expenditure for only one-twelfth of the year. But then there are those who can afford such lavishness. Aren't there. At one of these holiday homes a photo was taken in August 2010. It was a photo of the owner. He was wearing a light-grey polo t-shirt and a pair of orange shorts. He was in pretty good spirits, it seemed. He was back last year, slightly earlier than normal in July. From his holiday home, an apartment rather than a house, he was able to make trips around the island. He visited Sóller, taking the train and hiring one carriage for himself and friends. The town's mayor, Carlos Simarro, greeted him as though he were royalty. He visited Alcúdia, where he dined at the Bistro Mar with an old friend, one of Telefonica's top men. He visited Palma where he had more to eat; it was a lunch date with an old colleague, the president of the Partido Popular in Palma, Jose Maria Rodríguez.

This summer, he will not be going to his holiday home. The apartment in Colonia will be empty and closed up. The owner will be going somewhere else. To a prison cell.

In August 2010, Jaume Matas, twice president of the Balearics, was in good spirits, despite knowing that not all summers in the future might be filled with days of wine and roses. In the back of his mind, he must have thought that one summer (perhaps several summers) would come along when he couldn't go to Colonia Sant Jordi. Or maybe he believed that those summers would never come. Charges for corruption that he and the rest of the world were aware of in August 2010 were just charges. Ever since, he has projected a persona of innocence, one of disbelief that charges could or should stick. Last July, he gave a press conference at a hotel in Colonia. He was coming on holiday and he was protesting his innocence. A few months earlier, he had been sentenced to nine months in prison for the trafficking of influence, a sentence which, to the surprise of many, had been reduced from six years.

Much has happened since last July. In November, and many of you will recall, there was some very bad weather in Mallorca. One particular storm hit Colonia Sant Jordi. Two pine trees fell down. They had given the holiday home some privacy. Now, it was exposed. The trees came down violently and suddenly. They were a metaphorical fall. It has been a very much slower process, but the fall of Jaume Matas has now been confirmed. He probably still doesn't believe that it's happening. How can they do it to him?

It has taken this length of time because Jaume sought a way of avoiding going to jail. He asked for a pardon. There was astonishment at the request. On what grounds? Astonishment or not, the request was processed. Some thought this process might take years. Maybe Jaume did, too. It didn't. Last week, he discovered that the pardon had been denied. The final say-so was had by his old colleague in national government, Mariano Rajoy, from the days when Jaume was environment minister and when another colleague in government was that top man from Telefonica, Eduardo Zaplana. Strictly speaking, it is the king who grants a pardon or doesn't. He does so on the advice of the government. Felipe was not about to make his first act as king a pardon for a politician found guilty of corruption. Nor would his father have made it his final act. Jaume has not spoken, but what must he be thinking? How could his old friend Mariano have allowed this?

In a few days, maybe this week, Jaume will enter prison. It will be a shock because he has given the impression that he believed it would never happen, that he was somehow above the law or at least capable of moulding the law to let him off. But he wasn't. The law, finally, has seen to it that he is imprisoned. And Jaume may himself, finally, realise that summers in Colonia will not be like they were. This summer might just be the first.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (6.30am): 18.5C
Forecast high: 29C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 14 July - Sun, some cloud, 31C; 15 July - Sun, 26C; 16 July - Sun, 28C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3, locally Northeast during the afternoon.

A fine morning, the full moon slowly disappearing from a clear sky. May be some cloud about at times, otherwise another sunny and quite hot day. Outlook for the week - excellent.

No Frills Excursions

The Stories Of History: Alcúdia's Via Fora

It was one thing after another in the fourteenth century. In March, 1348, the Black Death claimed its first victims in Mallorca. Alcúdia is generally cited as having been the place where the plague broke out. It cannot be said with certainty how many people succumbed to the plague, though a figure of 80% of the population having died is almost certainly an exaggeration. There is a story about the first death in Alcúdia. It goes like this. The people of Alcúdia are unsure what to do with the body, but they hit on a plan. They'll take it to Santa Margalida, a town relatively nearby but far enough away to be safe. The people of Santa Margalida don't take too kindly to the offer of the body, as might have been expected.

The story is just that. A story. Probably. It merges historical fact, the arrival of the Black Death, with the black comedy of legend or fiction. When later plagues and diseases afflicted Mallorca, Alcúdia had something of a strategic advantage. Its walls. The town could go into lockdown behind its walls and no one could come in who might spread disease. Unless, that is, they found a way of bribing the guards at the gates to the town. That's another story, one told of the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1870.

But to return to the fourteenth century, no sooner had the Black Death ceased to be black than the good citizens of Alcúdia, those of them who remained and who hadn't been deposited in Santa Margalida, were faced with a different type of enemy. One by the name of Pedro, who had the nickname of Pedro The Cruel, the King of Castile. Pedro was, to be totally blunt, a bit of a bastard. Not literally, but he had a brother, called Henry, who was of illegitimate origin. It was Henry who eventually did for Pedro. But before Henry could get round to dethroning him, Pedro engaged, for several years from 1356, in an on-off war with another Pedro, the King of Aragon. This Pedro wasn't exactly a model of virtuousness himself, but history suggests that the people of Mallorca were fairly well disposed to him. He deposed James III, the King of Mallorca, who was far from popular on account of his tax impositions. Anyway, the two Pedros have found their way into history by having a war named after them, and it was the Aragonese Pedro who was to play a part in the development of Alcúdia's walls. Concerned that the other Pedro might launch an attack, he ordered the hurry-up in finishing the walls, a job that had started at the end of the previous century. This, at any rate, is the story.

The walls of Alcúdia contain and reveal all sorts of stories. Being certain as to what is story or historical fact isn't entirely straightforward, but there again, as the Spanish word "historia" means both story and history, then we shouldn't be totally surprised if there is some blurring of the edges between the facts of history and the fancifulness of story-telling, and the stories above, those of the Black Death, Yellow Fever and the War of the Two Pedros, all come from a theatrical production. Its name is the Via Fora.

Ten years ago, Alcúdia town hall was instrumental in establishing a series of productions that combined the history of the walls with the history (or stories) of the town. The Via Fora was the result. It takes its name from a word, "fora", which means a cry for help, be this help because of the Black Death or the imminent arrival of Pedro The Cruel. On summer nights in Alcúdia, the illuminated old walls of the town form the spotlights for the actors and musicians as they make their way around the walls and tell of the stuff of yore and of more modern times. They start from the Moll gate, the Porta des Moll, a name which itself is dripping with history. Moll means port or pier. Why is there a gate with such a name in the old town? The port is some distance away. Ah yes, but once upon a time it hadn't been such a distance away. The sea and thus the ancient port came as close as right by the Roman theatre.

The Romans, typically, don't get a look in on the Via Fora agenda. There is a certain Catalan correctness about the starting-points of Alcúdia's history in this theatrical production. They are always post-conquest of Jaume I, James the First. The Germanies uprising of the sixteenth century is a firm favourite of the Via Fora, a story so ingrained in the island's Catalan culture because of its part in attacking repression and unfairness. But let's not dwell on the politics. The Via Fora is not propaganda. It is a celebration of history in story form, and the first production of this summer takes place this coming Thursday. It starts at 9pm with the cry for help and the final construction of the walls that form its backdrop. Pedro The Cruel was on his way. Or maybe he wasn't. There's nothing better than a good story.

* Programme for the Via Fora at: http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2014/07/via-fora-alcudia-2014.html

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.00am): 21C
Forecast high: 29C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 13 July - Sun, 30C; 14 July - Sun, 28C; 15 July - Sun, 27C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 2 to 3, locally 4 and occasionally Variable.

Some early broken cloud has gone away to give a clear blue-sky morning. There may be some light cloud around later but otherwise a very fine day. Tomorrow and the week ahead all looking very good.

Evening update (19.30): A high of 29.3C on a day when there was rather more cloud than might have been expected during the morning. More or less all cleared later, though.

No Frills Excursions

The Stigma Of The M-place

Well, it isn't all bad news, you know. There was a headline in one Spanish paper this week which read "Bookings to Magalluf soar". Yep, you could have put money on it, though one can guess which niche of the British tourist market will be doing the soaring. One somewhat larger niche, the great family market, will surely be doing all it can to avoid having to fess up to relatives, friends, neighbours and hairdressers that it is off to the M-place in sunny Spain. "Going anywhere nice on your holidays?" "Erm, yes, erm, Mag ..." "Sorry, where did you say?" God, the stigma of it all. It's like admitting going on holiday to a nudist resort. Or Skegness. 

There is one family, though, which appeared to have been having second thoughts. Letizia was browsing the net for likely holiday destinations when suddenly up popped a short video she hadn't been expecting. "Right, that's it. We're not going to THAT place." Anyway, a sort of bidding war then broke out between Mallorca and Almeria to see which one could ensure the summer holidaying patronage of Felipe, Tizzy and the kids. And if the Costa Almeria (the original Costa del Sol, if you didn't know) were to have won out, what then of the Marivent? It's not as if you can have a damn great palace sitting idle all summer. Perhaps they'd thought of offering it to Carnage and suggesting they added it to the bar crawl itinerary. But it did of course all turn out all right in the end for Mallorca. Put to a family vote, the kids sided with dad. Never mind, Tizzy, there's always next year.

It's not just the royals who have been anxious about being stigmatised with being within several kilometres of the M-place. Mallorca's own royalty, the boy Nadal, has turned his back on the island, too. What an ingrate. No sooner had the Council of Mallorca said that it was putting him up for an "illustrious son" award for being such a splendid ambassador for Mallorca than the illustrious son cleared off to Ibiza on his jollies. Who next? Who else can we expect to say no to Majorca rather than face the stigma-by-association of the M-place? If White Dee says no, then we really know we're in trouble. Mind you, there is always Jeremy Kyle. As they say in short-message social media land: ffs.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (8.45am): 21.5C
Forecast high: 29C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 12 July - Sun, 29C; 13 July - Sun, 27C; 14 July - Sun, 28C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 3 to 4, occasionally North with a swell to one metre.

A lovely morning, clear, blue skies and the forecast is for clear skies, indeed all looking set for the next few days for pretty much perfect weather - little cloud and temperatures in the high 20s.

Evening update (21.30): Super day. High of 30.1C.

No Frills Excursions

A Week Of Living Scandalously

There can never have been a week like the one we have lived through; and if you thought it was all over, it most certainly isn't. Forget transport strikes and holidaymakers trapped at the airport, forget the eco-tax, forget the Icelandic ash cloud, forget the Palmanova bombing. In public relations terms, Mallorca has been brought to its knees, gagging on a short video that has become the butt of jokes and manna from heaven for the media. It has been a week of accusation and incomprehension. The "Majorca Daily Bulletin", as an example, has been accused of keeping alive a story that some consider no longer newsworthy. How can it possibly be no longer newsworthy when the British red tops and even broadsheets are all over the story like an unpleasant rash brought on by a sexually transmitted disease? Those who might prefer there to be no more news are as culpable as the island's institutions have been historically in willing bad news away and in hiding their heads in velvety white sands replete with images of happy families with buckets and spades. This time, it won't go away; there are those who would happily use those spades to bury Magalluf, if not the whole of Mallorca. It has become a story that has spun out of control, certainly out of control of the island's tourism chiefs and Calvia town hall. One that is so out of control that there is now the absurd notion that there could be legal proceedings - not in Mallorca, note - on the grounds of a sexual assault.

The incomprehension has been staggering. The moral outrage does not comprehend a web-based, smartphoned society that thinks nothing of sexting, the suck-and-blow selfie and the exhibitionist home porn movie. The "star" of the Magalluf video may be being cast as a victim, but she found herself on a cast list as infinitely wide as the internet. The response by government has likewise been uncomprehending. The national secretary of state for tourism, Isabel Borrego (and a Mallorcan, to boot), spoke of the need for "awareness". Awareness of what exactly? And how is this awareness to be raised? By a campaign that will cost the equivalent of one-fifth of the total annual tourism promotion budget for the Balearics. It will be waged by means of newspaper announcements and will so be ignored or, if it is seen, will be treated with laughing disdain by its intended audience. The incomprehension is such that the very technology which permitted the video's dissemination is being ignored. And why is it? Because of the inertia of a regional government tourism ministry that does not have this technology at its disposal. It does not cost half a million euros to plaster messages across social media and thus engage more readily and more credibly with that intended audience.

The incomprehension has even come from a body as sensible as Médicos del Mundo. While it rightly observed that the video was not evidence of an "isolated incident" (which regional tourism minister Martínez reckoned), it then went on to attack political double standards, those which, on the one hand, allow Magalluf to be promoted for drunkenness and promiscuity but which, on the other, see prostitutes "harassed and detained with a rigour that the authorities do not apply to the promoters of the degradation in parts of Magalluf". The doctors are, to be blunt, wrong. But at least they have served to remind us all and hopefully Calvia and the regional government that it is the mugger-prostitutes who form the real scandal of Magalluf and not a stupid little video which diverts attention and worryingly gives an excuse for it to not be tackled in any meaningful way.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (6.45am): 18C
Forecast high: 28C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 11 July - Sun, 28C; 12 July - Sun, some cloud, 26C; 13 July - Sun, 28C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 4 increasing Northeast 4 by midday. Swells to two metres.

A fine morning. Due to be fairly breezy at times but should be mostly sunny. General outlook is good with temperatures staying in the high-20s, so pleasant rather than excessively hot.

No Frills Excursions

Mallorca: The Brazil Of Tourism

Ultra-efficient, superbly organised, highly modern in approach, swift to move, react and take the attack to the opponent: the product of integrated thinking, planning and development. Inefficient, poorly organised, outdated in approach, slow to move, react and attack: the product of disjointed thinking, lack of planning and development. Germany thrashed Brazil. A nation known for many things, not just its football but also engineering and motor cars, applied the science, quality and skills of Mercedes and BMW in order to drive a high-speed autobahn through the dead end of a team that had nowhere to go, except in reverse; a very heavy reverse. The other nation is known for one thing - football. Yes, there is an awful lot of coffee in Brazil as well, but its national being is defined by the limits of the white lines of the pitch and by the clichéd soccering samba of the sons of Pele and Zico. Or was.

Betting your whole national being, your societal raison d'être on one thing is a sure route to ultimate disappointment. But once upon a time that national being was unquestioned and, though there were disappointments, the nation could take solace from the knowledge that spiritually it ruled the world, and the world watched in awe. But then the world began to wake up to the possibilities that it admired so greatly. Simultaneously, the one-time world leader forgot its roots. It exported its talent to distant shores, which watered down the very essence of the pool from which it had sprung. It failed to once again foster, nurture and encourage the flamboyance to be found on wonderful, sandy beaches under a burning sun. The nation's gold and silver were sold off, and there was not even tarnished bronze to cling onto. For all this, there had been hope. There were still jewels among the fool's gold. Until, that is, disaster struck. The nation was deprived of the backbone of its Silva, while a broken bone in the back of its golden boy left it flopping around like a great big floppy thing.

The world had long known about Brazil's football, but it wasn't until after the Second World War that it really started to take notice. There was the disappointment of 1950, but then there was the boom of the late '50s and early '60s. On an island in the Mediterranean, there was no disappointment in 1950 because there wasn't as yet anything to be disappointed with. Instead, there was the incipient manifestation of what was to come, housed in tents by a beach in Alcúdia. The great tourism football club was in the process of being conceived, and Club Med was the seed. Within a few years, at the end of the '50s and into the early '60s, the boom was to blast tourism into a totally new orbit. The world looked on in wonder, and was then further wonderstruck as other booms occurred, such as around 1994, when the island indulged in a binge of new development. Over this period, the island could count on a solidity in the defence of its market, but one combined with adventure. It was the touristic defence of Nilton Santos and Carlos Alberto, racing forward to deliver the coup de grâce. And from this solidity came the real flair and riches from the extravagant supply lines of its Garrincha and Jairzinho for its number tens, its Pele and Zico, to net the seemingly endless bonanza that erupted from its wonderful, sandy beaches under a burning sun.
 
The world, though it looked on in wonder and in admiration, did not do so with deference. It looked on and learned. And one thing it learned was efficiency, organisation, modernity, swiftness to act and integrated planning. In some parts of the world this meant a bottom-up approach from all but scratch combined with top-down guidance from strategically minded governments. One thing in particular that it learned was that the island, rather like Brazil, had extracted its riches as much if not more through improvisation than planning. It had taken the talent of its beaches and built castles on its sand but failed to pay adequate attention to the foundations and to the potential breaches by the tides of competition. And this competition was aided by its foreign coaches, those from the island itself, its grand hotel chains which exported know-how and expertise and left the island in the hands of politicians, in thrall to ProZone tourism statistics but without the soul of that one-time flair.

Betting your whole island being on one thing is a sure route to ultimate disappointment. There are many other things in Mallorca, but its island being is defined by the limits of one industry, which is prone to a disastrous snap in its back that renders it supine in the face of challenges. Re-definition is needed. Real planning is needed. The bounceback starts now. For Brazil, at any rate.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.00am): 19.5C
Forecast high: 29C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 10 July - Sun, some cloud, 298C; 11 July - Sun, some cloud, 25C; 12 July - Sun, some cloud, 27C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 increasing East 3 to 4 by midday. Swell from the North increasing from one to two metres around midday.

Sunny morning with some cloud around. Decent enough day in prospect. Cloud at times and not too hot. The forecast has improved and there seems far less possibility of any rain over the next couple of days.

Evening update (21.45): High of 29.5C. Fair bit of cloud at times but also good amounts of sun.

No Frills Excursions

Mallorca's Greatest Scandals And PR Disasters

Here are just a few scandals and potential or real PR disasters that Mallorca has had to face over the past twenty years or so. One of them doesn't really belong here. Which one? You decide.

1. The Sóller Tunnel. The first great corruption scandal of modern, autonomous-government Mallorca. In 1989, the Balearic Government granted the concession for the building of the tunnel to a company owned by Antoni Cuart, a friend of the then president of the Balearics, Gabriel Cañellas. In that year, money started to be lodged in bank accounts. It came from Cuart, though he was to state in court that it was a company director, by then dead, who was responsible for administering payments. The money was used for Partido Popular electoral purposes and was channelled to the Balearic Islands Foundation, presided over by Cañellas, who was forced to resign as president. He was indicted, but the affair came to an end when the Balearics High Court closed the case in 1997. The charges were proven but those accused were acquitted because of the statute of limitations.

2. The eco-tax. Dreamt up by PSOE's Celesti Alomar, the tourism minister, and the minister for finance, Joan Mesquida, the eco-tax, officially and legally named the "tax for stays in businesses for tourist accommodation", was approved in 2001 and introduced from 1 May, 2002. The battle to prevent the tax's introduction saw the national Partido Popular government against it and the national constitutional court having to arbitrate. It decided against suspension of the tax, and so it came into being. At the time of its introduction, there was a slump in the German tourism market and, though it has been argued that the tax didn't contribute to a further slump, there were plenty who argued that it did. The PR fallout was felt in Britain, too, and when the PP came back to power in the Balearics in 2003, it scrapped the tax.

3. Jaume Matas and all that. Where does one begin with the corruption charges levelled against the former Balearics president? They all stemmed from what was known as the "caso Andratx", a series of charges brought against, among others, the former PP mayor of Andratx, Eugenio Hidalgo, in 2006. They all had to do with urban planning corruption. Hidalgo went to prison, but in the process of investigation, anti-corruption prosecutors and investigating judges began digging much deeper. One of the others who went to prison was the director-general for land planning in the Matas 2003-2007 government. The link was established. What followed were numerous separate investigations. These implicated not just members of the PP but also leading figures in the Unió Mallorquina, the PP's partner in government. These leading figures are all now in prison. Matas isn't, but he faces many charges which have yet to come to trial. And the most significant of the cases is one known as the "caso Palma Arena". It was this investigation which led to something even more scandalous.

4. Iñaki Urdangarin. He was just another member of the Spanish royal family, the husband of Princess Cristina, King Juan Carlos's younger daughter. He had been an Olympic sportsman and through marriage to Cristina, the Duchess of Palma, he became the Duke of Palma. He wasn't an obscure royal but he wasn't important either. He became very important, however, when Judge José Castro, investigating the "caso Palma Arena", unearthed some invoices which had been raised by the Instituto Noos, of which Urdangarin had been a co-founder, and sent to the Fundación Illesport, a body linked to the tourism ministry. They were for 2.3 million euros, and the final invoice was raised just before the 2007 election that Matas lost. The judge was interested in these invoices. Very interested. And he became interested as well in the role of the princess. The Mallorcan scandal became a Spanish scandal. Juan Carlos was embroiled in the scandal, and who is to say that the possibility of his daughter being placed on trial didn't contribute to his abdication?

5. The Palmanova bombing. Five years ago (the date was 30 July), two Guardia Civil officers were blown up by an ETA bomb that had been hidden on their patrol vehicle. It was Mallorca's first true atrocity by terrorists. The island went into lockdown but the terrorists were not found. The press, the British press in the form of "The Sun", did its best to turn the bombing and two subsequent minor incidents in Palma into a PR disaster. Its travel editor wrote that the bombs could spell the end of tourism in Spain and that tourists would avoid Mallorca. She was very wrong.

6. In a bar in Magalluf in 2014, an Irish girl was filmed while engaging in some action with over twenty todgers. The video went viral on the internet. No one died.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (6.30am): 21.5C
Forecast high: 29C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 9 July - Sun, possible rain, 29C; 10 July - Sun, cloud, possible shower, 25C; 11 July - Sun and cloud, 25C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 3. Swells from the North to one metre.

Fine start and a fine day in prospect. The storm of yesterday never materialised, but it was bad enough towards the mainland for flights to Barcelona to be diverted to Palma. Still looks a bit unsettled for tomorrow.

Evening update (19.00): Fine day. High, as forecast, of dead on 29 degrees.

No Frills Excursions

Naturism And Anarchy In Spain

Eighty years ago, the first edition of a magazine published in Valencia appeared. The woman on its front cover appears to have a slight tanline, which might be thought rather odd. The title of this magazine was "Gimnos", its subtitle was "Revista de Librecultura". For any of you with some knowledge of the history of the Balearics, you might get the meaning of the magazine's title and so also might think it a little odd that the woman has that tanline. You will know that the Greeks called the islands Gimnesias, a name derived from the Greek word "gymnós". Naked. The subtitle of the magazine might also register with some of you. Translated into German it has much the same meaning as "Freikörperkultur", which is always abbreviated to FKK: free body culture or, as it is also known, naturism.

The Germans didn't invent naturism as such, but FKK, as a movement, was very much a German thing, and from its origins at the end of the nineteenth century it spread to France and also to the UK. While the growth in popularity of naturism in Germany and France between the two world wars is well enough understood, far less understanding exists of its development in Spain.

The "Gimnos" magazine, which first saw the light of day this month eighty years ago, was not the first Spanish naturist publication. It was predated by a magazine called "Helios", the first such publication in Spain. "Helios" lasted for 23 years from 1916 to 1939. It shouldn't really require a great deal of explanation as to why it ceased publication in that particular year, but there was more to it than just the über-Catholic and conservative politics. It wasn't just nudity that Franco objected to. There were, in the Spanish naturist movement, certain aspects that were evident in other countries, France especially. Some of these weren't necessarily of a political nature, such as a very strong association with vegetarianism (which was also a feature of naturism in other countries but very much more so in Spain), but some most definitely were, and at the top of the political list was anarchism.

There is a photo from 1933. It shows a group of naked men creating a type of human castle. The photo was taken in the courtyard of a prison in Barcelona. These men, some thirty or so of them, were anarchist prisoners. In the 1920 and 1930s, different "isms" and movements collided in Spain. Feminism, the promotion of the artificial esperanto language, vegetarianism, free love and anarchism all united under one "ism" - that of naturism. "Helios" was something of a mouthpiece for these different movements, and anarchism was a regular subject in its pages.

The founder, if you like, of this anarcho-nudism was a Frenchman, Jacques Élisée Reclus. Taking from the ideas of Tolstoy, who was a vegetarian and an esperantist, Élisée's anarcho-nudist agenda had been set out in a book which had been published many years before the German FKK movement got off the ground. In Spanish it was known as "El Arroyo" (the stream). One part of it was dedicated to naturism as part of a revolutionary manifesto. There were various Spanish devotees of Élisée's message, such as the feminist Antonia Maymon, and the message, as it was transformed in Spain, was one that brought those various "isms" together.

Naturism was a peculiar movement in the inter-war years. It wasn't only anarchists who embraced it. Fascists did aswell. The Nazis initially banned FKK in 1933 but then quickly un-banned it and brought it within the ambit of their totalitarian control. It wasn't something for general public consumption, but where it was practised in camps in the countryside, the participants were closely vetted. There were of course no Jews. The Aryan master race was not about to be offended by the sight of a circumcised willy. In Britain, there was a branch line of the fascist movement that was fanatically nudist. Jonathan Meades' brilliant story "Filthy English" (thirty years old this year) took this as one of its themes.

In Spain, and away from the anarchist overtones, naturism had been a factor in driving some inter-war tourism. Sóller was a place that was particularly attractive in this regard, probably because of its close links with France. Later outlawed, as it was under the Franco regime, nudism was practised, albeit discreetly and well away from the prying eyes of the Guardia Civil. After Franco died, restrictions were lifted. In 1979, the first naturist resort in Spain, Costa Natura near Estepona, was established. Despite there having been official and unofficial nudist beaches in Mallorca for years, it was only last year that the island's first naturist hotel, in Colonia Sant Pere, was established. Naturism has come a long way since Élisée Reclus. Some people might consider it cranky, but it is no longer anarchy.

* For a detailed study of the association between anarchism and naturism in Spain, go here: http://terraxaman.blogspot.com.es/2012/10/el-anarconaturismo-doble-camino-hacia.html

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (6.15am): 20.5C
Forecast high: 29C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 8 July - Sun, some cloud, 29C; 9 July - Cloud, 25C; 10 July - Cloud and possible rain, 23C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 3 to 4 backing Northeast during the morning.

Cloudy start to the day. There is the chance of rain and possible storm, clearing up later. The outlook for the next three days is mixed, though this is always subject to change.

Evening update (20.00): Some rumbles of thunder around midday, cloud has come and gone. Not as hot as in the past few days but sticky. High of 29.5C.

No Frills Excursions

Damage Prevention: Magalluf and social media

Who would have thought it? Gentlemanly, former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss caught using the c-word to describe Kevin Pietersen. Strauss felt the need to issue an immediate and unreserved apology, though maybe he had nothing to apologise for. He thought he was off air. His mistake was in not knowing that there was a broadcast feed via a Fox Sports app in Australia.

Little that is nowadays said or done is not subject to being brought to the public's attention. Society, in whatever form, has become its own broadcaster. In this multi-connected, networked, voyeuristic world, there can be no room for naïvité. Strauss's bigger mistake was that he was naïve.

Such is the potential for embarrassment that media management should be shifting its emphasis. This management should be about anticipation, about damage prevention, rather than reaction and damage limitation. Nowadays, a media "crisis" can arise frequently and at random; the Murphy's Law for the technological world - what can go wrong will go wrong and will be on everyone's phone. It is naïve to believe that all damage can be prevented, but the need now is to at least try to prevent it. And accepting that it is impossible to prevent all damage, then mechanisms need to be in place to ensure adequate, appropriate and swift responses. Strauss's response was all three. He now surely understands what networked society means.

Amidst all the debate and arguments about the Magalluf video, there is one very important point which stands out. Peter Newey on the Facebook page of "The Bulletin" made it very well: "the only thing that is new is the technology that enables people to video such goings-on and then send them out to watch on their phones". Absolutely. Otherwise, and as many other commentators have observed, there was nothing new. Such goings-on have been going on for years. It's just that they didn't end up on What's App. But now that one has, there are others, and there will doubtless be more. Like happy-slappy copycatism bred filmed-on-phone beatings, there will be happy slappers applying further blows to a reputation that can barely go much lower.

The surprise about the Magalluf video is that there should be any surprise that one of that variety has found its way into the public domain. Technology being as it is, goings-on of this sort having been as common for so many years as they have, it was all but inevitable that one day the public would know and would be able to join in with the voyeurism. So inevitable that it might have been predicted.

You cannot plan for every eventuality. It is ridiculous to suggest that you can. But there are means of damage prevention, when you know all too well the potential sources of damage: the sources that have been goings-on for years and about which nothing has been done. Blame the bar-crawl organisers all that you will, but they are merely the product of historical inaction, of a failure to prevent damage. This failure has finally caught up with Magalluf. Technology has exposed the failure to prevent the damage; its Carnage, if you like. This technology will not go away. If more damage is not to be caused, then the sources of technology's appetite for recording, filming and broadcasting have to be made to go away.

The responses from officialdom to the video, those of outrage and of investigations, will include no admissions of failings, both past and present, no apologies for the abrogations of responsibility by different bodies; the town hall is by no means the only one. Yet, the warning signs were so clearly there. From the broadcast media to informal social media there has been a short but predictable step, one that is more graphic and salacious than the established media, but one that has pandered to the prurient appetite of this media and also of the internet user. When the BBC's Stacey Dooley documentary featured a similar scene, among its various other negative images, the reaction was to condemn the BBC. Even someone like Pepe Tirado of Acotur, a critic of so much that is wrong in Magalluf, leapt to the defence of Magalluf and echoed the condemnation. It may have been Magalluf, but it was our Magalluf, our Mallorcan Magalluf. No one else's. And certainly not one for a foreign broadcaster to be poking its nose into.

But of course it isn't a Mallorcan Magalluf. It is everyone's. And technology makes it so. There may have been some naïvité surrounding the BBC documentary, but there is absolutely no place for naïvité in networked society; social media can wreak havoc, can cause carnage.

The damage is done, but more damage has to now be prevented, and its sources - all of them - eliminated. 

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (6.30am): 19.5C
Forecast high: 32C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 7 July - Storm, 29C; 8 July - Sun, some cloud, 26C; 9 July - Sun, possible rain, 25C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South and Southeast 4, locally 5 from midday.

Quite breezy at times last night and so cooler, the morning feels a bit fresher, but it is going to be another scorcher later. But tomorrow looks as if it is going to be stormy, the breezes swinging round and bringing in an unsettled few days.

Evening update (19.00): Good breeze most of the day and a necessary breeze. A high of 33.2C.

No Frills Excursions

The Pregón Of Mallorca's Fiestas

At nine o'clock this evening in Puerto Pollensa's church, one Antoni Ordoñez Muñoz will get to his feet (though it's possible that he might remain seated) and tell the gathered audience about his port. The Virgen del Carmen fiestas will officially start and, as is common, the fiestas will be declared open, as it were, by a pregón. This is what Antoni will be delivering: the opening speech, the opening address, the welcome, the oration, the prayer or blessing even for the fiestas.

The pregón can be any of the above. It can have musical accompaniment, it can be done in verse, it can be made with the use of a PowerPoint presentation or it can even be performed as a type of comedy routine. It all depends where the pregón is being delivered and the occasion on which it is being delivered. There is the more solemn pregón for Christmas and Easter, or there is the informative, the political, the satirical, the reflective. It can be and can mean more or less whatever you want it to be or mean. Essentially though, the pregón is normally the event which marks the opening of a town's fiesta programme. But there is flexibility in this regard as well. The pregón isn't always the opening ceremony.

While we might now associate the pregón with fiestas, its origin is quite different. Literal meanings of pregón in English can vary, but the most precise would be a proclamation or a public announcement. The roots of the word lie, not untypically for Spanish, with Latin. The Romans had "praecones", literally heralds. They were messengers, bringers of news. Newspapers in modern or less modern times which took the name herald were giving a nod in the direction of very old history, i.e. the news presenters of old Rome.

The pregonero, the Spanish news presenter of history, was the town crier. The pregonero of the current day is the person like Antoni Ordoñez Muñoz who makes the presentation at fiesta time, though there are pregoneros who have been retained for ceremonial purposes; very much like town criers, therefore.

Getting a handle on when pregoneros first emerged in Mallorca is far from easy. One would assume that they were around in Roman times and they most certainly were around following the arrival of the Catalans in the thirteenth century. There are examples of pregón proclamations from those times, such as one against the "Judaisation" of Mallorca. But as for the historical involvement of pregoneros with the island's fiestas, well it's hard to say. One can again make an assumption, though, that a fiesta pregón may well originally have been the announcement of the entertainment of the mediaeval Mallorcan fiesta. The pregonero, deprived of modern-day design graphics and print techniques, would have been a walking, talking publicity machine, informing the local revellers as to the start time for ye olde beach party and ye olde kiddies' bouncy castle and foam splash fun and games in the market square. 

The current-day fiesta pregón and pregonero are therefore quite different to what they probably once were, but not entirely different. The mediaeval fiestas had their sermons. The current-day version is, in a sense, a combination of the two - the sermon and the announcement/proclamation.

There are some fiesta pregóns which are anticipated more than others, mainly because they are expected to carry some controversy. Palma's fiesta of the standard is a prime example. The pregonero in 2010 was the former president of the Balearics, Cristòfol Soler. He took the opportunity to deliver a pregón which attacked his colleague in the Partido Popular, the current president, José Ramón Bauzá, because of his attitude towards Catalan.

But normally the pregón isn't controversial. As an indication of how varied it can be in its style, there was the one for the 466th edition of Llucmajor's fiestas in 2012. It was a presentation by Bartomeu Font which explored the town's cartography and topography; maps in other words. Other pregóns are similarly used for historical lectures. The pregón for the 2012 fiestas in Son Serra de Marina, as a further example, was delivered by the granddaughter of Joan Massanet Moragues, who had created the first urbanisation of the rather curious village of Son Serra in the early 1950s.

And other pregóns are simple celebrations of a town or a village, which one imagines is what Antoni Ordoñez Muñoz has in store for the people of Puerto Pollensa this evening. There are many others who could deliver a pregón for Puerto Pollensa, and they would be similar. Their port, their beautiful port.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (6.45am): 20.5C
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 6 July - Sun, 32C; 7 July - Sun, possible rain, 23C; 8 July - Sun, some cloud, 27C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 increasing Southeast and South 2 to 4 by midday.

Fine morning and another hot day awaits with plenty of sun. All good for tomorrow, but then on Monday, there appears to be a blip with the likelihood of rain and a sharp fall in temperature.

Evening update (20.00): A high of 33.4C on what has been a fine, sunny and hot day.

No Frills Excursions

That Video - Some Good From The Carnage?

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MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.15am): 20C
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 5 July - Sun, 31C; 6 July - Sun, some cloud, 31C; 7 July - Sun, some cloud, 26C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 3 to 4 veering locally Northeast 3.

Fair amount of light cloud, set to clear and give a sunny day. The weekend outlook is good and, like today, hot.

Evening update (20.45): And it was mostly sunny and hot, but despite a high of 32.4C, felt a bit fresher than the last couple of days.

No Frills Excursions

The Holiday Let Takeover In Mallorca

One headline this week has announced that "for the first time the majority of tourists in Mallorca are staying in non-hotel accommodation". The news that Son Sant Joan has been beating records in terms of passenger numbers since May and is likely to continue beating them during the summer has led to the conclusion that these passenger numbers are the result of tourists staying in non-hotel accommodation. The numbers don't tally with hotel occupancy numbers.

Well, whoever would have thought it? Why has Son Sant Joan been getting the passenger numbers it has until now? Not just because of hotels, that's for sure. If there is indeed now a majority of tourists staying in non-hotel accommodation, then this should come as absolutely no surprise. Mallorca cannot possibly have the number of tourists it gets and put them all in hotels because, despite the high number of hotel places (some 280,000), it is impossible for hotels to get anywhere near meeting tourist demand. It's been said time and time again that this is the case.

Nevertheless, in the quieter months of the summer season such as May, visitors could, in theory, all be accommodated in hotels. That they are not should not be a reason for government and hoteliers to attack the non-hotel accommodation sector (included in which is the so-called illegal offer). It should be a reason for asking why this is so. And there are several reasons. Choice, price, quality in some instances, and of course supply, both legal and illegal.

The passenger numbers will, as ever, be used by the Mallorcan hoteliers federation to ratchet up its attack on the non-hotel sector. They will be used by the government to justify more inspections of properties. It says there have been 3,000 such inspections since January. Aware of the need of the political support of the hoteliers, it will do whatever it can to try and demonstrate that it is acting tough.

But the government, and it knows it, cannot and will not eliminate illegal supply. As the level of non-hotel accommodation is as high as it apparently is, then the pragmatic route - one which the government steadfastly rejects - should be the one it adopts. Permissive regulation, therefore.

Catalonia, with its permissive regime, still faces a sizable problem with illegal accommodation. But having taken the decision to permit registration of the hundreds, thousands of properties that it has, it has also taken a very strict approach on accommodation which contravenes its regulation. So, it is permissive but also restrictive in an appropriate way. It has opened up the market to private property owners but it isn't about to tolerate the ingratitude of those owners who do not play by its perfectly reasonable rules. Unlike the Balearics, where tourism minister Martinez talks tough but where he presents little evidence as to what the consequence of the 3,000 inspections has been, in Catalonia it has processed under a half of the 284 actions it has so far taken against illegal properties. Till now it has realised a total of over half a million euros in fines.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.45am): 21.5C
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 4 July - Sun, some cloud, 30C; 5 July - Sun, some cloud, 30C; 6 July - Sun, 32C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East and Northeast 3 to 4, increasing Northeast 5 at intervals until midday. Possible storm.

There was a storm rumbling around for a time last night but it was a distance away. Just possible there might be one during the day. A sticky, overcast morning, brightening up at times. 

Evening update (20.00): Stuffy at times, the cloud never really going away completely. Very breezy at times, too. High of 31C.

No Frills Excursions

Hear No Evil ... Mallorcan La-La

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MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.00am): 21C
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 3 July - Sun, cloud, 31C; 4 July - Sun, some cloud, 29C; 5 July - Sun, 32C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southeast 4 to 5, occasionally 3 during the morning.

Lovely morning. The breeze will probably pick up as it did yesterday and be quite blowy, pushing in more mainly southerly air, so another hot day in store. Clouding over later, and cloud forecast to persist somewhat into tomorrow.

Evening update (23.00): A high of 30.4C, cloud having come in at times and the breeze by the sea having been quite strong. A good day, though. Tomorrow may well be a bit cloudier. 

No Frills Excursions

Rambla: In the name of participation

In one of its not infrequent moments of translation comedy gold, the trilinguistically-correct Balearic Government recently pressed the click button on its machine translation system of choice and revealed - on its own website - that the minister for public administration had acquired a completely new name. Staggeringly, this was machine translation from Catalan to Castellano and thus Nuria Riera became Nuria Rambla. There is a fairly obvious question here. Why does a government with a firmly pro-Castellano policy in a land where Castellano is a co-official language supposedly spoken by everyone need to use Bing or Google to translate into Castellano? Catalan hasn't taken over that much, surely.

The machine-translation game is one with endless possibilities for amusement and entertainment, and it is one that the regional government has perfected. It has, just as one example, a form on its website in English that allows you to find out about activities of associations. It notes, however: "You can accede to the codes of the purposes and their activities doing click on the attached text document. We noticed to you that the data of the associations enrolled in this new computer science system come from the old application and some still are reviewing since they are updated periodically. By this, it is possible that some data still appear with the old code or information nonupdated. We worked with the objective to reach a complete information. You excuse the annoyances."

Strangely, when one clicks on "directori d'associacions", you get by default this English form. It is doubly strange given that there is virtually nothing else in English on this part of the public administration ministry's section of the government's website. It is a part of the website for "citizen participation" and in particular something called "Balear Opina". This is a new "virtual space", a press release has usefully informed us, to "enhance citizen participation" by bringing together "all resources and tools to enable (citizens') contributions". Just some of these contributions can be questions, suggestions and requests for information, but don't anyone go expecting that there is something approximating freedom of information, because there isn't, while these questions, suggestions and requests had better all be made in Catalan or Castellano. Try asking in English and God alone knows how Google will mangle the question. In fact, to be on the safe side, it would be best to ask in Catalan, as the government doesn't appear to understand Castellano either; hence, Nuria Rambla.

The Balear Opina and citizen participation thing are, so the website tells us, concepts to which the government is committed. As is normal for any government communication, it insists on citing laws and decrees which give credence to this commitment, and it starts by saying that "democracy is based on ... the plurality of ideas and opinions; it is necessary to create a mechanism for control and management (of elected representatives) by the public outside the election period".

Democracy is indeed based on the plurality of opinions, but some opinions become law whereas others remain simply opinions. Take, if you will, the language issue. As the majority of citizens reject the opinion of elected officials who have passed legislation which undermines Catalan, will the Balear Opina mechanism enable the citizens, through control and management, to have this legalised opinion changed? Of course it won't. You can read "mechanism for control and management" as meaning holding elected officials to account, and if they really were held to account, then they would alter legislation that is at variance with majority opinion. But government doesn't work like this. Here or anywhere. The participation thing is a grand illusion.

For Nuria Riera, no doubt, the Balear Opina is a fine creation of governmental openness, communication and explanation. As ever, though, there is a great difference between the practice of openness and its theory. Take another example, the Partido Popular's discount card for members. The hoo-hah over this was brought to an abrupt halt when Riera announced that the card was perfectly legal and that the government had nothing more to say on the matter. The correspondence was closed, so to speak.

Riera is relatively new to governmental circles. She clambered aboard the Good Ship Bauzá, listing because of the storms of Catalan, after the president sacked half his cabinet in May last year. She got the job at public administration, a ministry rarely under public scrutiny because no one is too sure what it does, and also took over the unenviable task of government spokesperson. She's the one, therefore, who has to try and explain what on earth it's up to. And now she can be conscious of what opinion the public has. Or ignore what opinion the public has. There is, if you play the Google-Bing game, a different translation of her name. From Castellano to English. Laugh. Having one.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 July 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.45am): 20C
Forecast high: 32C; UV: 10
Three-day forecast: 2 July - Sun, some cloud, 31C; 3 July - Sun, some cloud, 28C; 4 July - Sun, 28C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 3 to 5, locally Northeast.

With quite stiff southerlies dominating today it is going to be pretty hot because of the Saharan air. Currently clear skies, though there might be cloud later. Forecast for the low-30s tomorrow as well, with the breezes switching northerly by Thursday and cooling things down.

Evening update (19.00): Warm indeed. A high of 32.3C.

No Frills Excursions

In The Blink Of An Eye: Pickpocketing

I cannot explain why, but in an Eroski store yesterday I suddenly turned my head. What I saw in that flash was a woman, tall, in a greyish sort of dress. In front of her was a boy, her son, with a cap on. Why had I suddenly looked at them? I don't know. But what I didn't see was the whole picture. A moment or so later, while I was studying the green peppers in the greengrocery section, I heard a wail and a crying. It was the woman. A member of staff came to her. She had been robbed. Her purse had been lifted from her bag.

I have, or try to have, an acute sense of where I am. Especially in supermarkets in summer. As I enter I look at people. As I go along aisles, I am looking at people. Turning and glancing. I know to be aware. I have seen it happen too often. Or have I? There was one time, in front of the same supermarket, I could see it unfolding. The woman approached the two tourists. But I didn't see it. I knew what was happening but I didn't see. Or maybe I did but a momentary sense of disbelief, a suspension of belief had prevented me from seeing. My mouth went temporarily dumb. By the time I shouted and ran up to the two tourists, she had gone. Nowhere. She had evaporated.

There is an article on the BBC website about how pickpockets use not so much sleight of hand but tricks to fool the mind. The article says, among other things, that "our brains come pretty much hard-wired to be tricked, thanks to the vagaries of our attention and perception systems" and that "(pickpocketing) is as much about capturing all of somebody's attention with other movements", "it's complete attentional overload".

The article talks about how specific movements can fool us. Moving the hand in an arc is far better at holding our attention to the end point of the movement than moving the hand in a straight line. This has to do with saccade, the fast movement of the eye. In a straight line, there is a blind period. With an arc, there is no blind period, the eye follows the movement continuously.

I'm not saying that hand movements or other attention-changing means have been adopted by pickpockets at the supermarket and nor am I saying that I had some sixth sense which made me seemingly involuntarily and suddenly turn and look at the woman, but I am saying that even being hyper-alert or aware can be of little use if the brain is tricked. If it fails to see. Something had made me want to look but then, for whatever reason, I didn't see. After the event, I remembered there was someone else.

In this moment of a blink of an eye, of a trick of the mind, of guard going down, of unawareness, a holiday was ruined. The woman, Russian, was in a desperate state. She was still in a desperate state outside the store where she was waiting for her husband. Between her blubs she said that she had been abroad many times and that nothing like this had ever happened.

Her desperation was all the greater because she had been abandoned. I hadn't initially noticed the other child in the buggy. Now I did. The woman looked as though she was pregnant. What could I say to her?  Why, she asked, were there no cameras in the store? Why indeed? And why no security? Or why is not possible for a victim to be given some help by the store? Why is she left outside in the sun, sobbing, waiting for her husband?

It happens all the time of course. Opportunistic pickpocketing, the flower women, the professional gangs, the bumpers-into, the distractors, the total-attention-grabbers, the ones with hand movements. They are all here. It happens all the time. You should have taken greater care, been more aware. Ah yes, more aware. But sometimes even the aware can be tricked.

I discovered later, was told anyway, that literature advising of potential risks such as pickpocketing was not produced because it would create a "bad image". How much bad image do the resorts need which is the product of inaction, inertia and a failure to warn? How much bad image through there being no assistance for a distraught tourist?

I now have a mobile phone number for the tourist police in Alcúdia. But who else has the number? Supermarkets? Bars? And is the number for the SPAT police, the agents unveiled in May who can assist tourists in their own language? One of whom, it might just have been hoped, could have come to the help of a Russian tourist abandoned outside a supermarket.

* http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140629-how-pickpockets-trick-your-mind