Javier Mato is a journalist who contributes to the Spanish tourism and travel magazine, "Preferente". He has penned a short opinion piece for the website under the heading "Waiting for Podemos". As is common with websites there was a facility to comment on the article, and as is also common the comments missed the point. Mato was not acting as an advocate for Podemos, as two suggested. A third corrected them and rightly suggested that they hadn't read what he had written.
Mato's article was a stinging attack on the recent tourism decree in the Balearics. Or rather, it was a stinging attack on elements of this decree which had nothing to do with tourism, such as the change to building regulations to allow the Rafa Nadal tennis centre to go ahead and the legitimisation of land on which Son Espases hospital is built. Mato went on to suggest that the decree may as well include provisions for school heating and aspects of education. He was being ironic. As he was in concluding that "these shameless acts which destroy all logic" take away what credibility remains of "our political class" and so open the door to Podemos.
Rather than address the point that Javier was making, commenters wandered into tangential territory. It happens all the time. And there are two key reasons why it does. One is that the article isn't read properly (or is read in a way to suit a particular agenda). Two is that commenters aren't really that interested in the article, only in highlighting their own prejudices, opinions and solutions, even if the latter might be half-baked, impractical, sometimes self-serving and self-promotional or fail to appreciate wider issues (of legislation, for instance).
Hence, we get comments of the following variety (not untypical through the good offices of the "Majorca Daily Bulletin" and its Facebook page): Mallorcans don't know what they're doing when it comes to tourism; Mallorcans don't like foreigners; Mallorcans don't and won't listen to what anyone from outside Mallorca might have to say.
I find such generalisations ungracious to say the least, and just who are these "Mallorcans" anyway? They are rarely specified, if ever. They are, it would appear, some amorphous mass of non-intelligent life form. Of course they know nothing about tourism, which is why Mallorca has provided some of the world's leading hotel chains, which is why Mallorca has exported its tourism know-how, which is why Mallorca was the birthplace of tourism. If by Mallorcans we mean politicians, then there may well be credibility to the claim, but otherwise there is not. Mallorcans don't like foreigners? I treat such a view as some kind of reverse xenophobia. It may have some cultural legitimacy on account of insularity, but it would be a dislike reserved as much for mainland Spaniards as it is for people from other countries, while if one takes this as safeguarding interests, then which nation (or island) can truly be said to be any different? And what of not listening to foreigners? Do the "Mallorcans" not listen to Peter Long of TUI, to Stefan Pichler, the CEO of Air Berlin, to Natalia Vorobieva, the CEO of Russia's leading tour operator, Natalie Tours? I would suggest that they listen very closely.
And they certainly listen when news, opinions and reports presented by journalists from overseas are good or bad. They might circle the wagons when Magalluf hits the headlines, but they certainly don't ignore what is said, and when there is, by comparison, a glowing tribute, they readily and naturally acknowledge it. But when it comes to listening, how much attention is paid to the Mallorcans' own journalists? Javier Mato was making a political point, but "Preferente" as well as the better-known "Hosteltur" magazine are reference points for tourism opinion-making. They are Spain's leading tourism publications, and they are both published in Mallorca. Coincidence? No. Mallorca gave the world tourism as we have come to know it, and so it has maintained a journalistic tradition in tourism that goes back to the turn of the last century when it was journalists, notably Miquel dels Sants Oliver, who created the vision for what was to become tourism as we now know it.
Too little attention may be paid to journalists. Wrongly so. The "Mallorcans", in this instance the regional tourism ministry, love journalists who contribute to the tourism promotion strategy of having them write nice things about Mallorca and the Balearics, but they should listen just as attentively to what else they have to say. In a year when the 150th anniversary of Sants Oliver's birth is being commemorated, it would be appropriate were they to be. But then, whatever they might say, there will still be those who choose to read what they want to, even if it is not what was being said, and to self-indulge their own agendas.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 16 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (8.00am): 11.5C
Forecast high: 14C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 17 December - Cloud, sun, 14C; 18 December - Cloud, 15C; 19 December - Sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 4 to 5. Swells to two metres at times.
A cloudy morning, there having been some rain overnight. Improving later though not particularly warm.
Evening update (20.15): Mostly grey all day. Some rain, occasional sun (but not much). High of 14.5C.
No Frills Excursions
Fifty Up: Castellón and Spain's airports
An inaugural flight was made last week. A helicopter landed at a new airport. Its occupants spent a few minutes looking around before the helicopter took off. The airport in question was that of Castellón in the Valencia region. It isn't totally accurate to say that the airport is new because it was itself inaugurated in March 2011, but forty-five months after that inauguration, the first flight - the helicopter - landed.
Of the many excesses perpetrated across Spain that only truly came to light when economic crisis engulfed the country, Castellón airport is one of the worst. It shouldn't have required public money, as the private sector was supposedly going to fund its building (a similar story to that of the disaster of Ciudad Real's airport). It has thus far cost the government in Valencia around 170 million euros, a figure that will rise to almost 200 million when a fee to be paid to the operator is factored in. This operator, the Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin, has the concession to run the airport for twenty years. It is a company which has been undergoing urgent management restructuring and establishment of corporate governance and ethics procedures. Its CEO was arrested two years ago on fraud charges.
The helicopter was able to land at the airport because the national agency for air safety, AESA, had finally granted it a licence to operate. But when the first airplanes start landing is still open to some question. Flights should start in March next year, but then flights were supposed to have started last year. They didn't, and one reason why they didn't was because the runway had to be re-built; it was too narrow. This was just one additional cost that the airport has attracted. There have been others, such as 30 million euros spent on its promotion, a sum that was revealed over two years ago. Then there is the sculpture. It cost 300,000 euros, chicken feed by comparison with some other costs, but a cost that might be added to. Will the sculpture remain? If it does, passengers, as and when they start arriving, will find a face staring out at them from the sculpture. It is the face of Carlos Fabra, ex-president of the Castellón province, who was the driving force behind the airport. Fabra started a four-year prison sentence for tax fraud on 1 December.
The airport should never have been built. A justification for it was as an alternative to Valencia's airport, which is less than an hour away to its south. But the 35,000 passengers that SNC-Lavalin believe will pass through it next year is a miniscule number when compared with over four and a half million passengers at Valencia airport in 2013. It will undoubtedly offer greater convenience for some tourists, but if, as has been said, it is expected to take fifty years to realise a return on investment, where was the wisdom? If there are indeed 35,000 passengers next year, this would place the airport in 34th place in the list of Spanish airports by passenger number (on 2013 figures). There is a vast leap in passenger numbers to the airport in 33rd position, that of El Hierro, the small island in the Canaries, which attracted almost 140,000 passengers in 2013.
Castellón would have to be added to the network of airports operated by AENA. It would bring the total to fifty. A few of these, like Son Bonet in Palma, have limited functions or are heliports rather than airports, but mostly they are airports with genuine commercial operations and Castellón would represent an additional burden for an airport network that the national minister of development, Ana Pastor, once described as "stupid and crazy". And this stupidity and craziness is something which the partially privatised AENA is going to have to get its head around. A rationalisation of the airport network has been pretty much ruled out, and Pastor admitted almost three years ago that such a rationalisation would be complicated, but what do shareholders make of an investment represented by, according to 2012 figures, an accumulated debt of over 12,600 million euros and an accumulated loss of over 70 million, a figure that would be significantly higher were it not for the profits that Palma and Barcelona turn in?
The long-term shareholders who are to acquire a 21% stake are presumably satisfied enough with their investment, but with the government retaining a 51% stake after the 28% of shares go public - delayed until at least February next year because there was no auditor in place (there now is) - room for manoeuvre in terms of network rationalisation will be limited if non-existent because the government appears not to have the political stomach for this. Small, loss-making regional airports will remain, and Castellón will be one more to add to the list.
Of the many excesses perpetrated across Spain that only truly came to light when economic crisis engulfed the country, Castellón airport is one of the worst. It shouldn't have required public money, as the private sector was supposedly going to fund its building (a similar story to that of the disaster of Ciudad Real's airport). It has thus far cost the government in Valencia around 170 million euros, a figure that will rise to almost 200 million when a fee to be paid to the operator is factored in. This operator, the Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin, has the concession to run the airport for twenty years. It is a company which has been undergoing urgent management restructuring and establishment of corporate governance and ethics procedures. Its CEO was arrested two years ago on fraud charges.
The helicopter was able to land at the airport because the national agency for air safety, AESA, had finally granted it a licence to operate. But when the first airplanes start landing is still open to some question. Flights should start in March next year, but then flights were supposed to have started last year. They didn't, and one reason why they didn't was because the runway had to be re-built; it was too narrow. This was just one additional cost that the airport has attracted. There have been others, such as 30 million euros spent on its promotion, a sum that was revealed over two years ago. Then there is the sculpture. It cost 300,000 euros, chicken feed by comparison with some other costs, but a cost that might be added to. Will the sculpture remain? If it does, passengers, as and when they start arriving, will find a face staring out at them from the sculpture. It is the face of Carlos Fabra, ex-president of the Castellón province, who was the driving force behind the airport. Fabra started a four-year prison sentence for tax fraud on 1 December.
The airport should never have been built. A justification for it was as an alternative to Valencia's airport, which is less than an hour away to its south. But the 35,000 passengers that SNC-Lavalin believe will pass through it next year is a miniscule number when compared with over four and a half million passengers at Valencia airport in 2013. It will undoubtedly offer greater convenience for some tourists, but if, as has been said, it is expected to take fifty years to realise a return on investment, where was the wisdom? If there are indeed 35,000 passengers next year, this would place the airport in 34th place in the list of Spanish airports by passenger number (on 2013 figures). There is a vast leap in passenger numbers to the airport in 33rd position, that of El Hierro, the small island in the Canaries, which attracted almost 140,000 passengers in 2013.
Castellón would have to be added to the network of airports operated by AENA. It would bring the total to fifty. A few of these, like Son Bonet in Palma, have limited functions or are heliports rather than airports, but mostly they are airports with genuine commercial operations and Castellón would represent an additional burden for an airport network that the national minister of development, Ana Pastor, once described as "stupid and crazy". And this stupidity and craziness is something which the partially privatised AENA is going to have to get its head around. A rationalisation of the airport network has been pretty much ruled out, and Pastor admitted almost three years ago that such a rationalisation would be complicated, but what do shareholders make of an investment represented by, according to 2012 figures, an accumulated debt of over 12,600 million euros and an accumulated loss of over 70 million, a figure that would be significantly higher were it not for the profits that Palma and Barcelona turn in?
The long-term shareholders who are to acquire a 21% stake are presumably satisfied enough with their investment, but with the government retaining a 51% stake after the 28% of shares go public - delayed until at least February next year because there was no auditor in place (there now is) - room for manoeuvre in terms of network rationalisation will be limited if non-existent because the government appears not to have the political stomach for this. Small, loss-making regional airports will remain, and Castellón will be one more to add to the list.
Monday, December 15, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 15 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.15am): 10.5C
Forecast high: 16C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 16 December - Rain, 16C; 17 December - Sun, cloud, 14C; 18 December - Sun, 14C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 2 to 3 veering Northeast 3 to 4 by the later afternoon.
A storm has been rolling around for a good hour or so. A wet start to the week then. Alerts in place for rain and storms into tomorrow. Sun is likely to make limited appearances today.
Evening update (19.00): There was some sun this morning, but very dark clouds reappeared in the afternoon, producing a further deluge in some areas while others remained dry. A high of 17.2C.
No Frills Excursions
Power Games In The Air
A couple of weeks ago, President Bauzá let it be known that he was unhappy with the national Ministry of Development because it had not responded to repeated requests from the Balearic Government for information from the ministry's "price observatory" regarding air fares for flights between the islands and the mainland. That the ministry and regional government are ruled by the same political party makes this reluctance seems particularly strange, not that party politics should play a part in information provision, but then maybe internal politics within the Partido Popular do explain why the ministry appears disinclined to part with the information. Bauzá, for all that he once appeared destined for greater things in Madrid, has fallen out with central office over specific policies - oil prospecting (three Balearic senators face party sanctions having again voted against prospecting) and financing of the Balearics via the system of tax redistribution - while he has long ceased to be on friendly terms with tourism, industry and energy minister, José Manuel Soria, and has also made himself unpopular with some powerful people in Madrid because of the treatment of Palma's mayor Mateo Isern, who is well regarded by these same powerful people.
When Balearic PP senators previously voted against a national government motion on oil prospecting, the secretary of state for industry, Enrique Hernández, accused Bauzá of "total disloyalty and irresponsibility" (Bauzá had instructed the senators to vote the way they did). The latest act of disobedience has induced Soria to wonder if it is "normal for a PP senator to vote for a proposal by PSOE". The public war of words over oil prospecting has been further ratcheted up by the regional government's spokesperson, Núria Riera, who has said that central government "doesn't understand anything" about the prospecting.
Lack of understanding has become a common theme of complaints by the regional government. Madrid doesn't understand Balearic opposition to oil prospecting, it doesn't understand the need for re-negotiating an improved financing settlement, and it doesn't understand specific requirements to do with transport connections. Bauzá's requests for air fare price information - he has dubbed the non-response from the Ministry of Development "informational opacity" - have been made because of what has been an increase in fares since the collapse of Spanair in January 2012. These fares are also subject to seasonal increases, such as over the festive period, and by as much as three times the regular fare. Moreover, the system of resident discounts creates an excuse to artificially inflate prices; the higher the actual fare, the more the airlines stand to receive from national government (the Ministry of Development) that funds the discounts.
This concern over fares and the ministry's apparent reticence in making information available can be placed in the context of the situation that has arisen regarding slots for inter-island flights. If one goes back to January this year and to the Fitur tourism trade fair in Madrid, there was a "pleasant surprise" for Balearics' representatives when Air Europa announced that it was opening immediate negotiations with the Civil Aviation Directorate-General (DGAC, which is within the ministry) to operate inter-island routes. It was to become a competitor to Air Nostrum but would have to abide by conditions of "public service obligation", meaning that it would have to agree to the number of flights and to ceilings placed on fares. In January, it was said that all that was needed for Air Europa to commence these flights was a nod of approval from the DGAC, though it wasn't until last month that the airline actually set out its proposal.
Since then, and as we now understand, Air Europa has run up against an obstacle, namely the rejection of 60% of the proposed slots by the combined forces of the ministry, the DGAC and the airports authority, AENA. Of the remainder, Air Europa claim, many do not fit in with how the airline had envisaged their scheduling. The president of Globalia, Juan José Hidalgo, of which Air Europa is a part, has added his voice to regional government ones in being unable to understand the attitude of the ministry. The airline may well, as a consequence, walk away from the project to increase inter-island flights, though it is also looking at a solution from a distribution of slots agreed by an association for slot co-ordination (made up of airlines and airports), which can, under European rules, determine slots independently of the government.
Is the situation with Air Europa, which is headquartered in Mallorca after all, an indication of more than just a lack of understanding by national government, caught in the crossfire of the tensions between Bauzá and Madrid and some sort of power game between the two? It would be perverse were this to be the case, especially as Air Europa is now, by some distance, Spain's leading airline under Spanish ownership.
When Balearic PP senators previously voted against a national government motion on oil prospecting, the secretary of state for industry, Enrique Hernández, accused Bauzá of "total disloyalty and irresponsibility" (Bauzá had instructed the senators to vote the way they did). The latest act of disobedience has induced Soria to wonder if it is "normal for a PP senator to vote for a proposal by PSOE". The public war of words over oil prospecting has been further ratcheted up by the regional government's spokesperson, Núria Riera, who has said that central government "doesn't understand anything" about the prospecting.
Lack of understanding has become a common theme of complaints by the regional government. Madrid doesn't understand Balearic opposition to oil prospecting, it doesn't understand the need for re-negotiating an improved financing settlement, and it doesn't understand specific requirements to do with transport connections. Bauzá's requests for air fare price information - he has dubbed the non-response from the Ministry of Development "informational opacity" - have been made because of what has been an increase in fares since the collapse of Spanair in January 2012. These fares are also subject to seasonal increases, such as over the festive period, and by as much as three times the regular fare. Moreover, the system of resident discounts creates an excuse to artificially inflate prices; the higher the actual fare, the more the airlines stand to receive from national government (the Ministry of Development) that funds the discounts.
This concern over fares and the ministry's apparent reticence in making information available can be placed in the context of the situation that has arisen regarding slots for inter-island flights. If one goes back to January this year and to the Fitur tourism trade fair in Madrid, there was a "pleasant surprise" for Balearics' representatives when Air Europa announced that it was opening immediate negotiations with the Civil Aviation Directorate-General (DGAC, which is within the ministry) to operate inter-island routes. It was to become a competitor to Air Nostrum but would have to abide by conditions of "public service obligation", meaning that it would have to agree to the number of flights and to ceilings placed on fares. In January, it was said that all that was needed for Air Europa to commence these flights was a nod of approval from the DGAC, though it wasn't until last month that the airline actually set out its proposal.
Since then, and as we now understand, Air Europa has run up against an obstacle, namely the rejection of 60% of the proposed slots by the combined forces of the ministry, the DGAC and the airports authority, AENA. Of the remainder, Air Europa claim, many do not fit in with how the airline had envisaged their scheduling. The president of Globalia, Juan José Hidalgo, of which Air Europa is a part, has added his voice to regional government ones in being unable to understand the attitude of the ministry. The airline may well, as a consequence, walk away from the project to increase inter-island flights, though it is also looking at a solution from a distribution of slots agreed by an association for slot co-ordination (made up of airlines and airports), which can, under European rules, determine slots independently of the government.
Is the situation with Air Europa, which is headquartered in Mallorca after all, an indication of more than just a lack of understanding by national government, caught in the crossfire of the tensions between Bauzá and Madrid and some sort of power game between the two? It would be perverse were this to be the case, especially as Air Europa is now, by some distance, Spain's leading airline under Spanish ownership.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (6.30am): 11.5C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 15 December - Rain, 15C; 16 December - Sun, rain, 14C; 17 December - Sun, cloud, 14C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southeast 3 to 4 easing 2 to 3 during the afternoon.
Some light cloud across the moon. Should be fine this morning but clouding over later. Tomorrow is looking like a bit of a washout with a northerly wind picking up as well. General outlook is mixed but mainly fine.
Evening update (20.15): Fairly drab most of the day. High of 15.1C. Alerts out for rain and storms tomorrow.
No Frills Excursions
The Slaughter Of The Pig
If you care to look at Mallorcan town hall websites, you will find that there are rules for this slaughter. In 2009 not all town halls were complying because, so they said, they hadn't been informed of the decree. One town hall which was complying was Sineu's. Five years later, and as with all well and truly informed town halls in Mallorca, it instructs the local citizenry that a slaughtered pig has to be given a bill of health by a vet. The animal has to have a mandatory trichinoscopic examination to check there is no trichinella parasite, the so-called pork worm. Old habits were dying hard in 2009. They didn't have such examinations in our day; that was the kind of reaction. And maybe they didn't have trichinosis disease which, at its most extreme, is fatal; death can occur within ten days of eating infected meat.
The matança (plural matances) is traditionally a gathering of family and others to perform the slaughter of a pig which has been fattened since early spring and to then prepare the pig in all manner of ways. It is a tradition that goes back over the centuries. The pig's products could sustain a family for months, and these products were to include the sobrassada. It benefited from the preservative nature of the "paprika tap de cortí" and was to become, along with other types of charcuterie, a mainstay of traditional Mallorcan cuisine.
The matança is not nowadays widely practised. Or at least the reported number of matances which this year have been subject to veterinary examination would suggest this to be the case; just over 500 inspections have been carried out. Nevertheless, and as with so many other Mallorcan traditions, there is a custom to be honoured and to be perpetuated. Which is where the town of Sineu comes into the equation. Today is the Fira de Ses Matances de Sineu, and central to the fair is a demonstration of what to do with the pig once it has been slaughtered (in an abattoir). Not a single part of the pig goes to waste - every piece of meat, the blood, the offal, the organs, the trotters, the fat are processed. It might all sound a bit gruesome, but then this is how it once was. There was no place for squeamishness when sustenance was needed, and it didn't matter that the pig had become more or less a part of the family. It might be noted that once upon a time pigs were essentially domestic animals rather than animals for farming. The production of meat was concentrated more on lamb and goat before an explosion in the cultivation of fig trees in the nineteenth century gave rise to far greater levels of pig farming; the fig is very fattening.
Tradition decrees that the slaughter of the pig doesn't occur until 11 November (Saint Martin's Day) and that it is more likely to occur nearer to Christmas time and so provide dishes for the festive period. Though the pig is the animal most commonly associated with the matança, it doesn't have exclusive rights on the slaughter; turkeys, for example, are also fattened and go towards the making of those festive meals.
The matances fair in Sineu is a recent innovation. It started in 2003 as a theme to be appended to the Fair of Saint Thomas, he who was the doubting Thomas of biblical fame. His day, as in the anniversary of his death, isn't in fact until next Sunday. But what's a week when there's a fair to be held? The second Sunday of December is Thomas's day in Sineu, and as part of the fair today there will also be a contest for the largest pig. Mallorcan fairs love a how-big-is-something competition, and last year the winning pig (the regular pink variety) weighed in at 315 kilos. There is a separate contest for the largest black pig as well.
So, in Sineu today it is all about the pig. If you prefer not to watch the demonstration put on by the pork butchers, there are plenty of gastronomic treats to sample; mostly all of them of course of pig origin and with the sobrassada taking a starring role. On balance perhaps, an event that vegetarians might prefer to give a miss, but an event which, nonetheless, is a celebration of how Mallorca once was.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.45am): 12C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 14 December - Cloud, 18C; 15 December - Rain, 14C; 16 December - Rain, 14C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 3 to 5.
Bit more cloud this morning with a chill breeze. Due to be reasonably warm later but may feel less so with the breeze. Tomorrow is set to be cloudy and then a couple of days of rainy conditions to follow.
Evening update (18.15): A high of 16.2C, so the breeze kept the temperature down on what had been forecast.
No Frills Excursions
The Rogue Ministry Of Education
Governments in the Balearics have established a pattern of having at least one rogue ministry per administration. Under the last lot it was tourism. For almost three years prior to the Unió Mallorquina being ejected with great force from the coalition, it was the UM's bailiwick to pilfer as it wished. It was a ministry that was dysfunctional because tourism was the last thing on most people's minds. Under the current lot the baton of dysfunctionality was handed to education. Questionable competence and mad policy have provided us with a rich vein of knockabout comedy, but it is a ministry that had not been compromised by scandal. Until now.
Let's go back a little further than a week and to education minister Núria Riera standing up in the Balearic parliament and announcing her wish for there to be an "educational pact" with the opposition in order to "reclaim society". This reclamation, an attempt one supposes to restore public confidence in an educational system that has been ripped apart by a trail of governmental and union destruction, was to receive a severe knockback only two days after Riera's announcement. Making a pact with the opposition was going to be tough when the ministry itself was breaking its own internal pact.
Miquel Deyà has been the one constant among senior advisers in the ministry. He was the "strong man" at Núria's side when she was catapulted onto the ministerial throne vacated by the horribly out-of-her-depth Joana Camps. He was made education director-general. He lasted two months before resigning, citing the convenience of "personal reasons", a euphemism which always hides an alternative explanation. And so it proved. Deyà's personal reasons, he later explained, were to do with his declining a request (some might say demand) from Núria and Xisca Ramis, the director of the SOIB employment service and Partido Popular mayoral candidate in Lloseta, to transfer a teacher with PP affiliations from Menorca to Mallorca.
In itself this might not sound like grounds for resignation, but there was more. Xisca Ramis, said Deyà, wanted the teacher transferred as he was to play a key role in her campaign to be elected as mayor. This wholly non-educational purpose was the principal reason for him resigning. Deyà went on to explain that when he discovered that Xisca was seeking other means of ensuring the teacher's transfer, he phoned her and gave her a piece of his mind. "Who do you think you are?" It then emerged that the post to which the teacher was to be transferred was to be created specifically for him. Deyà, on the grounds of cost, could not approve this.
Riera has denied any irregularity, and President Bauzá has weighed in on her side. "She has told me she has not committed any illegality, so my support (for her) is total." The unions begged to differ, and on Thursday the main teachers' union, STEI-i, was off to the prosecutor, and not any old prosecutor. The union handed in a document for the attention of anti-corruption prosecutor Pedro Horrach, claiming, among other things, that there had been a peddling of influence and suggesting that the whole saga was just "the tip of the iceberg" of irregularities in hirings made by the ministry. Taking cover perhaps, Núria cancelled at the last minute a meeting with the educational community in Arta. "Agenda issues" had got in the way, it was said. For Núria, these issues are increasingly difficult. She entered the ministry with a degree of goodwill. She offered a more sympathetic presence to both her predecessors - Rafael Bosch and Joana Camps. She might indeed have secured an "educational pact", but such a hope is now as distant as it had been. Serious allegations have been levelled at her and Xisca Ramis, and where the unions are concerned they are allegations symptomatic of a rogue ministry.
Let's go back a little further than a week and to education minister Núria Riera standing up in the Balearic parliament and announcing her wish for there to be an "educational pact" with the opposition in order to "reclaim society". This reclamation, an attempt one supposes to restore public confidence in an educational system that has been ripped apart by a trail of governmental and union destruction, was to receive a severe knockback only two days after Riera's announcement. Making a pact with the opposition was going to be tough when the ministry itself was breaking its own internal pact.
Miquel Deyà has been the one constant among senior advisers in the ministry. He was the "strong man" at Núria's side when she was catapulted onto the ministerial throne vacated by the horribly out-of-her-depth Joana Camps. He was made education director-general. He lasted two months before resigning, citing the convenience of "personal reasons", a euphemism which always hides an alternative explanation. And so it proved. Deyà's personal reasons, he later explained, were to do with his declining a request (some might say demand) from Núria and Xisca Ramis, the director of the SOIB employment service and Partido Popular mayoral candidate in Lloseta, to transfer a teacher with PP affiliations from Menorca to Mallorca.
In itself this might not sound like grounds for resignation, but there was more. Xisca Ramis, said Deyà, wanted the teacher transferred as he was to play a key role in her campaign to be elected as mayor. This wholly non-educational purpose was the principal reason for him resigning. Deyà went on to explain that when he discovered that Xisca was seeking other means of ensuring the teacher's transfer, he phoned her and gave her a piece of his mind. "Who do you think you are?" It then emerged that the post to which the teacher was to be transferred was to be created specifically for him. Deyà, on the grounds of cost, could not approve this.
Riera has denied any irregularity, and President Bauzá has weighed in on her side. "She has told me she has not committed any illegality, so my support (for her) is total." The unions begged to differ, and on Thursday the main teachers' union, STEI-i, was off to the prosecutor, and not any old prosecutor. The union handed in a document for the attention of anti-corruption prosecutor Pedro Horrach, claiming, among other things, that there had been a peddling of influence and suggesting that the whole saga was just "the tip of the iceberg" of irregularities in hirings made by the ministry. Taking cover perhaps, Núria cancelled at the last minute a meeting with the educational community in Arta. "Agenda issues" had got in the way, it was said. For Núria, these issues are increasingly difficult. She entered the ministry with a degree of goodwill. She offered a more sympathetic presence to both her predecessors - Rafael Bosch and Joana Camps. She might indeed have secured an "educational pact", but such a hope is now as distant as it had been. Serious allegations have been levelled at her and Xisca Ramis, and where the unions are concerned they are allegations symptomatic of a rogue ministry.
Friday, December 12, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.15am): 8.5C
Forecast high: 16C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 13 December - Sun, cloud, 16C; 14 December - Cloud, 16C; 15 December - Cloud, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 2 to 3 increasing 4 by the evening.
Clear-skied chilly morning. Pleasant day in store, at times possibly quite breezy. Staying quite good tomorrow but clouding up for Sunday. Next week looks to be a little colder.
Evening update (19.15): Not bad. Quite sunny but also breezy. A high of 18.1C.
No Frills Excursions
Tourism Promotion And Decree
In the past week we have witnessed a flurry of activity at the Balearics tourism ministry. First there was the announcement of the "158 actions" for tourism promotion in 2015 and then there was the tourism decree, both linked by the pressing concern to limit seasonality and both rather underwhelming. The promotional actions will continue the low-cost theme started two years ago of focusing on travel fairs and journalist/blogger famtrips (familiarisation trips), which are reasonable enough endeavours but ones which fail to impress an industry (and a wider public) that craves greater dynamism. The promotional spend, up by 10% to three million euros, is aimed at the niche products which form the core of off-season tourism, such as cycling, and this emphasis merely serves to reinforce an absence of promotion for the main season. The impression one has is that the good numbers of tourists in recent years has made the regional government believe that the summer sells itself, and up to a point the government would be right. However, this past season was notable for its unevenness; a record-breaking autumn but a slow spring. Sun and beach, much though tourism officials think otherwise - or wish otherwise - is key to the spring, far more so than the alternative, niche products. The experience of 2014 should tell these officials that a greater effort might be required in order to produce less unevenness.
The tourism decree, a headlining aspect of which was the offer of incentives for businesses that are open for a minimum of eight months, was essentially a reinforcement of what was already in the 2012 tourism law. As yet, there is little evidence to suggest that such an offer is having a great deal of impact. News from Santa Ponsa over the past few days which refers to a lengthening of the season would appear not to have been influenced by incentives but rather by hotelier initiative, and the news was really only to do with Pirates Village, which intends to open by mid-March, a season of seven and a half months until the end of October. Incentives may be welcome, but more is needed in order that greater numbers of hotels will open earlier than mid-March and indeed remain open into November. But then, I think we all know this to be the case and what prescriptions there might be.
To place the Balearics promotional spend in context, the Andalusian regional government is to spend 18 million euros as part of its "emergency plan" against seasonality. While the Balearics tourism ministry was issuing its "urgent measures" in the form of its decree, the Andalusians were clearly considering that there was far greater urgency required, and this for a region which already well outperforms the Balearics when it comes to off-season tourism. Andalusia is admittedly a much bigger region geographically than the Balearics, but a notable aspect of its plan (a "strategic objective", according to its tourism ministry) is the creation of a "network of municipalities against seasonality". Andalusia wants to involve as many stakeholders as it can, and these include the towns and cities. Compare this with the Balearics where all bets are on Palma and Palma alone and where, moreover, the bets are mostly made by the private sector without public funding. The Andalusian government is far more involved than the government in the Balearics, and the latest plan follows on from previous efforts to stimulate the off-season; Andalusia has been adopting incentives for businesses for longer than the Balearics.
One final note regarding the activity at the tourism ministry. Jaime Martínez may be able to boast that the number of promotional actions is to increase, but on one promotional front - that of the use of social media and web technology - he was silent. When, oh when are the Balearics going to catch up in this regard? We've been promised action, so where is it?
The tourism decree, a headlining aspect of which was the offer of incentives for businesses that are open for a minimum of eight months, was essentially a reinforcement of what was already in the 2012 tourism law. As yet, there is little evidence to suggest that such an offer is having a great deal of impact. News from Santa Ponsa over the past few days which refers to a lengthening of the season would appear not to have been influenced by incentives but rather by hotelier initiative, and the news was really only to do with Pirates Village, which intends to open by mid-March, a season of seven and a half months until the end of October. Incentives may be welcome, but more is needed in order that greater numbers of hotels will open earlier than mid-March and indeed remain open into November. But then, I think we all know this to be the case and what prescriptions there might be.
To place the Balearics promotional spend in context, the Andalusian regional government is to spend 18 million euros as part of its "emergency plan" against seasonality. While the Balearics tourism ministry was issuing its "urgent measures" in the form of its decree, the Andalusians were clearly considering that there was far greater urgency required, and this for a region which already well outperforms the Balearics when it comes to off-season tourism. Andalusia is admittedly a much bigger region geographically than the Balearics, but a notable aspect of its plan (a "strategic objective", according to its tourism ministry) is the creation of a "network of municipalities against seasonality". Andalusia wants to involve as many stakeholders as it can, and these include the towns and cities. Compare this with the Balearics where all bets are on Palma and Palma alone and where, moreover, the bets are mostly made by the private sector without public funding. The Andalusian government is far more involved than the government in the Balearics, and the latest plan follows on from previous efforts to stimulate the off-season; Andalusia has been adopting incentives for businesses for longer than the Balearics.
One final note regarding the activity at the tourism ministry. Jaime Martínez may be able to boast that the number of promotional actions is to increase, but on one promotional front - that of the use of social media and web technology - he was silent. When, oh when are the Balearics going to catch up in this regard? We've been promised action, so where is it?
Thursday, December 11, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.15am): 13C
Forecast high: 15C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 12 December - Sun, 15C; 13 December - Sun, 16C; 14 December - Cloud, sun, 15C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 4 to 5 easing North 3 to 4 during the morning and Variable 2 to 3 by the afternoon.
Should be a bright morning, but likely to cloud over by the afternoon. Wind has eased but may pick up tomorrow, which is forecast to be good and sunny.
Evening update (20.00): Very pleasant day. A high of 19.9C.
No Frills Excursions
Nights Of Culture: Annual awards
They're having a night of culture in Alcúdia tomorrow. Cut along to the town's auditorium for 9pm, hand over 18 euros, and a cultural extravaganza will be yours to enjoy. And if you are inclined to go along, do be sure to take your Catalan cultural hat with you. This is the Obra Cultural Balear's Night of Culture, one at which the "Premis 31 de desembre" are to be handed out.
It is the time of year for awards to be made, for the great and good to be honoured, for speeches to be made, for photos to be taken. Awards here, awards there, even if, in the case of the OCB's 31 December prizes, they would appear to be being given 19 days too early. There again, on the night of 31 December there are other things to occupy the citizenry of Mallorca; not only New Year's Eve and munching on a dozen grapes but also the memory of 1229. Jaume I the Conqueror upset the New Year's celebrations all those years ago by putting the Muslim occupants to flight or to the sword.
The OCB prizes do have the merit of being named after the last day of the year. Awards should, generally speaking, reflect a year, as in the year gone by. Not all of them do. The Council of Mallorca, for example, has its awards in September. They are the Jaume II prizes, named after Jaume I's lad, and as such they reflect the seemingly eternal difference of opinion as to Mallorcan culture in its historical origins sense. On 12 September 1276, Jaume II was crowned King of Mallorca, a coronation which was also the occasion for issuing what was in effect a bill of rights for the Mallorcan people. Defenders of the true Mallorcan cultural faith, e.g. the OCB, want nothing to do with 12 September. Culture started on 31 December 1229, not 47 years later.
This cultural difference is, it might be said, reflected in the choice of award-winners. The winner of Spain's "Masterchef" 2014, Mallorca's Vicky Pulgarín, received a Jaume II in September. So also did the what's on youth publication, "Youthing". Which is not to say that earnest Mallorcan culture was not also honoured, but the Jaume IIs are a tad frivolous by comparison with a formality of Catalan virtuousness that typifies the 31 December awards. The names of these awards explain much: the Gabriel Alomar prize after the politician and poet who was associated with the Catalan modernist movement; Emili Darder, from the Republican mayor of Palma who was executed by the Nationalists in 1937; Josep Maria Llompart, who was a Catalan poet and essayist and a one-time president of the OCB. Among those who will be receiving an award will be Xïtxeros amb Empenta, a youth association that was founded in Manacor in 2008 and which has as its principal objectives linguistic and cultural recuperation as well as environmental conservation.
The OCB has been dishing out its awards since 1987, and it is interesting to note one or two previous award winners, such as the broadcaster IB3 in 2009. Given all the fuss over linguistic interference by the current government at IB3, one would doubt that it would now be up for an award. Last year, the Gabriel Alomar prize went to the Assemblea de Docents, the teachers' association right to the fore of the anti-trilingual teaching furore, and now a union in its own right. Politics and culture are never too far apart; indeed you could argue that they are one and the same.
Though 27 years old, the OCB awards are not the island's oldest. These are said to be the prizes from the Cope Mallorca radio broadcaster. The 35th edition took place at the end of last month. The Bishop of Mallorca was among the glittering array of attendees. One winner was Pollensa's Olympic canoeist, Sete Benavides; another was Juan José Hidalgo, president of Air Europa and Globalia. The Onda Cero radio station has taken over 30 years to follow Cope's lead, but at its fourth annual awards ceremony, a couple of weeks before Cope's, Rafa Nadal was one of those who was honoured. President Bauzá and Palma's mayor Mateo Isern were both at the Onda event, no doubt giving each other a wide berth, but one would imagine that neither will be in attendance in Alcúdia for the OCB bash.
Bauzá will definitely be at Son Amar on 20 December, as the Partido Popular's own awards - the Larus - will be up for grabs. Will Isern receive one? Doubtful. Will he even go? Whoever does win an award, Bauzá will hope that he doesn't receive the same thinly veiled broadside he got from the PP's ex-president, Gabriel Cañellas, last year, something of which, given allusions to culture regained, even the OCB might have approved.
It is the time of year for awards to be made, for the great and good to be honoured, for speeches to be made, for photos to be taken. Awards here, awards there, even if, in the case of the OCB's 31 December prizes, they would appear to be being given 19 days too early. There again, on the night of 31 December there are other things to occupy the citizenry of Mallorca; not only New Year's Eve and munching on a dozen grapes but also the memory of 1229. Jaume I the Conqueror upset the New Year's celebrations all those years ago by putting the Muslim occupants to flight or to the sword.
The OCB prizes do have the merit of being named after the last day of the year. Awards should, generally speaking, reflect a year, as in the year gone by. Not all of them do. The Council of Mallorca, for example, has its awards in September. They are the Jaume II prizes, named after Jaume I's lad, and as such they reflect the seemingly eternal difference of opinion as to Mallorcan culture in its historical origins sense. On 12 September 1276, Jaume II was crowned King of Mallorca, a coronation which was also the occasion for issuing what was in effect a bill of rights for the Mallorcan people. Defenders of the true Mallorcan cultural faith, e.g. the OCB, want nothing to do with 12 September. Culture started on 31 December 1229, not 47 years later.
This cultural difference is, it might be said, reflected in the choice of award-winners. The winner of Spain's "Masterchef" 2014, Mallorca's Vicky Pulgarín, received a Jaume II in September. So also did the what's on youth publication, "Youthing". Which is not to say that earnest Mallorcan culture was not also honoured, but the Jaume IIs are a tad frivolous by comparison with a formality of Catalan virtuousness that typifies the 31 December awards. The names of these awards explain much: the Gabriel Alomar prize after the politician and poet who was associated with the Catalan modernist movement; Emili Darder, from the Republican mayor of Palma who was executed by the Nationalists in 1937; Josep Maria Llompart, who was a Catalan poet and essayist and a one-time president of the OCB. Among those who will be receiving an award will be Xïtxeros amb Empenta, a youth association that was founded in Manacor in 2008 and which has as its principal objectives linguistic and cultural recuperation as well as environmental conservation.
The OCB has been dishing out its awards since 1987, and it is interesting to note one or two previous award winners, such as the broadcaster IB3 in 2009. Given all the fuss over linguistic interference by the current government at IB3, one would doubt that it would now be up for an award. Last year, the Gabriel Alomar prize went to the Assemblea de Docents, the teachers' association right to the fore of the anti-trilingual teaching furore, and now a union in its own right. Politics and culture are never too far apart; indeed you could argue that they are one and the same.
Though 27 years old, the OCB awards are not the island's oldest. These are said to be the prizes from the Cope Mallorca radio broadcaster. The 35th edition took place at the end of last month. The Bishop of Mallorca was among the glittering array of attendees. One winner was Pollensa's Olympic canoeist, Sete Benavides; another was Juan José Hidalgo, president of Air Europa and Globalia. The Onda Cero radio station has taken over 30 years to follow Cope's lead, but at its fourth annual awards ceremony, a couple of weeks before Cope's, Rafa Nadal was one of those who was honoured. President Bauzá and Palma's mayor Mateo Isern were both at the Onda event, no doubt giving each other a wide berth, but one would imagine that neither will be in attendance in Alcúdia for the OCB bash.
Bauzá will definitely be at Son Amar on 20 December, as the Partido Popular's own awards - the Larus - will be up for grabs. Will Isern receive one? Doubtful. Will he even go? Whoever does win an award, Bauzá will hope that he doesn't receive the same thinly veiled broadside he got from the PP's ex-president, Gabriel Cañellas, last year, something of which, given allusions to culture regained, even the OCB might have approved.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.45am): 11.5C
Forecast high: 16C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 11 December - Sun, rain, 17C; 12 December - Sun, 16C; 13 December - Cloud, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 6 to 7 easing and backing Northwest 4 to 5 by midday.
Still pretty blowy but clear skies, and the wind should drop and give a pleasant but breezy sunny day. Alerts remain for coastal conditions and wind, though both should improve. Outlook for the next couple of days - mostly sunny but remaining breezy.
Evening update (20.00): The wind died down, the sun was out, and it was a reasonable day. A high of 16.7C.
No Frills Excursions
Company Law: Balearics farming legislation
Of ministers in the regional government, there is one who has been spent the period of this administration going about his business in a generally quiet and effective manner. Gabriel Company, minister for the environment, agriculture and land, has not courted attention, yet he has been responsible for laws with far-reaching consequences which are, for the most part, sound in their drafting and to be welcomed. These are the laws for land, fishing and farming.
It hasn't all been plain sailing for Company. He became embroiled in the controversy of the supposedly private trip to Cabrera with former education minister Rafael Bosch which benefited from public money and during which lobster and champagne were consumed; an extravagance which gave opponents a target at which to aim and one that they fired at with relish. He was criticised over the maintenance of forests following the Andratx fire last year, and more recently he failed to convince a sceptical public and opposition that the regional government was unaware of test soundings for oil in Balearic waters. A minister's life is never smooth, but on balance he has been doing a good job, so much so that he has been dubbed "untouchable"; the one minister who Bauzá could ill afford to lose or be prepared to move on.
This untouchability was put to the test over those oil tests. It appeared to many that Company was being hung out to dry by a president eager to distance himself from any hint of regional complicity in oil prospecting. The relationship between the two was already strained, but Bauzá would have appreciated that Company, with his remit for reform on several fronts, had to be held onto. These reforms, while they may have lacked the headlining qualities of those to do with education or tourism, have been central to the government's deregulatory philosophy (where it has suited the government to de-regulate).
The farming law has now finally received full parliamentary approval. It isn't without its controversies, but it is a law which, unusually for Balearics legislation, has been greeted with satisfaction by elements that typically might be expected to oppose Partido Popular legislation regardless of what it contains. The farmers' union has backed it, as has a former agriculture minister, Mateu Morro, who is a member of the PSM socialists, a party with a close association with the green and environmentalist lobby.
The main thrust of the law is to make agricultural land more productive through diversification. Over 60% of Mallorca's land is categorised as being for farming purposes, yet agriculture is a sector which contributes a mere 1.1% of Gross Value Added to the economy and employs a similarly meagre percentage of the workforce, 2.4%. And this workforce is one characterised by its age: there are far too few younger workers in the industry. The diversification, aimed at increasing productivity and at providing new opportunities for business and employment, envisages new activities, such as the opening of hostels for tourists, of shops and of sports facilities with an essentially rural flavour; the sports would, therefore, be related to equestrianism as well as to cycling and hiking. There is even provision for short-term camping. This only allows farms to host a maximum of ten people for two nights, but it is a measure which represents something of a breakthrough for an activity - camping - which has been repressed for too long.
There is a good deal of joined-up governmental thinking. The law will expand rural tourism, though this hasn't met with the full approval of hoteliers as it is farm proprietors who will benefit from this additional tourism. In order to remove any potential objections from the hotel sector, the tourism decree has recognised the changes in use of farming land and brought these within the scope of the tourism ministry's granting of permissions for rural tourism.
There may yet be a challenge to an aspect of the law to do with tree felling. The Balearics association of environment agents, i.e. professionals who work in forestry and the broader environment and is a self-styled environmental police, believes that permissiveness with regard to felling and logging will endanger certain species and increase risks of fires (because of the residue from felling). It is considering a challenge to the law, arguing that it conflicts with state law on natural spaces and the protection of species.
Objections from environmentalist groups are to be expected and are understandable, but this isn't a law that has been greeted with the full force of environmentalist ire. And a reason why may well lie with Company's credibility. He enjoys the confidence of the farming community and of opposition politicians because he comes from the agriculture industry. He was brought into the regional government as an independent precisely because he understood the industry. Other ministerial appointments might benefit from a similar profile.
It hasn't all been plain sailing for Company. He became embroiled in the controversy of the supposedly private trip to Cabrera with former education minister Rafael Bosch which benefited from public money and during which lobster and champagne were consumed; an extravagance which gave opponents a target at which to aim and one that they fired at with relish. He was criticised over the maintenance of forests following the Andratx fire last year, and more recently he failed to convince a sceptical public and opposition that the regional government was unaware of test soundings for oil in Balearic waters. A minister's life is never smooth, but on balance he has been doing a good job, so much so that he has been dubbed "untouchable"; the one minister who Bauzá could ill afford to lose or be prepared to move on.
This untouchability was put to the test over those oil tests. It appeared to many that Company was being hung out to dry by a president eager to distance himself from any hint of regional complicity in oil prospecting. The relationship between the two was already strained, but Bauzá would have appreciated that Company, with his remit for reform on several fronts, had to be held onto. These reforms, while they may have lacked the headlining qualities of those to do with education or tourism, have been central to the government's deregulatory philosophy (where it has suited the government to de-regulate).
The farming law has now finally received full parliamentary approval. It isn't without its controversies, but it is a law which, unusually for Balearics legislation, has been greeted with satisfaction by elements that typically might be expected to oppose Partido Popular legislation regardless of what it contains. The farmers' union has backed it, as has a former agriculture minister, Mateu Morro, who is a member of the PSM socialists, a party with a close association with the green and environmentalist lobby.
The main thrust of the law is to make agricultural land more productive through diversification. Over 60% of Mallorca's land is categorised as being for farming purposes, yet agriculture is a sector which contributes a mere 1.1% of Gross Value Added to the economy and employs a similarly meagre percentage of the workforce, 2.4%. And this workforce is one characterised by its age: there are far too few younger workers in the industry. The diversification, aimed at increasing productivity and at providing new opportunities for business and employment, envisages new activities, such as the opening of hostels for tourists, of shops and of sports facilities with an essentially rural flavour; the sports would, therefore, be related to equestrianism as well as to cycling and hiking. There is even provision for short-term camping. This only allows farms to host a maximum of ten people for two nights, but it is a measure which represents something of a breakthrough for an activity - camping - which has been repressed for too long.
There is a good deal of joined-up governmental thinking. The law will expand rural tourism, though this hasn't met with the full approval of hoteliers as it is farm proprietors who will benefit from this additional tourism. In order to remove any potential objections from the hotel sector, the tourism decree has recognised the changes in use of farming land and brought these within the scope of the tourism ministry's granting of permissions for rural tourism.
There may yet be a challenge to an aspect of the law to do with tree felling. The Balearics association of environment agents, i.e. professionals who work in forestry and the broader environment and is a self-styled environmental police, believes that permissiveness with regard to felling and logging will endanger certain species and increase risks of fires (because of the residue from felling). It is considering a challenge to the law, arguing that it conflicts with state law on natural spaces and the protection of species.
Objections from environmentalist groups are to be expected and are understandable, but this isn't a law that has been greeted with the full force of environmentalist ire. And a reason why may well lie with Company's credibility. He enjoys the confidence of the farming community and of opposition politicians because he comes from the agriculture industry. He was brought into the regional government as an independent precisely because he understood the industry. Other ministerial appointments might benefit from a similar profile.
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (8.00am): 10.5C
Forecast high: 14C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 10 December - Sun, wind, 15C; 11 December - Sun, rain, 15C; 12 December - Sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Increasing Northwest 8 through the morning. Waves to seven or eight metres.
Storming during the night, it is now extremely windy with areas of clear sky among the cloud. A red alert for the coasts, so caution needed for coastal roads and on beaches, and for marine conditions. Alerts also for wind, rain and storms. Continuing windy into tomorrow but sunnier.
Evening update (18.45): Still very windy indeed, as it has been all day, damagingly so in parts. Sunny for a good part of the day but a bitter wind chill. A high of 12.3C.
No Frills Excursions
On Constitution Day: Detestable behaviour
Constitution Day, which was last Saturday, is a day when politicians have a lot to say for themselves; more so than usual, as there is a constitution to be discussed and honoured and matters related to the Magna Carta to be aired. In recent times there has been a recurring theme in Constitution Day addresses. For example, in 2008 the then government delegate for the Balearics, Ramon Socias, had words to say about corruption. The current delegate, Teresa Palmer, was not lost for words on the same subject this year.
Six years ago Socias placed a great deal of emphasis on corruption. He said that "it is high time that we all take action in order that those who wish to take advantage of their status and of their presence in positions of power for their own benefit are expelled for being unworthy of the trust of citizens". A year later Socias used his Constitution Day address to attack the Unió Mallorquina (UM), which was part of the coalition government at that time. "It has cost us too much to be able to consolidate democracy" without some now looking to save their skins. He was referring to a charge levelled at the national government by the UM that Madrid was pushing prosecutors to investigate the party. Socias must have known or sensed what was going to happen. Within weeks UM leaders were being arrested or implicated and at the start of February 2010 the party was booted out of the coalition. Socias had got his expulsion.
On Saturday, Teresa Palmer did not mince her words. "The confidence of the public has been decimated in recent times by the numerous cases of dark, reproachable and detestable behaviour by politicians who provoke repulsion, sick-and-tiredness, annoyance and a deep sense of unease." Palmer is a Partido Popular politician. What she had to say was one of the strongest condemnations of corruption and, by implication, of members of her own party that you are likely to hear.
It would be interesting to know how much, if at all, PP central office or indeed the PP locally, knew about Palmer's speech in advance. Perhaps it had the full knowledge and approval of Mariano Rajoy; let Palmer say things that he himself couldn't without potentially appearing hypocritical. Or perhaps there was an element of independence in her words, given the rather strange function that the government delegate has.
This is a position which is in the gift of the national government. The delegate is the government's highest representative in the Balearics and one who usually is appointed through a recommendation from the ruling party in the regional government, though this doesn't always happen. Socias was delegate from May 2004. He was appointed by the Zapatero PSOE regime after it won the election. The president in the Balearics at that time was the PP's Jaume Matas. It is a position which, in a sense, is above party politics though of course it cannot be. Nevertheless, as a voice of the "state", there is an element of detachment and of being a kind of über-presidential role. As there is nothing more symbolic for the "state" than the Constitution is why the delegate comes to make a speech on Constitution Day.
Palmer went on to add that the government of Mariano Rajoy was the "most ambitious" in combating corruption, something which the former Zapatero government might disagree with as it was that government which created the anti-corruption prosecution service, so her political colours were clearly flying. Nonetheless, the picture she painted by reference to "numerous cases" was in contrast to what the PP's general secretary, María Dolores Cospedal, said on television on Saturday evening. On corruption she stated that there was "less than ever", an assertion that many might find hard to accept.
That the PP has been rattled by the spate of cases which have come to light recently and that the party is on the run in the face of the publicity surrounding these cases is undeniable. Palmer's words may, therefore, have been no more than an indirect party political broadcast for the PP and for Bauzá in the Balearics in particular; make a full and frank admission of the problem but add that there is an "ambitious" programme to tackle it, and the electorate will look on the PP more kindly. But this overlooks (or rather doesn't overlook) the two elephants in different corners of the room - Podemos and the Luis Bárcenas ledgers. Cospedal, referred to, like Rajoy, as an alleged recipient of benefits via the Bárcenas accounts, was not sure if Bárcenas was a "compulsive liar". And that is what everyone would like to know.
"Ambitious programme" but "numerous cases" and decimated public confidence. In a further six years time will the government delegate still be forced to address corruption on Constitution Day?
Six years ago Socias placed a great deal of emphasis on corruption. He said that "it is high time that we all take action in order that those who wish to take advantage of their status and of their presence in positions of power for their own benefit are expelled for being unworthy of the trust of citizens". A year later Socias used his Constitution Day address to attack the Unió Mallorquina (UM), which was part of the coalition government at that time. "It has cost us too much to be able to consolidate democracy" without some now looking to save their skins. He was referring to a charge levelled at the national government by the UM that Madrid was pushing prosecutors to investigate the party. Socias must have known or sensed what was going to happen. Within weeks UM leaders were being arrested or implicated and at the start of February 2010 the party was booted out of the coalition. Socias had got his expulsion.
On Saturday, Teresa Palmer did not mince her words. "The confidence of the public has been decimated in recent times by the numerous cases of dark, reproachable and detestable behaviour by politicians who provoke repulsion, sick-and-tiredness, annoyance and a deep sense of unease." Palmer is a Partido Popular politician. What she had to say was one of the strongest condemnations of corruption and, by implication, of members of her own party that you are likely to hear.
It would be interesting to know how much, if at all, PP central office or indeed the PP locally, knew about Palmer's speech in advance. Perhaps it had the full knowledge and approval of Mariano Rajoy; let Palmer say things that he himself couldn't without potentially appearing hypocritical. Or perhaps there was an element of independence in her words, given the rather strange function that the government delegate has.
This is a position which is in the gift of the national government. The delegate is the government's highest representative in the Balearics and one who usually is appointed through a recommendation from the ruling party in the regional government, though this doesn't always happen. Socias was delegate from May 2004. He was appointed by the Zapatero PSOE regime after it won the election. The president in the Balearics at that time was the PP's Jaume Matas. It is a position which, in a sense, is above party politics though of course it cannot be. Nevertheless, as a voice of the "state", there is an element of detachment and of being a kind of über-presidential role. As there is nothing more symbolic for the "state" than the Constitution is why the delegate comes to make a speech on Constitution Day.
Palmer went on to add that the government of Mariano Rajoy was the "most ambitious" in combating corruption, something which the former Zapatero government might disagree with as it was that government which created the anti-corruption prosecution service, so her political colours were clearly flying. Nonetheless, the picture she painted by reference to "numerous cases" was in contrast to what the PP's general secretary, María Dolores Cospedal, said on television on Saturday evening. On corruption she stated that there was "less than ever", an assertion that many might find hard to accept.
That the PP has been rattled by the spate of cases which have come to light recently and that the party is on the run in the face of the publicity surrounding these cases is undeniable. Palmer's words may, therefore, have been no more than an indirect party political broadcast for the PP and for Bauzá in the Balearics in particular; make a full and frank admission of the problem but add that there is an "ambitious" programme to tackle it, and the electorate will look on the PP more kindly. But this overlooks (or rather doesn't overlook) the two elephants in different corners of the room - Podemos and the Luis Bárcenas ledgers. Cospedal, referred to, like Rajoy, as an alleged recipient of benefits via the Bárcenas accounts, was not sure if Bárcenas was a "compulsive liar". And that is what everyone would like to know.
"Ambitious programme" but "numerous cases" and decimated public confidence. In a further six years time will the government delegate still be forced to address corruption on Constitution Day?
Monday, December 08, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.00am): 10.5C
Forecast high: 15C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 9 December - Rain, high winds, 12C; 10 December - Sun, wind, 14C; 11 December - Cloud, 15C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 3 to 5. Swells to three metres easing.
The moon is a little hazy before sun-up. A wide difference in early-morning temperatures with lows in parts of just over three degrees. Should be a reasonable enough day until this evening when rain is due to come in as well as winds of increasing strength. There are amber alerts for tomorrow for both wind and coastal/marine conditions with winds forecast to reach gale force 8 or 9.
Evening update (18.15): Not at all a bad day with a high of 19.6C, but things are looking distinctly dodgy tomorrow with the amber alert for coastal conditions having been raised to red alert.
No Frills Excursions
Urgent Vagueness: The tourism decree
The regional government has decreed. Urgent measures have been required. A decree has, therefore, been necessary. It is tourism which demands the urgency. There is no time for the normal parliamentary process that accompanies the passing of a law. The decree will be rubber-stamped by parliament without amendment.
Thirty months after the 2012 tourism law was approved, the government has issued its decree. So urgent have been the measures that it has taken them over two and a half years to get round to them, and now that it has, what are we all supposed to make of these measures because, not untypically for tourism minister Jaime Martínez, they come with any amount of lack of clarity?
The urgency, one fancies, has to do with the proximity of the next elections. This is not a decree to grab votes. It is one of goalpost-shifting in order to, for example, allow the government to wallow in the glow of the publicity surrounding the Rafa Nadal tennis centre. Regulations regarding the concession of licences have had to be amended, and so that is what the government - urgently - has done, and in the process has taken away Manacor town hall's rights in the matter.
De-regulation might be thought to be a good thing, and in the case of the Nadal centre it may well be, but it has plainly suited the government to act in this specific instance while it has not in other instances. This tourism de-regulation has also been applied, bizarrely, to the land on which Son Espases hospital has been built. The decree has declared that this land is in "the general interest" (the Supreme Court had itself decreed eighteen months ago that it had to be), but what this has to do with tourism is frankly anyone's guess.
Here are measures introduced to attempt to ensure that if (when) the Partido Popular loses the next election, they cannot be revoked. It is this, I would suggest, which is the true urgency of the decree. But there are other aspects of tourism which demand equal urgency, and which are covered by the decree, that do not get such regulatory clarity. Take holiday lets, for instance. On the one hand we are led to believe that a specific decree related to them has been postponed. On the other we are told that there will be no regulation. To add to the opaqueness, island councils are to "analyse" incidences of holiday lets. What is the point of analysing something if there is to be no regulation?
Because Martínez deals in obfuscation, it is just possible to believe that these analyses may eventually lead to some modification of current legislation to do with private holiday accommodation, but one can only say "may". If a specific decree has indeed been postponed, this may mean postponement until the elections. Is the government, therefore, not wanting to adopt "urgent measures" in respect of holiday lets that might contradict its own stance on the subject and the wishes of the hoteliers? It's impossible to say for sure.
Further analyses - and the decree actually refers to "each tourist area", which implies each resort rather than whole islands - are to be conducted into the "incidence" of all-inclusive. The decree is vague to the point of total silence as to what these are intended to do. But again, as with holiday lets, it is just conceivable that these analyses could lead to further measures to limit the incidence. In the absence of any clarity, however, one cannot be certain.
A headlining aspect of the decree - in "The Bulletin" at any rate - was the provision of incentives for businesses to stay open all year. It might be advantageous for the government to imply that businesses will be open all year, but this is not what is in the decree. The government does consider "seasonality" to be an urgent matter, but it has been urgent pretty much since the dawn of Mallorca's mass tourism. For the government to now try and trumpet some decisiveness it is taking on this urgent matter is eyewash, especially as incentives for businesses which open for a minimum of eight months (not all year, note) were in the original 2012 law. The wording in the decree is unaltered.
What has been added is provision for incentives to tourist businesses in tourist zones declared as being "mature" (as in having stock and infrastructure which is outdated or obsolete). So far only Playa de Palma has been defined as a mature zone (Magalluf, Santa Ponsa and Peguera are due to be). The decree has widened the scope for incentives to include pretty much any business working in the tourism sector, but as for seasonality, it has reduced the minimum opening period - it is "from six months". That is most certainly not all year.
Thirty months after the 2012 tourism law was approved, the government has issued its decree. So urgent have been the measures that it has taken them over two and a half years to get round to them, and now that it has, what are we all supposed to make of these measures because, not untypically for tourism minister Jaime Martínez, they come with any amount of lack of clarity?
The urgency, one fancies, has to do with the proximity of the next elections. This is not a decree to grab votes. It is one of goalpost-shifting in order to, for example, allow the government to wallow in the glow of the publicity surrounding the Rafa Nadal tennis centre. Regulations regarding the concession of licences have had to be amended, and so that is what the government - urgently - has done, and in the process has taken away Manacor town hall's rights in the matter.
De-regulation might be thought to be a good thing, and in the case of the Nadal centre it may well be, but it has plainly suited the government to act in this specific instance while it has not in other instances. This tourism de-regulation has also been applied, bizarrely, to the land on which Son Espases hospital has been built. The decree has declared that this land is in "the general interest" (the Supreme Court had itself decreed eighteen months ago that it had to be), but what this has to do with tourism is frankly anyone's guess.
Here are measures introduced to attempt to ensure that if (when) the Partido Popular loses the next election, they cannot be revoked. It is this, I would suggest, which is the true urgency of the decree. But there are other aspects of tourism which demand equal urgency, and which are covered by the decree, that do not get such regulatory clarity. Take holiday lets, for instance. On the one hand we are led to believe that a specific decree related to them has been postponed. On the other we are told that there will be no regulation. To add to the opaqueness, island councils are to "analyse" incidences of holiday lets. What is the point of analysing something if there is to be no regulation?
Because Martínez deals in obfuscation, it is just possible to believe that these analyses may eventually lead to some modification of current legislation to do with private holiday accommodation, but one can only say "may". If a specific decree has indeed been postponed, this may mean postponement until the elections. Is the government, therefore, not wanting to adopt "urgent measures" in respect of holiday lets that might contradict its own stance on the subject and the wishes of the hoteliers? It's impossible to say for sure.
Further analyses - and the decree actually refers to "each tourist area", which implies each resort rather than whole islands - are to be conducted into the "incidence" of all-inclusive. The decree is vague to the point of total silence as to what these are intended to do. But again, as with holiday lets, it is just conceivable that these analyses could lead to further measures to limit the incidence. In the absence of any clarity, however, one cannot be certain.
A headlining aspect of the decree - in "The Bulletin" at any rate - was the provision of incentives for businesses to stay open all year. It might be advantageous for the government to imply that businesses will be open all year, but this is not what is in the decree. The government does consider "seasonality" to be an urgent matter, but it has been urgent pretty much since the dawn of Mallorca's mass tourism. For the government to now try and trumpet some decisiveness it is taking on this urgent matter is eyewash, especially as incentives for businesses which open for a minimum of eight months (not all year, note) were in the original 2012 law. The wording in the decree is unaltered.
What has been added is provision for incentives to tourist businesses in tourist zones declared as being "mature" (as in having stock and infrastructure which is outdated or obsolete). So far only Playa de Palma has been defined as a mature zone (Magalluf, Santa Ponsa and Peguera are due to be). The decree has widened the scope for incentives to include pretty much any business working in the tourism sector, but as for seasonality, it has reduced the minimum opening period - it is "from six months". That is most certainly not all year.
Sunday, December 07, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.30am): 6.5C
Forecast high: 12C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 8 December - Sun, cloud, 14C; 9 December - Sun, cloud, 13C; 10 December - Cloud, sun, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 3 to 6 backing Northwest 4 to 5 during the morning. Swells to three metres.
Quite a bitter morning following yesterday evening's hailstorm. Mix of cloud and clear skies early on, but some rain is possible. Alerts in place for rain, storms and poor coastal conditions; maybe we've seen the worst of these first two, though. An improvement from tomorrow is anticipated but still the occasional threat of rain and staying quite cold and at times very windy.
Evening update (19.15): Well, rain was indeed possible. There was a heavy shower in the morning but later it was quite sunny. A high of 15.1C.
No Frills Excursions
When There Was A Different Constitution
Mallorca, along with the rest of Spain, has a curious double public holiday interspersed by a day which isn't a public holiday, as in today. To make things even in secular and religious circles, one part of this holiday dualism is devoted to the Immaculate Conception (tomorrow) and the Constitution, which was yesterday. Some might suggest that it might have been an idea to put them together, rather than have a day in the middle, but the referendum of 1978 put paid to that idea. It was 6 December and there was no subsequent moving it or Immaculate Conception.
The 1978 Constitution is the most recent of several constitutional incarnations, the original having been the famed Constitution of 1812 through which the world was to become familiar with the notion of liberalism; it was a Spanish political invention. Strictly speaking, and so taking out two royal charters, two constitutions that were never enacted and Franco's "Fundamental Laws of the Realm", there have been seven constitutions in all.
The 1978 referendum didn't necessarily herald scenes of great joy or celebration. Voters were content enough with the result (yes), but it had been pretty much a foregone conclusion, while, as the "Majorca Daily Bulletin" pointed out in its front-page report of the referendum result (headline: "Democracy for Spain"), a lower than had been expected turnout may well have been the result of the people having got bored with what had been a "big and expensive publicity campaign" on behalf of the government. The greatest difficulty with securing the yes vote was in the Basque Country where 55% of voters abstained and 24% were against (nationally the yes vote outnumbered the no votes by eleven to one).
Notably absent from the report was any mention of today's greatest troublemakers, the Catalonians. This wasn't perhaps surprising, as the new constitution went a long way in acceding to Catalonian demands for autonomous government. It was this acceptance of Catalonia's wishes that left the drafters of the constitution in something of a pickle. Other regions had started to voice their desire for autonomous government. In the end, they decided to give every region autonomy, which is what exists today.
But had it not been for the intervention of the Civil War and then Franco, autonomy might have occurred earlier. The previous constitution of 1931 had paved the way for there to be regional autonomy. A draft statute for Balearics' autonomy was in fact approved in July of that year, but it was never put into effect. The reasons why were several. One was a disagreement as to whether the Balearics, lacking it was said a political tradition, should in fact form part of an autonomous Catalonia. Another was that, despite its approval, there were a great number of local authorities which hadn't been represented at an assembly held at Palma's Teatre Principal. The Menorcans were against the draft and so didn't show up and nor did representatives from various towns in Mallorca - Valldemossa, Muro, Ses Salines, to name but three.
The driving-force behind the draft statute was something known as the Association for Mallorcan Culture, and there was no one more important in this association than Joan Pons Marquès. Born in Soller in 1894, Pons was a writer, philosopher, historian and one of the leading intellectuals that Mallorca produced in the twentieth century. The Association, formed in 1923, had as its principal objective the promotion of Catalan culture in Mallorca. Between 1928 and 1936 it published a monthly magazine called "La nostra terra" which while eclectic in political views - both those of the left and of the Christian right - held firm to the notion of the Catalan language and to autonomy for the Balearics.
Pons had no truck with the notion of a pact of autonomy with Catalonia (the constitution didn't allow it anyway), which was something the heavily Republican Menorcans wanted. They, the Menorcans, also considered the whole Balearics' autonomy movement to have been a front for control by the man who would become Franco's banker, Joan March. Pons himself, while liberal, was of a centre-right political persuasion. His promotion of the Catalan language was not to prove to be an issue once Franco took charge. Indeed, he was president of the Societat Arqueològica Lulliana (an association which honoured the Mallorcan Ramon Llull) right through the period of the Franco regime until his death in 1971. It was an association which, despite its obvious Catalan connection, was never proscribed.
The 1931 constitution, drawn up by the Second Republic, was of course scrapped by Franco. Pons, an advocate of autonomy, bowed to the inevitable and a quiet, obedient life. It was to be 47 years from the drafting of the Balearics statute of autonomy before autonomy was once again to appear on the agenda.
The 1978 Constitution is the most recent of several constitutional incarnations, the original having been the famed Constitution of 1812 through which the world was to become familiar with the notion of liberalism; it was a Spanish political invention. Strictly speaking, and so taking out two royal charters, two constitutions that were never enacted and Franco's "Fundamental Laws of the Realm", there have been seven constitutions in all.
The 1978 referendum didn't necessarily herald scenes of great joy or celebration. Voters were content enough with the result (yes), but it had been pretty much a foregone conclusion, while, as the "Majorca Daily Bulletin" pointed out in its front-page report of the referendum result (headline: "Democracy for Spain"), a lower than had been expected turnout may well have been the result of the people having got bored with what had been a "big and expensive publicity campaign" on behalf of the government. The greatest difficulty with securing the yes vote was in the Basque Country where 55% of voters abstained and 24% were against (nationally the yes vote outnumbered the no votes by eleven to one).
Notably absent from the report was any mention of today's greatest troublemakers, the Catalonians. This wasn't perhaps surprising, as the new constitution went a long way in acceding to Catalonian demands for autonomous government. It was this acceptance of Catalonia's wishes that left the drafters of the constitution in something of a pickle. Other regions had started to voice their desire for autonomous government. In the end, they decided to give every region autonomy, which is what exists today.
But had it not been for the intervention of the Civil War and then Franco, autonomy might have occurred earlier. The previous constitution of 1931 had paved the way for there to be regional autonomy. A draft statute for Balearics' autonomy was in fact approved in July of that year, but it was never put into effect. The reasons why were several. One was a disagreement as to whether the Balearics, lacking it was said a political tradition, should in fact form part of an autonomous Catalonia. Another was that, despite its approval, there were a great number of local authorities which hadn't been represented at an assembly held at Palma's Teatre Principal. The Menorcans were against the draft and so didn't show up and nor did representatives from various towns in Mallorca - Valldemossa, Muro, Ses Salines, to name but three.
The driving-force behind the draft statute was something known as the Association for Mallorcan Culture, and there was no one more important in this association than Joan Pons Marquès. Born in Soller in 1894, Pons was a writer, philosopher, historian and one of the leading intellectuals that Mallorca produced in the twentieth century. The Association, formed in 1923, had as its principal objective the promotion of Catalan culture in Mallorca. Between 1928 and 1936 it published a monthly magazine called "La nostra terra" which while eclectic in political views - both those of the left and of the Christian right - held firm to the notion of the Catalan language and to autonomy for the Balearics.
Pons had no truck with the notion of a pact of autonomy with Catalonia (the constitution didn't allow it anyway), which was something the heavily Republican Menorcans wanted. They, the Menorcans, also considered the whole Balearics' autonomy movement to have been a front for control by the man who would become Franco's banker, Joan March. Pons himself, while liberal, was of a centre-right political persuasion. His promotion of the Catalan language was not to prove to be an issue once Franco took charge. Indeed, he was president of the Societat Arqueològica Lulliana (an association which honoured the Mallorcan Ramon Llull) right through the period of the Franco regime until his death in 1971. It was an association which, despite its obvious Catalan connection, was never proscribed.
The 1931 constitution, drawn up by the Second Republic, was of course scrapped by Franco. Pons, an advocate of autonomy, bowed to the inevitable and a quiet, obedient life. It was to be 47 years from the drafting of the Balearics statute of autonomy before autonomy was once again to appear on the agenda.
Saturday, December 06, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.30am): 11.5C
Forecast high: 13C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 7 December - Cloud, sub, 12C; 8 December - Sun, cloud, 14C; 9 December - Cloud, sun, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West and Northwest 3 to 5 veering Northeast by the afternoon. Swells to two metres.
Mainly clear first thing and a bit nippy, temperatures down to six degrees in parts. Due to cloud over and rain later with snow falling at 900 metres. Tomorrow looks like being windy but mostly sunny. Staying quite cold.
Evening update (18.15): Warmer day than had been anticipated, better day than had been anticipated. Some rain and storm coming in now; alerts for rain and for poor coastal conditions. A high of 16.5C.
No Frills Excursions
Politics Of The Subjunctive
The world of marketing loves differentiation. "We are differentiating our product according to brand attributes in line with customer values, psychographics and demographics for the millennial generation and, going forward, for the post-millennial epoch." Or some such load of old nonsense. The world of politics doesn't love differentiation. Instead it loves unsorted clutter: whole loads of rag-tag, unkempt parties or groupings thrown on to a heap marked THE LEFT. This at least is what one has to conclude in Mallorca thanks to the emergence of something called Guanyem. What the hell is Guanyem? Those Catalan speakers among you will know. Guanyem. We win. Or, in the subjunctive mode, hypothetically we might win. One imagines they (we) mean the former.
We's are the flavour of the leftist month and months at present: Podemos, we can, we are able to. There is no additional subjunctive equivocation where Podemos are concerned. We can. Not, we might in theory be able to. Herein lies the differentiation perhaps. Guanyem aren't sure. Podemos are. But this still doesn't answer the question who the we-winners are. Let me explain. They emerged in Barcelona a couple of months or more ago, proclaiming that they were a "third way". Third way!? Where have we heard that before. They're not Blair in disguise, are they? On being launched, it was suggested that Podemos would be integrated within them. Together we can win, or something like this, I guess. If this was truly the case, then Podemos in a Mallorcan style hasn't been informed, as when Guanyem in Mallorca announced itself to the island last weekend, Podemos were apparently "indifferent".
Perhaps Podemos were smelling the rat of their thunder being stolen (if I'm allowed to mix idioms in such an abject fashion). Pablo Iglesias had after all appeared to go all soft and project Podemos as a social-democrat party, a bit of a third way in itself but with a Nordic flavour, which was all slightly odd. Hadn't Zapatero also taken the path of a part-Scandinavian "tercera via", his own third way?
It does, I'm afraid, all get terribly complicated. Left-wing parties here, left-wing coalitions there (or not), left-wing dilutions elsewhere. To describe the left as being cluttered is something of an understatement. The left is a wardrobe packed full of political textbooks and dialectics which when opened brings all this non-differentiation crashing down on a confused electorate, and one, moreover, which is likely to get increasingly turned off by the sheer volume that has been turned on by the left. Meanwhile, the Partido Popular can continue in blissful isolation on the right. Hypothetically, it should be capable of beating this pick 'n' mix of the left, but only in the subjunctive sense.
We's are the flavour of the leftist month and months at present: Podemos, we can, we are able to. There is no additional subjunctive equivocation where Podemos are concerned. We can. Not, we might in theory be able to. Herein lies the differentiation perhaps. Guanyem aren't sure. Podemos are. But this still doesn't answer the question who the we-winners are. Let me explain. They emerged in Barcelona a couple of months or more ago, proclaiming that they were a "third way". Third way!? Where have we heard that before. They're not Blair in disguise, are they? On being launched, it was suggested that Podemos would be integrated within them. Together we can win, or something like this, I guess. If this was truly the case, then Podemos in a Mallorcan style hasn't been informed, as when Guanyem in Mallorca announced itself to the island last weekend, Podemos were apparently "indifferent".
Perhaps Podemos were smelling the rat of their thunder being stolen (if I'm allowed to mix idioms in such an abject fashion). Pablo Iglesias had after all appeared to go all soft and project Podemos as a social-democrat party, a bit of a third way in itself but with a Nordic flavour, which was all slightly odd. Hadn't Zapatero also taken the path of a part-Scandinavian "tercera via", his own third way?
It does, I'm afraid, all get terribly complicated. Left-wing parties here, left-wing coalitions there (or not), left-wing dilutions elsewhere. To describe the left as being cluttered is something of an understatement. The left is a wardrobe packed full of political textbooks and dialectics which when opened brings all this non-differentiation crashing down on a confused electorate, and one, moreover, which is likely to get increasingly turned off by the sheer volume that has been turned on by the left. Meanwhile, the Partido Popular can continue in blissful isolation on the right. Hypothetically, it should be capable of beating this pick 'n' mix of the left, but only in the subjunctive sense.
Friday, December 05, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.45am): 11.5C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 6 December - Rain, 16C; 7 December - Sun, rain, 13C; 8 December - Cloud, sun, 14C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 3 veering and increasing Northwest 4 to 5.
Not a bad morning but still with the risk of some rain at some point. Tomorrow's looking iffy, but an improvement may occur from Sunday, albeit temperatures will not be high.
Evening update (19.00): Some heavy rain in areas, while others have remained dry and quite sunny. A high of 16.7C.
No Frills Excursions
Going Up-Market In The Balearics
How far can the Balearics risk pushing tourism up-market to the potential detriment of the bread-and-butter three-star tourist profile? It is a question that is being asked and one for which further information has come from the tourism ministry's yearbook. This shows that the number of beds in four and five-star hotels has risen by almost 17,000 since 2008. The drive towards quality improvement was born out of economic crisis, and so this increase should be considered a very positive one. Yet, with 57 more four and five-star hotels than there were in 2008, there remains the nagging worry about the islands potentially pricing themselves out of the market. Or should that be out of a market?
The president of the hoteliers' federation, Aurelio Vázquez, is in no doubt that the news is positive; it has been a "qualitative leap". With quality, investment and innovation in mind, Vázquez, who is also Iberostar's CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has been addressing the structure of the hotel industry in Mallorca and in Spain. He believes there is too much fragmentation, by which he means that there are too many smaller hotel chains which are not delivering and are not capable of delivering the necessary improvements to hotel stock. While this might sound like a call for large chains such as his own to gobble smaller ones up, he is almost certainly correct when he points to the negative consequence of fragmentation. Quality may suffer along with marketing and branding, all of them increasingly important in the global travel market. Vázquez concedes that Spanish chains have not necessarily been that good at branding, but larger ones have been upping their branding game notably. Be Live (Globalia), Meliá, Barceló and Iberostar itself are all examples of chains engaged in branding investment.
Vázquez, meanwhile, has been back on his holiday-lets hobby-horse. He has warned that Spain is "in danger of mortgaging its tourism" because of the growth in holiday rental accommodation. He accepts that standalone and semi-detached properties can be included in a regulated accommodation market but not apartments. But if he accepts that some types of property can form part of a "tourism model Spain wants for the next ten to twenty years", why can apartments not also be a part, so long as standards are set and adhered to? The logic is not always easy to follow.
The president of the hoteliers' federation, Aurelio Vázquez, is in no doubt that the news is positive; it has been a "qualitative leap". With quality, investment and innovation in mind, Vázquez, who is also Iberostar's CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has been addressing the structure of the hotel industry in Mallorca and in Spain. He believes there is too much fragmentation, by which he means that there are too many smaller hotel chains which are not delivering and are not capable of delivering the necessary improvements to hotel stock. While this might sound like a call for large chains such as his own to gobble smaller ones up, he is almost certainly correct when he points to the negative consequence of fragmentation. Quality may suffer along with marketing and branding, all of them increasingly important in the global travel market. Vázquez concedes that Spanish chains have not necessarily been that good at branding, but larger ones have been upping their branding game notably. Be Live (Globalia), Meliá, Barceló and Iberostar itself are all examples of chains engaged in branding investment.
Vázquez, meanwhile, has been back on his holiday-lets hobby-horse. He has warned that Spain is "in danger of mortgaging its tourism" because of the growth in holiday rental accommodation. He accepts that standalone and semi-detached properties can be included in a regulated accommodation market but not apartments. But if he accepts that some types of property can form part of a "tourism model Spain wants for the next ten to twenty years", why can apartments not also be a part, so long as standards are set and adhered to? The logic is not always easy to follow.
Thursday, December 04, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (8.00am): 9C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 1
Three-day forecast: 5 December - Rain, sun, 16C; 6 December - Rain, sun, 12C; 7 December - Cloud, sun, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southeast 3 to 4 easing and veering Northwest 2 by late afternoon.
Chilly morning, some cloud, likely to get heavier later and bring rain - there's a yellow alert for rain in place. The outlook remains very unsettled with colder weather expected over the weekend.
Evening update (19.30): The rain never materialised. Mainly cloudy all day with a high of 16.6C.
No Frills Excursions
Society Is Sick: Corruption in Spain
There was a time when I paid comparatively little attention to politics in Mallorca or indeed to politics in Spain. What made me take far greater notice was what happened on 27 November 2006. The mayor of Andratx, Eugenio Hidalgo, was arrested, as was the director-general of land planning at the regional government. The trail from the corruption case which exposed Hidalgo was to lead to Jaume Matas, then the president of the Balearics. More or less all the corruption investigations since had their origins in Andratx. Investigators and judges began to make links; Urdangarin, Munar, Matas, you can trace them all back to that day eight years ago.
It is conceivable that fewer cases might have cropped up had it not been for the former attorney-general, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, seeking and appointing regional prosecutors to root out corruption and later creating the anti-corruption and organised crime prosecution service. In 2004 the Balearics got the first regional prosecutor, Juan Carrau, who instigated the case against Hidalgo, by which time he had been joined by the second prosecutor, the more celebrated Pedro Horrach. There are now four prosecutors in all.
As we are all too well aware, new corruption cases still arise with regrettable frequency. The prosecutors have greater powers, but they can't prevent corruption, only investigate it. Nevertheless, maybe these greater powers have had some deterrent effect or at least helped to improve the perception of corruption in Spain. The latest survey of corruption in 175 countries by Transparency International (TI) shows that Spain has improved three places since last year; it is ranked 37.
A director at TI, Alejandro Salas, has suggested that when economic times were good, corruption was hidden. Economic difficulties have brought about greater awareness and willingness to pursue the corrupt and a more open public and political debate about corruption. Hence why, one might suggest, Mariano Rajoy has been talking about the subject, but then Rajoy's pronouncements have tended to be reactive, as was the case with the now infamous "Spain is not corrupted".
Rajoy didn't actually say that "Spain is not corrupt". It was "is not corrupted". The semantic distinction is important, as it implies a corruption of recent times. But this is a view with which Alejandro Salas disagrees. "Corruption is not new in Spain. It is an historical phenomenon." "What strikes me is that corruption in Spain is very structural, very systematic. It is not just one party, not one government, not one province. It is impregnated into different sectors of society." Rajoy might be advised to take note of what Salas says, just as he might like to consider words that were spoken in 1993. "It is not politicians who are corrupt, but it is society that is sick." Who spoke them? Jaume Matas, who, in addition to having twice been Balearics president, was a colleague of Rajoy's in Aznar's national government. Matas was quoting a Spanish philosopher, José Luis Aranguren.
Gabriel Garcias is a professor of law at the university in Palma. He has said that "so long as there is no ethical or moral transformation in society, the law will solve nothing". I used this same quote in an article from 2010. The prosecutors have been prosecuting since then, but have they really had a deterrent effect? Maybe, but at the time I was quoting Garcias I was also quoting the Balearics spokesperson for the UPyD party, Juan Luis Calbarro: "The Balearics have the highest number of people who are corrupt or allegedly corrupt per square metre in Spain." Calbarro explained the link between politics and society thus: "businesspeople who are friends of certain politicians, businesspeople who assemble companies in order to receive adjudications decided by their political friends, as well as the wives, husbands, cousins and nephews of politicians".
Since the emergence of the Hidalgo affair in 2006, I have written some 70 articles with corruption as a central theme. The society-politics nexus has been a not uncommon aspect of these articles. Some might aver that politics are divorced from society at large. In terms of general society's distance from the political machinery and from decision-making, this is probably so, but society and politics are most definitely not separated in other ways. They are one and the same when it comes to corruption. Garcias and Calbarro said so in 2010. Salas now says so, and even Matas implied this twenty-one years ago.
The historical phenomenon of corruption to which Alejandro Salas refers can be found over the centuries. For example, the Inquisition was inherently corrupt on account of the need to fund and perpetuate itself, while the sham democracy from the later nineteenth century run by the local political bosses, the "caciques", was so corrupt that no one even sought to hide the fact. "Spain is not corrupted." It's a semantic error.
It is conceivable that fewer cases might have cropped up had it not been for the former attorney-general, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, seeking and appointing regional prosecutors to root out corruption and later creating the anti-corruption and organised crime prosecution service. In 2004 the Balearics got the first regional prosecutor, Juan Carrau, who instigated the case against Hidalgo, by which time he had been joined by the second prosecutor, the more celebrated Pedro Horrach. There are now four prosecutors in all.
As we are all too well aware, new corruption cases still arise with regrettable frequency. The prosecutors have greater powers, but they can't prevent corruption, only investigate it. Nevertheless, maybe these greater powers have had some deterrent effect or at least helped to improve the perception of corruption in Spain. The latest survey of corruption in 175 countries by Transparency International (TI) shows that Spain has improved three places since last year; it is ranked 37.
A director at TI, Alejandro Salas, has suggested that when economic times were good, corruption was hidden. Economic difficulties have brought about greater awareness and willingness to pursue the corrupt and a more open public and political debate about corruption. Hence why, one might suggest, Mariano Rajoy has been talking about the subject, but then Rajoy's pronouncements have tended to be reactive, as was the case with the now infamous "Spain is not corrupted".
Rajoy didn't actually say that "Spain is not corrupt". It was "is not corrupted". The semantic distinction is important, as it implies a corruption of recent times. But this is a view with which Alejandro Salas disagrees. "Corruption is not new in Spain. It is an historical phenomenon." "What strikes me is that corruption in Spain is very structural, very systematic. It is not just one party, not one government, not one province. It is impregnated into different sectors of society." Rajoy might be advised to take note of what Salas says, just as he might like to consider words that were spoken in 1993. "It is not politicians who are corrupt, but it is society that is sick." Who spoke them? Jaume Matas, who, in addition to having twice been Balearics president, was a colleague of Rajoy's in Aznar's national government. Matas was quoting a Spanish philosopher, José Luis Aranguren.
Gabriel Garcias is a professor of law at the university in Palma. He has said that "so long as there is no ethical or moral transformation in society, the law will solve nothing". I used this same quote in an article from 2010. The prosecutors have been prosecuting since then, but have they really had a deterrent effect? Maybe, but at the time I was quoting Garcias I was also quoting the Balearics spokesperson for the UPyD party, Juan Luis Calbarro: "The Balearics have the highest number of people who are corrupt or allegedly corrupt per square metre in Spain." Calbarro explained the link between politics and society thus: "businesspeople who are friends of certain politicians, businesspeople who assemble companies in order to receive adjudications decided by their political friends, as well as the wives, husbands, cousins and nephews of politicians".
Since the emergence of the Hidalgo affair in 2006, I have written some 70 articles with corruption as a central theme. The society-politics nexus has been a not uncommon aspect of these articles. Some might aver that politics are divorced from society at large. In terms of general society's distance from the political machinery and from decision-making, this is probably so, but society and politics are most definitely not separated in other ways. They are one and the same when it comes to corruption. Garcias and Calbarro said so in 2010. Salas now says so, and even Matas implied this twenty-one years ago.
The historical phenomenon of corruption to which Alejandro Salas refers can be found over the centuries. For example, the Inquisition was inherently corrupt on account of the need to fund and perpetuate itself, while the sham democracy from the later nineteenth century run by the local political bosses, the "caciques", was so corrupt that no one even sought to hide the fact. "Spain is not corrupted." It's a semantic error.
Wednesday, December 03, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.45am): 10.5C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 4 December - Rain, 19C; 5 December - Rain, sun, 14C; 6 December - Rain, sun, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 4 to 5 easing 3 to 4 during the morning.
Clear first thing and a bit chilly. Rain forecast through the day, however. The general outlook is still not very good. There may be more by way of sun by the weekend, but it is set to also be quite cold with snow at high levels.
Evening update (19.00): The sun was out for a time this morning, but rain came in later. A high of 17.2C.
No Frills Excursions
The Peculiar World Of Little Nicholas
There are many examples of impostors. They can be as innocent as our man in the winner's enclosure or less innocent. They are not all fantasists, as some are put up to it by others, but generally that is exactly what they are - fantasists who have a need to associate themselves with the famous, the powerful or the rich. And Spain has a fantasist impostor who has had a need to associate with all three. His name is Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias, better known to the Spanish media as "el pequeño Nicolás", little Nicholas, whose craving for association has gone further than mere association. His extraordinary story began to unravel in October when he was arrested and charged with fraud, forgery and identity theft.
Little Nicholas is now twenty years old, but the public display of his world of fantasy, and later deception, goes back to 2008 when, just fourteen years old, he made his first public appearance. Mariano Rajoy and the then president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, attended the celebration for the day of the community. In the video of the report of this celebration you can see Little Nicholas looking over towards the reporter, and so at the camera, and then moving towards her. He tries to obstruct her. She asks him to stop pushing her. She realises that here is a boy who is pretending to be with security.
It was a taster of what was to come because Little Nicholas, among other things, claimed to be involved with the security services, and in particular the National Intelligence Centre (CNI). It was this fantasy which was to lead to his arrest; he allegedly fabricated a document supposedly from the CNI and forged the signature of the government's vice-premier, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría.
Little Nicholas was well-known in Partido Popular Nuevas Generaciones' circles (the PP youth wing), but somehow he managed to have contacts that went way beyond this political involvement. Yes, there were politicians with whom he supposedly had close links, such as Ana Botella, the mayor of Madrid, and Sáenz de Santamaría, but there were also associations with the royal family. He had met Princess Cristina who apparently believed he could help her with regard to the "caso Noos" affair. This association with the royal household came to an end, he claims, when the CNI started to ask him to do things he didn't like. Little Nicholas had also, though, met King Felipe, and that is beyond doubt. There is a photo of him bowing in front of the new king at his coronation.
The list of contacts and associations Little Nicholas alleges to have had would take far too long to detail. The royal household and others, even including Las Vegas Sands, the promoters of the failed Eurovegas project, all deny these contacts. His claims are utterly extraordinary but there is at the back of them nagging questions, such as how he was able to, for instance, apparently be invited to the king's coronation and how it was that he was always to be seen at various events.
Little Nicholas, who seemingly craved fame, has now found it, but it is fame that has come as a result of his fantasies having got out of hand. His deceptions were used to allegedly extract commissions for "helping out" thanks to his supposed contacts. This was the case with the forged CNI document. He was using influence that he didn't actually have to defraud. Or did he have influence? The revelations are coming thick and fast and the latest involve the secretary of state for trade, Jaime García-Legaz. He admits that he might have been "imprudent". Why? Well, because Little Nicholas, then eighteen, was seemingly involved in meetings between Legaz and senior representatives of Madrid town hall at which licences were discussed. Little Nicholas's alleged frauds stem from seeking kickbacks for licences.
The Little Nicholas case has become ever more bizarre. Is he just a wild fantasist with "megalomaniac delusions", as was noted when he appeared before the judge in October? Or is there more to it? The judge herself found it, for example, hard to understand how he had attended all the various events he had without seemingly not having alerted someone to his behavour. No one ever asked, just like the man in the winner's enclosure. But many others are now wondering. Fantasist, yes, but was someone putting him up to it?
Tuesday, December 02, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (8.00am): 11C
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 3 December - Rain, 18C; 4 December - Rain, 15C; 5 December - Rain, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North to Northeast 5 to 7. Occasional force 8 possible.
Wild morning with rain around. A yellow alert for coastal and marine conditions. Staying grey all day, with the general outlook right into the coming weekend showing little sign of improvement.
Evening update (18.30): Wind, rain, cold. The forecast high was way off. A high of just 13.5C.
No Frills Excursions
Formerly Quaint: Mallorca's fishermen
Old photos from the turn of the last century will confirm the one-time evidence of this quaintness and of the fishermen's trade. The quaintness persisted for many a decade. The 1960s did for it. Coastal settlements which could once legitimately claim such quaintness had it concreted over and turned into a living but dying museum piece amidst the rush towards so-called "balearisation", a term of inherent contradiction as it alludes to an orgy of construction that was simultaneously de-construction. Can Picafort was once a quaint fishing village. Even Magalluf has been described thus (less accurately as there were barely enough dwellings to constitute a tiny hamlet let alone a village).
The old-timer fishermen now long into retirement are honoured annually at fiestas to celebrate Sant Pere, aka Saint Peter, the patron saint of fishermen. These ancients of the sea accompany the image of the saint to the water's edge and watch misty-eyed as it floats and bobs on the bay as though it were in supplication for a return to the days of quaintness, abundance and simplicity.
Last year, they held a secondhand fair in Puerto Pollensa. Its purpose was to assist in raising funds for the local fishermen. The "confraria" (brotherhood or perhaps guild) of fishermen had been stung by changes to ways in which charges were made for storage. Some fishermen were having to consider giving up.
In 2011, the fishermen in Puerto Alcúdia pulled out of the resort's annual boat and sepia fair. They objected to restaurants buying sepia at lower cost from wholesalers and then using it during the fair. They argued that their traditional catch, part of the reason for the fair in the first place, should be honoured and so paid for.
These two examples are just two of many which have become the fishermen's lot in more recent times. Costs, competition, quotas, EU inspectors, decline in boatbuilding, trawling, recreational fishing - they have all conspired to make the fishermen's lot a less than happy one. Quaintness was never this complicated.
At the time in 2012 that the controversy in Puerto Pollensa started to brew over storage charges, the brotherhood was celebrating its centenary. It comprised twenty-two members; the number may now be lower. There are ten brotherhoods around the coast of Mallorca. The total number of professional fishermen who belong to them is 400, and their number is declining along with the number of boats.
It is difficult to place a number on how many fishermen there once were, but as an indication, in 1940 there were over 1,500 boats in the Balearics, the majority of them in Mallorca. As there are nowadays said to be only 190 boats supporting 400 fishermen, one can guess that there were at least 3,000 fishermen in 1940, over a half of them in Mallorca. By 1986, a census of fishermen and of types of boat and types of fishing gave some hard data. In Mallorca there were 1,052 fishermen, a third of them based in Palma, and with Cala Ratjada and Colonia Sant Jordi having been numbers two and three on the list respectively (there were only 26 fishermen in Puerto Pollensa even then).
For twenty years, the fisherman population was in slow decline, but then came economic crisis and a hastening of this decline. Since 2010, the number of boats in Mallorca has been reduced by a quarter to the 190 there are today.
By contrast with this fall, there are now over 50,000 licences for recreational fishing in the Balearics. It might be thought that recreational activity wouldn't affect the professional fisherman, but it does in terms of reducing stock. Moreover, there are reckoned to be at least an equivalent number of unlicensed fishermen to the 400 brotherhood members.
The condition of the Mallorcan fisherman is not terminal but equally it isn't very healthy. The new (and first) Balearics fishing law will permit fishermen to legally be able to take tourists - up to four or five at a time - on fishing trips. It is a move which might offer some salvation through diversification, though as yet the legal niceties are not all known, such as those to do with liability and insurance: further costs therefore. Still, it is a step in the right direction, but one trusts that when it comes to the attention of the brochure talkers, they don't try and brand it as quaint.
Monday, December 01, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 December 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (6.30am): 15C
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 2 December - Rain, 18C; 3 December - Rain, sun, 15C; 4 December - Rain, sun, 15C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 6 to 7, swells to three metres possible. Rain and possible storm.
We've got the works today - alerts in place for rain, wind and poor coastal and sea conditions. Certainly blowy early on. The high winds are due to persist all day and into tomorrow. Not much likelihood of sun.
Evening update (18.45): Pretty awful day. Very windy, though the rain has not been that heavy and has only been intermittent. No real sign of the sun. High of 17C.
No Frills Excursions
Descanse En Paz: Phillip Hughes
It was when I saw that "Ultima Hora" had run the story about Hughes that I realised how deeply and how widely news of his death was being experienced. Contemporary communications being as they are, news agencies being as they are, it was a story which might not have touched the Spanish media in years gone by, but because of the instantaneousness of communications, it did. But this was the death of a cricketer. Un jugador de críquet. They don't play cricket in Spain. What do the Spanish know of this sport?
Well, they do of course play cricket in Spain. The national side may in international terms be in the minor league but national team there is, though to suggest that the overwhelming majority of Spaniards would have a clue about the sport - quite how it is played or quite how silly mid-off might be translated into Spanish - would be well wide of the mark.
Sport has over time followed its own evolutionary pattern of separate development, but there are - as with all evolution - common origins, for example hitting something with something else, which became a bat, while the thing to be hit was moulded into a shape that would allow smooth movement - the ball, the pelota. The Spanish - the Basques originally - have "pelota", which migrated to Spanish-speaking countries, just as much of the British Empire formed a common bond on the cricket pitch. The sports are different but they are not different. They share a common root and they share a commonality in being a sport.
It was this commonality which came across most in the reports of Hughes's death. A sportsman had been killed doing what he did, playing sport. That cricket might be a sport of arcane rules and jargon to the uninitiated doesn't matter. It is still a sport and so part of a global community which comes together in the name of sport; hence the many DEPs that were contained in the comments to those reports.
The comments were, from the point of view of an English-speaking, cricket-loving observer, more interesting than the reports themselves. "Marca", the leading Spanish sports daily, had several pages of them on its website. The first one I came across said: "apart from being very boring, cricket is also dangerous and should be banned". Another opined that cricket was "a foolish and risky game". Others acknowledged the risks but no one else went so far as to suggest that cricket should be banned, though one added that "frankly, it seems stupid to me to play with balls that can kill". The counterpoint to this was one which said: "People die in cycling, motorcycling, skiing, and I could name others. Sport has a risk. If you don't want to assume it, then don't play it. But using a ball of foam rubber would be like limiting speeds on motorways to 20kph in order to avoid deaths".
It was the ball and its characteristics and the nature of protective gear which dominated the comments. There were those who, not having experienced cricket, were curious as to how the ball was made and others who expressed surprise that there was not greater protection. For those who didn't fully appreciate what had happened, someone went into some detail in explaining how "Hughes had turned on his vertical axis" (in cricketing parlance, he was playing the hook shot) and been struck where it was unusual to be struck. There was also surprise as to the sheer speed with which the ball can be bowled (or, in the absence of a Spanish verb "to bowl", can be thrown or slung). A Pakistani commenter came on to say that Shoaib Akhtar had bowled at 160kph (100 miles per hour).
Unrelated to the incident, someone else, not having any knowledge of cricket, had looked it up on Wikipedia. It was a sport with "a very interesting perspective". It was supposed that England would dominate it, but it turns out that England had never won the World Cup. He noted that India were the current champions and that the tournament had also been won by the West Indies ("a coalition of Caribbean micro-nations that seems to have been a good team").
Well, there's no need to rub it in about England's ongoing failure, but it was a comment which, I guess, highlighted how little would be known of cricket in Spain. Yet despite this, many people wished to comment, and overwhelmingly the feeling was one of sadness. The world of sport had come together. Phillip Hughes, DEP.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
