Morning high (6.58am): 14.7C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 12 May - Sun, cloud, 22C; 13 May - Cloud, sun, 18C; 14 May - Sun, cloud, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 3 to 5.
Grey morning once more. Rain is possible and may well be of the dirty variety. Brightening up through the day.
Evening update (20.15): High of 22.8C. Took a long time for the sun to really come out.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Are Podemos Getting Desperate?
David Abril, effectively the new leader of Més, speaks of an "humiliating agreement" if his party is eased into fourth place on the Congress list of deputies for the June general election as part of a pact with Podemos. The first three places would be for Podemos. In alliance with Més and the United Left, the total number of votes - based on the December election - would guarantee a third deputy to add to the two which Podemos secured before Christmas. But Més would find themselves without the deputy they covet so much and which would confirm their Madrid arrival as flag wavers for Mallorcan nationalism.
Alberto Jarabo, the Podemos leader in the Balearics, says that Més wouldn't have a presence in Madrid (in Congress) without an alliance with Podemos. He is absolutely right. Even if Més didn't have an actual deputy, they would have some presence thanks to an alliance. Or would they? Likewise, Podemos would be very hard pushed to gain sufficient support on its own (or with the United Left as even more junior partners) to obtain a third deputy. They need Més as much as Més need Podemos. But Més, unless things change, will not get their deputy. They might swallow the second prize of a senator but that would still represent a blow to their ambitions.
For Podemos, the end game (or the start of the beginning game) has always been about national government and so seats in Congress and the Senate if not in the Moncloa Palace of the presidency. They were less concerned about the regional elections, albeit they offered a good barometer of how things might go at the general election. Podemos would have been confident, and their confidence was not misplaced. They now have a second bite of the cherry. One might conclude that the fruitless negotiations with PSOE were all geared to having this second stab. But has there been a miscalculation?
The negotiations with Més can be viewed in different ways. One is that they have been about creating a firm pact of the hard left with the objective of ousting the Partido Popular (still far from being a foregone conclusion). The other is that they were designed to give Podemos what they crave - power. Més, without an actual deputy, would have been used as a means to an end: one belonging to Podemos.
For Abril to have referred to a humiliation has distinct echoes of how PSOE have suffered in this new era of Balearic and Spanish politics. They have been humiliated, forced into agreements and policies that one very much doubts they would have adopted had they been left to their own devices. Yes, there is supposedly a spirit of "dialogue and consensus", but there seems precious little sign of it being truly two-way (or three-way in the Balearics). Podemos. Power. And power that has seen PSOE trampled over. Més must surely have considered that their fate was being decided in a similar fashion.
Alberto Jarabo and Laura Camargo of Podemos have both referred to the "negative image" that the apparent failure of Podemos and Més to come to an accord conveys. Negative to whom? To the electorate? Possibly so, but while this will be styled as a failure to provide the "citizens" with what they supposedly have voted for - the government of change, to use the constant mantra - it can also be viewed as a negative reflection of Podemos. Their leaders in the Balearics continuously hector others. In the process they come across as unlikable. Més may have their wilder elements but they also have individuals that many, regardless of political persuasion, have a liking for: Biel Barceló, Miquel Ensenyat, Fina Santiago. Not everyone will feel this. Of course they won't. But Més (and PSOE) have a likability that Podemos do not.
At national level Podemos have a similar likability issue. Pablo Iglesias is the exception. He is likable, highly admirable in many ways. But he made a mistake with his attack on the media and the suggestion that the media should be state-controlled. He apologised, but did that set the alarm bells off? What truly lies behind his likability? Podemos, the polls suggest, have slipped. An alliance for the election has thus been formed with the United Left. Together they would, on the basis of the December election, get more votes than PSOE. The United Left might end up with eight deputies as opposed to the current two. That would represent a result for them, but for Podemos there is a feeling that it is an alliance of necessity. The United Left's Alberto Garzón gets good approval ratings; better than Iglesias. There's a likability factor.
But is it a sign of desperation by Podemos? If the polls are right and their support is leaking, they need to plug the hole.
Alberto Jarabo, the Podemos leader in the Balearics, says that Més wouldn't have a presence in Madrid (in Congress) without an alliance with Podemos. He is absolutely right. Even if Més didn't have an actual deputy, they would have some presence thanks to an alliance. Or would they? Likewise, Podemos would be very hard pushed to gain sufficient support on its own (or with the United Left as even more junior partners) to obtain a third deputy. They need Més as much as Més need Podemos. But Més, unless things change, will not get their deputy. They might swallow the second prize of a senator but that would still represent a blow to their ambitions.
For Podemos, the end game (or the start of the beginning game) has always been about national government and so seats in Congress and the Senate if not in the Moncloa Palace of the presidency. They were less concerned about the regional elections, albeit they offered a good barometer of how things might go at the general election. Podemos would have been confident, and their confidence was not misplaced. They now have a second bite of the cherry. One might conclude that the fruitless negotiations with PSOE were all geared to having this second stab. But has there been a miscalculation?
The negotiations with Més can be viewed in different ways. One is that they have been about creating a firm pact of the hard left with the objective of ousting the Partido Popular (still far from being a foregone conclusion). The other is that they were designed to give Podemos what they crave - power. Més, without an actual deputy, would have been used as a means to an end: one belonging to Podemos.
For Abril to have referred to a humiliation has distinct echoes of how PSOE have suffered in this new era of Balearic and Spanish politics. They have been humiliated, forced into agreements and policies that one very much doubts they would have adopted had they been left to their own devices. Yes, there is supposedly a spirit of "dialogue and consensus", but there seems precious little sign of it being truly two-way (or three-way in the Balearics). Podemos. Power. And power that has seen PSOE trampled over. Més must surely have considered that their fate was being decided in a similar fashion.
Alberto Jarabo and Laura Camargo of Podemos have both referred to the "negative image" that the apparent failure of Podemos and Més to come to an accord conveys. Negative to whom? To the electorate? Possibly so, but while this will be styled as a failure to provide the "citizens" with what they supposedly have voted for - the government of change, to use the constant mantra - it can also be viewed as a negative reflection of Podemos. Their leaders in the Balearics continuously hector others. In the process they come across as unlikable. Més may have their wilder elements but they also have individuals that many, regardless of political persuasion, have a liking for: Biel Barceló, Miquel Ensenyat, Fina Santiago. Not everyone will feel this. Of course they won't. But Més (and PSOE) have a likability that Podemos do not.
At national level Podemos have a similar likability issue. Pablo Iglesias is the exception. He is likable, highly admirable in many ways. But he made a mistake with his attack on the media and the suggestion that the media should be state-controlled. He apologised, but did that set the alarm bells off? What truly lies behind his likability? Podemos, the polls suggest, have slipped. An alliance for the election has thus been formed with the United Left. Together they would, on the basis of the December election, get more votes than PSOE. The United Left might end up with eight deputies as opposed to the current two. That would represent a result for them, but for Podemos there is a feeling that it is an alliance of necessity. The United Left's Alberto Garzón gets good approval ratings; better than Iglesias. There's a likability factor.
But is it a sign of desperation by Podemos? If the polls are right and their support is leaking, they need to plug the hole.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 May 2016
Morning high (6.55am): 14.2C
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 11 May - Cloud, sun, 21C; 12 May - Sun, cloud, 19C; 13 May - Sun, cloud, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South-Southwest 2 to 4 veering Northeast around midday.
Some cloud around but also some sun first thing. Similar pattern during the day. A possibility of a shower. General outlook now suggesting that from Thursday things may be more settled.
Evening update (19.45): High of 23.4C. Sun never really burst out, but an ok sort of a day.
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 11 May - Cloud, sun, 21C; 12 May - Sun, cloud, 19C; 13 May - Sun, cloud, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South-Southwest 2 to 4 veering Northeast around midday.
Some cloud around but also some sun first thing. Similar pattern during the day. A possibility of a shower. General outlook now suggesting that from Thursday things may be more settled.
Evening update (19.45): High of 23.4C. Sun never really burst out, but an ok sort of a day.
What's The Point Of A Blue Flag?
Four years ago, the town hall in Pollensa decided that it would not apply for Blue Flags for its beaches. Consequently, the town's beaches were flagless. The background to the non-application has echoes of the current delay with the contract for beach services, as it was a similar delay in 2011 that was blamed for the subsequent non-application. That background, however, is incidental. What is important was the loss of the flags, and the then spokesperson for the PSM socialists, Tomeu Cifre Bennàsar (now the deputy mayor councillor for the environment), stressed that it was necessary for the flags to be reinstated because of their prestige at international level.
But let us ask a question. Did the loss of the flags make any difference to tourism in the municipality? Well, did it? I will guess that it made absolutely no difference: that there weren't suddenly thousands of tourists ripping up their reservations or altering their holiday plans because there was no Blue Flag.
Beaches in Mallorca have all sorts of quality standards (including Pollensa's). There is one beach - Playa de Muro's - which probably has more certification for quality than you can wave a flag at, and this includes a Blue Flag. It is a beach with an excellent reputation, but then so are very many others and they are excellent because no town hall can risk that they are not. They have to answer, among others, to the national government if standards slip, so there are institutional control mechanisms for beaches in addition to non-governmental organisations such as the Foundation for Environmental Education which controls the Blue Flag programme.
When the flag concept was originated in the mid-1980s, it was an important initiative. As flags began to appear, people did take some notice. That was because an environmental awareness-raising campaign of its type was novel. It was the success of the Blue Flag programme in its early years that was to help engrain a culture of systems for beach maintenance and water quality that was then added to by the increasingly vocal environmentalist movement and by various organisations, such as the ISO (International Standards Organisation), which has its own systems for environmental management.
But in all this time have these various initiatives and certifications made any appreciable difference to tourist decision-making? Initially, they probably did, and that was because of the novelty. Nowadays, though, clean water, well-maintained beaches and various facilities are pretty much taken as being givens. Everyone is aware of the need for sound environmental control.
There are occasions when even the best control goes wrong. Oil spillages are one example. Another has to do with waste. Mallorca's waters faced a significant environmental issue last summer because of the plastic waste coming up from Algeria, but there was a constant clean-up, even if there was publicity given to odd examples where this debris was coming ashore and not being cleared. Where there needs to be greater control is over the isolated but repeated instances of pollution, such as in Palma when it rains heavily, as was the case at the weekend. It is no surprise that the two affected beaches have had their Blue Flags taken away.
The loss of the flags in the Balearics has led to a spat between the regional government and ADEAC, which is the Blue Flag organising association in Spain. Its president has demanded that the government withdraws remarks questioning the value and legitimacy of the Blue Flag awards. There is even a suggestion that its legal people will be considering damage done to it (and also to Spain's tourism).
The ADEAC appears to be upset by the suggestion by the tourism minister, Biel Barceló, that the flags which have been lost this year are because a payment has not been forthcoming. It hasn't in fact been paid since 2013, something that the ADEAC attributes to a "misunderstanding" as to how the adjudication process works. It is reasonable for the ADEAC to point to other coastal regions where a payment is also not made but where the number of flags has increased.
But how has a "misunderstanding" arisen? How is that there are other regions not paying? It's not as if the amounts are vast. Even so, is there a feeling that the flags are not worth it? From research I've found, conclusions are that the flags have little impact on tourist decisions, while in the Balearics there is a view that a "private foundation" is asking for financial contributions for something that creates bureaucracy and work but does not lead to more tourism, given that beaches are in any event of a generally excellent quality.
Each year the announcement of the flags is made with a blaze of publicity, which adds to the sense that they are all about marketing. In Mallorca, beaches can be marketed with or without a Blue Flag.
But let us ask a question. Did the loss of the flags make any difference to tourism in the municipality? Well, did it? I will guess that it made absolutely no difference: that there weren't suddenly thousands of tourists ripping up their reservations or altering their holiday plans because there was no Blue Flag.
Beaches in Mallorca have all sorts of quality standards (including Pollensa's). There is one beach - Playa de Muro's - which probably has more certification for quality than you can wave a flag at, and this includes a Blue Flag. It is a beach with an excellent reputation, but then so are very many others and they are excellent because no town hall can risk that they are not. They have to answer, among others, to the national government if standards slip, so there are institutional control mechanisms for beaches in addition to non-governmental organisations such as the Foundation for Environmental Education which controls the Blue Flag programme.
When the flag concept was originated in the mid-1980s, it was an important initiative. As flags began to appear, people did take some notice. That was because an environmental awareness-raising campaign of its type was novel. It was the success of the Blue Flag programme in its early years that was to help engrain a culture of systems for beach maintenance and water quality that was then added to by the increasingly vocal environmentalist movement and by various organisations, such as the ISO (International Standards Organisation), which has its own systems for environmental management.
But in all this time have these various initiatives and certifications made any appreciable difference to tourist decision-making? Initially, they probably did, and that was because of the novelty. Nowadays, though, clean water, well-maintained beaches and various facilities are pretty much taken as being givens. Everyone is aware of the need for sound environmental control.
There are occasions when even the best control goes wrong. Oil spillages are one example. Another has to do with waste. Mallorca's waters faced a significant environmental issue last summer because of the plastic waste coming up from Algeria, but there was a constant clean-up, even if there was publicity given to odd examples where this debris was coming ashore and not being cleared. Where there needs to be greater control is over the isolated but repeated instances of pollution, such as in Palma when it rains heavily, as was the case at the weekend. It is no surprise that the two affected beaches have had their Blue Flags taken away.
The loss of the flags in the Balearics has led to a spat between the regional government and ADEAC, which is the Blue Flag organising association in Spain. Its president has demanded that the government withdraws remarks questioning the value and legitimacy of the Blue Flag awards. There is even a suggestion that its legal people will be considering damage done to it (and also to Spain's tourism).
The ADEAC appears to be upset by the suggestion by the tourism minister, Biel Barceló, that the flags which have been lost this year are because a payment has not been forthcoming. It hasn't in fact been paid since 2013, something that the ADEAC attributes to a "misunderstanding" as to how the adjudication process works. It is reasonable for the ADEAC to point to other coastal regions where a payment is also not made but where the number of flags has increased.
But how has a "misunderstanding" arisen? How is that there are other regions not paying? It's not as if the amounts are vast. Even so, is there a feeling that the flags are not worth it? From research I've found, conclusions are that the flags have little impact on tourist decisions, while in the Balearics there is a view that a "private foundation" is asking for financial contributions for something that creates bureaucracy and work but does not lead to more tourism, given that beaches are in any event of a generally excellent quality.
Each year the announcement of the flags is made with a blaze of publicity, which adds to the sense that they are all about marketing. In Mallorca, beaches can be marketed with or without a Blue Flag.
Monday, May 09, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 May 2016
Morning high (7.02am): 16.1C
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 10 May - Cloud, sun, 20C; 11 May - Cloud, sun, 19C; 12 May - Sun, cloud, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3.
Fairly grey morning. Sun should be out later but there is a slight risk of a shower. General pattern at present is unsettled.
Evening update (21.00): High of 23.5C. Some spots of rain this morning, hazy sun through the cloud later.
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 10 May - Cloud, sun, 20C; 11 May - Cloud, sun, 19C; 12 May - Sun, cloud, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3.
Fairly grey morning. Sun should be out later but there is a slight risk of a shower. General pattern at present is unsettled.
Evening update (21.00): High of 23.5C. Some spots of rain this morning, hazy sun through the cloud later.
The Colour Purple: Podemos
"All good socialist citizens of the Balearics, I call on you to lay down your red flags and follow the colour purple." These weren't the exact words of Alberto Jarabo but they catch the essence of Alberto's desire for the Purple Rain of Podemos to persist all over the Partido Popular and PSOE: a purple shower, one might say. "You say you want a leader, but you can't seem to make up your mind, I think you better close it, and let me guide you to the purple rain." These were Prince's words, and now the prince of Balearic Podemosism has recognised the doubts in voters' minds and so has sought to make their minds up for them: vote for the party with the purple colour, Vota Podemos!, Vota Iglesias! If you are a socialist, that is. Oh, and if you actually have a vote.
Neither PSOE in the Balearics nor PSOE nationally can overcome the Partido Popular and lead a government of change, our own Dave Spart droned on. These were his actual words: "We invite the socialists of the islands to vote for Podemos." Yes, all invited to the party - Podemos not PSOE. Whatever must Francina have been thinking? One of her partners in Balearic government of change had made it clear that PSOE cannot lead a government of change. Oh dear.
Somewhere in Francina's sweet and friendly land La Presidenta was waffling on about the stability of her government (of change or otherwise) and consensus, dialogue, blah, blah, but her left-hand woman, the newly installed minister for the presidency, Pilar Costa, had been having none of any possible Spartist socialist vote-grab. Ms. Coast, also now the chief government spokesperson, has in the past shown that her speaking can cause a slight issue, such as when she referred to José Maria Rodríguez, the boss of the PP in Palma as ... er, as the boss. But she specifically used the word "capo", as in mafia boss. José Maria was from impressed, and so off they went to a conciliation tribunal, a bit like a court for consensus and dialogue.
Anyway, Ms. Coast had, prior to the Jarabo purple revolution declaration, suggested that it would be a "serious mistake" were there to be an alliance between Podemos and the Més-ites which would have as its greater priority a defeat of PSOE rather than the PP. Subsequent to Alberto's socialist call to arms, PSOE, including Ms. Coast, went quiet other than for another of Francina's left-hand women, election campaign organiser, Bel Oliver, to assert that the "citizens" have a further opportunity (on 26 June) to put an end to the PP government. Yes, they do. By voting for Podemos.
Neither PSOE in the Balearics nor PSOE nationally can overcome the Partido Popular and lead a government of change, our own Dave Spart droned on. These were his actual words: "We invite the socialists of the islands to vote for Podemos." Yes, all invited to the party - Podemos not PSOE. Whatever must Francina have been thinking? One of her partners in Balearic government of change had made it clear that PSOE cannot lead a government of change. Oh dear.
Somewhere in Francina's sweet and friendly land La Presidenta was waffling on about the stability of her government (of change or otherwise) and consensus, dialogue, blah, blah, but her left-hand woman, the newly installed minister for the presidency, Pilar Costa, had been having none of any possible Spartist socialist vote-grab. Ms. Coast, also now the chief government spokesperson, has in the past shown that her speaking can cause a slight issue, such as when she referred to José Maria Rodríguez, the boss of the PP in Palma as ... er, as the boss. But she specifically used the word "capo", as in mafia boss. José Maria was from impressed, and so off they went to a conciliation tribunal, a bit like a court for consensus and dialogue.
Anyway, Ms. Coast had, prior to the Jarabo purple revolution declaration, suggested that it would be a "serious mistake" were there to be an alliance between Podemos and the Més-ites which would have as its greater priority a defeat of PSOE rather than the PP. Subsequent to Alberto's socialist call to arms, PSOE, including Ms. Coast, went quiet other than for another of Francina's left-hand women, election campaign organiser, Bel Oliver, to assert that the "citizens" have a further opportunity (on 26 June) to put an end to the PP government. Yes, they do. By voting for Podemos.
Sunday, May 08, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 May 2016
Morning high (7.52am): 12.8C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 9 May - Cloud, 23C; 10 May - Cloud, sun, 19C; 11 May - Cloud, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 3 to 4 increasing Southeast 4 to 5 in the afternoon.
Certainly an improvement this morning, though the sun is set to disappear later. A mixed bag for the next few days, with tomorrow looking like rain.
Evening update (19.30): High of 22.6C. Some sun, some cloud, nothing special.
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 9 May - Cloud, 23C; 10 May - Cloud, sun, 19C; 11 May - Cloud, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 3 to 4 increasing Southeast 4 to 5 in the afternoon.
Certainly an improvement this morning, though the sun is set to disappear later. A mixed bag for the next few days, with tomorrow looking like rain.
Evening update (19.30): High of 22.6C. Some sun, some cloud, nothing special.
The Spirit Of Soller: Es Firó
It's one of Mallorca big fiesta days out tomorrow: one of the biggest in fact. Es Firó is how it's known in Soller. Many will just refer to it as the Moors and Christians, the grandest battle simulation between the two sides that Mallorca has to offer: grander than Pollensa in August because of its scope and length.
An aspect of both these battle re-creations is that neither of the original battles, in the overall scheme of things, was particularly special or important. Pollensa was in 1550, Soller 1561, and in the sixteenth century there were any number of attacks on Mallorca from different sources - north African saracens and eastern Mediterranean Turks among them. They can be classified as attacks by corsairs (or pirates), though such a classification can downplay any military and strategic element.
Why, given that there were repeated assaults, have the battles of Pollensa and Soller assumed such significance? In the case of Soller, and to a lesser extent Pollensa, a reason lies with the amount of documentary evidence. While there is some legend attached to the story (not least the role of the "Valents Dones" - the brave women), much of the re-creation is fairly true to what happened, even if the time of the day when the assault was launched has been altered (the landing was around four in the morning).
The events were written down. There was one report by the town hall's scribe, a second by the notary, Antoni Morell, and a third which was sent to King Felipe II. The commemoration of what took place on 11 May, 1561 was first established in 1615, but it wasn't to be until 1855 that a mock battle was staged. In the meantime, there was - in the eighteenth century - a "reinterpretation" of events by the community at Sant Bartomeu church and then, in 1833, a further embellishment by Franciscan monks. Through a process of redaction, therefore, the basis for the simulation was arrived at.
In isolation, the attack on Soller has gone down in history as a story of defiant bravery by the people of Soller, aided by units from other villages, against the invaders. And in isolation is how it tends to be considered, as is also the case with Pollensa. Missing is the back story.
Mallorca and the Balearics were of strategic importance. For the Ottomans, some control (never established) would have assisted in disrupting Spain's trade routes, while Spain was on their wider agenda of war against Christianity. Ottoman expansion and so the "Turkish menace" was to reach its limits in the later sixteenth century, but at the time of the attacks on both Pollensa and Soller, that menace remained real enough.
Some days before Soller was attacked in 1561, the Viceroy of Mallorca, Guillem de Rocafull, had sent two ships to launch attacks on the Algerian coast against pirates. This didn't achieve a great deal. By 10 May, there were 23 Turkish ships by Ibiza under the command of Uluj Ali, a one-time Italian galley slave who had converted to Islam and had risen through the ranks to join Turgut Reis (Dragut), the supreme commander of the Ottoman navy and the Moorish protagonist in the attack on Pollensa.
The viceroy knew they were coming to Mallorca but he was unsure where. The captains of the local villages were put on alert: those of Alaro and Bunyola were to come to Soller's aid. There would have obviously been great anxiety. Though Mallorca suffered its attacks, it had experienced nothing like the siege of Ciutadella in Menorca in 1558. The town was eventually sacked and well over 3,000 people were taken and sold into slavery in Istanbul.
Above the documentary evidence and the historical facts and legends of the attack, there is a further reason for the Soller battle having assumed the significance that it has, and that is the role of the people of Soller down the years. 1561 has remained a strong part of Soller identity, the Valents Dones having been described as characterising more than ever the spirit of Soller - a most authentic love for the homeland (that of the town).
Like Pollensa, the battle celebration went through its years of decline and was revived in the 1970s. In 1977, in an act of the fraternal bonding of two towns whose pasts are so associated with the heroic deeds of the sixteenth century, the Pollensa writer, Miquel Bota Totxo, closely linked with that town's cultural revival, gave the opening address for Es Firó. "It has a sense of immeasurable brotherhood ... rooted in the depths of the soul." It is more than just a fiesta.
An aspect of both these battle re-creations is that neither of the original battles, in the overall scheme of things, was particularly special or important. Pollensa was in 1550, Soller 1561, and in the sixteenth century there were any number of attacks on Mallorca from different sources - north African saracens and eastern Mediterranean Turks among them. They can be classified as attacks by corsairs (or pirates), though such a classification can downplay any military and strategic element.
Why, given that there were repeated assaults, have the battles of Pollensa and Soller assumed such significance? In the case of Soller, and to a lesser extent Pollensa, a reason lies with the amount of documentary evidence. While there is some legend attached to the story (not least the role of the "Valents Dones" - the brave women), much of the re-creation is fairly true to what happened, even if the time of the day when the assault was launched has been altered (the landing was around four in the morning).
The events were written down. There was one report by the town hall's scribe, a second by the notary, Antoni Morell, and a third which was sent to King Felipe II. The commemoration of what took place on 11 May, 1561 was first established in 1615, but it wasn't to be until 1855 that a mock battle was staged. In the meantime, there was - in the eighteenth century - a "reinterpretation" of events by the community at Sant Bartomeu church and then, in 1833, a further embellishment by Franciscan monks. Through a process of redaction, therefore, the basis for the simulation was arrived at.
In isolation, the attack on Soller has gone down in history as a story of defiant bravery by the people of Soller, aided by units from other villages, against the invaders. And in isolation is how it tends to be considered, as is also the case with Pollensa. Missing is the back story.
Mallorca and the Balearics were of strategic importance. For the Ottomans, some control (never established) would have assisted in disrupting Spain's trade routes, while Spain was on their wider agenda of war against Christianity. Ottoman expansion and so the "Turkish menace" was to reach its limits in the later sixteenth century, but at the time of the attacks on both Pollensa and Soller, that menace remained real enough.
Some days before Soller was attacked in 1561, the Viceroy of Mallorca, Guillem de Rocafull, had sent two ships to launch attacks on the Algerian coast against pirates. This didn't achieve a great deal. By 10 May, there were 23 Turkish ships by Ibiza under the command of Uluj Ali, a one-time Italian galley slave who had converted to Islam and had risen through the ranks to join Turgut Reis (Dragut), the supreme commander of the Ottoman navy and the Moorish protagonist in the attack on Pollensa.
The viceroy knew they were coming to Mallorca but he was unsure where. The captains of the local villages were put on alert: those of Alaro and Bunyola were to come to Soller's aid. There would have obviously been great anxiety. Though Mallorca suffered its attacks, it had experienced nothing like the siege of Ciutadella in Menorca in 1558. The town was eventually sacked and well over 3,000 people were taken and sold into slavery in Istanbul.
Above the documentary evidence and the historical facts and legends of the attack, there is a further reason for the Soller battle having assumed the significance that it has, and that is the role of the people of Soller down the years. 1561 has remained a strong part of Soller identity, the Valents Dones having been described as characterising more than ever the spirit of Soller - a most authentic love for the homeland (that of the town).
Like Pollensa, the battle celebration went through its years of decline and was revived in the 1970s. In 1977, in an act of the fraternal bonding of two towns whose pasts are so associated with the heroic deeds of the sixteenth century, the Pollensa writer, Miquel Bota Totxo, closely linked with that town's cultural revival, gave the opening address for Es Firó. "It has a sense of immeasurable brotherhood ... rooted in the depths of the soul." It is more than just a fiesta.
Saturday, May 07, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 May 2016
Morning high (7.30am): 14.4C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 8 May - Cloud, 22C; 9 May - Cloud, 20C; 10 May - Cloud, sun, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 4 to 5.
Well, this is pretty miserable. Persistent rain, low cloud, and this may be how it is for most of the day. For the Ironman competitors, poor cycling and running conditions. At least there seems less threat of an actual storm.
Evening update (19.15): What a rotten day. The rain was never heavy, just constant, and only let up around mid-afternoon. A high of 16.1C.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 8 May - Cloud, 22C; 9 May - Cloud, 20C; 10 May - Cloud, sun, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 4 to 5.
Well, this is pretty miserable. Persistent rain, low cloud, and this may be how it is for most of the day. For the Ironman competitors, poor cycling and running conditions. At least there seems less threat of an actual storm.
Evening update (19.15): What a rotten day. The rain was never heavy, just constant, and only let up around mid-afternoon. A high of 16.1C.
No Celebrations For Cruise Ships
There were eight cruise ships in port on Tuesday, a record in terms of the number of ships at one time. The president of the Balearic Ports Authority, Juan Gual de Torrella, said that they were happy because this reflected all the work that has been going into promoting this type of tourism. Not everyone was happy though.
Gual de Torrella noted that there won't be many days similar to Tuesday, when there was a total of 22,000 passengers: not a record, as there were 23,000 one day last summer. Of the eight ships, it should be noted that three were at the end of their cruises. Their passengers, both embarking and disembarking, were less likely than the passengers of the other five to have been wandering around the centre of the city. Wandering around and spending, by all accounts, comparatively little.
This was partly because there were coaches whisking passengers off to other parts of the island. The passengers are damned if they do, damned if they don't. If they do go into the city, then there are the complaints about human saturation, a factor that provoked the anti-tourist graffiti. If they don't, then the hostelries complain they're not making enough. No one, apart from the ports authority, seems particularly happy.
Getting hard and fast information about the benefits of cruise shipping for Palma is not easy. There needs to be more systematic evaluation. But according to some numbers from a few years ago - so they will have changed to a degree - the economic impact of cruising for the Balearics as a whole was put at 115 million euros. That's quite a lot of euros, but it was less than for golf tourism and under a quarter of the impact generated by nautical tourism.
The issue of spending by cruise passengers has long been argued about, often on the basis of no more than anecdote. But if a city - and not just the port itself, which clearly has its own benefits - is to admit several thousands of passengers on certain days and fewer on others, then should there not be a realistic and hopefully accurate assessment of the costs and benefits? Rather like statistics for airport passengers, it can seem that all that anyone is interested in are the human numbers (and the number of planes or ships) rather than figures for the costs - services, resources, environment - and for benefits, i.e. the wealth generated.
Tuesday's ships arrived against a background of Barcelona's mayor, Ada Colau, intimating that the city is looking to charge a tax on tourists who don't stay overnight. Among them would be cruise passengers who are currently exempt from paying Catalonia's tourist tax if ships are in port for under twelve hours. The city council argues that there are costs incurred because of cruises, such as those of cleaning, security and general infrastructure, as well as a social cost in terms of the impact on residents.
There was the further background of the announcement by TUI Cruises regarding its ships coming into Palma. What better way of demonstrating TUI's investment in its product and customer experience, the company's statement said, than unveiling a new addition - TUI Discovery - and introducing all-inclusive as standard? This apparent self-congratulation can be interpreted as insensitive. All-inclusive as standard? Would this be beneficial to Palma? There again, here is a tour company which, via its First Choice brand, once promoted all-inclusive hotels with the slogan of leaving your wallet at home, something for which there was an admission that this wasn't terribly sensitive in a BBC documentary about all-inclusives with which I was involved.
Announcements of all-inclusive cruises and record numbers of ships might be cause for celebration where some are concerned, but they are not for others. Given the political and social issues as they obtain at present, it might be wise to quieten the celebratory noises.
Gual de Torrella noted that there won't be many days similar to Tuesday, when there was a total of 22,000 passengers: not a record, as there were 23,000 one day last summer. Of the eight ships, it should be noted that three were at the end of their cruises. Their passengers, both embarking and disembarking, were less likely than the passengers of the other five to have been wandering around the centre of the city. Wandering around and spending, by all accounts, comparatively little.
This was partly because there were coaches whisking passengers off to other parts of the island. The passengers are damned if they do, damned if they don't. If they do go into the city, then there are the complaints about human saturation, a factor that provoked the anti-tourist graffiti. If they don't, then the hostelries complain they're not making enough. No one, apart from the ports authority, seems particularly happy.
Getting hard and fast information about the benefits of cruise shipping for Palma is not easy. There needs to be more systematic evaluation. But according to some numbers from a few years ago - so they will have changed to a degree - the economic impact of cruising for the Balearics as a whole was put at 115 million euros. That's quite a lot of euros, but it was less than for golf tourism and under a quarter of the impact generated by nautical tourism.
The issue of spending by cruise passengers has long been argued about, often on the basis of no more than anecdote. But if a city - and not just the port itself, which clearly has its own benefits - is to admit several thousands of passengers on certain days and fewer on others, then should there not be a realistic and hopefully accurate assessment of the costs and benefits? Rather like statistics for airport passengers, it can seem that all that anyone is interested in are the human numbers (and the number of planes or ships) rather than figures for the costs - services, resources, environment - and for benefits, i.e. the wealth generated.
Tuesday's ships arrived against a background of Barcelona's mayor, Ada Colau, intimating that the city is looking to charge a tax on tourists who don't stay overnight. Among them would be cruise passengers who are currently exempt from paying Catalonia's tourist tax if ships are in port for under twelve hours. The city council argues that there are costs incurred because of cruises, such as those of cleaning, security and general infrastructure, as well as a social cost in terms of the impact on residents.
There was the further background of the announcement by TUI Cruises regarding its ships coming into Palma. What better way of demonstrating TUI's investment in its product and customer experience, the company's statement said, than unveiling a new addition - TUI Discovery - and introducing all-inclusive as standard? This apparent self-congratulation can be interpreted as insensitive. All-inclusive as standard? Would this be beneficial to Palma? There again, here is a tour company which, via its First Choice brand, once promoted all-inclusive hotels with the slogan of leaving your wallet at home, something for which there was an admission that this wasn't terribly sensitive in a BBC documentary about all-inclusives with which I was involved.
Announcements of all-inclusive cruises and record numbers of ships might be cause for celebration where some are concerned, but they are not for others. Given the political and social issues as they obtain at present, it might be wise to quieten the celebratory noises.
Friday, May 06, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 May 2016
Morning high (7.27am): 14.6C
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 7 May - Rain, 20C; 8 May - Cloud, sun, 20C; 9 May - Cloud, 21C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East-Southeast 4 occasionally 5.
Grey and a bit blowy with some rain around. Not due to improve during the day, with the forecast suggesting a storm could come in overnight and into tomorrow. The general outlook at present is not particularly good into the middle of next week.
Evening update (22.15): A high of 21.8C. Not much sun. It tried but failed. Tomorrow looks distinctly iffy.
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 7 May - Rain, 20C; 8 May - Cloud, sun, 20C; 9 May - Cloud, 21C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East-Southeast 4 occasionally 5.
Grey and a bit blowy with some rain around. Not due to improve during the day, with the forecast suggesting a storm could come in overnight and into tomorrow. The general outlook at present is not particularly good into the middle of next week.
Evening update (22.15): A high of 21.8C. Not much sun. It tried but failed. Tomorrow looks distinctly iffy.
Taking Family Tourism For Granted
Family tourism. The bedrock of Mallorca's tourism over decades. A market for which the sale was simple. Cheap, very cheap destination. Hotels of sufficient standard, assuming they had in fact been built. Sun, water and adventure for the kids. Bars with ten peseta shots for mum and dad and some dabbling with "foreign" food. So sophisticated.
In the days when holidays came in standard packages, there was no tourism market more standardised than the family market. One size fitted all. Families were families: 2.4 and all that, lifted from some standardised middle to lower middle class estate in middle England or the middles of other European countries - a few countries at any rate.
Somewhere along the line, between the 1960s and the present day, the standard family split into various branch lines. But even allowing for the changing nature of family units, the products had remained largely unaltered. Until, that is, hotels and tour operators realised that branding, theming, internet were as applicable to families as to other tourism markets. Mallorca has a pirates village and will have more. Mallorca has Katmandu. Mallorca has Vivas with their ships and an increasing abundance of watery themes involving models of animals and more ships. Mallorca still has Flintstones, positively Stone Age now in terms of theming but a remarkably enduring theme nevertheless. A bedrock of Mallorca's tourism: Bedrock in Palmanova.
For all its centrality to the tourism industry, the family tourism market had tended to be overlooked. It had remained a comparatively simple market to sell to. It hadn't required massive amounts of innovation. It was solid, dependable and, in purely marketing terms, unexciting. Various things happened: recession, heightened sophistication, greater demands, ease of cost comparisons, children guiding the purchasing decision. The family was back in marketing vogue after years when the tourism industry had focused its efforts and demographic segmentation on ever more defined niches, pandered to and pampered by the all-powerful nature of The Brand.
For Mallorca, a redefinition of family tourism created themes and gave the all-inclusive hotel a quantum leap. Long since cheap as chips and faced with competitor destinations that had managed to combine higher standards of hotel offer with cheapness, the all-inclusive provided Mallorca with a new front line in the family tourism battle.
All this did, however, was to reinforce what had long been known. Once Mallorca ceased to be the cheap destination of the earlier years of mass tourism, it was appreciated that family tourism wasn't terribly profitable. In general terms, it still isn't. But given its size, it is not a market that can be ignored: hence, the greater attention now paid to theming and branding. There again, how big is big?
In November last year, there was a further recognition of the revival of industry interest in the family market when the first international congress for family tourism was held at Port Aventura, the Tarragona holiday world with its multiple themes of a variety and scale unimaginable in Mallorca. Representing the Balearics was the tourism minister, Biel Barceló. He made the observation that the family market accounts for 25% of the whole Balearic tourism market. It sounds on the low side, but one trusts that the minister has his statistics correct.
Barceló also noted that the family market poses something of a handicap. It does nothing to address seasonality, and for an obvious reason: schooling. He then added that it is, however, a market that is very loyal. Families have been coming to the Balearics, he said, for more than fifteen years.
Official announcements from local authorities, be they government or municipal, constantly refer to family tourism as a virtuous market. Calvia is always harping on about it, for example. And yet here is a market which accounts for at least a quarter of all tourism that doesn't fit with another constant mantra - the desire to address seasonality, for which we have all the various niches that are promoted (cycling, food, birdwatching and so on). Strategically, therefore, it isn't given the level of emphasis that other markets are, while that loyalty is going to be sorely tested by the tourist tax. Precisely because the family market is less profitable than others, owing to it having a generally lower spending power, precisely because nowadays any destination is only as important as its security and convenience but is otherwise chosen on price, the tax threatens that very loyalty.
The point is that family tourism has always been taken for granted. The industry has identified that it no longer can be. Therefore, it invests in themes and branding. The government, however, does take it for granted. It doesn't promote to it, it is a market of value only in summer, and the government is going to tax it. The gap between how officialdom talks about family tourism and how officialdom treats it is great.
In the days when holidays came in standard packages, there was no tourism market more standardised than the family market. One size fitted all. Families were families: 2.4 and all that, lifted from some standardised middle to lower middle class estate in middle England or the middles of other European countries - a few countries at any rate.
Somewhere along the line, between the 1960s and the present day, the standard family split into various branch lines. But even allowing for the changing nature of family units, the products had remained largely unaltered. Until, that is, hotels and tour operators realised that branding, theming, internet were as applicable to families as to other tourism markets. Mallorca has a pirates village and will have more. Mallorca has Katmandu. Mallorca has Vivas with their ships and an increasing abundance of watery themes involving models of animals and more ships. Mallorca still has Flintstones, positively Stone Age now in terms of theming but a remarkably enduring theme nevertheless. A bedrock of Mallorca's tourism: Bedrock in Palmanova.
For all its centrality to the tourism industry, the family tourism market had tended to be overlooked. It had remained a comparatively simple market to sell to. It hadn't required massive amounts of innovation. It was solid, dependable and, in purely marketing terms, unexciting. Various things happened: recession, heightened sophistication, greater demands, ease of cost comparisons, children guiding the purchasing decision. The family was back in marketing vogue after years when the tourism industry had focused its efforts and demographic segmentation on ever more defined niches, pandered to and pampered by the all-powerful nature of The Brand.
For Mallorca, a redefinition of family tourism created themes and gave the all-inclusive hotel a quantum leap. Long since cheap as chips and faced with competitor destinations that had managed to combine higher standards of hotel offer with cheapness, the all-inclusive provided Mallorca with a new front line in the family tourism battle.
All this did, however, was to reinforce what had long been known. Once Mallorca ceased to be the cheap destination of the earlier years of mass tourism, it was appreciated that family tourism wasn't terribly profitable. In general terms, it still isn't. But given its size, it is not a market that can be ignored: hence, the greater attention now paid to theming and branding. There again, how big is big?
In November last year, there was a further recognition of the revival of industry interest in the family market when the first international congress for family tourism was held at Port Aventura, the Tarragona holiday world with its multiple themes of a variety and scale unimaginable in Mallorca. Representing the Balearics was the tourism minister, Biel Barceló. He made the observation that the family market accounts for 25% of the whole Balearic tourism market. It sounds on the low side, but one trusts that the minister has his statistics correct.
Barceló also noted that the family market poses something of a handicap. It does nothing to address seasonality, and for an obvious reason: schooling. He then added that it is, however, a market that is very loyal. Families have been coming to the Balearics, he said, for more than fifteen years.
Official announcements from local authorities, be they government or municipal, constantly refer to family tourism as a virtuous market. Calvia is always harping on about it, for example. And yet here is a market which accounts for at least a quarter of all tourism that doesn't fit with another constant mantra - the desire to address seasonality, for which we have all the various niches that are promoted (cycling, food, birdwatching and so on). Strategically, therefore, it isn't given the level of emphasis that other markets are, while that loyalty is going to be sorely tested by the tourist tax. Precisely because the family market is less profitable than others, owing to it having a generally lower spending power, precisely because nowadays any destination is only as important as its security and convenience but is otherwise chosen on price, the tax threatens that very loyalty.
The point is that family tourism has always been taken for granted. The industry has identified that it no longer can be. Therefore, it invests in themes and branding. The government, however, does take it for granted. It doesn't promote to it, it is a market of value only in summer, and the government is going to tax it. The gap between how officialdom talks about family tourism and how officialdom treats it is great.
Thursday, May 05, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 May 2016
Morning high (7.01am): 11.2C
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 6 May - Cloud, rain, 20C; 7 May - Rain, sun, 17C; 8 May - Sun, cloud, 20C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 2 to 3 increasing East 3 to 4 during the afternoon.
Another good morning, but things due to go downhill somewhat this evening and overnight. Rain likely tomorrow and into Saturday.
Evening update (20.00): Clouded over later on. Good earlier. High of 23.8C.
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 6 May - Cloud, rain, 20C; 7 May - Rain, sun, 17C; 8 May - Sun, cloud, 20C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 2 to 3 increasing East 3 to 4 during the afternoon.
Another good morning, but things due to go downhill somewhat this evening and overnight. Rain likely tomorrow and into Saturday.
Evening update (20.00): Clouded over later on. Good earlier. High of 23.8C.
The One-Eyed Monster Of Tourism
Ada Colau is the mayor of Barcelona. In 2001 she appeared in a comedy series called "Two Plus One". It was to mark the start and end of Ada's acting career. The critics panned it, no one watched it and a second series was not commissioned.
Apart from this brief excursion into television, it is hard to identify what Ada has ever done. There are plenty of politicians of whom one can ask this, but career politicians are generally sustained and promoted via a political party system. Ada, on the other hand, appears never to have operated via such an apparatus. She's a professional activist.
One doesn't question her good intentions. She was propelled into public view not by television but by her having been the driving force behind the association for those affected by mortgage difficulties and evictions. Ultimately, and as part of the new wave of political formations in Spain, she was involved with the founding of Guanyem in Barcelona and stood as mayor for Barcelona En Comú, an amalgam of groupings that included Podemos, at last year's election.
Given her activism in relation to housing and so also social and living conditions, one can understand that these subjects are to the fore of her agenda in the city. Related to them is the whole issue of accommodation for tourism - holiday lets, if you like. Earlier this month the city's council approved one of its latest prohibitions. Under this, no more tourist apartments can be made available unless existing ones are made unavailable, and then only in areas away from the centre of the city. (In Barcelona, as in the rest of Catalonia, private apartments can be openly and legally marketed for holiday rental under Catalonian legislation.)
The issue of tourist apartments and so of a sense that parts of Barcelona are being overwhelmed by tourism is of a scale that is far greater than in Palma. It is very much a political issue, with the more extreme elements to both left and right making capital out of it. The new prohibition is not totally unreasonable, given the rapid growth of tourist accommodation. If nothing else, it offers some potential breathing space.
However, it is part of a wider policy on tourism, and it is this which betrays an impression that Ada, a product of her activism, is one-eyed. The eye which is turned towards tourism doesn't like what it sees.
Barely a week seems to pass without there being some announcement from the city council that concerns tourism. In the middle of March, for instance, it was stated that a moratorium on any new tourism development would be extended by a year. Against the backdrop of prohibition and moratoria, it is said that a total of 38 projects have been put on ice or abandoned at a loss of some 3,000 million euros of investment. It might be noted, though, that not everything has gone by the board: Meliá expects to open its five-star Me by Meliá hotel in the city centre in 2018.
But it is the latest announcement which exposes Ada's touristic myopia more than others. She is planning on taxing visitors to the city - not for staying in accommodation, as they are already taxed for this, but for simply entering city limits. It would be a tax on sightseeing. So, while tourists are all seeing in Barcelona, Ada sees nothing other than a further way of extracting a tithe from them and of demonising tourists because of her one-eyed view of reality. More than this, it is a crackpot idea. Ada might believe that logistically tourists on excursion coaches can be fleeced for a euro a day (or whatever the tariff might be), but what of other tourists? Discriminatory her tax would most certainly be.
The mere announcement of an intention to tax ratchets up further the noise directed towards a perceived villain - tourism. Ada's idea might well appeal to certain politicians in Mallorca with equally negative perspectives that pander in no small part to a xenophobic minority. Such attitudes exist because, as with Ada, these politicians are blinded by their activist philosophies.
Yet the narrative emerging from elements of the left reveals nothing of an appreciation of where tourism in its mass form came from. Of course tourism is now corporate and capitalist. Of course it is a long, long way from the 1950s, but the origins of this mass movement of people were firmly socialist, developed by pioneers such as Gerard Blitz and Vladimir Raitz, the latter especially. Tourism was for the ordinary man. It was to be affordable and cross-cultural, a means of fostering understanding in the aftermath of war and persecution.
Yes, there are excesses. Yes, there probably should be limits. Yes, there should be co-existence between visitors and residents, but this becomes less achievable because of a wilful, one-eyed ignorance of tourism.
Apart from this brief excursion into television, it is hard to identify what Ada has ever done. There are plenty of politicians of whom one can ask this, but career politicians are generally sustained and promoted via a political party system. Ada, on the other hand, appears never to have operated via such an apparatus. She's a professional activist.
One doesn't question her good intentions. She was propelled into public view not by television but by her having been the driving force behind the association for those affected by mortgage difficulties and evictions. Ultimately, and as part of the new wave of political formations in Spain, she was involved with the founding of Guanyem in Barcelona and stood as mayor for Barcelona En Comú, an amalgam of groupings that included Podemos, at last year's election.
Given her activism in relation to housing and so also social and living conditions, one can understand that these subjects are to the fore of her agenda in the city. Related to them is the whole issue of accommodation for tourism - holiday lets, if you like. Earlier this month the city's council approved one of its latest prohibitions. Under this, no more tourist apartments can be made available unless existing ones are made unavailable, and then only in areas away from the centre of the city. (In Barcelona, as in the rest of Catalonia, private apartments can be openly and legally marketed for holiday rental under Catalonian legislation.)
The issue of tourist apartments and so of a sense that parts of Barcelona are being overwhelmed by tourism is of a scale that is far greater than in Palma. It is very much a political issue, with the more extreme elements to both left and right making capital out of it. The new prohibition is not totally unreasonable, given the rapid growth of tourist accommodation. If nothing else, it offers some potential breathing space.
However, it is part of a wider policy on tourism, and it is this which betrays an impression that Ada, a product of her activism, is one-eyed. The eye which is turned towards tourism doesn't like what it sees.
Barely a week seems to pass without there being some announcement from the city council that concerns tourism. In the middle of March, for instance, it was stated that a moratorium on any new tourism development would be extended by a year. Against the backdrop of prohibition and moratoria, it is said that a total of 38 projects have been put on ice or abandoned at a loss of some 3,000 million euros of investment. It might be noted, though, that not everything has gone by the board: Meliá expects to open its five-star Me by Meliá hotel in the city centre in 2018.
But it is the latest announcement which exposes Ada's touristic myopia more than others. She is planning on taxing visitors to the city - not for staying in accommodation, as they are already taxed for this, but for simply entering city limits. It would be a tax on sightseeing. So, while tourists are all seeing in Barcelona, Ada sees nothing other than a further way of extracting a tithe from them and of demonising tourists because of her one-eyed view of reality. More than this, it is a crackpot idea. Ada might believe that logistically tourists on excursion coaches can be fleeced for a euro a day (or whatever the tariff might be), but what of other tourists? Discriminatory her tax would most certainly be.
The mere announcement of an intention to tax ratchets up further the noise directed towards a perceived villain - tourism. Ada's idea might well appeal to certain politicians in Mallorca with equally negative perspectives that pander in no small part to a xenophobic minority. Such attitudes exist because, as with Ada, these politicians are blinded by their activist philosophies.
Yet the narrative emerging from elements of the left reveals nothing of an appreciation of where tourism in its mass form came from. Of course tourism is now corporate and capitalist. Of course it is a long, long way from the 1950s, but the origins of this mass movement of people were firmly socialist, developed by pioneers such as Gerard Blitz and Vladimir Raitz, the latter especially. Tourism was for the ordinary man. It was to be affordable and cross-cultural, a means of fostering understanding in the aftermath of war and persecution.
Yes, there are excesses. Yes, there probably should be limits. Yes, there should be co-existence between visitors and residents, but this becomes less achievable because of a wilful, one-eyed ignorance of tourism.
Wednesday, May 04, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 May 2016
Morning high (8.08am): 14.9C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 5 May - Sun, cloud, 20C; 6 May - Rain, 17C; 7 May - Rain, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North-Northeast 3 to 4.
A fine, bright morning and an excellent day to come. Tomorrow, cloud is due to come in later in the day and both Friday and Saturday are looking as though they might be a bit wet.
Evening update (21.00): Very pleasant. High of 21.1C.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 5 May - Sun, cloud, 20C; 6 May - Rain, 17C; 7 May - Rain, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North-Northeast 3 to 4.
A fine, bright morning and an excellent day to come. Tomorrow, cloud is due to come in later in the day and both Friday and Saturday are looking as though they might be a bit wet.
Evening update (21.00): Very pleasant. High of 21.1C.
Dead Woman President Walking
When the next election comes round on 26 June, the Balearics will provide its own little sideshow. The region contributes eight deputies to the national Congress - 2.3% of its 350 total. This might seem unimportant but 26-J could prove to be very important for the Balearics.
At the pre-Christmas election, the Partido Popular, with the highest share of the regional vote, secured three seats. There were two each for Podemos and PSOE and one for Ciudadanos (C's). Excluded from Congress, therefore, was Més. It polled worse than the party had hoped, though its 7% share of the vote put it in the mix for potentially gaining a seat: parties have to secure a minimum of 3% in order to be considered under the proportional representation system.
Més is this time more confident of getting itself into Congress, though a pact with the United Left and Pacma (the party against animal mistreatment) would, on the basis of the December vote, still leave it short. What would change its fortunes would be an alliance with Podemos, and the chances of there being an alliance of what one might describe as the hard left in the Balearics are strong.
Were there to be this alliance, it would - again using December's vote - be the main force in the Balearics, polling higher than the PP with 33% of the share of the vote. With the PP staying more or less where it was in December (it surely won't lose votes), PSOE would be relegated to one Congress seat. If things went really badly for PSOE and exceptionally well for the hard left pact and for the C's, PSOE could find itself with no seat (an unlikely outcome though).
The alliance with Podemos is not yet a done deal. Podemos will insist that it has the first two names on the "list", i.e. its two current deputies. Having gained 23% of the share of the December vote, it holds the aces in negotiations with Més. But granting Més the third name on the list would have some appeal because of the way in which the hard-left alliance would become the number one force.
Why should this really matter? It would matter a great deal to the government of the Balearics. Here would be a situation in which two partners in government (one actually in it, Més, and one not, Podemos) gang up against the leadership of that government - PSOE. If for no other reason than psychological, it would be a blow to Francina Armengol and to her party.
But it could prove to be more than just psychological. Podemos has remained outside the government. It might decide that, emboldened by a June performance, it would seek entrance. Though the regional government was determined by the regional and not the general election and though PSOE got the greater share of the vote and the greater number of regional parliament seats, Podemos and Més together have a higher parliamentary representation. Armengol isn't forecasting any threat to the "stability" of her government, but she would be weakened if the Més-Podemos general election alliance were to be realised.
The fact is that she was already weak. In the run-up to the regional election last May, she and PSOE shifted more to the left. It was clear which way the wind was blowing, and it was steering a leftward course. It didn't do PSOE much good. It was sufficient to enter government but into a government with its hands tied. Armengol isn't a puppet as such, but she is no puppet master. Podemos is perpetually hovering, threatening to hang her out to dry. After 26-J, she will hang on to the presidency, but her credibility will be less than it already is: a sort of dead woman president walking, constantly bleating the lines about consensus and dialogue, when in truth the dialogue is all one way.
So rattled is PSOE that its number one on the December list, Ramon Socias, is to be ousted. What difference his removal will make is hard to fathom, though his position as number one in December was also difficult to comprehend. A former national government delegate to the Balearics, he has some substance, but he's in the "veteran" category, tarnished by old failings and something of a non-entity when pitched against the likes of the PP's number one, Mateo Isern, or the judge, Juan Pedro Yllanes, the Podemos number one. Changing him for another non-entity doesn't make much sense. PSOE is up against it whoever it has on its list.
Though further weakened, Armengol should survive. Despite PSOE's weakness, it does have some strength. If Més and Podemos have in mind an alternative president (one from its combined ranks), PSOE would surely block it. But why would they? They'll just tell PSOE what to do, and the president will agree. There's consensus and dialogue for you.
At the pre-Christmas election, the Partido Popular, with the highest share of the regional vote, secured three seats. There were two each for Podemos and PSOE and one for Ciudadanos (C's). Excluded from Congress, therefore, was Més. It polled worse than the party had hoped, though its 7% share of the vote put it in the mix for potentially gaining a seat: parties have to secure a minimum of 3% in order to be considered under the proportional representation system.
Més is this time more confident of getting itself into Congress, though a pact with the United Left and Pacma (the party against animal mistreatment) would, on the basis of the December vote, still leave it short. What would change its fortunes would be an alliance with Podemos, and the chances of there being an alliance of what one might describe as the hard left in the Balearics are strong.
Were there to be this alliance, it would - again using December's vote - be the main force in the Balearics, polling higher than the PP with 33% of the share of the vote. With the PP staying more or less where it was in December (it surely won't lose votes), PSOE would be relegated to one Congress seat. If things went really badly for PSOE and exceptionally well for the hard left pact and for the C's, PSOE could find itself with no seat (an unlikely outcome though).
The alliance with Podemos is not yet a done deal. Podemos will insist that it has the first two names on the "list", i.e. its two current deputies. Having gained 23% of the share of the December vote, it holds the aces in negotiations with Més. But granting Més the third name on the list would have some appeal because of the way in which the hard-left alliance would become the number one force.
Why should this really matter? It would matter a great deal to the government of the Balearics. Here would be a situation in which two partners in government (one actually in it, Més, and one not, Podemos) gang up against the leadership of that government - PSOE. If for no other reason than psychological, it would be a blow to Francina Armengol and to her party.
But it could prove to be more than just psychological. Podemos has remained outside the government. It might decide that, emboldened by a June performance, it would seek entrance. Though the regional government was determined by the regional and not the general election and though PSOE got the greater share of the vote and the greater number of regional parliament seats, Podemos and Més together have a higher parliamentary representation. Armengol isn't forecasting any threat to the "stability" of her government, but she would be weakened if the Més-Podemos general election alliance were to be realised.
The fact is that she was already weak. In the run-up to the regional election last May, she and PSOE shifted more to the left. It was clear which way the wind was blowing, and it was steering a leftward course. It didn't do PSOE much good. It was sufficient to enter government but into a government with its hands tied. Armengol isn't a puppet as such, but she is no puppet master. Podemos is perpetually hovering, threatening to hang her out to dry. After 26-J, she will hang on to the presidency, but her credibility will be less than it already is: a sort of dead woman president walking, constantly bleating the lines about consensus and dialogue, when in truth the dialogue is all one way.
So rattled is PSOE that its number one on the December list, Ramon Socias, is to be ousted. What difference his removal will make is hard to fathom, though his position as number one in December was also difficult to comprehend. A former national government delegate to the Balearics, he has some substance, but he's in the "veteran" category, tarnished by old failings and something of a non-entity when pitched against the likes of the PP's number one, Mateo Isern, or the judge, Juan Pedro Yllanes, the Podemos number one. Changing him for another non-entity doesn't make much sense. PSOE is up against it whoever it has on its list.
Though further weakened, Armengol should survive. Despite PSOE's weakness, it does have some strength. If Més and Podemos have in mind an alternative president (one from its combined ranks), PSOE would surely block it. But why would they? They'll just tell PSOE what to do, and the president will agree. There's consensus and dialogue for you.
Tuesday, May 03, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 May 2016
Morning high (6.39am): 11.7C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 4 May - Sun, 19C; 5 May - Sun, cloud, 17C; 6 May - Cloud, sun, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 2 to 4 veering North 2 to 3 around midday.
A fine-looking morning as the sun comes up. Much like yesterday - so sunny but with lighter breezes.
Evening update (21.00): Lovely day. High of 24.5C.
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 4 May - Sun, 19C; 5 May - Sun, cloud, 17C; 6 May - Cloud, sun, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 2 to 4 veering North 2 to 3 around midday.
A fine-looking morning as the sun comes up. Much like yesterday - so sunny but with lighter breezes.
Evening update (21.00): Lovely day. High of 24.5C.
Very Many Drunken Tourists
Johanna, 20. Never having been to Arenal, she went off with a friend to take a look. When she returned (to Playa de Muro), she reported, with the slightly mangled English that Germans sometimes betray, that many tourists were "very drunken" (German for drunk is "betrunken", so it's an easy mistake to make).
Drunken tourists are flavour of the month once more. German ones predominantly. Playa de Palma - Arenal and all - is German sunbedsraum land. And German bierkeller land. It celebrates a drinking culture, one in particular of Bavaria, where I used to live. Drink, beer most obviously, is engrained into this culture. Yet it is not like a British drink culture.
Of course, it is perfectly acceptable to get legless. Indeed, when it comes to the annual "Kirchweih" (the peculiarly named village and town fiestas for dedication to the church), local businesses will have their tables at the bierfest. They positively insist that everyone gets rat arsed. But what is not acceptable is to get "very drunken" and out of control. Nor is it acceptable to treat the institutionalised nature of drinking as bingeing. The line might seem fine, but bingeing it is not.
While British drinking culture can appear to have no control and no limits, Germany's has both. But transport an element of the nation's tourists to Mallorca and it's that old rivalry all over again. Very many drunken tourists. Which side is the winner?
There's a newspaper headline. Spanish. "Mallorca declares war on drunkenness in public areas." This, specifically, is tourist drunkenness, though not exclusively; tourists are not responsible for the drunkenness of Santa Catalina's "tardeo". The war has been declared nevertheless, and it is on account of drinking events in public areas: in Playa de Palma with its manifestations of German drinking culture. Controlled for the most part, it is - all the same - inclined to spill out onto the streets with its pants down and its voice at high volume. Bingeing is being organised. In public areas. War has therefore been declared.
It has happened before. Last year, for example. On two weekends in early season, the drunken tourists were of sufficient number to have brought traffic to a standstill. Videos were posted. There was no mistaking the national origin of this drunkenness. Yet little was said or done. The mood has now changed. Or appears to have. Palma has caught the Calvia bug. Tough on drink, tough on the causes of drink. Supposedly, anyway.
Perpetually smiling mayor, José Hila, was joined by the ray of sunshine at the tourism ministry, Biel Barceló. They strolled along the prom in Playa de Palma, the latest head of police walking with them. Why? They were examining the general area where another public-area drinking event (unauthorised) was scheduled for the following day. Would a stroll on the day in question not have been of greater value? See for themselves; that sort of thing. Or, as with other wars, do the chiefs prefer to absent themselves from the front line - Playa de Palma's in this instance - and only learn about casualties via dispatches?
The very drunken tourists of Arenal are not alone of course. Remember Magalluf? Heard about Santa Ponsa? Ah yes, Santa Ponsa, only now coming into Calvia radar distance. You'll surely remember Magalluf though. All those determined to provide the resort with touristic gentrification. Such as tour operators. Such hypocrites. Is TUI, German TUI, alone in its type of publicity? The company has removed it, following a complaint from one of the war chiefs, i.e. Barceló. It was advertising fun until the doctor comes (that was one of the slogans). For 390 euros, 4-star. Yes, you can up the star rating, as Mallorca pursues its up-marketing, but it doesn't mean that you remove the drinking. In the lower part of the season there are rooms and planes to be filled, niche markets to be attracted. The fine words of tour operators and others count for very little. Hypocrites.
Where will the battle lines of this war be? Barceló intimates that there are to be continuous inspections in tourist resorts. Continuous? Inspections? Who by? Which resorts? Shall we guess? The resorts of political necessity, namely Magalluf and Playa de Palma. The war chiefs are largely unaware of the existence of others. Santa Ponsa they are now learning about, but what of Cala Ratjada or Alcudia? In the latter the incidents are minimal, but there have been incidents nonetheless and of an entirely Spanish origin.
In Catalonia they've declared their own war: official disassociation from any company - tour operator, whatever - which promotes drunken tourism, a move driven partly by the promotion of spring breaks, such as that of Salou ("the premier orgy in Spain"). Tough on drink, tough on the causes of drink: the organisers, the promoters. Mallorca should do likewise. It's war, Sr. Barceló.
Drunken tourists are flavour of the month once more. German ones predominantly. Playa de Palma - Arenal and all - is German sunbedsraum land. And German bierkeller land. It celebrates a drinking culture, one in particular of Bavaria, where I used to live. Drink, beer most obviously, is engrained into this culture. Yet it is not like a British drink culture.
Of course, it is perfectly acceptable to get legless. Indeed, when it comes to the annual "Kirchweih" (the peculiarly named village and town fiestas for dedication to the church), local businesses will have their tables at the bierfest. They positively insist that everyone gets rat arsed. But what is not acceptable is to get "very drunken" and out of control. Nor is it acceptable to treat the institutionalised nature of drinking as bingeing. The line might seem fine, but bingeing it is not.
While British drinking culture can appear to have no control and no limits, Germany's has both. But transport an element of the nation's tourists to Mallorca and it's that old rivalry all over again. Very many drunken tourists. Which side is the winner?
There's a newspaper headline. Spanish. "Mallorca declares war on drunkenness in public areas." This, specifically, is tourist drunkenness, though not exclusively; tourists are not responsible for the drunkenness of Santa Catalina's "tardeo". The war has been declared nevertheless, and it is on account of drinking events in public areas: in Playa de Palma with its manifestations of German drinking culture. Controlled for the most part, it is - all the same - inclined to spill out onto the streets with its pants down and its voice at high volume. Bingeing is being organised. In public areas. War has therefore been declared.
It has happened before. Last year, for example. On two weekends in early season, the drunken tourists were of sufficient number to have brought traffic to a standstill. Videos were posted. There was no mistaking the national origin of this drunkenness. Yet little was said or done. The mood has now changed. Or appears to have. Palma has caught the Calvia bug. Tough on drink, tough on the causes of drink. Supposedly, anyway.
Perpetually smiling mayor, José Hila, was joined by the ray of sunshine at the tourism ministry, Biel Barceló. They strolled along the prom in Playa de Palma, the latest head of police walking with them. Why? They were examining the general area where another public-area drinking event (unauthorised) was scheduled for the following day. Would a stroll on the day in question not have been of greater value? See for themselves; that sort of thing. Or, as with other wars, do the chiefs prefer to absent themselves from the front line - Playa de Palma's in this instance - and only learn about casualties via dispatches?
The very drunken tourists of Arenal are not alone of course. Remember Magalluf? Heard about Santa Ponsa? Ah yes, Santa Ponsa, only now coming into Calvia radar distance. You'll surely remember Magalluf though. All those determined to provide the resort with touristic gentrification. Such as tour operators. Such hypocrites. Is TUI, German TUI, alone in its type of publicity? The company has removed it, following a complaint from one of the war chiefs, i.e. Barceló. It was advertising fun until the doctor comes (that was one of the slogans). For 390 euros, 4-star. Yes, you can up the star rating, as Mallorca pursues its up-marketing, but it doesn't mean that you remove the drinking. In the lower part of the season there are rooms and planes to be filled, niche markets to be attracted. The fine words of tour operators and others count for very little. Hypocrites.
Where will the battle lines of this war be? Barceló intimates that there are to be continuous inspections in tourist resorts. Continuous? Inspections? Who by? Which resorts? Shall we guess? The resorts of political necessity, namely Magalluf and Playa de Palma. The war chiefs are largely unaware of the existence of others. Santa Ponsa they are now learning about, but what of Cala Ratjada or Alcudia? In the latter the incidents are minimal, but there have been incidents nonetheless and of an entirely Spanish origin.
In Catalonia they've declared their own war: official disassociation from any company - tour operator, whatever - which promotes drunken tourism, a move driven partly by the promotion of spring breaks, such as that of Salou ("the premier orgy in Spain"). Tough on drink, tough on the causes of drink: the organisers, the promoters. Mallorca should do likewise. It's war, Sr. Barceló.
Monday, May 02, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 May 2016
Morning high (6.53am): 12.7C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 3 May - Sun, 20C; 4 May - Sun, 16C; 5 May - Sun, cloud, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 4 to 5 occasionally Variable 2 to 3.
Sunny but quite breezy day in store. Week's outlook - fine until Friday.
Evening update (20.45): That was more like it. Good sun all day. Fresh. High of 23.3C.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 3 May - Sun, 20C; 4 May - Sun, 16C; 5 May - Sun, cloud, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 4 to 5 occasionally Variable 2 to 3.
Sunny but quite breezy day in store. Week's outlook - fine until Friday.
Evening update (20.45): That was more like it. Good sun all day. Fresh. High of 23.3C.
When Anger Takes Over: Mallorca and cycling
Saturday was the Mallorca 312 cycle race, so-called because it involved covering a course of 312 kilometres in length. On an island that is nowhere near this length in any one direction, that meant a fair old amount of road needed to be covered. Covered and closed. In fact, it wasn't a race as such. The term "prueba" explained much: a trial. One that tested the over 4,000 cyclists and tested the patience of many people on the island.
Some municipalities which were affected were more upset than others. Mayors and the Council of Mallorca are now said to be going to get together in order to try and limit the inconvenience caused by various sporting events. They will identify ones of major importance, thus implying that those of lesser importance might have to be ditched.
The argument goes, and it's reasonable, that it is only one day. A problem with this argument, however, is that isn't only one day. Not if another event follows hot on the heels. While Mallorca 312 affected a wider area of the island than this coming weekend's Ironman, there are parts of the island affected by both. Playa de Muro was more or less closed on Saturday. It will be again on Saturday. Access to Alcudia was virtually impossible for some hours on Saturday. Alcudia will be shut next Saturday.
So, one day only for each event, but two days in the course of a seven-day period, to which can be added the inconvenience of the closure of the road into Alcudia's port from Magic all next week. It is understandable if some people get rather hacked off.
Both 312 and Ironman bring in good business. I am well aware of the fact that there are certain businesses which suffer because of Ironman (a Saturday's trading is in effect lost because clients cannot get in to the port area), but in general there is an economic advantage. This shouldn't be under-estimated and nor should the benefit to Alcudia as a sports tourism destination be under-played. There is a lot of good that comes from such events.
But try telling some people this when they will perceive legitimate reasons for being annoyed by the inconvenience, loss of trade and inability to move around freely. There is also, one cannot help but get the sense, an increasing resentment of cycling - one element of Ironman, the reason for Mallorca 312 and the source of so much early-season tourism.
This resentment comes from different sources, one of which is other tourists, such as those who were left with luggage searching for their hotels at the weekend. But most of all it comes from residents. Looking at comments on Spanish newspapers, it was very clear that those defending the Saturday event were in a minority.
Perhaps it is a reflection of social media and the ease with which people can vent their frustrations, but the level of resentment shown towards cyclists in general (the regular tourist type as well as those taking part in the events) has not been like it is now. Saturday may have represented a turning-point. Or it should do. The island's authorities (and many businesses) are treading a thin line between reaping the benefits of cycling and the attitudes of the island residents. Cyclists are increasingly characterised as some form of foreign invasion force. Why should the island shut down just to let foreigners ride their bikes?
How can there be a reconciliation? It's difficult to know. But one fears that the resentment is going to boil over at some point. There is a great deal of irrationality voiced by cycling opponents, just as there is a great deal of obnoxious behaviour by cyclists. The passive actions of the Council of Mallorca and others in issuing advice and recommendations are insufficient. The local authorities have to be aware of this irrationality and this behaviour and take measures to prevent there being ugly incidents and matters getting out of hand.
There is a great deal of good from cycling and from cycling events and others. But there is a downside, a significant one. In a word, it is anger. And anger does no one any good.
Some municipalities which were affected were more upset than others. Mayors and the Council of Mallorca are now said to be going to get together in order to try and limit the inconvenience caused by various sporting events. They will identify ones of major importance, thus implying that those of lesser importance might have to be ditched.
The argument goes, and it's reasonable, that it is only one day. A problem with this argument, however, is that isn't only one day. Not if another event follows hot on the heels. While Mallorca 312 affected a wider area of the island than this coming weekend's Ironman, there are parts of the island affected by both. Playa de Muro was more or less closed on Saturday. It will be again on Saturday. Access to Alcudia was virtually impossible for some hours on Saturday. Alcudia will be shut next Saturday.
So, one day only for each event, but two days in the course of a seven-day period, to which can be added the inconvenience of the closure of the road into Alcudia's port from Magic all next week. It is understandable if some people get rather hacked off.
Both 312 and Ironman bring in good business. I am well aware of the fact that there are certain businesses which suffer because of Ironman (a Saturday's trading is in effect lost because clients cannot get in to the port area), but in general there is an economic advantage. This shouldn't be under-estimated and nor should the benefit to Alcudia as a sports tourism destination be under-played. There is a lot of good that comes from such events.
But try telling some people this when they will perceive legitimate reasons for being annoyed by the inconvenience, loss of trade and inability to move around freely. There is also, one cannot help but get the sense, an increasing resentment of cycling - one element of Ironman, the reason for Mallorca 312 and the source of so much early-season tourism.
This resentment comes from different sources, one of which is other tourists, such as those who were left with luggage searching for their hotels at the weekend. But most of all it comes from residents. Looking at comments on Spanish newspapers, it was very clear that those defending the Saturday event were in a minority.
Perhaps it is a reflection of social media and the ease with which people can vent their frustrations, but the level of resentment shown towards cyclists in general (the regular tourist type as well as those taking part in the events) has not been like it is now. Saturday may have represented a turning-point. Or it should do. The island's authorities (and many businesses) are treading a thin line between reaping the benefits of cycling and the attitudes of the island residents. Cyclists are increasingly characterised as some form of foreign invasion force. Why should the island shut down just to let foreigners ride their bikes?
How can there be a reconciliation? It's difficult to know. But one fears that the resentment is going to boil over at some point. There is a great deal of irrationality voiced by cycling opponents, just as there is a great deal of obnoxious behaviour by cyclists. The passive actions of the Council of Mallorca and others in issuing advice and recommendations are insufficient. The local authorities have to be aware of this irrationality and this behaviour and take measures to prevent there being ugly incidents and matters getting out of hand.
There is a great deal of good from cycling and from cycling events and others. But there is a downside, a significant one. In a word, it is anger. And anger does no one any good.
Sunday, May 01, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 May 2016
Morning high (8.21am): 8.1C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 2 May - Sun, 19C; 3 May - Sun, 17C; 3 May - Sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 3 to 4 occasionally 5.
First day of the official tourism season and it's cold and wet. The forecast does though suggest an improvement later today, with much of the coming week being very sunny.
Evening update (19.30): Miserable morning, then the skies cleared and it was very pleasant. High of 17.7C.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 2 May - Sun, 19C; 3 May - Sun, 17C; 3 May - Sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 3 to 4 occasionally 5.
First day of the official tourism season and it's cold and wet. The forecast does though suggest an improvement later today, with much of the coming week being very sunny.
Evening update (19.30): Miserable morning, then the skies cleared and it was very pleasant. High of 17.7C.
The Forgotten Mining Industry Of Mallorca
It was in July 1976. Onofre Serra and Nadal Perelló were working on a finca in Sineu. They were drilling for water. When they had gone down some 60 metres, they found some pieces of rock that were rather strange. They took them to the local silversmith. They had found gold. Possibly.
The finca's owner was somewhat sceptical. Nevertheless, and as news of the discovery spread, he put up a warning sign for trespassers beware. Various "experts" were consulted. A one-time gold digger in Venezuela, who then lived in Sa Pobla, reckoned it was gold. Official confirmation was sought, so some samples were sent off to Madrid. And then ... . Well, that seems to have been it. This story comes from a news report of the time. There don't appear to be further reports. If there was gold in Sineu, one suspects we would have heard a great deal more about it.
It is a story that is interesting for different reasons. One, obviously, is that it might have inspired the Mallorcan gold rush. It didn't. A second has to do with legend. On the finca there is a narrow cave entrance. So the legend has it, a Moorish king who was fighting against the Christians buried his treasure there.
The third reason is because of what might have occurred had there really been gold. A gold rush yes, but in the form of mining. And in the second half of the 1970s, mining could have done with the boost: it had all but died out.
The town hall in Alcudia has recently amended its catalogue of local heritage. Under this amendment, it has raised to the highest level of protection the town's mining heritage. These are the mines of Son Fe on the outskirts of the town as one enters it from the motorway. They are afforded this protection by the town hall and they are also the only mines to be classified as protected industrial heritage by the Council of Mallorca. This, despite the fact that there are various examples of former mines, such as in Alaro and Binissalem.
The story of mining in Mallorca is one that gets very little exposure. Yet mining was once an important industry. Though some forms of mining would have been practised over many centuries, the first record that has been uncovered of its official existence comes from August 1837. It refers to a reduction - yes a reduction - in tax for a mine in Lloseta. It, as with other mines, was given a name. "Barbara" was its title. There were to be others, such as "Verdad" (truth) in Son Fe, Alcudia, or "El Eden" in Maria de la Salut.
The real explosion in the island's mining was not to occur until a landmark national law was passed in 1868. After several years of wholly bungled lawmaking, they finally approved legislation that made clear - once and for all - that anything which was mined belonged to the state and not to the crown. This opened the way to all sorts of approvals for mineworking, and not only in Mallorca.
The following fifty years represented the real boom time for the island's mining. There was then a period of twenty years when few new mines were opened or requested. With the arrival of the Franco regime and the system of self-sufficient, autarky economy, there was more growth, only for mining to eventually become a thing of the past.
Most of the mining was for lignite carbon - brown coal. Though this has low heat content, it was to come in useful for powering electricity plants. The largest mining company was Lignitos S.A. In the early 1920s it was acquired by Gas y Electricidad S.A., better known as GESA. When a policy decision was taken by GESA to reduce a dependence on oil, the coal came in very handy. Other mining was principally for iron, copper and lead.
By comparison with other parts of Spain, Asturias for example, Mallorca never attained any real reputation for its coal mining: the coal was only ever used for the islands' own purposes. And this lack of reputation seems to partly explain why this one-time industry and the old mines fail to receive any great attention. But here was an industry which could, as an example, employ twelve miners and produce almost 1,500 tons of lignite carbon a year: these were the 1931 figures for the Son Fe "Virgen del Puig" mine, the remains of which now look like an abandoned old concrete hut.
This might not have been a lot of workers and it might not have been a huge output, but when all the various mines were put together, this was once a significant industry.
The finca's owner was somewhat sceptical. Nevertheless, and as news of the discovery spread, he put up a warning sign for trespassers beware. Various "experts" were consulted. A one-time gold digger in Venezuela, who then lived in Sa Pobla, reckoned it was gold. Official confirmation was sought, so some samples were sent off to Madrid. And then ... . Well, that seems to have been it. This story comes from a news report of the time. There don't appear to be further reports. If there was gold in Sineu, one suspects we would have heard a great deal more about it.
It is a story that is interesting for different reasons. One, obviously, is that it might have inspired the Mallorcan gold rush. It didn't. A second has to do with legend. On the finca there is a narrow cave entrance. So the legend has it, a Moorish king who was fighting against the Christians buried his treasure there.
The third reason is because of what might have occurred had there really been gold. A gold rush yes, but in the form of mining. And in the second half of the 1970s, mining could have done with the boost: it had all but died out.
The town hall in Alcudia has recently amended its catalogue of local heritage. Under this amendment, it has raised to the highest level of protection the town's mining heritage. These are the mines of Son Fe on the outskirts of the town as one enters it from the motorway. They are afforded this protection by the town hall and they are also the only mines to be classified as protected industrial heritage by the Council of Mallorca. This, despite the fact that there are various examples of former mines, such as in Alaro and Binissalem.
The story of mining in Mallorca is one that gets very little exposure. Yet mining was once an important industry. Though some forms of mining would have been practised over many centuries, the first record that has been uncovered of its official existence comes from August 1837. It refers to a reduction - yes a reduction - in tax for a mine in Lloseta. It, as with other mines, was given a name. "Barbara" was its title. There were to be others, such as "Verdad" (truth) in Son Fe, Alcudia, or "El Eden" in Maria de la Salut.
The real explosion in the island's mining was not to occur until a landmark national law was passed in 1868. After several years of wholly bungled lawmaking, they finally approved legislation that made clear - once and for all - that anything which was mined belonged to the state and not to the crown. This opened the way to all sorts of approvals for mineworking, and not only in Mallorca.
The following fifty years represented the real boom time for the island's mining. There was then a period of twenty years when few new mines were opened or requested. With the arrival of the Franco regime and the system of self-sufficient, autarky economy, there was more growth, only for mining to eventually become a thing of the past.
Most of the mining was for lignite carbon - brown coal. Though this has low heat content, it was to come in useful for powering electricity plants. The largest mining company was Lignitos S.A. In the early 1920s it was acquired by Gas y Electricidad S.A., better known as GESA. When a policy decision was taken by GESA to reduce a dependence on oil, the coal came in very handy. Other mining was principally for iron, copper and lead.
By comparison with other parts of Spain, Asturias for example, Mallorca never attained any real reputation for its coal mining: the coal was only ever used for the islands' own purposes. And this lack of reputation seems to partly explain why this one-time industry and the old mines fail to receive any great attention. But here was an industry which could, as an example, employ twelve miners and produce almost 1,500 tons of lignite carbon a year: these were the 1931 figures for the Son Fe "Virgen del Puig" mine, the remains of which now look like an abandoned old concrete hut.
This might not have been a lot of workers and it might not have been a huge output, but when all the various mines were put together, this was once a significant industry.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 30 April 2016
Morning high (7.20am): 12.2C
Forecast high: 17C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 1 May - Cloud, sun, 18C; 2 May - Sun, 17C; 3 May - Sun, 18C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North-Northeast 4 to 5.
Back to grey again, with rain likely and not much by way of sun until later in the day. Better tomorrow, and the following days forecast suggests that fine spring weather is back.
Evening update (19.15): There was some rain but not too much. Sun out later but cloud still around. High of 19.8C when the sun came through but at times down at the 14 or so mark.
Forecast high: 17C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 1 May - Cloud, sun, 18C; 2 May - Sun, 17C; 3 May - Sun, 18C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North-Northeast 4 to 5.
Back to grey again, with rain likely and not much by way of sun until later in the day. Better tomorrow, and the following days forecast suggests that fine spring weather is back.
Evening update (19.15): There was some rain but not too much. Sun out later but cloud still around. High of 19.8C when the sun came through but at times down at the 14 or so mark.
Lousy Communications: The tourist tax
So now the confusion kicks in. The tourist tax was being discussed on "Good Morning Britain" on Thursday. Lack of clarity was a key message. This is hardly surprising when tour operators are themselves not totally clear and when the foreign media is likewise uncertain. Some of the reporting is laughable, such as the headline from "Metro" which referred to the cost of holidays to Spain going up. The report did then specify the Balearics, but why give the impression that it was the whole country? The same report then quoted someone from ABTA who seemed to be under the impression that the tax revenue will be used solely for the conservation of the marine environment. Perhaps it was a case of selective reporting.
The final text of the sustainable tourism tax law did show one or two changes from what had been the draft text. A significant one is that the 50% reduction on the daily charge starts on the ninth day of a stay. The original intention had been from the eleventh day. There is also an amendment to the purposes for the tax revenue. Marine environment is one of a raft of purposes, but gone from the previous list is anything specific for the promotion of tourism (with the exception of the promotion of sustainable tourism, however this might be defined). Also gone is any redevelopment of resort infrastructures.
The text of the law establishes that "projects of an environmental character will be prioritised". Although members of the government, such as the finance minister, Catalina Cladera, have insisted this is not a return to the old eco-tax, it would appear that it primarily is - with an emphasis on protection, conservation, modernisation and recovery of the natural, rural, agrarian and marine environments.
The confusion and the misleading reporting stem, I'm sorry to have to say, from the incoherence that has dogged the introduction of the tax law and from the lousy communications of the government. Let me cite an example. So poor have these been that I, not exactly a wholehearted advocate of the tax, once binned a communication from the ministry and rewrote the whole thing for them from scratch (and it was published). If you're going to introduce a tax, at least try and get the message over in a sympathetic and persuasive fashion: that was what I attempted to do.
The incoherence has arisen because of the various interests of the political parties, individuals within them and the environmental lobby (six of whom will be on the commission to determine how the revenue is spent; there are also six from business). This has meant that the purposes for the tax revenue have shifted. It has been said to me that, left to his own devices, Biel Barceló might have brought in rather different legislation. I'm sure he would have done. There are those to the left of him in his own political grouping (Més) and in Podemos. He has had to bow, for the purposes of agreements for government, to these interests. The consequence is a dog's breakfast of a law, being poorly implemented, being introduced at the wrong time, being badly communicated. Other than all this, it's fine.
Index for April 2016
Balearic government and ministerial quotas - 5 April 2016, 10 April 2016
Convention centres and the Palacio de Congresos - 29 April 2016
Dry stone - 11 April 2016
Fiestas and changing traditions - 18 April 2016
Food trucks - 24 April 2016
Fornalutx correbou - 27 April 2016
Graffiti - 17 April 2016
Innovation and research - 6 April 2016
Mario Conde - 14 April 2016
National tourism ministry - 20 April 2016
Panama papers and Mallorca hoteliers - 8 April 2016
Partido Popular leadership - 12 April 2016
Pedro Zaragoza and Spain's tourism past - 26 April 2016
Public way and terraces - 21 April 2016
Puerto Pollensa: pedestrianisation and ice-cream kiosk - 23 April 2016
Republican homage after 85 years - 15 April 2016
Silvia Cano - 3 April 2016
Spain and government - 13 April 2016, 25 April 2016, 28 April 2016
Terrorism and tourists - 22 April 2016
Theodore Pratt - 4 April 2016
Time and working day - 7 April 2016
Tourismphobia - 19 April 2016
Tourist tax - 2 April 2016, 9 April 2016, 16 April 2016, 30 April 2016
Youth unemployment - 1 April 2016
The final text of the sustainable tourism tax law did show one or two changes from what had been the draft text. A significant one is that the 50% reduction on the daily charge starts on the ninth day of a stay. The original intention had been from the eleventh day. There is also an amendment to the purposes for the tax revenue. Marine environment is one of a raft of purposes, but gone from the previous list is anything specific for the promotion of tourism (with the exception of the promotion of sustainable tourism, however this might be defined). Also gone is any redevelopment of resort infrastructures.
The text of the law establishes that "projects of an environmental character will be prioritised". Although members of the government, such as the finance minister, Catalina Cladera, have insisted this is not a return to the old eco-tax, it would appear that it primarily is - with an emphasis on protection, conservation, modernisation and recovery of the natural, rural, agrarian and marine environments.
The confusion and the misleading reporting stem, I'm sorry to have to say, from the incoherence that has dogged the introduction of the tax law and from the lousy communications of the government. Let me cite an example. So poor have these been that I, not exactly a wholehearted advocate of the tax, once binned a communication from the ministry and rewrote the whole thing for them from scratch (and it was published). If you're going to introduce a tax, at least try and get the message over in a sympathetic and persuasive fashion: that was what I attempted to do.
The incoherence has arisen because of the various interests of the political parties, individuals within them and the environmental lobby (six of whom will be on the commission to determine how the revenue is spent; there are also six from business). This has meant that the purposes for the tax revenue have shifted. It has been said to me that, left to his own devices, Biel Barceló might have brought in rather different legislation. I'm sure he would have done. There are those to the left of him in his own political grouping (Més) and in Podemos. He has had to bow, for the purposes of agreements for government, to these interests. The consequence is a dog's breakfast of a law, being poorly implemented, being introduced at the wrong time, being badly communicated. Other than all this, it's fine.
Index for April 2016
Balearic government and ministerial quotas - 5 April 2016, 10 April 2016
Convention centres and the Palacio de Congresos - 29 April 2016
Dry stone - 11 April 2016
Fiestas and changing traditions - 18 April 2016
Food trucks - 24 April 2016
Fornalutx correbou - 27 April 2016
Graffiti - 17 April 2016
Innovation and research - 6 April 2016
Mario Conde - 14 April 2016
National tourism ministry - 20 April 2016
Panama papers and Mallorca hoteliers - 8 April 2016
Partido Popular leadership - 12 April 2016
Pedro Zaragoza and Spain's tourism past - 26 April 2016
Public way and terraces - 21 April 2016
Puerto Pollensa: pedestrianisation and ice-cream kiosk - 23 April 2016
Republican homage after 85 years - 15 April 2016
Silvia Cano - 3 April 2016
Spain and government - 13 April 2016, 25 April 2016, 28 April 2016
Terrorism and tourists - 22 April 2016
Theodore Pratt - 4 April 2016
Time and working day - 7 April 2016
Tourismphobia - 19 April 2016
Tourist tax - 2 April 2016, 9 April 2016, 16 April 2016, 30 April 2016
Youth unemployment - 1 April 2016
Friday, April 29, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 29 April 2016
Morning high (8.39am): 12.5C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 30 April - Cloud, sun, 19C; 1 May - Sun, cloud, 16C; 2 May - Sun, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 4
Much better morning: some cloud but sunny. Due to cloud over later on. The weekend a mixed bag with sunny spells and the possibility of showers.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 30 April - Cloud, sun, 19C; 1 May - Sun, cloud, 16C; 2 May - Sun, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 4
Much better morning: some cloud but sunny. Due to cloud over later on. The weekend a mixed bag with sunny spells and the possibility of showers.
When Mallorca Was A Conventions Pioneer
Palma's Palacio de Congresos is almost ready to go, almost being the operative word. There are things missing, such as seats in the auditoriums and anyone to actually manage the convention centre (and hotel). Neither of these is a minor detail. Both of these say much about how the centre's development has been blighted by the small print of tender agreements. The contest for the seats was ruled invalid (by a court) after one of the bidding companies which had been knocked out early on in the process complained. The court upheld the complaint. They're bidding all over again for the right to be the company which installs the seats.
They will also, once the specification has been finalised, be bidding for the management of the complex. There had to be a new bid because someone at the university (not a court therefore) determined that the award which had been made was not sound. The small print pertaining to the value of the hotel had been overlooked. It all got terribly complicated and terribly tedious. Let's pray that this next bid isn't also found to have some irregularity, though who can rule out that we won't have more of the same: an apparent inability to set watertight contractual conditions.
Retracing the tortuous path of how we got to where we are with the Palacio is unnecessary. It's all been explained time and time again. But there is one fairly fundamental issue that does perhaps still need explaining. Why was it ever considered to have been a good idea to build it in the first place?
A simple answer is that the then Balearic president, Jaume Matas, a man who never knowingly undervalued a good vanity project when one presented itself, decreed its building. This was despite advice that it would cost too much and couldn't guarantee a good return. But such were projects in those days. Let's think of others. Palma Arena, the metro, Son Espases. The latter can be excused, albeit that the courts have yet to truly sink their teeth into it.
Although there were those who advised against, there were also plenty who were in favour. Matas was not alone among the politicians. There was widespread, cross-party support for the Palacio. There was also plenty of business backing - if only in spirit rather than cash. Then there was the apparent need for and sense of a project that had been long neglected.
Palma and Mallorca had been left way behind by other convention centres. Madrid and Barcelona between them hoover up significant portions of the global exhibition and conference trade. They were doing so in 2003, the year that Matas became president for the second time. The mainland had other venues, some of them yet to be built. Why did Mallorca need one?
At the end of the 1960s, a time when the global industry for conferences and exhibitions was still in comparative infancy, this industry was barely unheard of in Spain. Facilities which existed were more or less confined to the 1929-built Montjuïc fair in Barcelona. But in 1967 and 1969 along came two facilities that, and it has been described thus, made Mallorca a pioneer at national level for events' facilities: they were the Pueblo Español, with its own palace of congresses, and Palma's auditorium.
The point is that Palma had the wherewithal to have become a major conventions centre. It didn't because, despite the advantages it enjoyed from the end of the 1960s, there was no real further investment. It was already appreciated that the type of tourism that conventions attracted was of a vastly more profitable nature than regular sun-and-beach tourism and that it helped to dilute the impact of seasonality. A spend of some seven times more should have been an element for building on those late 1960s advantages. They were not, unless one includes the comparatively inconsequential contributions of Playa de Palma's auditorium (1984) and the two auditoriums opened in 1999 - Alcudia and Cala Millor.
In the 1970s there were two important developments - there was the ABTA convention in Mallorca in 1973 (at the auditorium) and the Mallorca Tourism Congress of 1979. The latter, it was said, pointed the way towards a "new style of congress". But whatever the successes of these congresses, there was very little advancement of Mallorca's position as a destination for conventions. Not even the creation of the fairs and congresses department when the regional government was formed in 1983 made a great deal of difference.
It has been argued, and rightly so, that conference and exhibition tourism was of marginal concern for an island growing rich on an essentially one-dimensional type of tourism - sun and beach. The opportunities that had existed for Mallorca to have become a major conventions' destination were lost. The Palacio de Congresos was needed, but the idea for it in 2003 was some 25 years too late.
They will also, once the specification has been finalised, be bidding for the management of the complex. There had to be a new bid because someone at the university (not a court therefore) determined that the award which had been made was not sound. The small print pertaining to the value of the hotel had been overlooked. It all got terribly complicated and terribly tedious. Let's pray that this next bid isn't also found to have some irregularity, though who can rule out that we won't have more of the same: an apparent inability to set watertight contractual conditions.
Retracing the tortuous path of how we got to where we are with the Palacio is unnecessary. It's all been explained time and time again. But there is one fairly fundamental issue that does perhaps still need explaining. Why was it ever considered to have been a good idea to build it in the first place?
A simple answer is that the then Balearic president, Jaume Matas, a man who never knowingly undervalued a good vanity project when one presented itself, decreed its building. This was despite advice that it would cost too much and couldn't guarantee a good return. But such were projects in those days. Let's think of others. Palma Arena, the metro, Son Espases. The latter can be excused, albeit that the courts have yet to truly sink their teeth into it.
Although there were those who advised against, there were also plenty who were in favour. Matas was not alone among the politicians. There was widespread, cross-party support for the Palacio. There was also plenty of business backing - if only in spirit rather than cash. Then there was the apparent need for and sense of a project that had been long neglected.
Palma and Mallorca had been left way behind by other convention centres. Madrid and Barcelona between them hoover up significant portions of the global exhibition and conference trade. They were doing so in 2003, the year that Matas became president for the second time. The mainland had other venues, some of them yet to be built. Why did Mallorca need one?
At the end of the 1960s, a time when the global industry for conferences and exhibitions was still in comparative infancy, this industry was barely unheard of in Spain. Facilities which existed were more or less confined to the 1929-built Montjuïc fair in Barcelona. But in 1967 and 1969 along came two facilities that, and it has been described thus, made Mallorca a pioneer at national level for events' facilities: they were the Pueblo Español, with its own palace of congresses, and Palma's auditorium.
The point is that Palma had the wherewithal to have become a major conventions centre. It didn't because, despite the advantages it enjoyed from the end of the 1960s, there was no real further investment. It was already appreciated that the type of tourism that conventions attracted was of a vastly more profitable nature than regular sun-and-beach tourism and that it helped to dilute the impact of seasonality. A spend of some seven times more should have been an element for building on those late 1960s advantages. They were not, unless one includes the comparatively inconsequential contributions of Playa de Palma's auditorium (1984) and the two auditoriums opened in 1999 - Alcudia and Cala Millor.
In the 1970s there were two important developments - there was the ABTA convention in Mallorca in 1973 (at the auditorium) and the Mallorca Tourism Congress of 1979. The latter, it was said, pointed the way towards a "new style of congress". But whatever the successes of these congresses, there was very little advancement of Mallorca's position as a destination for conventions. Not even the creation of the fairs and congresses department when the regional government was formed in 1983 made a great deal of difference.
It has been argued, and rightly so, that conference and exhibition tourism was of marginal concern for an island growing rich on an essentially one-dimensional type of tourism - sun and beach. The opportunities that had existed for Mallorca to have become a major conventions' destination were lost. The Palacio de Congresos was needed, but the idea for it in 2003 was some 25 years too late.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 28 April 2016
Morning high (7.30am): 13.7C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 29 April - Cloud, sun, 18C; 30 April - Cloud, 15C; 1 May - Cloud, sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 4
Grim sky this morning and there has been some rain. Sun due to appear only later in the day.
Evening update (20.45): The sun couldn't be arsed. Rain for much of the day, though never heavy. High of 15.1C.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 29 April - Cloud, sun, 18C; 30 April - Cloud, 15C; 1 May - Cloud, sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 4
Grim sky this morning and there has been some rain. Sun due to appear only later in the day.
Evening update (20.45): The sun couldn't be arsed. Rain for much of the day, though never heavy. High of 15.1C.
The Never-Ending Election
The people of Spain will go to the polls again on 26 June. This date hadn't just been written in the stars. It had been written in the press right from the time that Mariano Rajoy told David Cameron there would be an election three days after the referendum. It had in fact been written as long ago as 20 December. When the results of the general election became known, there was already momentum gathering towards a second election: a momentum born out of the singular inability of the political parties to generate their own momentum towards creating accords of sufficient viability to form a government.
Spain is in uncharted territory, cast adrift in a sea of confusion and disruption. It is proving impossible to reconcile the ambitions and achievements of the two usurpers of political power - Podemos and Ciudadanos - with the baggage and histories of PSOE and the Partido Popular. It is further impossible to reconcile the competing ideologies of these two usurpers. Like unexpected challengers for a Premier League title, they battle it out to see which one emerges the stronger and assumes the crown of victors over the old guard. They both play pressing games at high tempo, pressing their claims with a constant barrage of new political thought but doing so according to competing systems. Podemos is all-out attack on institutions and the wealth of the old guard; Ciudadanos is defensive, minded to not let loose either the institutions of state (such as national unity with Catalonia) or the wealth of the capitalist state.
Where does Spain go from here? Quite possibly to a further election. The June election, if the opinion polls prove accurate, will supply only slight shifts from the pre-Christmas election. The PP might gain a little, Podemos might gain, the C's might push forward. PSOE may well stay where they were or drop back, the dominant alternative to the PP but without dominance: lame and torn between the past and the future. Pedro Sánchez, for all his words, would still rather he didn't need to sit with Podemos around a government table. He blames both Pablo Iglesias and Mariano Rajoy for the impasse. In truth, they are all to blame: ideologies cannot be reconciled. Yet there is the prospect of Podemos and the United Left forming a pact that might result in it being the premier force of the left above PSOE. But let it not be overlooked that there are tensions within Podemos that could undermine such a pact.
Come 26 June and the time to decide, and the outcome will provide a sense of déjà vu. There will be meetings, negotiations, offers and counter-offers, just as there have been since Sánchez failed - to no one's surprise - to garner sufficient support for his investiture in March. But to what end? For Sánchez to accede to Podemos demands would be a capitulation. He has so wedded himself to the pact with Albert Rivera and the C's that making room for Iglesias is pretty much an inherent impossibility. He cannot turn to Rajoy. An accord with the PP would likewise represent a capitulation. His humiliation would be complete. If he remains.
So predictable has the June election become that parties have already been in discussions as to how they will present themselves. The left in the Balearics is edging towards a pact that might see Podemos allying itself with Més and the United and Republican Left. The PP has "ordered" the regional leadership (temporary) to maintain the list of candidates it had in December. Mateo Isern will be number one again, and he will once more end up as a Congress deputy.
Meanwhile, the uncertainties and the inability of Sánchez to arrive at an agreement with Iglesias - a last-minute proposal from the Valencia left-wing Compromis party was met with the sound of the Podemos door being slammed - are causing deep concerns in Palma. President Armengol has been insisting that her government, with Podemos the onlooking determiners of policy, is stable. It now looks less so.
Moreover, if there were still to be no new government of the left after 26 June, then the Balearics would find itself further out on a limb, unable to press for changes that had been hoped for. One of the principal reasons why Biel Barceló and Més finally accepted a pact with Armengol was an understanding on financing from national government, one that Sánchez would deliver. He is no nearer being able to guarantee this than he was on 20 December.
Though the regional government was obviously formed on the basis of the regional and not the national election, a strong, combined showing by Més and Podemos on 26 June would weaken Armengol. Her position may become untenable.
Stability, for all that it is trumpeted, has been lost. Whatever happens on 26 June, the instability will be greater. Uncharted territory indeed.
Spain is in uncharted territory, cast adrift in a sea of confusion and disruption. It is proving impossible to reconcile the ambitions and achievements of the two usurpers of political power - Podemos and Ciudadanos - with the baggage and histories of PSOE and the Partido Popular. It is further impossible to reconcile the competing ideologies of these two usurpers. Like unexpected challengers for a Premier League title, they battle it out to see which one emerges the stronger and assumes the crown of victors over the old guard. They both play pressing games at high tempo, pressing their claims with a constant barrage of new political thought but doing so according to competing systems. Podemos is all-out attack on institutions and the wealth of the old guard; Ciudadanos is defensive, minded to not let loose either the institutions of state (such as national unity with Catalonia) or the wealth of the capitalist state.
Where does Spain go from here? Quite possibly to a further election. The June election, if the opinion polls prove accurate, will supply only slight shifts from the pre-Christmas election. The PP might gain a little, Podemos might gain, the C's might push forward. PSOE may well stay where they were or drop back, the dominant alternative to the PP but without dominance: lame and torn between the past and the future. Pedro Sánchez, for all his words, would still rather he didn't need to sit with Podemos around a government table. He blames both Pablo Iglesias and Mariano Rajoy for the impasse. In truth, they are all to blame: ideologies cannot be reconciled. Yet there is the prospect of Podemos and the United Left forming a pact that might result in it being the premier force of the left above PSOE. But let it not be overlooked that there are tensions within Podemos that could undermine such a pact.
Come 26 June and the time to decide, and the outcome will provide a sense of déjà vu. There will be meetings, negotiations, offers and counter-offers, just as there have been since Sánchez failed - to no one's surprise - to garner sufficient support for his investiture in March. But to what end? For Sánchez to accede to Podemos demands would be a capitulation. He has so wedded himself to the pact with Albert Rivera and the C's that making room for Iglesias is pretty much an inherent impossibility. He cannot turn to Rajoy. An accord with the PP would likewise represent a capitulation. His humiliation would be complete. If he remains.
So predictable has the June election become that parties have already been in discussions as to how they will present themselves. The left in the Balearics is edging towards a pact that might see Podemos allying itself with Més and the United and Republican Left. The PP has "ordered" the regional leadership (temporary) to maintain the list of candidates it had in December. Mateo Isern will be number one again, and he will once more end up as a Congress deputy.
Meanwhile, the uncertainties and the inability of Sánchez to arrive at an agreement with Iglesias - a last-minute proposal from the Valencia left-wing Compromis party was met with the sound of the Podemos door being slammed - are causing deep concerns in Palma. President Armengol has been insisting that her government, with Podemos the onlooking determiners of policy, is stable. It now looks less so.
Moreover, if there were still to be no new government of the left after 26 June, then the Balearics would find itself further out on a limb, unable to press for changes that had been hoped for. One of the principal reasons why Biel Barceló and Més finally accepted a pact with Armengol was an understanding on financing from national government, one that Sánchez would deliver. He is no nearer being able to guarantee this than he was on 20 December.
Though the regional government was obviously formed on the basis of the regional and not the national election, a strong, combined showing by Més and Podemos on 26 June would weaken Armengol. Her position may become untenable.
Stability, for all that it is trumpeted, has been lost. Whatever happens on 26 June, the instability will be greater. Uncharted territory indeed.
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 27 April 2016
Morning high (8.03am): 10.9C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 28 April - Cloud, 19C; 29 April - Sun, cloud, 15C; 30 April - Cloud, sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 2 to 3 backing East 3 to 4 around midday.
Fair enough morning but the forecast is for cloud all day and not a lot of sun. Tomorrow cloudier still with the chance of some rain.
Evening update (21.15): High of 21.8C. Largely light cloud all day.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 28 April - Cloud, 19C; 29 April - Sun, cloud, 15C; 30 April - Cloud, sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 2 to 3 backing East 3 to 4 around midday.
Fair enough morning but the forecast is for cloud all day and not a lot of sun. Tomorrow cloudier still with the chance of some rain.
Evening update (21.15): High of 21.8C. Largely light cloud all day.
Under Attack: Fornalutx
The village of Fornalutx in the Tramuntana is a pretty place, and there are those who will say that it is Mallorca's prettiest. This has been officially recognised. The Fomento del Turismo (Mallorca Tourist Board) once awarded it the silver plaque for the defence and maintenance of the village. The national tourism ministry also gave it an award, as did GOB, the environmental group. Yes, it's a pretty place, but with an ugly side.
According to the figure for 2015, Fornalutx has a population of 703. This small settlement of people has much to be proud of. However, in September 2013, as an example, more than 21,000 people signed a petition directed at something which they considered the population of the village should not be proud of. At the weekend, some 250 people defended it.
The animal-rights group AnimaNaturalis recently posted a video onto its Facebook page. "This is exactly what the supporters of bull events do not want recording." It shows the commencement of the "correbou", the bull-run. The bull, with ropes tied to both horns, jumps, turns over, gets up, turns over. The slow-motion writhing and leaping ceases as the run gets underway, the bull pursued by a number of fiesta revellers.
The 250 may all have been from Fornalutx. If so, then over a third of the village turned out in defence of the correbou. This defence has official support. The town hall has made clear that it disagrees with the correbou's inclusion in the government's amendment of the 1992 animal protection law. Under this, any event in which an animal suffers will be outlawed. This official support extends to PSOE. The party in the village is likely to split from the regional party, one of the sponsors of the amendment.
The more than 21,000 who signed the 2013 petition quite clearly didn't all live in Fornalutx. How many residents of the village might have signed? How many residents of the village are themselves opposed to the correbou? There have to be some, but ... . It was once explained to me, apropos the bullfight in Alcudia, that it was awkward for the Mallorcan population to show their opposition. There were different reasons why. It is now becoming less awkward. Opinion has turned. Only Muro, it might be said, is as obstinate as a bull itself in clinging steadfastly to its "tradition". In the village of Fornalutx, though; well, it is a small place.
In 2010, Guardia Civil officers needed to draw batons. A protest by AnimaNaturalis, staged in the centre of the village, drew considerable opposition, some of it violent. The photographic evidence of this was revealing. It was not only the older population who were angered by the protest. So were the young. Assuming they were all from Fornalutx.
There is a great deal of evidence - photographic, video - of the bull-run. Some of it can seem surprising. Not all those looking on are locals. There are tourists as well. Cameras and smartphones at the ready. What do they see? Tradition, culture, the highlight of the village's summer fiesta. They also see an animal being tormented. In an odd sense, there is more to despise about the correbou than the bullfight. There are those, and one has to take their word, who profess respect, even love for the bulls that they slaughter in the bullring. This stems perhaps from the old honour of the bullfight: honour for both parties - the slayer and the slain. The correbou has none of this. Or appears not to. A bull is run for the sheer hell of it. Where's the respect or the love?
The feelings of the whole village are not being taken into consideration, has said the mayor, Antoni Aguiló. The whole village? All 703 of them? The weight of villager support, even if it may not be total, is nevertheless great. In the face of legislative prohibition, in the face of the numbers of those signing petitions which overwhelm the numbers in this small village, in the face of condemnation and the campaigning, the villagers defend their right to the correbou. It is part of village identity, part of being a "fornalutxenc". If your identity is threatened, would you not seek to defend it? Or does the symbolism, the manifestation of this identity disqualify the right to a defence?
The same line of argument can be made for the so-called national party of the bullfight. The nation's identity is under attack, it will be argued. But this is an identity that is clearly not felt by many (a majority even), while the comparison is invalidated by scale. This is a small village clinging to a relic of its past, a definition. A closing of ranks is understandable.
The ban will surely apply to the correbou. It will produce cheers and jeers in unequal measure. Fornalutx will still be pretty.
According to the figure for 2015, Fornalutx has a population of 703. This small settlement of people has much to be proud of. However, in September 2013, as an example, more than 21,000 people signed a petition directed at something which they considered the population of the village should not be proud of. At the weekend, some 250 people defended it.
The animal-rights group AnimaNaturalis recently posted a video onto its Facebook page. "This is exactly what the supporters of bull events do not want recording." It shows the commencement of the "correbou", the bull-run. The bull, with ropes tied to both horns, jumps, turns over, gets up, turns over. The slow-motion writhing and leaping ceases as the run gets underway, the bull pursued by a number of fiesta revellers.
The 250 may all have been from Fornalutx. If so, then over a third of the village turned out in defence of the correbou. This defence has official support. The town hall has made clear that it disagrees with the correbou's inclusion in the government's amendment of the 1992 animal protection law. Under this, any event in which an animal suffers will be outlawed. This official support extends to PSOE. The party in the village is likely to split from the regional party, one of the sponsors of the amendment.
The more than 21,000 who signed the 2013 petition quite clearly didn't all live in Fornalutx. How many residents of the village might have signed? How many residents of the village are themselves opposed to the correbou? There have to be some, but ... . It was once explained to me, apropos the bullfight in Alcudia, that it was awkward for the Mallorcan population to show their opposition. There were different reasons why. It is now becoming less awkward. Opinion has turned. Only Muro, it might be said, is as obstinate as a bull itself in clinging steadfastly to its "tradition". In the village of Fornalutx, though; well, it is a small place.
In 2010, Guardia Civil officers needed to draw batons. A protest by AnimaNaturalis, staged in the centre of the village, drew considerable opposition, some of it violent. The photographic evidence of this was revealing. It was not only the older population who were angered by the protest. So were the young. Assuming they were all from Fornalutx.
There is a great deal of evidence - photographic, video - of the bull-run. Some of it can seem surprising. Not all those looking on are locals. There are tourists as well. Cameras and smartphones at the ready. What do they see? Tradition, culture, the highlight of the village's summer fiesta. They also see an animal being tormented. In an odd sense, there is more to despise about the correbou than the bullfight. There are those, and one has to take their word, who profess respect, even love for the bulls that they slaughter in the bullring. This stems perhaps from the old honour of the bullfight: honour for both parties - the slayer and the slain. The correbou has none of this. Or appears not to. A bull is run for the sheer hell of it. Where's the respect or the love?
The feelings of the whole village are not being taken into consideration, has said the mayor, Antoni Aguiló. The whole village? All 703 of them? The weight of villager support, even if it may not be total, is nevertheless great. In the face of legislative prohibition, in the face of the numbers of those signing petitions which overwhelm the numbers in this small village, in the face of condemnation and the campaigning, the villagers defend their right to the correbou. It is part of village identity, part of being a "fornalutxenc". If your identity is threatened, would you not seek to defend it? Or does the symbolism, the manifestation of this identity disqualify the right to a defence?
The same line of argument can be made for the so-called national party of the bullfight. The nation's identity is under attack, it will be argued. But this is an identity that is clearly not felt by many (a majority even), while the comparison is invalidated by scale. This is a small village clinging to a relic of its past, a definition. A closing of ranks is understandable.
The ban will surely apply to the correbou. It will produce cheers and jeers in unequal measure. Fornalutx will still be pretty.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 26 April 2016
Morning high (8.04am): 10.7C
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 27 April - Cloud, sun, 20C; 28 April - Cloud, 16C; 29 April - Sun, cloud, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 3 to 4 easing North 2 to 3 during the morning.
Sunny morning, sunny day coming.
Evening update (21.00): High of 23.5C. Decent enough.
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 27 April - Cloud, sun, 20C; 28 April - Cloud, 16C; 29 April - Sun, cloud, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 3 to 4 easing North 2 to 3 during the morning.
Sunny morning, sunny day coming.
Evening update (21.00): High of 23.5C. Decent enough.
The Man Who Invented Sun And Beach
One of the favoured acronyms that Mallorca's town halls baffle us all with is the PGOU. It stands for Plan General de Ordenación Urbana (or Urbanística). Essentially, it is the grand design for a municipality's urban planning. Go to many a town hall website or to a town hall's planning department, and you will discover this plan. It will be colour-coded according to various purposes: the whole of the municipality mapped plot by plot dependent on what function the land has.
In very general terms the plan will follow three basic guidelines: land already developed, land that could be developed and land that cannot be (in theory if not always in practice). This template is sixty years old this year. It has been worked over and adapted during this time, town hall administrations of differing hues amending the colours of the codes in line with their own colours (as is happening at present).
The first ever global PGOU was for Spain as a whole (there had been a specific one for Madrid ten years before). Guidelines were to be ones followed by provincial, city, town and village administrations (there weren't regional authorities as such in those days). This first plan came under what was known as the Land Law, a classic example of how the highly centralised regime under Franco operated. The vast country of Spain with its enormous diversity was to be plotted and planned in accordance with central diktat. It was, but only up to a point. More remote parts of the country didn't always observe the rules. You can probably guess at least one part of Spain where the rules were not always followed according to the letter of the law.
The 1956 plan was to prove to be significant, not least because the acronym has remained in use ever since. It was significant in another way because of its chief architect. In the history of Spain's tourism there was a man known far more for a different innovation, one which, bizarrely enough, was to contribute to his becoming a trusted member of the Franco regime. He was Pedro Zaragoza. The mayor of Benidorm from 1950 to 1967, if things had turned out differently, he wouldn't have been the architect of the plan. Nor might Benidorm have become what it is. Nor might Mallorca's resorts have become what they are.
Zaragoza was the mayor who first permitted the wearing of bikinis on beaches. There were then rules on what could be worn on beaches and the bikini was the last thing that Spanish women would have worn. But Zaragoza didn't have local women in mind. He was interested in foreign women and foreign tourists. He involved himself directly in promoting Benidorm as a holiday destination. It was he who was largely attributed with coming up with "sun and beach" as a phrase and also with the notion of "bottled sun".
The story of the bikini is one of the most famous in Spain's tourism history. It might be an exaggeration to say that it changed everything, but Zaragoza's initiative most certainly led to a gradual relaxation of attitudes that was to contribute to the eventual boom. The story is as famed as it is because Zaragoza was denounced by the Guardia Civil and then threatened with excommunication by the church. Undeterred, he went right to the top. He met Franco and the bikinis of Benidorm were permitted, as was a local bylaw under which anyone insulting a woman for wearing one would be fined.
In 2014, a short film comedy was made about this famous meeting. Entitled "Bikini", it is now available on YouTube. It is of course in Spanish but even if one is unfamiliar with the language, the comedy comes through, such as when Franco is attempting to determine what the bikini top actually entails. There is of course some licence but the film is pretty faithful to what happened, such as Zaragoza having travelled all the way to Madrid on his Vespa: Franco was not wholly impressed by his using an Italian scooter.
Zaragoza didn't meet the Generalissimo solely to plead his case for the bikini. It was when Franco was shown the numbers - the potential revenues from a new brand of tourism - that he came round to Zaragoza's arguments. He, Franco, was convinced, but someone else needed convincing - his wife, Carmen. Zaragoza had another idea - the Benidorm Festival of Spanish Song. The bikini was in the bag.
This was no liberal. Zaragoza was a Falangist and it was his orthodoxy that eventually led him to the regime's inner circle and to the creation of the land plan. Had the meeting turned out differently, who can say how developments might have been. The plan was to be the template for Benidorm, the Costas and for Mallorca, as also and as importantly was the bikini.
Monday, April 25, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 25 April 2016
Morning high (8.34am): 12C
Forecast high: 17C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 26 April - Sun, 21C; 27 April - Cloud, sun, 16C; 28 April - Cloud, 15C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 3 to 4 veering Southeast 3 in the afternoon.
Fairly cloudy. Limited sun forecast today. An alert for coastal conditions will cease as overnight winds ease this morning.
Evening update (20.45): High of 18.5C. Cloudy and quite chilly this morning, but the sun appeared later on.
Forecast high: 17C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 26 April - Sun, 21C; 27 April - Cloud, sun, 16C; 28 April - Cloud, 15C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 3 to 4 veering Southeast 3 in the afternoon.
Fairly cloudy. Limited sun forecast today. An alert for coastal conditions will cease as overnight winds ease this morning.
Evening update (20.45): High of 18.5C. Cloudy and quite chilly this morning, but the sun appeared later on.
The Honorary Prime Minister Of Spain
In preparing the publication of calendars and diaries, they now have to include the twice-yearly Fiesta of Mariano. This peculiar fiesta, one that will doubtless assume status as being in the cultural interest (along with bullfighting), involves Spaniards dragging themselves off to polling booths in ever dwindling numbers once every six months in a vain attempt to rid themselves once and for all of the nation's honorary president (sorry, honorary prime minister). It will of course never happen. Hence, why the fiesta will become a permanent feature of the nation's fiesta calendars.
The King, who has surely been consumed by a wearisome dose of déjà vu, was obliged once more to have to receive Mariano in order that the honorary PM could inform him that he is in no position to form a new government. The King had surely already figured this out for himself. But protocol is insistent, and the first of this year's Fiestas of Mariano seems destined to take place on 26 June: a slightly delayed version of Midsummer madness. As for the second, they may as well as combine it with Christmas Day and let churches double as polling booths in the hope that turnout might edge above 10%.
Meanwhile, Sr. Churches, The Hairy One of Podemos, who appears to be increasingly agitated by the prospect of not making it into government, has taken to alienating himself ever more from the Fourth Estate. At a presentation for a book (not his) entitled "In Defence Of Populism", he not only started rambling on about there being a Freudian relationship with the media but also suggested that some journalists were thinking of their careers in writing things that were not true and that the media should be controlled by the state. Not totally surprisingly, some members of the Fourth Estate walked out.
One does wonder if Pablo isn't rather losing it. Having appeared to wish to purge the Infant Errejón, it was being suggested (by an element of the Fourth Estate) that the Infant might be aiming to jump ship and join PSOE. Worse still was the sight of the Infant getting close up though not overly personal with glamorous Madrid PP president, Cristina Cifuentes, who - horror of horrors - would have a sporting chance of replacing Mariano, were he to ever cease to be honorary PM.
At the press breakfast at which the two appeared, there was a photo of the two smiling in each other's company. What on Earth could this all mean? Well, far be it for me to suggest, but it wouldn't have made Pablo's humour any better.
The King, who has surely been consumed by a wearisome dose of déjà vu, was obliged once more to have to receive Mariano in order that the honorary PM could inform him that he is in no position to form a new government. The King had surely already figured this out for himself. But protocol is insistent, and the first of this year's Fiestas of Mariano seems destined to take place on 26 June: a slightly delayed version of Midsummer madness. As for the second, they may as well as combine it with Christmas Day and let churches double as polling booths in the hope that turnout might edge above 10%.
Meanwhile, Sr. Churches, The Hairy One of Podemos, who appears to be increasingly agitated by the prospect of not making it into government, has taken to alienating himself ever more from the Fourth Estate. At a presentation for a book (not his) entitled "In Defence Of Populism", he not only started rambling on about there being a Freudian relationship with the media but also suggested that some journalists were thinking of their careers in writing things that were not true and that the media should be controlled by the state. Not totally surprisingly, some members of the Fourth Estate walked out.
One does wonder if Pablo isn't rather losing it. Having appeared to wish to purge the Infant Errejón, it was being suggested (by an element of the Fourth Estate) that the Infant might be aiming to jump ship and join PSOE. Worse still was the sight of the Infant getting close up though not overly personal with glamorous Madrid PP president, Cristina Cifuentes, who - horror of horrors - would have a sporting chance of replacing Mariano, were he to ever cease to be honorary PM.
At the press breakfast at which the two appeared, there was a photo of the two smiling in each other's company. What on Earth could this all mean? Well, far be it for me to suggest, but it wouldn't have made Pablo's humour any better.
Sunday, April 24, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 24 April 2016
Morning high (8.11am): 14.1C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 25 April - Cloud, sun, 17C; 26 April - Sun, cloud, 17C; 27 April - Sun, cloud, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 4 veering East-Southeast 3 during the afternoon.
Pleasant enough morning, though the forecast isn't particularly good: rain could be around later. Week's outlook: reasonable though not especially warm.
Evening update (21.30): Rain didn't put in an appearance, though there were times when it looked as if it might chuck down. Sunny spells, high of 20.3C.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 25 April - Cloud, sun, 17C; 26 April - Sun, cloud, 17C; 27 April - Sun, cloud, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 4 veering East-Southeast 3 during the afternoon.
Pleasant enough morning, though the forecast isn't particularly good: rain could be around later. Week's outlook: reasonable though not especially warm.
Evening update (21.30): Rain didn't put in an appearance, though there were times when it looked as if it might chuck down. Sunny spells, high of 20.3C.
Meals On Wheels: Food trucks
One hundred and fifty years after Goodnight first modified a Studebaker army-surplus wagon, the descendant of the chuckwagon has become a mobile gastronomic experience. This development was also of American origin and a very much more recent one. Economic crisis, so it is said, caused there to be a surplus of out-of-work chefs, while mobile vehicles supplying food in particular to construction sites themselves became surplus to requirements. Throw in a healthy spoonful of hip street culture, and the food truck of the new age was born.
There have of course been all sorts of mobile food vehicles in different countries and over many decades. The British roadside caff, for instance, was often a semi-permanent caravan, modified to provide hamburgers, bacon sandwiches and mugs of brackish tea. There was rarely anything particularly sophisticated about the forerunners of the contemporary food truck, with one very notable exception: the mobile catering crews for filming locations. Highly-paid actors and directors would settle for nothing less than transportable à la carte.
The food truck phenomenon, as it has become, was only first being truly observable (in the USA) some seven or eight years ago. Being American, it drew on the folklore of the truck in the country's culture, one dating back to the wagon trails and then to the enormous transport trucks traversing the nation. Along the way, this folklore acquired all amount of outlandish qualities. The food truck is an amalgam of this folklore brought up to date to create a gastronomic experience, one being exported worldwide. Hence, there is no translation. In Spain, in Mallorca, a food truck is a food truck.
On 16 May last year, the grounds of Palma's Es Baluard Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art were the setting for an event called Van Big, the first street food festival "made in Mallorca", and these English words were used to describe it, thus reinforcing the imported culture. In Spanish, though, it was explained that this was a "nomadic, gypsy" festival and one of the street - creative gastronomy on wheels. The food truck had truly arrived in Mallorca.
There were seven trucks in all, their cuisine ranging from hamburgers to organic veg, to homemade Mallorcan and black pork and vegetarian tapas, to cakes and to ice-creams. The names of the trucks explained much: Manduka Street Food, La Pickup, El Perrito Callejero.
The Es Baluard event was a great success. And suddenly, therefore, the food trucks were popping up elsewhere. In Inca last November, for instance, the Van Big gastronomic experience took over the courtyard of the one-time General Luque Guardia Civil barracks. In addition to the "implosion" of this gastronomy, there were the trappings of a fiesta within a fiesta (or fair in the case of Inca's Dijous Bo). Music, artistic performances and what was described as "urban sketching", a sort of controlled exercise in graffiti art.
So we come to this weekend and to the Streetfood Festival Mallorca, the First Street Food Primavera in Puerto Alcudia. It started on Friday afternoon and goes on today. Trucks from Es Baluard are there, as are Kitchen on Fire and Toni's Food Truck. Music, cocktails, children's entertainment, charity events: a fiesta in its own right.
And creating a fiesta, with full town hall or other institutional support and permission, is how, pretty much, food trucks have to operate. This is Mallorca, this is Spain. Anyone fancying just taking a truck out with some food on it and parking in any old street will run up against the labyrinth of regulations for this or that. This is not the land of the truck, as might be the case in the US. Nevertheless, the food truck phenomenon is growing, so much so that there are businesses from which ready-converted trucks can be bought or hired.
At heart though, the food trucks are part of what isn't the erroneously styled "implosion" of gastronomy, as it was described at Es Baluard and in Inca, but of the explosion of Mallorca's gastronomy. Cuisine and its promotion is everywhere, and the chances are it will be coming to you, wherever you are in Mallorca. Coming to you on wheels.
* Photo of a couple of the food trucks which were at Puerto Alcudia's recent sepia fair.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 23 April 2016
Morning high (8.24am): 13.3C
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 24 April - Cloud, sun, 19C; 25 April - Cloud, 15C; 26 April - Sun, cloud, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 2 to 4 veering Northwest 2 to 3 around midday.
Nice morning. Sunny and calm. Due to cloud up later on and there may be some rain this evening and overnight.
Evening update (19.45): Decent, a high of 23.9C. No sign of any rain as yet.
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 24 April - Cloud, sun, 19C; 25 April - Cloud, 15C; 26 April - Sun, cloud, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 2 to 4 veering Northwest 2 to 3 around midday.
Nice morning. Sunny and calm. Due to cloud up later on and there may be some rain this evening and overnight.
Evening update (19.45): Decent, a high of 23.9C. No sign of any rain as yet.
Getting Angry In Puerto Pollensa
People have been getting angry in Puerto Pollensa. People are signing petitions, people are falling out, people are arranging demonstrations. It seems like 2010 all over again, when the people took to the streets and when the then mayor, Joan Cerdà, was all but barricaded inside the one-time municipal building.
The hopeless pedestrianisation pilot scheme of the Cerdà administration - abandoned by the time the 2010 protest took place at the start of June that year - was just one ingredient that went into a whole menu of complaints directed at the town hall. The actual scheme, the one being worked on at present, has once more put the town hall in the firing line but it has also, as has been revealed on social media, driven something of a wedge between people.
Then there are the charges that the town hall has had to respond to that the new pavements do not permit accessibility for wheelchairs (or indeed baby buggies and any other form of wheeled device). A levelling-off that will allow smooth accessibility will not be done until the second phase this winter. In the meantime, says the town hall, temporary solutions will be adopted that allow for wheelchair use.
Anyway, at 11am on Monday there is to be a form of protest to highlight the difficulties posed at present for wheelchair, mobility and buggy users.
Slightly ironic in light of the other reason for anger is the meeting place for this protest. It will be in front of Gran Café 1919, the establishment by the yacht club roundabout that found itself at the centre of the most colossal row that broke out last weekend. While the falling-out over the pedestrianisation might have appeared somewhat personal at times, that was nothing compared to this controversy. It is highly personal.
To cut to the chase, this involves the ice-cream kiosk of Gelats Valls in front of Gran Café 1919. The kiosk has been there and been operated by the Valls family since the 1960s. It is, say many, emblematic, a part of the Puerto Pollensa furniture. However, a 2015 town hall decision made it clear that as the kiosk is on the public way there has to be a tender for its operation. The Valls family were informed of this and told that the kiosk could not re-open this year, subject to the tender process being initiated and completed. It has re-opened.
The family says that there was once an award for the kiosk for a period of 99 years or until such a time as the families (Valls and Martorells) ceased to be involved in the ice-cream business. A problem with this is that no one can find the documentary evidence.
The town hall had been going through a process of annual reconfirmation of the kiosk's activities, but in September 2014 it received a communication from Café Capuchino 1919 SL, the company under which Gran Café 1919 trades. This was essentially a request for the town hall to consider the occupation of the public way by the kiosk. The communication also suggested that the kiosk represented an invasion of space authorised or authorisable for use by the cafe. It would appear that it was this which resulted in the town hall decision of May 2015 that the authorisation to Valls would cease at the end of the year and that the space would revert to the town hall, which would place the kiosk up for tender.
The story of this is, on the one hand, a story of nostalgia and of the rights of the small, family business. Everyone, tourist and resident alike, seems to have their own story and recollection of the kiosk, the ice-cream and the founders. On the other, it is a story of what can only be described as resentment directed at a bigger business concern. Gran Café 1919 is just one establishment which ultimately belongs to Grupo Boulevard.
There is a good deal of history in Puerto Pollensa concerning Boulevard, and all this old resentment burst out because of the Valls affair. Some of what has been expressed on social media, directed at Boulevard and at its owner, borders on the libellous, as do some observations made about the town hall. In some ways, it has become a story of classic smalltown politics and business, replete with rivalries and hostilities. In others, it is just about people, some with long memories of holidays and residence, sticking up for a well-loved ice-cream kiosk which seems to be a victim.
Emotions have been allowed to run high. Rather too high. The pedestrianisation works, admittedly a less than satisfactorily managed project, will cease soon enough, and hopefully the ill-feeling will cease as well. As for the ice-cream kiosk, perhaps a hope that the town hall had expressed for a "satisfactory and amicable solution" prior to the kiosk having re-opened might yet be found.
The hopeless pedestrianisation pilot scheme of the Cerdà administration - abandoned by the time the 2010 protest took place at the start of June that year - was just one ingredient that went into a whole menu of complaints directed at the town hall. The actual scheme, the one being worked on at present, has once more put the town hall in the firing line but it has also, as has been revealed on social media, driven something of a wedge between people.
Then there are the charges that the town hall has had to respond to that the new pavements do not permit accessibility for wheelchairs (or indeed baby buggies and any other form of wheeled device). A levelling-off that will allow smooth accessibility will not be done until the second phase this winter. In the meantime, says the town hall, temporary solutions will be adopted that allow for wheelchair use.
Anyway, at 11am on Monday there is to be a form of protest to highlight the difficulties posed at present for wheelchair, mobility and buggy users.
Slightly ironic in light of the other reason for anger is the meeting place for this protest. It will be in front of Gran Café 1919, the establishment by the yacht club roundabout that found itself at the centre of the most colossal row that broke out last weekend. While the falling-out over the pedestrianisation might have appeared somewhat personal at times, that was nothing compared to this controversy. It is highly personal.
To cut to the chase, this involves the ice-cream kiosk of Gelats Valls in front of Gran Café 1919. The kiosk has been there and been operated by the Valls family since the 1960s. It is, say many, emblematic, a part of the Puerto Pollensa furniture. However, a 2015 town hall decision made it clear that as the kiosk is on the public way there has to be a tender for its operation. The Valls family were informed of this and told that the kiosk could not re-open this year, subject to the tender process being initiated and completed. It has re-opened.
The family says that there was once an award for the kiosk for a period of 99 years or until such a time as the families (Valls and Martorells) ceased to be involved in the ice-cream business. A problem with this is that no one can find the documentary evidence.
The town hall had been going through a process of annual reconfirmation of the kiosk's activities, but in September 2014 it received a communication from Café Capuchino 1919 SL, the company under which Gran Café 1919 trades. This was essentially a request for the town hall to consider the occupation of the public way by the kiosk. The communication also suggested that the kiosk represented an invasion of space authorised or authorisable for use by the cafe. It would appear that it was this which resulted in the town hall decision of May 2015 that the authorisation to Valls would cease at the end of the year and that the space would revert to the town hall, which would place the kiosk up for tender.
The story of this is, on the one hand, a story of nostalgia and of the rights of the small, family business. Everyone, tourist and resident alike, seems to have their own story and recollection of the kiosk, the ice-cream and the founders. On the other, it is a story of what can only be described as resentment directed at a bigger business concern. Gran Café 1919 is just one establishment which ultimately belongs to Grupo Boulevard.
There is a good deal of history in Puerto Pollensa concerning Boulevard, and all this old resentment burst out because of the Valls affair. Some of what has been expressed on social media, directed at Boulevard and at its owner, borders on the libellous, as do some observations made about the town hall. In some ways, it has become a story of classic smalltown politics and business, replete with rivalries and hostilities. In others, it is just about people, some with long memories of holidays and residence, sticking up for a well-loved ice-cream kiosk which seems to be a victim.
Emotions have been allowed to run high. Rather too high. The pedestrianisation works, admittedly a less than satisfactorily managed project, will cease soon enough, and hopefully the ill-feeling will cease as well. As for the ice-cream kiosk, perhaps a hope that the town hall had expressed for a "satisfactory and amicable solution" prior to the kiosk having re-opened might yet be found.
Friday, April 22, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 22 April 2016
Morning high (7.53am): 12.5C
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 23 April - Sun, cloud, 20C; 24 April - Cloud, sun, 16C; 25 April - Sun, cloud, 15C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3.
Cloudy again, though not with cloud hovering almost above your head as it was yesterday. Some sunny stuff later. Tomorrow much better, it is forecast.
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 23 April - Sun, cloud, 20C; 24 April - Cloud, sun, 16C; 25 April - Sun, cloud, 15C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3.
Cloudy again, though not with cloud hovering almost above your head as it was yesterday. Some sunny stuff later. Tomorrow much better, it is forecast.
Mallorca, Terrorism And Tourists
The arrest of the IS suspect in Palma this week contributed to a flurry of overseas media hysteria. "Good Morning Britain", so I'm told (never see it), got in on the alleged summer terrorist target bandwagon of the "Daily Mail" and others. This story with "reliable" sources included the ever so reliable "Bild", a newspaper that veers between bland profiles of the Paradise Island and every available opportunity to stick the boot in. As evidence, one could cite the time that Mallorca (and specifically Playa de Palma because of its strong German association) was the source of bird flu in Germany. It wasn't.
It is inevitable that such stories do get whipped up, however wide of the mark they might be. One recalls how the travel editor of "The Sun" forecast the virtual end of tourism as we know it in light of the Palmanova bombing and murder of two Guardia officers and the subsequent very minor bomb incidents. All the work of ETA, her analysis was all the more ridiculous for having come from someone with her job title.
This isn't to downplay a possible threat. It would be equally ridiculous to state categorically that there could not be an incident. The world doesn't work like this, more's the pity. But however good the Spanish security forces are with intelligence and operations (and they are good), consideration will surely be being given to extra measures. One of these might be, despite authorities being loathe to introduce them, cameras on beaches.
While these do exist for certain specific reasons, they are not deployed in a general sense. Privacy dominates the thinking and rightly so. But it might be remembered that following the Palmanova bombing there were cameras installed which were trained on certain beaches in Mallorca. They ended up creating a rumpus, not least because the tourism ministry, whose idea it was, had not sought permission to install them. Its justification lay with an old threat from ETA to do precisely what is now once again being spoken of: bombs on beaches.
Meanwhile, and also inevitably, the overseas media cottoned on, rather slowly it has to be said, to the anti-tourist graffiti in Palma. It finally made the pages of British ("The Telegraph", for instance), Swedish and Dutch newspapers and also those of Germany's "Stern" and "Die Welt". But was it correct, as one publication had it, that there is "fury" being directed towards tourists? Though I drew attention the other day to the potential rise in the "tourismphobia" phenomenon, it needs reiterating that the graffiti was the work, in all likelihood, of a couple of what one local Spanish paper here referred to as "imbeciles". Where such fury may or may not exist, I would suggest, is mainly confined to Palma and the city, the consequence of the inundations from cruise ships and the takeover of private accommodation.
It is inevitable that such stories do get whipped up, however wide of the mark they might be. One recalls how the travel editor of "The Sun" forecast the virtual end of tourism as we know it in light of the Palmanova bombing and murder of two Guardia officers and the subsequent very minor bomb incidents. All the work of ETA, her analysis was all the more ridiculous for having come from someone with her job title.
This isn't to downplay a possible threat. It would be equally ridiculous to state categorically that there could not be an incident. The world doesn't work like this, more's the pity. But however good the Spanish security forces are with intelligence and operations (and they are good), consideration will surely be being given to extra measures. One of these might be, despite authorities being loathe to introduce them, cameras on beaches.
While these do exist for certain specific reasons, they are not deployed in a general sense. Privacy dominates the thinking and rightly so. But it might be remembered that following the Palmanova bombing there were cameras installed which were trained on certain beaches in Mallorca. They ended up creating a rumpus, not least because the tourism ministry, whose idea it was, had not sought permission to install them. Its justification lay with an old threat from ETA to do precisely what is now once again being spoken of: bombs on beaches.
Meanwhile, and also inevitably, the overseas media cottoned on, rather slowly it has to be said, to the anti-tourist graffiti in Palma. It finally made the pages of British ("The Telegraph", for instance), Swedish and Dutch newspapers and also those of Germany's "Stern" and "Die Welt". But was it correct, as one publication had it, that there is "fury" being directed towards tourists? Though I drew attention the other day to the potential rise in the "tourismphobia" phenomenon, it needs reiterating that the graffiti was the work, in all likelihood, of a couple of what one local Spanish paper here referred to as "imbeciles". Where such fury may or may not exist, I would suggest, is mainly confined to Palma and the city, the consequence of the inundations from cruise ships and the takeover of private accommodation.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 21 April 2016
Morning high (7.55am): 15.1C
Forecast high: 23C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 22 April - Cloud, 21C; 23 April - Sun, cloud, 18C; 24 April - Cloud, sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 1 to 3.
Grey old morning. Rain overnight. Due to pick up, though no indication of that at present.
Evening update (20.45): The grim cloud lifted and so late morning the sun came out. Some cloud later. High of 23.8C.
Forecast high: 23C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 22 April - Cloud, 21C; 23 April - Sun, cloud, 18C; 24 April - Cloud, sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 1 to 3.
Grey old morning. Rain overnight. Due to pick up, though no indication of that at present.
Evening update (20.45): The grim cloud lifted and so late morning the sun came out. Some cloud later. High of 23.8C.
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