The Emperor Augustus was a big noise in Roman imperial circles. He was the first emperor. The rise, the fall of the Roman Empire, the subsequent centuries of competing emperors, numerous wars across Europe can all be attributed to the man who was given the name Augustus (he had originally been Octavius) when he officially became emperor in 27BC.
By the time he assumed the imperial title, the Romans, if not their empire as such, had been in Mallorca for around a hundred years. They created their settlements, of which Pollentia was the most significant. It was not surprising, therefore, that among the possessions in Pollentia was a bust of Augustus. Where exactly the bust would have been displayed is anyone's guess, but it is known - more or less - where it was found and when.
The oratory of Santa Anna is situated just off the road that connects the horse roundabout of Puerto Alcudia to the old town. The road, unsurprisingly as it runs past the municipal cemetery, is known as Cemetery Road. The small oratory, opposite the entrance to the cemetery, has been taking on increasing significance in the archaeological digs at Pollentia. It is one of the few examples of a church from the first years of Catalan occupation of Mallorca in the thirteenth century that survives, and it was somewhere by the oratory that the bust of Augustus was found some time in the sixteenth century. The exact date is unknown, but by 1593 it was forming part of a collection of antiquities that belonged to one Raimundo de Veri, the hearer or judge of the Audiencia Real in Mallorca. It is quite possible, therefore, that the bust had at some point been moved to the oratory, though the fact that it was apparently just found somewhere by the oratory suggests that the bust hadn't been treated with the kind of respect that it might have been expected would have been bestowed on an image of the founder of the Roman Empire.
That it was found by the oratory, however, might be deemed significant in light of latest discoveries by the oratory which have led archaeologists to believe that they have found the location of the great port, which would correspond with how far inland the sea used to once be. It has been thought that the sea came as far as just before the Roman theatre in Pollentia. It is situated pretty much the same distance inland as the oratory but is away from the main residential area of the Roman town. This area, La Portella, is close by the oratory.
The bust found its way into a collection held by the Marquis of Campofranco. Quite when the Marquis got hold of the bust is also unknown, but it would appear that he had his hands on other works of art from Pollentia. It has been documented that in 1832 the Marquis's library included a marble bust that some believed was that of Cecilio Metelo, who led the conquest of the Balearics and founded Pollentia in 123BC. The story of this bust bears a similarity to that of Augustus. It was said that it was found by the oratory of Santa Anna as well, but not until 1832.
Whatever the truth of the Cecilio Metelo bust, there was and isn't any doubting the authenticity of the Augustus bust. It was sculpted, so it is reckoned, when he was about thirty years of age and engaged with his battles with Mark Antony and Cleopatra. It's hard to know for certain, but it is just possible that the bust was made before he was actually named emperor when he was 36 years old and after he had defeated Mark Antony.
But emperor he became, and so the bust is of great historical importance. It was sold by the Campofranco family some ten years or so ago to a private collector, and this collector now wishes to put it up for auction, the Archaeological Museum of Madrid being the go-between with the Christie's auction house. The planned auction has caused something of an uproar. The Spanish state hasn't exercised first refusal on its purchase, and so it is possible that the bust will be lost to Spain and also Mallorca; it was exhibited in 2005 in Palma as part of an exhibition of the Roman world in the Balearics. The national culture ministry is studying the auction proposal.
The Més party, which includes the PSM Mallorcan socialists, is insisting that the Council of Mallorca gets involved and exercises its right of first refusal. Its culture councillor is saying that the council will do all it can to ensure the bust stays in Mallorca. Alcúdia town hall also wants the bust to stay, but if there is an auction, would the money be available? It could be worth as much as half a million euros.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 August 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.30am): 26C
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 13 August - Sun, rain, 31C; 14 August - Sun, cloud, 26C; 15 August - Sun, cloud, 27C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 3 to 4 veering East 3 by the afternoon.
Another very muggy night. Humidity down for now, though. Around the 70% mark generally. A cloudy morning, although the forecast is for a sunny day. A chance of rain tomorrow, and the rest of the week tending to be cloudy with the risk of possible showers.
Evening update (20.00): A high of 31.2C. The morning cloud gave way to sun. Not a bad day, but still muggy. Rain is looking like a possible feature for the next four days.
No Frills Excursions
Politics Of The Madhouse: Tourist rentals
What on earth is the Balearics tourism ministry playing at? If we understand correctly provisions contained in the draft decree that will amplify the 2012 tourism law, it would appear that the ministry is playing a very strange game. The headline aspect of this amplification of the law is the requirement that owners of properties for tourist rental need to get permission from neighbours. It is only one aspect. There is the further stipulation that properties have to have been built before 1960. Are they serious?
This decree is directed at "chalets", standalone, detached houses and also townhouses, those which conform to the law on "horizontal property". Apartments are considered to be horizontal property as well. The terms refers to shared buildings. In the case of townhouses, they are deemed to share because they are adjoining. I mention them because, as ever, we are in definition territory. I've put chalets in quotation marks. What is a chalet? Is it what might also be referred to as a villa?
The ministry and the regional government have over the years gone out of their way to obfuscate when it comes to the matter of private tourist accommodation. One is tempted to conclude that such obfuscation has been deliberate. The greater the confusion, the greater the government might hope that the problem of so-called illegal or "alegal" accommodation will just go away. It has been wrong to have hoped this.
But now we have a new set of rules that are likely to enter the statute books, and they are rules which will unquestionably raise the level of confusion and the level of owner anxiety and which will also contradict government PR since the tourism law was enacted. The minister, Jaime Martínez, has boasted about how the law has led to the legalisation of houses for tourism accommodation. As an example, he has said that 4,500 "viviendas" have been regularised; almost as many as in the preceding 25 years. If this is the case, what now happens to these regularised dwellings? How many, if any, are older than 54 years? How many, if any, will escape a rejection by neighbours of their use as tourist accommodation? If we understand the decree, then these newly regularised properties will be very swiftly unregularised. On the face of it, the new decree makes absolutely no sense.
The 1960 stipulation is the maddest part of this decree. It is a date which has clearly been taken for a very good reason. There was little by way of property on the coasts of Mallorca (or the other islands) before 1960. In effect, therefore, the ministry is on the point of excluding virtually all property in coastal areas for commercialised tourism rental. One can draw no other conclusion.
The decree also deals with apartments, those which are deemed to be illegal if they are rented out on a commercial basis. Somewhat bizarrely, given that such property is categorised as illegal under the 2012 law (and indeed has been ever since the 1980s), the decree will nevertheless apply the 54-year rule and the neighbour approval requirement. Bizarre it might seem, but perhaps not. This will kill, once and for all, any prospect of regularising apartments for tourist rental. The chances of any community of apartment owners agreeing to allow certain apartments to be made available for tourist rental are virtually zero.
The ministry and government will argue, and they do, that the tenancy act will still apply. The reason why is that rentals made under this act (and which have to be clearly contracted to prove that they are) are not classified as tourist rentals in the commercial sense. Government doublespeak and hypocrisy is truly staggering. Everyone knows that the tenancy act is used as a loophole, if only by some and not by owners who need to genuinely commercialise properties. If neighbours might object to a property being commercialised for rental, why should they not object to one that is rented out under the tenancy act? The law is an absolute ass and it gives rise to a total lack of logic.
This new decree comes at a time when every other main sun-and-beach region in Spain, including the Canaries, has or is moving towards a properly regulated tourism-rental market, one that is permissive but subject to specific controls and standards. In the Balearics, by way of contrast, the ministry is becoming less permissive to the point of total destruction of the private market. Not that this will happen. P2P renting, e.g. through Airbnb, has been something of a game-changer, and the ministry knows it. Might there just be some other motivation behind this latest decree? One that can enable the government to collect ever more fines? It wouldn't be unknown. Mallorcan government and local authorities draw up budgets based on fines' revenue. They cultivate an atmosphere of mistrust and exaggerate this mistrust by issuing the draft in the middle of August and giving precious little or no time for response. It is no way to run a tourism industry. Unless the industry is being run from a madhouse.
This decree is directed at "chalets", standalone, detached houses and also townhouses, those which conform to the law on "horizontal property". Apartments are considered to be horizontal property as well. The terms refers to shared buildings. In the case of townhouses, they are deemed to share because they are adjoining. I mention them because, as ever, we are in definition territory. I've put chalets in quotation marks. What is a chalet? Is it what might also be referred to as a villa?
The ministry and the regional government have over the years gone out of their way to obfuscate when it comes to the matter of private tourist accommodation. One is tempted to conclude that such obfuscation has been deliberate. The greater the confusion, the greater the government might hope that the problem of so-called illegal or "alegal" accommodation will just go away. It has been wrong to have hoped this.
But now we have a new set of rules that are likely to enter the statute books, and they are rules which will unquestionably raise the level of confusion and the level of owner anxiety and which will also contradict government PR since the tourism law was enacted. The minister, Jaime Martínez, has boasted about how the law has led to the legalisation of houses for tourism accommodation. As an example, he has said that 4,500 "viviendas" have been regularised; almost as many as in the preceding 25 years. If this is the case, what now happens to these regularised dwellings? How many, if any, are older than 54 years? How many, if any, will escape a rejection by neighbours of their use as tourist accommodation? If we understand the decree, then these newly regularised properties will be very swiftly unregularised. On the face of it, the new decree makes absolutely no sense.
The 1960 stipulation is the maddest part of this decree. It is a date which has clearly been taken for a very good reason. There was little by way of property on the coasts of Mallorca (or the other islands) before 1960. In effect, therefore, the ministry is on the point of excluding virtually all property in coastal areas for commercialised tourism rental. One can draw no other conclusion.
The decree also deals with apartments, those which are deemed to be illegal if they are rented out on a commercial basis. Somewhat bizarrely, given that such property is categorised as illegal under the 2012 law (and indeed has been ever since the 1980s), the decree will nevertheless apply the 54-year rule and the neighbour approval requirement. Bizarre it might seem, but perhaps not. This will kill, once and for all, any prospect of regularising apartments for tourist rental. The chances of any community of apartment owners agreeing to allow certain apartments to be made available for tourist rental are virtually zero.
The ministry and government will argue, and they do, that the tenancy act will still apply. The reason why is that rentals made under this act (and which have to be clearly contracted to prove that they are) are not classified as tourist rentals in the commercial sense. Government doublespeak and hypocrisy is truly staggering. Everyone knows that the tenancy act is used as a loophole, if only by some and not by owners who need to genuinely commercialise properties. If neighbours might object to a property being commercialised for rental, why should they not object to one that is rented out under the tenancy act? The law is an absolute ass and it gives rise to a total lack of logic.
This new decree comes at a time when every other main sun-and-beach region in Spain, including the Canaries, has or is moving towards a properly regulated tourism-rental market, one that is permissive but subject to specific controls and standards. In the Balearics, by way of contrast, the ministry is becoming less permissive to the point of total destruction of the private market. Not that this will happen. P2P renting, e.g. through Airbnb, has been something of a game-changer, and the ministry knows it. Might there just be some other motivation behind this latest decree? One that can enable the government to collect ever more fines? It wouldn't be unknown. Mallorcan government and local authorities draw up budgets based on fines' revenue. They cultivate an atmosphere of mistrust and exaggerate this mistrust by issuing the draft in the middle of August and giving precious little or no time for response. It is no way to run a tourism industry. Unless the industry is being run from a madhouse.
Monday, August 11, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 August 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (6.00am): 25C
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 12 August - Sun, 32C; 13 August - Sun, rain, 28C; 14 August - Sun, some cloud, 26C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 4, occasionally 3 during the morning.
A stifling night and morning with barely a hint of breeze. A clear, full-mooned sky early on but cloud expected to feature through the day, though there seems little prospect of any rain. That may come later in the week.
Evening update (19.00): A very muggy day with a high of 32.6C inland. Quite a bit of light cloud. Little breeze away from the coast but good, freshening breezes right by the sea. High humidity - up to the mid 80% mark.
No Frills Excursions
The Tour Guide: An endangered species
Article 65 of the Balearics' 2012 tourism law refers to the activities of tour guides. "The profession of the tour guide is carried out by people who ... are paid to interpret and to provide information related to the historical and natural heritage, cultural assets and other touristic resources of the Balearic Islands to tourists and visitors in the two official languages of the Balearics as well as in any foreign language, for which the guide will have to be accredited." The law goes on to refer to the professional, legally required qualification of tour guides, the whole Article being a furtherance of the legally defined role of tour guides that had been enshrined in previous legislation and also being a mark of the high regard with which guides have been held over decades, stretching back to beyond the days when mass tourism began. Just one tour guide, from the early 1950s, was the man who founded what became Meliá Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer Juliá.
The School of Tourism was founded in 1964. It was the body which originally regulated this profession, and note the word "profession". In that the tour guide has to gain specific qualifications, then the word is not misused. It is a word which also reinforces the standing of the tour guide. He or she has been for many years a respected member of the tourism community.
Has been, but now the tour guide is well and truly under threat. In June this year, notwithstanding Article 65 of the 2012 law, the Balearics High Court decreed that the European Union services directive - the so-called Bolkestein directive - had to apply to tour guides. This means, in effect, that pretty much anyone from any country within the European Union can be a guide and that there is very little control as to ability or quality. The Official College of Tour Guides in the Balearics - and professions in the Balearics are operated through their "colleges" - is appalled by the situation and by the fact that tour operators can contract someone who in all likelihood does not have sufficient knowledge of subject matter.
The Balearics is not the only region of Spain where there is concern about the future of the professional tour guide. The Community of Madrid, in 2009, introduced a legislative reform which showed "absolute disregard" for the professional work of guides. So said a spokesperson for Madrid's Professional Association of Tour Guides. The city has since been swamped with so-called guides, most if not all without qualification and some outside employment and social security regulations; they're doing it black, in other words.
Elsewhere, there is the "free" guide, the volunteer guide, often retired, but who similarly doesn't necessarily have any qualification for the task or the right level of knowledge. On the blog for professional tour guides, there was a post last year which criticised these "free" tours and which also criticised local authorities for providing them and so showing a lack of dignity to the tour guide profession and indeed to local culture.
This all said, the Balearics High Court was reacting in part to what had been denounced as something of a closed shop. There were too few possibilities to become a tour guide, while the legal stipulations going back over the years, such as an ability in the two official languages, tended to bar entry to the profession. And the High Court, rather like Madrid, didn't quite see the job of tour guide as being truly professional. It would not, for example, have permitted anyone to start practising as a doctor or as a lawyer. A profession means something specific. Qualifications alone - knowledge in the case of tour guides - are only part of the equation.
The tour guides face other threats. Audio guides, apps and technology might come to replace them, though it is unlikely that they will do any time soon. The demand for personal service and human interaction still greatly outweighs the convenience of some information provided by a smartphone. And this "some information" is just that. Some. It is very limited and, just as mostly all websites fail to do justice and cannot do justice to Mallorca's culture and history, there is nothing that compares with a guide who is truly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his or her subject.
While there was some justification for the allegations of there having been a closed shop, the High Court's decision is concerning. Tour operators, and this is the charge which the College levels at them, have so little regard for the island's culture that they will take on guides without qualification and without adequate knowledge. Tour guides still have an important role to play. They are guardians of the island's culture and history. Sometimes you have the impression, though, that officialdom cares as little for this culture as tour operators seem to.
The School of Tourism was founded in 1964. It was the body which originally regulated this profession, and note the word "profession". In that the tour guide has to gain specific qualifications, then the word is not misused. It is a word which also reinforces the standing of the tour guide. He or she has been for many years a respected member of the tourism community.
Has been, but now the tour guide is well and truly under threat. In June this year, notwithstanding Article 65 of the 2012 law, the Balearics High Court decreed that the European Union services directive - the so-called Bolkestein directive - had to apply to tour guides. This means, in effect, that pretty much anyone from any country within the European Union can be a guide and that there is very little control as to ability or quality. The Official College of Tour Guides in the Balearics - and professions in the Balearics are operated through their "colleges" - is appalled by the situation and by the fact that tour operators can contract someone who in all likelihood does not have sufficient knowledge of subject matter.
The Balearics is not the only region of Spain where there is concern about the future of the professional tour guide. The Community of Madrid, in 2009, introduced a legislative reform which showed "absolute disregard" for the professional work of guides. So said a spokesperson for Madrid's Professional Association of Tour Guides. The city has since been swamped with so-called guides, most if not all without qualification and some outside employment and social security regulations; they're doing it black, in other words.
Elsewhere, there is the "free" guide, the volunteer guide, often retired, but who similarly doesn't necessarily have any qualification for the task or the right level of knowledge. On the blog for professional tour guides, there was a post last year which criticised these "free" tours and which also criticised local authorities for providing them and so showing a lack of dignity to the tour guide profession and indeed to local culture.
This all said, the Balearics High Court was reacting in part to what had been denounced as something of a closed shop. There were too few possibilities to become a tour guide, while the legal stipulations going back over the years, such as an ability in the two official languages, tended to bar entry to the profession. And the High Court, rather like Madrid, didn't quite see the job of tour guide as being truly professional. It would not, for example, have permitted anyone to start practising as a doctor or as a lawyer. A profession means something specific. Qualifications alone - knowledge in the case of tour guides - are only part of the equation.
The tour guides face other threats. Audio guides, apps and technology might come to replace them, though it is unlikely that they will do any time soon. The demand for personal service and human interaction still greatly outweighs the convenience of some information provided by a smartphone. And this "some information" is just that. Some. It is very limited and, just as mostly all websites fail to do justice and cannot do justice to Mallorca's culture and history, there is nothing that compares with a guide who is truly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his or her subject.
While there was some justification for the allegations of there having been a closed shop, the High Court's decision is concerning. Tour operators, and this is the charge which the College levels at them, have so little regard for the island's culture that they will take on guides without qualification and without adequate knowledge. Tour guides still have an important role to play. They are guardians of the island's culture and history. Sometimes you have the impression, though, that officialdom cares as little for this culture as tour operators seem to.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 August 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.30am): 23C
Forecast high: 33C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 11 August - Sun, 32C; 12 August - Sun, 28C; 13 August - Sun, some cloud, 29C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 increasing South 3 occasionally 4 by midday.
Another hot one in store today, the yellow alert still in place and the high temperatures lasting at least until tomorrow, with the rest of the week forecast to be cooler.
Evening update (19.00): Not as hot as the alert suggested it might be. 33.4C the maximum inland. Lower on the coasts by about two to three degrees. Looks like the weather's going to break by the midweek.
No Frills Excursions
The PP's Oil Crisis
All was going so well. The king was in his palace and Mallorca's politicarrati was queuing up to wish him and Tizzy a happy holiday. Bauzá, Isern, Salom, they all came and went, the first of these pausing to inform the press that the king is well apprised of issues regarding the Balearics. Such as the oil prospecting issue. Bauzá let the king know that the Balearics just say no to oil. But then there was the blowout. Oil was splattered all over the PP. The black stuff hit the fan and then fell on Bauzá and environment minister Company. Someone let it be known that in April last year, and possibly also in July last year, there had been test explorations for oil in the turquoise waters off the Balearics, those which must be solely reserved for tourists, as the president has consistently argued. And no one had thought it necessary to seek permission to do so or to inform the public. Bauzá denied everything and blamed Company. He is only the president, after all.
With oily egg on faces and with the king no doubt wondering if he had been told a porky, government spokesperson Nuria Riera attempted a Red Adair act in seeking to cap the blowout. She fights fires here, she fights fires there, Red Riera insisted that it had all been part of gathering evidence against oil prospecting. So, there was nothing wrong with the tests, even if she seemed uncertain as to who had actually authorised them, given that the government has - she added - not authorised any action regarding surveys. It was, therefore and as usual, all rather confusing. But we can expect minister Company, once he's washed the oil out of his hair, to get in front of parliament next week and give a clearer explanation. Or possibly not.
The oil crisis was nevertheless eased somewhat thanks to Mariano Rajoy making his annual pilgrimage to Mallorca to meet the king - same holidays, same palace, different monarch - and announcing that if there is a risk from oil prospecting around the Balearics, it will not go ahead. All good stuff, therefore, for Bauzá, who is is in need of any good stuff nowadays and all good PP boys together. Over in the Canaries, where the president Rivero is anything but a good PP boy, they were hopping mad at the statement. The black sands of Lanzarote might yet get blacker, they fear.
With oily egg on faces and with the king no doubt wondering if he had been told a porky, government spokesperson Nuria Riera attempted a Red Adair act in seeking to cap the blowout. She fights fires here, she fights fires there, Red Riera insisted that it had all been part of gathering evidence against oil prospecting. So, there was nothing wrong with the tests, even if she seemed uncertain as to who had actually authorised them, given that the government has - she added - not authorised any action regarding surveys. It was, therefore and as usual, all rather confusing. But we can expect minister Company, once he's washed the oil out of his hair, to get in front of parliament next week and give a clearer explanation. Or possibly not.
The oil crisis was nevertheless eased somewhat thanks to Mariano Rajoy making his annual pilgrimage to Mallorca to meet the king - same holidays, same palace, different monarch - and announcing that if there is a risk from oil prospecting around the Balearics, it will not go ahead. All good stuff, therefore, for Bauzá, who is is in need of any good stuff nowadays and all good PP boys together. Over in the Canaries, where the president Rivero is anything but a good PP boy, they were hopping mad at the statement. The black sands of Lanzarote might yet get blacker, they fear.
Saturday, August 09, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 August 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.15am): 22.5C
Forecast high: 33C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 10 August - Sun, 31C; 11 August - Sun, cloud, 28C; 12 August - Sun, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southeast 4 occasionally 5 and for a time East 3 to 4 during the morning.
A warm morning and a very warm day in prospect, an alert in place over the weekend for high temperatures. The forecast high of 33C is likely to be topped noticeably. Breezes set to swing north tomorrow, so it might not feel as hot.
Evening update (20.45): Big heat today. High of 35.6C.
No Frills Excursions
Duck's Off: Defining Traditions
There is a legal oddity in Spain which prescribes how old a tradition must be in order that it can qualify for being a tradition - if this doesn't sound somewhat Irish (or Spanish). It is not a legal mechanism which defines all traditions but it is one that applies to traditions which involve animals. In a nutshell, older than one hundred years equals tradition, younger than one hundred equals non-tradition. To say that the law is somewhat arbitrary is a bit of an understatement. Nevertheless, it is a law which forms part of wider legislation - that of animal protection. It is one which rarely needs to be invoked, but in Mallorca it has been, and Can Picafort has been the main battleground for questioning the law. It's all to do with ducks.
Some time back in the 1930s, or so the story goes, underpaid local workers (of which there couldn't have been that many) were offered a little treat. A landowner made available a number of ducks, for the eating thereof. There was a catch. The workers would have to swim for their supper. The ducks were released in the sea, in dived the downtrodden peasantry and, amidst what was doubtless a great deal of quacking and general flapping around, the ducks were captured and were subsequently served up on a plate - à l'orange or sans orange. Such was the success of the watery duck chase that a tradition was born. Except of course, it wasn't. For the purposes of the law when it was drawn up, it was not more than one hundred years old. To borrow from Basil Fawlty, the law declared: "duck's off".
It was only relatively recently that the 100-year rule came into effect and put an end to the use of live ducks for the annual dive, swim and catch at the Can Picafort summer fiestas. Santa Margalida town hall was none too impressed with the law. Only when it was threatened with legal action did it reluctantly agree to substituting the real ducks with unreal ducks. The manufacturers of rubber and plastic ducks were in ducky heaven.
While the town hall bowed to the force of law, not every citizen of the town did likewise. Into Can Picafort folklore was etched the image of the Power Rangers' mask. Real ducks were released by miscreant traditionalists wearing non-traditional masks who thumbed their noses at the legality of the 100-year rule.
The masks were on show in 2007, the first year in which real ducks were banned. They were to be seen again, along with more ducks, over the next three years. The flouting of the law required the town hall, still reluctantly complying with it, to order the local police to stop the miscreants and the Guardia to send a submarine diving unit. No one was ever actually caught. In 2010, the defenders of the duck tradition released a video. It featured a "pope" and some ducks. The pope was shown beckoning the ducks towards him. It was to be the last year that a real duck put in an appearance at the 15 August event.
Despite some Can Picafort old-timers and some not so old-timers having said that the swim is not how it used to be and that they refuse to take part and go in pursuit of a rubber duck, the event's popularity seems to have grown. One suspects that it is partly because some visitors live in hope that the Power Rangers will return. Or perhaps it is because there are only rubber ducks (and a load of melons as well). The papal defenders of the real ducks are not the only ones whose opinions and preferences count. There are the defenders of the rubber duck as well, those who disagree with the use of live animals.
The animal-protection lobby has said that ducks would have felt stress and anxiety when they were being chased by the swimmers. They may well have done, but when one is talking animal protection and rights, the stress of the ducks is surely nothing compared to that which a bull suffers. But that's a different argument and a different tradition, one that is definitely more than one hundred years old. It is, nevertheless, one with a political overtone, the ruling Partido Popular being supportive of the bullfight. It had been hoped in Can Picafort that the party's lack of animal-rights correctness might have seen a change of heart where the ducks were concerned. Regional governments can amend the 100-year rule, if it so suits. The Balearic Government hasn't been tempted to. The ducks, the real ones, are safely swimming and quacking in Albufera and other ducky habitats in the local area. They are no longer taken on board small boats and released into the sea in front of the Mar y Paz hotel on 15 August. It is a day for rubber ducks only. But. What would happen if a duck were to inadvertently fly over Can Picafort and land in the sea at around 12 midday? Would the duck be charged with breaking the law?
Some time back in the 1930s, or so the story goes, underpaid local workers (of which there couldn't have been that many) were offered a little treat. A landowner made available a number of ducks, for the eating thereof. There was a catch. The workers would have to swim for their supper. The ducks were released in the sea, in dived the downtrodden peasantry and, amidst what was doubtless a great deal of quacking and general flapping around, the ducks were captured and were subsequently served up on a plate - à l'orange or sans orange. Such was the success of the watery duck chase that a tradition was born. Except of course, it wasn't. For the purposes of the law when it was drawn up, it was not more than one hundred years old. To borrow from Basil Fawlty, the law declared: "duck's off".
It was only relatively recently that the 100-year rule came into effect and put an end to the use of live ducks for the annual dive, swim and catch at the Can Picafort summer fiestas. Santa Margalida town hall was none too impressed with the law. Only when it was threatened with legal action did it reluctantly agree to substituting the real ducks with unreal ducks. The manufacturers of rubber and plastic ducks were in ducky heaven.
While the town hall bowed to the force of law, not every citizen of the town did likewise. Into Can Picafort folklore was etched the image of the Power Rangers' mask. Real ducks were released by miscreant traditionalists wearing non-traditional masks who thumbed their noses at the legality of the 100-year rule.
The masks were on show in 2007, the first year in which real ducks were banned. They were to be seen again, along with more ducks, over the next three years. The flouting of the law required the town hall, still reluctantly complying with it, to order the local police to stop the miscreants and the Guardia to send a submarine diving unit. No one was ever actually caught. In 2010, the defenders of the duck tradition released a video. It featured a "pope" and some ducks. The pope was shown beckoning the ducks towards him. It was to be the last year that a real duck put in an appearance at the 15 August event.
Despite some Can Picafort old-timers and some not so old-timers having said that the swim is not how it used to be and that they refuse to take part and go in pursuit of a rubber duck, the event's popularity seems to have grown. One suspects that it is partly because some visitors live in hope that the Power Rangers will return. Or perhaps it is because there are only rubber ducks (and a load of melons as well). The papal defenders of the real ducks are not the only ones whose opinions and preferences count. There are the defenders of the rubber duck as well, those who disagree with the use of live animals.
The animal-protection lobby has said that ducks would have felt stress and anxiety when they were being chased by the swimmers. They may well have done, but when one is talking animal protection and rights, the stress of the ducks is surely nothing compared to that which a bull suffers. But that's a different argument and a different tradition, one that is definitely more than one hundred years old. It is, nevertheless, one with a political overtone, the ruling Partido Popular being supportive of the bullfight. It had been hoped in Can Picafort that the party's lack of animal-rights correctness might have seen a change of heart where the ducks were concerned. Regional governments can amend the 100-year rule, if it so suits. The Balearic Government hasn't been tempted to. The ducks, the real ones, are safely swimming and quacking in Albufera and other ducky habitats in the local area. They are no longer taken on board small boats and released into the sea in front of the Mar y Paz hotel on 15 August. It is a day for rubber ducks only. But. What would happen if a duck were to inadvertently fly over Can Picafort and land in the sea at around 12 midday? Would the duck be charged with breaking the law?
Friday, August 08, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 August 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (6.45am): 21.5C
Forecast high: 33C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 9 August - Sun, 33C; 10 August - Sun, 31C; 11 August - Sun, 27C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 2 to 3 increasing Southeast 4 to 5 by the afternoon.
The good old south winds will be blowing today, so it's likely that things will feel particularly warm because of the African air. Another fine morning, the breeze for now quite pleasant. Weekend forecast - staying hot and sunny.
Evening update (19.15): A big high of 36.3C today. Alert now out for more very high temperatures over the weekend.
No Frills Excursions
Balearics Out Of Step On Holiday Lets
Something significant has happened in the Canary Islands. The regional government headed by Paulino Rivero has announced that it will regulate private holiday accommodation in the islands. The draft legislation will be ready before the end of the year, Rivero's government having given a commitment to this effect to the Canaries association of holiday rentals.
Rivero had signalled his willingness to consider such regulation some time ago. That his administration is now going to turn this willingness into firm legislation does mark a very significant moment for Canaries' tourism. Those islands have typically been as antagonistic towards the private accommodation sector as the Balearics. But even more significant is the fact that the Canaries will join Catalonia, Valencia and Andalusia in either having a system of regulation or being on the point of introducing one. Of the five main sun-and-beach tourism regions of Spain, the Balearics will be the exception to the rule. Other regions of Spain, among them the less sun-and-beach-dependent Basque Country and the not sun-and-beach-dependent-at-all Madrid are also in the process of regulating.
As ever, it is important to point out what regulation means or might mean. It doesn't mean stamping out (this is a commonly made mistake by some commentators who confuse the term regulation with prohibition). It means putting in place specific rules governing the rental of private accommodation for holiday purposes, Catalonia's regulation being the model that other regions are inclined to follow.
With the Balearics out of step with other regions, might there be a change of heart here? Not while the current government is in power. But what might happen following the next regional elections? It's anyone guess at present to try and figure out what sort of hybrid shambles of an administration might emerge, assuming the PP doesn't win (and it looks unlikely that it will, or be in a position to carry on in coalition). But PSOE, at the heart of this probable unholy alliance of Podemos and the left collective of other parties, would be inclined to go down the regulation route. Put it this way, it voiced its support for a relaxation in rules when all the tenancy act furore arose last year.
It's some time off, but the holiday-lets issue could yet prove to be a major political matter come next spring. The hoteliers, for one, will be doing all they can to try and ensure the PP stay in power. But if doesn't, then there's going to be one hell of a fight between the hoteliers and a PSOE-led pact.
Rivero had signalled his willingness to consider such regulation some time ago. That his administration is now going to turn this willingness into firm legislation does mark a very significant moment for Canaries' tourism. Those islands have typically been as antagonistic towards the private accommodation sector as the Balearics. But even more significant is the fact that the Canaries will join Catalonia, Valencia and Andalusia in either having a system of regulation or being on the point of introducing one. Of the five main sun-and-beach tourism regions of Spain, the Balearics will be the exception to the rule. Other regions of Spain, among them the less sun-and-beach-dependent Basque Country and the not sun-and-beach-dependent-at-all Madrid are also in the process of regulating.
As ever, it is important to point out what regulation means or might mean. It doesn't mean stamping out (this is a commonly made mistake by some commentators who confuse the term regulation with prohibition). It means putting in place specific rules governing the rental of private accommodation for holiday purposes, Catalonia's regulation being the model that other regions are inclined to follow.
With the Balearics out of step with other regions, might there be a change of heart here? Not while the current government is in power. But what might happen following the next regional elections? It's anyone guess at present to try and figure out what sort of hybrid shambles of an administration might emerge, assuming the PP doesn't win (and it looks unlikely that it will, or be in a position to carry on in coalition). But PSOE, at the heart of this probable unholy alliance of Podemos and the left collective of other parties, would be inclined to go down the regulation route. Put it this way, it voiced its support for a relaxation in rules when all the tenancy act furore arose last year.
It's some time off, but the holiday-lets issue could yet prove to be a major political matter come next spring. The hoteliers, for one, will be doing all they can to try and ensure the PP stay in power. But if doesn't, then there's going to be one hell of a fight between the hoteliers and a PSOE-led pact.
Thursday, August 07, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 August 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.15am): 22C
Forecast high: 32C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 8 August - Sun, 33C; 9 August - Sun, 32C; 10 August - Sun, 30C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 increasing East 3 to 4 by midday, veering Southeast and South later.
Clear morning skies. Might be some light cloud around during the day but otherwise sunny and hot. The weekend outlook - staying hot.
Evening update (19.15): A high of 31.9C. Partially cloudy at times but only partially.
No Frills Excursions
Mallorca And War: The Germans
In the article a couple of days ago about Gertrude Stein's time in Mallorca during the Great War, I mentioned the German ship the "Fangturm". Having been abandoned in Palma's port at the start of the war, work commenced on getting it shipshape when the Verdun battle began, only for the work to later cease. But whatever happened to the ship? After its half and incomplete paint job, it was allowed to rust away even more. In 1919, as part of reparations under the Treaty of Versailles, the Spanish navy seized the ship and handed it over to the care of the French consul. By then it was in such a poor state that it had to be towed to Marseille.
The ship was to be sold in 1921 to a Belgian company. It was renamed the "SS Antverpia" and eventually met its end when it was bombed by German aircraft in Boulogne harbour in 1940. Originally a German cargo ship, albeit one that was built by Swan Hunter, its fate was finally sealed by a German bomb.
The story of the "Fangturm" is one of only a few remnants of the wider story of Mallorca during World War One as told from the German side. Gertrude Stein's account of the ship left out plenty of detail. She implied that some of the crew had "gotten away" to Barcelona. In fact, it seems that they all got away, instructed to report for military service and ferried to Barcelona to start their journey to Germany. The German consul in Mallorca, Alfred Müller, issued an order: "Subjects of the German Reich, who are obliged to undertake military service, must present themselves without delay for this purpose to the Imperial German Consulate in Calle Concepción 82".
Stein had also understated the ship's function (or perhaps she had been sarcastic, and it is more than likely that she had been). Rather than selling pins and needles in the Mediterranean, the "Fangturm" was one of a fleet of large cargo carriers which bore similar names. It had been en route from New York to India when it headed to Palma to seek a safe haven just as war was breaking out. The crew had initially not known what to do. When they were ordered to report for military service, they did know, and so the ship was left behind.
Other Germans of military age were also obliged to leave and join up. The "Ultima Hora" newspaper referred to "our friend", a Herr Schmidt, a local silversmith, who had no choice but to report for service with an infantry battalion. The Germans who remained, those who were too old for service, must, one imagines, have been those who started painting the "Fangturm". It's hard to know who else would have done.
What seems clear is that there was no animosity to nationals on either side of the conflict. Indeed, there was obviously some affection: "our friend, Herr Schmidt". Sides were taken but only in arguments and debates in the cafés of Palma. Neutrality brought with it a ban on any public displays of sympathies for either side, so marches or demonstrations were out, but there was no ban on publications expressing their views or on individuals arguing their case. The two sides divided predominantly along class and occupation lines. Supporters of the Central Powers were the conservatives - the aristocrats, the church, the military and big business. The Allies' supporters were the educated middle class, the new bourgeoisie, teachers, unionists and workers.
Opinion in Mallorca reflected that across Spain. As I mentioned in a previous article, a reason why Spain remained neutral was because of its own internal tensions. It may even have been the main reason. Mallorca was relatively unaffected at that time, but mainland Spain wasn't. Had Spain gone to war, those tensions would have split the country apart, the aristocratic and Catholic conservatives against the liberals, the anarchists, the Republicans, the Catalans. Just as it was to be some years later.
Though Mallorca and Spain benefited from the war - ships were built in Mallorca and blankets, uniforms, boots, guns and food were exported - the ordinary worker reaped little of the benefit. The cost of living rose but wages didn't. There was also famine in Spain during the war. Politically, there was the rise of Maurism, the movement started by the son of Antoni Maura. Though Maura supported the Allies, he had drifted so far to the right that the movement which took his name can be seen as a precursor to the Falange.
And then, just before the end of the war, came a different threat. The first Mallorcan death as a result of the worldwide flu pandemic was in Sineu on 11 September, 1918. Mallorca and Spain staggered out of the war. Neutrality had bought the island and the country some time. The inevitable was merely delayed.
The ship was to be sold in 1921 to a Belgian company. It was renamed the "SS Antverpia" and eventually met its end when it was bombed by German aircraft in Boulogne harbour in 1940. Originally a German cargo ship, albeit one that was built by Swan Hunter, its fate was finally sealed by a German bomb.
The story of the "Fangturm" is one of only a few remnants of the wider story of Mallorca during World War One as told from the German side. Gertrude Stein's account of the ship left out plenty of detail. She implied that some of the crew had "gotten away" to Barcelona. In fact, it seems that they all got away, instructed to report for military service and ferried to Barcelona to start their journey to Germany. The German consul in Mallorca, Alfred Müller, issued an order: "Subjects of the German Reich, who are obliged to undertake military service, must present themselves without delay for this purpose to the Imperial German Consulate in Calle Concepción 82".
Stein had also understated the ship's function (or perhaps she had been sarcastic, and it is more than likely that she had been). Rather than selling pins and needles in the Mediterranean, the "Fangturm" was one of a fleet of large cargo carriers which bore similar names. It had been en route from New York to India when it headed to Palma to seek a safe haven just as war was breaking out. The crew had initially not known what to do. When they were ordered to report for military service, they did know, and so the ship was left behind.
Other Germans of military age were also obliged to leave and join up. The "Ultima Hora" newspaper referred to "our friend", a Herr Schmidt, a local silversmith, who had no choice but to report for service with an infantry battalion. The Germans who remained, those who were too old for service, must, one imagines, have been those who started painting the "Fangturm". It's hard to know who else would have done.
What seems clear is that there was no animosity to nationals on either side of the conflict. Indeed, there was obviously some affection: "our friend, Herr Schmidt". Sides were taken but only in arguments and debates in the cafés of Palma. Neutrality brought with it a ban on any public displays of sympathies for either side, so marches or demonstrations were out, but there was no ban on publications expressing their views or on individuals arguing their case. The two sides divided predominantly along class and occupation lines. Supporters of the Central Powers were the conservatives - the aristocrats, the church, the military and big business. The Allies' supporters were the educated middle class, the new bourgeoisie, teachers, unionists and workers.
Opinion in Mallorca reflected that across Spain. As I mentioned in a previous article, a reason why Spain remained neutral was because of its own internal tensions. It may even have been the main reason. Mallorca was relatively unaffected at that time, but mainland Spain wasn't. Had Spain gone to war, those tensions would have split the country apart, the aristocratic and Catholic conservatives against the liberals, the anarchists, the Republicans, the Catalans. Just as it was to be some years later.
Though Mallorca and Spain benefited from the war - ships were built in Mallorca and blankets, uniforms, boots, guns and food were exported - the ordinary worker reaped little of the benefit. The cost of living rose but wages didn't. There was also famine in Spain during the war. Politically, there was the rise of Maurism, the movement started by the son of Antoni Maura. Though Maura supported the Allies, he had drifted so far to the right that the movement which took his name can be seen as a precursor to the Falange.
And then, just before the end of the war, came a different threat. The first Mallorcan death as a result of the worldwide flu pandemic was in Sineu on 11 September, 1918. Mallorca and Spain staggered out of the war. Neutrality had bought the island and the country some time. The inevitable was merely delayed.
Wednesday, August 06, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 August 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (6.45am): 23C
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 7 August - Sun, 32C; 8 August - Sun, 32C; 9 August - Sun, cloud, 33C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 increasing East and Northeast 3 by midday.
Little bit of cloud hovering out to sea, otherwise a clear morning and sun pretty much all the way today with the highs once more topping the 30 mark.
Evening update (21.30): High of 32.5C. Sunny most of the day. Nice.
No Frills Excursions
Mallorca And War: The collaborators
Collaboration in wartime comes about for different reasons. Coercion and threats, sympathies with a cause, expectation of personal gain. Collaboration by Mallorcans during the Great War was not the consequence of the first of these. There were sympathies on both sides, but such sympathies never really carried a great deal of weight. Spain was never likely to have been placed in a position where it needed to break its neutrality. But the country was placed in an awkward and potentially threatening situation because of one particular act of collaboration with the Central Powers.
The Mediterranean theatre during the war was well away from the Balearics, but by sheer fact of geography - being in the Mediterranean - Mallorca, despite neutrality, was dragged into the war. And the person who dragged the island in was Joan March. Though March was in effect an agent for the British secret services, he played both sides. It is generally believed that his personal sympathies were with the Allies, and he was, during World War Two, to express to Churchill his desire to assist against the Nazis and the Axis Powers. (Churchill, one understands, quite warmed to March. He knew full well that he was a rogue, but Churchill adopted a pragmatic attitude to such roguishness.)
But wherever his sympathies lay, March had greater motivations than ideology. Above all else, he was out to get what he could get, and it didn't really seem to bother him where he got this from. Though he was informing British intelligence about ship movements, he was also involved with supplying the other side and specifically U-boats belonging to the Austro-Hungarian fleet. In 1915, there was a major international incident when it was discovered that U-boats were sheltering off the island of Cabrera. Across the strait which separates the Cabrera archipelago from Mallorca was and is S'Avall, a finca by Colonia Sant Jordi. Its owner? Joan March.
There was a suspicion that the Spanish Government was complicit in this affair. It knew what March was doing and allowed him to do it. Or so it was believed, and indeed it is hard to believe that it was unaware of the U-boats. Churchill, then still First Lord of the Admiralty, insisted that the Spanish took some action. And it did. It expropriated the island of Cabrera from its owner Sebastian Feliu, citing reasons of national security. The island is to this day the government's property. The national security was such that a clear violation of neutrality might have posed a threat to Spain. It is highly doubtful that the British would have actually declared war on Spain, if only because the Italians were coming in on the Allies side at that time, and so it would have been counterproductive. Besides which, the swift action of the Spanish allayed fears that they were not acting in good faith when it came to being neutral. Nevertheless, it was the unscrupulous opportunist March who nearly messed things up.
But March wasn't the only one who threatened to compromise Spain and Mallorca's position by seeking some gain through collaboration with the Central Powers. The French had good reason to believe that there were a number of people from Sóller, a town with traditionally strong and friendly relations with France, who were engaged in supplying German U-boats off the coast of Mallorca. The newspaper, "Le Petit Marseillais", reported that early into the war there were those in Sóller who were making fuel and other supplies available to the Germans. The paper cited the testimony of a Mallorcan fisherman that several U-boats had been supplied on 20 September. Someone by the name of Vicens was named by the French as heading this conspiracy of collaboration. The French also accused the Maritima Sollerense shipping company of being engaged in the illegal supply of fuel to the Germans. The company protested its innocence, formally complaining to the French consulate in Palma and claiming that, despite neutrality, it and also the people of Sóller were firmly behind the Allies. (Collaboration could of course work in different ways.)
There was a different form of collaboration, one which was also centred on Sóller (and neighbouring Fornalutx). A fruit exporter by the name of Joan Mayol, originally from Fornalutx, had been exporting to Germany and Switzerland before the outbreak of war. He continued to export but only to Switzerland. However, these exports were then sold on to Germany at vast profit. Mayol was convicted under a law that had been drawn up in 1915, was sentenced to five years in prison but later acquitted following the intervention of Jeroni Estades - him again - in his capacity as a parliamentary deputy.
Perhaps there were other collaborators. If there were, it is doubtful that they had any other motive than personal gain. War or no war, Mallorca's entrepreneurs were determined to remain active.
The Mediterranean theatre during the war was well away from the Balearics, but by sheer fact of geography - being in the Mediterranean - Mallorca, despite neutrality, was dragged into the war. And the person who dragged the island in was Joan March. Though March was in effect an agent for the British secret services, he played both sides. It is generally believed that his personal sympathies were with the Allies, and he was, during World War Two, to express to Churchill his desire to assist against the Nazis and the Axis Powers. (Churchill, one understands, quite warmed to March. He knew full well that he was a rogue, but Churchill adopted a pragmatic attitude to such roguishness.)
But wherever his sympathies lay, March had greater motivations than ideology. Above all else, he was out to get what he could get, and it didn't really seem to bother him where he got this from. Though he was informing British intelligence about ship movements, he was also involved with supplying the other side and specifically U-boats belonging to the Austro-Hungarian fleet. In 1915, there was a major international incident when it was discovered that U-boats were sheltering off the island of Cabrera. Across the strait which separates the Cabrera archipelago from Mallorca was and is S'Avall, a finca by Colonia Sant Jordi. Its owner? Joan March.
There was a suspicion that the Spanish Government was complicit in this affair. It knew what March was doing and allowed him to do it. Or so it was believed, and indeed it is hard to believe that it was unaware of the U-boats. Churchill, then still First Lord of the Admiralty, insisted that the Spanish took some action. And it did. It expropriated the island of Cabrera from its owner Sebastian Feliu, citing reasons of national security. The island is to this day the government's property. The national security was such that a clear violation of neutrality might have posed a threat to Spain. It is highly doubtful that the British would have actually declared war on Spain, if only because the Italians were coming in on the Allies side at that time, and so it would have been counterproductive. Besides which, the swift action of the Spanish allayed fears that they were not acting in good faith when it came to being neutral. Nevertheless, it was the unscrupulous opportunist March who nearly messed things up.
But March wasn't the only one who threatened to compromise Spain and Mallorca's position by seeking some gain through collaboration with the Central Powers. The French had good reason to believe that there were a number of people from Sóller, a town with traditionally strong and friendly relations with France, who were engaged in supplying German U-boats off the coast of Mallorca. The newspaper, "Le Petit Marseillais", reported that early into the war there were those in Sóller who were making fuel and other supplies available to the Germans. The paper cited the testimony of a Mallorcan fisherman that several U-boats had been supplied on 20 September. Someone by the name of Vicens was named by the French as heading this conspiracy of collaboration. The French also accused the Maritima Sollerense shipping company of being engaged in the illegal supply of fuel to the Germans. The company protested its innocence, formally complaining to the French consulate in Palma and claiming that, despite neutrality, it and also the people of Sóller were firmly behind the Allies. (Collaboration could of course work in different ways.)
There was a different form of collaboration, one which was also centred on Sóller (and neighbouring Fornalutx). A fruit exporter by the name of Joan Mayol, originally from Fornalutx, had been exporting to Germany and Switzerland before the outbreak of war. He continued to export but only to Switzerland. However, these exports were then sold on to Germany at vast profit. Mayol was convicted under a law that had been drawn up in 1915, was sentenced to five years in prison but later acquitted following the intervention of Jeroni Estades - him again - in his capacity as a parliamentary deputy.
Perhaps there were other collaborators. If there were, it is doubtful that they had any other motive than personal gain. War or no war, Mallorca's entrepreneurs were determined to remain active.
Tuesday, August 05, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 August 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (8.00am): 24C
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 6 August - Sun, some cloud, 31C; 7 August - Sun, cloud, 30C; 8 August - Sun, 32C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 3 to 4.
A hint of mist first thing and now cloud but sunny nonetheless. A good day in store anyway with highs once more in the low-30s.
Evening update (19.00): A high of 30.8C. Fair amount of cloud for a time this morning and now there is cloud again, but only light.
No Frills Excursions
Mallorca And The War: Gertrude Stein
Mallorca was, on the face of it, immune to great and terrible events elsewhere. Beneath the surface, despite the island's remoteness, it was not immune to the tensions that existed in Spain when the Great War broke out. Many have been the debates as to why Spain opted to be and remained neutral during World War I. Spain had little to gain (and much to lose) by entering the war on either side.
Heaven knows how the course of an in-any-event troubled Spanish history at the time would have been changed by war.
Mallorca's remoteness nevertheless offered a refuge from the troubles on the Spanish mainland. This, combined with its landscapes and climate and the promotional efforts of many artists, was what helped to attract foreigners seeking an escape from war. There were some foreign residents and visitors, who primarily lived and stayed in El Terreno in Palma at the start of the war, and there were others who had been to Mallorca previously and who chose to come back.
Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas were two such visitors. Stein had been in Mallorca before the war. She and Toklas were in England when war was declared. By October, strangely enough perhaps, they were preparing to return to their home in Paris. "It was not a very cheerful winter," Toklas didn't write. Stein wrote these words. "The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas", which was Stein's work, gives an account of their decision to go to Mallorca. "At last the spring came and we were ready to go away for a bit." "We decided we would go to Palma too and forget the war a little." The use of "too" was a reference to the fact that their friend, the American painter William Cook, had also decided to return to Mallorca.
The story of their stay in Palma isn't that long but it gives a flavour of how the war was perceived in Mallorca. But before they arrived in Palma, Stein and Toklas went to Barcelona. Stein makes a striking and poignant observation: "It was extraordinary to see so many men on the streets. I did not imagine there could be so many men left in the world".
Of the foreign residents at that time, Stein says that, in addition to several French families, "in those days Cook and ourselves were the only Americans to inhabit the island. There were a few English, about three families there". "Life in Palma was pleasant" and so they decided to spend the whole summer and to then extend their stay to the following spring. They had a house in Calle Dos de Mayo in El Terreno. As to Mallorcans' impressions of the war, feelings "were very mixed".
Stein gives an explanation of the locals' fascination with how much the war was going to cost. "They could discuss by the hour how much it cost a year, a month, a week, a day, an hour and even a minute." (A Mallorcan obsession with money and with what everything costs is not, one might suggest, anything new.) Stein observes that the subject of the cost was made even more fascinating by the fact that even men from the better middle classes "read, wrote and ciphered with difficulty", while the "women not at all". She tells of a German governess at a neighbour's house who would hang out a German flag when there was news of a German victory. She also reports that the "lower classes were strong for the Allies". A waiter looked forward to Spain entering the war on the Allies' side.
This pleasant life in Palma started to turn sour when the attack on Verdun began in February 1916. "We were all desperately unhappy." It is at this point in the story of their stay in Palma that events took an odd turn. Stein relates that there was a German ship called the Fangturm in the port. It had seemingly been a merchant ship as it sold pins and needles to Mediterranean ports. When war started, it had been unable to leave. It was rusting, but when the Verdun offensive started, "they began painting the Fangturm" (they, presumably, were German sailors who hadn't got away to Barcelona). One whole side of the ship was painted but then the painting stopped. Verdun, it seemed, was not going to be taken.
It's hard to know what Stein and others were worried about. It is also hard to understand why "when it was all over, none of us wanted to stay in Mallorca any longer". (Verdun was far from over.) Anyway, Stein and Toklas left some time in the spring of 1916 and went back to a Paris where "everybody was cheerful" and they joined the American Fund for the French Wounded. Back in Mallorca, they were still counting the cost of war, while there was a half-painted German ship in Palma's port.
Heaven knows how the course of an in-any-event troubled Spanish history at the time would have been changed by war.
Mallorca's remoteness nevertheless offered a refuge from the troubles on the Spanish mainland. This, combined with its landscapes and climate and the promotional efforts of many artists, was what helped to attract foreigners seeking an escape from war. There were some foreign residents and visitors, who primarily lived and stayed in El Terreno in Palma at the start of the war, and there were others who had been to Mallorca previously and who chose to come back.
Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas were two such visitors. Stein had been in Mallorca before the war. She and Toklas were in England when war was declared. By October, strangely enough perhaps, they were preparing to return to their home in Paris. "It was not a very cheerful winter," Toklas didn't write. Stein wrote these words. "The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas", which was Stein's work, gives an account of their decision to go to Mallorca. "At last the spring came and we were ready to go away for a bit." "We decided we would go to Palma too and forget the war a little." The use of "too" was a reference to the fact that their friend, the American painter William Cook, had also decided to return to Mallorca.
The story of their stay in Palma isn't that long but it gives a flavour of how the war was perceived in Mallorca. But before they arrived in Palma, Stein and Toklas went to Barcelona. Stein makes a striking and poignant observation: "It was extraordinary to see so many men on the streets. I did not imagine there could be so many men left in the world".
Of the foreign residents at that time, Stein says that, in addition to several French families, "in those days Cook and ourselves were the only Americans to inhabit the island. There were a few English, about three families there". "Life in Palma was pleasant" and so they decided to spend the whole summer and to then extend their stay to the following spring. They had a house in Calle Dos de Mayo in El Terreno. As to Mallorcans' impressions of the war, feelings "were very mixed".
Stein gives an explanation of the locals' fascination with how much the war was going to cost. "They could discuss by the hour how much it cost a year, a month, a week, a day, an hour and even a minute." (A Mallorcan obsession with money and with what everything costs is not, one might suggest, anything new.) Stein observes that the subject of the cost was made even more fascinating by the fact that even men from the better middle classes "read, wrote and ciphered with difficulty", while the "women not at all". She tells of a German governess at a neighbour's house who would hang out a German flag when there was news of a German victory. She also reports that the "lower classes were strong for the Allies". A waiter looked forward to Spain entering the war on the Allies' side.
This pleasant life in Palma started to turn sour when the attack on Verdun began in February 1916. "We were all desperately unhappy." It is at this point in the story of their stay in Palma that events took an odd turn. Stein relates that there was a German ship called the Fangturm in the port. It had seemingly been a merchant ship as it sold pins and needles to Mediterranean ports. When war started, it had been unable to leave. It was rusting, but when the Verdun offensive started, "they began painting the Fangturm" (they, presumably, were German sailors who hadn't got away to Barcelona). One whole side of the ship was painted but then the painting stopped. Verdun, it seemed, was not going to be taken.
It's hard to know what Stein and others were worried about. It is also hard to understand why "when it was all over, none of us wanted to stay in Mallorca any longer". (Verdun was far from over.) Anyway, Stein and Toklas left some time in the spring of 1916 and went back to a Paris where "everybody was cheerful" and they joined the American Fund for the French Wounded. Back in Mallorca, they were still counting the cost of war, while there was a half-painted German ship in Palma's port.
Monday, August 04, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 August 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (7.00am): 21C
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 5 August - Sun, some cloud, 31C; 6 August - Sun, some cloud, 29C; 7 August - Sun, some cloud, 30C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 increasing East 3 to 4 by midday.
A very fine day in prospect. Perfectly clear skies first thing and expected to remain clear. That dip in temperature which had been forecast seems to be less probable now. The outlook is pretty consistent - highs around the 30 mark.
Evening update (23.00): High of 32.7C. Warm.
No Frills Excursions
Declaration Of War And Mallorca
The night of 4 August, 1914 would doubtless have been like nights in early August in Mallorca have always been. It would have been sultry. The sounds would have been those of cicadas. Far away from Mallorca it was also a warm night. The windows of the Admiralty in London were thrown open. The sounds were of the singing of "God Save The King" and of the chimes of Big Ben. A telegram went out across the world. As Churchill concluded: "the deed was done".
On that sultry night in August, assuming they were aware of events in London, who among people in Mallorca would have been taking notice? Perhaps everyone. It was war, after all. But it was someone else's war, and confirmation of that came three days later. Spain was neutral. There would have been those who paid greater notice; foreign residents and visitors in El Terreno, for example, and also the Archduke Louis Salvador, perhaps even then preparing to leave. Summoned back to Austria-Hungary, his presence in neutral Mallorca, his love for Mallorca notwithstanding, would have been awkward had he stayed.
Someone else who would have been paying careful attention would have been Joan March, probably resident in his summer palace in Cala Ratjada. What can we imagine of that night of 4 August, 1914? Would there have been a small dinner party at the March palace? Lobster and wines, followed by the men taking themselves to a discrete terrace to discuss affairs of war while they smoked cigars and drank their brandy? Antoni Maura was a summer neighbour of March's in Cala Ratjada. He was not prime minister then, but he was eventually to advocate Spain's siding with the Allies. Perhaps, for the time being though, neutrality was best. There were riches to be made while the world went to war and Spain didn't.
While Maura was the politician, March was the businessman. What might he have been eyeing up? When might it have become opportune for him to be involved with the British secret service? March, as useful to Britain during the Great War as he was to be during the Second World War. Useful, even though British intelligence dubbed him a "scoundrel of the deepest dye". He maintained links with the Germans during the Great War and used those links to give British intelligence information as to German shipping movements. On the night of 4 August, March was probably contemplating having a good war, and he was right to have contemplated this. By 1915, the Italian Government was being informed as to the spy-network activities of Charles Thoroton. Based in Gibraltar, Thoroton's network extended across Spain and into Morocco. The Italian Consulate in Gibraltar reported that all the Spanish coasts were under the surveillance and control of Thoroton, "who is informed of all ship movements ... the English authority is in liaison with a Juan March, a contrabandist with control of over 240 motor ships and monoplanes ... this covers all ship movements from the Balearic Islands ... he gains a lot of money".
There would have been others who were taking special notice on the night of 4 August. They weren't foreigners and they weren't the powerful. They were ordinary Mallorcans who knew people abroad. On that night, would relatives and friends of Jaime and Antonio Oliver in Sóller, of Juan Mora Ferrer, also from Sóller, of Jaime Llabrés Bestard from Establiments and José Niell from Sineu have been concerned about German advances into Belgium? On 20 August, they were shot and killed at the shop in Liège that the Oliver brothers ran, having returned given that the Battle of Liège had finished.
The initial explanation for their deaths was that they had been caught up in an exchange of gunfire. Almost a month later, a businessman from Inca, Sebastian Simonet, had managed to get back to Mallorca. He told a very different story. It was reported in the Mallorcan newspaper "La Almudaina". He said that the Mallorcans had been arrested by drunk German soldiers, handcuffed, taken to grounds at the university and shot by firing squads.
There was outrage, and the outrage was all the greater because the Spanish Government appeared indifferent to what had happened. The matter was nonetheless raised in the Cortes, Jeroni Estades, he of the Sóller train and by then a parliamentary deputy, being one of those who demanded a stronger response. Eventually, the government, via the Spanish Embassy in Berlin, was able to extract compensation for the men's deaths.
But back to more pleasant matters. On the night of 4 August, the people of Binissalem would still have been celebrating events of two days before. On that day, the town's football club was officially founded and the first match played. A hundred years on, and the centenary has been duly honoured. Far away war was starting. In Mallorca they kicked footballs. In peace.
On that sultry night in August, assuming they were aware of events in London, who among people in Mallorca would have been taking notice? Perhaps everyone. It was war, after all. But it was someone else's war, and confirmation of that came three days later. Spain was neutral. There would have been those who paid greater notice; foreign residents and visitors in El Terreno, for example, and also the Archduke Louis Salvador, perhaps even then preparing to leave. Summoned back to Austria-Hungary, his presence in neutral Mallorca, his love for Mallorca notwithstanding, would have been awkward had he stayed.
Someone else who would have been paying careful attention would have been Joan March, probably resident in his summer palace in Cala Ratjada. What can we imagine of that night of 4 August, 1914? Would there have been a small dinner party at the March palace? Lobster and wines, followed by the men taking themselves to a discrete terrace to discuss affairs of war while they smoked cigars and drank their brandy? Antoni Maura was a summer neighbour of March's in Cala Ratjada. He was not prime minister then, but he was eventually to advocate Spain's siding with the Allies. Perhaps, for the time being though, neutrality was best. There were riches to be made while the world went to war and Spain didn't.
While Maura was the politician, March was the businessman. What might he have been eyeing up? When might it have become opportune for him to be involved with the British secret service? March, as useful to Britain during the Great War as he was to be during the Second World War. Useful, even though British intelligence dubbed him a "scoundrel of the deepest dye". He maintained links with the Germans during the Great War and used those links to give British intelligence information as to German shipping movements. On the night of 4 August, March was probably contemplating having a good war, and he was right to have contemplated this. By 1915, the Italian Government was being informed as to the spy-network activities of Charles Thoroton. Based in Gibraltar, Thoroton's network extended across Spain and into Morocco. The Italian Consulate in Gibraltar reported that all the Spanish coasts were under the surveillance and control of Thoroton, "who is informed of all ship movements ... the English authority is in liaison with a Juan March, a contrabandist with control of over 240 motor ships and monoplanes ... this covers all ship movements from the Balearic Islands ... he gains a lot of money".
There would have been others who were taking special notice on the night of 4 August. They weren't foreigners and they weren't the powerful. They were ordinary Mallorcans who knew people abroad. On that night, would relatives and friends of Jaime and Antonio Oliver in Sóller, of Juan Mora Ferrer, also from Sóller, of Jaime Llabrés Bestard from Establiments and José Niell from Sineu have been concerned about German advances into Belgium? On 20 August, they were shot and killed at the shop in Liège that the Oliver brothers ran, having returned given that the Battle of Liège had finished.
The initial explanation for their deaths was that they had been caught up in an exchange of gunfire. Almost a month later, a businessman from Inca, Sebastian Simonet, had managed to get back to Mallorca. He told a very different story. It was reported in the Mallorcan newspaper "La Almudaina". He said that the Mallorcans had been arrested by drunk German soldiers, handcuffed, taken to grounds at the university and shot by firing squads.
There was outrage, and the outrage was all the greater because the Spanish Government appeared indifferent to what had happened. The matter was nonetheless raised in the Cortes, Jeroni Estades, he of the Sóller train and by then a parliamentary deputy, being one of those who demanded a stronger response. Eventually, the government, via the Spanish Embassy in Berlin, was able to extract compensation for the men's deaths.
But back to more pleasant matters. On the night of 4 August, the people of Binissalem would still have been celebrating events of two days before. On that day, the town's football club was officially founded and the first match played. A hundred years on, and the centenary has been duly honoured. Far away war was starting. In Mallorca they kicked footballs. In peace.
Sunday, August 03, 2014
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 August 2014
Stefanos
Morning high (6.45am): 21.5C
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 4 August - Sun, 31C; 5 August - Sun, cloud, 27C; 6 August - Sun, cloud, 29C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 2 to 3 becoming Variable during the morning, mainly West by the afternoon, increasing 3 to 4.
A fine morning with a bit of haze out to sea. Another very warm day beckons. The general outlook is good, highs down a touch during the week but then set to climb again.
Evening update (20.00): A high of 34C. Light cloud for some of the day, but also plenty of sun. And hot.
No Frills Excursions
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