Morning high (6.34am): 20.6C
Forecast high: 28C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 23 August - Sun, 29C; 24 August - Sun, 28C; 25 August - Sun, cloud, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 4 to 5 occasionally 6. Swells to two metres.
May be a bit blowy from the north today. Otherwise fine and sunny. Week ahead looking good.
Evening update (20.00): High of 31C.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Mariano In The Clouds
By my calculation and at the rate of one every six months, there will have been a total of eight pointless general elections by the time things get round to what should be the general election to decide the next general election. Confused? You have every right to be. As the current legislature (non-functioning, acting, caretaking, call it what you want) should extend until the end of 2019, there is ample time for them to have had eight elections in all. I can only but hope that this is what transpires. What a fabulous achievement it would be to go through the entire period of a legislature without a result. I feel we should all be cheering them on. Come on fellas (and ladies), you can do it. Do it for Spain. Bravo! Olé! There goes another failed election. Only another five to go.
This is what you get in an era of "new politics" in Spain, characterised by the emergence of a couple of upstarts like Churches and the little C of the C's (respectively Pablo and Albert). The new politics in fact mean no politics; or none that involve actually forming a government that is. As a consequence, Super Mariano can have his wish granted to continue ad infinitum: Honorary Life Prime Minister (President) forever.
I know it would spoil the fun of there being an election every six months, but why doesn't Mazza put a stop to the whole thing by decreeing that all political parties apart from the PP are to be banned? That way there wouldn't need to be the inconvenience of elections. As he's already confirming himself as PM (president) for life, just announce he's going to be a dictator. I mean, it's not as though there haven't been precedents, and Mazza's the only one of the Four Great Leaders who is ancient enough to remember the good old days of political assassination and packing dissidents off to labour camps. Plus, he does of course come from Galicia. And we all know who else came from Galicia.
On balance it's probably unlikely that Super would take such a bold step, meaning - with any luck - that we can indeed have our eight elections to be followed by a ninth with a similar outcome. Mazza, meanwhile, has signalled that there may be some innovation to come with these elections. The next one, he has suggested, could be held on Christmas Day. Why not opt for Christmas Eve and shift the polling booths to churches? There wouldn't be any Podemos sorts voting if they were expected to enter a church that wasn't one of their glorious leader. It would be a PP landslide. Mind you, a Christmas Eve or even a Christmas Day election would cause havoc with the King's address to the nation, to say nothing of his family holidays. Again.
While the royal jollies in Majorca were disrupted because the King was forced to have go through the motions related to the last failed election, someone who was having his own jollies was Mariano. As an alternative to last year's photo opp of swimming in some river in Galicia, Super took himself off to a place called Babia in León. "Here I feel at home," he told reporters. "Being in Babia is one of the things I like most."
Which would be all well and good if it weren't for the fact that the phrase "estar en Babia" is an idiom to mean having one's head in the clouds. So what fantasies was Mazza dreaming up in Babia? Who can possibly tell? Was his arrival in Babia evidence of a divorcing from reality? PSOE's Antonio Pradas insisted that Mariano should get his head out of the clouds forthwith as the little C of the C's had a proposal on the table. It was, by the way, reassuring to note that Pradas didn't have his head in the clouds and was speaking in Benalmadena, so down with the general tourist hordes and avoiding any Irish hitmen who happened to be on the loose.
When Mariano finally re-emerged, Albert's proposal of some form of governmental marriage seemed possible and then not possible. Which has been the story ever since the first election. On it goes. Here's to all those further elections.
This is what you get in an era of "new politics" in Spain, characterised by the emergence of a couple of upstarts like Churches and the little C of the C's (respectively Pablo and Albert). The new politics in fact mean no politics; or none that involve actually forming a government that is. As a consequence, Super Mariano can have his wish granted to continue ad infinitum: Honorary Life Prime Minister (President) forever.
I know it would spoil the fun of there being an election every six months, but why doesn't Mazza put a stop to the whole thing by decreeing that all political parties apart from the PP are to be banned? That way there wouldn't need to be the inconvenience of elections. As he's already confirming himself as PM (president) for life, just announce he's going to be a dictator. I mean, it's not as though there haven't been precedents, and Mazza's the only one of the Four Great Leaders who is ancient enough to remember the good old days of political assassination and packing dissidents off to labour camps. Plus, he does of course come from Galicia. And we all know who else came from Galicia.
On balance it's probably unlikely that Super would take such a bold step, meaning - with any luck - that we can indeed have our eight elections to be followed by a ninth with a similar outcome. Mazza, meanwhile, has signalled that there may be some innovation to come with these elections. The next one, he has suggested, could be held on Christmas Day. Why not opt for Christmas Eve and shift the polling booths to churches? There wouldn't be any Podemos sorts voting if they were expected to enter a church that wasn't one of their glorious leader. It would be a PP landslide. Mind you, a Christmas Eve or even a Christmas Day election would cause havoc with the King's address to the nation, to say nothing of his family holidays. Again.
While the royal jollies in Majorca were disrupted because the King was forced to have go through the motions related to the last failed election, someone who was having his own jollies was Mariano. As an alternative to last year's photo opp of swimming in some river in Galicia, Super took himself off to a place called Babia in León. "Here I feel at home," he told reporters. "Being in Babia is one of the things I like most."
Which would be all well and good if it weren't for the fact that the phrase "estar en Babia" is an idiom to mean having one's head in the clouds. So what fantasies was Mazza dreaming up in Babia? Who can possibly tell? Was his arrival in Babia evidence of a divorcing from reality? PSOE's Antonio Pradas insisted that Mariano should get his head out of the clouds forthwith as the little C of the C's had a proposal on the table. It was, by the way, reassuring to note that Pradas didn't have his head in the clouds and was speaking in Benalmadena, so down with the general tourist hordes and avoiding any Irish hitmen who happened to be on the loose.
When Mariano finally re-emerged, Albert's proposal of some form of governmental marriage seemed possible and then not possible. Which has been the story ever since the first election. On it goes. Here's to all those further elections.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 21 August 2016
Morning high (6.50am): 22.4C
Forecast high: 27C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 22 August - Sun, 28C; 23 August - Sun, 28C; 24 August - Sun, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 5 easing 3 to 4 around midday.
Fairly breezy first thing and some cloud around, which may persist during the day. The week ahead looking very sunny.
Evening update (19.30): Good enough day. Breezy in the morning and choppy seas. Calmed down later and clouded over a bit. High of 28.6C.
Forecast high: 27C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 22 August - Sun, 28C; 23 August - Sun, 28C; 24 August - Sun, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 5 easing 3 to 4 around midday.
Fairly breezy first thing and some cloud around, which may persist during the day. The week ahead looking very sunny.
Evening update (19.30): Good enough day. Breezy in the morning and choppy seas. Calmed down later and clouded over a bit. High of 28.6C.
The Cove That Isn't: Cala San Vicente
It is suggested that the name goes back a great deal further, so it may or may not have something to do with Vincent the Martyr, who came to an appalling end at the hands of Diocletian, as did most other Christians who had the misfortune to have encountered the one-time Roman Emperor. Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be a particularly good explanation as to how the name came about, although it is known that the cult of Vincent was present (at least on the mainland and especially in Valencia) during the centuries of the Muslims.
The name aside, and coming to the present, Cala San Vicente is intriguing for the way in which as a resort, and only a tiny one, it was allowed to embrace such striking differences of touristic existence. It was for this reason that I once wrote about it as being a place that didn't really add up. More or less shoulder to shoulder was early Mallorcan all-inclusive invasion (the Don Pedro) and a genteel style of tourism with vague echoes of the Raj.
This had been impressed upon me, and we're talking some years ago now, when I'd wandered into the reception of the Moraleja. An English gentleman of advanced years, a copy of "The Telegraph" in his hands, was sitting in a straight-backed, pink-patterned chair. "It's paradise," he suggested. "Like your own home. Your own villa." I nodded. Not having my own villa I was uncertain of my reply, but I took his word for it and bade him farewell, leaving him to the silence save for the birdsong and the breeze rustling the bracts of the bougainvillaea and the sheets of an English broadsheet.
The collision in touristic styles seemed something to celebrate rather than denigrate, if only because of the weird juxtaposition, something that was further accentuated when they started putting up residential new builds, the creations of the architectural apostles of the post-Modernist Lego box style replete with grey and neutral non-colours and a conspicuous insistence on aluminium. This is not unpleasing architecture, but it does rather depend on context. Cala San Vicente had seem unprepared for it.
Denigration, such as it was, once came from Matt Rudd in "The Sunday Times". Confessing to be a "holiday snob", Rudd had been singularly unimpressed, having been pointed in the direction of CSV by a "gnarly finger" in an unnamed other resort. While it is true, or at least someone told me so, that flabby men wearing only their underpants could wander on to the streets from the Don Pedro (this was, I would say again, some years ago), to castigate the whole of the Cala seemed mightily unfair. What had last days of Empire in the Moraleja said? Paradise?
What else is there to intrigue? The caves of course. The Alzinaret caves and necropolis of Bronze Age prehistory. And there's the horse of course. The horse promontory, the Cavall Bernat cliffs, stretching away from Cala Molins. Want to know something about these that you might not know? The name seems obvious enough - Bernat's horse - yet it is said to be a corruption of an earlier appellation: "carall armat". In Spanish this would be "carajo armado". Look it up because sensitivity suggests I should not elucidate, but put it this way, it has to do with phallic form.
Call it what you wish, the promontory has been an inspiration for many, not least the painters of the early twentieth century who were to capture the Tramuntana and its coastline and who were to be the progenitors of an art culture in the Cala. Those painters offer a separate and intriguing story. In 1916 the writer Pedro Ferrer Gibert coined the term the "Pollensa school" for what was a "Mecca for artists". Ferrer wrote about the painters in Cala San Vicente. They stayed in what was then an improvised pension - Can Niu.
They're holding their fiestas in Cala San Vicente this weekend. They don't make a lot of fuss about the fiestas. Keep them rather quiet you might almost say. Which seems to befit the Cala. Except that at midnight they'll be setting off fireworks, arousing Bernat's horse with cascades like the colours of vermilion cast on its ancient rock face that intrigued the painters of a century ago.
Saturday, August 20, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 20 August 2016
Morning high (5.53am): 22C
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 21 August - Sun, cloud, 27C; 22 August - Sun, cloud, 27C; 23 August - Sun, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 2 to 4 backing and increasing Northeast 4 to 5 by late afternoon.
Any forecast for cloudy conditions today has lessened. All seems pretty normal - sun and hot.
Evening update (20.00): High of 34.9C.
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 21 August - Sun, cloud, 27C; 22 August - Sun, cloud, 27C; 23 August - Sun, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 2 to 4 backing and increasing Northeast 4 to 5 by late afternoon.
Any forecast for cloudy conditions today has lessened. All seems pretty normal - sun and hot.
Evening update (20.00): High of 34.9C.
The Palmarati And Tourism Sustainability
Are we being sold a fast one, do you suppose? Saturation, massification, overcrowding. Increasingly I wonder if it isn't all propaganda with a yet to be revealed agenda, but one that may well come with "limits" attached. Moreover, is this propaganda all the work of what one might call the "Palmarati"?
I don't doubt that there are more tourists than ever, but does that automatically mean saturation? I had largely accepted the argument until recently. Let me explain.
My manor, for want of a better term, is right bang in one of the principal tourist resorts in Mallorca. The density of tourist population in Alcudia is extremely high. On hotel places alone, the maximum number of tourists at a given time is 1.5 times the regular population of the entire, sprawling municipality. This is something I sense and see every single day in summer. Unlike commentators, especially politicians, who are divorced from the realities of resort life, I live it. Tourism mass doesn't come any more massive than Bellevue.
Perceptions, I accept, are not scientific, but there was a sudden realisation this week that driving in Alcudia is not the nightmare it once was in August. And I'm talking perhaps ten years ago. This may reflect the level of all-inclusive in the resort, but traffic most certainly isn't determined by in-resort circumstances alone. Moreover, there is all the additional residential tourism that has sprung up. None of that is all-inclusive and much of it requires a car.
Along the bay from Alcudia is the beach of Es Comú, a long stretch of rustic beach in Playa de Muro. It's somewhere else I know, unlike some. There was a time when even on Sundays it wouldn't be especially busy. It is now. The conclusion drawn is that this is because of saturation, with tourists to blame. Yes, there are tourists, but for the most part the beachgoers are residents of the island. They started going to Es Comú because word of the beach was spread by social media (Trip Advisor included) and also by the Balearic government on its beaches website.
We now have the government's environment ministry wanting to create a minibus shuttle service for the beach. There's nothing wrong with the idea, other than its practicality. Furthermore, does the ministry's director-general for biodiversity really have any idea about Es Comú's circumstances or indeed those of other beaches she wishes to be served by minibuses? One of the others is Sa Calobra. Where would you put a car park to allow a park and ride system?
That beach was highlighted earlier this week by a group which wants to "save" the Tramuntana. This group appears not to want anyone going anywhere near the mountains. The photo it posted for the Torrent de Pareis showed a number of beachgoers along with a howling complaint of saturation. Yes, people on a beach. Who would ever have thought? But hardly packed to the gunwales. And guess what? Social media and the government have been talking lovingly about Sa Calobra in recent years.
Then there was Palma's deputy mayor, Aurora Jhardi, going on about Mallorca (as well as Palma) collapsing under the strain of all the tourists. Time to "minimise" the damage, she insisted. She's welcome to her opinion, but what does she know about Mallorca beyond Palma?
Herein lies the rub, and the greater realisation that occurred to me this week. The "Palmarati". This is the class that chatters endlessly about cruise ships this or that, which for the rest of Mallorca is mostly by the bye. Yet lo and behold, we found, thanks to figures from the State Ports, that cruise passenger numbers for the half year were in fact down on last year. Remember those 22,000 who had invaded back in May and who were used as evidence of the collapse of Palma? Always Palma, and always Palma sounding off and reckoning it knows all and knows best for the island's resorts. Yet, we have a tourism ministry and government that can see no further, for political reasons, than Magalluf and Playa de Palma. Cala Millor, Cala Ratjada, Can Picafort and others: who are you? who are you?
This isn't to minimise the potential negative impacts, of which water is the most obvious. Tourists in their apparently saturating numbers do use a hell of a lot of water, which is why I made the moral case, long before the tourist tax was even being considered, for a tax to be directed at vital resources. But tourists aren't to blame for the water shortage. The climate is, plus a lack of planning. The water crisis, though, has become a useful tool for the Palmarati (the governmental brand in particular) in its propaganda.
Biel Barceló, bless him, seems a sincere enough chap. He wants sustainability of tourism. Who doesn't? It's a non-discussion in some respects, but debating limits and future models of tourism will get nowhere when the argumentation is skewed by one side's propaganda, only to then be refuted by the other side's, and which is the domain of competing political parties, business interests and above all the Palmarati.
I don't doubt that there are more tourists than ever, but does that automatically mean saturation? I had largely accepted the argument until recently. Let me explain.
My manor, for want of a better term, is right bang in one of the principal tourist resorts in Mallorca. The density of tourist population in Alcudia is extremely high. On hotel places alone, the maximum number of tourists at a given time is 1.5 times the regular population of the entire, sprawling municipality. This is something I sense and see every single day in summer. Unlike commentators, especially politicians, who are divorced from the realities of resort life, I live it. Tourism mass doesn't come any more massive than Bellevue.
Perceptions, I accept, are not scientific, but there was a sudden realisation this week that driving in Alcudia is not the nightmare it once was in August. And I'm talking perhaps ten years ago. This may reflect the level of all-inclusive in the resort, but traffic most certainly isn't determined by in-resort circumstances alone. Moreover, there is all the additional residential tourism that has sprung up. None of that is all-inclusive and much of it requires a car.
Along the bay from Alcudia is the beach of Es Comú, a long stretch of rustic beach in Playa de Muro. It's somewhere else I know, unlike some. There was a time when even on Sundays it wouldn't be especially busy. It is now. The conclusion drawn is that this is because of saturation, with tourists to blame. Yes, there are tourists, but for the most part the beachgoers are residents of the island. They started going to Es Comú because word of the beach was spread by social media (Trip Advisor included) and also by the Balearic government on its beaches website.
We now have the government's environment ministry wanting to create a minibus shuttle service for the beach. There's nothing wrong with the idea, other than its practicality. Furthermore, does the ministry's director-general for biodiversity really have any idea about Es Comú's circumstances or indeed those of other beaches she wishes to be served by minibuses? One of the others is Sa Calobra. Where would you put a car park to allow a park and ride system?
That beach was highlighted earlier this week by a group which wants to "save" the Tramuntana. This group appears not to want anyone going anywhere near the mountains. The photo it posted for the Torrent de Pareis showed a number of beachgoers along with a howling complaint of saturation. Yes, people on a beach. Who would ever have thought? But hardly packed to the gunwales. And guess what? Social media and the government have been talking lovingly about Sa Calobra in recent years.
Then there was Palma's deputy mayor, Aurora Jhardi, going on about Mallorca (as well as Palma) collapsing under the strain of all the tourists. Time to "minimise" the damage, she insisted. She's welcome to her opinion, but what does she know about Mallorca beyond Palma?
Herein lies the rub, and the greater realisation that occurred to me this week. The "Palmarati". This is the class that chatters endlessly about cruise ships this or that, which for the rest of Mallorca is mostly by the bye. Yet lo and behold, we found, thanks to figures from the State Ports, that cruise passenger numbers for the half year were in fact down on last year. Remember those 22,000 who had invaded back in May and who were used as evidence of the collapse of Palma? Always Palma, and always Palma sounding off and reckoning it knows all and knows best for the island's resorts. Yet, we have a tourism ministry and government that can see no further, for political reasons, than Magalluf and Playa de Palma. Cala Millor, Cala Ratjada, Can Picafort and others: who are you? who are you?
This isn't to minimise the potential negative impacts, of which water is the most obvious. Tourists in their apparently saturating numbers do use a hell of a lot of water, which is why I made the moral case, long before the tourist tax was even being considered, for a tax to be directed at vital resources. But tourists aren't to blame for the water shortage. The climate is, plus a lack of planning. The water crisis, though, has become a useful tool for the Palmarati (the governmental brand in particular) in its propaganda.
Biel Barceló, bless him, seems a sincere enough chap. He wants sustainability of tourism. Who doesn't? It's a non-discussion in some respects, but debating limits and future models of tourism will get nowhere when the argumentation is skewed by one side's propaganda, only to then be refuted by the other side's, and which is the domain of competing political parties, business interests and above all the Palmarati.
Friday, August 19, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 19 August 2016
Morning high (6.24am): 21.7C
Forecast high: 29C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 20 August - Sun, cloud, 30C; 21 August - Sun, 26C; 22 August - Sun, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 2 to 4 backing East 2 to 4 at midday.
Probably not the highs of the mid-30s like yesterday, but still warm enough. Saturday now looking a bit cloudy, especially in the afternoon.
Evening update (20.30): Well, didn't quite match yesterday's high. Only 34.2C (inland).
Forecast high: 29C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 20 August - Sun, cloud, 30C; 21 August - Sun, 26C; 22 August - Sun, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 2 to 4 backing East 2 to 4 at midday.
Probably not the highs of the mid-30s like yesterday, but still warm enough. Saturday now looking a bit cloudy, especially in the afternoon.
Evening update (20.30): Well, didn't quite match yesterday's high. Only 34.2C (inland).
Colours Of Love: Holi Festivals
A few days ago I wrote about the satisfyingly weird fiesta for the Much in Sineu, an occasion when, amidst its bizarre elements such as invoking the mythical bull of that name, the thousands of attendees are invited to wear pink.
Dress code in terms of colour instruction for fiesta occasions has rarely gone beyond requirements to be in all white. There are various "white parties", one of the most notable if not the most notable being Pollensa's nighttime "marxa fresca". The whiteness for this party has its historical association: white being the colour of the clothing of the Christians doing battle with the Moors that is typically re-enacted a couple of days after the marxa fresca. They, the Moors, are by contrast portrayed as multi-coloured. Face paint and costumes, they bring flavours of the east to a fiesta occasion, the colours hinting at some form of devilment against the pureness of the white Christians.
Whiteness has thus tended to dominate, but the ever-changing nature of fiestas has disrupted this neutrality. Enter, therefore, and from somewhere further east than the Turkish centre of the Ottoman Empire, the Holi festival of India. Want colours? You've got them. Whole swatches are to be found at Holi happenings, powders thrown into the air and at each other. Several hundred or more Holi pilgrims might enter all in white but they exit as perambulating kaleidoscopes.
What is it with the Holi festival? It has suddenly become the new foam party. Indeed for real out and out colorific mess, the two can combine. Foam meets powder meets several hours under a shower and heavy demands made on washing-machines and town halls' street-cleaning services.
For the uninitiated, an explanation is probably required. The Holi is a Hindu spring festival. It is also known as the festival of colours or the festival of sharing love. Its origins may well go back to the fourth century AD, and the word "holi" is derived from "Holika", the evil sister of the demon king Hiranyakashipu. The tale of Holika and the fact that there is also a Holika bonfire as part of this ancient tradition provide a perhaps unexpected association with Mallorca: one via legends of fire and demons common to the two cultures.
Nice though this association can appear, it doesn't really explain why Holi festivals have become as ubiquitous as they have. Consult programmes for the island's fiestas (and not only the fiestas), and you will appreciate that there are times when you can barely move in Mallorca without being at risk of ending up looking like the incarnation of a psychedelic acid trip or indeed a poster for psychedelia circa the Summer of Love (the earlier one of the two, i.e. 1967's). There again, this would not be inappropriate, given the alternative title of Holi - sharing love.
So, is it all a bit hippy-dippy? Almost certainly it is. Hippy-dippy plus a bit of trippy in a contemporary style, albeit that chemical assistance is not required or indeed advocated. But anything with Indian origins is almost by definition hippy-dippy. Perhaps one of the odder aspects of Holi is that Lennon, McCartney, Harrison (especially Harrison), Starr and the various other one-time followers of the Maharishi didn't latch on to Holi and import it around the time of the Summer of Love.
The export of Holi had to do with the Indian diaspora. Hence it started to take hold in various parts of the globe, but its arrival in Mallorca would appear to be only very recent. From what I can ascertain the inaugural launch of Holi colours was just over two years ago, and its location was just off the old main road that links Can Picafort and Muro, specifically at the club La Roca.
Two promoters - Mallorca Research and Stravaganza - got together in staging the first ever Holi festival and dubbed the event Island Holi Festival. Since then, it hasn't so much snowballed as colourballed. Palma has had two mega holis in the Parc de la Mar and in May this year the city's Plaça Major was given a colour makeover. More than two thousand people crammed into the square in pursuit of becoming colourful.
At the recent Can Picafort fiestas, they had a Holi festival party that was described as the "most famous" on the island. As La Roca isn't far away, then it was probably fair to say it was the most famous, but in order for it to be given that accolade there had to be a fair selection to choose from. Which there most certainly is. No part of Mallorca has remained immune to the colours' takeover.
Other imported fiesta innovations, such as the batucada drummers, took some time to become all-pervasive. Holi colours have required only two years. Mallorca has become the colours of love.
Dress code in terms of colour instruction for fiesta occasions has rarely gone beyond requirements to be in all white. There are various "white parties", one of the most notable if not the most notable being Pollensa's nighttime "marxa fresca". The whiteness for this party has its historical association: white being the colour of the clothing of the Christians doing battle with the Moors that is typically re-enacted a couple of days after the marxa fresca. They, the Moors, are by contrast portrayed as multi-coloured. Face paint and costumes, they bring flavours of the east to a fiesta occasion, the colours hinting at some form of devilment against the pureness of the white Christians.
Whiteness has thus tended to dominate, but the ever-changing nature of fiestas has disrupted this neutrality. Enter, therefore, and from somewhere further east than the Turkish centre of the Ottoman Empire, the Holi festival of India. Want colours? You've got them. Whole swatches are to be found at Holi happenings, powders thrown into the air and at each other. Several hundred or more Holi pilgrims might enter all in white but they exit as perambulating kaleidoscopes.
What is it with the Holi festival? It has suddenly become the new foam party. Indeed for real out and out colorific mess, the two can combine. Foam meets powder meets several hours under a shower and heavy demands made on washing-machines and town halls' street-cleaning services.
For the uninitiated, an explanation is probably required. The Holi is a Hindu spring festival. It is also known as the festival of colours or the festival of sharing love. Its origins may well go back to the fourth century AD, and the word "holi" is derived from "Holika", the evil sister of the demon king Hiranyakashipu. The tale of Holika and the fact that there is also a Holika bonfire as part of this ancient tradition provide a perhaps unexpected association with Mallorca: one via legends of fire and demons common to the two cultures.
Nice though this association can appear, it doesn't really explain why Holi festivals have become as ubiquitous as they have. Consult programmes for the island's fiestas (and not only the fiestas), and you will appreciate that there are times when you can barely move in Mallorca without being at risk of ending up looking like the incarnation of a psychedelic acid trip or indeed a poster for psychedelia circa the Summer of Love (the earlier one of the two, i.e. 1967's). There again, this would not be inappropriate, given the alternative title of Holi - sharing love.
So, is it all a bit hippy-dippy? Almost certainly it is. Hippy-dippy plus a bit of trippy in a contemporary style, albeit that chemical assistance is not required or indeed advocated. But anything with Indian origins is almost by definition hippy-dippy. Perhaps one of the odder aspects of Holi is that Lennon, McCartney, Harrison (especially Harrison), Starr and the various other one-time followers of the Maharishi didn't latch on to Holi and import it around the time of the Summer of Love.
The export of Holi had to do with the Indian diaspora. Hence it started to take hold in various parts of the globe, but its arrival in Mallorca would appear to be only very recent. From what I can ascertain the inaugural launch of Holi colours was just over two years ago, and its location was just off the old main road that links Can Picafort and Muro, specifically at the club La Roca.
Two promoters - Mallorca Research and Stravaganza - got together in staging the first ever Holi festival and dubbed the event Island Holi Festival. Since then, it hasn't so much snowballed as colourballed. Palma has had two mega holis in the Parc de la Mar and in May this year the city's Plaça Major was given a colour makeover. More than two thousand people crammed into the square in pursuit of becoming colourful.
At the recent Can Picafort fiestas, they had a Holi festival party that was described as the "most famous" on the island. As La Roca isn't far away, then it was probably fair to say it was the most famous, but in order for it to be given that accolade there had to be a fair selection to choose from. Which there most certainly is. No part of Mallorca has remained immune to the colours' takeover.
Other imported fiesta innovations, such as the batucada drummers, took some time to become all-pervasive. Holi colours have required only two years. Mallorca has become the colours of love.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 18 August 2016
Morning high (6.12am): 22.1C
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 19 August - Sun, 29C; 20 August - Sun, 28C; 21 August - Sun, 26C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 2 to 4 occasionally Southwest 2 to 3.
Possibly cloudy at times today - the forecast had suggested as such though now it seems to have changed its mind. Outlook for the weekend looking good.
Evening update (19.00): High of 35.3C.
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 19 August - Sun, 29C; 20 August - Sun, 28C; 21 August - Sun, 26C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 2 to 4 occasionally Southwest 2 to 3.
Possibly cloudy at times today - the forecast had suggested as such though now it seems to have changed its mind. Outlook for the weekend looking good.
Evening update (19.00): High of 35.3C.
In Search Of Mallorcan Nationalism
Més are starting a great debate. Another great debate. Coming hard on the heels of the great debate on tourist numbers and the notion of sustainability comes one even closer to the hearts of Més: nationalism.
As observed with the tourist numbers debate, timing is everything. That one was launched a year to the day that the Balearics registered a combined population of more than two million for the first time. The timing for this second debate has a different context. There is little happening politically in the Balearics because of the holidays. In which case, why not fill the void with the opening exchanges of a great political debate?
One also suspects that the timing has everything to do with events towards the end of June. The general election took place getting on for two months ago. There will have been sufficient time to come up with a response and to start the process for the next election (not, with any luck, another general election but the regional election in 2019).
The June election was a chastening experience for Més. The party decided to form an electoral alliance with Podemos (and the far less relevant United Left). This was a fraught alliance. Podemos, the far stronger of the two in terms of votes at the December election, insisted on filling the top three positions on the "list". The anticipation was that the number of seats in Congress would increase from the Podemos two to three. Més, not represented in Congress, felt hard done by. In the end, Podemos relented. The Més man, Antoni Verger, could be number three (if only for two years out of the four of the legislature). It made no difference. They still only won two seats.
In theory the alliance made sense. Based on December's poll, there would have been a combined vote of over 150,000 (around 40,000 more than Podemos on its own had secured in December). It would have been sufficient to have guaranteed a third seat in Congress. The practice was different. The combined total rose by only 6,000. It was impossible to say where voter sympathies lay, but a crude conclusion was that Més had seen its almost 34,000 votes in December wiped away.
There was some justification in drawing this conclusion. A new grouping (SI) had been formed shortly before the election. Its key theme was sovereignty for the Balearics. With increased support for the animal-rights party (which is hard to distinguish from other left-wing groups), inroads were made into the Més vote. SI made much of the fact that had Més not made an alliance with Podemos, it would never have been formed. It objected to an ostensibly Mallorcan (Balearic) left-wing nationalist party sharing a platform with a party (Podemos) created from intellectual circles in Madrid. Its message unquestionably had an impact.
This is the background therefore to why Més are starting the nationalism debate. They badly need to regain some lost credibility.
The basis for this debate is a document entitled "A draft for country: National construction in the Balearic Islands" - the use of the word country (país) is instructive in this regard. A symposium, based on contributions, is due to be held some time next year.
The questions being addressed are fairly open. One asks what the role is of nationalist parties and what it should be. Others refer to associations with Catalonia and the "Catalan nation" and to the impact of globalisation and immigration on nationalist ambitions. A further one is perhaps the most revealing. "Have we idealised our history?"
One answer to this question would be that they most certainly have. It would be a response largely from the right-wing, though not exclusively. To give an example, there are elements within Podemos which are supportive of a Catalonian referendum on independence, but they support this not for nationalist reasons but because of a principle of self-determination. It is the latter which guides their thinking more than nationalism per se.
In a way, the debate that Més want might seem curious. Is it evidence of a party seeking justification, of a party wanting to find out what (and who) it represents? Is it looking for some reassurance after that election result, some confirmation that it speaks for a significant constituency in Mallorca and the Balearics? To come to the question about an "idealised history", does the narrative of victimisation at the hands of, for example, the Bourbons three hundred years ago really carry great weight with contemporary society?
There has been precious little evidence of any groundswell of agitation for greater sovereignty. There is plenty of evidence that points to support for regionalism, and this is a very different issue. It is one that promotes regional identity and regional interests and owes little to thoughts of nationalism. It is one which dominates Balearic political and societal philosophies.
As observed with the tourist numbers debate, timing is everything. That one was launched a year to the day that the Balearics registered a combined population of more than two million for the first time. The timing for this second debate has a different context. There is little happening politically in the Balearics because of the holidays. In which case, why not fill the void with the opening exchanges of a great political debate?
One also suspects that the timing has everything to do with events towards the end of June. The general election took place getting on for two months ago. There will have been sufficient time to come up with a response and to start the process for the next election (not, with any luck, another general election but the regional election in 2019).
The June election was a chastening experience for Més. The party decided to form an electoral alliance with Podemos (and the far less relevant United Left). This was a fraught alliance. Podemos, the far stronger of the two in terms of votes at the December election, insisted on filling the top three positions on the "list". The anticipation was that the number of seats in Congress would increase from the Podemos two to three. Més, not represented in Congress, felt hard done by. In the end, Podemos relented. The Més man, Antoni Verger, could be number three (if only for two years out of the four of the legislature). It made no difference. They still only won two seats.
In theory the alliance made sense. Based on December's poll, there would have been a combined vote of over 150,000 (around 40,000 more than Podemos on its own had secured in December). It would have been sufficient to have guaranteed a third seat in Congress. The practice was different. The combined total rose by only 6,000. It was impossible to say where voter sympathies lay, but a crude conclusion was that Més had seen its almost 34,000 votes in December wiped away.
There was some justification in drawing this conclusion. A new grouping (SI) had been formed shortly before the election. Its key theme was sovereignty for the Balearics. With increased support for the animal-rights party (which is hard to distinguish from other left-wing groups), inroads were made into the Més vote. SI made much of the fact that had Més not made an alliance with Podemos, it would never have been formed. It objected to an ostensibly Mallorcan (Balearic) left-wing nationalist party sharing a platform with a party (Podemos) created from intellectual circles in Madrid. Its message unquestionably had an impact.
This is the background therefore to why Més are starting the nationalism debate. They badly need to regain some lost credibility.
The basis for this debate is a document entitled "A draft for country: National construction in the Balearic Islands" - the use of the word country (país) is instructive in this regard. A symposium, based on contributions, is due to be held some time next year.
The questions being addressed are fairly open. One asks what the role is of nationalist parties and what it should be. Others refer to associations with Catalonia and the "Catalan nation" and to the impact of globalisation and immigration on nationalist ambitions. A further one is perhaps the most revealing. "Have we idealised our history?"
One answer to this question would be that they most certainly have. It would be a response largely from the right-wing, though not exclusively. To give an example, there are elements within Podemos which are supportive of a Catalonian referendum on independence, but they support this not for nationalist reasons but because of a principle of self-determination. It is the latter which guides their thinking more than nationalism per se.
In a way, the debate that Més want might seem curious. Is it evidence of a party seeking justification, of a party wanting to find out what (and who) it represents? Is it looking for some reassurance after that election result, some confirmation that it speaks for a significant constituency in Mallorca and the Balearics? To come to the question about an "idealised history", does the narrative of victimisation at the hands of, for example, the Bourbons three hundred years ago really carry great weight with contemporary society?
There has been precious little evidence of any groundswell of agitation for greater sovereignty. There is plenty of evidence that points to support for regionalism, and this is a very different issue. It is one that promotes regional identity and regional interests and owes little to thoughts of nationalism. It is one which dominates Balearic political and societal philosophies.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 17 August 2016
Morning high (5.26am): 18.4C
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 18 August - Sun, 32C; 19 August - Sun, cloud, 31C; 20 August - Sun, cloud, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 increasing North-Northeast 2 to 4 in the afternoon.
Well, let's see if it's right today. There is no rain forecast. Everything looks fine - today and into next week.
Evening update (20.15): High of 33.2C. Got cloudy later on and quite windy.
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 18 August - Sun, 32C; 19 August - Sun, cloud, 31C; 20 August - Sun, cloud, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 increasing North-Northeast 2 to 4 in the afternoon.
Well, let's see if it's right today. There is no rain forecast. Everything looks fine - today and into next week.
Evening update (20.15): High of 33.2C. Got cloudy later on and quite windy.
The High Summer Of Saturation
It's the ducks which do it of course: the ducks and Pep Guardiola. The Manchester City supremo may be a Premier League virgin, but he'll do as a representative. The football season returned not so much with a bang but with the bank vault having been blasted open with a nuclear device and a vast mushroom cloud of cash obliterating the summer skies as the wads rained down on agents and their eager clients. What madness it is. As someone said, money, where English football is concerned, has ceased to have any value.
Curiously, the great stakeholder base, which could once afford a speck on the terraces, remains intact but now scrapes its pennies together in order to pay its tithes to the Murdoch empire and the bastard descendant of Maggie's privatisation of the spun-off telecommunications wing of the Post Office. Fans howl for millions more to be spent in pursuit of a grand marketing masterplan. When money loses its value, the money is meaningless. It's like Monopoly, only million times greater.
This is just as well. The bars (British) of Mallorca count the days until the new season starts. And so it did start, as it always does right around the time that summer begins to splutter before hurtling into its tailspin. This might also seem curious, as high summer is still here, but it's the ducks (as well as the Premier League) which suggest otherwise.
The day of Assumption, 15 August, marks the swim for the ducks of Can Picafort and summer's peak. No doubt the occupancy numbers will remain close to maximum, but once the peak has been reached, there's no mistaking the signs of summer in descent. Slow at first, and then suddenly it's gone. Again.
And as it makes its descent, what will there be to debate? With almost total certainty we know that Mallorca's saturation point of last mid-August will have been surpassed this mid-August. If it hasn't been, then politicians will be disappointed. A point of argumentation will have been undermined.
But what is this saturation? Is it a state of mind rather than wholly physical? What constitutes saturation? The government is hiring experts to explain all. To what end? Will there be controllers at Son Sant Joan with counters which, when they reach a predetermined number, will trigger the raising of barriers? Mallorca's full. Go home.
This saturation does of course bring with it riches and wealth. More riches and wealth. We should be grateful that it does. Shouldn't we? But the riches are often meaningless. They find their way into the investment portfolios of some of Spain's wealthiest individuals. Pickings for others are meanwhile slim ones, sufficient to enable a reasonable winter return on the dole, but slim nonetheless. Unlike football, alienation of the stakeholder base has existed over time. It howls for more money of its own, not for meaningless amounts to be spent on fantasies and the fantastic.
Saturation is not egalitarian. But then tourism never has been. Oh, an original philosophy where the tourist was concerned was predicated on an ideal of equal rights to a foreign holiday (the philosophy of Horizon's Vladimir Raitz anyway). But the equal distribution of wealth has never been part of the equation: only the generation of wealth.
The government would like there to be greater distribution. It may succeed, but will this turn back the tide of negativity, for which saturation is now a chief conspirator? By its very narratives, the government has fostered negativity. It demands that there is now sustainable tourism. Logically this means that tourism, as it is, is unsustainable. Meaning what exactly? Just as saturation has not been defined or quantified, so sustainability is not qualified. Saturation and non-sustainability are thus states of mind, allowed to enter society's consciousness and to become accepted wisdoms.
As part of its sustainability message, the government wishes to now inform the public about the value of tourism. Yet it has allowed a perception of lack of value to take hold, one to be addressed fiscally with a tax. Its mantras include that of "quality", the indefinable platitude that is sustainability's fellow traveller on the way to non-saturation.
So as summer starts its descent, the saturation will lessen. There will still be the Palma-centric obsessing with cruise passengers, a class of saturators divorced from the rest of the island, but otherwise the numbers will fall, just as fall comes round until finally the question is asked: where did everyone go? If only some thousands of summer visitors could be magically moved to November or December. If only ... .
And then, as thoughts begin to turn to next summer, there will be the other saturation. Cyclists. Keys to sustainability and tackling seasonality but the objects of venom. What does this island want? Does it know? And come next August high summer, nothing will have changed. Let's play Monopoly.
Curiously, the great stakeholder base, which could once afford a speck on the terraces, remains intact but now scrapes its pennies together in order to pay its tithes to the Murdoch empire and the bastard descendant of Maggie's privatisation of the spun-off telecommunications wing of the Post Office. Fans howl for millions more to be spent in pursuit of a grand marketing masterplan. When money loses its value, the money is meaningless. It's like Monopoly, only million times greater.
This is just as well. The bars (British) of Mallorca count the days until the new season starts. And so it did start, as it always does right around the time that summer begins to splutter before hurtling into its tailspin. This might also seem curious, as high summer is still here, but it's the ducks (as well as the Premier League) which suggest otherwise.
The day of Assumption, 15 August, marks the swim for the ducks of Can Picafort and summer's peak. No doubt the occupancy numbers will remain close to maximum, but once the peak has been reached, there's no mistaking the signs of summer in descent. Slow at first, and then suddenly it's gone. Again.
And as it makes its descent, what will there be to debate? With almost total certainty we know that Mallorca's saturation point of last mid-August will have been surpassed this mid-August. If it hasn't been, then politicians will be disappointed. A point of argumentation will have been undermined.
But what is this saturation? Is it a state of mind rather than wholly physical? What constitutes saturation? The government is hiring experts to explain all. To what end? Will there be controllers at Son Sant Joan with counters which, when they reach a predetermined number, will trigger the raising of barriers? Mallorca's full. Go home.
This saturation does of course bring with it riches and wealth. More riches and wealth. We should be grateful that it does. Shouldn't we? But the riches are often meaningless. They find their way into the investment portfolios of some of Spain's wealthiest individuals. Pickings for others are meanwhile slim ones, sufficient to enable a reasonable winter return on the dole, but slim nonetheless. Unlike football, alienation of the stakeholder base has existed over time. It howls for more money of its own, not for meaningless amounts to be spent on fantasies and the fantastic.
Saturation is not egalitarian. But then tourism never has been. Oh, an original philosophy where the tourist was concerned was predicated on an ideal of equal rights to a foreign holiday (the philosophy of Horizon's Vladimir Raitz anyway). But the equal distribution of wealth has never been part of the equation: only the generation of wealth.
The government would like there to be greater distribution. It may succeed, but will this turn back the tide of negativity, for which saturation is now a chief conspirator? By its very narratives, the government has fostered negativity. It demands that there is now sustainable tourism. Logically this means that tourism, as it is, is unsustainable. Meaning what exactly? Just as saturation has not been defined or quantified, so sustainability is not qualified. Saturation and non-sustainability are thus states of mind, allowed to enter society's consciousness and to become accepted wisdoms.
As part of its sustainability message, the government wishes to now inform the public about the value of tourism. Yet it has allowed a perception of lack of value to take hold, one to be addressed fiscally with a tax. Its mantras include that of "quality", the indefinable platitude that is sustainability's fellow traveller on the way to non-saturation.
So as summer starts its descent, the saturation will lessen. There will still be the Palma-centric obsessing with cruise passengers, a class of saturators divorced from the rest of the island, but otherwise the numbers will fall, just as fall comes round until finally the question is asked: where did everyone go? If only some thousands of summer visitors could be magically moved to November or December. If only ... .
And then, as thoughts begin to turn to next summer, there will be the other saturation. Cyclists. Keys to sustainability and tackling seasonality but the objects of venom. What does this island want? Does it know? And come next August high summer, nothing will have changed. Let's play Monopoly.
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 16 August 2016
Morning high (5.45am): 21C
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 17 August - Sun, cloud, 31C; 18 August - Sun, cloud, 32C; 19 August - Sun, cloud, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 3 occasionally 4 veering West 2 to 3 in the afternoon.
A fairly cloudy morning forecast, improving later.
Evening update (20.15): Well, it didn't improve. Cloudy all day - not what had been forecast, nor was the rain (of which there was only little - spots really). High of 26.8C.
Forecast high: 30C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 17 August - Sun, cloud, 31C; 18 August - Sun, cloud, 32C; 19 August - Sun, cloud, 28C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 3 occasionally 4 veering West 2 to 3 in the afternoon.
A fairly cloudy morning forecast, improving later.
Evening update (20.15): Well, it didn't improve. Cloudy all day - not what had been forecast, nor was the rain (of which there was only little - spots really). High of 26.8C.
The Language Of Tourism
Formentera is a small island. With a surface mass of some 83 square kilometres it is a little over two per cent the size of Mallorca. Because it is tiny, when there are noises about it being inundated with tourists and cars, one is intuitively inclined to accept that it is: more so than with the constant laments that Mallorca is overrun. In addition to its size, it has a disadvantage in not having an airport. Tourists mainly arrive with their cars on the ferries.
The largest tourist groups, it is said, are mainland Spanish and Italian. These tourists, of whatever nationality, are being confronted with publicity urging them to become aware of Formentera's environmental delicacy. The key aims of the campaign are the promotion of water-saving, of keeping beaches clean and of "sustainable mobility": traffic and transport.
Understandable though this is, less understandable is the fact that the campaign is being conducted in Catalan with some English. While Catalan, or at least the Formenterenc dialect, is of course common, the people who visit the island are not typically Catalan speakers (or even English speakers). Why, therefore, is there a campaign directed at tourists that's in Catalan?
Among those asking this question are Catalan speakers. They recognise that visitors will not necessarily be au fait. Use Catalan in the campaign but also use other languages, and not just English. And use one language in particular: Castellano.
The Council of Formentera is bossed by the Gent per Formentera party. This is a grouping described variously as being socialist, eco-socialist, Catalan nationalist and simply left. As such, therefore, it is inclined to butt heads with the right, i.e. the Partido Popular. The president of the PP in Formentera has described the campaign as being "one of those absurd things that our Council does".
The PP, one feels, does have a point. There again, it is, or was under Bauzá certainly, the great defender of Castellano. So, it would seem duty bound to offer an assault on the non-use of the other co-official language, just as it can now rely on the support of Ciudadanos (C's) in doing likewise.
However, there is a perceptible shift in language emphasis among the upper echelons of the PP at present. This may in part be as a means of distinguishing itself from the C's, with whom it does share some generally similar policies. Language is one; Catalan nationalism is another.
But more important is the leadership's wish to distance itself from the Bauzá era. In this regard the PP in the Balearics is basically returning to what it used to be: more sympathetic towards regionalism and so a regional identity and so also more sympathetic towards Catalan.
This is a style that helped to make the PP (and what was the forerunner of the PP from the time of regional government in 1983 until 1989 when the PP was formally founded) the dominant political power in the Balearics, a position it has never lost in the sense that it has always polled better than other parties. While the party is still led by an interim president - Miquel Vidal - when it is finally allowed to have a regional congress to elect a permanent leader, it is anticipated that the regionalist faction will win. (There was meant to have been this congress after the general election in December last year, but the indeterminate nature of the election result put that off.)
Vidal is not a contender as permanent leader. The most likely one comes from the regionalist camp - Biel Company, who was environment minister under Bauzá and who also led the revolt against Bauzá following the disastrous performance at the 2015 regional election (though the PP did still gain more seats than others). Two more of those rebels were the mayors of Campos and Santanyi, Sebastià Sagreras and Llorenç Galmés. They are now, respectively, the general-secretary and spokesperson for the PP, indicating the direction that the party has been going and is likely to continue to go.
Coming back to the Formentera affair, both have been asked why, if the PP has been critical of the Council of Formentera, their town halls have issued tourist publicity material without Castellano. This isn't wholly the case, says Galmés, pointing to dual-language use for Cala d'Or's fiestas. In Campos, there isn't much tourism from the mainland, unlike in Formentera. Both can perhaps refute any accusations of hypocrisy, but underlining situations in their respective municipalities is surely the renewed alignment with Catalan as part of a general policy reversal. In Campos, with its comparatively little tourism and greater agricultural tradition, it might be said that here is a municipality that is typical of that former PP regionalist style.
Language can so often be a determining factor in Mallorcan political success or failure. The PP leadership is not about to repeat the mistakes that Bauzá made.
The largest tourist groups, it is said, are mainland Spanish and Italian. These tourists, of whatever nationality, are being confronted with publicity urging them to become aware of Formentera's environmental delicacy. The key aims of the campaign are the promotion of water-saving, of keeping beaches clean and of "sustainable mobility": traffic and transport.
Understandable though this is, less understandable is the fact that the campaign is being conducted in Catalan with some English. While Catalan, or at least the Formenterenc dialect, is of course common, the people who visit the island are not typically Catalan speakers (or even English speakers). Why, therefore, is there a campaign directed at tourists that's in Catalan?
Among those asking this question are Catalan speakers. They recognise that visitors will not necessarily be au fait. Use Catalan in the campaign but also use other languages, and not just English. And use one language in particular: Castellano.
The Council of Formentera is bossed by the Gent per Formentera party. This is a grouping described variously as being socialist, eco-socialist, Catalan nationalist and simply left. As such, therefore, it is inclined to butt heads with the right, i.e. the Partido Popular. The president of the PP in Formentera has described the campaign as being "one of those absurd things that our Council does".
The PP, one feels, does have a point. There again, it is, or was under Bauzá certainly, the great defender of Castellano. So, it would seem duty bound to offer an assault on the non-use of the other co-official language, just as it can now rely on the support of Ciudadanos (C's) in doing likewise.
However, there is a perceptible shift in language emphasis among the upper echelons of the PP at present. This may in part be as a means of distinguishing itself from the C's, with whom it does share some generally similar policies. Language is one; Catalan nationalism is another.
But more important is the leadership's wish to distance itself from the Bauzá era. In this regard the PP in the Balearics is basically returning to what it used to be: more sympathetic towards regionalism and so a regional identity and so also more sympathetic towards Catalan.
This is a style that helped to make the PP (and what was the forerunner of the PP from the time of regional government in 1983 until 1989 when the PP was formally founded) the dominant political power in the Balearics, a position it has never lost in the sense that it has always polled better than other parties. While the party is still led by an interim president - Miquel Vidal - when it is finally allowed to have a regional congress to elect a permanent leader, it is anticipated that the regionalist faction will win. (There was meant to have been this congress after the general election in December last year, but the indeterminate nature of the election result put that off.)
Vidal is not a contender as permanent leader. The most likely one comes from the regionalist camp - Biel Company, who was environment minister under Bauzá and who also led the revolt against Bauzá following the disastrous performance at the 2015 regional election (though the PP did still gain more seats than others). Two more of those rebels were the mayors of Campos and Santanyi, Sebastià Sagreras and Llorenç Galmés. They are now, respectively, the general-secretary and spokesperson for the PP, indicating the direction that the party has been going and is likely to continue to go.
Coming back to the Formentera affair, both have been asked why, if the PP has been critical of the Council of Formentera, their town halls have issued tourist publicity material without Castellano. This isn't wholly the case, says Galmés, pointing to dual-language use for Cala d'Or's fiestas. In Campos, there isn't much tourism from the mainland, unlike in Formentera. Both can perhaps refute any accusations of hypocrisy, but underlining situations in their respective municipalities is surely the renewed alignment with Catalan as part of a general policy reversal. In Campos, with its comparatively little tourism and greater agricultural tradition, it might be said that here is a municipality that is typical of that former PP regionalist style.
Language can so often be a determining factor in Mallorcan political success or failure. The PP leadership is not about to repeat the mistakes that Bauzá made.
Monday, August 15, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 15 August 2016
Morning high (6.17am): 19.7C
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 16 August - Sun, cloud, 31C; 17 August - Sun, cloud, 31C; 18 August - Sun, cloud, 32C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 3 occasionally 4.
Not a great day for ducks, as in there's no rain and plenty of sun, the ducks being the rubber ones of today's famous duck swim of Can Picafort.
Evening update (19.45): High of 33C.
Forecast high: 31C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 16 August - Sun, cloud, 31C; 17 August - Sun, cloud, 31C; 18 August - Sun, cloud, 32C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 3 occasionally 4.
Not a great day for ducks, as in there's no rain and plenty of sun, the ducks being the rubber ones of today's famous duck swim of Can Picafort.
Evening update (19.45): High of 33C.
Saint Rock And The Plague
There are saints with whom those not generally conversant with Mallorca's Catholicism will nevertheless have heard of. Sant Pere (Saint Peter) or Sant Joan (John the Baptist) are just two fairly obvious examples. But there are other saints who are far more obscure. How many local Catholics might be fully up to speed with, for example, Santa Praxedis, let alone non-Catholic visitors? For the record, she's the patron of Petra, and as far I'm aware nowhere else celebrates her. Likewise we have the twin brother saints Abdon and Senen, for whom Inca held its summer fiestas last month.
While these saints mysteriously found their way into very local devotion and attained patronage status, there are certain others who, while barely known in non-Catholic circles, are widely honoured on the island. And one of these is Sant Roc, whose day is 16 August, which means, in fiesta terms, that there can be two days on the trot, as 15 August is the day of the Assumption.
In English he's known variously as Roch, Rocco or even Rock, while there is a Saint Rollox in Glasgow (the same saint). Be these names as they are, it is not untypical for there to be some doubt as to the authenticity of some saints, and in Roc's case he is almost certainly fictitious. Common tradition claims that he was born in Montpellier either in 1295 or 1350. Whichever it was, it doesn't really matter as the birth itself is mere legend.
It is, though, a useful one where Mallorca is concerned. Montpellier was the birthplace of the conqueror, Jaume I. Coming from the same city - allegedly - would not have done Roc's claims on Mallorcan devotion any harm whatsoever. As it is, a recent scholarly study of the saint concludes that he was historically implausible. A generally accepted view, if not by all Mallorcans, is that he was a derivation from a Sant Racus, who died more than six hundred years before the first year given for Roc's birth in Montpellier.
Whatever his origins, Roc was to acquire another very useful attribute for his saintly CV, and that was being a patron against the plague, of which there were once upon a time goodly amounts in Mallorca. The Sant Racus angle is significant here. He was a patron for protection against storms, and in the Occitan language (close to Catalan) this was "tempesta". The word for plague was and is "pesta". Roc was not only derived from Racus, his patronage was as well by a trick of language.
Given all this, it is perhaps understandable how he came to have the kind of reputation he now does, meaning fiestas in his honour in, for example, Alaro, Cala Ratjada and Porreres.
This does, nevertheless, invite a question as to why Sant Roc (or indeed some other saints) come to actually be honoured by having fiestas in their name. In Porreres, there are two patrons - John the Baptist and another Saint John, the Evangelist. Roc isn't as such a patron, yet there he is with the principal fiestas of the summer; John the Baptist gets a mass, and that's more or less it.
Might this all just be because August is a good or better time to hold a fiesta celebration? Possibly, but where Roc and Porreres are concerned, you do have to go back to his patronage of fighting the plague.
Sixty-four years ago, Porreres staged an exhibition. It was to celebrate a three hundredth anniversary. In 1652, the town had celebrated its first ever Sant Roc fiestas. And what was the reason for having done this? Yep, it was the plague.
Among the various documents, paintings, sculptures and what have you that were placed on exhibition in 1952 was a text that referred to the Reverend Rafael Barceló who three hundred years earlier had seemingly seen to it that the parish of Porreres would have a benefactor in the form of Sant Roc. This was because in that year "the intervention of the saint" freed Porreres from the plague. And there was no better way to celebrate the fact than have a fiesta.
Of course, not every saint who intervened in similar fashion to Roc ended up with grand fiestas. Even Sant Crist, Christ the Saint, can only stretch to an hour or so of procession every three years for having rid Alcudia of drought and famine. But Roc with his plague-healing ways was to secure for himself 364 years (and counting) of Porreres summer fiestas.
While these saints mysteriously found their way into very local devotion and attained patronage status, there are certain others who, while barely known in non-Catholic circles, are widely honoured on the island. And one of these is Sant Roc, whose day is 16 August, which means, in fiesta terms, that there can be two days on the trot, as 15 August is the day of the Assumption.
In English he's known variously as Roch, Rocco or even Rock, while there is a Saint Rollox in Glasgow (the same saint). Be these names as they are, it is not untypical for there to be some doubt as to the authenticity of some saints, and in Roc's case he is almost certainly fictitious. Common tradition claims that he was born in Montpellier either in 1295 or 1350. Whichever it was, it doesn't really matter as the birth itself is mere legend.
It is, though, a useful one where Mallorca is concerned. Montpellier was the birthplace of the conqueror, Jaume I. Coming from the same city - allegedly - would not have done Roc's claims on Mallorcan devotion any harm whatsoever. As it is, a recent scholarly study of the saint concludes that he was historically implausible. A generally accepted view, if not by all Mallorcans, is that he was a derivation from a Sant Racus, who died more than six hundred years before the first year given for Roc's birth in Montpellier.
Whatever his origins, Roc was to acquire another very useful attribute for his saintly CV, and that was being a patron against the plague, of which there were once upon a time goodly amounts in Mallorca. The Sant Racus angle is significant here. He was a patron for protection against storms, and in the Occitan language (close to Catalan) this was "tempesta". The word for plague was and is "pesta". Roc was not only derived from Racus, his patronage was as well by a trick of language.
Given all this, it is perhaps understandable how he came to have the kind of reputation he now does, meaning fiestas in his honour in, for example, Alaro, Cala Ratjada and Porreres.
This does, nevertheless, invite a question as to why Sant Roc (or indeed some other saints) come to actually be honoured by having fiestas in their name. In Porreres, there are two patrons - John the Baptist and another Saint John, the Evangelist. Roc isn't as such a patron, yet there he is with the principal fiestas of the summer; John the Baptist gets a mass, and that's more or less it.
Might this all just be because August is a good or better time to hold a fiesta celebration? Possibly, but where Roc and Porreres are concerned, you do have to go back to his patronage of fighting the plague.
Sixty-four years ago, Porreres staged an exhibition. It was to celebrate a three hundredth anniversary. In 1652, the town had celebrated its first ever Sant Roc fiestas. And what was the reason for having done this? Yep, it was the plague.
Among the various documents, paintings, sculptures and what have you that were placed on exhibition in 1952 was a text that referred to the Reverend Rafael Barceló who three hundred years earlier had seemingly seen to it that the parish of Porreres would have a benefactor in the form of Sant Roc. This was because in that year "the intervention of the saint" freed Porreres from the plague. And there was no better way to celebrate the fact than have a fiesta.
Of course, not every saint who intervened in similar fashion to Roc ended up with grand fiestas. Even Sant Crist, Christ the Saint, can only stretch to an hour or so of procession every three years for having rid Alcudia of drought and famine. But Roc with his plague-healing ways was to secure for himself 364 years (and counting) of Porreres summer fiestas.
Sunday, August 14, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 August 2016
Morning high (6.00am): 20.1C
Forecast high: 28C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 15 August - Sun, 29C; 16 August - Sun, cloud, 30C; 17 August - Sun, 31C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 3 occasionally Northeast 4 in the afternoon.
Looking decent enough for today. Forecast for later in the week suggesting there'll be a potential heatwave or at least higher temperatures for a few days.
Evening update (19.00): High of 31.5C.
Forecast high: 28C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 15 August - Sun, 29C; 16 August - Sun, cloud, 30C; 17 August - Sun, 31C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 3 occasionally Northeast 4 in the afternoon.
Looking decent enough for today. Forecast for later in the week suggesting there'll be a potential heatwave or at least higher temperatures for a few days.
Evening update (19.00): High of 31.5C.
Més Clean Up The Mess
Bravo for the Mésites. Where would we be, where would Palma in particular be without them? And if we weren't aware, then we could always find out from the leaflet they produced last week telling us how Messianic they have been. Miracles have been performed. The Mésites have cast their spells. Wizards of eco-ism and of nationalism, Palma has variously been made more transparent, more open to culture, more participative, greener, cleaner and sustainable. And all because of Més.
If nothing else, this self-tribute does rather confirm what Marga Duran of the PP has suggested: that there are separate governments in Palma. The spells have been weaved not with the aid of Som Palma (aka Podemos) or, Heaven forbid, PSOE, but by the Mésites alone. Not that this is altogether surprising. Més do after all have the mayor of Palma in their ranks. Yes, Smiler might have the title (for now), but everyone knows that Noggin's the boss. In years to come, Alcover's folk tales of ye olde Mallorca will be replaced by the sagas of Noggin the Nog, the mayor of Palma with his Lego who single-handedly remodelled the model of Palma. Antoni Noguera, (second deputy) mayor for the Model of the City, who endowed the city with the Hanging Gardens of the Marivent, temples like Artemis, and statues to great Gods such as Zeus, retitled Noggin.
But if one looks closely, are these miracles all they seem? Take being cleaner, for example. City cleanliness is the bailiwick of Neus Truyol (truly a Mésite). Neus is fifth deputy mayor of Palma. There are seemingly several hundred deputy mayors in Palma, and there will probably be more once "more participative" means allowing non-elected citizens to have the title as well. But as fifth in line to Smiler's throne, Neus is also president of Emaya, the multi-municipal agency that looks after everything from reservoirs in the Tramuntana without a great deal of water, to scrubbing unpleasant slogans about tourists off walls of protected buildings in the city centre, and to collecting mattresses that have been dumped on the streets.
It's a sizable responsibility for someone whose Wikipedia page suggests is, other than being fifth deputy mayor, gainfully occupied as a "sociologist". As fifth deputy she also has the onerous task of looking after Palma's agriculture, something that you might have missed when last shopping at El Corte Inglés. Perhaps one day she will decree that the peasants of the outer reaches of the city can drive their herds along the Born. That would be one way of getting rid of the terraces, though whether Emaya would have enough personnel and machinery to clean up the mess would be doubtful.
Which brings us to the flak that Neus has been copping about the state of Palma's streets. There is the particular issue of what we are led to believe are huge mountains of discarded mattresses, rusting washing-machines, baths, sinks, toilets, sofas, wardrobes and entire kitchens littering the streets and thus impeding the free movement of the citizens and the farmers with their beef herds. This is all due to the change to the household junk system that Neus decided was a good idea. She still does think it's a good idea. Unlike mostly anyone else.
So, have Més cleaned up the mess and made Palma cleaner or have they not? There can be only one way to find out, and that would be to hold a referendum. "More participative", so let the citizens decide. Oh, maybe they will. Under three years to go to the next election.
If nothing else, this self-tribute does rather confirm what Marga Duran of the PP has suggested: that there are separate governments in Palma. The spells have been weaved not with the aid of Som Palma (aka Podemos) or, Heaven forbid, PSOE, but by the Mésites alone. Not that this is altogether surprising. Més do after all have the mayor of Palma in their ranks. Yes, Smiler might have the title (for now), but everyone knows that Noggin's the boss. In years to come, Alcover's folk tales of ye olde Mallorca will be replaced by the sagas of Noggin the Nog, the mayor of Palma with his Lego who single-handedly remodelled the model of Palma. Antoni Noguera, (second deputy) mayor for the Model of the City, who endowed the city with the Hanging Gardens of the Marivent, temples like Artemis, and statues to great Gods such as Zeus, retitled Noggin.
But if one looks closely, are these miracles all they seem? Take being cleaner, for example. City cleanliness is the bailiwick of Neus Truyol (truly a Mésite). Neus is fifth deputy mayor of Palma. There are seemingly several hundred deputy mayors in Palma, and there will probably be more once "more participative" means allowing non-elected citizens to have the title as well. But as fifth in line to Smiler's throne, Neus is also president of Emaya, the multi-municipal agency that looks after everything from reservoirs in the Tramuntana without a great deal of water, to scrubbing unpleasant slogans about tourists off walls of protected buildings in the city centre, and to collecting mattresses that have been dumped on the streets.
It's a sizable responsibility for someone whose Wikipedia page suggests is, other than being fifth deputy mayor, gainfully occupied as a "sociologist". As fifth deputy she also has the onerous task of looking after Palma's agriculture, something that you might have missed when last shopping at El Corte Inglés. Perhaps one day she will decree that the peasants of the outer reaches of the city can drive their herds along the Born. That would be one way of getting rid of the terraces, though whether Emaya would have enough personnel and machinery to clean up the mess would be doubtful.
Which brings us to the flak that Neus has been copping about the state of Palma's streets. There is the particular issue of what we are led to believe are huge mountains of discarded mattresses, rusting washing-machines, baths, sinks, toilets, sofas, wardrobes and entire kitchens littering the streets and thus impeding the free movement of the citizens and the farmers with their beef herds. This is all due to the change to the household junk system that Neus decided was a good idea. She still does think it's a good idea. Unlike mostly anyone else.
So, have Més cleaned up the mess and made Palma cleaner or have they not? There can be only one way to find out, and that would be to hold a referendum. "More participative", so let the citizens decide. Oh, maybe they will. Under three years to go to the next election.
Saturday, August 13, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 August 2016
Morning high (6.54am): 21.2C
Forecast high: 28C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 14 August - Sun, 28C; 15 August - Sun, cloud, 30C; 16 August - Sun, 30C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 2 to 3.
Patches of cloud early on. Should be sunny enough. Breezes lighter and switched to easterly.
Evening update (20.00): High of 29.9C.
Forecast high: 28C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 14 August - Sun, 28C; 15 August - Sun, cloud, 30C; 16 August - Sun, 30C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 2 to 3.
Patches of cloud early on. Should be sunny enough. Breezes lighter and switched to easterly.
Evening update (20.00): High of 29.9C.
Accommodation Regulation: The Devil's Own Job
Biel Barceló has again been talking about limits being placed on the number of tourist places. He was doing so in the context of the launch of the campaign to make Balearic residents understand what sustainable tourism is all about (a useful exercise, it must be said) and to sensitise these same residents to the value of tourism and tourists (even more useful).
The timing of the launch of this campaign and the talk of limits is surely no coincidence. Although the figure is not usually given for several months, there will at some point be an announcement as to the day in high summer when the total population of the Balearics (residents, tourists and any others) was at its peak. The day is always around this time in August. On the tenth of the month last year, the figure topped the two million mark for the first time.
The tourism minister mainly has holiday rentals in his sights. Hotel places, though not totally subject to a ceiling, cannot increase significantly without there being permissive regulation. The "saturation" to which Barceló and others regularly refer stems from the non-hotel sector. He says that when regulation comes along it will not be "total prohibition". The choice of words can seem a little odd. While he implies that there has been such prohibition until now and that it hasn't solved anything (which is true), it has never been total. The prohibition has been for the open marketing of apartments as holiday accommodation and so for the registration of apartments to be advertised as holiday, tourist or vacation rental.
The Barceló remedy will be to legalise some of these apartments (it's easier to talk in terms of legalise, as regulate can be taken different ways). But certainly not all. There is to be no carte blanche for anyone to commercialise an apartment for tourist rental. And nor should there be.
But he has the devil's own job in drawing up this legislation. Apart from the market dynamics, such as with the online accommodation providers, there are the institutional issues in the Balearics. These are the varying responsibilities for tourism organisation and urban planning, ones that reside with island councils and town halls.
There is the possibility that whatever parameters the government seeks to establish for private tourist accommodation, the actual implementation of regulation will not be universal. For example, the councils of Ibiza and Formentera will be loathe to allow greater permissiveness. In Menorca, there may be greater willingness. The council there attempted to get the previous government to relax regulations, a plea that was ignored when it came to drafting the 2012 tourism law. As for Mallorca, the council has yet to assume full responsibilities for tourism, so no one can tell.
At town hall level there will be different needs. As yet, however, it would seem the government is not engaging in active discussions as to what these might be. Councillors in Alcudia and Pollensa have told me that they don't really know what Barceló has in mind. If the new law on holiday rentals is indeed to be ready for parliament before the end of the year, then the government needs to get a move on and consult.
The talk has been that there will be a system of zoning, with apartment rentals capable of being legitimately marketed for holiday purposes in some areas and not others. It sounds like a recipe for legal challenge, while even within the zones there is the not insignificant issue of how communities react. The government, stressing the need for "coexistence" and therefore hinting at community administrators vetoing holiday rentals, has nevertheless admitted that such vetoes may well not stand up in court.
But whatever the government decides, there will remain the question of enforcement. The experience in Catalonia is instructive in this regard. Although there has been greater permissiveness than the Balearics for a few years, this hasn't stemmed the supply of illegal accommodation. In seeking to combat this, the town hall in Barcelona has this week announced a system whereby neighbours can rat on others. Also this week it said that 256 properties were "closed" during July, a process enabled by a specific search engine created to detect illegal properties. Moreover, nine accommodation websites are facing sanctions.
While Barceló says that the Balearics can take no more additional tourists in high summer and he seeks legislative remedy, we can probably anticipate he'll be saying the same things about "saturation" this time next year. And the year after.
The timing of the launch of this campaign and the talk of limits is surely no coincidence. Although the figure is not usually given for several months, there will at some point be an announcement as to the day in high summer when the total population of the Balearics (residents, tourists and any others) was at its peak. The day is always around this time in August. On the tenth of the month last year, the figure topped the two million mark for the first time.
The tourism minister mainly has holiday rentals in his sights. Hotel places, though not totally subject to a ceiling, cannot increase significantly without there being permissive regulation. The "saturation" to which Barceló and others regularly refer stems from the non-hotel sector. He says that when regulation comes along it will not be "total prohibition". The choice of words can seem a little odd. While he implies that there has been such prohibition until now and that it hasn't solved anything (which is true), it has never been total. The prohibition has been for the open marketing of apartments as holiday accommodation and so for the registration of apartments to be advertised as holiday, tourist or vacation rental.
The Barceló remedy will be to legalise some of these apartments (it's easier to talk in terms of legalise, as regulate can be taken different ways). But certainly not all. There is to be no carte blanche for anyone to commercialise an apartment for tourist rental. And nor should there be.
But he has the devil's own job in drawing up this legislation. Apart from the market dynamics, such as with the online accommodation providers, there are the institutional issues in the Balearics. These are the varying responsibilities for tourism organisation and urban planning, ones that reside with island councils and town halls.
There is the possibility that whatever parameters the government seeks to establish for private tourist accommodation, the actual implementation of regulation will not be universal. For example, the councils of Ibiza and Formentera will be loathe to allow greater permissiveness. In Menorca, there may be greater willingness. The council there attempted to get the previous government to relax regulations, a plea that was ignored when it came to drafting the 2012 tourism law. As for Mallorca, the council has yet to assume full responsibilities for tourism, so no one can tell.
At town hall level there will be different needs. As yet, however, it would seem the government is not engaging in active discussions as to what these might be. Councillors in Alcudia and Pollensa have told me that they don't really know what Barceló has in mind. If the new law on holiday rentals is indeed to be ready for parliament before the end of the year, then the government needs to get a move on and consult.
The talk has been that there will be a system of zoning, with apartment rentals capable of being legitimately marketed for holiday purposes in some areas and not others. It sounds like a recipe for legal challenge, while even within the zones there is the not insignificant issue of how communities react. The government, stressing the need for "coexistence" and therefore hinting at community administrators vetoing holiday rentals, has nevertheless admitted that such vetoes may well not stand up in court.
But whatever the government decides, there will remain the question of enforcement. The experience in Catalonia is instructive in this regard. Although there has been greater permissiveness than the Balearics for a few years, this hasn't stemmed the supply of illegal accommodation. In seeking to combat this, the town hall in Barcelona has this week announced a system whereby neighbours can rat on others. Also this week it said that 256 properties were "closed" during July, a process enabled by a specific search engine created to detect illegal properties. Moreover, nine accommodation websites are facing sanctions.
While Barceló says that the Balearics can take no more additional tourists in high summer and he seeks legislative remedy, we can probably anticipate he'll be saying the same things about "saturation" this time next year. And the year after.
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