MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 November 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.00am): 14.5C
Forecast high: 23C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 14 November - Sun, cloud, 24C; 15 November - Cloud, sun, 18C; 16 November - Cloud, sun, 17C.

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

Fine, clear sky as the sun comes up and it looks like a very good day ahead. Forecast into the weekend appears mixed but will probably be sunnier than rainier.

Evening update (20.00): Very nice day. Loads of sun, fairly breezy, high of 24.4C.

No Frills Excursions

What Do These People Want?

In a year's time Spain faces a Franco issue. "El Caudillo" died on 20 November, 1975. Does the fortieth anniversary merit some form of honour, if only an acknowledgment? It is doubtful that it will, but there will nevertheless be those who consider the anniversary worthy of more than a footnote to official business.

Franco may be long dead, but his memory lingers. The Amnesty Law which followed his death can be dubbed the amnesia law, as it assisted in creating the collective loss of memory decreed by the newly democratic but unreconciled Spain. But this memory loss didn't extend to the extinguishing of all Francoist sympathies or indeed the evidence of physical manifestations of the regime. It wasn't until the Zapatero administration sought to remove these concrete or symbolic reminders via its law of historic memory that the statues started to be pulled down. The current government reduced the budget for this to zero.

The shadow cast by this lingering memory is such that for some Franco never died. As with Elvis, who followed him a couple of years later, there is doubtless a guy working down the chip shop who swears he's Franco. The years of linger are reminiscent of the months of linger prior to his passing in 1975. These were such that US television news would make repeated reference to Franco still being alive. Chevy Chase on "Saturday Night", the comedy show which was to later become "live", adopted and rephrased this - "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead".

Those months of lingering death and indeed years of failing health represented a period of uncertainty not just to the future but also to the present. Who was in charge and what actually were they in charge of? It was also a period during which a dying regime and its fellow travellers would show their spite and attempt to assert their fading authority, and there were two incidents which occurred forty years ago this month which demonstrate this.

At around about a quarter past midnight on 22 November, 1974 a bomb exploded at the offices of the "Diario de Mallorca". There were no injuries, but it was the third attack of some description on the newspaper in less than a month, the second of which involved the daubing of graffiti that was reproduced elsewhere in Palma. It read: "Tácito. No. Falange". Tácito was a reference to a group of intellectuals, politicians and journalists who, as the death of Franco neared, sought democratic solutions and who took to print in espousing them. The Falange, Franco's one-time Thought Police, didn't take at all kindly to them.

The Falange was very much one of the regime's fellow travellers, but it had been on the death bed a lot longer than Franco. Its power had been diminishing from the early 1960s, but it also lingered. It is a mark, however, of the extent to which the Falange was distanced from the regime that the conservative "ABC" newspaper could openly report the bombing as the work of the Falange. As such, it was indicative of the extent to which the full apparatus of the Franco dictatorship had been undermined and had been crumbling from the 1960s when tourism and pressing economic needs had brought about new thinking. Yet, it was an element associated with the dictatorship which viewed the potential for democracy with horror and so made its desperate final attempts to assert itself.

The other incident concerns Mallorca's greatest folk singer, María del Mar Bonet. On 7 November, 1974 she was arrested in Barcelona, accused of having been spreading subversive propaganda. It was not the first time she had encountered problems. In 1971 she had been arrested after a concert in Zaragoza and had been subjected to, in her words, "an horrific interrogation". She was held overnight and no longer, and nothing was to really come of her detention three years later. But it was a reminder of how the regime, though in its death throes, could still not stomach any criticism. Her main crime was to have put the music to and have sung "Què volem aquesta gent?" (what do these people want?), a song dedicated to Enrique Ruano, a student, anti-Franco militant who had died in police custody in 1969.

But what the regime could stomach even less than the criticism was Bonet's popularity. She was by then nationally and internationally acclaimed. Her arrest in 1974 was proof of its desperation and of final displays of malice, which brought scorn from the international community and increasingly from a Spanish one as well.

Franco believed that Juan Carlos would carry his legacy forward. He was wrong. The spitefulness of the bombing and the arrest, the rise of Tácito were all evidence of a regime and ideology on the point of collapse. There was to be no other way than democracy.

Photo: Maria del Mar Bonet in her younger days.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 November 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.00am): 15C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 13 November - Sun, 23C; 14 November - Cloud, sun, 21C; 15 November - Sun, cloud, 18C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West and Northwest 4 to 6, force 7 at intervals.

Storm and rain which came in yesterday evening have gone and today is due to be pretty good, though it is quite cloudy first thing. Staying good tomorrow and then unsettled for the next few days.

No Frills Excursions

Microgroove Sensation: Radio and TV

Ever in search of the curious or obscure historical development in Mallorca, it was with keen interest that I discovered the other day that on 15 November, 1964 the first television set at the social centre in Colonia Sant Pere was installed. I have no more information but I am guessing that this was a pretty significant moment in the lives of the people of this one-time farming colony turned small resort on the bay of Alcúdia. Fifty years ago, owning a television set was all but unheard of. Indeed, there wouldn't have been a lot of point in having had a TV set anywhere in Spain until eight years previously. On 28 October, 1956 the first broadcast was made by TVE, the national broadcaster. To say that its subsequent development was swift would be an overstatement, but at least Mallorca was part of the reach by the time the TV was being installed in Colonia Sant Pere. By 1964 only 80% of the country was actually covered by the network and it could enjoy nine hours a day of broadcasting.

When they were tuning the TV in, they were probably benefiting from the original test card that TVE used. This comprised what looked like a games board with five mysterious circles. Prior to that first broadcast in 1956, there must have been households who were glued to the test card, listening to the voice reminding them that 28 October was the big day.

It is worth bearing in mind that in Britain the first commercial television channel, ITV, started in 1955. The development of consumerism was a factor of 1950s Britain as well. At the same time as ITV was launching, in Mallorca and most of Spain there was no consumerism and certainly no telly. So, in the absence of television, it was the radio which was the main source of home entertainment, and in Mallorca that meant, unsurprisingly, Radio Mallorca.

Founded by the brothers José and Onofre Fuster, Radio Mallorca first broadcast in November 1933. Ten years later it became part of the Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión and it enjoyed a monopoly until two other stations emerged. One was called Radio Juventud (youth radio, if you like) and the other was Radio Popular, which started broadcasting in 1959. It was under the auspices of the Bishop of Mallorca, so you can probably imagine that it adopted particular attitudes to content, but one thing that was notable about Radio Popular was that much of its programming was in Mallorquín, unlike the other two stations. Though it was essentially a church broadcaster, it didn't deal only in religious shows. It came to be highly significant because, in addition to using the local language, it put out programmes which discussed local culture and heritage. It played, therefore, an important role in starting a revival of Mallorcan culture that hadn't been subjugated by the Franco regime but which equally hadn't been given any great deal of prominence. 

It would be wrong, though, to think that Radio Popular was all religion and culture, because enter into the equation a young presenter by the name of Miquel Vives Martí. He was to transform Radio Popular by introducing youthful programming, including a sort of Top 40 music show. Radio Popular and Radio Mallorca, from the early 1960s, went pretty much head to head, but if Vives was the mastermind of music on Radio Popular, over at Radio Mallorca there was another young presenter who arguably became the most important voice ever of Mallorcan radio. And he was Miguel Soler.

Born in Murcia in 1939, Soler's ambition was to be a journalist. As it happens, he became one - with "Ultima Hora" - but he also became, at the age of twenty-one, the driving-force behind youthful music shows at Radio Mallorca. In 1961 he came up with the idea for a show called "Torneo en microsurco" (tournament of microgroove). The show which went out every week day at quarter past two was a sensation.

Of course, what both Soler and Vives could play was subject to restriction. It was primarily Spanish music that wouldn't fall foul of a regime that could no more understand Elvis than it could permit him; which was to subsequently also be the case with The Beatles. But some American music was allowed: Paul Anka, for example. So long as it was bland and uncontroversial, it was ok.

Radio Mallorca still exists. It celebrated its eightieth anniversary last year, and earlier this year Miguel Soler produced a book - "El club de los 60" - a collection of writings for "Ultima Hora" from back in the day and of stories of others who were to the vanguard during the unforgettable years of the 1960s. 

The television set in Colonia Sant Pere doubtless caused its own sensation, but in 1964 radio dominated, and so did Miguel Soler.

Photo: The TVE test card.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 November 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.45am): 10.5C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 12 November - Sun, 22C; 13 November - Sun, 20C; 14 November - Sun, cloud, 21C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West and Southwest 2 to 3 increasing Southwest 4 to 5 during the morning with possible force 7 by the evening.

Pleasant morning but might not be quite so pleasant later on with rain forecast. Outlook for tomorrow and Thursday seems pretty good.

Evening update (19.00): Ok sort of a day before starting to go pear shape in the late afternoon. Windy and with some rain. A high today of 20.2C.

No Frills Excursions

Catalonia: One big mess

As an example of an exercise in mass opinion polling, the Catalonia not-the-referendum has signalled huge support for the "sí" camp. Yes, we want independence. Now, Sr. Rajoy, let us have it. Or at least let us have a real referendum and not a pretend one.

Rajoy isn't about to agree to this, though were he to and to therefore have gained sufficient support to have changed the Constitution, the result might well be quite different. The 80% in favour of independence were culled from 2.2 million voters, approximately therefore one third of all those who were eligible. In terms of participation the not-the-referendum can only be described as a form of opinion poll and one, moreover, that had an in-built bias thanks to the almost total absence of a "no" campaign and to a Catalan media which, for the most part, came down firmly on the side of Artur Mas and his referendum co-conspirator, Oriol Junqueras.

The result proves nothing other than that 80% of 2.2 million people said yes. It is a percentage greatly in excess of that which regular opinion polls indicate to be the actual level of support for independence. In a real referendum the dynamic would be different and the turnout would also be different. Mas would be quite wrong to believe that independence is genuinely what the majority of Catalonians want.

So, why did he go ahead with the not-the-referendum? He had to in order to save face, having conceded that a genuine referendum was not legal (something which he knew all along). But he also had to as a way of highlighting the sheer lack of any movement in attitude on behalf of the Rajoy government. Its response to the very act of the poll on Sunday was to invoke the courts and to have the police look into who had authorised the use of schools etc. to be polling stations.

Mas argues that he has Catalonian law on his side and this allowed for the not-the-referendum to take place, but regardless of the law, be it that of Catalonia or that of the Constitution, why would the Rajoy government now seek to have the courts decide whether an illegal act has taken place which could lead to prosecution of Mas and others? It is petty, because the poll is not legally binding, cannot be legally binding and only serves as an expression of sentiment of a minority of Catalonians.

What really agitates Rajoy is that the 80% vote boxes him into a corner. To even now negotiate with Mas would appear to be a climbdown and a loss of his face. To agree to a referendum would mean a complete loss of any credibility he retains, while to arrive at agreement would require support at the Cortes for constitutional change that would be almost unimaginable. He would know that a legitimate referendum might well turn out differently, but he can't put that to the test. He has nowhere to go except to the courts. And what good will that do him? It will only reinforce sentiment against him.

Though Rajoy now finds himself in a corner, it was Mas who got there first. It was his foolhardiness in calling an election that he didn't need to which got him to where he now is. That election cost his CiU party seats at the expense of Junqueras's radical independentist ERC who were thus brought into an uneasy coalition in which Mas had little option but to adopt a more aggressive attitude towards independence than he might otherwise have done. It can't be stressed too often that what Mas had really sought was a re-negotiation of Catalonia's finances with the state, and it was a refusal by Rajoy which triggered off the process which resulted in Sunday's not-the-referendum.

Where, therefore, might this now lead, other than to the courts? The leader of PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, might hold the key. His party has been as against independence as the Partido Popular. A solution, perhaps the only solution, is a reform of the whole relationship between the state, Catalonia and the other regions, i.e. a fully federal Spain. It is one that PSOE has recently come to accept, but neither Rajoy nor Mas, for different reasons, has.

Federalism might, for the more radically independentist-minded, now seem like a fudge, but a way has to be sought to combat what is clearly a deeply divided Catalonian society and the ambitions of any other region to seek independence (in truth only maybe the Basques). Both Rajoy and Mas have to share the blame for what has come to pass but both could find a way out of the mess, and a reform on federalist lines with thus greater self-governing powers might well be the only way out.

What's On Around Alcúdia And Pollensa - Dijous Bo

Ok, Inca may be some twenty kilometres away but it is the administrative centre for the north of Mallorca, so what happens there qualifies it for inclusion in events in the north. There again, Dijous Bo is one of those occasions, like Sa Pobla's Sant Antoni in January, which is for the whole of Mallorca. It is the largest of the autumn fairs, the one with the longest history and the one which attracts thousands upon thousands of visitors as well as the whole of the local media, which dissects the attractions and typically rates the good and the less good (in its opinion). There is an awful lot to Dijous Bo. Essentially, it is a farming/agricultural fair (this element being its obvious roots from mediaeval times), but it is very much more just this.

Dijous Bo means good Thursday. Quite when the name was adopted is unknown, but there is an old expression - "quin dijous més bò" (what better Thursday) - which reflects why it did. In the fourteenth century, the fairs of Inca started, thanks to privileges granted by the Mallorcan king (Sineu was the only other town outside Palma to have similiar privileges). There were and are three fairs which all take place on successive Sundays. The fourth couldn't be on the Sunday because that was the fiesta of Santa Maria la Major. Consequently, the fair was moved to the Thursday and in doing so it created greater anticipation than the other fairs and eventually the name Dijous Bo (first actually officially documented as a name as late as 1807).

Programme in English: http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2014/11/inca-dijous-bo-2014.html

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 November 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.15am): 13C
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 11 November - Rain, sun, 22C; 12 November - Sun, cloud, 18C; 13 November - Sun, 18C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 settling North during the morning. Rain at times.

Greyish morning with rain in areas. A yellow alert for rain with clouds dominating during the day. Tomorrow may also see rain, but better later in the week.

Evening update (19.30): Wherever the alert for heavy rain was supposed to have been, the rain didn't materialise. Average sort of day. Some sun, some cloud, a high of 21.8C.

No Frills Excursions

Doing The Same Thing: Sports tourism

It doesn't matter who supposedly came up with "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting it to come out different". To borrow it as a statement of tourism fact, it will do, regardless of its origin, and it is fact which can be extended to "insanity is everyone doing the same thing over and over etc.".

In the endless search for the holy grail of off-season tourism, Mallorca and the Balearics have been doing the same thing over and over for at least thirty years. They have grafted ever more niches on to the original ones of cycling, golf and culture (conceived as saviours by the first regional government from 1983), but in the process have merely managed to come up with small bits of tourism which altogether amount to something which is slightly less small. Appropriately, in the quest also for the gastronomic tourist, these niches bubble gently in the off-season promotional stew, certain ingredients periodically being added or coming to the boil of flavour of the moment which dominate the other tastes. Over and over they are tossed into the pan with the expectation that tourism chefs will produce an à la carte off-season rather than a menú del día of familiar ordinariness.

Everyone is doing the same thing. The current flavour of the moment is sports tourism. This will be the niche which finally reveals a holy grail from which everyone can drink deeply and eat richly. But unfortunately, it is everyone. If not Mallorca, then it is Croatia or any number of competitor regions of Spain: Catalonia has developed a mark "sports tourism destination"; the Basque Country has gone beyond the usual and become a "model of surfing touristic development"; Asturias has cycling and walking; Galicia has cycling; Andalusia has looked to expand its golfing appeal. Even the Canaries have their sport in something called the "Reserva de la Extremosfera", which in the case of those islands is a reinforcement for the only region of Spain which has fully functioning year-round tourism.

Go beyond the macro level of the Balearics and you find that at micro levels everyone is doing the same thing. Sports tourism will make the bay of Alcúdia off-season heaven. The new cycling route will see to that. Or it would do if Muro hadn't put a block on things, protesting that it will have to shoulder a greater financial burden than the two other municipalities because of greater engineering issues and saying that it can't pay and won't pay. Towns in the sticks which don't have tourism profiles are also in on the act. Here a cycling route, there a Nordic walking route. Ibiza is another example, going it alone at the World Travel Market with a winter tourism campaign which features, among other things, cycling.

Then there is Palma, which has discovered a new(ish) sub-niche of the sports niche: running. According to the Palma 365 foundation, this is a "running USP", a unique selling point, the implication being that there is no running anywhere else. It couldn't be unique if there was. But hang on, what were those lines of Germans in Playa de Muro doing up until only a few days ago? They weren't walking. And what about, as an example, Bilbao? It has "running tours". So, all those off-season tourists can run to what is a genuinely international attraction - the Guggenheim - which, if not actually unique in being the world's only museum, might be considered way more of a USP than Palma can boast.

Marketing speak, as in citing a supposed USP, is a shield too often raised in order to defend the absence of effective marketing which might just convince punters that there is something unique. When everyone is doing the same thing over and over, it is the marketing which must not be the same or questionable. But this marketing gets mangled. It is disjointed. Take Palma 365. It has a Facebook page, but it's called Palma and not Palma 365 or passion for something, as with the slogan. Building a brand requires a single concept not competing names for the same thing. And the great fault line with the Palma campaign is the potential confusion with destinations which sound similar or are written similarly - La Palma, Las Palmas, Parma. Mallorca 365 is what should be being marketed. There can be no confusion with the name and it would also have vastly greater recognition. The marketing is simply wrong. Palma 365 should be the bridge of a mothership brand Mallorca 365 and not the ship itself.

Everyone is doing the same thing. It isn't insane if that is all there is, but greater sanity comes from convincing the market that your same thing is a hell of a lot better than someone else's. It's all in the branding.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 November 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.30am): 13.5C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 10 November - Rain, sun, 21C; 11 November - Sun, cloud, 19C; 12 November - Sun, cloud, 18C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 3 to 4. Rain and possible storm.

Starting off reasonably well but rain due later that is likely to linger into tomorrow. The forecast for the week is a mixed bag of sun, cloud, possible showers and mild temperatures.

Evening update (19.15): Unremarkable day, some sun, fair bit of cloud. A high of 21.4C. Alert in place for rain.

No Frills Excursions

The Great Spearfishermen Of Mallorca

It is said that there are two sports which are native to Mallorca, not in the sense that they were invented here but because conditions are such that they have long been able to flourish. One of these sports is cycling, which benefits from there being such varied landscapes and topographical features in a comparatively small area. The other sport does not take advantage of the land. It is a sport of the sea, and it is the competitive world of spearfishing.

For three days from Thursday next week, Can Picafort will host the thirty-third national spearfishing championships for the various autonomous communities (or regions, if you prefer) of Spain, and the event will also be a tribute to one of Mallorca's greatest "submarine" fishermen - Juan Ballester.

As with the cyclists that Mallorca started to produce from the early years of the last century, some of whom, like Guillermo Timoner, went on to acquire fame and titles beyond Mallorca, so the island's spearfishermen came to be part of the international elite in a sport which, by comparison with cycling, gets barely any attention. Defined by the CMAS (the World Confederation of Underwater Activities) as the "hunting and capture of fish underwater without the aid of artificial breathing devices, using gear that depends on the physical strength of the competitor", spearfishing as a sport first surfaced (so to speak) in the western Mediterranean in the 1920s. There were attempts to have it included in the Olympic Games but these attempts failed, thus limiting awareness of the sport. It is obscure, but that doesn't mean to say it hasn't flourished or been popular, and Mallorca is one place where it certainly hasn't been and isn't obscure.

Juan Ballester was one of two really great names that Mallorca has produced. The other is José Amengual. Ballester was the older by ten years. He was born in Muro in 1934 and his affinity with the town was such that, after studying to become a doctor on the mainland, he returned to Muro to establish himself as one of the island's leading consultants for internal medicine and to form a bond of which he said that Mallorca was divided into two parts - Muro and the "part forana", i.e. the rest of the island outside Palma.

Despite this closeness to his home town, it was neighbouring Can Picafort where he was to develop the bug for underwater fishing. In the summer of 1952, two well-known specialists of the sport came to what was still then an undeveloped resort. He was invited along and managed to capture more fish than his specialist companions. Though he became licensed in that year, it was to be some time before he really broke through in the sport, a combination of further studies and military service meaning that it wasn't until the early '60s that he developed a reputation strong enough to be in line to take part in the team world championships in Brazil in 1963. As it happened, he was overlooked for selection, but four years later he was captain of the Spanish team which competed at the European championships off the island of Cabrera. His career was such that, by then in his sixties, he was captaining the Spanish team which won two world championships - 1994 in Peru and 1996 in Gijón on the coast of the region of Asturias.

In 1985, Mallorca hosted the world championship, and it was held in Playa de Muro. One of the people who helped to organise the event was Juan Ballester. But it wasn't to be Ballester who took the plaudits that year. It was his friend, José Amengual, who, though a native of Palma, knew the seas off Muro and Can Picafort as well as Ballester. Amengual won the world title, thirteen points ahead of an Italian representative, Milos Iurinchich. This was in fact the third world title that Amengual had secured, the previous two having been in 1973 and 1981. Ballester never won an individual world title, but he took great pleasure from having helped to mentor the sportsman who was to. Amengual is thus the greatest underwater fisherman that Mallorca has produced.

And so, there will be the tribute in Can Picafort this week to Ballester. It might perhaps be more fitting were it to be in Playa de Muro, but the championships aren't being held there. Not to worry, though, Playa de Muro and Can Picafort are in coastal, beach and sea terms joined together, and for Can Picafort the championships represent a furtherance of its new aspirations to be a centre of water sports tourism and mark how far this once tiny place has come. The sea has been the making of Can Picafort. The sea is where Ballester and Amengual developed their skills, but it was sea which, for so long, was ignored. While there is the posthumous tribute to Ballester, there will be those who will also give a thought to someone who died last month: Jaume Mandilego, whose name was and is synonymous with Can Picafort. He was born in 1915 in what then could boast hardly any dwellings but an awful lot of pine trees. Of Mandilego it is said that he was the first child to swim in Can Picafort. 

* For the information about Amengual and Ballester, I acknowledge biographies included in "Mallorquines Irrepetibles" by the doyen of Mallorcan sports journalists, Miquel Vidal.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 November 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.30am): 15C
Forecast high: 23C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 9 November - Sun, rain, 22C; 10 November - Rain, 16C; 11 November - Sun, rain, 19C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 4 to 5 easing 3 during the morning and veering and increasing South to Southwest 4 during the afternoon.

Fair bit of mainly light cloud first thing, sun at times later with the risk of a possible shower. Tomorrow due to be bright to begin with but clouding over later with a strong chance of rain.

Evening update (18.00): A high of 22.4C. Good amounts of sun.

No Frills Excursions

Times They Are A-Changing: Podemos

Maria Dolores Cospedal is the secretary-general of the Partido Popular. Like Nuria Riera in the Balearics, the regional education minister and PP spokesperson, Dolores cuts a sympathetic appearance. She is the soft-looking, acceptable-to-the-public face of the PP in contrast to the scary and habitually scared-looking Rajoy and the frankly terrifying dominatrix of a vice-premier, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaria. It is Dolores's lot, therefore, to have to make public pronouncements that, were Soraya to make them, would have everyone dashing behind the sofa. Last year, Dolores addressed a gathering of Nuevas Generaciones in Toledo. This is the PP youth wing, the equivalent of the Young Conservatives but without the tweed jackets and the leather patches. Dolores, talking to the converted conservative, informed her audience that, economic crisis notwithstanding, the young people of Spain had more opportunities than ever before. For some reason she then decided to quote the then 71-year-old Bob Dylan in observing that the times they were a-changing. Perhaps she did so in the belief that by invoking a lyric from fifty years previously she would be appealing to the youth. Almost certainly she appeared not to have recognised that the now septuagenarian had penned what was considered to have been the anthem of the 1960s' protest movement.

Dylan, were he to be starting out today and to be Spanish, would in all likelihood be the musical voice of Spain's protest - Podemos's lead singer and poster boy. Dolores, now probably apprised of Dylan's cultural significance, didn't mention him the other day when being the obvious choice to front what will become a full-frontal assault on Podemos and its leader, Pablo Iglesias. Podemos, said Dolores, was "very dangerous for democracy". Much as one doesn't wish to be too harsh on someone as nice as Dolores, she has some brass neck to start issuing lectures on dangers to democracy when so many members of the PP have managed to swell prisoner numbers and keep judges and prosecutors in gainful employment. But then, there have only been "some issues of corruption", she continued, echoing Mariano's "few small incidents".

Depending on which survey you preferred, Podemos was shown to either have a slight lead or to be running a close third in the opinion polls. Both of them have put a gale force wind up the PP, and so Dolores was sent out to try and prevent the roof tiles of government being loosened and crashing on top of the PP by painting Podemos as being anything but a soothing breeze. She alluded to the now familiar and alleged Venezuelan connections and style of Podemos and - item for the brass neck prosecution number two - also suggested that the freedom of the press would be endangered. This would presumably be the same freedom of the press which, by way of a couple of examples, led to journalists at the RTVE national broadcaster, who were asking tough questions of Rajoy and his government, being found other jobs and to a threat to sue Telecinco over a debate regarding the Bárcenas affair.

Podemos and Iglesias can now anticipate not being out of the glare of publicity for a single day as opponents dredge up whatever dirt they can, such as the video of a drunk Iglesias singing "The International" alongside rapper Pablo Hasél, who was sentenced in April to two years for glorifying terrorism, or indulge in wild frenzies of tweeting, as in the PP spokesperson for the town hall in Paredes de Nava who last week tweeted that Iglesias was a "hija de puta" who should be shot in the neck. Whether Dolores considers that tweet to be dangerous for democracy is, as yet, unknown.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 November 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (6.15am): 13C
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 8 November - Cloud, sun, 23C; 9 November - Cloud, 19C; 10 November - Rain, 17C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 3 backing and increasing Northwest 4 by the afternoon.

Some cloud around before dawn, but today should be pretty clear, sunny and warm. The weekend looks a mixed bag with a high risk of rain on Sunday.

Evening update (19.00): Not as hot as expected, a high of 22.4C, but good amounts of sun, so pretty decent.

No Frills Excursions

Always On At The World Travel Market

"Always on"? This was the slogan of adverts which appeared in a couple of British newspapers that were apparently designed to convince readers of "The Sun" and "The Mirror" to come to the Balearics. It was a slogan for the missing words round of "HIGNFY" or for a Terry Wogan to invite you to win your touristic "Blankety Blank" cheque book and pen. Always on top? Always on my mind? Always on the buses? Always on fire? Always on the take? Always on drugs? Always on what exactly? A Mr. Sean Dobson nailed it in a letter to "The Bulletin" quite rightly questioning its meaning. He also questioned the use of "Illes Balears" in the adverts. The reason? Sun and Mirror readers wouldn't have a clue what they were.

The ads coincided with the World Travel Market (WTM) in London, which has now come to an end. Everything was coinciding with the fair, such as the release of the promotional video "Calvia Beach V1" and the arrival from different parts of Spain of the all important politicians. President Bauzá was thus compelled to try and avoid national tourism minister Soria (he can't stand him, and the feeling is mutual), but Soria had to be there in order to present the state's case for the prosecution of Magalluf, which was really what the WTM was all about (for Mallorca at any rate). As a worthy at Calvia town hall noted this week, Magalluf has become a "question of state", and the state was making it clear that it has had enough.

Outdoing the Balearics (sorry, Illes Balears) presence at the WTM was Meliá with their own stand and the Calvia Beach promo video of their inspiration, a good enough attempt at promoting what for some would appear to be the un-promotable (a wrong view in my opinion). For form's sake Meliá presumably had to accept the appearance of Calvia's assistant mayor for tourism, Eugenia Frau, in the video, despite her giving the impression of having been under duress with someone off camera pointing a gun at her, and also of tourism minister Jaime Martínez, who cuts a fine figure of promotion for tourism and sport in the Illes Balears. Jaime was in all the photos at the WTM, an omnipotent presence, never at the centre of things but hovering in the background like a menacing bouncer at a strip club.

While all the attempts at righting the image of Magalluf and therefore by association the image of Mallorca and the Illes Balears were going on, back on the rock Calvia town hall had gathered all and sundry, except for a new business association, to consider the "futuro". And this future looks likely to include measures against bar crawls and PRs. Calvia's bizarre legalising of bar crawls up to a certain number of participants backfired spectacularly, and with Martínez determined to eliminate bar crawls - no doubt with the full best wishes of the state - they seem destined to crawl to a halt.

Something else which has emerged over the past few days is the likelihood that Magalluf, as well as Santa Ponsa and Peguera, will officially be declared a "mature zone" in tourism terms. While there are few resorts which can be considered anything other than mature, this is a specific measure contained in the tourism law which is designed to do a number of things. One, any development in a resort (within reason) will be considered to be in the "regional interest" and thus benefit from a removal of whole loads of bureaucracy and licensing requirements. Two, it makes it incumbent on local authorities and businesses to up the quality ante in resorts. The chat in local tourism industry circles has, therefore, included suggestions that the mature zone declaration could have repercussions for Punta Ballena (of a positive variety), though quite what these might be is at present anyone's guess. Nonetheless, there has been ample evidence over the past few days, from the WTM and the island, that there is a dynamic shifting into gear which will result in a genuine transformation that extends beyond the Meliá new town of Calvia Beach.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 November 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (7.00am): 9C
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 7 November - Sun, 24C; 8 November - Cloud, 20C; 9 November - Sun, rain, 20C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North and Northeast 3 to 5. Swells to two metres.

Mainly clear skies this morning and distinctly chilly. The possibility of showers during the day but sun also. Tomorrow is due to be a good day - quite hot again - but the weekend's outlook is less good with cloud and possible rain.

Evening update (21.15): Strange old day. Thunder, lightning and rain one moment, good sun the next. A high of 18.9C.

No Frills Excursions

No One On Duty: Health service

Education and the fiasco over trilingual teaching have meant that arguments and debates concerning the regional government's management of public services have tended to neglect the equally important health service. The weight given to these arguments may well now be shifting, and they are ones which further damage the government and make the possibility of the Partido Popular forming the next government even more remote.

Last month, the regional health minister, Martí Sansaloni, asked the finance ministry of José Vicente Marí for a line of credit of 40 million euros. He needed the money as without it salaries for the rest of the year would not be paid. Sansaloni had held out the begging bowl last year as well. Then, he only wanted 20 million in order to ensure that salaries were paid. The request for credit in October has to be seen in the context of what had been an increase of over 25 million euros to the total health budget for 2014. It was up to 1,195 million. Yet, despite this increase the credit requirement doubled. Nevertheless, Marí's finance ministry agreed to the request, but only 36 million. Sansaloni has to find four million euros' worth of savings over the final weeks of the year.

Sansaloni, who inherited the health job following the departures of two previous ministers, has had his share of difficulties since becoming minister. They have included the controversial case of Alpha Pam, the Senegalese immigrant who, as he was "sin papeles", was denied treatment at Inca Hospital that, as an emergency case, he should have received. His death and the fallout from it have clouded Sansaloni's time as minister, but this was something of an exceptional case. Far less exceptional is the day-to-day running of the health service and how that service is now operating. Or not.

In July, the PSOE opposition demanded answers related to what it described as the bad administration and absolute inefficiency of the health service. It pointed to a 30% fall in operations and to a waiting-list increase of over 100% - 51 to 121 days. In September, Sansaloni was in Madrid for a meeting to consider the challenges facing the Spanish health service. At that gathering he spoke of the need to change the tendency from greater costs to lower budgets and said that in the Balearics the health service was working with over one thousand fewer workers but good results and no fall in care.

So, he presented a different picture of the health service to the one which PSOE did. Moreover, when he spoke of lower budgets, he neglected the fact that the Balearics health budget had risen by just over 2% in 2013. He wouldn't have known then that the budget for 2015 was also set to rise and more substantially so, by over 10%.

That budget for next year actually contemplates some cuts. Son Espases, Son Llàtzer, Inca and Manacor hospitals will also have reductions in spend; not huge, but reductions nonetheless. It will be interesting to see, whoever is health minister this time next year, whether credit for salaries has to be asked for once again. But the question is, why is there this need for credit? As staff numbers have been slashed to the extent they have, as thousands of drugs and other products have been removed from the health service's "catalogue", why does the health service still find itself incapable of operating to a budget, one which is in any event higher?

The remedial measures that Sansaloni has had to adopt in order to meet the terms of the finance ministry credit include not covering for staff who are sick or on holiday. This has given rise to situations such as those in Puerto Alcúdia, Sa Pobla and Puerto Pollensa, where there have been no medical staff on duty at given times at the local health centres. The El Pi party has added its voice to that of PSOE in describing this failure in staff cover as "bad management policy" with "citizens the victims". From what Sansaloni had to say in September, it would have been thought that such a failure couldn't occur because IB-Salut, the Balearics health service, was not experiencing any fall in care. But it clearly is. And moreover, it is a fall in care despite budgets having risen and despite cuts to staff and drugs which were said didn't result in poorer levels of care.

A curiosity of the current government is that, for all the austerity that was spoken of, its total budget is now higher - by 362 million euros - than in its first year of government. The health service accounts for some of this. But where's the money going? People might want to ask that question in May when they're heading for the polling stations, bearing in mind that in November they found there were no medical staff on duty at their health centres.

What's On Around Alcúdia And Pollensa - Muro and Pollensa fairs

This weekend sees two autumn fairs taking place in the north of Mallorca, those of Muro and Pollensa, of which Pollensa's is the larger but not on the scale that Alcúdia's October fair is. The Muro fair takes as its theme the pumpkin. Hence, there is the now traditional pumpkin contest on Sunday (which is the biggest pumpkin of all?), a parade of lanterns made from pumpkins on Saturday evening and a gastronomy route involving several bars which will be serving specialities made from the pumpkin. Pollensa's fair, with its artisan-craft theme, has come a long way in a few short years. Not so long ago there were concerns about its well-being. The number of visitors had dwindled and the fair itself lacked sparkle. The town hall asked for suggestions, and these would appear to have paid off. An exhibition of innovative craft work by young designers was introduced, and this year the fair will be serenaded (if that's the right word) by music of different sorts - rock, jazz, folk - in the streets and in bars which don't form part of the official programme. It is all the result of a good initiative by Pollensa town hall and local associations.

But one way in which Muro steals a march over Pollensa is in the design of its fair poster. Muro designs are usually characterised by their bright colours. This one is more subdued but nonetheless features a vibrant orange of the pumpkin and so a colour of autumn. Pollensa designs are typically more dour, though perhaps this is a reflection of the different themes: artisan versus agricultural.

Programmes for the fairs in English:

Muro:
http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2014/11/muro-fair-2014.html

Pollensa:
http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2014/10/pollensa-fair-2014.html

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 November 2014

Stefanos

Morning high (5.45am): 13.5C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 6 November - Sun, rain, 21C; 7 November - Sun, cloud, 20C; 8 November - Sun, cloud, 19C.

Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West and Northwest 3 to 5 veering North 4 later. Occasional rain.

Alerts in place for rain and storms today but at present all is calm, the wind having dropped and the night having been dry. There should be more sun around today, though. A similar pattern tomorrow, then better into the weekend before rain is forecast to return on Sunday.

Evening update (18.45): Quite bit of rain in some areas today, others only comparatively light. Not warm. A high of 15.8C.

No Frills Excursions

What Is The Truth?: Francesc de Borja Moll

A publishing house closed last month. It was eighty years old and was one of Mallorca's most important and most famous publishing companies. Its name was, and remains for the time being, Editorial Moll. It had been battling against financial difficulties for some years, had been placed in administration and, despite fundraising efforts, finally lost the battle. As part of the process of liquidation, buyers are likely to be sought for the collection of hundreds of thousands of books at its headquarters. Included among this vast collection is the "Diccionari català-valencià-balear", a work of enormous significance in that it was the first dictionary to bring together different strands of Catalan. It was a work which had been started by Antoni Maria Alcover, who died in 1932, and which was finally completed in 1962 by the person after whom the company was named - Francesc de Borja Moll Casanovas.

The timing of the founding of Editorial Moll in 1934 was both good and bad; good because it was during the period of the Second Republic, bad because of what happened two years later. Under the Republic, Catalan could flourish, and Editorial Moll was a publishing house for Catalan. So, given the bad timing, what happened to the company and to its founder once the Franco regime and the Falange set about their prohibition and persecution of Catalan?

My own knowledge of Borja Moll goes back some years. I came to know about him because he, like Antoni Maria Alcover, is afforded high levels of reverence in Mallorca, especially Alcover. I confess, however, that until now and with an interest sparked off by the closure of Editorial Moll, I had never paid over much attention to his background. And so, it was with more than a little surprise that I found a lengthy article by an historian, Mariano Bendito Saura, that was posted on his blog in 2011 and which was entitled "The historical-linguistic misrepresentations of Francesc de Borja Moll" **.

The company, it would appear, didn't encounter any great difficulties and nor did Borja Moll. And that was because, and Bendito is not the only one to have asserted this, he was a member of the Falange. Bendito says that during the Civil War Borja Moll was in the propaganda department of the Falange and goes on to say that in 1940 he collaborated on a project which was sponsored, among others, by Pilar Primo de Rivera, sister of the founder of the Falange and therefore daughter of the 1920s' dictator, Miguel Primo de Rivera. This project was a propaganda exercise to promote the notion of Catalan fascism and a unitary Catalan and language.

Bendito's article, apart from being lengthy, is complex and far from straightforward. It devotes attention to detail of linguistic development and cites innumerable references to this development and to political interference and orders. But at the start of the article, he makes his sentiments clear. "Borja Moll (director of Editorial Moll, ex-Falangist from Palma de Mallorca ...) is an unethical and dishonest person who sold Catalan imperialism and who betrayed and disowned all Balearic historical and linguistic truth." He implies, therefore, that "Catalanisation" of the islands' languages was an invention but was one which re-emerged from 1970 in a very different political and cultural form.

Bendito, who describes himself as being "passionate for historical truth", paints a picture of Borja Moll which is hard to reconcile with what he achieved, e.g. founding the Obra Cultural Balear in 1962 or the grand honour for Catalan "letters" in 1971, and with what Editorial Moll became, a publishing house of great significance which promoted Catalan and which over its eighty years published works by names of cultural and historical importance such as Alcover and the poet Miquel Costa i Llobera. Perhaps Borja Moll had been put under pressure by the Falange. He wouldn't have been the only one. Whatever his involvement, it didn't last, and nor did the strict anti-Catalan dogma that the Franco regime initially pursued with such rigour.

The article does, however, point to complex linguistic arguments which, while somewhat obscure and arcane, inform so much of current-day arguments in Mallorca, those to do with language, culture and education. Bendito is not unique in presenting a version of history which seeks to debunk a Mallorcan link to Catalan (and thus Catalonia) and to the notion of the Catalan Lands. The problem is, and with the greatest of respect to him and to his research, getting at the "truth" is made difficult because of how current-day politics create fertile ground for competing versions of history. His version is firmly in the anti-Catalanist camp.

Editorial Moll folded because of financial difficulties, and one source of these difficulties was the elimination of regional government support for books in Catalan. Borja Moll's son says that this stemmed from "the government's extreme belligerence towards Catalan". Politics, always politics.

** http://historiaregnemallorca.blogspot.com.es/2011/04/tergiversaciones-historico-linguistas.html