Morning high (8.21am): 15.2C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 7 April - Sun, 19C; 8 April - Sun, 20C; 9 April - Sun, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 4 to 5.
Bit cloudy to begin with and fairly breezy as well. Clearing later. Sunny outlook for several days.
Evening update (20.00): Sun came out. Nice enough but with a nippy northerly. High of 19.8C.
Thursday, April 06, 2017
The Survival Of Rules And Traditions
What strange things survive in this world. Take Wisden's five cricketers of the year, the annual announcement of which still manages to generate column inches and debate. The rules remain as they always have been. A cricketer of the year cannot have been a previous cricketer of the year. It's an endearing principle but distinctly potty.
In fact, don't just take the five cricketers (for the record, Ben Duckett, Misbah-ul-Haq, Toby Roland-Jones, Chris Woakes and Younis Khan), take Wisden full stop. It is like a great aunt indulged at Christmas, who stubbornly insists on imbibing ginger wine that had gone out of fashion even before Christmases acquired a veneer of contemporary oenological sophistication. Year after year, auntie is wheeled out simply because she is auntie.
Which is not to decry either Wisden or great aunts, just that the former is a relic of days gone by. It occupies a past together with the FA Cup Final, a reminder of how there was once only one live football match per year on the telly (save perhaps the odd international) and of how once a year the previous year's cricket would be revealed for all to dissect and digest. Page after page after page of scorecards replete with their short reports. All our yesterdays of what must have been tortuous and chilly June days in Chesterfield as E. Smith of Derbyshire bowled maiden over after maiden over to J. van Geloven of Leicestershire, as the visitors ground out a snail-like 180 in the six hours (when lunch was always at half one and tea was taken at ten past four).
There is, nevertheless, a sense of reassurance. The anachronistic can cling to its past even in the present day. Tweaks mean that Wisden is no longer a yellow-backed housebrick-sized homage to empire that had long faded. It is now a yellow-backed housebrick-sized tribute to the empire having struck back, IPL, Big Bash and all. But with Cricinfo available at the click of a mouse, its inherent backdated-ness accords it more the function of coffee-table adornment than one-time cricketing avidity.
Still, traditions die hard, even more recent ones and those founded not on mouse clicks or tablet touches. Rather like the five cricketers, these have their rules, those which grant them a superior status. Cricket websites' best-of-the-year cricketers, even sports personalities of the year and, horror of horror, Eurovision song contestants have succumbed to the totality of technologies in removing or reducing the carefully weighed deliberations of judges, abiding with the letter of the rules (well, maybe not in the case of Eurovision). The great unwashed in cyber and text lands cannot be trusted to do likewise.
I offer a Mallorcan example, that of Fornalutx. To the confusion of many, most of them in Pollensa it seems, Fornalutx isn't the only prettiest village on the island. The fact is that Fornalutx is the only prettiest village. That's because the association which determines prettiest villages says so. It despatched clipboard-bearing judges to rummage under dry stones, ramble through orange groves and to reconnoitre the village's cleaning system in confirming prettiness. It is unique to Mallorca, and nary an inhabitant of social networks was allowed anywhere near the judges, lest they be contaminated by popular prejudice. The great confusion arose because Pollensa had appeared on one of those blessed website things, the ones where any old Tom, Dick or Harry can register his vote. Moreover, it more or less borrowed the prettiest accolade in extending the nominations beyond just villages. The prettiest villages' association probably needs to think about a registered trademark, if it hasn't already.
There is of course another way in which Wisden is a survivor. Its sheer physical presence. You simply can't avoid it, so large is it. Indeed, such is its bulk that it can be used to keep any door open and withstand up to a force eight gale ramming into the door. While other giants of the print media may have gone the way of all Wikipedias or just Google, Wisden's voracious appetite for paper keeps entire industries afloat.
It is this, the physical nature of the hard copy, that can seem the most curious manifestation of Wisden of the current day. Yet it is anything but curious. Tangibility, holding something which isn't a device and that has the essence of presence, accounts for a great deal, even today. So is also the case with much of what Mallorca churns out for tourism. The island may be poorly served by digital applications (those from official, governmental sources) but it is still weighed under by the amount of paper. Apps and so on abound, but promotional publications are far from being in retreat.
Why is this? The answer is easy. Tradition, reassurance, tangibility; all to be cherished.
In fact, don't just take the five cricketers (for the record, Ben Duckett, Misbah-ul-Haq, Toby Roland-Jones, Chris Woakes and Younis Khan), take Wisden full stop. It is like a great aunt indulged at Christmas, who stubbornly insists on imbibing ginger wine that had gone out of fashion even before Christmases acquired a veneer of contemporary oenological sophistication. Year after year, auntie is wheeled out simply because she is auntie.
Which is not to decry either Wisden or great aunts, just that the former is a relic of days gone by. It occupies a past together with the FA Cup Final, a reminder of how there was once only one live football match per year on the telly (save perhaps the odd international) and of how once a year the previous year's cricket would be revealed for all to dissect and digest. Page after page after page of scorecards replete with their short reports. All our yesterdays of what must have been tortuous and chilly June days in Chesterfield as E. Smith of Derbyshire bowled maiden over after maiden over to J. van Geloven of Leicestershire, as the visitors ground out a snail-like 180 in the six hours (when lunch was always at half one and tea was taken at ten past four).
There is, nevertheless, a sense of reassurance. The anachronistic can cling to its past even in the present day. Tweaks mean that Wisden is no longer a yellow-backed housebrick-sized homage to empire that had long faded. It is now a yellow-backed housebrick-sized tribute to the empire having struck back, IPL, Big Bash and all. But with Cricinfo available at the click of a mouse, its inherent backdated-ness accords it more the function of coffee-table adornment than one-time cricketing avidity.
Still, traditions die hard, even more recent ones and those founded not on mouse clicks or tablet touches. Rather like the five cricketers, these have their rules, those which grant them a superior status. Cricket websites' best-of-the-year cricketers, even sports personalities of the year and, horror of horror, Eurovision song contestants have succumbed to the totality of technologies in removing or reducing the carefully weighed deliberations of judges, abiding with the letter of the rules (well, maybe not in the case of Eurovision). The great unwashed in cyber and text lands cannot be trusted to do likewise.
I offer a Mallorcan example, that of Fornalutx. To the confusion of many, most of them in Pollensa it seems, Fornalutx isn't the only prettiest village on the island. The fact is that Fornalutx is the only prettiest village. That's because the association which determines prettiest villages says so. It despatched clipboard-bearing judges to rummage under dry stones, ramble through orange groves and to reconnoitre the village's cleaning system in confirming prettiness. It is unique to Mallorca, and nary an inhabitant of social networks was allowed anywhere near the judges, lest they be contaminated by popular prejudice. The great confusion arose because Pollensa had appeared on one of those blessed website things, the ones where any old Tom, Dick or Harry can register his vote. Moreover, it more or less borrowed the prettiest accolade in extending the nominations beyond just villages. The prettiest villages' association probably needs to think about a registered trademark, if it hasn't already.
There is of course another way in which Wisden is a survivor. Its sheer physical presence. You simply can't avoid it, so large is it. Indeed, such is its bulk that it can be used to keep any door open and withstand up to a force eight gale ramming into the door. While other giants of the print media may have gone the way of all Wikipedias or just Google, Wisden's voracious appetite for paper keeps entire industries afloat.
It is this, the physical nature of the hard copy, that can seem the most curious manifestation of Wisden of the current day. Yet it is anything but curious. Tangibility, holding something which isn't a device and that has the essence of presence, accounts for a great deal, even today. So is also the case with much of what Mallorca churns out for tourism. The island may be poorly served by digital applications (those from official, governmental sources) but it is still weighed under by the amount of paper. Apps and so on abound, but promotional publications are far from being in retreat.
Why is this? The answer is easy. Tradition, reassurance, tangibility; all to be cherished.
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 April 2017
Morning high (8.06am): 8.4C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 6 April - Cloud, sun, 19C; 7 April - Sun, cloud, 19C; 8 April - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 2 to 4.
Mostly sunny, but cloud due to come in this evening. May be a shower overnight or tomorrow morning.
Evening update (20.45): High of 21.C. Some rain this evening. Only light.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 6 April - Cloud, sun, 19C; 7 April - Sun, cloud, 19C; 8 April - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 2 to 4.
Mostly sunny, but cloud due to come in this evening. May be a shower overnight or tomorrow morning.
Evening update (20.45): High of 21.C. Some rain this evening. Only light.
The Way Of All Gurus
Gurus had clearly existed prior to the Maharishi, but he introduced the concept of gurudom to a generation of pop stars and indeed to an entire generation. When he died nine years ago, The Guardian referred to him as the "groovy charlatan". A man of peace, spiritualism and meditation, there was always the suspicion that behind the flower garlands lay an acute business brain and a cosmic vendor of snake oil.
The Maharishi did more than most, however, to gift the global lexicon the word guru. And somewhat in keeping with that perhaps entrepreneurial streak, a new type of guru was to emerge some ten or so years after John Lennon had the sense to see through him. This was the management guru and also the "excellence" guru.
Management became weirdly hip, courtesy of gurus who suggested that attaining business excellence merely required following the examples of other businesses which had already done so - in their opinion. Thus was bred an entire industry which embraced publishing, consultancy and the conference circuit. There was good money to be made from gurudom, and senior management attached themselves to the outpourings of Harvard, McKinsey and various business schools, consultancies and individual gurus with a spiritualist fervour akin to Mike Love or others hanging off the every word of the Maharishi.
Politics obligingly followed the lead of business cultures that were vainly believing they were pursuing higher states of managerial consciousness. As a consequence, management-speak entered the vocabularies of politicians and political parties and became more mangled and more jargonised than it already was. Coincidental to this latest quackery was the emergence of the political guru. No self-respecting political party could be seen without one. Or several.
Jaume Garau sounds like he should be a guru. The surname is one vowel too many and one substituted vowel away from being guru. Which is how he has been referred to. In fact, and according to Catalan onomastics, Garau is a descendant of the German Gerard, which has morphed, variously, into Giralt and Grau. Given this Germanic origin, Garau means something like brave warrior.
Garau has found himself surplus to requirements, one of those who hastily needed to be dispensed with once the contracts he had with Més ministries became public knowledge. The brave warrior has been struck down. He might actually find it hard to get up again.
What was it that elevated him to guru status? Principally, it would appear, because he helped mastermind the Més election campaign in 2015. So successful was this that Més ended up with the government vice-presidency, a goodie bag's worth of ministries, and the presidency of the Council of Mallorca. This success was predicated on gaining six deputies out of 59 in the Balearic parliament and 13.8% of the vote. By such minor successes is great success measured.
In addition, and according to Palma's Antoni Noguera, who can't wait until June to get both hands on the mayoral wand (so much so that one hand is already gripping it), Garau assisted in supervising Malta's entry into the European Union in 2004. Noguera was responsible for one of the contracts going to Garau. It cost 15,000 euros (plus IVA, VAT), says Noguera, in return for securing 25 million euros of European funding. This, Brussels benevolence, is a speciality of Garau's. As also is tourism.
His doctoral thesis for the University of the Balearic Islands was to do with tourist satisfaction. Given this, given the fact that he had held a senior position during the 2007-2011 government (for European funding), and also given his help in getting Barceló into the ministry, he was apparently offered the post of tourism director-general. He declined the offer, preferring to carry on with some lucrative consultancy work. Which brings us to the contracts.
The amounts involved in these are not vast. Taken individually, there doesn't seem anything necessarily wrong with them. But the anti-corruption prosecution must sense something to have opened an investigation. There clearly is something suspicious in that there is the appearance of potentially organised favouritism, while the prosecution will want to check that the amounts involved were valid.
Garau certainly has benefited from his close association with Més, but it has been pointed out that this hasn't worked entirely in his favour. The Council of Mallorca, presided over by Miquel Ensenyat of Més, has not given any contract. Moreover, it is said that he has offered his services to other parties (he did work worth more than the Més contracts for the Bauzá administration), but got nowhere. That's because the brave warrior was so successful in getting Més into power.
As gurus go, he has substance, certainly if one accepts what Noguera has said. The problem with gurus, though, is that they can seem too good to be true. Paul McCartney said that of the Maharishi. Garau is learning the harsh lesson of gurudom.
The Maharishi did more than most, however, to gift the global lexicon the word guru. And somewhat in keeping with that perhaps entrepreneurial streak, a new type of guru was to emerge some ten or so years after John Lennon had the sense to see through him. This was the management guru and also the "excellence" guru.
Management became weirdly hip, courtesy of gurus who suggested that attaining business excellence merely required following the examples of other businesses which had already done so - in their opinion. Thus was bred an entire industry which embraced publishing, consultancy and the conference circuit. There was good money to be made from gurudom, and senior management attached themselves to the outpourings of Harvard, McKinsey and various business schools, consultancies and individual gurus with a spiritualist fervour akin to Mike Love or others hanging off the every word of the Maharishi.
Politics obligingly followed the lead of business cultures that were vainly believing they were pursuing higher states of managerial consciousness. As a consequence, management-speak entered the vocabularies of politicians and political parties and became more mangled and more jargonised than it already was. Coincidental to this latest quackery was the emergence of the political guru. No self-respecting political party could be seen without one. Or several.
Jaume Garau sounds like he should be a guru. The surname is one vowel too many and one substituted vowel away from being guru. Which is how he has been referred to. In fact, and according to Catalan onomastics, Garau is a descendant of the German Gerard, which has morphed, variously, into Giralt and Grau. Given this Germanic origin, Garau means something like brave warrior.
Garau has found himself surplus to requirements, one of those who hastily needed to be dispensed with once the contracts he had with Més ministries became public knowledge. The brave warrior has been struck down. He might actually find it hard to get up again.
What was it that elevated him to guru status? Principally, it would appear, because he helped mastermind the Més election campaign in 2015. So successful was this that Més ended up with the government vice-presidency, a goodie bag's worth of ministries, and the presidency of the Council of Mallorca. This success was predicated on gaining six deputies out of 59 in the Balearic parliament and 13.8% of the vote. By such minor successes is great success measured.
In addition, and according to Palma's Antoni Noguera, who can't wait until June to get both hands on the mayoral wand (so much so that one hand is already gripping it), Garau assisted in supervising Malta's entry into the European Union in 2004. Noguera was responsible for one of the contracts going to Garau. It cost 15,000 euros (plus IVA, VAT), says Noguera, in return for securing 25 million euros of European funding. This, Brussels benevolence, is a speciality of Garau's. As also is tourism.
His doctoral thesis for the University of the Balearic Islands was to do with tourist satisfaction. Given this, given the fact that he had held a senior position during the 2007-2011 government (for European funding), and also given his help in getting Barceló into the ministry, he was apparently offered the post of tourism director-general. He declined the offer, preferring to carry on with some lucrative consultancy work. Which brings us to the contracts.
The amounts involved in these are not vast. Taken individually, there doesn't seem anything necessarily wrong with them. But the anti-corruption prosecution must sense something to have opened an investigation. There clearly is something suspicious in that there is the appearance of potentially organised favouritism, while the prosecution will want to check that the amounts involved were valid.
Garau certainly has benefited from his close association with Més, but it has been pointed out that this hasn't worked entirely in his favour. The Council of Mallorca, presided over by Miquel Ensenyat of Més, has not given any contract. Moreover, it is said that he has offered his services to other parties (he did work worth more than the Més contracts for the Bauzá administration), but got nowhere. That's because the brave warrior was so successful in getting Més into power.
As gurus go, he has substance, certainly if one accepts what Noguera has said. The problem with gurus, though, is that they can seem too good to be true. Paul McCartney said that of the Maharishi. Garau is learning the harsh lesson of gurudom.
Tuesday, April 04, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 April 2017
Morning high (8.40am): 8.3C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 5 April - Cloud, 20C; 6 April - Sun, cloud, 19C; 7 April - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3.
Fine, sunny morning. A warm day coming.
Evening update (20.00): High of 25.8C.
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 5 April - Cloud, 20C; 6 April - Sun, cloud, 19C; 7 April - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3.
Fine, sunny morning. A warm day coming.
Evening update (20.00): High of 25.8C.
The Defectors Of Pollensa
There was a good deal of talk about defection in Pollensa last week. There were two defectors. One was Martí Roca, the former councillor from El Pi who was ejected by the party but remains a councillor ("non-accredited"). A motion was raised, egged on by the El Pi apparatus which doesn't otherwise have a councillor and enthusiastically proposed by the ruling coalition of the Junts (Altogether Now, Altogether Now). Defection was to be officially abhorred. The motion failed. Of those against were the Tots, the creation of ex-mayor Tomeu Cifre. He defected from the PP when he fell out with Bauzá.
Yes, Cifre was a defector, but there again he was a fairly honourable one. He'd had enough of Bauzá (many others had but didn't take such action) and did what he did - form another party, indistinguishable from the PP, just with a different name. Roca, though, wasn't a defector as such. How could he have been? He was chucked out of the party. That isn't the same as defection.
The Alternativa, abstaining on the motion, took the view that El Pi were the last ones to be giving lectures on defection. They had, after all, been formed with the help of one-time Manacor mayor Antoni Pastor, a defector from the PP. Which was also wrong. Pastor was a much earlier objector to Bauzá than Cifre. He was thrown out of the PP. How could he have been a defector therefore?
If you want an example of defection, then you can go back to the 2011 election in Alcudia. A PSM (Mallorcan socialist) councillor, Carme Garcia, was elected. She then threw her lot in with the PP and allowed it to run the town administration. Had she not, the PP would not have had a majority. Removed from the party, hers was a case of defection. You don't just let the enemy in as easily as that and secure yourself a post as one of the deputy mayors.
Back in Pollensa, the further defection involved the mayor. Miquel Àngel March was once the spokesperson for GOB. He's as enviro-conscious as it gets. Yet, there he was, seemingly backing a proposal which, although it didn't spell it out, was calling on the tourism ministry to exempt holiday rental villas that aren't strictly speaking legal. This is because, under the forthcoming legislation, such villas cannot be official if they a) have any pending infraction for planning violation hanging over them or b) do not have a certificate of habitability. This latter aspect means, for instance, being unable to show how - to put it bluntly - shit is dealt with.
As a committed GOB-ite, it might have been thought that March would be firmly opposed to any exemptions. However, there is of course the awkward situation in Pollensa that without holiday rentals the tourist economy would collapse. Even a GOB-ite can understand that.
The Alternativa were not satisfied. They accused the mayor of ideological defection, an allusion to the Roca motion, and one which apparently left councillors examining their shoes while the tourism councillor made a brave attempt at explaining things and March maintained an undignified silence.
The tourism ministry, responding to this, said that if properties don't comply, then they're going to have to, if they want to remain legally registered holiday rentals. The ministry's position is, one would suggest, perfectly reasonable.
Defection or not, March knows he faces a very awkward situation. Ideologically he would be opposed to liberal application of rentals' legislation, but as a defender of Pollensa interests he would be mad to be. The crunch is going to come with all the zoning that it is to be done. Tourism minister Barceló has intimated that currently registered rentals' properties could be de-registered. Villas which are fully legal might conceivably fall outside the zones. Then there are apartments, ones which may or may not become eligible for legal registration. If they do become eligible, then they will be part of the wider narrative of the devil's work of tourist saturation, a narrative to which GOB is an adherent.
What more defection might there yet be?
Yes, Cifre was a defector, but there again he was a fairly honourable one. He'd had enough of Bauzá (many others had but didn't take such action) and did what he did - form another party, indistinguishable from the PP, just with a different name. Roca, though, wasn't a defector as such. How could he have been? He was chucked out of the party. That isn't the same as defection.
The Alternativa, abstaining on the motion, took the view that El Pi were the last ones to be giving lectures on defection. They had, after all, been formed with the help of one-time Manacor mayor Antoni Pastor, a defector from the PP. Which was also wrong. Pastor was a much earlier objector to Bauzá than Cifre. He was thrown out of the PP. How could he have been a defector therefore?
If you want an example of defection, then you can go back to the 2011 election in Alcudia. A PSM (Mallorcan socialist) councillor, Carme Garcia, was elected. She then threw her lot in with the PP and allowed it to run the town administration. Had she not, the PP would not have had a majority. Removed from the party, hers was a case of defection. You don't just let the enemy in as easily as that and secure yourself a post as one of the deputy mayors.
Back in Pollensa, the further defection involved the mayor. Miquel Àngel March was once the spokesperson for GOB. He's as enviro-conscious as it gets. Yet, there he was, seemingly backing a proposal which, although it didn't spell it out, was calling on the tourism ministry to exempt holiday rental villas that aren't strictly speaking legal. This is because, under the forthcoming legislation, such villas cannot be official if they a) have any pending infraction for planning violation hanging over them or b) do not have a certificate of habitability. This latter aspect means, for instance, being unable to show how - to put it bluntly - shit is dealt with.
As a committed GOB-ite, it might have been thought that March would be firmly opposed to any exemptions. However, there is of course the awkward situation in Pollensa that without holiday rentals the tourist economy would collapse. Even a GOB-ite can understand that.
The Alternativa were not satisfied. They accused the mayor of ideological defection, an allusion to the Roca motion, and one which apparently left councillors examining their shoes while the tourism councillor made a brave attempt at explaining things and March maintained an undignified silence.
The tourism ministry, responding to this, said that if properties don't comply, then they're going to have to, if they want to remain legally registered holiday rentals. The ministry's position is, one would suggest, perfectly reasonable.
Defection or not, March knows he faces a very awkward situation. Ideologically he would be opposed to liberal application of rentals' legislation, but as a defender of Pollensa interests he would be mad to be. The crunch is going to come with all the zoning that it is to be done. Tourism minister Barceló has intimated that currently registered rentals' properties could be de-registered. Villas which are fully legal might conceivably fall outside the zones. Then there are apartments, ones which may or may not become eligible for legal registration. If they do become eligible, then they will be part of the wider narrative of the devil's work of tourist saturation, a narrative to which GOB is an adherent.
What more defection might there yet be?
Monday, April 03, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 April 2017
Morning high (8.20am): 14.2C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 4 April - Sun, 22C; 5 April - Sun, cloud, 20C; 6 April - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 3 to 4.
Cloud around first thing, clearing later for a fine day. Outlook for the week is good, with temperatures in the low 20s.
Evening update (23.15): Cloud lingered until around midday before the sun came through. High of 20.7C.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 4 April - Sun, 22C; 5 April - Sun, cloud, 20C; 6 April - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 3 to 4.
Cloud around first thing, clearing later for a fine day. Outlook for the week is good, with temperatures in the low 20s.
Evening update (23.15): Cloud lingered until around midday before the sun came through. High of 20.7C.
Auditorium, Palacio And Continuity From The Sixties
When Palma's new Palacio de Congresos stages its first events, will there be, among those attending, members of secret police forces? The question is asked (and the answer is almost certainly no) because of what once happened in the auditorium in Palma, a forerunner of the city's events' centres. The Kirov Ballet from Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad) performed at the auditorium. Politically, Spain and the USSR were oceans apart, but in an auditorium overlooking the Mediterranean were secret police: Franco's and the KGB. They were watching each other, and the KBG was particularly attentive when it came to the dancers. None of them would be able to defect.
The story serves as a reminder of how things were. The 1960s were an extraordinary time in Mallorca. The island boomed from comparative backwardness to great wealth. This all played out against the political background, which now seems so far removed. But the Franco regime, while authoritarian, didn't hold back the march of entrepreneurialism. The Palacio's opening is in a sense symbolic of that. Gabriel Escarrer Juliá had started in 1956. By the end of the 1960s, Hoteles Mallorquines, as it was then, was already a power in the land.
The Palacio represents something of a continuity from the sixties. The decade closed with the opening of the auditorium. For Palma and Mallorca the auditorium marked a moment of cultural arrival, a confirmation of the developments enabled by tourism. The auditorium was also a tribute to the entrepreneurial spirit. Its existence owed everything to one man - Marc Ferragut Fluxà.
From Inca, and I'm presuming he was from the same family which produced Camper and ultimately Iberostar, he didn't follow the shoemaking family tradition. A Republican, he survived the war. He moved to Palma in 1943 and just went about his business. Attracted by the city's then cultural life, he was drawn to the Teatre Principal and to concerts by the Mallorca Symphony Orchestra. From this came an idea for a grand auditorium.
A decisive element in this was a trip he made to London. He went to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall. What impressed him in particular were the acoustics and the view of the stage. These were unlike traditional theatres, such as the Teatre Principal. His son, Rafel, was to become involved. He went to London to study and to also visit the Royal Festival Hall: acoustics became a speciality.
Ferragut teamed up with an architect from Madrid - Luís Martínez-Feduchi Ruiz. The town hall supported the idea for an auditorium enthusiastically but not financially. It enabled the finding of the site, but the funding was to prove to be a long process. When it was finally in place, the building which arose on the Paseo Marítimo was essentially a Royal Festival Hall on a smaller scale.
The opening in September 1969 was a culmination of all that had occurred during the sixties. The cream of Mallorcan society, now even more wealthy, gathered to hear the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
The auditorium, and it is the same with the Palacio, was looked upon as a facility to assist with the diversification of Mallorca's tourism. This was diversification in terms both of product (culture) and season. For all talk of there having once been a thriving winter season in Mallorca, the truth is rather different. And from the sixties onwards there was an obsession with attempting to broaden the season and not be reliant on the summer months.
The narrative over the nearly fifty years since the auditorium opened hasn't really altered. The Palacio is the latest part of this narrative, one which might prove to be very much more decisive than the auditorium was to be. But such is the narrative, and so the attempts to promote the low winter season, that at the start of the 1960s a competition was run.
In 1960, the newspaper Baleares set its readers a task. Find a slogan to promote the low season. This slogan had to be in both Castellano and English. The best won a prize of 5,000 pesetas. It said: "Mallorca has everything, except winter." Others were "Relax this winter in sunny Mallorca" and "Mallorca is even better in winter".
How little has changed.
The story serves as a reminder of how things were. The 1960s were an extraordinary time in Mallorca. The island boomed from comparative backwardness to great wealth. This all played out against the political background, which now seems so far removed. But the Franco regime, while authoritarian, didn't hold back the march of entrepreneurialism. The Palacio's opening is in a sense symbolic of that. Gabriel Escarrer Juliá had started in 1956. By the end of the 1960s, Hoteles Mallorquines, as it was then, was already a power in the land.
The Palacio represents something of a continuity from the sixties. The decade closed with the opening of the auditorium. For Palma and Mallorca the auditorium marked a moment of cultural arrival, a confirmation of the developments enabled by tourism. The auditorium was also a tribute to the entrepreneurial spirit. Its existence owed everything to one man - Marc Ferragut Fluxà.
From Inca, and I'm presuming he was from the same family which produced Camper and ultimately Iberostar, he didn't follow the shoemaking family tradition. A Republican, he survived the war. He moved to Palma in 1943 and just went about his business. Attracted by the city's then cultural life, he was drawn to the Teatre Principal and to concerts by the Mallorca Symphony Orchestra. From this came an idea for a grand auditorium.
A decisive element in this was a trip he made to London. He went to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall. What impressed him in particular were the acoustics and the view of the stage. These were unlike traditional theatres, such as the Teatre Principal. His son, Rafel, was to become involved. He went to London to study and to also visit the Royal Festival Hall: acoustics became a speciality.
Ferragut teamed up with an architect from Madrid - Luís Martínez-Feduchi Ruiz. The town hall supported the idea for an auditorium enthusiastically but not financially. It enabled the finding of the site, but the funding was to prove to be a long process. When it was finally in place, the building which arose on the Paseo Marítimo was essentially a Royal Festival Hall on a smaller scale.
The opening in September 1969 was a culmination of all that had occurred during the sixties. The cream of Mallorcan society, now even more wealthy, gathered to hear the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
The auditorium, and it is the same with the Palacio, was looked upon as a facility to assist with the diversification of Mallorca's tourism. This was diversification in terms both of product (culture) and season. For all talk of there having once been a thriving winter season in Mallorca, the truth is rather different. And from the sixties onwards there was an obsession with attempting to broaden the season and not be reliant on the summer months.
The narrative over the nearly fifty years since the auditorium opened hasn't really altered. The Palacio is the latest part of this narrative, one which might prove to be very much more decisive than the auditorium was to be. But such is the narrative, and so the attempts to promote the low winter season, that at the start of the 1960s a competition was run.
In 1960, the newspaper Baleares set its readers a task. Find a slogan to promote the low season. This slogan had to be in both Castellano and English. The best won a prize of 5,000 pesetas. It said: "Mallorca has everything, except winter." Others were "Relax this winter in sunny Mallorca" and "Mallorca is even better in winter".
How little has changed.
Sunday, April 02, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 April 2017
Morning high (7.53am): 13.8C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 3 April - Cloud, sun, 19C; 4 April - Sun, cloud, 21C; 5 April - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3.
The odd blob and sheet of cloud first thing. Should be a good enough Sunday.
Evening update (19.45): High of 20.3C. Very pleasant.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 3 April - Cloud, sun, 19C; 4 April - Sun, cloud, 21C; 5 April - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3.
The odd blob and sheet of cloud first thing. Should be a good enough Sunday.
Evening update (19.45): High of 20.3C. Very pleasant.
Mrs. Doubtfire's Doubtful Dismissal
Now let's see. During the Antich government it was tourism which supplied the ministerial revolving door. No sooner had one been sacked or carted off under the watchful gaze of the legal system than in came another and rapidly also headed for the exit. The Bauzá regime never knowingly did anything by halves, hence it doubled the number of troubled ministries. Education and health both notched up three ministers.
Things in this regard have been relatively calm for Francina. Had been calm. There was a reshuffle brought about through ill health (Joan Boned), but otherwise ministerial stable doors have been reasonably stable and bolted. However, lurking in the pact has been a ministry of which no one is quite certain what it actually does. Above all, allegedly, it is one for transparency. Or not transparency.
You may recall that this (along with culture, sport and God knows what else) was the domain of Esperança Camps. You don't recall? Well, you're forgiven because no one does. Indeed, no one was aware that she was actually a minister. She took transparency to the extreme by being invisible, so much so that the Mésites (she was one such) were forced into recommending her removal. Francina duly obliged with the P45.
With all hope having evaporated for Esperança, the Mésites scoured the Menorca landscape (the quota system demanded a Menorcan) and plucked out Mrs. Doubtfire, otherwise known as Ruth Mateu. Mrs. D. would prove to be transparent, they trusted, even if you couldn't see through her. She certainly was more visible, which isn't quite the same thing as being transparent. Aware of Esperança's non-materialisation, Mrs. D. was rarely not to be seen. Alas, we won't be seeing anything more of her.
It's all to do with contracts, the transparent or opaque nature thereof. On the list of contracts awarded by Mésites to their friendly consultant Jaume Garau (now himself excommunicated by Més) were two for the transparency ministry. Because Mrs. D. was in charge of transparency (whatever this means), she had to be seen to be whiter than white. Or so transparent that you wouldn't really know she was there. Wherever there was. So rather like Esperança.
There is, how might one suggest this, an element of convenience with her demise, which was either a sacking or a resignation, depending on which version you prefer. The transparency portfolio has offered a neat solution to attempt to head off the "crisis" which has surrounded the Mésites because of the contracts but which has only served to generate a greater crisis. There was not transparency with the contracts, therefore the transparency minister had to fall on her sword or have it thrush into her.
She was dispensable. Which is not the case with Biel Barceló or Vince Vidal. These two occupy important ministries, and ones that are not obscure in terms of what is done: tourism and environment, rather than transparency. And on the principle of last one in, first one out, it was Mrs. D. who was for the chop. The Mésites in Menorca were bloody furious. Mrs. D. had been hung out to dry. Transparent? There was nothing left of her. They had a point, and so they duly took their bats home and said bye, bye to Francina and her government. So long, Ruth, I think you deserve some sympathy.
Things in this regard have been relatively calm for Francina. Had been calm. There was a reshuffle brought about through ill health (Joan Boned), but otherwise ministerial stable doors have been reasonably stable and bolted. However, lurking in the pact has been a ministry of which no one is quite certain what it actually does. Above all, allegedly, it is one for transparency. Or not transparency.
You may recall that this (along with culture, sport and God knows what else) was the domain of Esperança Camps. You don't recall? Well, you're forgiven because no one does. Indeed, no one was aware that she was actually a minister. She took transparency to the extreme by being invisible, so much so that the Mésites (she was one such) were forced into recommending her removal. Francina duly obliged with the P45.
With all hope having evaporated for Esperança, the Mésites scoured the Menorca landscape (the quota system demanded a Menorcan) and plucked out Mrs. Doubtfire, otherwise known as Ruth Mateu. Mrs. D. would prove to be transparent, they trusted, even if you couldn't see through her. She certainly was more visible, which isn't quite the same thing as being transparent. Aware of Esperança's non-materialisation, Mrs. D. was rarely not to be seen. Alas, we won't be seeing anything more of her.
It's all to do with contracts, the transparent or opaque nature thereof. On the list of contracts awarded by Mésites to their friendly consultant Jaume Garau (now himself excommunicated by Més) were two for the transparency ministry. Because Mrs. D. was in charge of transparency (whatever this means), she had to be seen to be whiter than white. Or so transparent that you wouldn't really know she was there. Wherever there was. So rather like Esperança.
There is, how might one suggest this, an element of convenience with her demise, which was either a sacking or a resignation, depending on which version you prefer. The transparency portfolio has offered a neat solution to attempt to head off the "crisis" which has surrounded the Mésites because of the contracts but which has only served to generate a greater crisis. There was not transparency with the contracts, therefore the transparency minister had to fall on her sword or have it thrush into her.
She was dispensable. Which is not the case with Biel Barceló or Vince Vidal. These two occupy important ministries, and ones that are not obscure in terms of what is done: tourism and environment, rather than transparency. And on the principle of last one in, first one out, it was Mrs. D. who was for the chop. The Mésites in Menorca were bloody furious. Mrs. D. had been hung out to dry. Transparent? There was nothing left of her. They had a point, and so they duly took their bats home and said bye, bye to Francina and her government. So long, Ruth, I think you deserve some sympathy.
Saturday, April 01, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 April 2017
Morning high (7.50am): 13.6C
Forecast high: 17C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 2 April - Cloud, sun, 18C; 3 April - Cloud, sun, 19C; 4 April - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 3 to 4.
There was a storm around five in the morning. A bit damp to begin with therefore. Possible rain later, clearing by late afternoon.
Evening update (20.15): High of 19.7C. April showers. Not bad when the sun was out.
Forecast high: 17C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 2 April - Cloud, sun, 18C; 3 April - Cloud, sun, 19C; 4 April - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 3 to 4.
There was a storm around five in the morning. A bit damp to begin with therefore. Possible rain later, clearing by late afternoon.
Evening update (20.15): High of 19.7C. April showers. Not bad when the sun was out.
The Early "Summer" Of A Mallorcan Spring
We have a seasonal problem. Defining it. Not so long ago it was easy. The Mallorca summer started on 1 May. Contracts were signed, hotels opened, bars followed suit. Summer is now earlier. We have to redefine it as starting on 1 April or before, even if there is still some official insistence that at the stroke of midnight on 30 April, winter passes and summer commences.
As always, there is the issue of how universal this is. Even within resorts, universality does not apply. In Alcudia, much of the main tourism centre is still a building site - streets dug up, hotels with ongoing renovations, dust flying everywhere, combining with the pollen and keeping the car washes hyper-busy. Otherwise, the perception is one previously reserved for later in the "summer". Great activity, the roads are like velodromes, and it isn't April until tomorrow.
More fool we, though, for thinking that "summer" has been lengthened? The Mallorcan summer? Starting it in February will take some believing, but April seems increasingly apt. And providers of tourism numbers - the tour operators - are saying that this April is the new June; Easter does help in this regard.
Is this all the consequence of what experts call geopolitics, better known as security issues elsewhere? Partly it probably is. Otherwise, I remain unconvinced that it has a great deal to do with the regional tourism ministry. It will glow in the sharp light of a Mallorcan spring (aka early "summer") and insist that it is all to do with efforts to tackle seasonality. But there has been talk of tackling seasonality problems ever since seasons began in Mallorca: around about the time that tourism started to acquire its initial 1960s' mass.
There are plenty of others who do the ministry's work for it, such as those who loiter on social media, terrain that the ministry's promotional gurus don't appear yet to have heard of. Social serendipity, coming across a Mallorcan early "summer" by chance, seems to play as much of a part as anything. Then there are the cyclists. Yes, the cyclists. Hotels don't only house them, you know. The spin-off from all those wheels spinning around and clogging up the roads is a beneficial one. Hotels which didn't once open now do. Airbnb, speak its name quietly and not in front of a hotelier, may also have inadvertently done some of the ministry's work. Much to the ministry's chagrin; hence its search to stop this work being done for it.
And we do perhaps also have to thank Palma. Its growth as a city-break destination and the affectionate media spotlight that has been shone on the city are advantageous not solely to it. Palma is part of Mallorca. Just a part. There is an afterglow for the "part forana" (anywhere that isn't Palma), as reputation and recommendations radiate out beyond the Via Cintura.
What of this early "summer", though? What's it like? April is bright, extraordinarily bright. It has the light that painted many a canvas. Clear and sharp and minus the ozone haze of real summer. Such clarity is in the air, the freshness of the breezes that are not quite cold, fooling winter skins into feeling that the sun is not at its more penetrative. It is, even with moderate UV ratings.
The early "summer " of April passes into later early summer, namely May. And it does so with superyachts bumping into each other on gentle waters in the bay of Palma, carefully avoiding collisions with the returning leviathans of the seas, disgorging their saturating tourists. Palma's boat show is the fairest of all the seasonal fairs. It is an occasion only partially reserved for politicians. For the Balearic president and the minister for employment, trade and industry to announce how important the nautical industry is to Mallorca, how significant it is for economic diversification, how vital it is in the pursuit of the Holy Grail of deseasonalisation.
Prior to Palma, the old fishermen of Alcudia sew their nets on the quayside and wait for their remuneration from the sale of sepia. Alcudia's boat show is more an attraction than a point of sale. Vessels to be ogled, as thousands of visitors stroll towards the greater temptations of three-euro-a-pop cuttlefish tapas. Giants do what giants do. They stand and guard, unblinking in the startling light. Bigheads parade, launch flour on unsuspecting spectators, beat on the ankles small children who chant their teasing rhymes. All the fun of the early "summer" fair.
In Muro on the weekend after Easter, they celebrate Saint Francis of Paola by climbing a tree and liberating a rabbit. Someone will probably say that they shouldn't. There's a law against it. Maybe. It depends on how many years the rabbit (not the same one) has found itself in an abnormal situation on top of a tree.
These are the spring (early "summer") fairs. Santa Margalida's heralds the arrival of Holy Week. The fair is always on Palm Sunday. The palms are blessed, the oddly terrifying religious garb parades as it also parades later in the week. The terrifyingly moving ceremonies of the "Davallament" glorify the Good Fridays of Arta, Felanitx, Palma and Pollensa. Silence descends on the Cathedral steps for the staging of Llorenç Moya's "Via Crucis". And the week after Holy Week becomes picnic week, the annual pancaritat pilgrimages. The greatest number of pilgrims head for Bellver Castle on the Sunday after Easter for the Day of the Angel.
This is early "summer". The new season. It begins on 1 April. Or does it?
As always, there is the issue of how universal this is. Even within resorts, universality does not apply. In Alcudia, much of the main tourism centre is still a building site - streets dug up, hotels with ongoing renovations, dust flying everywhere, combining with the pollen and keeping the car washes hyper-busy. Otherwise, the perception is one previously reserved for later in the "summer". Great activity, the roads are like velodromes, and it isn't April until tomorrow.
More fool we, though, for thinking that "summer" has been lengthened? The Mallorcan summer? Starting it in February will take some believing, but April seems increasingly apt. And providers of tourism numbers - the tour operators - are saying that this April is the new June; Easter does help in this regard.
Is this all the consequence of what experts call geopolitics, better known as security issues elsewhere? Partly it probably is. Otherwise, I remain unconvinced that it has a great deal to do with the regional tourism ministry. It will glow in the sharp light of a Mallorcan spring (aka early "summer") and insist that it is all to do with efforts to tackle seasonality. But there has been talk of tackling seasonality problems ever since seasons began in Mallorca: around about the time that tourism started to acquire its initial 1960s' mass.
There are plenty of others who do the ministry's work for it, such as those who loiter on social media, terrain that the ministry's promotional gurus don't appear yet to have heard of. Social serendipity, coming across a Mallorcan early "summer" by chance, seems to play as much of a part as anything. Then there are the cyclists. Yes, the cyclists. Hotels don't only house them, you know. The spin-off from all those wheels spinning around and clogging up the roads is a beneficial one. Hotels which didn't once open now do. Airbnb, speak its name quietly and not in front of a hotelier, may also have inadvertently done some of the ministry's work. Much to the ministry's chagrin; hence its search to stop this work being done for it.
And we do perhaps also have to thank Palma. Its growth as a city-break destination and the affectionate media spotlight that has been shone on the city are advantageous not solely to it. Palma is part of Mallorca. Just a part. There is an afterglow for the "part forana" (anywhere that isn't Palma), as reputation and recommendations radiate out beyond the Via Cintura.
What of this early "summer", though? What's it like? April is bright, extraordinarily bright. It has the light that painted many a canvas. Clear and sharp and minus the ozone haze of real summer. Such clarity is in the air, the freshness of the breezes that are not quite cold, fooling winter skins into feeling that the sun is not at its more penetrative. It is, even with moderate UV ratings.
The early "summer " of April passes into later early summer, namely May. And it does so with superyachts bumping into each other on gentle waters in the bay of Palma, carefully avoiding collisions with the returning leviathans of the seas, disgorging their saturating tourists. Palma's boat show is the fairest of all the seasonal fairs. It is an occasion only partially reserved for politicians. For the Balearic president and the minister for employment, trade and industry to announce how important the nautical industry is to Mallorca, how significant it is for economic diversification, how vital it is in the pursuit of the Holy Grail of deseasonalisation.
Prior to Palma, the old fishermen of Alcudia sew their nets on the quayside and wait for their remuneration from the sale of sepia. Alcudia's boat show is more an attraction than a point of sale. Vessels to be ogled, as thousands of visitors stroll towards the greater temptations of three-euro-a-pop cuttlefish tapas. Giants do what giants do. They stand and guard, unblinking in the startling light. Bigheads parade, launch flour on unsuspecting spectators, beat on the ankles small children who chant their teasing rhymes. All the fun of the early "summer" fair.
In Muro on the weekend after Easter, they celebrate Saint Francis of Paola by climbing a tree and liberating a rabbit. Someone will probably say that they shouldn't. There's a law against it. Maybe. It depends on how many years the rabbit (not the same one) has found itself in an abnormal situation on top of a tree.
These are the spring (early "summer") fairs. Santa Margalida's heralds the arrival of Holy Week. The fair is always on Palm Sunday. The palms are blessed, the oddly terrifying religious garb parades as it also parades later in the week. The terrifyingly moving ceremonies of the "Davallament" glorify the Good Fridays of Arta, Felanitx, Palma and Pollensa. Silence descends on the Cathedral steps for the staging of Llorenç Moya's "Via Crucis". And the week after Holy Week becomes picnic week, the annual pancaritat pilgrimages. The greatest number of pilgrims head for Bellver Castle on the Sunday after Easter for the Day of the Angel.
This is early "summer". The new season. It begins on 1 April. Or does it?
Friday, March 31, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 31 March 2017
Morning high (7.43am): 7.4C
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 1 April - Cloud, sun, wind, 17C; 2 April - Cloud, sun, 18C; 3 April - Sun, cloud, 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 mainly East 3 by midday.
Expect another warm day. Tomorrow's forecast has improved but still the risk of showers.
Evening update (20.15): High of 22.5C.
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 1 April - Cloud, sun, wind, 17C; 2 April - Cloud, sun, 18C; 3 April - Sun, cloud, 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 mainly East 3 by midday.
Expect another warm day. Tomorrow's forecast has improved but still the risk of showers.
Evening update (20.15): High of 22.5C.
The Contracts Of A Pact
Pact. The Spanish media refer to the pact ("pacto" in Castellano) as a convenient shorthand. It overcomes the constant need to explain that the Balearics is governed by two parties which are in government and one which isn't. It's an odd pact. One of convenience, which is just as conveniently labelled a pact.
There have been previous pacts. They have comprised fully paid-up governmental political parties. The pact before the current one fell apart. There was a de-pact impact. The remaining members of that pact, once the Unió Mallorquina (UM) was booted into corrupt touch, were PSOE and the Bloc, which itself was a pact. Its prime constituent was the PSM, i.e. Mallorcan socialists. They are now the main force behind Més, a further pact within a pact. Confused? It's hardly surprising.
The high ground, morally and politically, was occupied by the pact survivors. They surveyed the wreckage of the de-pact. It had mostly been inflicted on the tourism ministry, from which a succession of UM ministers were removed (two of them are inside). The Bloc part of the two-thirds pact was gifted former UM terrain. Not tourism but environment. Such was the continuity of pact policies that the PSM overturned certain UM decisions. It was evident that the pact had not been singing from the same environmental hymn sheet.
Pact members essentially have their own domains. This is how they are kept sweet (hopefully). They pursue their individual agendas and then, under the collective harmony of consensus and dialogue, seek to inflict them on the others. The current pact has, as a consequence, had numerous conflicts hastily renamed consensus and dialogue. Podemos has caused nearly all of them. These, though, have been policy conflicts. There is a further dimension. Crisis.
The local media love a crisis as much as a pact. Podemos has seemingly survived the crisis brought about by the now former speaker of parliament Xelo Huertas. The need has arisen, therefore, for a new crisis. We have one - Més. And for old time's sake the tourism ministry isn't a million miles away from it.
This, one should stress, is not a crisis of UM magnitude. We are not talking thievery. It is a crisis that is above board but one which nevertheless falls under a category marked "fishy". In local terms it is also labelled "a dedo" - handpicked.
To try and summarise, the Més crisis has to do with contracts awarded by Més politicians, to the fore of whom is Biel Barceló. The tourism minister (also innovation and research and government vice-president) has an old chum called Jaume Garau. His company ran the Més election campaign. It has been revealed that this same company has been awarded half a dozen contracts valued at a little over 150,000 euros. They include one for studying tourism satisfaction (cost 21,500) handed out by another old chum of Barceló's, the director of the Balearic Tourism Agency, Pere Muñoz.
The largest one (over 55,000 euros) was for a study of Balearic business fabric. It was awarded by the vice-presidency. Others - all for 21,500 euros - have been for the environment ministry (Vicenç Vidal, Més), a deputy mayor of Palma (Antoni Noguera, Més), and two for the transparency and culture ministry (Ruth Mateu, Més). With the exception of the study of the business fabric, they all apparently fall under a system of awarding small contracts which don't have to be advertised or put out to tender. The contract amounts, which are all the same, do appear to comply with a value that doesn't require a tender. In fact, Barceló has explained that all of the contracts were offered to other companies. He admits, though, that it "doesn't look good".
The Partido Popular, for one, agrees that it doesn't look good. Barceló has reminded the PP that under President Bauzá, Gaura was also awarded contracts (total value slightly higher than the six Més contracts). The PP accepts this but points out there was no possible conflict of interest. And it is the relationship between Barceló and Garau which goes to the heart of the "crisis". In a nutshell, he's being accused of favouring his mate.
The government, meanwhile, is requesting information from the relevant ministries (and presumably also Noguera) about the contracts. It will want to assure itself that they complied with ethics and transparency. This in itself, though, sounds a little odd. Barceló is, after all, the vice-president. Is he to scrutinise himself?
There isn't any suggestion of anything illegal. There is also general agreement among political parties that Garau and his company are highly professional. The issue, though, is one of perception: one of not looking good.
Is it a crisis? Is the pact about to suffer the de-pact impact? Unlikely. But Barceló should know all about contracts with questions attached. He made a habit of asking the PP about its.
Index for March 2017
Baltasar Picornell - 5 March 2017, 19 March 2017
Bauzá versus Company - 26 March 2017
Brexit and British holidaymakers - 17 March 2017
Children's football match violence - 23 March 2017
Competitiveness in the Balearics - 24 March 2017
Corruption investigations - 3 March 2017, 16 March 2017
Count Rossi and Civil War - 8 March 2017
English language - 15 March 2017
Fira del Ram - 13 March 2017
Flights' increase at Palma - 25 March 2017
Holiday compensation claims fraud - 1 March 2017
Hotel prices and tour operators' row - 18 March 2017
Holiday rentals and property - 22 March 2017
Més and contracts - 31 March 2017
Paying for Son Dureta - 2 March 2017
Pop-up hotels - 21 March 2017
Pottery - 6 March 2017
Resort redevelopment - 14 March 2017
Sa Pobla church organ - 27 March 2017
Spring and Mallorca promotion - 20 March 2017
Sustainability and tourism - 9 March 2017
Terraferida and Airbnb rentals - 28 March 2017
Tour operators and hotel prices - 12 March 2017
Tourismphobia - 11 March 2017
Tourist tax - 4 March 2017
Transport policy - 10 March 2017
Trilingual teaching - 7 March 2017
Valtonyc and free speech - 30 March 2017
There have been previous pacts. They have comprised fully paid-up governmental political parties. The pact before the current one fell apart. There was a de-pact impact. The remaining members of that pact, once the Unió Mallorquina (UM) was booted into corrupt touch, were PSOE and the Bloc, which itself was a pact. Its prime constituent was the PSM, i.e. Mallorcan socialists. They are now the main force behind Més, a further pact within a pact. Confused? It's hardly surprising.
The high ground, morally and politically, was occupied by the pact survivors. They surveyed the wreckage of the de-pact. It had mostly been inflicted on the tourism ministry, from which a succession of UM ministers were removed (two of them are inside). The Bloc part of the two-thirds pact was gifted former UM terrain. Not tourism but environment. Such was the continuity of pact policies that the PSM overturned certain UM decisions. It was evident that the pact had not been singing from the same environmental hymn sheet.
Pact members essentially have their own domains. This is how they are kept sweet (hopefully). They pursue their individual agendas and then, under the collective harmony of consensus and dialogue, seek to inflict them on the others. The current pact has, as a consequence, had numerous conflicts hastily renamed consensus and dialogue. Podemos has caused nearly all of them. These, though, have been policy conflicts. There is a further dimension. Crisis.
The local media love a crisis as much as a pact. Podemos has seemingly survived the crisis brought about by the now former speaker of parliament Xelo Huertas. The need has arisen, therefore, for a new crisis. We have one - Més. And for old time's sake the tourism ministry isn't a million miles away from it.
This, one should stress, is not a crisis of UM magnitude. We are not talking thievery. It is a crisis that is above board but one which nevertheless falls under a category marked "fishy". In local terms it is also labelled "a dedo" - handpicked.
To try and summarise, the Més crisis has to do with contracts awarded by Més politicians, to the fore of whom is Biel Barceló. The tourism minister (also innovation and research and government vice-president) has an old chum called Jaume Garau. His company ran the Més election campaign. It has been revealed that this same company has been awarded half a dozen contracts valued at a little over 150,000 euros. They include one for studying tourism satisfaction (cost 21,500) handed out by another old chum of Barceló's, the director of the Balearic Tourism Agency, Pere Muñoz.
The largest one (over 55,000 euros) was for a study of Balearic business fabric. It was awarded by the vice-presidency. Others - all for 21,500 euros - have been for the environment ministry (Vicenç Vidal, Més), a deputy mayor of Palma (Antoni Noguera, Més), and two for the transparency and culture ministry (Ruth Mateu, Més). With the exception of the study of the business fabric, they all apparently fall under a system of awarding small contracts which don't have to be advertised or put out to tender. The contract amounts, which are all the same, do appear to comply with a value that doesn't require a tender. In fact, Barceló has explained that all of the contracts were offered to other companies. He admits, though, that it "doesn't look good".
The Partido Popular, for one, agrees that it doesn't look good. Barceló has reminded the PP that under President Bauzá, Gaura was also awarded contracts (total value slightly higher than the six Més contracts). The PP accepts this but points out there was no possible conflict of interest. And it is the relationship between Barceló and Garau which goes to the heart of the "crisis". In a nutshell, he's being accused of favouring his mate.
The government, meanwhile, is requesting information from the relevant ministries (and presumably also Noguera) about the contracts. It will want to assure itself that they complied with ethics and transparency. This in itself, though, sounds a little odd. Barceló is, after all, the vice-president. Is he to scrutinise himself?
There isn't any suggestion of anything illegal. There is also general agreement among political parties that Garau and his company are highly professional. The issue, though, is one of perception: one of not looking good.
Is it a crisis? Is the pact about to suffer the de-pact impact? Unlikely. But Barceló should know all about contracts with questions attached. He made a habit of asking the PP about its.
Index for March 2017
Baltasar Picornell - 5 March 2017, 19 March 2017
Bauzá versus Company - 26 March 2017
Brexit and British holidaymakers - 17 March 2017
Children's football match violence - 23 March 2017
Competitiveness in the Balearics - 24 March 2017
Corruption investigations - 3 March 2017, 16 March 2017
Count Rossi and Civil War - 8 March 2017
English language - 15 March 2017
Fira del Ram - 13 March 2017
Flights' increase at Palma - 25 March 2017
Holiday compensation claims fraud - 1 March 2017
Hotel prices and tour operators' row - 18 March 2017
Holiday rentals and property - 22 March 2017
Més and contracts - 31 March 2017
Paying for Son Dureta - 2 March 2017
Pop-up hotels - 21 March 2017
Pottery - 6 March 2017
Resort redevelopment - 14 March 2017
Sa Pobla church organ - 27 March 2017
Spring and Mallorca promotion - 20 March 2017
Sustainability and tourism - 9 March 2017
Terraferida and Airbnb rentals - 28 March 2017
Tour operators and hotel prices - 12 March 2017
Tourismphobia - 11 March 2017
Tourist tax - 4 March 2017
Transport policy - 10 March 2017
Trilingual teaching - 7 March 2017
Valtonyc and free speech - 30 March 2017
Thursday, March 30, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 30 March 2017
Morning high (7.13am): 7.7C
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 31 March - Sun, cloud, 20C; 1 April - Rain, wind, 16C; 2 April - Cloud, 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3.
More good sunshine to come today. Forecast for the start of the new month not looking too bright.
Evening update (20.00): High of 24.1C. Pretty good.
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 31 March - Sun, cloud, 20C; 1 April - Rain, wind, 16C; 2 April - Cloud, 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3.
More good sunshine to come today. Forecast for the start of the new month not looking too bright.
Evening update (20.00): High of 24.1C. Pretty good.
Lessons In Free Speech
Our good friend Valtonyc keeps popping up. If he isn't quite your good friend and you need reminding of his existence, he is the Sa Pobla rapper Josep Miquel Arenas Beltran, who has found himself in hot water with the courts over what boils down to a question of freedom of expression.
Since being condemned, pending appeal, to three and a half years for, inter alia, wishing harm to the old king, appearing to support terrorism and wishing death on certain individuals, Valtonyc has been constantly to the fore. His latest appearance, in non-rapping style (one guesses), was at the secondary school in Santa Margalida.
There has apparently been a "wave" of reaction against his having "given lessons" to pupils at the school. These lessons weren't lessons as such. According to the school's director, he was invited to a first year class for communication and language. The pupils, it would seem, needed someone of some media standing with whom they could do an interview. As Valtonyc has a relative at the school, it was easy enough to get in touch with him and ask him along.
If it was necessary for there to have been someone with media prominence, then there must have been others who could have been invited. Take the current mayor of Santa Margalida, for example. Joan Monjo is rarely out of the media and was rarely out of it during all the years prior to his having become mayor. One feels sure he could have found a window in his busy schedule to answer questions about putting up chiringuitos on unspoiled beaches in the municipality. Or possibly about his desire to name a street after that old rogue of the municipality, Joan March.
If not the mayor, then maybe his predecessor (one removed) would have sufficed and have been more of the left, to boot. The pupils could have enquired whether Toni Reus of Més still wishes tourist tax revenue to be spent on old folks' homes (that was his idea).
Well, they could have asked either of them, but neither, let's face it, would have held as much appeal as a young rapper and one with a prison sentence hanging over his head. I'm guessing that Valtonyc didn't start whipping up anti-monarchist and pro-terrorist fervour during his "lesson", though one suspects that freedom of expression may well have cropped up as a theme for discussion. In the context of a class on communication and language, that seems a relevant topic.
Very much more unlikely than Monjo or Reus as alternatives would have been Ignacio Arsuaga. And who is he? The president of Hazte Oír, the right-wing organisation that has been driving an orange bus around (or attempting to) for the past few weeks. This bus, dubbed The Bus of Freedom or The Free Speech Bus, has been attacking what Arsuaga says are laws of sexual indoctrination that exist in certain regions of Spain. Basically, he and Hazte Oír are against gays and lesbians and in particular transsexuals.
The bus has been immobilised by police in both Madrid and Barcelona. Bizarrely enough, it has now turned up in New York, where it has been vandalised. The bus and Hazte Oír had gone along for an event organised by Family Watch International, a body founded in 1999 which opposes homosexuality amongst other things.
In a current climate of movement towards the right it might be said that Hazte Oír has found its moment, though I would question whether it has. Spain, unlike elsewhere in Europe, does not have a prominent rabid right. It is the left which has adopted the alt mantle, a quite different take on the populist political fallout from economic crisis and austerity which consumed Europe. Is this so surprising? I would suggest not. Despite the struggles of the conventional left, as in PSOE, socially liberal policies that it advanced under Zapatero have not been undermined. It took Spain a long time to adopt them and it doesn't seem inclined to let them go.
Within this context and general social climate, therefore, one has the support shown for Valtonyc, mainly by the left but not completely. It isn't total support for what he rapped but it is support for his right to have done so.
Is such support misguided? The courts would suggest that it is, hence the prison sentence. There are limits to what can be said. Freedom of expression does not give anyone carte blanche, especially when there are laws preventing this. As a general principle, I'm inclined to agree, pushed to such a conclusion by the apparent impunity which individuals (and organisations) feel they have to state and espouse whatever the hell they want to. The internet takes a great deal of blame for this. There are limits, whether views are of the far right or left.
In Santa Margalida, was a lesson in communication learned?
Since being condemned, pending appeal, to three and a half years for, inter alia, wishing harm to the old king, appearing to support terrorism and wishing death on certain individuals, Valtonyc has been constantly to the fore. His latest appearance, in non-rapping style (one guesses), was at the secondary school in Santa Margalida.
There has apparently been a "wave" of reaction against his having "given lessons" to pupils at the school. These lessons weren't lessons as such. According to the school's director, he was invited to a first year class for communication and language. The pupils, it would seem, needed someone of some media standing with whom they could do an interview. As Valtonyc has a relative at the school, it was easy enough to get in touch with him and ask him along.
If it was necessary for there to have been someone with media prominence, then there must have been others who could have been invited. Take the current mayor of Santa Margalida, for example. Joan Monjo is rarely out of the media and was rarely out of it during all the years prior to his having become mayor. One feels sure he could have found a window in his busy schedule to answer questions about putting up chiringuitos on unspoiled beaches in the municipality. Or possibly about his desire to name a street after that old rogue of the municipality, Joan March.
If not the mayor, then maybe his predecessor (one removed) would have sufficed and have been more of the left, to boot. The pupils could have enquired whether Toni Reus of Més still wishes tourist tax revenue to be spent on old folks' homes (that was his idea).
Well, they could have asked either of them, but neither, let's face it, would have held as much appeal as a young rapper and one with a prison sentence hanging over his head. I'm guessing that Valtonyc didn't start whipping up anti-monarchist and pro-terrorist fervour during his "lesson", though one suspects that freedom of expression may well have cropped up as a theme for discussion. In the context of a class on communication and language, that seems a relevant topic.
Very much more unlikely than Monjo or Reus as alternatives would have been Ignacio Arsuaga. And who is he? The president of Hazte Oír, the right-wing organisation that has been driving an orange bus around (or attempting to) for the past few weeks. This bus, dubbed The Bus of Freedom or The Free Speech Bus, has been attacking what Arsuaga says are laws of sexual indoctrination that exist in certain regions of Spain. Basically, he and Hazte Oír are against gays and lesbians and in particular transsexuals.
The bus has been immobilised by police in both Madrid and Barcelona. Bizarrely enough, it has now turned up in New York, where it has been vandalised. The bus and Hazte Oír had gone along for an event organised by Family Watch International, a body founded in 1999 which opposes homosexuality amongst other things.
In a current climate of movement towards the right it might be said that Hazte Oír has found its moment, though I would question whether it has. Spain, unlike elsewhere in Europe, does not have a prominent rabid right. It is the left which has adopted the alt mantle, a quite different take on the populist political fallout from economic crisis and austerity which consumed Europe. Is this so surprising? I would suggest not. Despite the struggles of the conventional left, as in PSOE, socially liberal policies that it advanced under Zapatero have not been undermined. It took Spain a long time to adopt them and it doesn't seem inclined to let them go.
Within this context and general social climate, therefore, one has the support shown for Valtonyc, mainly by the left but not completely. It isn't total support for what he rapped but it is support for his right to have done so.
Is such support misguided? The courts would suggest that it is, hence the prison sentence. There are limits to what can be said. Freedom of expression does not give anyone carte blanche, especially when there are laws preventing this. As a general principle, I'm inclined to agree, pushed to such a conclusion by the apparent impunity which individuals (and organisations) feel they have to state and espouse whatever the hell they want to. The internet takes a great deal of blame for this. There are limits, whether views are of the far right or left.
In Santa Margalida, was a lesson in communication learned?
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 29 March 2017
Morning high (8.05am): 9.8C
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 30 March - Sun, 21C; 31 March - Sun, 19C; 1 April - Sun, shower, 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Northwest 2 to 3.
A fine morning. Lots of sun to come today.
Evening update (20.00): High of 23.5C.
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 30 March - Sun, 21C; 31 March - Sun, 19C; 1 April - Sun, shower, 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Northwest 2 to 3.
A fine morning. Lots of sun to come today.
Evening update (20.00): High of 23.5C.
Size And Space Matter
If I were to take you to a flat area of land and ask you to walk in such a way that you marked out a square the size of a hectare, would you be able to? Would you even know what a hectare is? For the record it is 2.47105 acres. Would you know what that is, or even a solitary acre?
Let's make it easier. How about if the puzzle was to mark out 0.247105 of an acre, i.e. 1,000 square metres? Or easier still, what about an are - 100 square metres?
Knowing your hectares and your square metres is useful. Most of the world now uses the hectare. Most of the real-estate world uses the square metre. Land, living space are valued according to their worth per hectare or square metre. It is useful, but even for comparatively small spaces and distances, being able to conceive these accurately is nigh on impossible. Space and distance do not compute. Both are guesswork. Let's go back to that flat area of land. How far is that nearest tree? Around twenty metres? Around, yes, around. Never - it is twenty metres. Without the aid of a measuring device, one simply cannot say for certain.
There are measures with which there is some familiarity, such as those in sport. The one hundred metres of a sprint, for instance. Or the chain of a cricket pitch, better known as 22 yards or 20.12 metres. But even for those of you who have run one hundred metres or played cricket, could you accurately reproduce the distance? Square measures are even more elusive than those in a straight line. Not all football pitches are the same size but a typical measure is 7,140 square metres. We're all familiar with football pitches, but we still wouldn't be able to mark one out in our heads.
The reason for mentioning all this is the diet we are constantly fed when it comes to size. Palma town hall, for instance, has very kindly informed us that its new set of four rubbish containers (mobile variety) occupy eleven square metres. Great, but so what? How does such information translate into the brain? With difficulty. Such enumeration when written is all but meaningless. There may be a rough idea what it constitutes, but for all the value of the information, it may as well just say that it occupies a small space.
But because small, medium, large, very large are more meaningless, a value has to be given, whether we can appreciate it or not. Therefore, we get all of this stuff. Such and such town hall is building a new facility of x square metres. Wonderful. The more square metres the better, is this the idea - to impress us? Not necessarily, because using limited space is virtuous when land is at a premium. It's only x square metres. Even more wonderful, even more impressive.
Fires are something else for which size matters. There was a recent report about how many hectares of forest, scrub and whatever had been affected by fires in 2016. If memory serves, it was something like 101. This was either more or less than the previous year - as you may realise, I didn't digest the information fully - and was therefore either negative or positive. But again, what does it mean? When we learn that a fire has consumed 30 hectares, that sounds like a lot. Doesn't it? Certainly more than if it were 0.3 hectares. In neither instance, though, can we conceive what it represents. If in the case of the 30 hectares, we were told that it roughly equated to 42 football pitches, then maybe. Or maybe not.
The Balearic government has a minister for land, Marc Pons. He is also the energy minister. Two of these portfolios have coincided in respect of plans to eliminate CO2 emissions by 2050. Out will go all fossil fuel energy sources, and in will come photovoltaic energy, which means all manner of plants dedicated to tapping into the sun's energy dotted around the Balearics.
This is a highly laudable plan, but photovoltaic energy, as in supplying more or less all energy needs for the islands, its residents, its businesses and its tourists, does have a land implication. It's not the same as just sticking a solar panel on your roof to get hot water or anything like it. So Pons reliably (one assumes) informed us that these plants will require 1.5% of land. Really? Well, erm, blimey, one point five per cent.
The land surface of the Balearic Islands is 4,997.71 square kilometres. It will therefore require 74.97 square kilometres of land to fit all these plants in. Is that a lot? You tell me. For what it's worth, you could stick them all on Formentera and more or less cover the island. Maybe that's it. A Formentera of photovoltaic. We can all understand that.
Let's make it easier. How about if the puzzle was to mark out 0.247105 of an acre, i.e. 1,000 square metres? Or easier still, what about an are - 100 square metres?
Knowing your hectares and your square metres is useful. Most of the world now uses the hectare. Most of the real-estate world uses the square metre. Land, living space are valued according to their worth per hectare or square metre. It is useful, but even for comparatively small spaces and distances, being able to conceive these accurately is nigh on impossible. Space and distance do not compute. Both are guesswork. Let's go back to that flat area of land. How far is that nearest tree? Around twenty metres? Around, yes, around. Never - it is twenty metres. Without the aid of a measuring device, one simply cannot say for certain.
There are measures with which there is some familiarity, such as those in sport. The one hundred metres of a sprint, for instance. Or the chain of a cricket pitch, better known as 22 yards or 20.12 metres. But even for those of you who have run one hundred metres or played cricket, could you accurately reproduce the distance? Square measures are even more elusive than those in a straight line. Not all football pitches are the same size but a typical measure is 7,140 square metres. We're all familiar with football pitches, but we still wouldn't be able to mark one out in our heads.
The reason for mentioning all this is the diet we are constantly fed when it comes to size. Palma town hall, for instance, has very kindly informed us that its new set of four rubbish containers (mobile variety) occupy eleven square metres. Great, but so what? How does such information translate into the brain? With difficulty. Such enumeration when written is all but meaningless. There may be a rough idea what it constitutes, but for all the value of the information, it may as well just say that it occupies a small space.
But because small, medium, large, very large are more meaningless, a value has to be given, whether we can appreciate it or not. Therefore, we get all of this stuff. Such and such town hall is building a new facility of x square metres. Wonderful. The more square metres the better, is this the idea - to impress us? Not necessarily, because using limited space is virtuous when land is at a premium. It's only x square metres. Even more wonderful, even more impressive.
Fires are something else for which size matters. There was a recent report about how many hectares of forest, scrub and whatever had been affected by fires in 2016. If memory serves, it was something like 101. This was either more or less than the previous year - as you may realise, I didn't digest the information fully - and was therefore either negative or positive. But again, what does it mean? When we learn that a fire has consumed 30 hectares, that sounds like a lot. Doesn't it? Certainly more than if it were 0.3 hectares. In neither instance, though, can we conceive what it represents. If in the case of the 30 hectares, we were told that it roughly equated to 42 football pitches, then maybe. Or maybe not.
The Balearic government has a minister for land, Marc Pons. He is also the energy minister. Two of these portfolios have coincided in respect of plans to eliminate CO2 emissions by 2050. Out will go all fossil fuel energy sources, and in will come photovoltaic energy, which means all manner of plants dedicated to tapping into the sun's energy dotted around the Balearics.
This is a highly laudable plan, but photovoltaic energy, as in supplying more or less all energy needs for the islands, its residents, its businesses and its tourists, does have a land implication. It's not the same as just sticking a solar panel on your roof to get hot water or anything like it. So Pons reliably (one assumes) informed us that these plants will require 1.5% of land. Really? Well, erm, blimey, one point five per cent.
The land surface of the Balearic Islands is 4,997.71 square kilometres. It will therefore require 74.97 square kilometres of land to fit all these plants in. Is that a lot? You tell me. For what it's worth, you could stick them all on Formentera and more or less cover the island. Maybe that's it. A Formentera of photovoltaic. We can all understand that.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 28 March 2017
Morning high (7.15am): 13C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 29 March - Sun, 20C; 30 March - Sun, 20C; 31 March - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 2 to 3.
Plenty of cloud visible as sun comes up. Should go and give a fine and sunny day.
Evening update (21.00): Very pleasant. High of 19C.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 5
Three-day forecast: 29 March - Sun, 20C; 30 March - Sun, 20C; 31 March - Sun, cloud, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 2 to 3.
Plenty of cloud visible as sun comes up. Should go and give a fine and sunny day.
Evening update (21.00): Very pleasant. High of 19C.
In Praise Of Terraferida
Not everyone likes or will like Terraferida. I don't know that I like them, but that's down to the choice of word. Admire is more appropriate. When they have something to say, they do so with impact. People sit up and take notice. Attention was paid when Terraferida exposed the sewage spill in Albufera, just as it was only some three weeks later when Terraferida highlighted the "occupation" of the Cabrera beach.
The information the group has released about unlicensed rental property in Mallorca that is offered via Airbnb isn't necessarily shocking or revelatory. It is more a confirmation. Some fourteen months ago, the data Terraferida has analysed showed that there were over 11,000 properties which were capable - at a stretch - of providing places for almost 80,000 people. Not all of these properties may still be available. Some may have even acquired a licence in the meantime. But you can be sure that more will have been added.
Setting aside the more bizarre accommodation on offer - caves, a tree house, an igloo, for instance - the bulk of it was apartments or houses. In the case of detached houses, there is nothing stopping an owner, as it stands under existing law, from applying for a tourist rental. Apartments are of course a different matter. They are only legal if there is pretence - the absurd shield that is raised by the tenancy act. This is, as has been suggested by legal minds at the university, a fraud in law. And how many tenancy act contracts are ever actually raised and signed?
Not everyone of course pretends. But many do, and Airbnb, courtesy of its colossal disingenuousness, provides the perfect platform. It doesn't trade in "tourist" accommodation. It is merely a go-between. And its insouciance is laughable. Why should it worry? It doesn't. Technicalities in law mean little, and so users exploit loopholes for all their worth. Some do so and are fully aware of the law - many, if not all Mallorcans, one would suggest. Others, foreigners being among them, are just ignorant of the law or stupid.
A thing with Airbnb, it being a product not only of the "collaborative" economy but also of social media information sharing, is that it is very easy to identify what's going on, if someone cares to look. The tourism ministry may, for example, be interested in what a guest of a certain "property" had to say about being collected from the airport by the owner. The transport ministry may also be interested, to say nothing of the tax agency. Is there a transport licence? Almost certainly not. Does this constitute a service? Yes. Does this service contravene the tenancy act loophole? Yes. Has any of this been declared to the tax agency? Who can say. And who can say whether this tourist service - property and transfer - is the result of blatant thumbing of the nose in the direction of the law, of ignorance of the law or of simple stupidity. The law, though, does not accept ignorance or stupidity as a defence.
Terraferida, somewhat like politicians, makes the point that it is less worried about the small owner: someone with just the single property. It is more concerned, as is the government, with the multiple owner. It cites the example of someone with 632 properties. This again is no real revelation. The government knows that there are such cases. It will now be interesting to learn how the government reacts to the Terraferida information. The group will send it all to the tourism ministry: property locations, property type, names.
The ministry, meanwhile, has its own map. It will make it public. It will show legally registered holiday rentals. While it seems to be at pains to say that this isn't some means of providing a "dobbers' charter", it - and the tax agency - are more than happy for members of the public to provide evidence of fraud. The ministry needs the public. It only has fifteen inspectors, and these inspectors are involved in matters other than holiday rentals.
There are any number of people who will defend the right of rental, even if it flouts the law. Tourists using rented accommodation spend money, unlike all those in all-inclusives. This much is surely true, despite what the Exceltur alliance for touristic excellence (members of which include leading Mallorcan hoteliers) says. Its reports showing lower spend than hotel guests are counter-intuitive. There has to be scope for rentals - legally registered ones, including apartments - but not on the scale that is being witnessed and not with the abuses that are being committed.
Airbnb and other such websites are businesses. Despite their good words and PR, they have facilitated property market distortion and fraud. This comes at a social cost, thus - at best - neutering economic gains. Terraferida should be thanked. The government has some very important legislation to pass. The most important of this administration.
The information the group has released about unlicensed rental property in Mallorca that is offered via Airbnb isn't necessarily shocking or revelatory. It is more a confirmation. Some fourteen months ago, the data Terraferida has analysed showed that there were over 11,000 properties which were capable - at a stretch - of providing places for almost 80,000 people. Not all of these properties may still be available. Some may have even acquired a licence in the meantime. But you can be sure that more will have been added.
Setting aside the more bizarre accommodation on offer - caves, a tree house, an igloo, for instance - the bulk of it was apartments or houses. In the case of detached houses, there is nothing stopping an owner, as it stands under existing law, from applying for a tourist rental. Apartments are of course a different matter. They are only legal if there is pretence - the absurd shield that is raised by the tenancy act. This is, as has been suggested by legal minds at the university, a fraud in law. And how many tenancy act contracts are ever actually raised and signed?
Not everyone of course pretends. But many do, and Airbnb, courtesy of its colossal disingenuousness, provides the perfect platform. It doesn't trade in "tourist" accommodation. It is merely a go-between. And its insouciance is laughable. Why should it worry? It doesn't. Technicalities in law mean little, and so users exploit loopholes for all their worth. Some do so and are fully aware of the law - many, if not all Mallorcans, one would suggest. Others, foreigners being among them, are just ignorant of the law or stupid.
A thing with Airbnb, it being a product not only of the "collaborative" economy but also of social media information sharing, is that it is very easy to identify what's going on, if someone cares to look. The tourism ministry may, for example, be interested in what a guest of a certain "property" had to say about being collected from the airport by the owner. The transport ministry may also be interested, to say nothing of the tax agency. Is there a transport licence? Almost certainly not. Does this constitute a service? Yes. Does this service contravene the tenancy act loophole? Yes. Has any of this been declared to the tax agency? Who can say. And who can say whether this tourist service - property and transfer - is the result of blatant thumbing of the nose in the direction of the law, of ignorance of the law or of simple stupidity. The law, though, does not accept ignorance or stupidity as a defence.
Terraferida, somewhat like politicians, makes the point that it is less worried about the small owner: someone with just the single property. It is more concerned, as is the government, with the multiple owner. It cites the example of someone with 632 properties. This again is no real revelation. The government knows that there are such cases. It will now be interesting to learn how the government reacts to the Terraferida information. The group will send it all to the tourism ministry: property locations, property type, names.
The ministry, meanwhile, has its own map. It will make it public. It will show legally registered holiday rentals. While it seems to be at pains to say that this isn't some means of providing a "dobbers' charter", it - and the tax agency - are more than happy for members of the public to provide evidence of fraud. The ministry needs the public. It only has fifteen inspectors, and these inspectors are involved in matters other than holiday rentals.
There are any number of people who will defend the right of rental, even if it flouts the law. Tourists using rented accommodation spend money, unlike all those in all-inclusives. This much is surely true, despite what the Exceltur alliance for touristic excellence (members of which include leading Mallorcan hoteliers) says. Its reports showing lower spend than hotel guests are counter-intuitive. There has to be scope for rentals - legally registered ones, including apartments - but not on the scale that is being witnessed and not with the abuses that are being committed.
Airbnb and other such websites are businesses. Despite their good words and PR, they have facilitated property market distortion and fraud. This comes at a social cost, thus - at best - neutering economic gains. Terraferida should be thanked. The government has some very important legislation to pass. The most important of this administration.
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