People Talking Without Speaking

Following the demonstration on Saturday which demanded the right of choice in language matters, as opposed to the so-called “Catalan imposition”, the regional government of socialist President Antich and his coalition supporters from the nationalists and the left has declared that there will be no change to the policy of the equally so-called “linguistic normalisation”. Antich has added that he does not want language to be the reason for confrontation, while the nationalists feel that the demonstration represented a minority and the views of the conservative Partido Popular.

Hmm, well the rhetoric is all starting to sound as there could well be if not a reason then at least a ground swell of opposing views that could indeed lead to confrontation. One sincerely hopes not. Despite the unwillingness of the Palma police to issue numbers attending the Saturday demo, it would seem that there were more marching then than was the case three weeks prior when the pro-Catalan march was held. Perhaps both demos represented minorities. And there may well be some merit in that view. If one takes reasonably believable figures, no more than 30,000 people have turned up to the two demos put together. Hardly a mass movement either way.

One is left with the impression that this whole argument is one of minority interest. While most people on the island would have an opinion, one way or the other, one suspects that most people aren’t really that bothered; certainly not bothered enough to go marching through the streets of Palma on a Saturday. There are better things to do – like going to the beach. So political and other groups have hijacked the language debate at a time when, in truth, there are rather more important matters to be concerned about. Not that language is unimportant, but it is an issue for more benign economic times and not times when emotion can overtake rationality. Underlying the Catalan case, one fears, is a certain nationalism, not of the generally sensible Unió Mallorquina one, but of a more radical nature. Poor economic circumstances feed all sorts of tendency, some more extreme than others.

It is against this background that the interview with the PP’s Rosa Estaras in “The Bulletin” the other day takes on rather more significance. She pointed out that the PP did actually poll more votes than any other party at the last local elections, but because of the nature of the electoral system, the administration was made up of a socialist-led coalition. It is, as the editor of “The Bulletin” rightly pointed out, something of a lesson for British politicians who now favour a move to proportional representation. That is a whole debate that is not really for this blog, though God knows I could fill a whole month’s worth of entries on the subject. But suffice to ask, had the PSOE won a thumping majority last time round and not been dependent upon coalition partners, would its administration now be so committed to the current language policy? Locally, it is less important an issue to the PSOE overall (and the PSOE is, of course, a national party) than it is to the likes of the UM. The theoretically greater democracy of PR gives rise to horse-trading through coalition governments. This is not altogether a bad thing if it results in greater checks and balances, but as much as there can be tyranny through the democracy as practised through the UK electoral system so there is also tyranny through the disproportionately strong voices of minor parties in coalitions. Moreover, PR can lead to a certain stasis in government. And that, when it comes to tackling the greater problems that exist in the Balearics, is perhaps the strongest argument against PR.

Marching Onward

There was another march on Saturday, another one to do with language. Responding to the pro-Catalan demo of three weeks back and also in the context of the pro-Catalan “Acampallengua” in Sa Pobla, the latest one expressed the desire for people to be able to choose their language, be it Castilian or Catalan. Bit by bit, demo by demo, the whole language debate is being elevated into public consciousness to a degree that begins to suggest more serious divisions in local society. While Saturday’s march was said to be non-partisan, the presence of the Partido Popular gave it a political dimension, while a group of youths shouting “no to fascism and yes to Catalan” said something for how the language debate is still linked to old wounds. Separately, in an interview in yesterday’s “Bulletin”, the PP’s Rosa Estaras stated that the “local government (i.e. the Balearic one) has gone over the top on this issue”. That the two languages enjoy joint official status in the Balearics has not prevented Catalan from becoming THE language for many working in the public sector and official documentation from some town halls being issued in Catalan only.

A curiosity of this march was the fact that, though the organisers claimed that there were between 20 and 30,000 people, the police, the national and the local forces in Palma, did not issue numbers. Government sources said that the priority was security not counting people, which all seems a little odd when one considers that the police did issue figures for the pro-Catalan march (and their figures were just a bit more than a quarter of those claimed by the marchers).

To Holiday
There was an advert in “The Bulletin” over the weekend. It was for “British sales representatives”. The name of the company was To Holiday. And To Holiday is? The holiday club scratch card mob. In “The Bulletin” last June was a letter from a veteran holidaymaker to Alcúdia complaining bitterly about the abuse he and his wife had been subjected to by scratch card personnel.

Interesting that it says “sales representatives” because when someone local intervened during an exchange between one of the scratch-cardists and a gullible couple, the girl said that she was not selling anything. Maybe not, so maybe the ad is just for those at the office who do the real sale. After all, the ones on the street are only interested in doing so-called market surveys. As if.

Euro elections
The Euro elections are almost upon us. It is at such times, well it is on this occasion, that recipients become “friends” to Sr. Bean. The PSOE has sent its mailshot. In English. How very thoughtful of them. And it actually makes sense for once, as in the English makes sense, even if all the words don’t; if that makes sense. “Dear friend”, it starts, and is bottomed – to use a term that can have other connotations – with “warm regards” and signed by José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the lead candidate for the socialists, a certain Juan Fernanado López Aguilar. And very happy they look in the photo at the very bottom.

This is all fascinating stuff. That the PSOE has taken the time to do an English version, which the PP has not, does suggest that they are quite keen to curry favour with the Brit voter, or maybe they’re desperate. However, when one gets to the actual text of what the PSOE has to say, there is one thing that stands out and requires a bit of taking to task. Talking about the economic crisis, the letter says: “The crisis was not brought about by workers, entrepreneurs or families. It was caused by the greed and lack of control over financial markets espoused by conservative politicians and policy”. While not wrong, this does rather fail to mention the fact that politicians of a different political hue, i.e. the Spanish socialists, as with New Labour, were quite happy to endorse the policy.

There was another advert, one linked to the Euro elections. It was in “Euro Weekly”. It was on behalf of a party called Alternativa Española. The ad was calling on “Costa Brits” to vote AES. And this party is? A far-right splinter from the PP. On the Tel Aviv University’s antisemitism and racism site, there is a reference to a meeting in 2005, of “right-wing extremist and neo-fascist parties” in Vienna, one of which was AES. It was a meeting organised by the late Jörg Haider’s FPÖ. The British Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan puts his name to the advert. There is some confusion as to whether the British Conservative Party has allied itself with the AES. I sincerely hope not.

Art Of Noise

5am. There’s a bass sound coming from somewhere. Is it from a car in the street? No, sounds too far away. Onto the upper terrace, and it is a little clearer; not loud but discernible. It’s coming from across Albufera. Sa Pobla. It’s travelling some eight kilometres or so; it’s coming from the party for the “Acampallengua”. 5am. Hopefully, no-one in Sa Pobla was desperate for a good night’s sleep; they wouldn’t have had one.

And what is this “Acampallengua”? Literally it means camp language. It’s pretty accurate. This is an annual occasion that moves around the island. It is a celebration of Catalan, and particularly popular with the youth; hence the party and the sports that had been arranged during the day. The camping part is that they pitch up and pitch tents and then head off to the sports, the night party, the fire run, the arts workshops, the giants and the pipers and the worthy speeches by politicos and the head of Obra Cultural Balear, the Catalan promotional organisation – “we will not make a step backwards in the struggle for our language”, says he (as quoted in translation from “The Diario”).

On the face of it, this event seems fair enough, a bit of camping out, a bit of football and a bit of techno. Yet I can’t help feeling there is something slightly sinister about the politicisation of the event and therefore of the language. Statements such as that by the head of the Obra makes this pretty clear, and in his audience are teenagers who are being made more aware of their language (which is fair enough) but also potentially being radicalised (which may not be fair enough). Whatever. It’s not my argument.

More noise. The tourism season cranking up and the sounds of entertainment are wafting across the resorts; no, wafting is way too weak, make that reverberating. By no means for the first time, there are a number of mutterings about the loudness of the Bellevue show garden sound system. I’m told that it is louder than last year. Every word can be heard clearly as far away as Magic and probably further. “Do you like The Beatles? Scream and shout … ” And so they do, and then once the show has finished at the midnight deadline they continue for some more minutes, demanding more and shouting some more.

This was a theme last year, as it will probably be a theme next year and the year after. Whether the sound system is excessive is not for me to say, but there is an ongoing difficulty in reconciling the noise of holiday and the sleeping and peace requirements of residents and probably also some holidaymakers. Were this a “problem” only occasionally, it might not all be so annoying to some, but it is every night. Not sure how you resolve it, especially when the wind is in the right (or perhaps that’s the wrong) direction.