The BAFMAs: Awards for Mallorcan achievement

Yes, it’s that time of the year. Time for the BAFMAs, the Blog Awards For Mallorcan Achievement. In no particular order, the following are variously well-known and less well-known or were well-publicised and less well-publicised …

Politician Of The Year (Shared): Miquel Ensenyat and Carme Garcia
Ensenyat, the PSM Mallorcan socialist mayor of Esporles, stood as candidate for the PSM at the national elections. There was little remarkable about this, except that Ensenyat is an openly gay politician in a land where the Church can issue warnings of the danger of voting for politicians who support gay marriage.

Garcia, the “turncoat” of Alcúdia, was also a PSM politician. “Was” being the operative word. She sided with the Partido Popular after the regional elections, despite the wide gulf in political ideology, leading to her being expelled from the party and to her suffering recriminations led by the previous coalition of PSOE and the Convergència. Though her ex-party and the opposition had a legitimate point and though Garcia secured for herself a role as second-in-command to the new lady mayor, her decision could also be seen as a blow for the chumminess of the previous male-dominated coalition which did not have the moral authority to expect her to support it in denying the PP, which had gained eight out of nine seats required for a majority, the right to govern Alcúdia.

Celebrity Of The Year: Tom Hanks
They sought him here, they sought him there. Through their long lenses, they sought Tom everywhere. There he was, at long distance, speaking into an iPhone, or rather there was the back of Tom’s head speaking into an iPhone. There he also was just hanging around and doing very little, assuming you could make out it was Tom behind the security and beneath his headgear.

Business Of The Year: Lidl
Disproving the notion that Mallorca is not open to foreign companies, Lidl, exploiting a relaxation in commercial developments, expanded across Mallorca, bringing jobs as well as competition to the supermarket sector.

Event Of The Year: The Inca bullfight
If campaigners sought more encouragement in banning bullfighting in Mallorca, they got it during the Inca bullfight. The promoter caused outrage by taking to the ring to kill the bull after the bull had effectively excluded itself from the fight when it broke a horn. Rules don’t apparently permit non-combatants to enter the ring. The gruesome video of the killing of the bull went viral and the video also highlighted and criticised the fact that minors had been allowed into the arena.

Beach Of The Year: Playa de Muro
The extension of Puerto Alcúdia’s beach (which was voted Mallorca’s best beach on “Trip Advisor”), the beach in Playa de Muro was the target of efforts by the town hall to improve it even further. These included instituting a fine for urinating on the beach, which drew a response from some who wanted to know where else they were supposed to go to the toilet, and a similar fine for a similar act in the sea. It wasn’t entirely clear how Muro town hall proposed policing the latter, but with concerns about rising sea levels, the consequence of climate change, a ban on using the sea was probably a wise precaution.

Website Of The Year: Mallorca Daily Photo Blog
Just going to show that wit, informativeness, striking photography and personal dedication count for far more than huge budgets chucked at websites in promoting Mallorca. It deserves an award very much more prestigious than a BAFMA.

Musician Of The Year: Arnau Reynés
While more celebrated musicians took to stages in Mallorca this year, Reynés, the professor of music from the Universitat de les Illes Balears, who has performed in some of Europe’s finest cathedrals, brought a tradition of music in Mallorca that is often overlooked to the small church in Playa de Muro and gave a summer recital, as did other leading Mallorcan organists.

Historian Of The Year: Gabriel Verd Martorell
Thirty-five years is a long time for any one historian to have sought to have proved a point, but Verd was still at it, striving, once and for all, to establish that Christopher Columbus was born in Felanitx. In a “solemn” declaration in the town, he claimed that Columbus was the illegitimate nephew of King Ferdinand and that to have had the title of governor general bestowed on him, which he did, he had to have had royal blood. You can’t blame a historian for persistence.

So, these are the BAFMAs. No science behind them, no text voting, purely my own choice. But if you have your own nominations or suggestions, please feel free … .

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Coughing Blood: The bullfight

AnimaNaturalis is not popular. Animal rightists, it offends traditional animal abusers, other animal-rights groups and a fair chunk of what you might think would comprise its natural support, the youth. Its modus operandi of strident agitprop and public protest, be it against the correbou, the circus or the bullfight has failed to garner significant popular support.

Last year AnimaNaturalis staged a protest in advance of the bull-run correbou in the village of Fornalutx. It was most revealing that to the fore among those hurling insults in its direction were the young.

A curious and ill-formed philosophy, if one can use such a word, exists among Mallorcan youth, especially that in more rural areas. Catalanist, Luddite in a hankering for a return to the values of the land and in rejecting mass tourism, politically right-on in being eco-conscious, it is also largely politically incorrect in respect of animal welfare.

Whereas this youth philosophy coincides, to differing degrees, with the values of certain political parties and campaigning groups like the eco-warriors of GOB, it diverges on the matter of animals and animal tradition. It is cultural fundamentalism.

AnimaNaturalis is not popular because it poses difficult questions. In attacking traditions to do with animals, it also attacks an insularity of Mallorcan society by confronting it with issues that this society is ill-equipped to deal with; ill-equipped because a not untypical Mallorcan response to individual or collective attack is to adopt a haughty and petulant righteousness. Mallorcans are argumentative, but they are not great at argument or with dealing with confrontation.

The unpopularity of AnimaNaturalis extends to other animal rights groups who prefer, they say, greater diplomacy. A reason for these other groups distancing themselves from AnimaNaturalis in Fornalutx was that they believed their approach would have brought about greater concessions from the village mayor in amending the correbou. Instead, the mayor, though he did make some changes, was pushed into a corner in siding with those who lobbed the insults at AnimaNaturalis. Or so it was claimed.

There is another way of looking at this. AnimaNaturalis is not passive. As much as fierce defence, passivity is what symbolises attitudes towards animal rights and most obviously the bullfight. It was once explained to me that there would be greater public displays of protest against the bullfight were it not for the fact that people do not wish to be seen or cannot afford to be seen to be protesting. This is cultural fundamentalism of a different order; it is one with echoes of a style of Mallorcan feudalism, the passing of which was only relatively recent and which thus remains within society’s consciousness as well as within some of its current-day mores.

Though opinion polling has shown that the popularity of the bullfight has declined in Spain as a whole, the lobby for its continuance is strong, as is the social dynamic which appears to neuter protest. In an uppity and liberal part of Spain such as Catalonia, the dynamic operates in reverse, so much so that legislation was driven by popular petition to ban the bullfight. Yet a Catalanist sympathy among some of Mallorca’s youth does not extend to what has been nuanced as the real reason for Catalonia’s bullfight ban – anti-Spanishness.

In Mallorca the numbers that have gathered to protest at the annual bullfights in Alcúdia, Muro and Inca have been small to the point of irrelevance. In Inca AnimaNaturalis couldn’t have anticipated what might actually prove to be a turning-point in both its fortunes and the whole bullfight debate in Mallorca.

One of the bulls was on the rampage. No matador was to be seen. The bull was unscathed, it was being taunted from the safety of the wooden barrier and the terraces. Until, that is, the promoter of the event took it upon himself to act as matador, thus, so it is claimed, breaking a regulation that only those listed, i.e. the matadors, can participate.

There is a video on You Tube which has gone not exactly viral but which shows what happened. I have been to the bullfight and I have witnessed similar scenes, but I had a sharp intake of breath when I saw the bull cough blood and stumble having been struck with the sword by the promoter-matador. I am neither for nor against the bullfight, for the reason that it is not my argument, but this was sickening, and the power of the video might be to persuade those whose passivity has been the norm and those of a culturally fundamental bent to recognise that perhaps AnimaNaturalis has a point.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

More Old Bull: Culture and the bullfight

Bullfighting has a mystique. It is one that captivates even politicians. “The bullfighter is an artist like a painter, a poet, a composer or a sculptor.” “The bullfight has artistic expression, ritual, historical and cultural value, popular tradition, a feeling and an emotion.”

These are the words of the Partido Popular’s leader in the Spanish senate. The words sound disingenuous when set against the treatment of the bull – described as a “mythical animal, a symbol of strength, courage and fertility” – but they serve to explain why, beyond the spectacle, there is an intangible quality inherent to the bullfight. It is one of, if you like, Spanishness.

A motion in the senate, brought by the Partido Popular, sought to establish that the bullfight was of “Bien de Interés Cultural” – of such cultural interest that it requires legal protection as part of the historical heritage of Spain.

The motion was defeated, mainly on a technicality. The opponents, the PSOE socialists and other parties, argued that the state cannot rule as to whether a “fiesta” such as the bullfight can be subject to a BIC protection, as this is something which only the autonomous regions can do. By the same token, the regions can decide not to protect this “fiesta”. In Catalonia, they decided not only not to protect it but to ban it, as also did the Canary Islands many years ago.

The language of the senate debate, though, spoke of the depth of tradition, but it is a tradition subject to an ever-increasing growth of opposition within Spain. It is one of popular, organic growth, fertilised by pressure groups. In Andalusia, there is an attempt at initiating a ban along the lines of how the Catalonian one came about. Driven by a so-called popular legislative initiative and inspired by the animal-rights movement, a ban in Andalusia, were it to be introduced, would be seismic in the way that the Catalonian one is not.

Despite the flowery language and its implication of a cultural certitude, bullfighting’s popularity has waned, or at least opinion polls would suggest that it has, while the level of support varies according to age and to regions of Spain. The Catalonian ban, political dimension or not, was not so difficult to decide in favour of; bullfighting simply isn’t that popular there. Andalusia is quite a different matter.

But if one accepts that polls reflect the Spanish population as a whole, then bullfighting has become very much a minority interest. (A poll some years ago found those who had no interest in it to be over two-thirds of the sample.) For the Partido Popular to attempt to protect bullfighting as being in the interests of culture is contrary, given that interest has dwindled as much as it would appear to have. However, the party is not wrong; it is of cultural interest, but whether it is in society’s interest is a very different question. To now grant it some sort of legal protection would be a step too far and one that would be out of touch with much popular sentiment.

It is no coincidence that it should be the PP that has sought the adoption of this measure. As a conservative party, a good chunk of its constituency is representative of an old Spain, one that has been confronted by the socially liberal policies of the current Zapatero administration. Bullfighting is not in the category of issues, such as abortion, that have brought Zapatero into conflict with the Catholic right, but it is in a broader category that has embraced environmentalism and now also animal rights and which challenges the old order.

Bullfighting is a political issue, whether one likes it or not, and the PP has attempted a pre-emptive strike against any national ban, the sense of which might be questionable in any event. Fox-hunting legislation in Britain has been invoked as an example of how a “civilised society” can, through the force of law, turn its back on tradition. But apart from the fact that the legislation backfired, fox-hunting was an Aunt Sally and a superficial inconsequence in cultural terms, certainly by comparison with bullfighting, despite the declining popularity.

Rather than nationally, the matter is probably best dealt with at regional level. Perhaps other regions will follow Catalonia’s lead, creating sufficient impulse to embolden a future government – a socialist one – to go for a national ban that currently would be fraught with difficulty. Or perhaps the hope is that, through a process of society’s opposition, the point arrives at which bullfighting fades away through a lack of interest – cultural or otherwise.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Horn Of A Dilemma: Correbou and animal traditions

The animal right-ists have been getting into a right old tizz again. There was a barney in Fornalutx on Sunday when the Anima Naturalis group protested against the annual “correbou” in this village near Soller. Locals, in favour of the event, reckoned that the group, all twenty or so of them, acted “provocatively”. There was a scrap, the boys in green got involved, a car window was smashed, and insults were hurled.

Anima Naturalis flew solo on Sunday. Other animal-rights groups had condemned the protest, as they believed they were edging towards an agreement with the village mayor to introduce changes to the correbou. That process may have been harmed by the protest. Amenable the mayor may be to changes, but this didn’t stop town (village?) hall representatives siding with the pro-correbou-ists.

The correbou involves a bull being hauled, cajoled, run – describe it as you will – through the streets on the end of ropes. In Fornalutx they don’t apply fire to the horns, as is the case with similar events in Catalonia, but the animal is taunted before being dragged off to the slaughterhouse, cut up and nosebagged by carnivorous locals. The correbou is primitive, with none of the spectacular and ceremony of the “corrida”. There is no pretence of dignity, honour even, being afforded to the bull, as is the case with the bullfight. The animal is, essentially, the object of derision, and there is simply no comparison with other animal events, such as the innately potty duck tossing in Can Picafort.

A letter-writer to yesterday’s “Bulletin” took the editor to task for defending both the bullfight and the correbou and for calling for a “compromise” that would satisfy those in favour and those against these events. This compromise was not enunciated; it’s an empty call when you don’t explain what this might entail. I was more taken aback by the editor’s admission that he had never attended a bullfight. One can hold opinions as to bullfights without witnessing them first hand, but without experiencing them one fails to get a complete understanding. Such journalistic incuriosity is staggering.

Nevertheless, some sort of a compromise might yet occur in Fornalutx. The mayor has apparently been talking about shortening the “run” itself, holding it on a working day when fewer would attend and not having the bull crowned with a laurel wreath. None of this will sound like a better deal to the bull if it is still subjected to the taunts and ends up between two chunks of bread. Besides which, it is the kill or the angering of the bull that most spectators of a bullfight or correbou expect, a point the letter-writer makes.

What is clear, though, is that there is a growing movement against alleged animal cruelty during fiestas, be it the bullfight (as in Alcúdia and Muro for example), the correbou, the duck throwing of Can Picafort or the cock on a soapy tree in Pollensa. What is also clear is that emotions are being heightened and, in certain instances, the law being flouted. The traditions are so ingrained, though, that it is difficult to see how they can be undone. There are calls for there to be no animals involved in any fiesta events, but even where the law intervenes, it is obeyed reluctantly (as by Santa Margalida town hall in the case of the ducks). And what happens when and if the law does step in? We now have Tony Blair, who had made a fox-hunting ban an electoral pledge, admitting he got that wrong. And British traditions are nothing like as strong as Mallorcan or Spanish ones. But a question about the law, which is a bit of an ass and a load of bull. How can the ducks of Can Picafort be subject to law on animal protection and the bulls of Fornalutx not? It’s hypocritical, and as I have suggested before, the ducks are a far easier target.

Here are photos of the aggro in Fornalutx. The chap who is daubed in black was meant to portray the bull. Some locals reckoned it was racist, thus completely (and probably deliberately) missing the point. What you mostly see in these photos are shots of the Guardia contending with the locals who support the correbou. What seems evident is that this support comes from all age groups, but especially younger ones; something which you might not have expected.

http://comunidad.diariodemallorca.es/galeria-multimedia/Mallorca/Batalla-campal-Fornalutx/17508/1.html

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

A Load More Bull: Catalonia votes to ban bullfighting

The Catalonian parliament voted yesterday to ban bullfighting. There were 68 votes in favour of a ban, 55 against with nine abstentions. The ban will take effect as from 2012. It is not the first time that a region of Spain has imposed a ban, but one in a region as important – for various reasons – as Catalonia is significant.

Though politicians are seeking to deny it, there is more than just a hint of the anti-Spain about the ban. Bullfighting, with all its ceremony and overtones of nobility, is representative of an old Spanish order that persists – one at variance with Catalonian nationalism. One can nuance the ban as a slap in the face for Castile and history, as a political statement as much as one founded on animal rights. It might also have ramifications in other regions of Spain.

“The Diario” has polled members of the Balearic parliament as to their views of a potential ban. Ten were in favour of a ban, ten were against with four abstaining. It is just possible that the islands would follow Catalonia were a motion to be brought before parliament.

The annual bullfight as part of the Sant Jaume fiestas was staged in Alcúdia last Sunday. As with the bullfight in Muro in June, there was a demonstration against it. The numbers were not great, and those participating were generally youthful. This might be taken as a protest of idealistic young people, but there are many local Mallorcans who do not like the bullfight. They would not protest though. To do so would be to make themselves known. It isn’t necessarily a good career move to be seen to be allying oneself with the anti-bullfight brigade.

Rather like the fox-hunting debate in Britain introduced all manner of pros and cons, so the bullfight-ban debate has its. One of them is economic. In Catalonia, it is being said that a ban will result in a cost to each family of 250 euros. How on earth such a figure is arrived at, heaven only knows, but there is an economic downside to the prohibition of bullfighting. Also like fox-hunting, the debate is essentially emotional – you either like the bullfight or you don’t. The president of Catalonia, José Montilla, radical in his calls for Catalonian self-government, voted against the ban as he doesn’t approve of a legal imposition that would deny the bullfight to those who enjoy it, though how his position stacks up against other legislation “imposed” in Catalonia, I’m not quite sure.

However, in Catalonia the impulse for a ban came not from parliament or political parties; it came from the views of Catalonian people. There is a system known as the “iniciativa legislativa popular” which under the constitution allows for mass petitions to be presented as the basis for potential reform of laws. It was such a petition that brought the Catalonian parliament to debate and now outlaw bullfighting. In this respect, therefore, the ban might be said to reflect the will of the people and not be an imposition. In Catalonia, the popular will has worked, and while Catalonia is not like the rest of Spain, alarm bells are ringing that similar petitions might force votes in other regions.

The 180,000 signatories to the petition represent a massive expression of popular will, and President Montilla has said that it is correct to respect this will. The popular will was activist-driven, though it does appear to reflect majority opinion. But to believe that it did not have at least an element of nationalist politics about it would be wrong. Montilla, not exactly temperate in his views after the constitutional tribunal dismissed Catalonian self-government aspirations, has been quick to downplay the vote as an indication of the state of Catalan-Spanish relations. Others will see it as a deliberate waving of a red rag in front of a Spanish bull.

At a more general level, the vote, together with the growing opposition to bullfighting throughout Spain, indicates – once again – the degree to which the country has changed. The apathy and conservatism of a predominantly rural population pre-tourism boom and pre-restoration has given way to an urban awareness, activism and liberalism. The vote may have been about Catalonia versus Spain, but it was also about new versus old Spain.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.