Killing Them Softly

Further to yesterday. There is some disquiet that there was not a cohesive message coming from the various political parties in Muro against the Costas demolition plan. Only the Unió Mallorquina got involved, something for which it was criticised as it appeared to make Ses Casetes the party’s own issue. Maybe that’s why others stayed away. Something else that came out was that, while Ses Casetes is threatened by the definition as to what is public domain or land, a hotel next to the area is excluded. One presumes that this means the Hotel Platja Daurada, a hotel operated by the EIX group, which so happens to have its offices next to the hotel.

 

Even if this not the right hotel – and there is no other hotel that joins onto Ses Casetes – it is hard not to get the impression that maybe Ses Casetes is something of a soft target. For the very reasons that it is not a hotel and is not an urbanisation of expensive real estate or of the fabulously wealthy, perhaps it is a convenient fall-guy in the Costas wish to do some cleaning up of public land along the shorelines of Mallorca. Killing the small houses softly. 

 

Yet for all this, if one takes a stroll around Ses Casetes, and the photo** from yesterday does give an impression of the place – unmade tracks as roads for instance – then one does wonder as to the legitimacy of the development. It does seem hugely anachronistic, which is of course part of the charm. That it has not been developed in terms, say, of roads, does not mean that it does not have legitimacy, but there is also something that is not quite right there. The original or oldest small houses around the parking area and just off are one thing, but some tracks go into the forest, and next to some tracks are houses that are not like the small houses. They are in fact new; certainly by comparison. 

 

** To be found on the main blog site – http://www.alcudiapollensa.blogspot.com.

 

 

The land itself was ceded to the town many years ago. A question may well be what that land actually was. Some of the buildings would certainly appear to be in possible conflict with what is meant to be the wider nature park of Albufera. 

 

Whatever the real legal situation, the people of Ses Casetes deserve support. One thing that came across vividly during the demonstration was the strength of the community that is Ses Casetes, of the vast age ranges that tell of the history of ownership and of the generations who have summered (and also wintered at holiday times) in the small houses. It is definitely a place worth preserving.

 

 

Some hours after the Muro demo, there was the other one – in Sa Pobla. This was a gathering of “demons” in a defiant act of fire-running against the European directive that would limit the participation of children and general interactivity during fire-runs at Mallorcan fiestas. 3,000 people are estimated to have attended. Further to what I said on 23 October (“Feel The Fire”) when I wondered about the safety of fire-runs and of bonfires, I was told by Kevin at JKs about how the Santander bank in Puerto Pollensa nearly once copped for it, while John MacLean has sent an email specifically about fires in Sa Pobla during Sant Antoni. I quote: “We were absolutely gobsmacked to see a roaring fire, surrounded by the usual crowd of partygoers, slap bang on the forecourt of the Repsol filling station”. (Yep, that’s right, filling station as in petrol station.) “It could not have been more than ten feet from the pumps. At that point, I realised that the Mallorcans and the ‘poblers’ (as the folk of Sa Pobla are called) are not only a different breed but totally off their heads. Needless to say, we didn’t hang about!”

 

And they’re complaining about a bit of European health and safety that might stop kids setting fire to themselves during fire-runs. Tradition is one thing, but madness is another.

Don’t Take It Away – This Is Your Land

And the people of the little houses made their way to the little plaza in front of the Pedrissos bar. The man with the conch had blown his loudhailer trumpet. Everyone had searched in the bottom of wardrobes for a dispensable sheet and had blackened it with a slogan. Those without sheets had stuck brown wrapping paper together and had used biros. Two hundred or so formed a semi-circle and had their photos taken. One chap with long dreadlocks tied into a ponytail had the biggest photographic kit of all. Local TV smoked and waited for their interview. Small children, an afternoon spent with cardboard, sticks and marker pens, were thrust into the circle. One had her sign reversed, revealing a patchwork of different coloured tape. Someone helpfully turned it the right way. The conch was handed to a man with a grey goatie who started a song no-one seemed to know. There was some applause and he tried again with a bit more success, but maybe the people were shy when it came to singing for the telly. The local police, half-a-dozen strong, stood about and grinned. One came forward and took some photos with a small digital camera. Perhaps it was a requirement – evidence of the demonstrators – or maybe they were of his family. There was one of the girls from the Eroski near to Playa de Muro. Her family has a “caseta” and has had it for years. It’s a place where children can play freely, as she used to, this Ses Casetes des Capellans. It’s a place that’s very Mallorcan, very Muro. One felt like an intruder into an essentially Muro occasion. Barely a word of Castilian was being uttered, just the chatter and chirrup of the Mallorcan char-char sound, but without any sense of choler – no anger as such, it was a pleasant afternoon in late season, the sun was out and warm, and the “cassettes”, if one might call them that, took a stroll from their casetes and were taped for posterity and for transmission on the evening’s news. 

 

The signs said what the people thought. “We don’t understand the Costas’ criteria”; “We want to conserve Capellans as it is”; “Capellans is our Capellans, it is for the people of Muro and for everyone”. Rather more politically, one read: “A golf course is for the rich. Capellans is worth much more”. The latter sign was a reference to the permission granted to build the golf course on the nearby Son Bosc finca. Casetes is for the ordinary people, their summer homes of white-washed walls, their bungalows with green or red trimmings and brightly-coloured gates. And it is these curious and humble little houses that the Costas authority would like to see demolished. It may take years for that to happen, if happen it ever does. But the people of Ses Casetes have expressed their views. There is traditional Mallorca and there is traditional beach and summer Mallorca, not the beach and summer of the hotels and the resorts, but of holiday for the local people as it once was, and still is – for the children of the Murers and the owners of the Casetes. One boy’s sign said that Capellans is “like a playground for the boys and girls, please don’t take it away”. This is their land. Please don’t take it away. It brought a tear to the eye.  

 

 

* This is a follow-up to the piece of 21 October.