Dirty Duckers: Alcúdia corruption and Can Picafort mischief

If you had been inclined to think that all the corruption hoo-ha had gone quiet because of the summer hols, you would have been incorrect. Investigations are ongoing and they have just got very much closer to home. Home, in this instance, being Alcúdia town hall. There was I saying that, Can Ramis apart, Alcúdia was a less turbulent administration than others. I should know better.

As part of the IBATUR (Balearics tourism agency) case, there is a sub-investigation, one that involves a company called Trui. No, not TUI. Trui. You don’t need to know the ins and outs, and you are probably not interested anyway, but there may be some painful truths coming out of the Trui troubles. Painful, that is, for the town hall, the Unió Mallorquina party (yep, them again) and ex-mayor Miguel Ferrer, himself a leading figure in the UM.

To cut to the chase, as reported in “The Diario”, anti-corruption prosecutors suspect that money from the town hall was used to fund the UM’s electoral campaign in 2007. Fingered in all this – potentially – are Ferrer, who was mayor at the time, and his right-hand man, Francesc Cladera, who – it is being alleged – could have arranged for payments, in black, from the town hall’s coffers.

Coming on the back of the opposition Partido Popular’s desire to re-open the case into alleged irregularities in respect of the Can Ramis building, things have suddenly become murky in what had been, so we had thought, the clearer waters of Alcúdia politics.

And while on the subject of water, and moving on from yesterday’s swimming pool fiasco, the annual mischief in Can Picafort duly resulted in a few live ducks going for a dip in the sea during the duck toss on Sunday. Did we ever expect that they wouldn’t?

The local press found both residents and the head of fiestas “surprised” by the level of police vigilance for the event. Not sure they should have been surprised. The naughty boys have been extracting the Miguel for a few years now, and the Guardia seemed determined to prevent any more Carry On Quacking. The police presence was at a level, so it was said, for the royal family putting in an appearance. Helicopters, a sub-aqua team plus the beachside patrols. And still they let some ducks go.

It is all utterly ridiculous. The event has always been ridiculous, but the ban was and is ridiculous, as is what has replaced it, i.e. rubber ducks. The thumbing of noses to authority is ridiculous, but so is the response. What can we expect next year? Submarines rather than a sub-aqua crew? Might be right given that subs used to launch dummy torpedoes at the towers on the beach, such as the one in Can Pic on which the naughties had graffiti-ed a “pope”, announcing their intention to flout the duck law again. Maybe they should just ban the whole thing. Or stage it in a swimming pool instead. Assuming one can be found that’s not been closed.

I asked a born-and-bred Can Picafort resident whether he would be attending the “suelta”. No, he said. He used to, and used to be one of those who swam after the live ducks. But what was the point now? He’s right. There is no point. It’s plain daft, but it always was plain daft, which is why of course it should continue.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Annual They Should Be So Lucky

The Calvia police conducted an operation against “vendedores ambulantes” a couple of nights ago. These vendedores are, of course, better known as “looky-looky” or “lucky-lucky” men. According to a report in “Ultima Hora”, the number of luckies heading for Magaluf of an evening has recently increased, as has the number of complaints. Cue plod.

The luckies are a part of the local scene, in whatever resort. Mostly they are harmless, but like anyone who does some street “selling” – and these can include legitimate PRs where they are permitted outside their own establishments and the scratch-card wretches – they can be a damn nuisance. Apart from the fact that they are selling shit (and sometimes they are selling a type of shit that comes in small wrapped packages), the biggest beef with them concerns the fact that they take away business from shops or others and pay not a cent of tax or social security. None are legal.

That the police in the different resorts often turn a blind eye to them has to do with the sheer numbers, lack of police resources and the fact that even if they get hauled in there isn’t much that can be done with them. The police in Magaluf let all of its 41 catch of luckies go, save for one who’d got stroppy. As was once pointed out by an Alcúdia policeman, take one lucky in and another will replace him. There is a production line that never seems to run out of resources.

By coincidence, “The Diario” had a report on different types of vendedores in Playa de Palma on Sunday. To the luckies can be added the beach vendors selling if not necessarily shit, then highly overpriced fruit or drinks. As one shopowner pointed out, they go to a shop, buy some cans and then go and flog them at four or five times the proper price. Another example of the tourist being ripped-off. Doubly if the shop was already charging over the odds.

The simple solution would lie with tourists not encouraging any of the street sellers by not buying their wares or not being hauled off for a hard-sell pitch for holidays they don’t want or need. The latter can be more difficult to shake off as there are more silver tongues, ones that speak the language well. The luckies can be fobbed off, and many do fob them off. But many do not. Kids are especially susceptible, and so therefore are their parents, because the kids often find the luckies funny and enjoy the game of bartering.

But should we really be so sanctimonious? Who has never bought some shit from a lucky or another seller? Who has never bought a dodgy CD or DVD? There are some, including bar-owners, who are good customers for the luckies and for those who don’t bother with luckies and sell direct their packaged, pirated DVDs by the hold-all load.

The luckies and their nuisance and illegal value are an annual theme. Every year’s the same. Despite the efforts of the police, and the Magaluf operation will probably prove to be isolated, and despite local laws that make it illegal to not only sell but also buy hooky gear (as is the case in Alcúdia), the luckies are not going away. Like the poor, they will always be with us. And there will be some who, strange to report, will be quite happy that they are.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Dead Again: The Marquet case

Following on from yesterday and a reference to deaths in Alcúdia last year, the result of street violence, the accused in the case of Gabriel Marquet, who died after eighteen days in a coma, are to finally come to trial. The prosecution is seeking a sentence of twelve years for the main accused said to have delivered the blow that proved to be fatal; the charge is one of murder and not manslaughter.

The Marquet case aroused considerable passion. There were two demonstrations against violence that resulted from the attack on him in April last year. Whether much has really changed is questionable. As evidenced by the mass botellón at the weekend, the town hall’s attempt to outlaw street drinking has not worked. One reason is probably a lack of police.

Into this equation comes the whole issue of local financing. The town halls pay for the local police forces; the Guardia (and national police) is a separate, state-funded organisation. Right now though, there is the drive to cut costs in public administration. The central government has decreed that town halls cannot get themselves into further debt. The regional government of President Antich is challenging this, and he has support on the left of Mallorcan politics. The Mallorcan Socialists (PSM) held a conference at the weekend at which they called for increased financing of all levels of island government – the regional government itself, the Mallorca Council and of course the town halls.

The problem is that there isn’t any money sloshing around. The left’s calls are unrealistic, but they are not wrong when one considers the responsibilities of the town halls, such as police. In some municipalities and their more peripheral “villages”, e.g. Santa Margalida, even before cash got strapped the level of policing was a serious bone of contention among the residents of Son Serra de Marina.

Shifting demographics, the summer influx (for which there are normally additional police), recession and its societal impact, and a cultural change in terms of attitudes towards drink. These all place a strain on the local police. Now is probably not the time to be cutting their resources.

On a brighter note, it has been extremely heartening to get the feedback for HOT! It is having the impact I had hoped for. There are of course questions as to when the next one is coming out. This was never intended. Not this year anyway. But it is inevitable that a “newspaper” gives rise to an anticipation of something to follow. Oh that it could be done, but I don’t want to go there again – the issues of cost of printing, levels of advertising, free versus paid etc. etc. Just to say, thanks to those who have been complimentary, and to remind you that there is a specific Facebook page which will have regular updates throughout the summer.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Acts Of Mindless Vandalism

So you arrive at your bar in the morning. Seems normal enough. Until, that is, you notice that something is not quite right.

Mindless vandalism does not always require grand gestures, those of highly visible destruction or defacement. Sometimes its nature catches you out. Like break-ins, and don’t I know, initially you don’t latch on, until it becomes apparent. Some time on Saturday morning, someone decided to try and pull the barrier out of the ground between the doctor’s clinic and the Foxes Arms in Puerto Alcúdia. Decided to do this and also try and break in half a strut holding up the “toldo” (terrace sun shade). This someone didn’t succeed in either. The barrier didn’t look worse for wear, until you touched it; the strut was bent rather than broken. But the extent of the damage didn’t matter. There was, as always with these things, a sense of invasion. The visible signs may not have been that obvious, but a broken this or a broken that is dangerous – for the customer. It means a day closed, a day’s loss of earnings and a day spent spending money on some repairs.

A different matter. There are new neighbours. Hotel workers. Polish, it would seem. Let’s not go down the Poles-on-the-rampage routine of the Don Pedro hotel in Cala San Vicente last summer, as in let’s not start castigating an entire nation. But. But, when the noise on the terrace is sufficient to require two visits – from myself – to let them know that there is noise on the terrace, then I get – how do I put it – a tad hacked off. The noise is most uncommon in a quiet urbanisation. It is most out of place. Two warnings, I was at pains to point out, despite three chaps seemingly prepared to confront me. Two warnings. Number three, and I hate the idea, and it’s the “denuncia”. They got my drift. They might also know that I can find out which hotel they are working at. Hotels do not take kindly to being told by stroppy neighbours that their shipped-in workforce is keeping these stroppy neighbours from their shut eye. Especially as they are usually handing over the ackers for the workforce to keep stroppy neighbours awake.

Unlike residencies close to hotels and the commercial centres, you do expect peace and quiet.. It’s why people don’t live near to hotels and commercial centres. If you do, then you have to expect rather less peace and quiet. There is also the business about the definition of “evening” and “night”. This may seem bizarre, but it is a facet of the law. Noise on a domestic terrace, after midnight, is equal – in law – to noise on a bar terrace.

Yet, these two incidents are curiously instructive. In my discussions with those with several decades of living in Alcúdia, Pollensa and elsewhere, it is clear that there is a certain nostalgia for the old days of the “generalisimo”. Heaven forbid, you might think. But crime was almost non-existent. No one would think of smashing a toldo support for fear of getting a thrashing from the Guardia and a lengthy stretch in the slammer. On the other hand, back in the days before Franco died, no one did much about noise. You could be on terraces till the wee smalls, playing music, dancing, drinking. It didn’t matter. Now it does. The perpetrator of the Foxes vandalism will not be found, he will not get a police kicking or a sentence, but the hotel workers, high-spirited but not malicious, can get a police visit or can get a hotel-issued one-way ticket back to Poland. It doesn’t, somehow, make much sense.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Watching You, Watching Me – Webcams and surveillance in Mallorca

The surveillance society. It is said that the UK has the highest level of surveillance in Europe. Much of it can be deemed necessary or beneficial, much of it isn’t. And so it is in Mallorca. Or rather, it isn’t quite the same, as in Mallorca – and in Spain – there is a greater level of concern for the invasion of privacy.

Video surveillance was late to catch on in Mallorca. This was not a failure of technology but a legal issue. Police cameras, such as those for traffic and speeding, were also late on the scene, for a similar reason. Officially in Mallorca, there are even now only some 7000 video cameras of different sorts that are used by the police and by security companies. As “The Diario” has reported, there are many, many more cameras, most of them unregulated. A combination of the agency responsible for data protection and the police ensures that cameras used for security purposes are correctly registered. Video surveillance of property, for example, is a matter of registration by the security company that has to comply with the need to ensure that posters, informing of such surveillance, are clearly visible and also with ensuring that the cameras do not show the “public way”. In other words, they “guard” properties, their access points and grounds.

When you take into account government buildings, banks and some of the property in Mallorca, the 7000 cameras are not really so many, and for the most part they are activated only when an alarm goes off. The officially registered cameras that are on more or less permanently are those controlled by the police. Some concern has been raised about these, for example where they are used to monitor “deliquency”. These are directed at the “public way”. Yet one can accept their role in policing and in maybe acting as a deterrent.

Another concern relates to all those other cameras. And here one is mainly talking webcams. The paper makes it clear that much webcam use is private, but much is not. Anything pointing at a street, a park, a beach is showing the public way. Hardly any of these webcams are registered. In Palma, some twenty webcams are sanctioned by the town hall. But generally, webcams are put up, pointed and there is no registration. The law may well be being broken as a result, if there is no authorisation by the data protection agency.

One has to understand that the strictness with which privacy and data protection are controlled has a historical background. In Germany, there was also a similar anxiety about cameras. If you want to know why the Germans – or at least some of the Länder – have been rather more tardy than other countries in introducing anti-smoking legislation, you have to go back to the Nazis who frowned on smoking. And for smoking, read also the surveillance and intrusiveness of an authoritarian state. It’s the same in Spain, because of Franco.

Webcams that show a resort’s promenade or beach may seem innocent enough, and in truth they are. Many, many people access them via the internet; many, many people who would consider this a purely innocent activity. But that would be to miss the point – the invasion of privacy. A not infrequent question one may come across on a forum is – are there any webcams of such and such a resort? Not for one moment would the person asking the question think this is anything other than innocent.

A webcam that shows public places, it can be argued, is being used under conditions of freedom of speech or information. Similar justification can be used for the altogether more intrusive use of cameras by Google. It’s a disingenuous argument. It may all seem just like a bit of fun, but the public webcam operates under a similar principle of intrusion, the main difference – usually – being the more fleeting and temporary nature of the privacy being intruded into.

There is the possibility that there are some unwitting double standards applied to public webcams and by those who access them. Stick a cam outside your house, down your street, and would you be quite so happy? When Google come filming, would you be quite so happy?

One can make too much of this. Personally, I am rarely in favour of anything that limits freedom of speech or information. Public webcams are rarely so intrusive as to be potentially invasive of an individual’s freedom, but I can understand the sensitivities, as they exist in Mallorca. Innocent enough the webcam may be, but it may not be quite so innocent under law.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Illegal

Alcúdia town hall has started a campaign to raise awareness of the harmful effects of illegal street selling and to instruct as to the consequences of buying stuff from the looky-looky men (and for the most part it is they against whom this campaign is directed). 

 

It may be recalled that Alcúdia passed additional laws a year ago, designed to stamp out street selling. The campaign presumably serves as a reminder of the fines that can be levied not only on those doing the selling but also on bars where it might occur and on those who purchase the DVDs and all the rest. The campaign also suggests that those laws have not had the desired effect, and a wander around The Mile only goes to reinforce that view. Quite why it has taken till September to initiate a poster campaign, who knows. 

 

The ineffectiveness of the laws lies to a large part in the lack of policing and also in what the police can actually do. Take one looky off the streets and another one takes his place. There’s a looky factory somewhere, churning out guys and fake Gucci glasses. Fine a looky and look where it gets you. Keep on looking for the looky. So fine the bars instead; bars, many of them, which now want nothing to do with the trade. However, some certainly of the bigger bars would need to employ someone specifically to stop the lookies coming onto terraces. There seem at times that many of them that the bars cannot keep stop serving in order to deal with another illegal seller. So fine the purchasers instead. Yep, and cop a load of bad publicity when some hapless and unaware tourists fork out for a crap watch or some duff Lady Gaga. I’ve not actually seen any of the posters that form part of this campaign, but the reports say that it goes under the title – “Tots contra la venda il-legal”. Catalan. Maybe there should be more effort directed at tourists.

 

But whatever sort of campaign is instituted, a problem is that the punters don’t see this illegal trade as any big deal. For many it is a bit of fun (though there are also tourists who get hacked off with the harassment). For many it is a cheap way of buying CDs and the rest. There was a recent radio report regarding a campaign by trading standards somewhere in England. The reporter spoke to a few of the purchasers. Aware they may have been that the trade was illegal, but it didn’t bother them. The amounts being spent were not great – indeed they were low – and there was little concern that some of the products might be of inferior quality and that there was no comeback. What does it matter when what you’re spending is so low? Trading standards, and no doubt the Alcúdia authorities also, can point to the losses that are incurred by rights holders because of counterfeiting, but they are of minor consequence to most people – just consider also the level of illegal downloading. Even the money that can be made from the big piracy operations probably don’t bother people either. There was another report recently in England about police action that netted the producers of illegal DVDs whose “business” was said to be worth several million pounds. 

 

Fining purchasers might sound like a strong deterrent, but only if people are aware of such fines and are also unwilling to take the risk. It doesn’t deter. Some friends who visited Alcúdia earlier this summer were surprised to see what they took to be a bar owner going through a whole bunch of CDs and DVDs and sorting out what he wanted. As ever with illegal trades, and the lookies also deal in contraband of a more serious nature, it is attacking the sources of supply that can limit the trade. However, though successful interventions by the police have indeed been reported in Mallorca, the trade still carries on. It isn’t that difficult to replicate, or at least one imagines it isn’t. 

 

And then there is the illegal trade that does not rely on the wretched lookies. But let’s not go there.