A Real Farce (28 November)

Put the words “real” and “farce” together and the potential references are all but endless. What’s today’s real farce? Iñaki Urdangarín perhaps. A real, as in royal(ish), Brian Rix character, and now presumably, thanks to the farcical goings-on at Palma town hall, referred to as the Duke of Palma de Mallorca, where he had been merely “of Palma” until a few days ago.

If not dukey, then what about Real Mallorca? So committed to farce, it’s the only thing the club’s any good at. They can’t even manage to find themselves caught up in a decent bit of old-fashioned fan hooliganism; only an accident.

Real and farce could apply to a host of things in Mallorca. Every day of every year. Not all, though, have real inscribed onto the farce. But there is one other which does. Just what on earth is going on at Son Real near Can Picafort? Or maybe we should call it Son Unreal.

If you have never been to Son Unreal, and the chances are that you haven’t, as I’m none too sure many people actually go there, you may be unaware of the fact that it is arguably the single most important historic site in Mallorca. It isn’t just any old bit of finca, and at getting on for 400 hectares you probably wouldn’t expect it to be.

Its provenance either is or almost prehistoric. And just part of this prehistory, the necropolis burial site, is under threat from nature, i.e. the sea, and from man, who tramples over it (those men who do in fact go there), because there is a lack of preservation and a lack of control.

The necropolis isn’t the only part of Son Real that is suffering. With the exception of the restoration of old houses and the creation of a visitors’ centre, the story of Son Real has been one of neglect for years.

The finca was acquired by the then government nine years ago. Prior to the acquisition and then for some time afterwards, Son Real was paid scant attention to. So little did it seem to register that there was a serious proposal to turn the finca into a golf course. Yes, really, a golf course. When common sense prevailed and the proposal was ditched, leaving Santa Margalida town hall making somewhat ambiguous statements, as it seemed to be in favour of the course, some attention was finally paid. And it cost three million euros.

This was the price tag put on the restoration and the visitors’ centre. A whole bunch of dignitaries turned up at the start of September 2008 to celebrate the spending of three million, partook of the tapas and wine and, like any freeloader who goes to a restaurant inauguration, promptly forgot about the place, along with everyone else.

Among those who forgot about it, or so the town hall reckons, are the local hotels, which do precious little or nothing to publicise Son Real. The town hall isn’t much impressed by the efforts of the tourism ministry either, though the ministry is finally putting the Foundation for Sustainable Development, which supposedly runs the place, out of its misery and scrapping it.

The town hall wants to knock heads together in making improvements to the maintenance, management and promotion of Son Real. It represents something of an about turn for an administration, admittedly of a different make-up, that not so long ago quite fancied the necropolis being turned into a series of bunkers.

Its enthusiasm in wanting to see something being done may not be completely without some other motivation. For sure, it would like there to be more tourists coming into Can Picafort in order to visit Son Real, but it has had its spats with the foundation and so may see the opportunity to join in with kicking it while it is down and on its way out, to say nothing of perhaps eyeing up a possible involvement in running the finca, despite the fact that it is meant to now come under the environment ministry.

Whatever the motivation, the town hall isn’t wrong to highlight the problems at Son Real, and these aren’t simply confined to deterioration to the historic remains; rubbish, broken signs, these are just other examples of the lack of care.

The real story of Son Real and its neglect, though, is one of questions arising as to quite how serious are the desires to preserve Mallorca’s heritage and to promote it to tourists. Tourism bodies bang on about heritage and culture, everyone bangs on about it, but at Son Real no one does much about it. Farce? Really, it is.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Going, Going, Gone: Tourism promotion budget

Is there such a thing as an auction in reverse? Because if not, then the Balearics tourism ministry appears to have invented it. Do I hear nine million for tourism promotion? Any reduction on nine million? Mr. Delgado, 3.6 million. Any reduction on 3.6? Going, going … . At this rate and by this time next week, the tourism promotion budget will have gone; not because it has been spent but because there won’t be one. There they were saying that there were a mere nine million, and the next day Delgado goes and trims the budget by almost another two-thirds.

The ministry does, after all, only have a total of 63 million for next year. It is the lowest budget of any ministry, and tourism is only the most important industry, but needs clearly must in these austere times. Even so, 3.6 million? And the question is, what will the ministry find to spend the other 59.4 million on, as everything is being cut.

To this end, we will be sad to see one body fall to the ministry’s axe, as it has kept us so royally amused for a few years. The Foundation for Sustainable Development; they’re getting rid of it, along with its stupid “tarjeta verde”. I may need to remind you that the foundation and the card were what replaced the eco-tax. All these tourists were going to be buying one of these discount cards, all the money raised was going to save Mallorca’s environment; that sort of thing. The only problem was that no one bought one, or if they did, the money wasn’t handed over.

They had to find something else to justify the existence of this pointless foundation (and one, it should be noted, into which various banks pumped not insignificant amounts of money as well as the government), so they let it run certain sites of environmental interest, such as Son Real near Can Picafort. Then they had to find someone to be in charge and recently the PP government gave the job to Jorge Campos, the founder and president of the fiercely anti-Catalan Círculo Balear.

Poor old Jorge. Gives up his presidency and then finds he’s out of a job. He should have known better, as it’s a surprise that the foundation had been allowed to stagger on as long as it had, especially as it was due for the scrap-heap under the Antich restructuring of the tourism ministry. So much for him having mates, like Bauzá, in high places. They’ll probably find him something else.

And so they should, as Campos’ brief time in charge of Son Real has had high amusement value in itself. For example, he insisted on putting up a Spanish flag at the entrance, thus provoking all manner of Catalanist indignation and Maulets radicals, who of course can’t stand him, into promptly going along and taking it down.

Meantime, Santa Margalida town hall was sent an invoice for a visit with people from the Alicante town of Vall d’Ebó, with which Santa Margalida has a sort of twinning arrangement. We’ve never had to pay such invoices before, said the mayor, who has threatened that if the demand (for 159 euros) isn’t withdrawn, the town hall will claim 12,000 euros from the foundation relating to a licence for works at Son Real that wasn’t pursued. Yep, things certainly have been fun, and petty, since Campos took over.

But the town hall probably won’t now be able to claim its 12,000, as it’s farewell to the Foundation for Sustainable Development. Sadly, it couldn’t sustain itself, but we greatly appreciate the entertainment. Of its responsibilities, Son Real will end up with something called the Espais de Natura Balear, while Costa Nord, its biggest responsibility, will go to the tourism agency, which is where (and the agency’s previous incarnation as well) it should have been all along. The foundation, though, and let us not forget, was a creation of former PP president Matas. And we know all about the various bodies Matas set up, though not quite as much as the anti-corruption prosecutors do.

The tourism promotion budget, or lack of it, is, though, the headliner. 3.6 million. It really is a pittance. But there’s more. What about those arts festivals the ministry is meant to support financially? Like the Pollensa Music Festival. The ministry’s not saying, other than to imply that unless an orchestra-pit load of private sponsorship can be found, it probably won’t happen. And if it and others don’t take place, the ministry will have to fork out for changing all the publicity material. I wonder if they’ve accounted for this in the budget?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Flying The Flag

A brand new and large Spanish flag is flying near Can Picafort. It is larger than a flag of the Balearics and larger still than a European flag.

The Spanish flag now proudly flutters over the finca of Son Real in Santa Margalida. It probably should always have been there and had pride of place; law suggests that it should have, according to the director of the Balearics Foundation for Sustainable Development, Jorge Campos.

Who is Sr. Campos? He used to be director for climate in the Calvia town hall administration of the now tourism minister Carlos Delgado. As such, he can justifiably lay claim to environmental credentials. However, Campos was also, until recently, the president of the Círculo Balear, which he founded.

The Círculo, in terms of the great Castilian-Catalan argument, is firmly in the Castilian camp. Defender of the language, it is the opposite of the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB), the great defender of Catalan and all things Catalan lands. It has had a number of run-ins with the forces of Catalanism. Its building has been vandalised with graffiti, its presence at new year celebrations in Palma last year sparked off violence, and Sr. Campos has been in court to see members of the Maulets, the Catalan independence radicals, get slapped with fines for having chanted “Nazi”, “fascist” and “terrorist” at him.

Campos was appointed to the post of director at the end of July. His was and is a political appointment in that the choice is that of the regional government. But it was an appointment with far greater political baggage. It has been like a red rag to the Catalanist, leftist bull.

The foundation, of which he is now in charge, has not been without its own controversies. Established in 2004 by the former president Jaume Matas, its main function was to oversee the promotion of the “tarjeta verde”, the green discount card, which came into being as a way of generating revenue for environmental purposes once the short-lived eco-tax was scrapped.

The green card has been a spectacular flop, not helped by the fact, as revealed by an audit for 2008, that the foundation managed to bring in a mere 13,500 euros from its sales, a shortfall of around 400 grand. Last year, when all hell broke loose regarding corruption cases stemming from the tourism ministry, the foundation was implicated. Questions were being asked as to how, when costs were added to the lack of revenue, losses of over a million euros a year could have mounted up.

The foundation was meant to have been wrapped up, like the two agencies more at the centre of the tourism ministry corruption affair, and brought under the new Balearics Tourism Agency. However, it survives as a separate entity, linked to the new tourism ministry and therefore to Campos’s old boss and anti-Catalanist soul mate, Carlos Delgado.

Other than the green card, what actually does the foundation do? It is charged with administering sites such as Son Real, the running of which it took over in July 2008, but the environmental group GOB has not had much that is positive to say for the foundation. It has argued that it should be scrapped and has criticised its operations in the Albufera nature park in Muro. It is likely that, with Campos as its head, GOB would be even more dismissive, as GOB is a fellow-traveller on the Catalanist left with the OCB. The Círculo Balear, for its part, has lumped both GOB and the OCB in with the Maulets, claiming that the Maulets have received the “adherence” of these two groups (and others) which have the “appearance of democracy”.

And so we come back to the Spanish flag at Son Real. What might seem a relatively inconsequential issue is anything but. It was Campos who gave the instruction for the flag to be raised.

The environment is a political issue, but now it is being even more politicised within the context of the whole Castilian-Catalan argument. And just to reinforce this, between the time of his appointment and his stepping down from the Círculo three weeks later, Campos managed to cram in a meeting with President Bauzá to discuss language and cultural matters.

Why, though, has the foundation escaped the axe when others haven’t and when it appears to have made a hash of things since it was formed? It is not solely reliant on government money, that’s true, but might it be expedient for the government to maintain it, with Campos as its chief, as an additional counterpoint to the Catalan left? There are more to flags than simply running them up a flag-pole.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.