Category Archives: Politics

The Fortification At Es Fortí de Cala Llonga

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When I last visited the cliff top fortification at Es Fortí de Cala Llonga in Cala d’Or, some twenty years ago or even longer, it was in a pretty bad shape; one might have called it a ruin. The origins of the fortification may easily go back a couple of hundred years or even more. It might have been built during the 1730s. At that time, surveillance and custody of the coast was a matter of great importance. In an inventory of the year 1832 the military fortress weaponry was listed as consisting of four cannons, a fact that clearly shows the importance and strength Es Fortí de Cala Llonga once had.

Nowadays, the small old fortress stands in good splendour; well, almost. The Military sold the fortress by way of an auction in 1878 and it became private property. In 1992, Es Fortí was acquired by the Fundació Illes Balears who slowly and carefully restored the erstwhile stronghold. It is now open to the public and serves as a venue for occasional festive events, concerts and other cultural and social gatherings. The views over the cliffs towards the coastline of Cala d’Or and the open Med are as good as it gets.

The photos were taken in Cala d’Or, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: September 6th, 2012. The time was 14:01:11, 13:57:34 and 13:45:16, respectively.

The Port Authority in Mallorca

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Ports in Spain and the Merchant Marine are managed by state-owned institutions called port authorities, ultimately a section of the Ministerio del Interior in Madrid and the Spanish government, depending on the Ministry of Public Works and Economy. The Autoridad Portuaria de Baleares (Port Authority of the Balearic Islands) is assigned to the management of the ports of Palma de Mallorca, Alcúdia, Mahon, Ibiza and La Savina (Formentera).

The Port Authority of the Balearic Islands is about to move into new headquarters at the Moll Vell in the harbour of Palma. A new construction has gone up on the site of the former Trasmediterránea building, busy up to some twenty years ago but abandoned since the late Nineties. For generations of visitors to Mallorca, the old Trasmediterránea building had been a landmark acting as a meeting point and forwarding station for messages, mail and communication, not unlike the American Express office in Paris during the Forties and Fifties. The new Port Authority headquarters were built, integrating parts of the old construction and its modernist façade, to an estimated budget of 18,000,000 Euros but seem to have finally come in at a total sum of 20,472,223 Euros, if the official figures are to be trusted. That’s quite a lot of money, don’t you think?

The photo (top) was taken in Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: September 4th, 2012. The time was 17:52:27. The photos (centre and bottom) were borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of diariodemallorca.es (centre) and portsdebalears.com (bottom)

Muchas gracias.

Till Death Us Do Part

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Death comes to all, but now, at a price.

The recently announced hike in the rate of Spanish IVA (Value Added Tax) will affect some more than others. School books in Spain, for instance, were taxed, and continue to be, at a low rate of IVA of 4 % (superreducida). School material such as papers, rulers, pencils, crayons, erasers and so on continue to be levied at the reduced rate of IVA, but suffering an increase from 8 % to now 10 %.

It’s worse if you have a death in your family. Funerary expenses in Spain also used to be taxed at 8 % and the cost of funerals should have now gone up to 10 %, being so far a matter within the band of the reduced tax rate. But no. The band of reduced tax rates no longer applies to funerals or cremations as of September 1st, here in Spain. Dying now will be a matter affordable only to the affluent. Funeral expenses will now be charged at the full rate of 21 %, whereas this week and until the end of this month, they are still levied at 8 %. The new regulation will make Spain the most expensive country in Europe for the family of the deceased from next week, tax-wise, with the possible exception of Sweden.

The photo was taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: August 12th, 2012. The time was 18:26:09.

Pneumatic Rubbish Collection in Palma

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A pneumatic rubbish collection was installed in Palma some ten years ago at a cost of 23,000,000 Euros. Subterranean tunnels would normally suck the waste to central collection points from where the basura is being transported to the Centre de Tratamiento in Son Reus, the massive incinerator plant just north of Palma. Alas, all is not well with Emaya‘s pneumatic collection system; a number of technical and electric breakdowns seem to have occurred over the last few months. Currently, some 380 pneumatic rubbish collection bins in Palma’s historical centre have been sealed off and were rendered unusable. Emaya Empresa Municipal d’Aigües i Clavegueram S.A. is the municipal water and waste refuse company in Palma, currently in debt to the tune of some 35,000,000 Euros.

Whilst the pneumatic collection system is inoperable, traditional waste containers have been brought out of retirement and dustbin lorries are now sent out periodically to visit the pneumatic bin areas and collect the rubbish from the deposit bins, to ensure that rubbish does not accumulate in the streets.

The photo (top) was taken in Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: August 7th, 2012. The time was 14:15:12. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of diariodemallorca.es and the photographer, Lorenzo.

Muchas gracias.

The Bench of the Lazybones

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Outside Palma’s Cort building (Ajuntament de Palma; Palma town hall) there is a beautiful hard stone bench inviting passers-by (and tourists) to sit down and have a break from the rushing around, or seek some shade on a stifling hot day such as yesterday. The bench is commonly called Banc dels vagos (bench of the layabouts) by the locals, or Banc de Sinofos, from the expression si no fos per… (if it weren’t for…), referring to the capital’s affluent heirs who had the means to not be obliged to work. Of course, this mockery originated during the 19th century when plenty of rich layabouts were living in Palma but, the term is still being used today, often in reference to the civil servants working at the town hall.

The photo was taken in Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: August 1st, 2012. The time was 15:21:46.

The Other Half

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The other day, a commemorative act was held in Portocolom to mark the 90th anniversary of the foundation of Spain’s first civil school for amphibian planes, the Escuela de Hidroaviación Civil. The occasion was reason enough for the President of the Consell de Mallorca, Maria Salom Coll, to descend upon this Eastern harbour town together with a few mandarins in her entourage. The festive act with self-important speeches by the political class was marred by a cacophony of ear-piercing whistles, shouting and booing by up to a hundred mostly young protesters. The audience attending was clearly divided into two groups of pretty equal numbers. The scene was a fair mirror image of today’s society in Spain and more to the point, Mallorca. La Crisis in Spain and here on the island seems to be affecting one half of the population whilst the other half happily pursues a routine of daily life as if everything were normal. I was shocked to see how seemingly far removed the political class present in Portocolom appeared from half their populace. They were all smiling and irritatingly cheerful, totally ignorant of the motives of the protesters who appeared to belong to the 21.3 % (24.6 % in all of Spain) of unemployed, or rather, 48 % in the case of youngsters under the age of 35, which seemed about the age range of the whistlers.

Massive protests have been seen frequently over the last six months wherever the president of the Govern Balear or his counterpart at the Consell de Mallorca made public appearances, either in Sa Pobla, Inca, Felanitx, Sóller, Andratx or Muro. Political decisions effecting cuts and changes in education, language, the health system, paired with effects of inflation, unemployment, taxation and dispossession have caused a lot of ill will amongst many citizens that the ruling body shrugs off without any further discussion. The argument goes like this ‘We have been elected with a majority and will now do as we please‘. A pity though that half the adult citizens did not vote Conservative and seem to feel utterly misrepresented.

It appears only fitting that just two days earlier, the government in Madrid had set up a new Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (Ministry of Homeland Security). I think that sooner or later the street protests in Spain will not be restricted to mere whistling.

The photo was taken in Portocolom, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: July 25th, 2012. The time was 19:27:48.

Jaume el Conquistador

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Jaime I de Aragón el Conquistador died 736 years ago today (July 27th, 1276). He led the Catalan conquest in 1229 when he was only 21 years old, taking Mallorca from the hands of Arabs or rather, the Berbers. He conquered Menorca in 1232 and Ibiza in 1235). I can’t tell you much more about him. Please allow me to quote from Wikipedia:

James I the Conqueror (Catalan: Jaume el Conqueridor, Aragonese: Chaime lo Conqueridor, Spanish: Jaime el Conquistador, Occitan: Jacme lo Conquistaire; 1208 – 1276) was the King of Aragón, Mallorca and Valencia, Count of Barcelona and Urgell, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276. His long reign saw the expansion of the Crown of Aragón on all sides: into Valencia to the south, Languedoc to the north, and the Balearic Islands to the east. By a treaty with Louis IX of France, he wrested the county of Barcelona from nominal French suzerainty and integrated it into his crown. His part in the Reconquista was similar in Mediterranean Spain to that of his contemporary Ferdinand III of Castile in Andalusia.

The most beloved king of Mallorca was father of eight male children from his second wife Violante of Hungary, daughter of King Andreas II of the Árpád dynasty.

As a legislator and organiser, he occupies a high place among the Spanish kings. James compiled the Llibre del Consulat de Mar, which governed maritime trade and helped establish Catalan-Aragonese supremacy in the western Mediterranean. He was an important figure in the development of Catalan, sponsoring Catalan literature and writing a quasi-autobiographical chronicle of his reign: the Llibre dels fets.

I don’t think any official celebration will mark the occasion in Palma today. Jaume I is rather commemorated on September 12th with the Diada de Mallorca (Mallorca Day) and on December 31st with the Festa de l’Estendard (Festivity of the Ensign).

The photos were taken in Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: March 23rd, 2012 and May 17th, 2012. The time was 11:31:13 and 13:13:33, respectively.

The Sad and Cruel Fate of Chuetas in Mallorca

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For centuries, Jews, Muslims and Christians were living together in peace and harmony in Spain, and here in Mallorca, pursuing their cultures, customs and religions. Their coexistence is said to have been beneficial to the island’s society and all was well in history, or so we are told, up to the late 14th century.

Jews had settled in Spain as early as 500 BC and if not, they certainly had made their way to Iberia with the Romans (approx. 200 BC). First massive confrontations with and assassinations of Jews were documented in 1360, and the Semitic tribe in Spain suffered massacres in 1366 and 1391. By 1406, Jews were obliged to live in Juderias (ghettos) and to wear a badge identifying them as not having been baptized. Forced conversions were imposed in Murcia, Lorca, Ocaña, Illescas, Valladolid, Tordesillas, Salamanca, Toledo and Zamora under the Dominican Vincent Ferrer in the name of Juan II de Aragón, the infant king, during 1411 and 1412.

An Edict of Expulsion was issued against the Jewish community of Spain by Fernando el Católico and Queen Isabella in 1492, and they were forced to convert to Catholicism, or were expelled or killed.

In Mallorca, similar atrocities occurred. The Jews of this island faced several waves of violence. During the 14th century, hundreds were killed in pogroms. In 1435, thousands converted or went into exile as their lives were in grave danger. But there was a twist. Some Jewish community members who had earlier been baptized to Christianity were suddenly accused of secretly celebrating their faith and worshiping the Torah. These Conversos (subjects of forced conversion) were now labelled as Chuetas (Catalan: Xuetes or Juetes) or hidden Jews. The Mallorcan chuetas suffered recriminations over the next 500 years. They were forever branded and persecuted, stigmatized and segregated. Thus, they could never blend in, and, until the first half of the 20th century, they had to practice strict endogamy. Today, between 18,000 and 20,000 people on the island are carriers of one of the 15 or so surnames that are said to be of Jewish Conversos or Chuetas. Earlier this year, a leading Israeli rabbinical authority, Rabbi Nissim Karelitz formally recognized the Chuetas of Mallorca as Jews. This momentous development may open the door for a good number of Chuetas to return to their roots and rejoin the Jewish people.

One of the eminent Mallorcan experts on the subject of Xuetes is Francesc Riera Montserrat (Felanitx, 1923). I had the pleasure to converse with him recently for which I am much indebted. As it happens, senyor Riera will be honoured with the Medalla de la Ciutat de Felanitx today, July 22nd, in recognition of his tireless dedication to matters of historic relevance. Enhorabona!

The photo (top) was taken in Deià, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: July 4th, 2012. The time was 15:15:39. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of internacional.elpais.com.

Muchas gracias.

The Cinema and the Rise in Value Added Tax

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Mallorca’s cinefile community is delighted about the erstwhile Cinema Renoir reopening last weekend as a citizens’ cooperative. The new venture took over the Renoir’s premises as well as all fixtures and fittings and will now operate under the name of Cineciutat.

Enhorabuena.

However, last week’s announcement by the Rajoy government in Madrid to raise IVA (or VAT) from 18 to 21 % leaves Spain’s cinemas a bit in the doldrums, though, and Spanish cinema-goers are shocked and outraged. Why?

Ever since the Value Added Tax was introduced in Spain in 1986 with the entry into the European Community, art, theatres, cinema and other cultural affairs were charged IVA at a reduced rate. I can’t remember how much it was at that time, but by 2009 the rate had gone up to 7 %. Then, the tax percentage was raised to 8 % on July 1st, 2010. Now, with effect of September 1st, 2012, IVA at reduced rate will be charged at 10 %. So far, so good. But no. In the case of the cinema ticket, the status of a reduced rate will be cancelled and IVA will be charged at the new, full rate of 21 %. Just to put things into perspective, the same cinema ticket is being levied with a VAT rate of 2.5 % in France for the first 140 screenings and 7 % after that, in Germany 7 % is being applied and in the Netherlands, a mere 6 %. As it stands, cinema attendance in Spain has already suffered a fall of 39 % over the last nine years with the number of tickets sold decreasing from 137,000,000 to about 98,000,000. Industry sources expect that the new taxation will possibly cause the closure of 50 % of all of Spain’s cinemas. In Palma, three cinema complexes closed in the last two years, counting the Renoir as one of them.

Let’s hope the new Cineciutat will not be one of the cinemas adversely effected by the increase in IVA.

The photo (top) was taken in Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: July 14th, 2012. The time was 16:41:41. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of CineCiutat and the photographer, Andreu Tur.

Moltes gràcies, and

muchas gracias.

Ca’n Oms

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Palma de Mallorca is a city of patios (inner courtyards). All courtyards were open to the street until the beginning of mass tourism in the second half of the twentieth century. Passers-by in the street used to be allowed to enter any patio and help themselves to some water to quench their thirst, a custom that is not adhered to nowadays any longer.

I did another patio tour yesterday, this time covering Palma Alta. One of the dozen or so patios we visited was Ca’n Oms.

During the 16th century, Hug de Berard Palou was the owner of Ca’n Oms, the house shown here. In his time, he occupied various important political positions and is best known for recovering the Archipelago of Cabrera from the Saracens. For this accomplishment, Felipe II granted him a title of nobility. In 1642, his descendants sold Ca’n Oms to Jerònim Doms. His family used Ca’n Oms during the 17th and 18th centuries as their Palma residence. In the 19th century, one of his descendants married Ignacio Truiols Vilallonga of the Marquises de la Torre family who owned Ca’n Oms until 1982 when the Ajuntament de Palma bought the property.

The Ajuntament de Palma offers a boring looking website which on second glance offers a wealth of information about some 60 patios and their historical relevance.

The photos were taken in Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: June 16th, 2012. The time was 12:08:01 and 11:46:57, respectively.