Person of the week, cheers and boos

... was Fernando Garfella. It's rare, perhaps unknown, for the person of the week to be named posthumously, but in Fernando Garfella's case it is merited. Last Sunday, he was diving at a depth of some seventy metres. He died because of a decompression problem. Respected and admired as a diver, there was far more to Fernando Garfella. He was active with the Open Arms humanitarian organisation. He was an underwater photographer. He was a maker of documentaries. His passion was the marine environment, and he had been a prime mover in establishing the Dragonera marine reserve. His loss is greatly felt.

Three cheers ...

For what was about the only heartening bit of tourism news last week. Holiday bookings for Spain during the week before last had been well higher than those for other countries. All things were relative of course, as the bookings were still only 46% of what they were at the same time last year. But any good news is worth grabbing hold of. The thing was, though, that while it was being said that these bookings were being made despite travel restrictions by some countries, 90% of bookings were apparently being made by Spanish tourists. Still, if it wasn't for national tourists ...

A big boo ...

For the case of "Grisito", a cat which was tortured to death in Manacor. Two young men were arrested for having tied the cat up and gouged an eye out. The town hall and animal welfare associations said that they will be taking out prosecutions against the two as well as the prosecution service itself. The case, it was then discovered, had more to it. The two (aged 19 and 21) had both been on Partido Popular lists of candidates: one for Congress, the other for Palma town hall. Respectable photos of the pair appeared on social media. The PP said they would be expelled from the party. One of them argued that the cat had in fact been run over by a car.