The week that was

Doctor who?: Rafa and the university
This was the week when the Tramuntana was transformed into a Christmas card scene. Absent from its snowy peaks, though, was Majorca's Mr. Christmas. He was in Miami and was thus spared the snowballs of the press being lobbed in his general direction. It was a difficult week for Rafael the red-faced racket-player who declined to go down in history by becoming the first sportsperson to accept an honorary doctorate from the Universitat de les Illes Balears.

The source of the boy Nadal's embarrassment was the succession of volleys fired over the net of the university management council's decision earlier this month to award the doctorate. When the press did finally manage to catch up with him in Florida, he explained that his life was just fine without a doctorate. Which it almost certainly is, so why disrupt this wonderful life by bothering to make space in the Nadal trophy warehouse for an honorary mortar board with accompanying gown?

At the heart of the rumpus - supposedly - was whether Nadal was deserving of the award. He is only a sportsperson, after all. Had he added to his sporting achievements by presenting a thesis on the aerodynamics of belting a small yellow thing over some netting, then that would have been all right. But no, all he had done was win the odd tennis tournament.

The university rector Llorenç Huguet, only in the post for a few months, has been learning, as did his predecessor, the late Montserrat Casas, that there is more to this running-a-university malarkey than smiling nicely when handing over certificates. There are the politics as well, and Huguet suggested that elements on the university governing council (as distinct to its management council) had been the ones who had "dynamited" the doctorate. Rafa had been blown up.

With the press and its readership also none too certain that the doctorate was merited, Nadal added to his wonderful-life statement by saying that, in the absence of unanimity at the governing council, he would decline the offer. And more light was shed on these dissident elements on the council by Miguel Deyá, who is the regional government's director-general for universities. He described them as "anti-Spanish". Because Nadal "feels Spanish" and has shown himself to be, the anti-mob wanted nothing to do with him. Or at least I think this was what he was on about (and Nadal is a Real Madrid fan).

Perhaps with this rather odd observation in mind, Huguet moved the tramlines in justifying the original decision. Nadal was deserving not just because of his sporting achievement but also because he should be considered part of the culture - Balearics culture, that is. Whether he is or he isn't, advantage was with the governing council dissidents, and Huguet and Nadal duly lost. Game, set and match to the anti-Spanish.

The usefulness of the Council of Majorca
When the Partido Popular decamped to Campos a few weeks back for its weekend love-in designed to prove that President Bauzá recognised that there was a Majorca beyond Palma (and Marratxí), the glorious event ended with a clap-in that featured Bauzá and the president of the Council of Majorca, Maria Salom.

Maria was smiling sweetly, but her relationship with José Ramón is far from being all sweetness and light, and the tensions surfaced in no uncertain fashion during the week. Maria delivered a state-of-the-institution speech, one that did not say that the Council was in a right old state; it isn't because she has turned it from being in a right old state under PSOE's Francina Armengol into one of unparalleled local government efficiency and effectiveness (her words, kind of). And she kept on saying how "useful" the Council was, this repetition being taken as a barely disguised attack on Bauzá and his suggestion that the Council should be reduced to a minimum. Not disguised at all was her declaration that "the disappearance of the Council would amount to a mutilation of democracy in the Balearics".

In addition to the regular use of the useful word, Maria also referred several times to the "Majorcaness" of the Council. She was distinguishing the Council's role from that of the regional government but was also taking issue with Bauzá and what is perceived as his disregard of Majorcaness. While he has attempted to disprove this, he is failing to convince, and included among those who are not convinced are members of the party. The fault lines within the PP are well and truly exposed and are getting wider.

The poor quality of Balearics democracy
The Cercle d'Economia de Mallorca is an organisation which brings together leading figures from the professions and business. It is one whose views are well worth listening to, and I have mentioned some of its contributions in the past. Last week it published the findings from its second survey into the quality of democracy, institutions and civil society in the Balearics. Questioned was a panel of 500 people from different sectors (excluding politics) who range from the self-employed and civil servant to the professional and businessperson to the retired.

One of its conclusions was that it was right for there to be an elimination of duplication between the levels of government in the Balearics. It is this elimination which President Bauzá was alluding to when he spoke about reducing the size of the Council of Majorca. The survey, it might be said, appears to back him up.

There was less good news for the president (and indeed all politicians) from other survey findings. Overall it awarded a score of 3.3 out of ten for the quality of Balearics democracy with particularly bad scores being registered for the political party and electoral system. Failures to arrive at consensus, behaviour, selection of candidates and inability to stick to promises all ranked very low.

The president of the Cercle observed that there was disillusionment with the political system and that the worst thing which could happen would be for economic crisis to be resolved without there also being a thorough examination of political conscience. Fine words, but one doubts very much whether there will be such an examination.