Seven days in Majorca

Progress at last

After aother week of Magallufian anguish there were signs that the worst

might be over and even that a positive future for the resort and the island as

a whole could be discerned, to some extent as a resukt of what had been learnt

from a disturbing and sometimes shocking month. The local authorities were

reported to have "got their act togther" and agreed on a "good behaviour

code of conduct" acroos the island similar to the one recently introduced in

Palma which is proving to be a success. To prove that somethimg is being done

the Bulletin showed a picture of the working groip ofrepresentatives of

some twenty organisations and administrations which meet in secret to keep the

recent problems and their remedies under review. The working group is also

overseeing an "awareness campaign" to be launched in Britain shortly --

although no one seemed sure what "awareness" means in this context or who

should be showing it.

Magalluf's Future

In an article translated from El Economico, the financial supplement

of the Bulletin's sister newspaper, Utima Hora, Gabriel Escarrer,

the founder and chairman of the Melia Hotel Group, gave his views on the

Magalluf affair. Referring to recent investment that his and other companies

are making in Magalluf he said their success would depend also on the local

authorities "having the legal, administrative and public order means with

which to confront the problems and with which to bring an end to, once and for

all, the awful habits which threaten us all. ...Now is the time to act and

for our authorities to confront the situation with courage, before it is tto

late and before we live to regret it."

The question of whether Majorcan local authorities possess or have access

to the legal means with which to deal with street prostitution has never been

clearly answered in the past. In a closely-argued article Andrew Ede said,

"There is a solution to Magalluf's prostitutes". He pointed to several other

towns on Majoca and Ibiza which use civil ordinances to deal with the problem

and asked why Calvia municipality did not do the same for Magalluf.

Bob Award

The Best of British 2014 award was made at Mood Beach in Costa D'en

Blanes. If the winner -- Teresa Llull Marti of Foundation Respiralia -- did

not sound very British, the organiser of the Award, Vicki McLeod, explained

that nominations had been invited for people of any country who speak any

language to highlight individuals and groups who do something amazing for

their community or their family. Respiralia which works to help people living

with cystic fibrosis got almost five hundred votes, well ahead of Cat and Kitten

Rescue with 343 and the Mallora Street Angels with 136.

What goats won't eat

Dorothy Loeffler made a very welcome return to the Bulletin pages

with her gardening column. Always practical, she began by answering an often

asked question -- "Which plants do goats not like? Her answer: "Many gardens

backing onto woodlands find goats a real menace, they eat just about

everything when they get into the garden and even it they donm't get in they

will eat the hedge.It has been discovered that they leave the oleanders alone,

this could well be because oleanders are poisonous and even goats know that."

Civil War History

Adrew Rawson's weekly "walk through history in Majorca" reached the

period of the Spanish CIvil War which began in mid-July 1936. Although there

was very little, if any, fighting in the Balearics the conditions of life under

General Franco's Nationalists were dangerous and unpleasant from the start, as

Rawson shows : "Public life changed immediatley as anything considered left

wing was closed down including newspapers, trade unions, cultural societies

and sporting clubs. Civil servants also had to swear allegiance to the new

National Movement.

Hundreds of "enemies" of the island's regime were arrested, many of them by a

para-military unit of young ardent nationalists called the Dragon of Death.

The accused were held without the right to a a fair trial or representation in

one of the makeshift prisons in Palma. Some men were imprisoned in Can Mir

prison, an old warehouse in Plaza Espanyol in the city centre. Others were in

Bellver Castle, where they were put to work turning underground caves into an

ammunition store and fuel depot...No one was safe, even Palma's Republican

mayor Emili Darder Canaves was killed after being held for several

months.There were also round-ups in the towns and villages across the land."

Andrew Rawson ended his article with this: "The Spanish Civil War has

been overshadowed by World War II but the country still struggles to come to

terms with uts past. The "Law for the Recovery of Historial Memory" which

recognises victims on both sides, as well as victims of the Franco regime,

only came into force in 2007."

In Brief

One of Majorca's biggest popular music attractions, Mallorca Rocks,

announced that 2014 will be its last season at Magalluf after five seasons of

open-air gigs by leading artists at the Mallorca Rocks hotel. The CEO, Andy

McKay, said that the company would be focussing on expansion plans both in

Ibiza and globally.

The Son Vida golf course is marking its 50th anniversary with a series of

special events leading up to the actual day on Sunday 27 July. The

Bulletin found a picture of Prince Rainier of Monaco inaugurating what

was originally a nine-hole course in 1964.

Work restarted on Palma's ill-fated Convention Centre and Hotel after a

two year standstill because of financial difficulties. The Baleraric government

will cover the 356 million euros cost of finishing the job which shoild be done

by the end of this year. It is expected that the government will try to sell

the building or outsource its management to a company specialising in

conventions.