IS MAJORCA BEING ERODED BY CONCRETE?

LAST week top British musician Annie Lennox launched a broadside against the excess building on Majorca.
She said the following in a statement to the media: “Over the last 17 years or so that I've had the privilege of coming to Majorca, I have noticed significant changes each time. Unfortunately... mainly horribly depressing changes. My heart sinks as I witness this unique island being rapidly eroded by concrete. Majorca is now becoming covered over with shopping centres, industrial developments, housing estates and highways that would be more familiar in the urban sprawl of the United States of America. In my opinion, it is an absolute tragedy which cannot be reversed. The island is relatively small and cannot sustain this kind of phenomena. All the picturesque places are now becoming more like small rural enclaves-- postage stamps surrounded by suburbia. Many parts of the coastline have been ruined by hideous holiday home estates. Golf courses consume water that we can ill afford. The “golden goose” will soon be bled dry. Surely it must be in everyone's best interest to protect Majorca from this cancer. I honour and support all ecological initiatives to prevent the death of a beautiful Balearic island that was once Majorca.” It is obviously a controversial statement. Do you agree with her? Here, two Bulletin writers argue the case for and against.
DO we want Majorca to be a museum, a kind of time–warp, which we can walk round looking at how life used to be lived in the Mediterranean ten, twenty–five, fifty years ago?, writes Ray Fleming. The protest at progress typified by Annie Lennox and reported front–page in Saturday's Bulletin gives this impression. Ms Lennox is not alone. Many of us wish the island could have remained the same as it was when we first saw it. However, I think that those of us who are part or full–time foreign residents here should be cautious about condemning the changes that have taken place since we first came here. We should first ask those younger Majorcans we know whether they would prefer to live in poverty as their parents did rather than have the “urban sprawl of industrial developments, highways and housing estates” to which Ms Lennox refers. The From Our Files feature in this newspaper recently included an item from 1957 that “maids are fairly easy to obtain for 500 to 700 pesetas a month.” When we complain about the motorways and hypermarkets are we not in danger of saying that because the Majorcans are fortunate enough to have been born on a beautiful island they should be denied the improvements in communications and housing and the general standard of living that the rest of Europe has experienced so that we can enjoy a retreat into the past for a while? I accept, of course, that a balance has to be struck between development and preservation and that in some respects it has favoured the former at the expense of the latter. I know that some Majorcans feel as Ms Lennox does and I personally welcome the Salvem Mallorca campaign which she is supporting but, frankly, I think that language about “the death of a beautiful Balearic island” is over–the–top and counter–productive.
WHILE no-one wants to stand in the path of progress, Annie Lennox is right to say that Majorca is being eroded by concrete, writes Jason Moore. The motorways which are being built at the moment will not make Majorca a more attractive proposition, in fact they could dent its image as a paradise in the Mediterranean. The acres of farmland, olive groves and almond trees which are being destroyed and covered over with concrete cannot be replaced. What the Balearic government has failed to understand is that development and protecting the environment can go hand-in-hand. What do tourists prefer, driving along a three-lane motorway or a two-lane road with almond blossom and olive groves at either side? What the local authorities appear to have forgotten once again is that this island lives from tourism, tourists want virgin beaches and scenic countryside. They don't want enormous motorways to handle all the cars bought from money made from the tourist, who basically likes Majorca how it was. At the end of the day, Majorca, is a product which must be sold to British and German tourists, if they don't like it, they won't come. The local government should be concerned at what Annie Lennox has said because at the end of the day these are the people they want to attract to the island. Annie Lennox's fears will strike a chord with many people who have been loyal residents and holidaymakers of Majorca for many years. Enough is enough. Progress is good but as long as it benefits the island. Too much concrete will certainly make people think twice about coming to the island.
Well done Annie, I have always admired your music, and now I admire your views on this island.