During the month of August Mallorca turns into a sort of celebrities pageant, only comparable to the Lido or the Croisette in Cannes or Venice during their respective Film Festivals. The island attracts a pretty impressing selection of famous figures: Peter Ustinov, a regular, is enjoying his yacht and playing french bowls round about the Hotel Formentor; renowned fashion designer Katherine Hamnett, is spending a few leisurely days with her daughter in the village of Fornalutx, while relentlessly censuring the Deià-Sóller road-works and complaining about the local German residents' bad manners; film director and co-founder of the Madrid "scene", Pedro Almodovar is at the Hotel Son Vida co-writing the script of a friend's next film, which,(surprise!!), will be about sex, drugs and rock'n roll; Mouna al Ayoub (quite a name for quite a woman!), whose future is more than taken care of by her ex-husband, oil and real estate tycoon, Nassir el Rasid, has decided to move out of her luxury yacht, Lady Moura (the most expensive in the world, according to experts) and into a much more modest residence in the hills of Genova. Mother of five children and of Lebanese background, her answer to the questions regarding this decision are the following: "I want to live like any other Mallorcan woman. I want to work and enjoy the beauty of this island first hand." P.S. Money doesn't necessarily take you around the bend!

Iberia's decision to cancel direct flights from Palma to London, Frankfurt and Paris has met with serious opposition (Mallorca News No. 8). The President of the Balearic Government Jaume Matas himself is spokesperson for all parties in Madrid, fighting against this measure. Reactions go from amazement, expressed by the Director of the Fomento de Turismo, Miquel Vicens, to the President of the Oficina de Turismo, Pedro Idondo's summons to action, to utter indignation. Luis Ramis, President of PIMEM (Small and Medium Enterprises in Mallorca) has declared "Iberia thus condemns the Balearic Islands to being a third class region".
In spite of all protests, this state-run airline, which became so during a great merging frenzy among airlines, is now going through a very delicate financial situation, and has decided to move up the date of these changes from November to September 2nd (London) and 16th (Frankfurt, Paris). Competing airlines have reacted, of course: British owned Centennial and privately owned Air Europa have both scheduled more flights to these destinations.

Also controversial: the interview published by the local newspaper, Ultima Hora, with the brilliant young businessman Michael Geis(G&K Entertainment), promoter of the International Boxing Match starring Thorsten May. Geis answered affirmatively when asked if Mallorca could be thought of as a sort of "German province". The reaction was of general indignation, followed by an initial denial. It's reminiscent of that nonsense two years ago, when, according to the sensationalist German paper, Bild, two Bavarian wise guys came up with the idea of Mallorca becoming Germany's 17th "land". Anyone with a little more psychological insight than our dear Rhinelander would have realised that this comment would affect the proud Mallorcan character. We'll see if the Coliseo Balear manages to attract a full-house on August 31st...