Yes, that they ask forgiveness

Today there is much talk of strained relations, areas, and societies. We must not forget that 'tension' is a natural fact of human coexistence. The struggle between those who hold the reins and those who feel like the oil that the master moves wherever he wants is a tension, once again, that extends beyond the most ancient times.From the time of Joanot Colom, from the time of Simó Ballester, lo Tort. From the time of the foreign revolts and the guilds, up to the Civil War that devastated the island during the 20th century, this tension, this popular nervousness, has been a constant. "This land is ours, let the lords know it," wrote Guillem d'Efak. "We do not need capes to lead us by the hand, we are not children of honey and sugar, and we know how to govern ourselves," sang the shack-dwelling sorcerer. Things have changed from green to blue, but, in the end, everything remains more or less the same, only perhaps with some of the goose's roles changed.Antoni Tugores has always explained that during the Civil War the most rabid right-wingers were not the lords, but the peasants who, pampered like lice in pasture, did not want to lose their nouveau riche status. At school, when we talk about the Middle Ages, we do so by remembering that it was a class-based society, with immutable categories and two large classes: the privileged and the non-privileged. The former were the landowners. The latter were those who worked them. The former did not work. The latter, bent their backs doing it. The former were rentiers. The latter, those who paid the rents, and moreover, the taxes.The land in Mallorca is no longer the pantry that directly feeds us. Neither grain, nor legumes, nor vegetables. Neither cows, nor sheep, nor chickens. Now food arrives in the form of brick and concrete. Every two "quarterades" (a Catalan unit of land measurement), a villa with a pool. And in the village, if you have a house, fix it up a bit, because you can still rent it for a young canary's price three or four months a year.These are the furious ones, now. There is a businessman from Manacor, very dynamic on social media, who day in and day out asserts himself: “I will not apologize, nor will I be ashamed to fight like a goat and have a good life.” Well, perhaps yes, many of these “small owners” do have to apologize. Well, perhaps yes, it is worth apologizing, without being ashamed of it, for asking for 1,500 or 2,000 euros for an ordinary rent, when the interprofessional minimum wage is 1,221 euros per month. Other standard-bearers of this fight appeal to the "mallorquinitat" of these 'small owners', as those most harmed by an eventual limitation of rental prices. A measure, on the other hand, that is a complete fantasy, as President Prohens has already warned us. Yes, very "mallorquin" are these 'small owners': there is data indicating that in Mallorca one in every four properties is already in foreign hands, and that there are municipalities like Calvià and Andratx where this percentage soars to forty percent. The majority of these properties, moreover, are destined for tourist rentals, for second homes, or are simply empty waiting for the speculative market to offer them the opportunity to be sold at a price unaffordable for the "mallorquins" who earn money by working.Because yes, that's what the topic is about. The conversion of housing into a business has allowed thousands of people in Mallorca to see the possibility of earning money without working, which is what landlords have done all their lives. The sick person has a bad wound, because there are few things sweeter than earning them sweet. And those who rent villas for 1,000 euros a weekend earn them just as sweetly, as do those who rent renovated flats to school teachers and healthcare professionals for 1,500 or 2,000 euros, as do those who put a kitchen in a stable and ask for 1,000 euros a month, as do those who charge 400 euros per room for sub-standard housing. We can no longer talk about supply and demand when talking about housing. We are talking about necessity, which is what exists. It is time to stop this shame.