There are people to whom a newspaper owes much more than the articles they have written, the advice they have given, and the contributions they have made. Celestí Alomar is, without a doubt, one of those people. We owe ARA Balears, above all, extraordinary generosity. As a member of the editorial board from the beginning, we always found in him an attentive gaze, sharp intelligence, and a willingness to help that was never forced or self-interested. His advice was good because it stemmed from a deep and sensible observation of reality. He also gifted us ideas, topics, questions, and analyses as lucid as they were accurate. And he did so with a naturalness that made his contribution even more valuable.

It is not an easy debate. Talking about the cost of healthcare for tourists forces us to walk a fine and delicate border line. On the one hand, the principle of universality of healthcare, which guarantees that anyone who needs it must be treated; on the other hand, the obligation of whoever has to assume the cost of that care.

There were reasons to fear the worst: an exceptional total solar eclipse coincided with one of the days of greatest human pressure of the year and with the Islands, especially Mallorca, becoming the center of world attention. It was like a stress test for islands that live at the limit of their capacity. And yet, the balance of August 12th is, despite the incidents, very positive.

The total solar eclipse on August 12 is an extraordinary phenomenon. So is the expectation it has generated. For over a year, astronomers, enthusiasts, and specialized media have been warning that the Balearic Islands, and more specifically Mallorca, would be one of the most coveted places in the world to observe it, if meteorological conditions allow.

Demonstrations are not only held in the street. They also contend with the aftermath, when a media and political narrative is imposed about what happened. And, after the police charges of 26-J, the narrative of tourist saturation has been sidelined in the media by another debate much more comfortable for Marga Prohens' Government. It is important not to lose focus, because the president is one of the main people responsible for responding to the problems that the tourism model generates in the daily lives of the citizens of the Balearic Islands. The day after one of the most massive protests ever seen in the Islands, Prohens has not felt the need to face the situation, nor to give explanations about the lack of management, nor to confront her unfulfilled promises. The president has spoken about the charges, has demanded explanations from the Spanish government delegate, Alfonso Rodríguez, and has remarked that she respects the right to demonstrate, as if that were not a given.

When water is not enough, room for manoeuvre runs out. It is the most basic limit any society has. And the Balearic Islands have started this summer closer to that limit than in recent years. Water reserves have dropped again. Menorca registers the worst levels. Almost fifty municipalities – 47 out of the 67 that exist – entered the summer in a state of alert or pre-alert for drought. The Government itself admits that climate change will make droughts longer, rainfall more irregular, and aquifer recharge more difficult. These are not catastrophic forecasts, they are official data.

Citizen mobilization in defense of Trenc is more than a protest for an emblematic natural space. It is the image of a society that is on guard. The slogan that is resonating again these days, ‘Neither before, nor now, nor ever. Trenc must not be touched’, is also a preventive warning against any indication that could put at risk a collective heritage that the people of Mallorca have had to defend time and again over the last few decades.

Public investment in culture is not only legitimate, it is necessary. No country or society with the slightest collective ambition can leave culture exclusively in the hands of the market. Institutional support for cultural projects serves to guarantee plurality, access, social cohesion and external projection. But precisely because public resources are limited and come from all citizens, investment must respond to criteria of proportionality, transparency and general interest. It is here that the case of Mallorca Live raises alarms.

The case of Miquel Roldán has placed the educational system in front of a conflict as delicate as it is difficult to resolve. The teacher, convicted of harassing a minor, returned to practice after serving the sentence imposed by Justice. And it is precisely in this fact where the contradiction appears that today shakes a public school in Palma, worries families and leaves the Ministry of Education with no room for maneuver. Legally, Roldán can return to teaching and be the tutor of the group of children assigned to him. Socially, a significant part of the educational community considers it incomprehensible that this is possible.

The question a young woman asked herself after seeing her grandmother's house in Son Espanyolet being demolished to make way for a new construction in foreign hands is, in reality, a collective, country-wide question. "Why couldn't I save my grandmother's house?" she wondered. Her lament could be that of thousands of people from other neighborhoods and many towns and cities in the Islands. Why are more and more families unable to preserve the houses that have been part of their history?