Manners maketh man

This disgraceful lack of respect for locals has my hackles rising. While many visitors to the Soller valley are cultured and keen to be assimilated, others blatantly display insulting behaviour which, in my opinion, should not go unpunished. Entering another person’s home without permission or taking fruit from private gardens and orchards is nothing more than home invasion and theft and should carry a steep fine. Imagine if these same people found random folks entering their appartments or houses back home. They’d probably call the police and rightly so.

I witnessed the same unacceptable behaviour in a car park in Soller the other day. An aggressive tourist was hassling a local resident to get going so he could have his parking space. When the pensioner indicated that he was just leaving shopping bags in the boot and was not driving away, the man cursed and exhibited unpleasant behaviour.

These are not the kind of folks I have always remembered coming to Soller. It’s a new breed and they are pushy and self-entitled. They come for the day, take what they can, buy little and leave, all the while clogging up the streets and infuriating the locals. The sad fact is that these oafs tarnish the reputation of more responsible visitors to our valley and make local residents wary and sometimes hostile towards them. Rude and oafish behaviour on this scale should have consequences and if it continues, some locals might understandably take matters into their own hands.