Party Town on Fire

Los médicos lo bautizaron así porque el balcón era el elemento común.

The doctors named it that way because the balcony was the common element.

And this is where it gets genuinely complicated, isn't it, because you've got Spanish taxpayers funding a health system that ends up treating a lot of visitors who are there specifically to behave in ways they wouldn't get away with at home.

Es una tensión real, pero cuidado con simplificarla demasiado.

It's a real tension, but be careful not to oversimplify it.

España forma parte del espacio europeo, y existe una tarjeta sanitaria europea que en teoría cubre a los ciudadanos de la UE en otros países miembros.

Spain is part of the European space, and there's a European health card that in theory covers EU citizens in other member states.

Para los visitantes de fuera de la UE, el seguro de viaje debería cubrir los costes.

For visitors from outside the EU, travel insurance should cover the costs.

Pero la realidad es más caótica: mucha gente llega sin seguro, o con uno insuficiente, o que se niega a pagar porque alegan que el accidente fue provocado por conducta negligente.

But the reality is more chaotic: many people arrive without insurance, or with inadequate coverage, or coverage that refuses to pay because it claims the accident was caused by negligent behavior.

Which is a legal nightmare, and in the meantime somebody is still lying in a hospital bed needing care.

Exacto.

Exactly.

Y los médicos no preguntan por el seguro antes de operar.

And doctors don't ask about insurance before operating.

Eso viene después.

That comes later.

Lo que me parece admirable del sistema sanitario español, y lo digo con orgullo pero también con cierta frustración porque está muy tensionado, es que nadie queda sin atención en urgencias independientemente de dónde venga o lo que haya hecho.

What I find admirable about the Spanish health system, and I say this with pride but also with some frustration because it's under enormous strain, is that nobody goes without emergency care regardless of where they come from or what they've done.

Let's go back to the fire itself for a second, because I think it points to something specific.

Magaluf has a housing stock that mixes residential properties with short-term tourist rentals, sometimes in the same building, sometimes improperly converted.

That's a fire safety issue with a very particular profile.

Has dado en el clavo.

You've hit the nail on the head.

El problema de la vivienda turística en Baleares lleva años siendo un campo de batalla político.

The tourist housing problem in the Balearics has been a political battlefield for years.

Por un lado, los propietarios que quieren alquilar a turistas porque les paga más.

On one side, owners who want to rent to tourists because it pays more.

Por otro, los residentes que ven cómo sube el alquiler y cómo sus edificios se transforman en zonas sin comunidad estable.

On the other, residents who see rents rising and their buildings turning into zones without a stable community.

Y en el medio, apartamentos que no siempre cumplen la normativa contra incendios, porque nadie los supervisa con la misma regularidad que un hotel.

And in the middle, apartments that don't always comply with fire regulations, because nobody inspects them with the same regularity as a hotel.

So hotels, at least theoretically, have stricter safety oversight than a converted apartment listed on a rental platform.

Teóricamente, sí.

Theoretically, yes.

Un hotel de cuatro estrellas en Palma tiene revisiones periódicas, detectores de humo homologados, escaleras de emergencia, planes de evacuación, formación para el personal.

A four-star hotel in Palma has regular inspections, certified smoke detectors, emergency stairwells, evacuation plans, trained staff.

Un apartamento en Magaluf alquilado por Airbnb puede tenerlo todo o puede no tener nada.

An apartment in Magaluf rented through Airbnb might have all of that or might have none of it.

Dependes de que el propietario haya hecho los deberes.

You depend on the owner having done their homework.

Y muchos no los han hecho.

And many haven't.

This isn't unique to Spain, obviously.

I was in Lisbon two years ago and had a long conversation with a fire chief there about essentially the same problem.

Every southern European city that's been swamped by short-term rentals is wrestling with an inspection gap.

Lisboa, Oporto, Valencia, Sevilla, Atenas.

Lisbon, Porto, Valencia, Seville, Athens.

Y no solo el sur de Europa.

And not just southern Europe.

Ámsterdam lleva años intentando controlar esto.

Amsterdam has been trying to control this for years.

El problema es estructural: las plataformas tecnológicas escalan mucho más rápido que la capacidad regulatoria del Estado.

The problem is structural: technology platforms scale much faster than the state's regulatory capacity.

Airbnb puede añadir diez mil nuevos alojamientos en Mallorca en un verano.

Airbnb can add ten thousand new listings in Mallorca in one summer.

El Consell de Mallorca no puede contratar a diez mil inspectores.

The Mallorcan council can't hire ten thousand inspectors.

And when things do go wrong, the health system is the last line of defense.

The fire department gets there first, but the hospital is where the long tail of the damage lands.

Exacto.

Exactly.

Y hay algo que los que vivimos en España sabemos y que quizás sorprenda a los oyentes: el sistema de emergencias sanitarias en Baleares, el 061, está considerado uno de los mejor coordinados de España precisamente porque lleva décadas gestionando temporadas de verano con picos de demanda brutales.

And there's something those of us who live in Spain know that might surprise listeners: the emergency health service in the Balearics, the 061, is considered one of the best coordinated in Spain precisely because it has spent decades managing summer seasons with brutal demand spikes.

Han aprendido a escalar.

They've learned to scale.

Tienen protocolos específicos para intoxicaciones etílicas masivas, para traumatismos de alta energía, para quemaduras solares graves.

They have specific protocols for mass alcohol poisoning, for high-energy trauma, for serious sunburns.

Protocols for sunburns.

That sentence is both reassuring and slightly absurd.

Es las dos cosas.

It's both.

Pero detrás de la absurdidad hay una realidad clínica seria: una quemadura de segundo grado que cubre más del veinte por ciento del cuerpo puede derivar en deshidratación severa, infección, incluso sepsis.

But behind the absurdity there's a serious clinical reality: a second-degree burn covering more than twenty percent of the body can lead to severe dehydration, infection, even sepsis.

Cada verano hay turistas que acaban en la UCI por haber pasado el primer día de vacaciones tumbados en la playa sin protector solar.

Every summer there are tourists who end up in the ICU because they spent their first holiday day lying on the beach with no sunscreen.

Es un problema de salud pública que cuesta dinero real.

It's a public health problem that costs real money.

Let me push on something.

The Balearic government has been trying for years to move upmarket, fewer rowdy tourists, more high-spending visitors.

Has that actually changed the health burden at all, or is it still Magaluf doing what Magaluf does?

Ha cambiado en los márgenes.

It's changed at the margins.

Han cerrado algunos locales de venta de alcohol barato, han restringido los 'binge drinking tours', han subido tasas turísticas.

They've closed some cheap alcohol venues, restricted pub crawl tours, raised tourist taxes.

Pero Magaluf sigue siendo Magaluf porque el modelo de negocio subyacente es muy resistente.

But Magaluf is still Magaluf because the underlying business model is very resilient.

Mientras haya vuelos baratos desde Manchester o Edimburgo y hoteles a setenta euros la noche con todo incluido, seguirá atrayendo exactamente al mismo perfil de turista.

As long as there are cheap flights from Manchester or Edinburgh and all-inclusive hotels at seventy euros a night, it will keep attracting exactly the same tourist profile.

El marketing puede cambiar;

Marketing can change;

la economía manda.

economics governs.

And then there's climate.

June in Mallorca now is not June in Mallorca twenty years ago.

Heat is its own health variable in this equation.

Completamente.

Completely.

En los últimos cinco años hemos tenido olas de calor en junio que antes eran inimaginables en ese mes.

In the last five years we've had heat waves in June that would have been unimaginable in that month before.

Y el turista que llega de Bélgica o de Irlanda no está fisiológicamente adaptado a cuarenta grados.

And the tourist arriving from Belgium or Ireland is not physiologically adapted to forty degrees.

El cuerpo no se adapta al calor extremo de un día para otro.

The body doesn't adapt to extreme heat overnight.

El golpe de calor puede matar, y mata, sobre todo a personas mayores que viajan a zonas de calor intenso sin saber lo que les espera.

Heat stroke can kill, and it does kill, especially older people who travel to areas of intense heat not knowing what awaits them.

So you've got a constellation of risks converging in one postcode: fire safety gaps, alcohol-related emergencies, heat illness, sun exposure, accident injuries.

And one hospital system trying to manage all of it across a season.

Y no solo en Baleares.

And not just in the Balearics.

Cualquier destino turístico masivo del Mediterráneo tiene versiones del mismo problema.

Any mass tourist destination in the Mediterranean has versions of the same problem.

La diferencia es que España, con su sistema nacional de salud, absorbe esos costes de forma silenciosa y bastante eficiente.

The difference is that Spain, with its national health system, absorbs those costs quietly and quite efficiently.

En otros países con sistemas más privatizados, el visitante se queda sin atención o acumula una deuda médica que no puede pagar.

In other countries with more privatized systems, the visitor goes without care or accumulates a medical debt they can't pay.

That's a real contrast.

I've seen that play out in the US.

Foreign tourists who have a serious accident here and come out of it with a six-figure hospital bill they had no idea was coming.

Y ahí está la paradoja: España ofrece una red de seguridad sanitaria que sus propios ciudadanos a veces dan por supuesta y que los visitantes aprovechan sin haberla financiado nunca.

And there's the paradox: Spain offers a health safety net that its own citizens sometimes take for granted and that visitors benefit from without ever having contributed to it.

No digo que eso esté mal, porque la alternativa, que alguien se muera por no tener tarjeta de crédito, es moralmente inaceptable.

I'm not saying that's wrong, because the alternative, someone dying because they don't have a credit card, is morally unacceptable.

Pero la conversación sobre quién paga y cómo se financia todo esto es una que la sociedad española necesita tener con más honestidad.

But the conversation about who pays and how all this is financed is one that Spanish society needs to have more honestly.

That's the tension at the core of this, isn't it.

A society decides what kind of health system it wants, and then millions of outsiders show up and the system has to decide whether its values apply to them too.

Y España ha respondido que sí, al menos en urgencias.

And Spain has answered yes, at least for emergencies.

Ese 'sí' tiene un coste enorme y a menudo invisible.

That 'yes' has an enormous and often invisible cost.

Dos personas murieron anoche en Magaluf.

Two people died last night in Magaluf.

Hay familias destrozadas en algún lugar de Europa que esta mañana recibieron la peor llamada de su vida.

There are shattered families somewhere in Europe who this morning received the worst call of their lives.

Eso es lo real y lo urgente.

That's what's real and urgent.

Pero la pregunta de fondo sobre cómo sostenemos estos sistemas bajo presión creciente, esa pregunta no desaparece con las noticias del día siguiente.

But the underlying question of how we sustain these systems under growing pressure, that question doesn't disappear with the next day's news.

Agreed.

And worth sitting with for a minute before we move on.

Two real people, not a statistic.

Oye, antes de cerrar, me quedé pensando en algo que dijiste antes.

Hey, before we close, I was thinking about something you said earlier.

Usaste la expresión 'the long tail of the damage', la cola larga del daño, para referirte a lo que llega al hospital después de una emergencia.

You used the phrase 'the long tail of the damage' to describe what arrives at the hospital after an emergency.

Esa imagen me hizo pensar en algo que mucha gente mezcla en español: 'cola' y 'rabo'.

That image made me think of something many people mix up in Spanish: 'cola' and 'rabo'.

Wait, both mean tail?

I would have used them interchangeably and apparently that's wrong.

Pues depende.

Well, it depends.

'Rabo' es la cola de un animal, la parte física, anatómica.

'Rabo' is an animal's tail, the physical, anatomical part.

El perro mueve el rabo.

The dog wags its rabo.

Pero 'cola' tiene muchos más usos: la cola de un avión, la cola para entrar al museo, la cola de un proceso, una consecuencia que se arrastra en el tiempo.

But 'cola' has many more uses: the tail of a plane, the queue to get into the museum, the tail of a process, a consequence that drags through time.

Cuando dices 'a long tail' en inglés para referirte a consecuencias diferidas, en español dirías 'una cola larga' o, más natural todavía, 'un efecto que se prolonga', 'un arrastre'.

When you say 'a long tail' in English to mean delayed consequences, in Spanish you'd say 'una cola larga' or, more naturally still, 'un efecto que se prolonga', 'un arrastre'.

So if I were to say 'the rabo largo del daño' that would conjure a very different, and very unfortunate, image.

Evocarías algo que ningún médico de urgencias querría ver en su sala.

You'd conjure something no emergency room doctor would want to see in their ward.

Quédate con 'cola' para las consecuencias que se alargan en el tiempo, y con 'rabo' para los animales.

Stick with 'cola' for consequences that stretch through time, and 'rabo' for animals.

Y si alguna vez estás en un restaurante y quieres pedir rabo de toro, que es un plato excelente, no digas 'cola de toro' porque el camarero pensará que quieres la fila de espera.

And if you're ever in a restaurant and want to order oxtail stew, which is an excellent dish, don't say 'cola de toro' because the waiter will think you want to join the queue.

Filed away.

Right next to 'embarazado'.

One day I will have a clean vocabulary record in Spain and that day is not today.