Care is the action of caring (preserving, saving, conserving, assisting). Care involves helping oneself or another, trying to increase their well-being and preventing them from suffering any harm.
A few weeks ago, I met in Gran Canaria with the Official College of Nursing of Las Palmas, to listen to their proposal on care policies, due to the challenge we face in the Canary Islands in a few years, where the aging and chronicity of pathologies of the Canarian society will be increasingly greater. During the meeting it was curious what I learned after being told by part of the board, and it was something I did not know, and it is that, in the history of the Canarian parliamentary headquarters, there was only one deputy "nurse", the current mayor of Santa María de Guía, in Gran Canaria. Therefore, nurses are not common in Parliament. Finally, they made one thing clear to us about what is coming, care will be key to moving forward.
Who better to care for Lanzarote and La Graciosa in the Parliament of the Canary Islands than a nurse?
The vocation of the nurse is to care and this island, but especially La Graciosa, need to be cared for. And how do you care for an island? Well, just as you care for a patient, with professionalism, affection, dedication, esteem, closeness, love, work, involvement, caring for the primary sector, ensuring that water reaches our farmlands, achieving food sovereignty, caring for the self-employed, those small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who are the ones who raise our economy, caring for our health system, our hearts, caring for the social sector, the third sector, caring for our NGOs, our elders, our young people, caring for the home, caring for our environment, betting on energy sustainability, becoming an eco-island and being brave, putting on the table the controlled demographic growth. We care for an island by caring for transportation, better mobility, caring for the home, promoting public housing, caring for our education system, etcetera.
We have grown 110% in population in 25 years and at this rate the efficiency of basic public services such as health, education, housing and social services is not sustainable. We must also take care of tourism and ensure that the day comes when someone from London, Valencia or Berlin has to schedule in advance the possibility of visiting Lanzarote, the day we become an exclusive place in the world, a privilege.
Caring for an island means caring for our traditions, our culture and our sports, where we come from, caring for our history. And we are the only island in the Canary Islands that does not have a single aboriginal sculpture, a Zonzamas, a Princess Ico.
Yaiza is a cared for municipality, a home municipality and is an example of a model thanks to a "fashionable mayor", thanks to Óscar Noda and his team. So, who better to care for the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa
than Óscar Noda? Can you imagine a management model like the one in Yaiza throughout the island?
But can you also imagine Marcos as mayor in Haría, Fernando in Teguise, Armando in Arrecife, Pablo in San Bartolomé, can you imagine Arminda in Tías, or Antonio in Tinajo...?
Imagine it because they will be with their teams taking care of our municipalities, and I with them, without that "postbinter amnesia" to which our representatives have accustomed us when stepping on Los Rodeos, as the 8 parliamentarians of this island have done so far. I am completely sure that together we will go to the Parliament of the Canary Islands, and together with Román as president of the Government of the Canary Islands, because by taking care of our own, a nation is created, a country is created and thus our children will be able to have a future of well-being in this land.
To finish, I want to quote a phrase from one of the great caregivers in history, a nurse named Florence Nightingale:
"The important thing is not what destiny does to us, but what we do with it"
Lanzarote, La Graciosa, with you, from May 28, the Parliament of the Canary Islands will have a care professional working for our people, our future, to build together a true home island.
