In this 21st century, where laws are even made about “historical” memory —excuse me if I laugh a little—, scientific studies have shown that there is nothing more inaccurate, fragile, and manipulable than human memory, and yet, the people of Lanzarote have lost theirs. I say “the people” in general, although it is clear that those who are over 75 years old have not lost those memories: when there were no tourists, no garbage, no “overpopulation problems”... but yes, hunger, yes, thirst, yes, need, and a lot of it. And the water was not used by tourists, because there were no tourists.
I'm not talking about centuries ago. I'm talking about the 50s and 60s. About when only a few families lived well, and the rest suffered from sun to sun, went hungry, left the island with a cardboard suitcase. To leave behind family, culture, their land, to go to another country to suffer another misery, new, unknown...
Because let's not forget: Lanzarote has had more than 500 years of hard life. Ungrateful land, even worse climate, and joys that could be counted on the fingers. At the beginning of the 20th century, the island lived in misery. Endless droughts, poverty, scarcity of the most basic things. An autarkic economy was attempted during the Franco regime, subsistence agriculture was promoted... but the water did not appear by decree. The result? Again emigration, again the escape.
And now it turns out that we have a sector —tourism— that has finally brought wealth, employment, opportunities for everyone. Not just for a few, FOR EVERYONE. Since the late 70s, for the first time in the history of this island, all Lanzarote residents have been able to earn a decent living without having to leave. Jobs were created in droves, tourist centers were built that followed aesthetic and sustainable criteria —thanks to César Manrique— and Lanzarote was placed as a world example of responsible tourism.
Were mistakes made? Sure. But what human activity doesn't have them? Nothing that can't be fixed. The problem is not tourism. The problem has names and surnames: the politicians. Those who have been in charge for the last 50 years. And it doesn't matter which party has governed! It's six of one and half a dozen of the other. All the parties. All of them. It doesn't matter the color of the shirt: mediocrity, apathy, and corruption have no ideology. And those politicians are the ones who have allowed illegality to grow, to build badly, to lose opportunities.
And now some of them, with all the nerve in the world, dare to promote demonstrations against tourism. On the beaches! In the face of the tourists who come here, who pay, who eat, who sleep, who leave their money on our island! But what kind of sick political strategy is that? Who came up with this barbarity? And what have they told and promised to the brainless people who go out with banners of “Stop Tourism” or “Tourists go home”? What have they put in their heads to make them swallow the story that the tourist is the enemy? Have they gone crazy? It is a slap in the face to the memory of generations of Lanzarote residents who worked the land, the sea, who went through hardships so that now some can afford the luxury of despising what works. If they really want to protest, let them do it in front of the Cabildo. That's where the real culprits are. All the senseless plans have been signed there. There, meter by meter, one of the highest rates of incompetence per official in the world is concentrated. Let them not come now saying that the culprits are the businessmen. Yes, there are unscrupulous businessmen. But that's what the laws are for. And those who should make them comply are the same ones who are now waving banners while covering their eyes to their responsibility. If they have not acted, it is because they have not wanted to. Or because it has suited them.
Whoever attacks tourism is attacking Lanzarote. And what is worse: they are spitting on the memory of their own people. A people who, finally, had begun to raise their heads.
Now they want to sell us that they are going to solve the housing problem by regulating vacation homes and apartments. One more mistake. Yes, it is necessary to regulate tourist accommodation to avoid the abuses and aberrations that we have seen in recent years. But the real problem is not solved there. What Lanzarote urgently needs is a serious, public-private plan for official protection housing. A plan that guarantees housing not only to those who work in the tourism sector, but also to teachers, doctors, and other professionals who are abandoning the island because they cannot find a place to live. And, by the way, it would be convenient to remind our politicians that their salaries come out of our pockets. Therefore, their obligation is to take care of the citizens, guarantee that we can prosper and, with it, continue generating the taxes that support this country. And finally, if the houses are not rented, it is not because of the VVs but rather because of the lack of protection of private property. We should go back to protecting private property, which is one of the three fundamental pillars of democracy, a word that politicians repeat with pride, but whose meaning, in view of their decisions, they seem not to understand.
And, of course, for the moment: NOT ONE MORE BED! I don't even want to enter the debate of whether more beds fit or not in Lanzarote, but, for now, there are many problems to solve before expanding the tourist park: water production, the endless queues in the tourist centers, access in good conditions to the coast, beaches with their facilities and their security working, parking lots where they are necessary, a taxi service at the airport, a hospital capable of serving both the local and tourist population.
And let's not forget that “quality tourism” is not brought by decree. First, quality infrastructures must be created, and then quality tourism will arrive.
