It seemed like an idyllic postcard, but almost two years later, it has become a shameful picture that reflects the apathy of the political class of this island. The photographs published this week by La Voz de Lanzarote of the Islote de ...
It seemed like an idyllic postcard, but almost two years later, it has become a shameful picture that reflects the apathy of the political class of this island. The photographs published this week by La Voz de Lanzarote of the Islote de la Fermina are far from those that could be captured in that same space in August 2008, when the recovery works culminated and the politicians of the moment took the obligatory photo.
Today, where there was a spectacular pool of crystalline and bluish water, there is only a deep hole full of salt and dirt, due to the effect of the sea. Where there was a clean space, there is garbage. Where there was a building that aspired to house a restaurant or an interpretation center, there are broken glass and windows. In short, where there was a work that made Arrecife dream of a space far removed from its usual abandonment, there is yet another example, perhaps the crudest, of the total and absolute apathy of the institutions. Another scourge that adds to the long list of incomprehensible actions.
To carry out the work, the Government of the Canary Islands invested almost 2.5 million euros. However, almost two years later, the people of Arrecife, the people of Lanzarote, have not been able to enjoy a single penny of that investment, which is deteriorating without the City Council being able to open it to the public.
First it was the previous government group, with which the transfer of that land by the Port Authority was not even completed. Now, half a year after the current team entered, with Cándido Reguera at the helm and with Pedro de Armas as Councilor for Urban Planning, little more has been advanced, and all they explain is that we will have to continue waiting for "bureaucratic" issues. And it is that in these months, the contest that they had announced to award the management of this space to a private company has not even been convened yet.
However, not a clear explanation. Nor a reasonable argument as to how they can be letting a millionaire investment rot. And instead of taking advantage of what is already done, and the money that has already been spent, they are eager to project controversial "icons" for other areas, or to send a municipal delegation to Greece to participate in a "carnival summit". In a trip that the mayor of Arrecife himself now recognizes has been a "tremendous mistake", which apparently the 27 advisors with whom the capital City Council has, and to whom it pays, did not detect in time. That is, all the residents of Arrecife who pay their taxes.
Without a doubt, a fact that raises blisters in a society marked by the economic crisis and high unemployment figures. But if it is hard to assimilate the waste of public administrations, or even the organized crime that has been rampant for years in the institutions, everything becomes more outrageous when you see that, in addition, they are not even capable of putting into operation an installation that is already finished.
We are not even talking about works announced for the island that are still waiting, and that probably our grandchildren will not see either. It is something much simpler: open the ones that are already done.
And the situation of the Islote de la Fermina is just one of the examples, but inexplicably there are many more. What about the island Theater, which was inaugurated up to twice, and has been closed for a year, after Operation "Unión" revealed that it does not comply with the required security measures? What about the blessed cheese factory, which has been a bottomless pit of expenses in the last decade, and is still closed today, despite the latest announcements? What about the ice factory, which is nothing more than a hideous structure that has only managed to disfigure the Arrecife coastline, but which so far has not produced even a sad ice cube?
Cyclically, these issues return. And the politicians on duty try to give explanations and raise new issues to be resolved before the opening.
But as time passes, all they achieve is to demonstrate that either they are absolutely incapable, or they are hiding information.
Works that are delivered with deficiencies that prevent their opening, machinery purchased years ago for the cheese factory, and also for other facilities, suspected of actually being second-hand and almost unusable, constructions that are carried out without even knowing if they are going to be viable or if there is going to be someone interested in their exploitation? In short, a series of absurdities that has meant that the little money that has been invested in the island in recent years has not served for anything, while the needs continue to wait.
Obviously, politicians seem to be and have been for years on other things, each one will know what, but at least, from time to time, they could do something just for the common good. Even if it's just to pretend.