Miguel Ángel Ferrer is right when he says that no matter how well organized a party is, there will always be someone unhappy. It is a maxim already contemplated by the wise popular saying. But one thing is that it never rains...
Miguel Ángel Ferrer is right when he says that no matter how well organized a party is, there will always be someone unhappy. It is a maxim already contemplated by the wise popular saying. But one thing is that it never rains to everyone's liking, and quite another is that every party that has been celebrated in Arrecife since the new legislature began has unleashed a storm of criticism. Some even before they have started, as in the case of the Carnivals.
It is also very good that a politician has the courage to do what he considers correct and not be carried away by populist initiatives, but that premise fits better in a head of Economy and Finance, for example, than in the Councilor for Festivities. Because if something should reflect the popular sentiment and please the greatest possible number of citizens, it is their parties.
Therefore, the fact that it is precisely this councilor who publicly defends this maxim is at least peculiar. Because it would be very positive if all public representatives were clear that politics cannot be done by cajoling the people to win their favors, but it cannot be forgotten that they govern for them.
That does not mean that we have to close ourselves to evolution and changes, and even give a greater "cultural" content to the festivities, but without losing sight of the fact that one thing is Culture, which ultimately has its own Department and budget, and another is the parties. And what the residents of Arrecife have heard the most in recent months when San Ginés, Christmas, and now the Carnivals have arrived, is the word cuts. And although it is true that the needs are many and waste would not be a success either, the residents who religiously pay their taxes in a first world city also have the right to enjoy the most important events of the year.
It may be that the Councilor for Festivities, in addition to the controversy that usually surrounds this area, is also being accompanied by a dose of bad luck, because in the past Christmas holidays, he intended to compensate for the sad Christmas lighting with a parade with greater investment than in previous years, but the fact is that the play did not go well. Because the rebellious camel that had to be removed at the last minute of the parade not only caused a significant delay, but also forced Gaspar to travel in a float between feathers and sequins, going totally unnoticed by many spectators. And that, no matter how much the improvements of the act are tried to be highlighted, totally tarnished a parade in which children and adults are not satisfied with seeing two Kings, because all their lives they have heard that three came from the East.
In any case, what was the anecdote of Christmas promises to remain small with what is being prepared now. Because if it is serious to remove a king from the night of January 5, it is more serious to try to remove noise from the Carnival. No matter how much the association led by Pablo Betancort, or the residents of the center of Tenerife, insist, the most emblematic festivals of the Canary Islands go hand in hand with color and bustle. And when the Arrecife City Council sat down to talk with them, that is what they should have been trying to make them understand, instead of agreeing to a reduction in the hours of the festivals and the transfer of some events to the Fairgrounds, which ultimately means cutting the Carnival in two.
The explanation given in this case from Festivities is that this Association against Noise had threatened to take the matter to the Courts, as Pablo Betancort already did against the bar El Convento on José Antonio Street, in a lawsuit in which Justice has ruled in his favor. But you cannot mix a case in which the alleged breaches of the rules every weekend by a local have been considered proven, with the celebration of popular festivals that, ultimately, only involve two or three days throughout the year and are a reference for the vast majority of Lanzarote residents and for many tourists who come to the Canary Islands in search of the impudence of the Carnival. And that, the institutions should defend it before an association, before Pablo Betancort and before Justice if the case arises. Just as the City Councils of Valencia or Pamplona would do if someone intends that the fallas be burned in the outskirts or that the San Fermín ends early and that the bulls walk silently through the countryside instead of running through the historic streets of the city.
