For years, some projects that would improve training and cultural opportunities have been gathering dust in the drawers of some public administration offices on the island. Let's imagine ourselves in one of those offices, where in a drawer that hasn't been opened or organized in over a decade, some very important but overlooked projects are resting, whether due to politicians with selfishness as their banner or officials tired of so much manipulation due to the continuous favoritism of the previous ones. Let's continue looking at the space. On the wall, a clock stopped in 2015 suggests that little has been done to rescue these poor projects. Let's look out the window now, we can see an island full of deficiencies, crying out for the word development. By the way, development is not just building hotels or roads, it is above all, providing citizens with the necessary infrastructure to advance and evolve using the old word progress.
Now that we have the environment, let's carefully observe the faded letters that crown the covers of both projects. In the first one, you can barely read: "2859 DECREE 118/2015, of May 22, approving definitively the Partial Revision of the Island Territorial Planning Plan of Lanzarote to enable the implementation of the University Campus in the area of Mojón Alto and Los Calderones, in the town of Tahíche, municipality of Teguise." A curious title. Didn't some people say that the university campus was an idea or a madness for the island of Lanzarote? I fear and suspect that there is an insular group that refuses to allow the island to have access to advanced and quality education, I assert that this denial is because they want to preserve their privileges as well as bid for an elitist society that only has a "single discourse". Let's continue studying the aforementioned project, in which you can read the following:
"For the future University Campus, the following set of buildings has been planned:
- University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
- UNED of Lanzarote.
- University library.
- University Extension Center.
- University Residence with dining room.
- Language School.
- Sports and Leisure Center.
To these buildings are added the green areas and open spaces.
Making a weighted relationship between the consumption of undeveloped land and the future development of the Campus, the implementation of the Campus has been planned in a total of 309,000 m2, an area that includes buildings; green areas and open spaces; accesses and internal roads; as well as a reserve area for future expansion, should it be necessary."
Wow! Isn't this one of the actions that Lanzarote urgently needs? What are our leaders waiting for to fight for the necessary funding and resources to make this important project a reality? Do you see anything in the hills of Tahíche? I only see a desert wasteland and some rulers who seem to think that tapa fairs, patched-up paving and fireworks are more important than the real needs of an island that is crying out for progress.
Below the previously mentioned project in the office, another one appears in the form of a well-bound booklet, with very beautiful letters, although somewhat faded from 2002, which say:
"The Maretas project is configured as an enclave for education, culture and creation, an urban nucleus that encompasses the Congress Center, a part of the University Campus of Lanzarote, the Contemporary Culture Center of Lanzarote and the Lanzarote Center in the Biosphere."
My head has gone BOOM! But? How is it possible that all this is on paper and not a single stone has been moved? Are there really such important projects in Lanzarote and have they been relegated to ostracism? I'm sorry but I don't understand anything.
The Maretas project should have been the backbone of the old Arrecife with the new Arrecife of the neighborhoods, a point of connection where culture, art, reflection, debate and green areas converge. In short, one of the solutions for the city to be more human, diverse, less broken and divided into suburbs. If you see the images by clicking on this link: http://www.datosdelanzarote.com/itemDetalles.asp?idFamilia=24&idItem=2710 you will probably feel cheated by the authorities.
Why aren't these types of projects defended and updated to have an island that advances towards progress and evolves to a more human way of understanding life? I fear that there are private interests that do not want anything to change, I believe that the viceroys of this island do not want people to be educated or have critical thinking, I suspect that they want to continue having cultural hegemony and absolute capacity to continue empowering a single thought that has already been seen as obsolete and insufficient. Lanzarote needs new winds, diverse ways of approaching the territory. I hope that the totemic vision of the island and the ego come to an end.
Hopefully the leaders of Lanzarote have a vision of the future, are able to enter that office full of projects that could change people's lives and who knows, maybe after giving them an opportunity, they will even want to defend and fight for them to become a reality.
