There is no more malicious lie than a half-truth. By dressing itself in the robes of the irreproachable, it becomes incontestable. Unfortunately, this maxim has become the roadmap of current public management.
We live on an island anesthetized by grandiloquent headlines and office triumphalism that shatter into a thousand pieces when contrasted with the reality of the street. They saturate us with institutional propaganda while the daily lives of residents crumble between neglect and collapse.
Official appearances are filled with pride in exhibiting record visitor numbers, increases in destination spending, and historic balances in the Centers for Art, Culture, and Tourism. That is their calculated truth, their showcase statistics. The other half, the one silenced with insulting brazenness, is that this flood of millions passes by the neighborhoods of Arrecife and the island's towns, leaving behind ecological, social, and infrastructural wear and tear.
The complete truth is that we are suffering a savage housing crisis, with prohibitive rents that drive out new generations, a suffocating shopping basket, and a permanently saturated road network.
To claim that the island is progressing simply because it is full is a mockery of the citizen, who witnesses a flagrant decline in their quality of life while the benefits are concentrated in a few hands.
This policy of distraction borders on the shameless when addressing the real insular drama: water. Press conferences announcing millionaire investments follow one another with the sole purpose of capturing the handshake photo. But official statements do not quench thirst. The reality is stubborn: interruptions in domestic supply are not due to isolated breakdowns, but to an unacceptable routine for a society that claims to be modern.
It is outrageous that institutional inaction seeks to hide behind the bureaucratic labyrinth, using administrative deadlines as a parapet to camouflage a lack of foresight. Lanzarote is trading down in political decency. Governance is by impactful headlines, and opposition is exercised through incendiary press releases, dragging public debate into a sterile quagmire where the pretense of discrediting has completely replaced management.
Not much remains of that model island that championed territorial balance towards a runaway territory, tutored by short-sighted politicians who confuse development with massification and progress with mere tax collection.
A mature society cannot continue to swallow hook, line, and sinker nor tolerate deficiencies being disguised with pre-packaged press releases.
Add La Voz de Lanzarote as a preferred Google source.
Stay informed with the latest current news.