In the office of my previous newspaper, ‘Las Provincias’ in Valencia, I had the new channel of the Turia, as they say, just a stone’s throw away. An immense, gray and ugly concrete work almost two hundred meters wide that refers to the desolate air of developmentalism. A recent mayor of eco-socialist obedience (that is, neo-communist) wanted to give life to that shapeless and empty mass by turning it into a beautiful and synthetic garden for urban couples with pets, who would have ended up floating in the DANA that has just devastated the province. Thank goodness that melonade was nothing more than an eco-socialist idea, because this week we have seen how this horrible riverbed has saved hundreds or thousands of lives, by collecting all the water that would otherwise have devastated the center of the capital. Birds and flowers are fine, nice decorations that improve the landscape, but as long as they do not violate physics or geography.
The first failure of this deadly chain comes from years ago and starts from that deadly Poyo ravine that from the mountains of Chiva ends up emptying into the Albufera after passing through the towns that have just become famous for their misfortune. The violent avenues of that rambla come from ancient times and could be a thing of the past, just as half a century ago the course of the Turia was diverted. This first ruling has to do with administrative apathy and with that ecological tyranny that has put the interest of plants before people, refusing for a decade to materialize the rechanneling of the blessed ravine “because it affects the law of protection of the garden”, a work of barely two hundred million, perhaps 10 percent of what the DANA damages will cost.
The second failure in this fateful chain of errors indicates that the warnings have not worked. Spot. The Government and Generalitat want to mess with this issue, because it is the first step to divert responsibilities. The notices arrived late. The notices were confusing. The notices were misestimated. For the Aemet in the first place and for the Generalitat later. And then there is that until the last moment the announcements were similar to previous occasions, where nothing or little happened. This climate delirium has led to citizens no longer knowing how to distinguish alarmism from the real threat, treating the imminence of a catastrophe with the conventional method. Before, when the bells rang or communication came from the Civil Government, the population was aware of the risk; Now, as old Pla would say, we know nothing about anything, out of pure ignorance, because they manage the climatological risks with the method of that story of ‘Peter and the Wolf’.
Third failure. The president of the Generalitat has been seen overwhelmed. It’s normal. No autonomous community would be capable of internally managing this calamity. But it is a mystery why Carlos Mazón has taken so long to ask the Government for help, surely knocked out between the tragedy and the bureaucrats’ urgencies, without understanding that he was not facing an emergency, but rather a historical catastrophe. He has lacked vision and leadership; On Saturday he did not tell his neighbors the main thing they need to know: when he is going to remove the mud from the streets and when they will have their dead to watch over them. Mazón still has some margin to regain control of the crisis, not too muchbut you will need to be more reliable, recognize mistakes, dictate credible solutions and cut heads. He needs to change the perception of incapacity that has taken root in recent days, especially because for the rest of the legislature he will have to manage a single issue, a political hell in reality: the effects of DANA. Your entire future career depends on this.
Fourth failure. The Government was slow to send the Army to Valencia because in military matters its priority was RTVE, ending the occupation of public television by militarizing its Board of Directors with paid mercenaries. That is why he did not suspend the plenary session of Congress, to first approve the decree law that makes the assault possible. Even for a person as cold as Pedro Sánchez, his ability to abstract himself from such a huge drama is shocking. If they need more help, ask for it. That’s what he said. But there you can see that the cases of corruption that surround him are affecting him and making him lose that cynical sense of smell that protects him. He has treated Valencia as if it were a foreign territory and in the background the intention is perceived to divert the wear and tear towards the president of the autonomous community. If the perception about Mazón, as a result of this crisis, is that he is incapable, something infinitely more serious and insulting is thought of Sánchez. Those affected yesterday revealed their opinion about the Government’s work in the tragedy, which is why Sánchez de Paiporta had to escape and cancel the trip of the Kings to the rest of the affected area.
Fifth failure. The days passed and the victims found themselves alone, unassisted, without the presence of institutions or administrations. And suddenly thousands of volunteers appeared, spontaneous, with buckets, mops and jugs of water. Volunteers have filled the gap left by public officials. It has been something exciting, which restores confidence in the human condition. Walking, crossing the bridges, towards the towns sunk in the mud; In Algemesí they sang the anthem of Valencia. They have given a lesson to some public managers, who received them reluctantly (“you know us, this is a town used to solving things alone”; “until Saturday no one came here, we were alone”; “I have seen cars in the gutters they put crosses because there is a body inside”; “yesterday I went to clean at a friend’s factory”; “people are throwing everything away, nothing is saved, they just want to keep the photos”; They have organized the parishes and the Fallas camps very well to collect humanitarian aid, ‘scouts’, ‘erasmus’, Latin Americans and former professional military personnel arrive”; “they ask us to bring them everything essential, even panties”).
Sixth failure. It had to happen. After the feeling of abandonment, rage explodes. It happened yesterday in Paiporta. The royal entourage with Sánchez and Mazón was received with insults, boos and stones; It is the despair of those who have lost everything in the absence of an effective response. An embarrassment as a nation, a sign of fatigue of the State unable to fulfill its main mission. The King took a gamble and decided to go beyond the security cordons to face the anger and pain of the people; The Queen, too, and Mazón stood at Don Felipe’s side, to endure the downpour and seek forgiveness for recent mistakes. Pedro Sánchez came out shotgunned, they call him an evacuee; I couldn’t do anything else. He was the main target of the rageYesterday there was a popular riot in Paiporta like those that destroyed the prime ministers. Godoy, Godoy.
#Julián #Quirós #Chain #failures
