James Bryce
AS Spain’s future becomes ever greyer, analysts are diving into the past to uncover what went wrong.
If only they had a time machine to transport them to Valencia to stop the construction of its many white elephants or to town hall meetings to curb corruption schemes before they were hatched.
But alas, science still has not caught up with the movies and time machines only exist in the fictional realm of Back to the Future.
So while it is vital to understand and learn from the mistakes of the past, the greater emphasis for analysts and policy makers should be on the present and, even more importantly, the future.
Otherwise, while our eyes are set on the past, we may collide with the future and make the very mistakes we sought to avoid.
For Spain, looking to the past has great merit. After we have marvelled at Calatravas’ creations, and all the other wonderful, modernist eye-candy in various Spanish locations, what we, as tourists, really crave are, great, bustling bars. Snatched tapas, looney “conversations” using our rubbish spanish, twisty streets, casas we are convinced we could buy and live in. In other words Espana, you are trying too hard. You already had what we wanted, it just needed fixing. If a tiny proportion of the money spent on huge projects had gone to restoring and preserving what is there already, the white elephants would not be covering the country in so much ordure.
I think there is a happy medium to be found, still.
The cities need the investment and ‘cultural’ development though not on the scale chased by Valencia & other regions.
The costas and old historic towns need preservation and cultivation – that’s of minimal expense in comparison and would go a long way to saving wasted costs and helping support health and welfare departments that are struggling.
stefanjo,
well said. The first tranches of free handouts (how could Spain ever pay back the countless billions they have received)should have been spent on putting in place proper sewage systems and then water conservation projects – oh how silly of me to suggest that, far too sensible and long sighted that.