Alfonso A. González Fernández: The monologue of a planet with hiccups

When nature sneezes, bureaucracy improvises and tragedy repeats itself —Alfonso A. González F.

Nature in its infinite wisdom does not make mistakes, it simply adjusts, while human beings, in their infinite arrogance, interpret these adjustments as “disasters.”

Thus the “divine mistake” is born to hold her responsible and turn a meteorological phenomenon into a tragicomedy of late protocols and improvised heroisms.

We live in a setting where the main playwright seems to have a rather acidic mood: the curtain opens with an earthquake, a hurricane or rains that, according to the archives, “were not seen in a hundred years”, while the amazed audience – us – applauds in stupor the brutal choreography of the Earth.

Then the human cast enters the scene with protagonists: stubborn, needy, romantic and even speculators. They are those who build their homes on the dry bed of a river, on the edge of an unstable cliff, the swamp or places with a high degree of vulnerability, some did it they say “by the view”, but a view that now includes rescue helicopters and news cameras.

The authorities, like a Greek chorus, announce the tragedy once it has happened, and come with speeches full of laments and Herculean promises, turning out to be as predictable as the course of the storm itself.

Disturbing

They describe this daughter of nature as something “unforeseeable”, while geological studies, statistics and risk maps remain ignored in some forgotten archive or in poorly cleaned ears.

The irony reaches its climax at the moment of help, since the warehouses of prevention, those temples of foresight, are usually empty of everything except dust and good intentions, and dazzling signs of the fashionable color.

The logistics of assistance are another matter and resemble a dance of headless chickens: a lot of movement, a lot of cackling, but no direction. It is practically a ballet of incompetence, where resources for reconstruction (if they existed) evaporate faster than a puddle under the desert sun.

For the grand finale of this Hellenic farce, the victims are relocated, with bureaucratic solemnity, to equally risky land, but with a new name: “urbanization of social interest,” and as we infer, the cycle repeats itself, but like a comedy that lost its grace several seasons ago.

Consequences

The real catastrophe is not only the earthquake and the collapse, but also the blindness that prevents us from rebuilding on solid foundations and perpetuates vulnerability by building on the same ruins. This is similar to the flood caused by the myopia that allowed us to build in natural channels, river slopes or areas of high environmental impact.

The evident complicity between both parties is even more shocking when considering the profit obtained from the needs generated by the disasters. This enrichment occurs through the authorization or division of areas without adequate planning, which is extremely worrying.

We could consider it as continuing to play Russian roulette with nature and, as a culmination, we pretend to be surprised when the reality of the landscape manifests itself in a forceful way.

We are the only species that settles and/or buys a mortgage on an active volcano and then claims compensation for the loss of its “home”, with black humor, this would be the only blindfold that prevents us from falling into rage or despair in the face of this circus.

In the midst of this absurdity, there is a possibility of collective redemption and where elegance does not consist in denying the force of nature, but in learning to dance with it.

Procedures

It entails the transformation of risk maps into territorial, sacred, binding and non-negotiable guidelines, representing the application of intelligence, for the prevention and strengthening of structural bases, before a new catastrophic event occurs, instead of reacting afterwards.

Let us visualize a society in which solidarity is not perceived as an exceptional resource, but as an institutional, autonomous, robust and permanent structure. In such a context, civil defense committees would be adequately funded and fully operational, such that their efficiency would be considered routine and lacking in dramatic elements.

As a society, we must demand the ability to be the builders of a more resilient future, where reconstruction implies continuous improvement, not a mere repetition of the previous. The memory of what was lost must serve as the unbreakable foundation that guarantees that the new will be superior in terms of habitability, and that it has yet to be conceived.

Otherwise, the planet will continue to hiccup, questioning whether we will finally learn to build a house that doesn’t collapse with every sneeze.

Corollary

“Critical and analytical vision with renewed purpose, keys to building what was lost.”

@alfonsoengineer

Advisor to the World Council of Civil Engineers

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