While the heart continues to contract, the long wave of disaster is already being felt: hoaxes and plots will be built on the blood of the victims. And politics will suffer a new bath of discredit
I took a bus and in seven stops I was at the gates of hell, by Raquel Ejerique
The horror continues to unfold. We still do not know the true extent of the tragedy. Dozens of missing people are still being sought. There are thousands of survivors who lack everything. But, while the heart continues to contract, the long wave of disaster is already being felt: as after the attacks of March 11, 2004, a period of turbulence arrives. As then, hoaxes and conspiracies will be built on the blood of victims. And politics will suffer a new bath of discredit. October 29, 2024 will mark a before and an after.
The roar of the cauldrons in the partisan underworld is beginning to be heard clearly, where work is being done to divide society and reap electoral benefits. We know almost nothing, but it seems that there are already those who know everything: there are those who can name the culprits with their first and last names and detail why they are guilty. Obviously, the culprits belong to the other camp. Whether it is bombs or water, terror or nature, the culprits are always others.
A simple citizen, someone who does not represent anyone and who does not charge the taxpayer with managing public affairs, is free to say whatever comes to mind, at home, in the street, in the bar, in front of a camera . or in networks. And the torn outburst is perfectly understandable when it emanates from a victim overcome by pain. It’s normal.
Certain politicians, their spokespersons and their correspondents are something else. Like any other citizen, they have every right to be stupid and, in fact, they exercise it frequently. But seeing and hearing them, during a disaster like the one that happened this week, is embarrassing. And courage. Can’t you behave reasonably and decently for a while, if only out of respect for those who are suffering? No, they can’t. The electoral calculation takes precedence over the deployment of rescue teams.
I won’t name names. For you, the hypothetical reader, so-and-so will easily come to mind, I assume aligned in an ideological camp opposed to yours. I prefer to emphasize the enormous responsibility of political parties in spectacles like the one that has developed in recent days alongside the disaster, and in what will happen in the weeks and months to come: they will proclaim one thing and whisper another. ; They will cast a shadow of doubt on causes and consequences, regardless of the verifiable truth; They will accuse others of incompetence.
The State, that is to say all administrations, is not up to the task at crucial moments. This is what citizens perceive today: a failure of public policy and management. The only thing missing was such disappointment in a society that, like many others in Europe and the Americas, has long viewed with suspicion those who run it. Add to that what followed, the incessant exchange of reproaches and lies. And we can get the idea that the misfortune caused by nature (and aided by an uncoordinated warning system and a dysfunctional emergency mechanism and, if you like, by the incompetence of certain people) will be followed by a misfortune of human origin with unpredictable consequences. .
Times of fury are coming.
