Showing up with loafers and a garden hose to take a photo at a fire is undoubtedly one of the worst breaches of courtesy. You have to be there, of course, and part of a politician’s role is to project a certain image of control over the situation, but even more important than being there is knowing how to be there.
The opposite, going to the fire with a gasoline can and the fantasy that the fire can be purifying, is an even worse option. The idea that it is not advisable to face debates in the heat of the moment is a rather cowardly cliché, but in this case, just in this case where the fire is ravaging lives and property, the idea of “in the heat of the moment” sounds sarcastic and it is best not to add mockery to people’s suffering.
The mere idea, as Óscar Puente suggests, of starting here and now to hold summary judgments is as obscene as starting to plan housing developments, as it suggests, not so deep down, that something can be built on so much destruction. It is true that the left has invested in a machinery for processing and dealing with pain that the right cannot even dream of, but even the best-maintained machines can seize up with excessive use.
Then there is that fabulous proposal from the Government delegate in Madrid, which places him on the level of someone who witnesses a rape and asks that a report be written before acting. What is unusual is not declaring the largest evacuation of Spaniards in recent history a national emergency; what does require a detailed report is the reason why, after the dana, the affected regional governments, particularly that of the Valencian Community, did not request the activation of this mechanism and the central Government did not do so on its own initiative. Surely it would be a very literary report, marked by guilt, bad conscience, and ambition. If there is any doubt that a tragedy that leaves dead and devastates populations in three different communities is a national emergency, it is simply that the nation no longer exists. Because the emergency is obvious.
Fire shares with water and the other elements the disregard for administrative boundaries or competencies. In reality, it understands nothing, which is why it is also quite ridiculous to talk about it with human attributes. Worse still, now that we refer to language, is the sound gradation, that fierce dynamic range of discourse that goes from pianissimo to fortissimo depending on the territorial scope where the catastrophe occurs.
