Pack suitcases, give food

From what we have seen in recent weeks, our rulers (both elected and unelected) are afraid of citizen mobilizations. The shameful episode of the arrest – with shackles and jail and all – of the activists from Santa Maria, the warning – the threat? – from the Civil Guard and the National Police announcing that they will prosecute “delictes contra el turisme” (we must understand that they mean fraudulent tourist offers, because otherwise, we don't know who they are talking about), the attempts from the tribune docile to the Government to disqualify, or directly criminalize, the human chain of last day 5 against the lack of protection of the Trenc – Salobrar de Campos Natural Park, the contradiction of the president of CAEB Carmen Planas applauding the arrest of the young women from Santa Maria and asking to “flee from extremism” (extremism is shackling and arresting innocent citizens, ladies and gentlemen)... All this only serves to demonstrate the nervousness of the Government (Balearic), the government delegation (of Spain), the security forces and bodies, and certain tourism entrepreneurs (who command over the rest). Like all fears, that of these rulers and public powers is emotional. This means that it blinds them and prevents them from making a correct analysis of reality. And it also demonstrates a lack of democratic consistency on their part.To all these timid and unfortunate actions and statements must be added those of the first vice-president and government spokesperson, Antoni Costa. According to him, the application of degrowth policies "would have consequences in terms of employment, there would be people who would have to pack their bags." It seems like a joke, but this was said by a vice-president of the Balearic Government. Probably, even now it has not occurred to him to stop and think about what he said, or where he said it.For a long time, many citizens of the Balearic Islands with higher education have had to leave these islands to seek their working lives, because here they simply have nothing to do. Scientists, researchers, doctors, architects, physicists, musicologists... In all the variety of disciplines and knowledge we can think of, the brain drain from the Balearics, the loss of people who give vitality to a society and can make it progress, is a constant and dramatic fact, for which we pay and will pay (and future generations will pay) a very high price. There are also many people who pack their bags because they cannot buy or rent an apartment or a house on islands where housing has been vampirized by speculators – large, medium, and small – with the enthusiastic applause of our rulers and their propagandists, who claim that all this "feeds us".It is the same paternalistic and condescending vision, according to which we Mallorcans, Minorcans, Ibizans, and Formenterans have no other option than to sell these islands in pieces, and in the meantime, sink them into the degradation of mass tourism and let the last one close the door. The demonstrations this July have been a "enough is enough" that our rulers should listen to. They will be completely mistaken if, instead of listening, they try to present citizen protests as extremism, exaggeration, or even as a crime against we don't know what. They will be so mistaken, if they do that, that they will lose power. Taking things for granted, disregarding the voices that protest, is characteristic of mediocre and arrogant politicians. These are the ones, for the good of all, who we should see pack their bags and never again see them in positions of public responsibility.