We are getting used to the theme park

A company has been reported by the Artà City Council for organizing a mega scavenger hunt with no less than 900 people. It involved touring the urban center doing absurd things like painting on the ground or sticking adhesives on traffic signs or the town's walls.

The fact is regrettable, because it once again portrays the theme park that the Balearic Islands have become, and to which we are dangerously becoming accustomed. Artà has so many values that it in no way needs some maniacs to roam the town doing an improper, excessive, and offensive activity for the residents. But one does not have to go to such a crude extreme to see how much quality of life and authenticity this and the rest of the coastal municipalities, and little by little, those in the interior, have lost. It is enough to go on a market day to Artà, to Sóller, or to so many towns and try to cross them amidst a human madness that disrupts everything.

And the housing prices, after, of course, many locals have sold all the land or houses they had for sale. And tourist rentals. And the signs of bars and restaurants or shops, many of them, oriented towards visitors. Walking through any corner is walking amidst a feeling of artificiality, of excess, of not being able to get on certain public transport, or having to walk to get to work. Or having to dodge hundreds of bicycles to travel a small part of the Islands by car.

The season has begun and we repeat again in discussions that everything has lost its charm, as if we were foreigners in our own home. But to avoid repetitions, we should move forward and ask ourselves what else has to happen for the islanders to wake up from the nightmare and regain, at least, some dignity.