Who puts the backpack on the wolf of speculation?
In the summer of 1890, Miquel dels Sants Oliver, in a series of articles entitled 'From the terrace', that were part of their 'Summer Pages' in the diary The AlmudainaHe wrote: "Perhaps we have a gold mine under our belt that we haven't tried to fully illuminate and uncover," referring to the beauty of Mallorca and the potential for turning the island into a tourist destination. The idea was absolutely groundbreaking, as it directly challenged the economic protectionism of the time, which tried, in vain, to salvage the remains of a crumbling empire that would finally collapse just eight years later.
Despite the romantic notion of tourism pioneers and the recognition of their love for the country, the proposal still contained an economic component, which was ethically and morally dangerous. They were aware of the latent risks involved in the venture: the poet and politician Joan Alcover, in the prologue to The Industry of Outsiders (1903), by Bartomeu Amengual, recognized the absurdity of "the desire for modernization taken to the extreme of rejecting our natural uses and elements"; just as it would be to fall into "pseudo-traditionalism bent on preserving everything." Amengual, for his part, posed an existential and ontological dilemma surrounding an industry of foreigners whose purpose is to trade with people.
It was evident that, from the outset, the ethical and moral challenges and values that should govern tourism activity, in relation to people and to the substance of the raw material, were clearly established. These were foundational terms that, later, the most prominent players in mass tourism, self-proclaimed sole "professionals" and "masters of knowledge" in the field, have always sought to allude to. But, no matter how much obscurity and fanciful stories have been interjected, the reality was that ignorance or lack of experience could not be argued when, in the mid-1950s, the liberalization of non-scheduled aviation (charter flights) in European airspace led to cheaper fares and the emergence of intermediaries.
Suddenly, it went from "exploiting these naive and natural beauties, adding the attractions of art and fashion", as advocated by Miquel dels Sants Oliver, to "we do not intend to enter from above and at the cost of a thousand difficulties and violence", nor "radically modify our habits"., This demanded that Joan Alcover, a prosaic extractive dictatorship of the free market, trade in common goods, with a direct impact on the environment and landscape, the raw materials of tourism. To demystify the "saving" role of the new operators, it is enough to remember that the pioneering tourism industry had demonstrated that its model was so successful that the Palma Chamber of Commerce itself, in 1929, declared that it was then "the closest and most profitable industry." Intentionally, they did not want to build on past experience but on the ashes of the past. New adventure, new protagonists, and new leaders.
After almost fifty years of existence of the model implemented by international operators, in 2002, a recognized source of expert knowledge, such as the Official College of Architects of the Balearic Islands, together with other colleges of the State, published a compendium of facts and images entitled The Architecture of the Sun, where the conclusion was reached that: "Tourist architecture makes visible an ethic that assumes without remorse the abusive treatment of the environment, economic profit as an absolute value and the buying of wills and privileges to sustain an unsustainable production model. This legitimizes a triumph based on speculation and exploitation, underlying the mass tourism industry."
The "abusive treatment of the environment" and its remake, under the title "the greedy eyes of global venture capital," is now materializing through a real estate coven, sanctioned and sponsored by the Conservative government. The trade literature on the subject is clear: Don't wait to buy Real Estate, buy Real Estate and wait (Don't wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait), reads a billboard for the Kensington real estate agency. Buy and wait, someone else will come along and make you rich: speculation. They're trying to capture the savings of the European middle classes: the Balearic Islands, a paradise for rentiers... and speculators. This is the disturbing gaze that the real estate predator has cast over our home. If the government doesn't do it, the question is: who should put the wolf of speculation in its bag?
The behavior of economic power toward the environment and the landscape has been, and continues to be, profoundly disregardful. They have replaced their structural value with commercial greed. This has social and economic consequences that currently place the country in dire straits, facing major challenges such as climate change, the saturation of the model, the lack of diversification, the social divide, and the housing crisis. One could still speak of the failure of an era, despite the immense monetary wealth accumulated by some sectors of society. However, seats in eternity cannot be bought with money.
It seems we all have a problem, but the blame doesn't lie equally with everyone. There is a ruling class that has brought the country to where it is now, often with the complacency of a docile and condescending political class. However, responsibilities don't expire; we all need to take this into account.
