Where are they?
October 7th, 2011 - Guest Contributor
Crisis in Mojacar! Crisis in Andalucia! Crisis in the building industry! Crisis in tourism! Locals turn back to the land! Crops left to rot in the fields! Spain on the verge of bankruptcy!
There has not been a lot of good news around Mojacar, or indeed Spain lately. Local and regional leaders do not seem to have any plan of how to rescue Andalucia from the hole it largely dug for itself and then jumped into. It certainly has no vision of how to create the more activity-diverse economy which would ensure that foundation is laid for a more stable and viable future. It is just more of the same…. more downmarket tourism, more downmarket construction, more grand projects going nowhere, such as the motorway and apparently now the Almeria stretch of the high speed train. So here is an idea.
Over the last few weeks I have driven much of the area, my eyes scanning near and far. I have seen immigrants harvesting the crops, factories cleaning and packing the produce for export and home consumption, pressing olives, and squeezing oranges. What have been conspicuous by their absence though have been the other factories processing the locally produced fruit and vegetables. Where, oh where are the businesses making sauces, chutneys, pickles, jams, marmalades and so forth? How much is a kilo of fresh tomatoes, a few sprigs of basil, and some olive oil worth compared to a jar of good quality pasta sauce? You can buy a large bag of oranges for almost nothing here, but how much do you pay for your jam or marmalade? The magic words are added value.
It would mean work for the construction industry, orders for equipment manufacturers, jobs for local people, increased sales for local growers, work for the transport companies, profits for local entrepreneurs, taxes for the administration, increased exports, reductions in imports, and somewhere for some of the local black money to be laundered, sorry, I mean invested.
It is just an idea, but a better one than an underground car park and a barely used football pitch, and a pavement to nowhere, and a statue of Walt Disney, and sponsored roundabouts, and, and, don’t you think?
PJ is a long term resident of the Mojacar area and cares passionately about the place he now calls home, and which the current administration is destroying.
