Megaproject undemocratic tourism
Two years ago Urdaibai Guggenheim Stop! Since the creation of the popular platform, Urdaibai is not for sale! We hear the chorus everywhere. On 19 October we met thousands of people in Gernika to reject this project and, in my opinion, there are three main reasons for opposing this conflicting museum that is to be made in Busturialdea, in the Biosphere Reserve and in the estuary of the Oka River.
First of all, it's a megaproject. This word and this concept frequently appear in the actions of the Basque ecologists. Why the megaproject? According to Pablo Lorente, a Navarro member of the Fundación Subai Erakuntza, this is not only about the dimension, but it is a project that comes from outside to do business for economic interests. That is, the project of demolishing the “wealth” of a selected area. Designed by external agents and with the aim of bringing benefits abroad, that is the question! In this sense, the dynamics of extractivism involves mega projects. It is a product of the logic of globalisation/glocalisation and the free market which, apparently, cannot be held back by economic forces and elites. Mega = 1 million units, money… many euros.
Why call megaprojects to the Guggenheim de Urdaibai? Because it's a project that comes from outside, from economic interests, to do business.
Secondly, it is tourist. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (1997) has become a tourist emblem. Today, tourism is an important industrial activity that moves many people and capital, and creates many problems. Profound socio-ecological problems, ecosystem losses, population uprooting, waste of energy and materials, and major destructions. That is why throughout the world, in Venice and Barcelona, in Cantabria and the Balearic Islands, in Donostia-San Sebastián and in Busturialdea, we are seeing movements in favor of the “slowdown in tourism”. The tourism industry only brings with it the collection in few hands, the trends of precariousness and the eco-social losses of workers.
And third, it's undemocratic. In Busturialdea, today, both the mayor of Gernika, Gorroño, and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, as well as the Basque Government and the Government of Madrid, this criticism is rightly made. And also to the Guggenheim Foundation. The principal office of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, Elixabete Etxanobe, said before the great demonstration: “There is still nothing decided, a participatory process is going to be launched, but the Guggenheim is going to take place in Urdaibai.” That is the model of democracy!
We agree with our fellow journalist Txema García: “The museum is Urdaibai, you don’t need more.”
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