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PEDRO MORATA
Valencia
Updated
The best thing I can do in my Sunday article is to maintain a respectful silence before all those who have lost something in the province of Valencia. I have lived in Valencia for 32 years, although I am originally from Águilas (Murcia). I have been in Valencia longer than where I was born and therefore I feel completely Valencian by adoption. I have nothing to comment on, nor do I feel like doing so. Everything is secondary and nothing matters in the face of the helplessness that climate chaos has generated.
There are thousands of people who have lost something or someone. And whoever has not lost something or someone, has lost hope and security. How can we be calm for the future in the first world when something like this is capable of happening and cannot be better foreseen or managed? Will it happen to us again? And it doesn’t have to be in Valencia; This can happen anywhere, because rain is common to all of us and is possible anywhere, unlike lava from volcanoes which is susceptible to damage only where they are.
When tragedies like DANA happen in Valencia, human beings are put to the test. A giant mirror rises of how we are. And there really are many images that honor us and others that embarrass us. This is not a time for political battles. It is not time to wear down the political adversary, using pain and misfortune.
It is time for survival solutions, for managing financial aid, for aid to be quick and real. Let them not delay, let them not get stuck, let them not disappear and remain in a single tweet or a press conference. You don’t have to wait for help to be asked for. If they don’t ask for it, it is offered from humanity. In misfortune there are no political rivals; There are companions in misfortune. Those who suffer from it and what they can do to help those who suffer from it. For citizens and everyone, it is not the time to take photos helping, when you only want to posturing to publish a photo with drops of mud on social networks. Help is not advertised, nor photographed. Help is given and that’s it.
The tragedy is going to portray us as a society for the good (the spontaneous solidarity of thousands of citizens) and for the bad (the social posturing on the networks and the political chicken coop). Tragedy tests us for what is essential, for what really matters: health, saving lives, helping the weak. The one who has been caught by the devastation, the one who doesn’t today, but does tomorrow, can be run over. That’s why football or the League doesn’t matter today. A League (which is the only thing I am going to comment on) should not have been played this day. They are not in the mood for that. Football, which is a great driving force, is here to lend a hand from the great social strength it has. And I’m not at all sure that lending a hand meant playing the day. A footballer agent is paid a commission of 500,000 euros or a million with tremendous ease. But to provide help in the face of misfortune, amounts are offered, which, giving thanks in advance (because there are others who don’t even do that), sounds like little. Saying that they have no obligation and that there are other sectors beyond football that also have a lot to do and say. There are clubs that pay 10 million euros to an agent for a single player. There are 20 clubs in the First Division that, if they wanted to, have a lot to contribute. Football, when the situation stabilizes, is a great generator of income, if they put in the work (the Spanish national football team, the clubs, etc.).
thinking about Javier Tebas and in LaLiga, I recognize that in these situations deciding is difficult. To stop or not to stop. And nothing is easy. My absolute empathy with those who have positions of responsibility at this time (political and management) but the most affective and empathetic thing would have been a respectful stoppage and silence. Football beyond a business (the day can be recovered later) is just leisure, entertainment. And the body is not for that now. With all due respect to the readers, but also to those directly and indirectly affected, I have nothing to comment on today. Neither for content, nor for opportunity, nor for respect. And I don’t feel like it either. I hope you understand me. Excuse me.
