Neighbour. Merit does not rub off from a photograph.

Neighbour,
there is a scene that repeats itself so often that we end up looking at it without really seeing it: the town achieves something, and politics appears beside it in the photograph.

We see who receives the recognition.
The years of work that made it possible remain outside the frame.

This week, Calp received national recognition in Madrid for its Moors and Christians festivities.

Behind it stand an association,
the filaes and generations of people who have known how to organise themselves,
sustain a tradition and pass it on alive to those who came after them.

The work behind that recognition had been going on for years before it was time to pose.

So after looking at who they appear beside,
we should also look at what they themselves manage to deliver.

The recognition honours a festival. The photograph places its political representatives beside some of the best the town has known how to build.

And that proximity can go a long way.

Good news for Calp can end up looking like a positive verdict on those who govern it. Collective effort produces the result; the photograph allows others to share in its glow.

That is where the accounts need to be kept separate.

Because that same town has to find housing, rely on public services and build a future here. And to judge that record, we will have to look at what the town receives, not only at how well it is represented.

Let us start with housing.

There are people from Calp who are not leaving because they have found a better life. They are leaving because they can no longer afford the one they had here.

The job may still be in Calp. The family too. Friends, memories, an entire life. But when the cost of staying outgrows the salary, it is the resident who has to find somewhere else.

And that also affects the continuity of a town.

Because a tradition can pass from parents to children, but the next generation needs more than learning to love Calp. It needs somewhere to live.

Then we can ask young people to keep the customs alive, take part and sustain what they inherited.

It would be wise to leave some room for them.

Meanwhile, we will keep talking about belonging.

They will have to build their lives around the distance.

The market may provide explanations for that departure. What is much harder to find is any reason for political pride in it.

And staying also means living through the summer, not merely displaying it.

Back in July, we were already reporting complaints about rubbish. While the town rolled out its programme of events, residents were asking for something far less photogenic: cleanliness.

Summer brings more activity and more pressure on public services. That is precisely why it demands preparation.

July and August are printed on the calendar. There should be enough time to see them coming.

Because when the basics fail, all the resident can do is report it, insist and complain again. Spend time obtaining what should be part of the ordinary functioning of the town.

Even asking for an ordinary service ends up requiring overtime.

A tourist town has to know how to receive people. And those who live in it have the right to see that it also knows how to function when everyone arrives.

High season should also be reflected in the town’s capacity to manage it.

With the second health centre, we saw another kind of political positioning.

At the council meeting we analysed last week, there were reproaches aimed at previous administrations, reminders of what those before them had failed to do, and explanations of what falls under another public authority.

When it comes to finding blame, memory can travel remarkably far.

Something curious happens with collective merit: decades of work can be celebrated by people who did not govern through those decades. But when an unresolved need appears, the lines between terms of office are suddenly drawn.

For pride, the whole of history.

For accountability, everyone brings their own calendar.

Of course it matters who is responsible for what. Precisely so that it can be demanded of the right authority.

The health centre is still not here. And explaining what others failed to do does not fulfil the obligation one has now.

The resident has already heard enough versions of who failed to do it.

What the resident still needs is the health centre.

Neighbour,
look at the photograph again.

There is a well-earned recognition and many people behind it.
People who have sustained a festival, passed on an identity and given Calp reasons to feel proud.

Those same people need to be able to stay, rely on public services and receive answers.

The work of the town has already given its political representatives a photograph.
Now let their record in office give the town a reason for another.

Once read,
it cannot be unread.

AVE CALPINVS.

Francisco Ramón Perona García (@fran_rpg)
Jurist. Citizen. Uncomfortable.