The small and very important things that we should value without waiting for a disaster

The catastrophe suffered by Spain due to the cold snap is something that fills us with sadness, but that should also encourage us to reflect.

The political parties and deputies who have stepped over the catastrophe to assault RTVE
Initiatives to help the victims of the cold drop in various regions of Spain

We live in a society where we have many comforts and, above all, great security. We consider it something so normal that we often do not give it the importance it should, and perhaps that is why sometimes our society adopts a strange order of priorities, forgetting how fragile our way of life is, as if it did not matter to neglect everything that has made us an advanced civilization and we could afford the luxury of putting it at risk.

I'm talking about things as small and important as having electricity and running water, not to mention things like being able to call on the phone from anywhere to ask for help if you need it (or simply find a voice that will listen to you when you feel alone), or having places near your home where you can buy food and drink without any problems in supply. Let's not forget, in addition, something as important as having good medical care for those moments when your health is failing.

We often forget that in many places in the world there is none of this. I am not referring to the fact that one country has a public health system or another has a paid health system. I am referring to places where there is no electricity, running water, mobile phones, internet or medical care. Places where life is much more difficult and where, curiously, they do not waste time with the absurd debates that we sometimes get into in developed countries, perhaps because we have forgotten how easy it is to lose all those comforts.

It is precisely in times like the one Spain is going through now that we have a good opportunity to call for common sense. Advances such as those we often take for granted were achieved thanks to many efforts. Brilliant people designed large reservoirs so that we would have a water supply, power plants so that we would have light, logistics chains so that we would never lack basic products (and even many whims).

Yet some people make irresponsible speeches that threaten all of that as if losing it were nothing. Speeches that threaten even something more basic than electricity, running water, medical care or mobile phones. Things like the freedom to express ourselves without anyone forcing us to think what we should think, how we should raise our children, what we should vote for, what things we should buy or even how many children we should have. A trickle of things, the loss of which is slowly undermining our civilisation and eventually putting it in danger.

What we are seeing today is what can happen when a civilization falls off a cliff. This situation was caused by a natural phenomenon that was possibly unforeseeable, at least in the intensity it ultimately had, although it is hard for us to accept the fact that we do not have control over everything around us, much less over the climate. What we can do is adopt a series of priorities that involve securing what is important and trying to protect it, so that a natural disaster does not sweep everything away.

In this sense, it is revealing that yesterday, while many were desperately searching for their loved ones without knowing if they had died, while thousands of people were trapped on roads or in their homes, when many Spaniards were without electricity and running water due to the cold snap, while many faced a difficult future after having suffered serious human or material losses, some politicians were focused on increasing their power, specifically on attacking a media outlet that we all pay for with our taxes. Something like this is very outrageous today, when it seems frivolous and insensitive to do something like this while so many people are suffering, but it should also be so every day, because our civilization and our democracy are much more fragile than many think.

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Photo: Europa Press. Damage caused by the cold snap on the V-30 motorway in Valencia, due to the flooding of the Turia River.