Letters to the Editor

Nightlife blocks access to vital emergencies

As citizens and healthcare professionals, we wish to denounce a situation that puts the safety of patients requiring urgent care at Hospital del Mar at risk. The main access route, Ramon Trias Fargas Street, is blocked by private security and clogged with long lines of parked or slow-moving taxis and VTCs, especially due to the proximity of nightlife venues.

In a recent emergency, at 1 a.m., fifteen minutes were lost just traveling this stretch, thus exceeding the maximum time of thirty minutes established to arrive and attend to a vital emergency.

The solution that could be established – lengthening the route – is unacceptable, because it adds even more minutes to a clock that, in these cases, runs to the detriment of the patient's life. We're not asking for the closure of nightlife, but rather for clear regulations: taxis picking up and dropping off customers should do so at the end of Marina Street, to avoid congestion on the access road to the hospital, and the entry of taxis and VTCs on this street (Ramon Trias Fargas) should be regulated.

Andrea Carpintero Sánchez

Nursing Hospital del Mar

After the fires

The fires that have ravaged and are ravaging our mountains, and the poor management of this human and natural disaster by public authorities, threaten to weaken citizens' trust in democratic institutions.

Among the residents of the towns affected by the fires, the conviction is beginning to spread that only the people save the people. The lack of coordination between administrations, the exchange of accusations, and the failure to assume responsibilities are unfortunately multiplying citizens' legitimate distrust of the political class.

This wave of fires threatens to open a new gap between representatives and those they represent, and I think it would be frivolous to blame those who have lost everything for the breakdown of this pact.

However, the lack of diligence on the part of the authorities should not fuel populist slogans or causes that, although born from a dramatic, verifiable reality, do not offer real solutions. Democratic institutions remain the best resource we have to guarantee the security of our forests and mountains. Citizen discontent should serve to redouble our demands and demand more loyal, responsible, and diligent action from those who represent us—at least that's how I understand it.

Jesus Domingo Martinez

Girona

Courage and tenderness

In life, particularly in politics, we miss more tenderness, heart—including courage—and trust. "To be tender and at the same time subversive," said the German activist and politician Petra Kelly, for whom a new relationship between human beings, but also with other animals and plants, based on tenderness, cooperation, and nonviolence, was essential.

It is obvious that in this whole conception there is ethical behavior, in theory and practice, and an inescapable commitment to the principle of the inviolability of life.

However, we observe perplexed how these qualities do not count much on the game board of global geopolitics. The European Union, for example, which claims to be the heir to humanistic and Enlightenment values, is today an entity without a rudder or moral authority, whose leaders are characterized by mediocrity and a worrying lack of courage, in addition to the silence and passivity they demonstrate day after day in the face of the crimes and humanitarian crisis suffered by the population of Gaza.

David Serrador Ballester

Vic