Reading the media in these early days of the year suggests not much is happening; accounting for the events of the past year and outlining the expectations for the new one still dominate. And yet that is a deceptive state of affairs. The sprouts of reality are popping out here and there. Take, for example, the never-ending Pearl Horizon saga and the nautical ambitions of the city, two issues that seem unrelated but have more in common than meets the eye.
The first issue raises many questions about its legal, economic and, not least, social trust aspects. The government has just reassured the affected owners that it has a solution for the problem. That should be perceived as good news. But it comes with such qualifications that we may wonder if it is news at all. First, the solution is designated as “basic,” which no one knows the exact meaning of. Second, the putative solution cannot be discussed or made public now, the government says, as the case it is still in the courts. That’s puzzling. If it cannot be discussed until the court case is closed, we have to assume the ‘solution’ has not been debated, and much less agreed upon, with the ones affected. Therefore, to say the least, it is premature to claim a “solution” has been found – basic or otherwise.
Then we have the nautical tourism sought by the region’s authorities. True to those goals, a big event was sponsored last year and brought to the city big players in yachting and pleasure boating. Contemporaneous media reports suggested not all the exhibitors were impressed by the number of visitors and their level of interest (or lack thereof). That was not very encouraging. But it appears there are even deeper obstacles.
Even simple excursions to the mainland look challenging to set up. At least two principal obstacles are mentioned. On the one hand, we have the fees that must be paid to the mainland authorities. Some people find them too expensive to make the business viable. On the other hand, the city does not seem to be able to cater for that type of tourism. That’s odd. If we just look around we can quickly find a couple of marinas that are empty – and have been for many years. Maybe we should see a warning sign there. Viable policies, more often than not, require more than just some basic ideas about what one would like to do or where one wants to go.
