CARMEN NAVARRO MOSQUE, a member of the Platform Tumbala!
was once a beautiful city, Isbiliya, whose Sultan was enforced with zeal and strict urban standards of living for its inhabitants: to this end, the community had met and had long been mutually agreed on laws would govern the use, construction and location of the various guilds of the city. The scribes pergreñaron a big book of rules and cartographers drew numerous maps to what is written in the book could be interpreted with greater ease.
Lo and behold, a merchant, driven by greed, Sultan proposed to build a tower that did not meet the requirements of the great book. The Sultan I was very vain, willingly accepted the proposal of the merchant, saying that the tower would bring prosperity to Isbiliya (which would not finally), more importantly, in his opinion, to comply with the laws of the great book. When the news spread throughout the city, some citizens are very upset about the ways of the Sultan agreed to meet and protest.
If anyone thinks that this story is a beautiful story of the Thousand and One Nights, is wrong. Read More
But to go to our story ....
The group of disgruntled residents of Isbiliya, now called Seville, agreed to meet and their discomfort appeared active in February 2009 the Civic Platform against Torre Cajasol Tumbala!, with the aim of preventing the construction of the great tower.
The great tower, designed by architect Cesar Pelli and driven by the Savings Cajasol, is a very expensive project (estimated at more than 300 million euros), of dubious utility (more offices in a city already on) , controversial (architecture obsolete-vertical-obscurity in the wording of the draft), with major impacts of all kinds (irreversible damage to the heritage and urban landscape, increased traffic chaos, energy waste, violation of aeronautical, etc (see article published in the digital section Diagonal) and future negative consequences for the city. The first one is on the threshold of their appearance: the location of the tower, just yards from the historic city and its enormous height will be a great visual pressure at three World Heritage monuments included in 1987 in the list of UNESCO. As a result at the next meeting of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO, to be held later this month of July in Brasilia, Sevilla can be included in the list of World Heritage in Danger, as happened in 2009 with the city Dresden, Germany, included in the blacklisted by the construction of a bridge over the river Elbe.
The most worrying is not the act itself, since the Cajasol Tower project (named for the popular talent Cojosal Tower or Torre Cacasol) is not an isolated event, or for purely heritage and landscape. With the tower was still writing a new chapter in a history of grievances to the city of Sevilla in the last ten years, examples of a political process lacks transparency, with little sense of participation and calling public. The most significant, among others, have been the project of construction of the parking lot of the Alameda de Hercules (not held), the project Metropol Parasol "(aka" The Mushroom of the Incarnation), the Olympic Stadium, the library of the Prado de San Sebastián (temporarily paralyzed by a ruling of Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia), the Casa-Palacio de la Plaza del Pumarejo ( 10 years local control, etc.). Some have become an authentic mega-projects, arising from the delusions of politicians who wanted to put Sevilla on the world map as the Olympic Stadium, built for the Olympics that never took place (currently underused) and in recent years draft-Metropol Parasol, and black holes real nightmare for the dwindling city coffers, whose final yet not on the horizon.
Our story continues: in front of both tort Isbiliya citizenship of weak historical memory, remained unmoved and inactive, ready to be fooled by another empty promise of growth and jobs ephemeral.
If in addition we have the framework of an economic crisis we are suffering, all the past should lead to the city council (PSOE-led coalition, Izquierda Unida) and the general public to think deeply about what mean service policies to the city and the consistent and coherent implementation of less extravagant projects (designed exclusively "For the greater glory of") and rejection-fantasy project such as Cajasol tower. However, against all logic, the leftist government of the city strongly supported the project, decorating it with a facile and deceptive speech ("jobs for the duration of the work, of course," future development for the city, without explaining what - false modernity vertical-interpretable concept if ever there, "blah, blah, blah), all also agreed by the regional government of Andalusia.
But back to the group of people disgusted and platform Isbiliya Tumbala!.
The platform consists of more than 20 associations, is managing to activate a small but effective movement against, with diverse participation of experts, citizen activists in many LIDES tanned, young people aware, Seville veterans never aligned with the guidelines of power, some citizens more conservative ideology and equally outraged the conduct of Cajasol and the City, etc. This is without doubt the power of citizen action, which has since last year and a half to act on several fronts: legal (complaints), at street level (information tables, rallies, symbolic acts, flash mobs) , press conferences, interviews with officials, opinion, etc. There is abundant material published on the web, as will be discussed in passing the most significant.
legal Front comprises a series of complaints earlier this year on the occasion of the presentation of the Black Book of the Pelli tower, magnum opus of over 100 pages that discusses various aspects of the proposed tower (viola more than 50 items General Urban Plan of Sevilla): the query itself of official documents was a feat in itself because it had to go to court for access to official documentation of Planning Department of the City of Seville. Have also made other allegations, one of them, filed with the Ministry of Culture, is based on the figure of spoliation, similar to the complaint filed by the Civic Platform Salvem The Cabanyal in Valencia. This platform has the active support of the council of the PSOE in front of a municipality governed by the PP, we can ask why in Seville is the same.
The front of the "street" has addressed a number of actions during the past year and a half, which took place before and during the meeting in Seville World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in June 2009. During this meeting adopted decision 33 COM 7.B123 on the UNESCO urged Spain to cease any construction project until the full impact assessment was completed and reviewed by ICOMOS (the body which advises UNESCO on issues of equity).
have also held numerous interviews, and press contacts. One of the last interviews took place in May 2010 with officials of the Ministry of Culture, followed by a press conference at the Circulo de Bellas Artes de Madrid. It has also participated in workshops and discussions on the model of city we want really, how we think about modernity and what we mean by sustainability.
Looking at the next meeting of world heritage committee of UNESCO, held in Brasilia is provided a series actions to further sensitize the public. In this time of preliminaries and the looming threat, the media have become more receptive of the case, which has given more visibility in the media to move citizens. Following on from the controversy is nevertheless significant phrase of the Minister for Equality, during an interview with a journalist known information: Having been previously discussed the issue of the Tower and at the request of a holder, the minister responded with a succinct "Equity versus development." Idling comments.
But most worrying is the total disregard for local authorities to the warnings of UNESCO: the work of the work have persisted over the last year and continue to advance, even when there has been a new ICOMOS visit to Seville, and being threatened inclusion closer every day. Serve as a precedent and warning to mariners that Sevilla have already been inserted in autumn 2009 in the list of endangered sites of the international organization World Monuments Fund, based in New York, whose authorized representative in Spain also visited the city and work last June.
The latest chapter in the history of Isbiliya and the Sultan is next to be written. Hopefully, despite everything, the story ends with a good finish and an instructive moral.
Note: A version of this article was published in the newspaper Diagonal
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