The Airport Vultures

Only my second post and its already a subject of some controversy.  This is a comment I posted in response to a comment made on the Llanito World blog, a blog which seems to have picked up quite a following, which I read earlier today whilst on a break from eating a couple of bananas.

The latest topic was that of the airport and, frankly, its a bit of a disappointment to see how many people locally are chomping at the bit to throw the complete failure of the airport project in the government's face... Here's what I wrote:

"It's quite sad to note that there are so many of us here who either:

a.) have already decided that the airport will be a catastrophic failure and monumental waste of money on the basis of the commercial failure of one or two routes; or

b.) worse still, harbour hopes that the airport will be a catastrophic failure in order that they're able to massage their own egos in saying, as vociferously as possible, 'I told you so!' as they celebrate a failure of Peter Caruana and the GSD.  How pathetic.

Surely it is in the community's interests that we ourselves are the loudest proponents of the merits of having an airport.  Is it not better to shout from the rooftops how fantastic we think the project is in the hope of infusing its prospective users with our enthusiasm, rather than allow ourselves to be swallowed whole by the negativity of a few, doing all they can to see it fail so they can attack the government anew.

We've seen it before though haven't we.  The GSLP not having the political spine to have an official position on the New Constitution (the drafting and steering of which they had participated in) only to secretly encourage a 'no' vote to (coining a phrase here) 'hacerle la put*da a Caruana!'

How ridiculous then (if not wholly unexpected) to read the unfathomable (and I hate to be so frank) stupidity of Mr Garcia, stating that Joe Holliday's visit to the Routes Forum is 'a reflection of their desperation to bring in different players in order to justify the enormous cost of the new air terminal building.' How on earth are we supposed to market the existence of the new terminal and facilities.  Has he not even the remotest bit of common sense to understand what surely most of us do: that these airlines aren't going to come to you, you have to go to them!  We're selling a product here people, that's what we're doing!  I don't know how Mr Garcia carries on his business but, if his idea of marketing is to sit around waiting for work to fall into his lap, he won't make a very good Minister for Tourism, if a Minister for anything at all.

It beggars belief that we should be in this situation.  We are our own worst enemy and, for the sake of silly party politics, we'll shoot ourselves in the foot to make a point.

Wow"

But what do I know? I'm just an ape with a stub for a tail...