En este post subimos la entrevista original que realizó la periodista Elena Ortega, El País, a John Keane. Esta entrevista salió publicada el 22 de enero en español con el título de "La historia de amor con los megaproyectos ha acabado en miseria".
You said in your recent public speech in Castellon that we’re now living in the age of mega-projects. What exactly did you mean by this?
In
Europe as elsewhere, we’ve entered times marked
by big-footprint projects, organised efforts to do things never before
attempted, adventures of power that touch and transform the lives of millions
of people and their bio-habitats, in unprecedented ways. These ‘megaprojects’ include under-sea tunnels, mining operations, inter-city
high-speed railway networks, new airports and airport extensions. They comprise
entertainment complexes, nuclear power stations, banking and credit sector
experiments and new communications and weapons systems. Megaprojects are
distinguished by their astronomical design and construction costs (their price
tag is often well in excess of a billion euros). Their complexity, scale and
deep impact upon communities of people and their environment are also striking.
What have been the consequences
of mega-projects in the region of Valencia
My impressions are
naturally those of an outsider, but the impact of projects such as the lavish opera
house Valencia and the white elephant Castellon airport, is plain to see, and
typical of what happens in the age of mega-projects. Megaprojects create jobs and measurable wealth,
scientific-technical know-how and improved services. Many make our lives
easier; the invention of the Internet by ARPA is proof positive of that. Often
a source of local and national pride, they can generate large profits, but even
when no golden harvest results they add hugely to the private fortunes of their
designers, owners, managers and shareholders. As Senor Calatrava knows, megaprojects
make some people mega-rich. But mega-projects also go wrong.
What are the symptoms of failure?
Unless they are
subject to strict public controls, mega-projects often have damaging effects.
During their design and execution phases, they suffer construction problems,
budget blow-outs and delayed completion schedules. London Spain
Such disasters are
growing in number and frequency. I’m afraid that unless things change we’re
heading into a grim future, one in which risky power experiments have catastrophic
effects on the lives of millions of people and their habitats.
Do you see signs of the failure of mega-projects in Valencia , and Spain
The
behind-the-scenes, poorly-regulated patron-client links forged between the
Spanish cajas, the construction
industry and big-budget regional governments have had heart-breaking effects. Their
wild love affair ended in misery. The regional government of Valencia , proportionately the most indebted in
the whole of Spain Spain
Why are they bad for democracy?
It’s not just that the near-collapse of your banking system and the
current politics of enforced austerity are damaging the daily lives of many
millions of citizens. There’s something else just as sinister: megaprojects resemble sizeable tumours of
arbitrary power within the body politic of democracy. They usually defy the
familiar rhythm of elections. Details of their design, financing, construction
and operation are typically decided from above. Especially when it comes to
military and commercial megaprojects, things are decided in strictest secrecy,
with virtually no monitoring by parliaments, outside watchdog groups or voting
citizens. Unless they’re subject to
strict and independent public monitoring, mega-projects do away with democratic
procedures. They resemble forms of emergency rule in the heartlands of
democracy.
Cases of corruption are common in Valencia
Yes. Corruption
went viral. It’s true that megaprojects often fail to measure up to the lavish
claims made in their defence because of a variety of factors and forces. Simple
human miscalculation; the blind arrogance and groupthink of those in charge;
inadequate ‘hedging’ for surprise events; bad decisions caused by poor
co-ordination and diffused responsibility chains; systematic lying (what policy
analysts call ‘strategic misinformation’); and unintended chain reactions all
play their part in ensuring that when things go wrong, they really go wrong.
The gargantuan
size and hyper-complexity of mega-projects make matters worse. But substantial
evidence is mounting (the Danish sociologist Bent Flyvbjerg has done the
ground-breaking research) that the root cause of mega-project corruption, the key
source of their failure, is their refusal of robust internal and external
public scrutiny. Not all disasters are human and megaprojects don’t always
fail, it’s true. Yet when they do fail, in 90% of cases, the main cause is the
privatisation of power. Those in charge of operations suppose, mistakenly, that
their mega-organisations can be governed in silence – silence within and
outside the organisation.
There’s something
really paradoxical about this silence. It’s produced,
usually through intensive public relations campaigns which have the effect of
cocooning the mega-project from rigorous public scrutiny. Lots of positive things
are said publicly about the project, despite the fact that they’re often untrue.
In all this, journalists often play along. A rich diet of promises of access,
sinecures and over-dependence on official handouts renders them obedient. They
become ‘plane spotters’, captive cheerleaders of mega-projects, silent cogs in their
machinery of compliance.
What can citizens do?
There’s a
developing crisis of parliamentary democracy in Spain Spain
How would you describe the state of democracy in Valencia and Spain
Twice during the
past century, Spain Spain Spain Spain
