Madrid, Coslada, Getafe and Rivas share geographical restrictions within a very specific area. La Cañada Real is considered the largest shanty town in Europe, with nearly 8,000 people living in different areas with different realities, from substandard housing to traditional housing. The media paints a sensational and exaggerated image of crime and drugs that has nothing to do with the reality of the majority of residents, particularly the Gypsy and Moroccan populations.
The Royal Gorge is a thoroughfare and transit area for livestock. This mental framework appears to continue to permeate the actions of some governments, whose solutions to blackouts and bulldozers have drawn outrage and condemnation from agencies such as the Ombudsman or the United Nations, which demand human rights for Canadians rather than treating them like animals .
For its part, Rivas City Council has maintained an ambivalent response, firmly committed to educational integration and protecting the rights of Canadian children, while defending placement in new housing with good conditions. In Madrid, despite the efforts of its militant associations to integrate neighborhoods, social exclusion and the informal economy are concentrated in a single area in order to avoid all statistics.
The Canadian Areas Agreement sets ambitious targets, but they are conflicted with the slow pace of the measures and the resistance of some neighbors who just want to be in another community rather than move to one where they will be deprived of community networks and A place of support. They seek to be able to live a normal life like any of us.
A neighbor in almost any neighborhood could be Toni, a boy from Canada who is forced to say goodbye to his friend Nasser who is leaving for France, as recounted in Guillermo Garcia’s short film “Although at Night.” Incredibly, Canada Real arrived at Cannes long before Naturgy cut the lights in Canada.
For more than two years, honest politicians have been looking for solutions to this entrenched situation, and active neighbors are demanding the defense of their communities, all while “winter is coming.” Without electricity, dangerous stoves and blankets will not be enough to treat the bronchitis and pneumonia that our invisible neighbors have been suffering from since the power went out.
Just like in Game of Thrones, the White Walkers are already moving forward, building the icy clones Berokars and Arshie Jones. A dormitory city lacking in life, with no garbage, no racialized faces, and no different cultures disturbing our comfort.