SAILING THROUGH LIFE AT THE V LA TOJA FORUM

At a breakfast in the Four Seasons dining room, under a blaze of white and blue, generous, I had the wonderful impression that the building, after being stranded for a whole year on the beautiful sand of a small island, like an ocean liner tired of voyages, is about to set sail on a new round-the-world voyage. The Gran Hotel, a host always eager to provide a friendly welcome, a privileged haven of peace and an essential part of the contemplated landscape, opens its doors to the most complete debate at the most complex moment.

Now, with its firm fairing, its holds full, the ship is launched from the tidal dock by its owner, Amancio López Seijas, for that singular voyage that is the Forum La Toja -trade mark- and it does it from the slipways of A Toxa -toponymous-, a genuine shipyard, hollowed of old melancholies but ready to offer in novelty the best of itself, as scenario of the analysis of a global polycritical landscape, in the political, economic and social aspects, almost inscribable all of it in the Book of Shipwrecks, in need of being rescued, at least analyzed with relaxation and serenity, with a high view and common sense, by those who, from their particular cabins, make reflection their profession and who, in their life journeys, accumulate more than just followerism, passivity or, what is worse, the astonished or innocuous papanatism of those who do not value effort or merit, or lack critical sense and despise study, capacity or action. There are no excuses based on gender, numbers or ideology; there never have been. In A Toxa it is customary to face the reefs with the expertise of the pilots and if necessary the wrong charts are rectified.

There is no possible defeat, in the certain and free course of the V edition of the Forum La Toja Atlantic Link, which this year will take place from 28 to 30 September, all languages are spoken and understood. Among the passengers, King Felipe VI, presidents, ministers, parliamentarians, the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos; bankers such as Juan Carlos Escotet; the president of the Economic and Social Council of Spain, Antón Costas; businessmen and professors, intellectuals, philosophers, technologists and communicators of world, Spanish and Galician reference.

Among the crew, as in every previous sailing, attentive organizers such as Amancio López Seijas and Ana Sanjurjo, in the engine rooms Marina and Clara López Sanjurjo, Antón Costas himself, Carmen Martínez Castro… They are in charge of keeping in a Chinese binnacle, that essential compass that the eternal captain Josep Piqué, the eternal commander of the bridge, the unforgettable friend of all, gave them and taught them to handle with skill.

In this transcendent moment, it is now necessary to think about the new bases of international relations and the bonds of trust between countries that will make it possible to guarantee orderly coexistence in a more fragmented world and in which it is estimated that if the deep and complex economic relations that have been woven during globalization were to break down completely, which is not desirable, the consequences would be extremely serious; it is estimated that the losses could range between 2 and 7 percent of world GDP, with the most vulnerable classes as the main victims.

The ship will therefore call at Ukraine and Russia, stop at the US-China geostrategic war, stop at the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and soon Argentina, Egypt, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia – while analyzing the idiosyncratic circumstances of Spain or Portugal, the EU, Latin America, Africa or the new positions of organizations such as the UN or NATO. And at each precise port, issues of the new order will arise, affecting such essential matters as energy, infrastructure and digital advances, the fight against climate change, industry and raw materials markets, especially rare metals. The economy, financing or the employment outlook are therefore crucial issues.

This V Forum La Toja Atlantic Link, as in previous editions, in the metaphorical value of poetry, shows that we are all ships, and as in the famous poem by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945) American writer and lawyer: “Laden with life’s experience,/memories of toil, good times and sorrows,/each with its special burden;/and it is our common fate/to show the marks of the voyage,/here a splintered prow, there a patched string,/and each hull blackened/by the ceaseless battering of the tireless waves. // May we be thankful for good times and smooth seas, /and in stormy times have the courage /and patience that characterizes every good navigator; /and, above all, may we have the cheering hope of joyous encounters,/when our ship finally drops her anchor in the still water of the eternal bay.”

Happy traversing.

Alberto Barciela, Spanish journalist, is vice-president of the Association of Media Editors of the European Union and Latin America (EditoRed).

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