Rain

The local TV and radio stations are gone. The local government shut them down yesterday. The official culprit is debt, and the inability to have it paid off. Born in 1989 these media were still young today. They had a purpose, I suppose. The radio I never listened to. The TV, I had long stopped watching. It wasn't much of a TV to begin with, yet it was born with a social and informative purpose, as most televisions must do. Its existence was beyond questioning - it was a right specifically indicated in our so-called statute of autonomy. Years rolled by and transformed its broadcasting into a brutal propaganda instrument for the local right wing that has been governing this insignificant piece of land for much too long. It was a deeply corrupted media. It was, however, just another example of our local corruption, one among the many displaying our unacceptable behaviour, so firmly rooted here. The station is still saved on my TV set. Switching channels of my remote today I found that the channel where the local TV station was now shows a deep blackness, only broken by a funny little message in white at the left corner which reads "Se acabó" - It's over. The message is in Spanish of course, as a proper last sign of scorn towards the local language, regularly repressed and abused through the years.

Somehow, this episode has made me remember the days when the first broadcast took place. I was sick on a hospital bed in my hometown. It was October 1989. That summer I was diagnosed with an ulcerative colitis. I went through delicate periods of acute crisis that had me stranded in a hospital for about a month and turned me into a rather skinny lad. I had a lot of time to kill and on those pre-internet days I watched a lot of TV. That fall happened to rain a lot, to the point that floodings became serious threats. Lying on the bed or idle in the visiting room I watched how the brand new station constantly reported on the incessant, heavy rain, day in day out. Now, more than 20 years later, it hardly ever rains, my UC has turned into a bearable chronic illnes, and a local TV station which was born with a purpose, I suppose, has ceased to exist.