The Congress of the European Regional Science Association is taking place in Terceira. It’s an important moment to discuss cutting-edge thinking on regional development, especially in Europe. What’s more, the meeting is being attended by Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, a figure who brings prestige and credibility to the events he participates in. Yesterday was the opening session. Today the economist laureate is giving a lecture at the University of the Azores and a conference at Angra do Heroísmo City Hall on the New Economic Geography, a topic that should prove to be of the utmost importance. As these are public events, the local public can’t afford to miss out on opportunities like this. We hope so.
Yesterday, speaking on behalf of the President of the Regional Government, the Vice-President, Artur Lima, left the meeting with an idea about the geostrategic space of the Azores that should be reflected on. It is a unit made up of five dimensions: underwater, surface, land, air, and space. Barring anything we don’t know, it is in this fivefold dimension that the Azores’ great potential lies, which is exploited by everyone but the Azoreans, or not even in their favor. Artur Lima presented this dimension of the Azores’ geostrategic space as something that should be taken into account when drawing up development projects for the region, especially with a European dimension, which will guarantee us protection and increased power of claim. That’s a good point. Not least because by gaining European visibility for the potential of this geostrategic area of ours, we will be closer to successfully lobbying Lisbon and guaranteeing either participation in the fabulous business deals that are being done here or at least being compensated for the costs of lost opportunities, which have cost us, among many things, the shame of realizing that a significant percentage of the people have no bread to eat.

Of course, as you can see, we are beginning to question the ultra-peripheral status that once served to prevent Portugal from compensating for the loss of the Lajes funds earmarked for the Azores as part of yet another miserable negotiation, which ended up being passed on to Brussels. Some will shudder at this idea because living in dull, vile sadness (and poverty) is something we’ve become accustomed to. But the truth is that the way we’ve been going, we’re only a few steps away from the abyss. In other words, it’s best to change course. And to it, in a hurry.

in Diário Insular

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers from the Azores to give the diaspora and those interested in the current Azores a sense of the major opinions on some of the archipelago’s issues.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL).