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Those of us involved in the world of communications
are familiar with a certain indisputable
truth: the difficult thing is not to bring
out the first issue of a new publication, but the
second one. How many great projects have
ended in that fateful number one? For this reason
it is tremendously comforting to be able
to salute the publication of Gaindegia’s “2008
Report”, in this case our second issue.
I say comforting because I had firsthand
knowledge of the obstacles to be overcome in
bringing out the first report in 2007. |
Editing Committee Director of Gaindegia Report |
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And at the
risk of repeating myself, I must remind you
that in this country which we call the Basque
Country, we have up until very recently lacked
any accurate tools with which to get hold of
data at a truly national level on the vast majority
of socioeconomic issues one might wish
to investigate. Since the birth of Gaindegia we
have made progress towards this objective.
For example we now have the website
www.atlasa.net which would, up until a few
years ago, have seemed a Utopian dream.
However, the fact that we have managed
to bring out the second edition of the Report
does not mean we have got rid of all the problems,
nor even most of them. We still have
very fragmented and dispersed information
about our country, we lack the necessary homogenisation
in many fields of knowledge,
and we continue to suffer from an administrative
division which casts a long shadow over
most of the issues we would like to be able to
take stock of, analyse and distribute information
about.
Something which is so easy to do in other
nations which have a state, such as the search
for experts whose angle of vision encompasses
the whole territory in a uniform manner,
becomes in our case a highly complicated
task. We have many good experts in one or other
of our administrative divisions, but few of
them are in a position where they can carry
out coherent and well-documented work on
the national reality, whatever the topic may
be. As a consequence of all this, there are few
jobs involving research into, or analysis of, our
entire territory, and which can serve as a working
basis for further undertakings.
However, I would certainly not wish to end
on a negative note. We are embarking upon a
daunting task which will take us years of intensive
work. The first few miles of a voyage
are always the most awkward. We should therefore
feel reasonably satisfied at having pointed
the prow of our ship in the right direction.
With the aid of the compass which Gaindegia
provides, I am fully confident that we will arrive
safely to port, and once there, with the notes
we have taken along the way, we will be
able to draw the best possible map of our
country. |
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