Building on Slippery Slopes

I remember a cold wind off the Caspian blowing at my back. Just in front up the hill towered the huge Soviet style statue of one of the first Azeri Bolsheviks, Nariman Narimanov. A local boy done-good-in-the-party who was rumoured to have been killed on Stalin’s orders. His imposing statue that was erected high atop the hills overlooking the city in the early 70s was said by some to be a less than subtle reminder to those below of what happens to those who cross the powers that be.

For years his cold glare of bronze somewhat scowled over this claw-like peninsula that juts out into the world’s largest body of fresh water, that is until the USSR melted and cowboy capitalism took over.

Today, this moderate Azeri nationalist’s once outstanding view is clouded by something slightly more opaque than Soviet dogma, high-rise luxury apartment buildings.

When the Wall came down, an enormous potential for gas and oil opened up beyond the Caucasus mountains on the fringes of Europe. Statues of Lenin came down and neon multinational signs went up, Baku was open for business to the highest bidder. Expat workers began to flood the streets, a pressing need for accommodation to match their salaries appeared and old Nariman lost his view.

I remember the real estate agent detailing the modern appliances and comforts that we were about to see in the brand new building we were about to enter on the left but I couldn’t take my eyes off the tower being built to the right. Thirty or more stories of brick soared into clouds and try as hard as I could, not a piece of rebar in sight.

Then another memory came to mind. Sitting in a bar drinking beer and eating chick pea tapas near the UNESCO core of the old city, a geologist friend of mine told me that Azerbaijan is located in an extremely seismic area (think of their neighbour Iran) and that Baku was built on a type of soil that would simply liquefy if there was a shaker above six or so on the Richter scale.

These buildings weren’t only missing rebar, but were built sticking out of a vertigo inspiring hill that would turn into an enormous mudslide into the Caspian if the earth began to shake. In his defence, the estate agent however did insist that every kitchen was equipped with alarms and fire extinguishers.

What he didn’t mention is that building permits were for sale to anyone who wanted to build, however they wanted to build, provided of course that an appropriate piece of the pie reached the right plates. The changes that had brought the most advanced oil drilling machines in the world had left the country without roads, hospitals or the security of knowing that your new flat wouldn’t come down in a strong wind. This was freedom on the march first hand.

According to Transparency International, Spain ranks #30 in transparency and accountability, slightly ahead of Portugal and just behind Israel and the U.A.E. Azerbaijan is tied at #134 with the likes of Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leon, light years from Iberia but corruption is something that if it isn’t stopped, corrodes and grows.

This is of course a survey that is based on the public’s perception of corruption and the frequency and/or size of bribes in the public and political sectors and perception can be a funny thing. I for one have never been asked for a bribe by your funcionario de turno that isn’t on a coffee break and the Guardia Civil has never recounted my passport pages looking for a 20€ bill inside. That said, this is a country that votes on party lines and perhaps because of this, people don’t seem to mind voting for politicians who are always impeccably dressed or whose daughters seem to get ahead faster than most. Like I said, perception seems to be a funny thing.

The tragedy in Lorca however reminds us of the corrosive danger of corruption. The news is still fresh and conflicting reports are coming out every moment, things change by the minute. One headline tells us that 80% of the buildings in the city have been affected and later we’re told that 10% have structural damage, but even the president of the Spanish College of Geologists, Luis Eugenio Suárez, has already stated that the buildings of Lorca shouldn’t have collapsed due to such a relatively moderate (according to some one million times weaker than the 9.0 that hit Japan) earthquake.

It’s election time and accusations will surely fly before the dust even settles.  A stricter building code law was passed in 2002 that revised an early 1970s law that had first introduced anti-seismic measures nationwide, but the question now is how closely that code has been followed in the mad construction boom that brought about the current economic crisis? Buildings built before the first law won’t be covered, but I’ve scratched my head many times while walking past building sites that are supposed to comply with insulation codes yet seem to have only one line of brick between kitchens and the southern exposure summer sun.

Is this law akin to the Ley de Costas that was passed back in 1988 but only recently enforced? Or will the laws simply be changed if the majority of buildings are found not to meet the standard? Will politicians on all sides have the courage to overlook partisan views and ensure that an even bigger catastrophe can be avoided when, not if, the earth shakes again?

Back in Baku I kindly thanked the well meaning agent and declined to see any more of the marvellous new flats he had to show and ended up settling in a rather squat yet practical Soviet building that had been built back in the 50s. From one window my view was of Chechen refugees hanging colourful clothes in the courtyard and from my other the Foreign Ministry. At the time the Minister himself was said to only earn about $500 U.S a month, yet the parking lot was always filled with brand new Mercedes Benzes.

Obviously the civil servants who worked there were extremely good with their modest salaries…and every time the wind blew freely through my window panes that hadn’t been changed since Brezhnev, I knew I had made the right choice.

 

Comments

[Publicado por: Shane]

Not that I would ever compare the Aznars and Zapateros of the world to Chile's Pinochet but, well, let's face it, they all share the same world view. All subscribe to the same Milton Friedman, Chicago school of suicide economics, a neoliberal model in which profit always wins out over human lives - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/opinion/02sgray.html?ref=opinion

[Publicado por: Erin]

Great post. Both interesting and troubling for sure. Living in Spain, but coming from San Francisco, I can't help but question how safe I should feel in my home here. Fortunately (toca madera), I don't think I have much to worry about when it comes to earthquakes in Madrid. Regardless, I wish we could have more confidence in the system.