When in 2002 the rule of Spanish Seismic Resistant Construction (NCSE02) was published, the seismic values of the country were on the rise, it had been rising since 1962 when we started to introduce with codes and standards the seismic effects on our buildings. Then some technicians accused the Ministry of Industry of exaggeration. Areas of the Spanish geography such as Murcia, Andalusia or Levante, with ground accelerations greater than 0.12g in the event of an earthquake (g is acceleration, ground whiplash in units of gravity), in Granada up to 0.24g, were predicted.

A little over a year ago, on May 1, 2011 France, a country that spends more than 400% more than ours in geological research , published a seismic rules and regulations that causes even more astonishment: it proposes even more exaggerated values, up to 0.30g, and that France is further away from the "coconut", those contacts between plates and active faults, Azores-Gibraltar and North Africa. Then Euskadi, Navarra, Aragon and Catalonia that touch with 0.08g to France, looked at the exaggerated hope of acceleration that caused so much commotion in 2002 as a trifle, because a meter further north of its borders there is a ground with a risk far greater than our seismic Granada, no more and no less than quadrupled.

Ten days later, on May 11, one year ago, at about five o'clock in the afternoon, Lorca receives a shock of 4.5 and exceeds the worst expectations of Granada: 0.25g, frightened people contemplate the damage, everything has been a scare, the media give the news, mobile units, radios, televisions, social networks point to Lorca, interview people in the street. The exemplary behavior begins: national and private broadcasters go to contact with the IGN managers, slogans are given, precaution is the word, "stay out of the buildings, away from the cornices, there could be aftershocks" How many lives were saved this way! Almost two hours later the media were recording and interviewing when the 5.2 earthquake hit, it was felt in Andalusia, Levante, Castilla, Madrid. Every last detail was recorded. The acceleration reached 0.41g. Nine dead, few but many, two pregnant women, a child; it was the tear, the drama, more than 300 injured for life, amputees, sunk. Tens of thousands of buildings condemned. Entire neighborhoods destroyed, San Fernando, La Viña. The largest concentration of European Baroque, Santiago and the Poor Clares collapse. We were even lucky we thought, two years earlier in l'Aquila there was no previous notice , more than three hundred dead and thousands injured by something similar (5.8 and 0.47g), the price of coming unannounced.

The following days are the example of solidarity of citizens, Lorca and all Spanish, months of activities and initiatives; scientists who study the phenomenon, artists in action, culture collects. A mobilization that clashes with the ineptitude of administrations immersed in their eternal election campaign and no longer live the reality, they dream it. Zapatero solemnly promises, Rajoy gives priority if he wins. The reality of the embarrassing management of politicians begins to emerge after the summer of 2011. Mercedes Milá makes some of them feel bad. The Torrecilla camp is a concentration camp. The banks keep the money for mortgage payments, the money collected by the Government of Navarra, Real Madrid, Sevilla, the Royal House, El último de la Fila, sleeps in the bureaucracy according to the Mayor. Of that money collected by and for the citizens with their solidarity initiatives, it is not known. Not even the definition of the so-called Lorca Plan will be ready before a year has passed.

It has been more than enough to perceive the spirit of neglect and the speculative nature of the management, a showcase of electoral promises; neighborhood associations show us the consequences of an ineffective bureaucracy, a shameful speculation and an astonishing political ineptitude. The president of high school of Geologists puts us in our place: "there are issues that depend more on planning and coordination between administrations than on investment". We have not learned, if these French with their 0.30g in Roncesvalles exaggerate it almost does not matter. The geologists have gone to Canada, to Japan; the neighbors return to San Fernando without water or electricity, with props and red marks, but what are we doing?