Brava is languishing not for lack of resources, but for lack of people

Tavares said out loud what many think in hushed tones: Brava is languishing not because of a lack of resources, but because of a lack of people. The central government builds schools, but there are no pupils. It trains teachers, but they don't stay. It invests proportionally more than on other islands, but the effect evaporates because half the population always has one eye on the emigration process.

It's easy for Tavares, comfortably settled in Boston, Pawtucket or Rotterdam, to raise the banner of "discrimination" and blame the state for abandonment. But how many of those protesting are willing to exchange their 3,000 euro salary for a 30,000 escudo salary on Brava? How many of those who say they love the island from afar would accept the "sacrifice" of returning and putting their skills at the service of the community?

The former mayor poses the challenge: if 4,500 emigrants returned, Brava would have 10,000 inhabitants and everything would change. But the truth is harsh: the vast majority of the diaspora prefers nostalgia to commitment, longing to sacrifice, easy criticism to the hard work of rebuilding the island.

Brava can't just be a vacation spot, the backdrop for August parties or the territory for nostalgic speeches. If its children don't return, if there isn't the courage to turn love into presence, the island will continue to languish, while the diaspora comforts its conscience with poems and mornas.

Francisco Tavares called it a "dream" - perhaps even a "nightmare". But the truth is that without this shock of reality, the Brava will remain eternally dependent on the outside, a victim of the distant love of a diaspora that idolizes it, but doesn't inhabit it.