Oh for the good life!

If people lived in hell and had never experienced anything else, they would think that style of living is 'normal' and 'acceptable'. Now I am not saying that life here can be compared to living in hell. I am trying to make the point that unless we have had a taste of the 'good life' we do not know what we are missing.

So what do I mean by the good life? Obviously, this is subjective. For me the good life means a bit of everything - time for work, time for play, time for reflection, time for activity, time for sleep and of course living in a clean environment and supplied with good food to keep me ticking smoothly.

I have just had a week of just that (I did finally manage to get away). I spent last weekend in the Cyprus mountains and the rest of last week in Limassol, i.e. on the beach. In the former I had the peace and quiet I was craving for.

The only sounds came from the many birds that flitted through the pine forest, pure bliss. I miss the birds here. When I lived in London my house backed onto a park and one of the most soothing sounds was the hooting of a resident owl.

In Platres (Cyprus) even the traffic in the village was not noisy, there was no revving, no horn-blowing, or blaring car stereos. That of course changed once I got to the coast. There, it was more like being back home with the local young bloods showing off in their flashy cars.

But you will read all about my trip next Sunday - this is just a 'teaser'.

As for the birds you can imagine my reaction when reading the local papers on Friday I was told about the "spring avian bloodbath". Won't we ever change!

I kept telling Cypriots that they obviously did not hunt birds there, because I kept seeing so many everwhere. But I was surprised to hear that they do have bird hunters there too. It is obviously a matter of sustainability.

I had argued this point, in one of the ecotourism programmes on PBS, with Lino Farrugia, the secretary of the GhKNK (the hunters, trappers and conservationists association) who had told me that we do not have more hunters than elsewhere.

He was responding to my question of whether he thought we had too many hunters for our size. He had deliberately missed the ratio point, and that is our problem.

The size of the nature reserves in the Troodos (mountains) area alone were huge compared to our tiny ones, are much more isolated and certainly have no hides on their outskirts.

From my hotel balcony I watched swallows swoop and house martins darting in and out of their nests all over the place and it was a delight to hear the nightingales sing as I fell asleep.

According to our survey last Sunday only 66.7 per cent think that bird hunting should be more controlled. That is a shame, and brings me back to my original point that the other 31.7 per cent who think that people who want to see more control are "exaggerating", obviously don't know the pleasures of watching beautiful birds in flight and hearing their song.

They also have no idea what it is like to see rare birds gliding through the air without being shot down and have never experienced hundreds of house martins nesting in every cranny they can find.

In a press release, Nature Trust, representing the Malta Animal Rights Coalition (MARC), deplored the fact that a large number of protected species have been massacred over the Maltese Islands, over the last few weeks and urged law enforcement in bird hunting.

Many birds have been reported killed over the last few weeks and while commending the efforts of the Administrative Law Enforcement section (ALE) who managed to book a number of hunters who contravened the laws, it calls for more human resources for the section.

Furthermore, it calls for the introduction of Green Wardens without further delay.

Fifty-seven injured birds, many of them retrieved by members of the public and BirdLife Malta, will be cared for by MARC members and released back to the wild after rehabilitation.

Out of these birds, 53 were protected species. Reports from various observers around added that among the birds which, have been shot down were flamingoes at Delimara Point and even an osprey at Mellieha.

Now onto a different and worse kind of noise pollution. As everybody knows I am a strong opponent of petards. I do enjoy the colourful fireworks, but there again one, two or three large displays a year should be enough.

Too much cake gives you indigestion and it is the same with too much of any good thing, it loses its charm and that is how I feel about fireworks.

It was wonderful yesterday and the day before to go and see the beautiful displays in Grand Harbour (although I still do not see why they have to have the 'exaggerated' noise accompaniment) but I do not want to be disturbed by petard noise every morning, every day and every week throughout the summer.

According to our survey last Sunday, 93.3 per cent agree that there should be stricter regulations and enforcement on noisy petards during the festa season.

Besides, the campaign I started on this very page had attracted a lot of support. Now a few contributors had, while wishing me luck, felt that the political will to change anything that is seen as 'cultural' (as in custom, not as the arts and other manifestations of collective intellectual achievement) was lacking.

I do not know how much attention politicians pay to surveys, and although in the polluter index buses and trucks' emissions scored highest (another of my regular gripes), followed closely by the notorious dumps, the fact that 93.3 per cent want to see stricter regulation on petard noise must tell the decision-takers something.

Another thing that should give our leaders food for thought is that the only thing we can offer tourists which cannot be got anywhere else is our architectural heritage.

It is ironical that the MTA billboard "Malta is something special" (Malta ist etwas Besonderes) promoting holidays in Malta to Germans, which came first in a survey of advertising billboards for the third consecutive year, shows one of our spectacular sights which will be marred by masts once the yacht marina materialises in Cottonera.

The billboard was judged to portray the most effective and appealing advertising message and motif and was preferred to major consumer brand advertising like Volkswagen, Samsung and Skoda.

We are spoiling the very thing which can only be found here. Luxury yachts can be found in nearly every holiday destination, but an unobstucted view of such a charismatic old building reflected in the still waters with a couple of dghajjes floating past is priceless.

phansen@timesofmalta.com