Absurd Maltese phenomena

After reading Christian Burau-Senac's letter (January 21), I was amazed that these questions came from someone who like us lives in a very small country. So isn't it an unexplainable phenomena that we Maltese do not reason like him and his fellow countrymen?

I shall try to answer his first two questions as to why there are so many houses being built when so many existing houses are empty and why so much of Malta's land is being built up. It is because the owners of old houses have the dream of selling it to some foreigner, particularly a European, now that Malta is an EU country. This inflates prices for such houses and makes it unpractical for young couples to buy and restore them.

Such houses are an attraction for land speculators to buy them, demolish them and rebuild the land with clustered, dull and ugly flats. This happened to the more than two-centuries-old Villa de Fremaux, in Zejtun whose garden was full of citrus trees; an answer to his third question about what happened to Malta's oranges.

I know it sounds paradoxical because the EU has strict laws on the environment but all 500 million Europeans have the right to escape the big urban cities to buy and live in only two small islands in Europe - Malta and Gozo. Wealthy urban refugees from Europe are much more of a burden on the Maltese society, economy, and environment than the poor, political and economic refugees from Africa.

The EU constitution protects the other small islands. Part IV, article IV-4 paragraph 2 the Azores, Madeira and the Canary islands are protected as per article III-329 of Part III where EU laws are amended or restricted according to the special needs and natural conditions of the islands.

Others, such as the Faroe Islands, Aland Island, Isle of Man and Channel Islands, are not affected by EU laws; particularly free movement of persons and property, article IV-4 paragraph 6 of the European constitution.

Still EU countries like Italy have applied the EU's principle of proportionality and banned any foreigner, including Italians, from buying and living on its small islands, like neighbouring Pantelleria and Lampedusa. Moreover, the islanders cannot even build for their needs, as was reported on RaiTre's programme TGR Settimanale on February 15, 2003.

Mr Burau-Senac may say this is sheer discrimination. He will be right because the EU constitution, title III Union Competences article 9 paragraph 4 states: "Under the Principle of Proportionality, the content and form of Union action shall not exceed what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the constitution".

As you may know the ratio between Malta, with 400,000 inhabitants on just 316 square kilometres, against a continent of 500 million is extreme. This is an absolute disproportion but the EU did not apply the principle of proportionality to Malta because it is an independent state. This brings EU laws in a state of absurdity; it is unbelievable the EU is incapable to decide on very small numbers, it cannot rationalise on the irrational.

Mr Burau-Senac can ask another question about Maltese phenomena. How come the Maltese people voted yes for the EU, aren't they a bit intelligent, as Prince Rainer and his fellow countrymen living on tiny Monaco, which do not have the added disadvantage of being an island?

This brings us to another argument; identity, which may answer question four; why is nothing really produced or invented in Malta?

Lately, a German company was interested to begin building electric vans. The reason this company wanted to establish itself in Malta is because Malta's dimensions make it a very good promotional place. But Malta's government found all possible bureaucratic difficulties.

In 1997, the Labour government wanted the Malta Drydocks to build solar water heaters but the Nationalists scrapped the idea. Why, because these are synonymous with a Mediterranean climate?

In 1997, the Labour government began drilling for oil in Gozo, in the meantime the Nationalists took over the government, and when the expectations were very high, something strange happened in just two days and the government declared there was no oil, just a little gas. It is not that strange if you can understand that if a small country like Malta becomes oil rich, the rich will not be able to live as rich, because everybody will be rich. How many villas can 80,000 families have in 316 square kilometres? How many yachts can Malta's harbours accommodate?

Question five: Many Maltese businesses run on "excuses first" basis and no serious business practices. The established Maltese businessmen are the descendants of 18th and 19th century Italian hawkers who used to come to Malta to sell their items here, many married here and established a business community who only knew how to import and resell. They do not feel any initiative, not only to invent, let alone enter new areas.

For two centuries they induced a feeling in our mentality that everything Maltese is inferior, from language, music to any manufactured goods. For almost two decades the Labour government tried in vain to reverse this mentality, sometimes with bizarre actions, banning imports of certain goods.

There are so many businesses in Malta that overtrading inverses competition laws; less buying, higher prices and less after sales service. Businesses cannot afford low prices and follow-up or serious business practices. As a person living in a micro-state you can understand that a very small economy needs very high prices and very high wages. Moreover, if it is an island the effect is much higher. Ironically, Maltese businessmen were the driving force for EU membership, with all its competition and consumer protection laws, another curious phenomenon.

Question six: Why do people in the islands pull out of side streets? Because we cannot accept the fact that our island is overpopulated with cars.

Number seven: Why was the postal service thrown away? The Nationalist government cannot accept Malta's minute conditions and believes that trends in bigger countries can be applied in Malta. That is why everything is going astray and unemployment is sky-rocketing. The Maltese market is so small it is not profitable for any private company to offer a good service.

I am sorry Mr Burau-Senac does not even try to understand such phenomena, unless he were a quantum physics enthusiast - he has to accept that laws for big numbers do not apply for small numbers, and if applied they have a strange and unpredictable effect. Businessmen's minds do not comprehend such thinking.

All I can suggest is reading appendix I of the book Cosmos by Carl Sagan where he tries to explain the problem of Reducito Ad Absurdum from which I shall quote only one sentence: "We assume the truth of a statement, follow up its consequences and come upon a contradiction, thereby establishing its falsity!"