Golf course blues(2)

Conrad Vella's letter (The Golf Course, August 17) is another failed attempt at buoying the golfing cause. He states in a very confident manner that the golf course will boost the economy, while failing to quote any sources or hard data for his jovial mood.

Can he provide hard facts (not suppositions) as to why the golf course is beneficial or not rather than labelling me as a fundamentalist? I have been providing such facts ad nauseam, week in, week out. I am fed up of hearing the monicker "fundamentalist" being uttered in such a deriding fashion - hence, I will propose a monicker myself: "Pseudo-Progress Proponent" (PPP) which aptly applies to all pro-golfers.

It is interesting to quote within the context a recent paper by James Miller (published in August 2005 in the journal Trends In Ecology And Evolution): "Biodiversity loss is a matter of great concern among conservation scientists, but the wherewithal to reverse this trend is generally lacking. One reason is that nearly half of the world's people live in urban areas and are increasingly disconnected from nature."

Environmentalists give the impression of "objecting to absolutely everything" simply because they are the only ones to continuously monitor natural resources in the country, while most members of the public are oblivious to the current loss of assets through construction, etc, through their very rare forays to the countryside. Hence the objective of organising walks for the public at Xaghra l-Hamra and Ta' Cenc.

I thank Mr Vella for proposing my involvement in the project but, as I am already doing, I do get involved in projects but only where natural landscapes and habitats are preserved integrally and not as part of a chequered jigsaw of golfing lawns and garigue.

Singapore, with a comparable population density to Malta's, has preserved a sizeable rainforest patch (not dabbled with in any way), just to reminisce about the lost landscapes of this small state. With the current rate at which we are opening inroads, even in the most remote places on our islands, one would have to make reference to artistic impressions or the nostalgic black and white photos of bygone times to get a glimpse of Malta's past landscapes.

Every week brings fresh hilarity and the GRTU is a frequent supplier of such pearls of wisdom. Its president, Paul Abela, states that "This (the creation of jobs) would not have happened if Malta had depended on the many weaklings around us".

Mr Abela should know quite well that it takes much more stamina to fight the system and the established institutions than simply regurgitating the political manifestos of the two political parties in the country.

But the icing on the cake has to be this: "Golf courses embellish the environment, make the economy grow further and give us a better quality of life". It would be interesting to know the studies consulted by the GRTU in arriving at the conclusion that "golf courses embellish the environment". Does embellishment comprise the doing away with the circa 400 to 500 garigue plant species for just one or two alien turf species, or the scourging of a pristine landscape?

Maybe the EIA team could put to good use Mr Abela's statements since he seems quite conversant with the subject.