Eddie Aquilina's contribution to the Qui-Si-Sana debate in Talking Point (The Times, 18/04/06) was a real gem of satirical penmanship.

For those of your readers who missed it, I strongly recommend that you look it up online in the archives, or get hold of a copy of the paper from a relative as it really is a corker. He had me tickled with his comparison of the Qui-Si-Sana commercial development to the airport terminal in Kirkop, the power stations in Marsa and Marsaxlokk, the reverse osmosis plant in Pembroke, the waste separation units in Marsascala and Naxxar and the quarries of Mqabba, Qrendi and Naxxar.

What a wag! Imagine comparing the importance of an airport, power station, water production and waste elimination with a mall containing a bowling centre, theatre, exhibition centre, open air restaurant and bar, child care centre, bureau de change, health spa and gym, juice bar, cafeteria, newsagent, sandwich bar and other unspecified "retail" areas with a car park attached.

What biting wit, I thought! Mr Aquilina glossed over the fact that there is a multi-storey car park in Sliema's centre already. He's taken poetic licence with the fact that it is so empty that it has been partly turned into Sliema's biggest supermarket and still is half empty at peak hours. He must have forgotten that two other car parks are to be incorporated into residential developments nearby within months of each other. The only commercial justification for the Qui-Si-sana development would be if it generated its own need for parking, hence the commercial development on a massive scale, but I digress.

Tongue firmly in cheek, he wondered what on God's earth must the upstanding citizens of Malta think of the Sliema residents? I chuckled as I took the comparison on its next logical step.

I imagined how the residents of Kirkop would react if they were told that despite the one recent air terminal that was up and not running at full capacity, they were to get another air terminal with a waterslide fun park and restaurant as well as a permanent ferris wheel and luna park attached, all in the name of development, right in the middle of their quietest residential area.

I thought of Marsaxlokk and Marsa and thought hey, not only would they be getting a brand new power station each, but there would be a further two new power stations excavated nearby in the next year or so, despite the current power station being run at less than half capacity for most of the time. All with theme parks, gymnasia, shopping areas attached for development's sake, plonked right on their beautiful sea shore.

Pembroke residents then came to mind, standing up and shouting "we already have a reverse osmosis plant that nobody uses - don't build another one". I saw all the people of Mqabba, Qrendi and Naxxar protesting that there were two huge new quarries already in the pipeline near to the existing ones so they took their protest to the prime minister. They would be proud of Sliema residents.

Inspired, I thought. I laughed out loud. Please let's have more of such wisdom. The only low point of the piece was his slightly patronising tone which seemed to urge Sliema residents to grow up and get a life.