Malta, May 15, 2020.

Yes, enjoy it while you can. It is the very last patch of green vegetation in the Maltese Islands. OK, so it may only measure 20 metres by 15 metres, but hey!

While all the rest of the islands were succumbing to developers' greed, this one little piece of greenery remained untouched. Altogether now... Aaaaaaaah!

We had thought it had all gone... the greenery, I mean. Until, one environment-friendly civil servant pointed out that just behind the block of flats he lives in was a single small patch of grassy stuff that the developers had somehow missed. So friends... treasure it while you can.

It's actually already attracting busloads of sightseers, most of whom are Maltese or Gozitan. In fact, after the Hagar Qim residential development and the Mnajdra business complex and shopping centre, it is probably the most visited area in our islands. It's just a tiny irregular postage stamp of grass and weeds on this otherwise totally developed rock, but to us it represents the last vestige of a bygone age, when... ooh at least one-fiftieth of these islands was not built upon.

The importance of this last patch of vegetation was fortunately not lost on the government. Dignitaries turned out in force to applaud the minister for what's left of the environment, as he unveiled the plaque, which read: "This last piece of Maltese greenery represents our total rural heritage."

Some among the movers, shakers and contractors present could even remember the days when Buskett was still a forest. Tell that to the younger generation, who these days only see condominiums and shopping malls where once there were things called... trees.

And what on earth are trees, I hear you say. Well, if my memory serves me well... they were tall, knobbly wooden things with bushy green bits on top. You must have seen pictures...

And of course Gozo was lost to the developer many years ago. But there are still some people alive who can remember places like the Xewkija valley being a wide expanse of flora before the nuclear power station took up two-thirds of the area and the rest was overbuilt with the crematorium and the fish gutting plant.

And even Ta' Cenc was once also an open area of countryside. Hard to imagine now it's true. But who would have thought that the Ghasri plain at one time hosted no more than a few farmers and grazing goats. That fact may come as something of a shock to people nowadays who see it only as Gozo International Airport.

Even Comino was, or so we're told, a haven of rural charm. Only a complete cynic would claim that there's anything charming about the Comino of today... or the Comino IT City as it's become known.

But why didn't someone at the top step in and prevent the almost total urbanisation and industrialisation of our islands. Answer: They were all far too busy making mega bucks out of it.

Still, looking on the bright side... Let's all rejoice at the fact that our coastline, from Marfa to Cirkewwa... via Birzebbuga and Cospicua, has been tastefully embellished with five-star hotels and waste oil recycling plants... while offshore a myriad of fish grow fat in all those picturesque fish farms. So it's not all doom and gloom, at least we still have our ancient heritage sites like... the Hypogeum - even if a multi-storey car park has been built on top of it.

And so we meet to eulogise about our last little patch of green vegetation and join all the TV crews and gawpers to give praise to our government for preserving this last precious vestige of rural Malta. Hoorah! we all say, and well done!

Now let's just make the most of it... for on Monday the bulldozers move in and in six months' time this site will be occupied by... yet another block of flats (with showroom on ground floor).

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