Built for gentlemen

The news that a number of people have formed an association to oppose the proposed erection of a new city on Gholja Sceberras, opposite the Borgo and Fort San Angelo in the Grand Harbour, has spread like wildfire.

It is understood that the Grand Council of the Order headed by Grandmaster La Valette is determined to go on with this project despite these protestations.

Those who oppose the project claim that the urbanisation of such a large area of land is unnecessary and will do untold harm to the environment. They insist that the Grandmaster's explanation that this fortified city is necessary for military exigencies is simply an excuse to go ahead with a project that will give advantages and riches to the few at the expense of the general population.

There are enough buildings in the island to house the people and the only reason why a new city is to be built on virgin land is the greed of the master-masons who will be engaged to build the palazzos for the knights and for the Order - buildings which the ordinary people surely cannot afford to own.

The area chosen has no supply of water and the decision to go ahead with the project when there is this serious problem of lack of fresh water is considered to be a great folly, a circumstance that on its own proves that the project itself is unsustainable.

Even though the beautiful rolling and rocky hill of Gholja Sceberras is not arable land, it is quite valuable as a grazing area for goats and sheep and the terrain is overflowing with endemic species of small plants, insects and animals which will disappear for ever once works on the project will commence. This fact alone, say some of those who oppose the project, exposes beyond reasonable doubt the permanent damage that is going to be wrought on the environment of the island.

Others claim that the area, which is a peninsula with three sides abutting the sea, is ideal for walks and rambles in the open air. Many a day of rest is spent by these lovers of countryside walks enjoying the sea views as well as the two ports on each side of the area: the Grand Harbour and its fortifications on one side and Marsamxett Harbour on the other. Some would say that these people can lay no claim on property that is not theirs, but they retort that they have a God-given right to enjoy the property of others - a notion which some might even consider to be heretical.

Rumours that the Grand Council has engaged a foreign architect to design the layout of the city and the fortifications - that will make it impossible to enter the city from the sea - have continued to enrage that section of the population that is against the project and who also claim that they represent the vast majority of the people, even though the Grand Council insists that this is obviously a gratuitous assertion.

While the Grand Council says that the city will have a state-of-the-art underground system of galleries for the disposal of sewage and the collection of rain water from the streets, a system that has not been yet applied on this scale in any city in Europe, those opposing the project argue that the layout of the new city will be in the form of a rectangular grid with straight roads at right angles to each other - a scheme that goes against the normal way that roads within fortifications are designed and therefore belies the claim that the project is being undertaken for military purposes.

Those opposing the project are also making a big issue out of rumours that in future the Order intends to take yet another large area of land just outside the city walls for the sole purpose of building a course for the lacklustre game of mallet and other ball games - again an action described as the taking away of land used by many for the benefit of the privileged few.

The Grand Master has been much respected in the recent past as he was credited with the fine victory of the great siege that led to this island becoming firmly anchored to Christian Europe. That victory had confirmed both the Order's and the people's attachment to the great traditions of the country and firmly assured that no one will ever dare experiment with foreign religions and customs.

The Order knows that the population of Malta had backed it in its most important moment of truth - unlike what had happened in Rhodes from where the Order had to flee in haste, humiliated not just by its military defeat but also by the fact that the local population had not supported the knights in their resistance against the Moslem invader.

Suddenly all this goodwill has been lost. The most vociferous of those opposing the project are angrily saying the Knights Hospitallers are no gentlemen and the new city will be neither a city built by gentlemen nor a city for gentlemen.

One particular protestor was heard to whisper that the island has gone back to the times of Monroy: an absurd exaggeration made by someone whose ignorance of the history of the island led him to ignore the fact that the Order has enriched the island with projects paid from the coffers of the richest families in Europe, while Monroy had squeezed the county dry with taxation.

It does seem, however, that the Grand Council of the Order intends to stick obstinately to its decision; so much so that it has already decided that the city is to be named after Grandmaster La Valette himself.

I 'found' this manuscript in an old chest buried in the basement of a house in Valletta. I understand that Malta has been saddled with the ruination of the countryside and its quality of life ever since that ugly episode of our history.

micfal@maltanet.net