Greener than the Greens

It had been a while since Arnold Cassola criticised hunting in Malta (Extremely Determined, January 5). After the fiasco he and his party experienced on the issue of rent laws, he wants to start attacking our traditions again and lays into Simon Busuttil for describing the Greens as extremist.

His main concern was Wied Ghomor, a beautiful spot characterised by carob trees and fertile land that separated many villages.

However, overdevelopment means that nowadays one can hardly recognise the area. Since when has Wied Ghomor touched his heart? Didn't he realise that it has been quite a few years since the valley has been nearly destroyed?

Where was he when all the carob trees and fertile fields were bulldozed to make ways for villas and all sorts of construction which is going on to this day, including a huge school at the top of the valley? Yet he complains about hunting hides (17 in total), ignoring the destruction caused by today's unnecessary progress.

Prof. Cassola is frustrated because he knows that what is left of Wied Ghomor is mostly privately owned by hunters. It's quite ironic: First we destroy the beauty of a valley and then we expect that those who were there first must leave so that neighbors in the surrounding area will not be bothered.

Minister George Pullicino had accused Prof. Cassola and his party of damaging Malta's reputation over the hunting issue. One suspects that their agenda is not hunting, and that he and his party don't have any real pity for the birds, but all they want is to destroy our traditional hunting and trapping for the sake of the land.

Prof. Cassola must be well aware that in reality most land is privately owned by hunters and trappers, and whatever happens it will remain so and he has no right to enter that land no matter who invites him for a walk.

I can assure him that the more he tries to persuade the European Commission against hunting, the more determined we will be to have what was promised and guaranteed to us. If AD really wants a political change and to be the third party in Parliament, they have to change their direction and views on our traditions and work together with FKNK as we are greener than they think they are.