The shape of things to come

What is a National En­vironment Policy one may ask on an island the size of a postage stamp marooned in the middle of the blue Mediterranean? For years we have relied on the wind, the rain and the sea to clear out the undesirable objects brought about by the exigencies of modern living, however, it is now clear that we can no longer do that and by thinking that way we are only fooling ourselves.

Last Wednesday, I attended a small workshop presided over by Mario de Marco, in whose extensive remit this policy document lands, in which the recently-launched draft policy, subtitled, “For consultation”, was discussed. I was impressed by the vastness of this document and am convinced that the only way to tackle this problem, for a problem it is, is to consider Malta to be a recently-diagnosed diabetic.

As you may know, effective treatment of diabetes requires sacrifice and dedication and also a little extra spending as so-called healthy foods costs that much more than ordinary nosh, to use a favourite word favoured by a fellow columnist. It requires a modicum of exercise, daily blood monitoring and, should you be a smoker, immediate cessation. That would be the ideal. Having been through all this myself and because I am still going through it I know how difficult it is. It requires great discipline, which when the weather is hot and unbearably humid is hard to impose and when invited to some lunch or dinner party is almost impossible not to flout. Life is full of epicurean temptation and the human in us keeps repeating “I’ll walk tomorrow” or “I’ll diet tomorrow” while the blood transforms itself chemically into liquid pastareale!

There are, of course, many types of environmental pollutions, however, as an artist who is dependent on the dramatic beauty of our countryside and our urbanscape, I cannot but dwell upon the visual pollution that has marred the singular beauty of Malta and Gozo that can now only be seen on the coffee table books of photos and paintings of yesteryear. One cannot help but notice how much human interpolation has transmogrified our landscapes and urbancapes leaving only a few little pockets untouched, But for how long?

Prosperity has been an uncontrolled aesthetic disaster on the eye. Prosperity that was coupled with a total failure by any government since the 1960s to address the archaic rent laws in a credible manner is fully responsible for the mayhem we have to cope with today. As governments try to ride with the horses and run with the hounds, inevitably being beaten about the head by both and predictably replacing each other by default, we have a situation where in the uncontrolled demolition and frenetic building of the so-called “boom” along with the corruption of the 1970s and 1980s have wrought havoc on places like Sliema and St Julians rendering them into featureless and tasteless conglomerations of expensive chicken coops.

What’s done is done and cannot be undone, however, it was music to my ears to discover that the government is determined to save what is left of the urban environment by helping the owners not only of scheduled properties but also environmentally-sensitive ones to maintain them. This is called facing reality.

The realisation that we have lost so many architectural treasures because the 1939 rent laws made it impossible for the owner of an urban property to make a living seems to have happened only lately. Hopefully, this will save what is left, however, there is just a great threat to our environment where rural rents are concerned where fields upon fields are inherited, generation after generation, into impossibly undivided fiefdoms to the extent that the owners will accept anything from anyone who will relieve them of the burden of such an ownership. Even when there are only a few owners, the annual rent from a tomna raba is so ridiculous and incommensurate to the value of its produce that the owner is constrained to sell to the inviolable tenant at a disadvantageous rate and then getting slapped with a fine by the CIR for underselling!

Owners of rural property of pre-1939 vintage are an oppressed and downtrodden class who, quite rightly, under the circumstances, couldn’t give a toss about the environment as long as the sale will redeem them of the humiliation of accepting an annual rent that is less than the price of a cabbage!

If this humongous problem is not addressed it will, as sure as eggs are eggs, spell disaster on the ambience of our countryside as more and more owners are constrained to sell for speculative purposes, if they are lucky! It is not only the speculators who have taken advantage of this miasmic confusion but also the government itself.

Suffice it to say that in 1962 the government availed itself of a tract of my maternal family’s land in Wied Żnuber “for immediate compensation”, which, to date, has never been paid. Because the heirs of this property have been shifted and multiplied so radically in the last 50 years it is now virtually impossible to claim the sum, with compound interest, with any credibility and this is not an isolated case.

This draft document will prove to be the saviour of our environment and I hope that it will indicate the shape of things to come.

kzt@onvol.net