Having lived in Malta, I started to read with interest the article by Giovanni Bonello ‘Let’s Hide the Majestic Bastions’ (The Sunday Times, November 18). However I have to say that such an intolerant piece would have been considered totally unacceptable in Northern Europe.
The article read like an inventory of Dr Bonello’s pet hates; from his hit-list of British names it would seem that he has no love for the British, but as a historian has he not accepted that history is made up of layers good and bad?
His attempts to erase the British imprint on your historic landscape are just like what he criticises in the British masking of the Knights’ monuments. Now that the Castille Palace has been cleared of trees I think Dr Bonello got carried away in saying that a great number of palaces and churches are being obliterated by trees.
It is true that in many places like Pietà and Manoel Island the outer fortifications have been planted with trees, but has Dr Bonello stopped to think that if it were not for those plantings, your town children would not know what a grove is?
He refers to the pristine fortifications of Dubrovnik and Lucca, not mentioning the fact that unlike Valletta, both of these towns incorporate wooded areas that their residents can enjoy. Saying that Naarden in Holland is the only place that plants trees close to the town walls is incorrect.
My town of Copenhagen has created a beautiful tree-lined walk at the foot of its bastions, much enjoyed by families and tourists. I have seen similar adaptations of these redundant ‘machines of war’ in other northern countries and in Spain.
Dr Bonello talks of bastions being forbidding “gruesome symbols of war and bloodshed” and of historical authenticity, but is your island a museum to the glorification of war, or a place where people want to live a peaceful life enjoying heritage but also some greenery which is so lacking?
Malta’s success over the ages has been her ability to adapt to new circumstances and if she hopes to attract tourists and foreign companies to set up in Malta, more greenery is the answer, not less. I am sure it is possible to strike a balance that does not detract much from the fortifications, but not with this stance which is more extreme fundamentalist than any environmentalist I ever came across in Malta.
I also find very revealing that Dr Bonello lists every fortifications vandalism including a Lorry Sant gash in the bastions, but made no mention of the latest gash by Renzo Piano and the ruination of the bastion-line now dominated by his massive Parliament. Where is the historical authenticity in these changes to the bastions? Still, the most offensive aspect is the sarcastic and patronising tone used by Dr Bonello every time he refers to those who might not agree with him.
Belittling trees as only providing shade, Dr Bonello makes it clear that stones are more important to him than the well-being of people who rely on trees to purify polluted air and reduce the heat even in historic centres.
Dismissing them as tree-huggers, a term no longer used in Europe, Dr Bonello’s bitter emotional outburst reflects intolerance of the man in the street who he feels should have no say in heritage matters. His patronising tone and the arrogance with which he refers to those who seek to protect trees reveals a shocking lack of the democratic values of Europe. When I had first moved to Malta I laughed when I was told that since the hierarchy refuses to give up any of its power, the country has not changed much socially since the Baroque days. Seeing Dr Bonello caught in his Knights’ mindset, I think maybe it is not so funny after all.