As storms battered Britain and most northern European countries shivered in the cold, Malta basked in spectacular sunshine, heralding the early days of spring. It is the kind of weather the island usually gets in March and came right after a spell of heavy rainfall.
Thank heavens, bad weather never lasts long here, a blessing that is so often taken for granted by the locals but not by tourists coming from cold countries.
Sunny days in winter bring out the best of the island as the landscape comes alive with carpets of lellux (crown daisy), ħaxixa Ingliża/qarsu (cape sorrel) and greenery of various hues. More people than ever are spending their leisure time in the little countryside that development has left and, although man has wantonly destroyed many delightful spots everywhere, there are still some idyllic places left here and there.
Away from the ugly face of new developments, from the uniform, nondescript blocks of flats that have scarred forever the face of so many rural localities, one can still find patches of old Malta and stretches of open spaces and garigue.
Gozo still draws many for its enchanting quaint little places and greenery but even there the march of development is relentless.
Little by little, pristine areas and iconic places loved for their particular rustic environments or architectural qualities get lost to man’s greed, as so many have done in our time.
Just as the elegance of the old houses in Tower Road, Sliema, has given way to monstrous concrete blocks that have wiped away memories of time gone by, new developments have eaten away, in some places in a dramatic fashion, environments that had, for a long time, been considered landmarks.
Time does not stand still and development has to take place but why has it so often to be so destructive? How long will the few remaining open spaces last? Just as the country has seen rapacious governments and developers go almost wild in their frenzy to develop, even, in some parts, gobbling up stretches of the foreshore, and just as a number of citizens claimed plots of prime land by the seashore as their own under the eyes of public administrations, who is to say that there will not be other daring people who will flout every law to take up precious land and make it their own?
Even now, when so many gallant public-spirited people in environment organisations are proving to be the country’s most effective eyes and ears insofar as the protection of the environment is concerned, some still manage to have their way and, when caught, have their illegality sanctioned.
When a venerable oak or carob tree is felled, it is usually the first sign that a new development is on the way.
When will it all stop?
Man’s mark is not always destructive, as the landscaping done in some areas in recent years has shown, but the threat of further development in pristine areas is ever present.
Malta is well overbuilt and overpopulated, facts that ought to make the country take a deeper look at itself to see where it wants to go in development and what it wants to do with the remaining open spaces.
If the frenetic urge for development goes on unchecked, there will come a time when even the little country that is left will be wiped out.
Is this what we want?