Is it not sad that when the eyes of the world are fixed on the atrocities being committed by Islamic State, when rival factions have led to anarchy in Libya, and when there are so many other ills that deserve closer attention, Malta luxuriates, as it were, in a debate on where to allow hawkers to put up their stalls in its capital city?
With the island’s economy getting such high marks from the European Union, Malta feels it has all the time in the world to waste energy on controversies that should not have arisen at all; that is, if the government really has at heart the island’s cultural patrimony.
Some of the best brains have come forward to express shock at the insult that would be bestowed upon Valletta if hawkers’ stalls are permitted to interfere with the iconic building that now marks the entrance to the city.
Like most people, the Prime Minister thinks the design of the stalls can, to use his words, be done better.
On the other hand, however, he does not object to the relocation of the market from Merchants Street to Ordnance Street as he feels the move could inject new life into the city. In reality, neither Merchants nor Ordnance street are fit places for a tacky market.
The upshot of all the frenzy over the issue is that, following a national outcry, the government has bowed to pressure and scrapped the design of the stalls.
And the minister under whose watch the saga is developing is frantically trying to see how he can squeeze all the stallholders in Ordnance Street so that they will not spill over to and mar the new parliament building. Will they all fit or not?
It is a dilemma of such great pith and moment that apparently only the minister can sort out.
As the country focused its attention on the stalls and the proposed new site, forgetting in the process even the hunting referendum, most have ignored the elephant in the room.
If it is offensive to the city to have market stalls in Ordnance Street, aren’t the ramshackle structures just outside the gate just as hideous?
Are we all blind to the awful environment that has been allowed to develop there?
What words can describe the string of brick structures still standing on the left, the terrible state of the kiosks on the right, hawkers selling shoes, cakes, and underwear right at the fringe of the bridge, and the mobile structures apparently serving as offices for the bus company, complete with air-conditioning units on top?
Some three or four years ago, it was planned to upgrade the whole area, and, as part of the Renzo Piano project, the ditch was meant to be turned into a public place.
Both plans have been shelved for lack of funds, even though money is available for less important projects. However, the whole area was, and still is, chaotic and shabby beyond compare.
The least that can be done is to clear the mess. Does the government have the courage to do this?
It is downright shameful that, when the country talks so big about its heritage and is supposed to be so proud of its capital city, it allows the degradation of the very places it is so proud of.