Saying that we are a very noisy island is not breaking news, but that we are one of the nosiest in the EU was news for me. “Noisy areas extend to around 90 per cent of Malta compared with some 50 per cent in most other EU member states, making the island one of the noisiest places to live in the EU.” That is a quote from Times of Malta (January 19), reporting on a study by the European Environment Agency.
The news comes with a health warning. “The health risks from such noise range from sleepless nights to heart disease.”
In some places we already have a problem created capriciously by the excessive ringing of Church bells. The bells of Birkirkara basilica were hysterically ringing at 5.30am two Sunday mornings ago. Soon we will go through the noise pollution created by uncontrolled fireworks.
As if this is not enough, our media have just informed us that although there are already about 10 shooting ranges in Malta, the government is now in final negotiations to allow the construction of a much larger one, a sort of mother of all shooting ranges. To add insult to injury it is planned cheek-by-jowl to our national oasis for peace and tranquillity – the retreat house in Tarġa Gap called Mount St Joseph.
I am one of the 10,000 or so annual users of this retreat house. Users also include staff training by several organisations, students’ training sessions (such as play therapy and sensitivity training), community work experiences, activities by NGOs, events by scout groups and myriad other groups.
If the organisers of the mother of all shooting ranges get their way the rest of us can say goodbye to Mount St Joseph. Who would want to go there to have his or her peace and tranquillity constantly punctured by the repeated and regular noise of firearms, ranging from small guns to large rifles?
A UK government report that studied the regulation of noise emanating from shooting ranges stated that if shooting takes place in open spaces (that is, with no control measures) there should be a noise buffer zone of 1.5km in the shooting direction and 1km in the rear direction.
It also stated that if control measures are included – as one assumes will be the case in Malta – then the separation distances should not be less than one kilometre under very exceptional circumstances which have to be fully discussed and agreed with the local authority and any affected residents.
The closest distance between Mount St Joseph and the proposed trap and skeet shooting range is less than 120m.
“U ijja, this is Malta. Why bother about residents if these organisers will bring in money for the country?” Noise is more golden than silence in this cynically utilitarian country.
• Aficionados of conspiracy theories could be tempted to believe that my piece last Sunday – The lies before your eyes – was too topical for it not to have been part of a grand campaign. I wrote about unjustifiable salvoes that political parties fire one against the other. The commentary was inspired by an April 2, 2015, editorial in The Tablet titled ‘If you sling mud, politics is smeared’.
If the organisers of the mother of all shooting ranges get their way the rest of us can say goodbye to Mount St Joseph
On the same Sunday (May 3) this paper gave us a story – a total coincidence, conspiracy theories lovers please note – perfectly illustrating and strengthening the drift of my piece.
Jog your memory back to last October. Parliament was discussing why the government had promised a power station within two years only to grossly default on its promise. Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi stood up in Parliament and instead of trying to explain the debacle he went for the jugular of “Georgie”, as he repeatedly called PN MP George Pullicino, accusing him of all sorts of corruption in connection with a multi-million deal photovoltaic panels.
The Sunday Times of Malta investigated the state of affairs today, close to seven months after the police started their investigations of the allegations. The paper informed its readers that “sources close to the investigation told this newspaper there was no evidence of wrongdoing related to any of the allegations made by Dr Mizzi and police are not expected to take any action”.
The allegations against Pullicino had made the front pages of all the papers and the main items of TV and radio news bulletins. The news that the story was a lot of hot air trying to alienate the people from the issue – the promised power station had not been built – only made it to page nine of one paper.
Those wrongly accused can lump it and live sadder lives ever after.
The same can be said about the court judgment – see Times of Malta of May 5 – stating that the media of the Labour Party had lied against former minister Louis Galea. The libel case was instituted in 1997 – a full 17 years ago. That is a scandal in itself. Once more, a defamatory story on the front pages of so many papers made it to the inside pages when innocence was declared.
Quite naturally there were cases when Labour politicians were libelled by the media of the PN. Too many politicians from different sides of the political divide are the subject of character assassination campaigns that are abetted by the media. Such attitudes are simply disgusting.
The talk of the town was the court case the police instituted against Anthony Debono, the husband of former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono. The government had been conveniently sitting on the case for months and leaked the information as part of its strategy for the local council election campaign.
Debono did the honourable thing. Some said she should have resigned her seat in Parliament to give the PN a greater chance to regroup in Gozo. That would have been the heroic thing to do; but doing the humanly decent thing is good enough.
We now wait for the court process to take its course or for the police to illuminate us on the substantial number of accusations by the Opposition that ‘works for votes’ schemes continued with earnest after the election.
In the meantime one can discuss the declaration of assets by ministers and MPs and wonder how so many can manage to do so much by so little. But those are pleasures yet to come.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt