The recent ‘project’ conceived by the St John’s Cathedral Foundation is an excellent example to use in economics classes.

It illustrates the basic concept of opportunity cost (the price of what you give up to get what you want), but this time not in the usual monetary terms, but on the basis of values.

When it comes to St John’s it has long been that the values of the place as a house of God have lost out to those of having long queues of tourists and ever growing ticket incomes, albeit the latter to purportedly maintain said house of God.

Now we plan to go one further. Simply because we continue to refuse the old Socratic dictum of conosci te ipsum (know thyself) – in this case a lovely cathedral and adjoining building constructed on a set space, both with their set limits – we try to create all sorts of stratagems to change reality.

Through some architectural idea, we attempt to make a square fit some sort of smaller circle.

Common sense tells the realist to accept what one is and not keep inventing ways of displaying the tapestries all together.

Just lump it and show them off one by one over a period is the simple common sense solution, and not keep on inventing damaging solutions to satisfy one’s visionsof grandeur.

Malta is Malta, 17 miles by nine... small towns, villages, houses, palaces, roads, churches, museums, sports grounds, the lot... it’s about time we all accept this reality.

In our case the reality is that “you can’t have your cake and eat it”.

To keep on trying to change this is indicative of a mania that only does damage to ourselves.

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