Gozo is changing and rapidly so.We Gozitans are all aware of this. There is no denying the fact that big strides have been made towards the well-being of the local population in various sectors.
But we are also aware of the consequent deteriorating social structures, about which we are deeply worried. Our villages are gradually and surely losing their identity. The community spirit, painstakingly built throughout the years, is all but gone.
We are helplessly witnessing an exodus of practically all our young men. Gozo, as we know it, is doomed to die!
There are many good reasons to back up the points raised.
Our young men all end up in Malta. After completing their studies, they have no alternative but to seek work where they can find it: Malta. There is simply no work for them in Gozo.
Or, better still, the slow pace of development and the quality of the working opportunities available in Gozo are certainly no match for those of Malta. Theydo not attract our younger working population.
A new way of thinking is badly needed. School curricula in Gozo should focus on fostering interest among students, from the early ages, in the tourist, fishing and agricultural industry.
Tourism is not just the availability of farmhouses, building hotels and the cleaning of beaches or the promotion of diving. We still have too-conservative notions of how to deal with, promote or tackle the enormous potential of this industry on our island.
It is the people that make up the community, and buildings with beautiful facades mean nothing
The community spirit in our villages, so vibrant previously, is slowly but surely dying.
Our streets are deserted. The dwindling birthrate is alarming. There is talk of closing the primary schools in the small villages and of transferring the students to Victoria.
Most of our young men are gone from the villages and are working and living in Malta. They simply cannot reside in their village where they were born and bred.
In fact, it is not just a question of finding an appropriate place of work but also of acquiring a decent place in which to set up home.
At least a third of our village buildings are empty, and only real estate speculators can afford to take them up. Almost none of them are available for our young men.
We are not asking in any way to promote the development of new buildings in green areas. We just would like to make use of the resources available in the most sustainable way.
But the authorities in question are more concerned about ensuring that adaptations to old buildings are in line with their policies, rather than seeing to it that young couples obtain a house to live in – in the community where they belong.
A case in point is the application made a few years back by two San Lawrenz village compatriots who simply asked for a normal family building to be transformed into two houses to cater for today’s needs. They did indeed get the necessary permits but not without unbearable and unnecessarily lengthy procedures that surely do not augur well for prospective development and orderly adaptation of the many vacant buildings in our villages.
Better town planning is needed before it is too late. We will end up in ghost villages or towns. It is no use going through great pains to safeguard the facades of buildings and, at the same time, undermining the whole concept which these buildings are all about.
It is the people that make up the community. Buildings with beautiful facades mean nothing if the local community is deprived of the access to acquire them and set up a home in them.
This access may help real estate agents but certainly not the local community.
As mayor of San Lawrenz, a small community in a small village in Gozo, I shudder to think what my village will look like or be like in 20 years’ time.
The message I would like to convey is simple: please do not forget the plight of our small communities.
Noel Formosa is mayor of San Lawrenz.