Madeleine Gera’s Talking Point (August 25), in which she lamented the destruction of the elegant Georgian houses on Tower Road, Sliema, brought back happy memories of my childhood when, together with my family, I visited our friends living in one of them. This family had been living with us in Mosta during the war to escape the bombings on Sliema.

Even for me as a child it was a pleasure to see those houses and visit one of them. Not so now.

On my weekly visits to Sliema, while waiting for the bus opposite the tall blocks of flats that have replaced those elegant houses, I feel sad that, in this island, we are being deprived of deriving pleasure and joy in contemplating beauty.

In my visits to other countries I always look forward to admiring the beautiful architecture.

I wonder what beautiful buildings will be left for us and visitors to our islands to admire if the rampant destruction of such buildings will go on in all towns and villages.

Development and the economy should not be made a god to be adored.

The saying during the French Revolution, “Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name”, could well be adapted to our case: “Economy, what crimes are committed in your name”.

I would like to join all those who, in recent articles and letters in this newspaper, have shown their displeasure at the way the environment in our country is being destroyed.

What, we ask, will be left for future generations?

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