Has time and progress brought about a better life? I trek the streets of my young Floriana days. Gone is the camaraderie of neighbours; no morning news is shouted from balcony to window across the street. No exchange of lunch menus of widow’s soup or minestrone.
Gone is the daily open market in St Thomas Street; silence has muffled the cries of the vendors: no longer do they barter friendly insults in competition. The housewives’ oral din rises not in vehement arguments over a penny; or in loud discussions of family wellbeing. These secrets are now locked in hearts and homes.
Religion and sports had cemented unity irrespective of social status. Politics now create a dichotomy verging on angry rivalry. The green no longer predominates over red or blue.
The primary school has diminished in numbers. Social mobility and affluence have driven parents to pastures new. ‘Outsiders’ now fill vacant houses. Wartime had brought them to the Railway Tunnel. They stayed for good but integration remained cold and distant.
Haste has curtailed discussions in public to perfunctory nods and cold smiles. Reserved attitudes have obliterated exchange of views.
The Floriana parade ground was the theatre stage of marching parades. Drilled military personnel and glittering brass instruments were the children’s delight.
The panoramic expanse of hockey and cricket pitches and football grounds drew the cheering crowds. They applauded the dazzling skills of football teams.
All is lost. Parked cars clutter spaces in squares and streets; leaking fuel and fumes spreading ill-health.
St Anne’s Street attracted a constant flow of people. Now, never-ending traffic flows on both sides of the road. It spoils the sparkling cleanliness of buildings with black polluted dust.
Floriana is perhaps the microcosm of a macrocosmic trend affecting other towns and villages, spreading ruin to their expansion – a cautionary reminder of the ascendency of environmental disaster.