Frank Salt (May 28) tells us that the site in Żonqor earmarked for the American University of Malta is almost a wasteland, that we should not jump to conclusions when making judgements and that he is not concerned that the Sadeen Group from Jordan is not experienced in the field of education so long as the investors have a business plan.

Salt is as conversant with the value of natural vegetation and of undeveloped land for its landscape value as I am conversant with the real estate market.

He might be oblivious to the fact that, for some, bliss is not to be found in a champagne bottle being sipped from the balcony of the lavish properties he sells for a living but, rather, in a stroll within areas which he describes as ‘wasteland’.

Is he one of the privileged who has access to the designs for the proposed university? If so, can he share them with us? If not, isn’t he jumping to conclusions?

There is something that is known as quality of life, which is not gauged by the number of high-end apartments that we manage to sell or rent out each year but, rather, by what we manage to set aside, in terms of open spaces, for those future generations to be able to unwind and enjoy typical Mediterranean ambience, rather than superficial, sterilised environs of yet more real estate development and privatised coastline.

Why do farmers working the fields at Żonqor have to face the gauntlet of having the land, which they have tilled for generations, being presented on a silver plate to a foreign investor when, to use the words of Wistin Pulis, a farmer from the area, they are the “salt of the land”?