What both surprises and amazes me here is the almost total failure by so many people with decision-making power/s to realise that, in a small country like ours, every single square centimetre of land, of whatever type, that is used or earmarked for any specific purpose is being denied to other (often more than one) potential uses.

This is a basic economic principle encapsulated in the theory of alternative uses and this theory clearly tells us that in a small country: more land taken up by buildings, of whatever type, means less land made available for the free movement of citizens; more land taken up by built structures means less land available for nature to grow as the Lord would wish it to; more land taken up for collective uses means less land for agriculture; more land taken up for factories or offices means less land for roads or even residential housing. And so on and so forth.

Were it up to the Malta Developers’ Association and their ilk every single piece of unbuilt land would be built (they will use the false epithet ‘developed’). This, plus the fact that both the planning and environment authorities are not yet anywhere close to be able to make big and tough decisions like: “No more new buildings...”

I know that some people with decision-making power have expressed themselves in the sense that they will only be happy when Malta’s skylines get to resembling Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Manhattan. Doing that will only benefit one group of Maltese society: that encompassing developers, speculators, PA and ERA staff and, probably, notaries.

I may possibly be the only voice here arguing that the building and construction industry should be reduced and redimensioned and ensuring it no longer gets speculative permits. That does not surprise me at all. Ours is an “I’m all right... you Jack” society.