The thing about PR is that for it to be successful it has to be subtle and not so evidently self-serving. It can’t be too obvious that you’re pushing your own agenda. And when you commission studies to try and establish your worth/usefulness/contribution to society you run the risk of being seen as tooting your own horn and omitting the less attractive aspects of your business.

If, for example, the president of the Cannibal Society commissions a study on the great taste and availability of human meat for consumption, the results might show that it is palatable and easily available. However, the findings would not focus too greatly on the illegal and amoral aspect of cannibalism. Which is why it is always advisable to see who commissions studies and the precise terms of reference given in each case.

The Malta Development Association commissioned a study on the state of the local construction industry. Some of the findings were announced in the triumphalistic presentation broadcast to the expectant nation (though we didn’t get the full version which MDA president Sandro Chetcuti is holding close to his chest).  In a nutshell the study states that the construction industry is doing tremendously well. And there is no sign of a property bubble and no sign of any imminent crash. No surprises there. It is precisely what everybody would have expected a survey commissioned by the MDA to find.

Perhaps if members of the public had the same sort of resources and financial deep pockets to commission studies and employ PR firms, a far more interesting study would be carried out – one about how often building regulations are flouted, the health and safety implications of this flouting and the pain, distress and inconvenience caused to people by the constant construction chaos around them. Rather than gloating about the property non-bubble, we should see where the construction industry rates on the decency index.

I say this because at roughly the same time that the MDA was crowing about its study, the following was being reported in the media: an 81-year-old woman was photographed in her dining room, metal stilts propping up the roof of her house which had been structurally damaged because of construction works next door.

If the pace of construction is not set to abate for the foreseeable future, when exactly is the inconvenience going to stop?

Another woman was lucky to escape with no injuries when a section of her roof came crashing in under the weight of bricks being transported on to an adjacent building in Sliema. Then the roof of a clothes shop in Gżira caved in some days later, with shop staff and patrons making a lucky escape. That was believed to have been caused by a number of bricks that were dropped on the roof by a crane.  A couple of streets away pipes tumbled from a crane on to a man’s car. The contractor responsible brushed off the incident and basically told the victim to stop being a wuss.

In Valletta, workers threatened a woman who filmed massive construction materials being transported over pedestrians’ heads without any safety precautions whatsoever. In St Julian’s, residents received a letter from a developer stating that works would continue throughout the night – despite repeated complaints and reports to the authorities. Naturally this was accompanied by an apology for the inconvenience caused.

Residents near the massive crater that is the site of the former Imperial Hotel in Sliema, were not so lucky. Works went on throughout the night. The next day the neighbours woke up to find their roads coated in dust. Back in Valletta, St Ursula Street was turned into an eerie white streetscape as clouds of dust billowed out from yet another construction site.

Of course, the response trotted out when incidents of the sort are reported is that these are generalisations, that the vast majority of contractors are law-abiding and greatly concerned with the plight of residents. Or else that these are temporary inconveniences which will soon be overcome once the projects are completed.

But here’s the rub. If the pace of construction is not set to abate for the foreseeable future, when exactly is the inconvenience going to stop? When contractors have a change of heart and start adopting better industry practices? With a booming market and a great demand, there’s going to be less incentive to up their game and strive to be ethical and even moderately sensitive to others’ plight.

So the outlook looks pretty much like a property bubble that won’t burst, but a chaotic, uncomfortable slide down the decency and quality-of-life index.

drcbonello@gmail.com