Last Friday, Xarabank offered Victor Scerri of Baħrija fame the opportunity to air his dirty linen in public. The few vociferous supporters present were not numerous enough to brand him a rabble-rouser or one aspiring to "mob rule" at the next general election. The vicious harangue will certainly get him no votes from the legions of patriotic environmentalists not necessarily members of the Ramblers Association. The worst part of this tirade was his overly passionate venom spat out against Lino Bugeja whom he implied as being some property negotiator ready to outwit the Mepa rules.

Dr Scerri's research was as erroneous as his fragile reasoning and unconvincing argument. The facts stand as follows. Mr Bugeja and three other friends bought a plot of land in 1968 as evident in the records of Notary Francis Micallef dated June 10, 1968, over 41 years ago.

At this point, I would like to quote Mark Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: Dr Scerri inflicted "the unkindest cut of all" when he aimed at character denigration through erroneous accusation. Mr Bugeja's share was only half a tumolo and not a perverse two tumoli as Dr Scerri audaciously blared out to television audiences that are not gullible at all. Like Dr Scerri, Mr Bugeja had a justified right to buy a plot of land. However, the latter did not submit any building applications to Mepa as the former did on virgin land.

Mr Bugeja excels in his loyalty and uprightness: he did not deprive the farmer of his daily bread; to date the farmer still plants, sows and harvests, keeping the land evergreen, unlike Dr Scerri's rape and devastation, annihilating all semblance of pristine glory. Thus Mr Bugeja cannot go rambling on his own land (as Dr Scerri suggested) not to cause any damage to the farmer though he would like to walk unmolested on Dr Scerri's virgin land unhindered by the monstrous building.

Let Dr Scerri prepare himself for the time when he conducts his election campaign, lest he makes indelible blunders and even damages the party he hopes to represent... if selected! Scathing remarks shouted in publicity campaigns during staged interviews on the mass media are not only innocuous barbs but ones that ricochet badly. Spitting out a cataract of nonsense does not make one a convincing orator, let alone a credible one. An eminent personality in the realm of politics stressed that "ODZ is ODZ". No argument can change that. Surely, one should also know that morality is the virtue that makes a distinction between right and wrong. Morality has nothing to do with religion. It is a character trait that Maltese society upholds.

Dr Scerri's camouflaged attacks on the Ramblers are mere blank cartridges that make muffled sounds without echoes. Hence the Ramblers do not cower, hide or take shelter but they rise in anger at the least injustice. The Ramblers' means of defences are the ideas of intellectual leaders, their intelligent, logical arguments, the supported research and the factual evidence. They do not smear character but certainly try to correct all those who damage their treasured environment and where necessary bring to book those who, quite selfishly, stray from the established rules of democracy. The Ramblers are faithful Franciscan followers, patriotic defenders of their ancestors' patrimony, not only environmental but also cultural and historical.