After taking some friends for a night out at one of the island's renowned fish restaurants, I was truly disgusted at the state of the once picturesque village of Marsaxlokk.
I just could not believe my eyes and could not comprehend how the promenade resembles a Beirut bombed site right in the midst of the tourist high season. One can't walk on the pavement with a baby carrier. The restaurants occupy all the space on the pavements and one has to walk on the road, zigzagging between parked cars and oncoming traffic.
Something is certainly wrong somewhere. How could road works be approved in the most popular and photographed tourist fishing village at this time of year? Whose idea was it? Whose opinion was it that road works in the midst of the high tourist season in Malta is a tourist attraction? Couldn't these works have waited a couple of months, especially with the mild winters we have been having of late?
These works have rendered Marsaxlokk a far cry from that advertised or seen on brochures as a colourful hamlet full of activity with colourful fishing boats and fishermen going through their daily chores. For summer 2010, Marsaxlokk has been transformed into one construction site.
The only option open to visitors is maybe to take a photo against the billboard featuring an artist's impression of the Marsaxlokk promenade or take a part of a paving stone or a handful of sand from the construction site as a souvenir!
Why was the coordinated action, involving the office of the Prime Minister, the Resources Ministry and the Tourism Secretariat, as well as other sections of the government, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi mentioned in his recent walkabout with his entourage in Buġibba, not applied to Marsaxlokk?
By coordinated one would assumed that any embellishment and sprucing up works are done at the right time and in the right place and making Marsaxlokk promenade look like a bombed area in the middle of July is certainly not the place or the time.
When will Dr Gonzi and his entourage do a walkabout in Marsaxlokk? After the lampuki season in November, when the summer visitors are all gone?