The term ‘progress’ is a double-edged sword for me and, frankly, it frightens me. In the country I hail from, Australia, progress means exploiting the environment to develop an open cut coal mine potentially the size of England or a national park for tourist development.

To export this now outdated resource of black and brown coal, the port of Gladstone, adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef, has to be dredged, as well as the reef itself, to grant passage to a large number of mega containers loading and exporting the coal to all parts of the world.

The risk to the reef is palpable, given that the Indian consortium carrying out the development has already been associated with environmental negligence in other operations elsewhere in the world.

The current low-level Gladstone harbour dredging has already impacted the local fishing industry, and the larger threat will affect the reef’s blue-chip eco-tourism industry, which supports many Queenslanders’ livelihood.

The politicians and their public servants, urged by powerful lobbying from miners and developers, will have us believe that this type of ‘progress’ is acceptable. After all, both the miners and the ore carriers do solemnly assert that they will follow all the environmental guidelines in place to protect the ecological resource and they are happy to exaggerate the job prospects for all.

Educated in the school of the fast dollar, they lay waste, reap the profits and, on exhausting the resource, disappear, leaving ugly scars behind.

The same applies to heritage values associated with the built environment. Pull the old place down irrespective of heritage values and build a modern one, the developers will tell you. I cannot be convinced they are adding to our cities’ cultural value, because most of these developments all seemingly look the same.

Do not get me wrong, I am not anti-modernist architecture. The works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Antoni Gaudi, Zaha Hadid, Norm Foster et al in their context cannot be denied and are all important to our appreciation of great architecture. Like many, I am also a strong conservationist who likes to celebrate the resourcefulness if not the artistry of our ancestors, who taught us so much.

Martin Scicluna’s articles on master planning for the future are right on the spot. If one looks around, there is much going on ad hoc in Malta’s infrastructure.

Where I deviate slightly from Scicluna is on Singapore. Yes, it has gone ahead in leaps and bounds but it resembles Asia very little, and most of the wealth seems to be in the Chinese quarter. My tummy would love to stay in Singapore but all of me would prefer to stay in Malta.

The Maltese culture is all about the priority of enjoying life with one’s family and friends, and the way the Maltese do it is quite unique

We live in a democratic society and, yes, we know all about ‘eternal vigilance’ to ensure we are not disadvantaged by the ‘unscrupulous ones’. The Maltese culture is all about the priority of enjoying life with one’s family and friends, and the way the Maltese do it is quite unique.

But Malta also enjoys a strong political culture that likes to have a say in the future of the nation. It would seem a shame if political tools cannot be used early in the planning process to stop greedy developers from demolishing heritage buildings like those in Sliema.

Why would we want this precinct to look exactly like the hundreds of other cities that succumb to this form of ‘progress’? Enter Scicluna’s vision.

Malta has a great future in the tourism industry. Some of our big newspapers in Australia have discovered Malta as the next best thing.

Please, care for your wonderful heritage, which I gladly share, having been born there but please, don’t do what the ‘unscrupulous ones’ in Italy do and bite the hand that feeds you.

On a visit to Venice for three nights, I happened to be around when five large cruise boats pulled in, disgorging about 40,000 people in one day for a six-hour visit.

Forget about visiting St Mark’s Cathedral when that happens.

The Colosseum in Rome hosts about 14,000 visitors an hour, and all the foot pressure is impacting the old ruins. I see a bit of this happening in Malta.

A visit to St John’s Cathedral in Valletta is one of life’s joys. The way it is set up now is just great. If one visits early, it is easy to interact with the artwork on view.

However, as soon as the boatload comes in en masse, obscuring the visual contact, that reverie is all but gone.

The island and nation is unique, it is loved, it is cherished and, I hope, it is never exploited out of its character.

Charles Becket is a retired Maltese-born architect.