I am sure owners and investors in the newly built wall have already acquired their Tuscan retreat, their Sicilian farmhouse and their flats in Zermatt to get away from the mess they will leave behind.
Life behind the Great Wall may actually be not completely impossible as long as the wall, with its apartments and offices, are occupied and vibrantly alive, as the brochures selling these developments on plan are suggesting.
If a successful increase in Malta’s population is achieved, filling all these planned grotesque towers across our beautiful island, our population will increase to around 700,000, thus making almost half of the population composed of foreign workers and residents. Had France or Italy planned a similar growth they would each have around 30 million more foreigners than today. With populism growing dangerously with a foreign population of between five and six million today, what would the ‘voting’ Italian and French electorate do in that case? They would revolt and bring in a fascist government to expel all foreigners.
A balance between local populations and an influx of foreigners is essential for a stable and peaceful society. Malta, with its 100,000 foreigners out of a population of 460,000 is already close to the discomfort zone. Recent surveys already show that concerns about the number of foreigners are surfacing in Malta too.
What about the strain on the infrastructure systems of water, electricity, refuse collection, sewerage, traffic congestion, parking, crime control, policing, Maltese schools and teachers? We will become foreigners in our own country, unable to move on congested roads, unable to cope with sudden surges in water, electricity requirements at certain peak times when all residents flush, shower or switch on their air conditioning and washing machines?
Where are all the ugly roof water tanks that already uglify our skyscapes on top of the eight- to 10-storey blocks of chicken-coop flatsijiet that have sprouted all across our island, going to be located for a 60-storey building? Underground or on the top of the skyscrapers?
I am not sure we really want all of this, and probably, potential investors who are unaware of Malta’s weak infrastructure will still want to invest here before all of these issues are resolved. The Air Malta magazines and the lovely brochures published by our greedy estate agent companies sent to our letter boxes show doctored photos of sunsets and unobstructed views but never show the mess of dirty broken streets, rubbish bags on pavements, dog poo and clumsy coffee shop outside tables, facades unpainted and covered in telephone and electricity wires.
Their greatest fear ahead of deciding to invest is certainly the stability of the country they will be investing in. How will the local electorate vote in the next five, 10 or 15 years? Or is there a secret plan to give these resident investors in Malta the right to vote to outnumber the local population?
Will our love for the Maltese language vanish as the language is already is being eroded in our primary schools where Maltese cannot remain the principal language of teaching due to the many foreign pupils attending public schools?
A balance between local populations and an influx of foreigners is essential for a stable and peaceful society
Will we elect new governments that will revert or revise the laws to reduce the number and proportion of foreigners among us?
Will the overflowing sewers, lack of water - unless one installs pumps to compete with the big towers - and luxury ‘out of bounds for locals’ mean we will need to create new areas with their own supplies or ability to pay more for securer supplies of water and electricity?
Such scenarios are potentially possible. Are we planning properly enough before allowing the developers and their lobby to throw all caution to the wind for rapid and temporary gains?
But what happens if and when the changes to corporate and individual taxation across Europe actually come about, closing the loopholes and tax evasion schemes for individuals and companies, causing a drastic reduction of Malta’s attractiveness?
What happens if the calculated population growth does not come about? What happens if, with 15-plus towers built or half built, a change in our economy causes a slowdown or, God forbid, a crash, such as the ones suffered by Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Finland in the last decades? Values of property simply halved or fell by even more than that in all of those countries. Unemployment skyrocketed and banks foreclosed and many people lost their nest eggs.
What would life behind these empty, ready towers or behind the shells of half-built and unfinished towers be like? Will they be occupied by squatters? Will they be pulled down? And if so, who will pay for that destruction?
I have no answers for either of these two scenarios. I cannot guess whether the speculative wave that is leading to the construction of a number of towers creating the Great Wall of Malta will lead to success or crisis.
In both of these scenarios, life for the man in the street, life for the normal Maltese will be worse that it is today. We will be destroying our environment and leaving a mess for our children and grandchildren.
They will live in an apartheid type of society where locals will be forbidden to get to the shore and the sea, with their villages hidden in the shadows of towers that do not fit with our limestone, low-rise country. Or they will be forced to suffer recession and the headaches of dealing with valueless monsters of concrete and looking for someone to put the blame on.
The youth will find nobody to blame except themselves for not asking us, their parents, to stop and think.
Who knows whether Valletta will be taken off the World Heritage Sites list and be put on the list of the sites at risk, just like Vienna’s historic centre? Instead of adding new sites, our committee will have to fight hard to save the only site we have today.
John Vassallo is a former senior counsel and director for EU Affairs at General Electric, a former vice president, EU Affairs, and associate general counsel, Microsoft, and a former Ambassador of Malta to the EU.