The sun was setting. A glorious view, a miracle of nature. I was walking around the garigue, we call it "ix-Xaghra l-Hamra", it's an open space which some hope to change into a golf course. Suddenly I met this old Cree Indian I had met in Copenhagen many years ago. There he was, appearing suddenly, unexpectedly, looking at me, staring at me. His face more wrinkled than ever. His facial expression more inscrutable than ever.

"Hello!" I meant to say.

His face did not move, his eyes staring at me, his lips tight and his hands crossed on his chest.

But I could still hear what he said, clearly, a deep, harsh voice.

"Only after the last tree has been cut down," he drawled,
"Only after the last river has been poisoned,
"Only after the last fish has been caught,
"Then will you find that money cannot be eaten!"
Then he disappeared into the setting sun, the fiery sun.

Ix-Xaghra l-Hamra is being developed into a golf course...

The results of an opinion poll carried in The Times recently showed that 40 per cent are in favour of the construction of the golf course there; the rest oppose it for some reason or other.

Some questions immediately come to mind: how come we still spend our energy on ways and means to destroy what scant natural environment we have? How come we think of methods to make nature pay for our troubles in tourism? How is it we do not realise that for the sake of tourism we are killing this tiny place, once a paradise, called Malta? How come we always indulge in methods to destroy what little we have been blessed with in the futile hope of getting more and more out of nature?

Wanting to build a golf course at the expense of arable, productive land at Tal-Virtù was bad enough.

But thinking that the few remaining garigues and natural open spaces of this unfortunate land of ours are easy prey, expendable and insignificant prey for destruction is even worse. Fertile land we rightly defended and still defend, because we can get agricultural produce from it. But rocky surfaces with characteristic fauna and flora are considered to be expendable because we cannot turn the natural rocky surface, the wild thyme, white thistle and the spiny asparagus and other wild fauna and flora into food!

What does man live by then?

Does man live only by the food he munches, chews and hopes to digest? Does he live by the money he pockets and the money he saves in his banks only?

Do not nature and the natural environment, the beautiful natural scenery unspoilt for millions of years, provide another type of food he badly needs as well? Do not the natural fragrance of the Maltese fleabane and the Mediterranean wild thyme in the nooks and crannies of the undulating, rugged, rocky surface provide man with another indispensable type of nourishment, which is getting scarcer and scarcer?

The supreme developer

In my opinion it is simply short-sightedness, sheer folly, to want to develop any portion of our garigues into a landscape other than the natural landscape nature took millions of years to develop to its present, silent beauty.

We do not need to develop anything; there is no need at all. God has already done the thinking and the planning, and nature has already developed the place for all creatures' enjoyment. God has already understood some facts of life and of nature before we did: the sun strikes these islands almost all year round, and the wind blows from over the sea over these open areas almost all year round. So he created special rocky surfaces and special flowers, plants, insects and other animals to make that place their habitat.

I am sure God never thought about a golfer sweating it out, trudging with his trolley in the scorching, humid temperatures and winds. I am sure he was very wise and happy when man's common sense confined the golfer to his place in Marsa.

The fact is that Malta is a tiny island, a small place where we elbow each other to have some space, and we simply cannot have another golf course at this high price. We simply cannot give up any natural site at all!

Our land is what it is. We have been blessed with a couple of hundred square kilometres, most of which we have already covered with roads and buildings. How can we be so naive as to even think of wasting a substantial portion of what is left by creating golf courses to be enjoyed by a handful of tourists?

Of course we want tourists to visit and enjoy the beauty of our land. But what land are we leaving for them to enjoy? What natural spaces are we leaving for us to enjoy?

Is it possible we never learn that people would want to visit us more to admire our natural environment and natural Mediterranean landscape, than to admire and use our golf courses?

Is it possible we cannot understand that it is natural for the technocentric mind to want to turn a beautiful garigue into something else that may or may not please other humans? Living in a country where land is so scarce, it becomes even more important and necessary to understand that man is placed within nature, and as an integral part of the natural ecosystem. We humans are part of nature, which means that whatever we do affects nature and would eventually affect us, now or in the future.

In harmony with nature

As any other living organism, man himself is subject to biological laws and must not destroy his own natural environment, consequently eventually affecting that stability of which he himself forms part.

Therefore, for our own benefit, for humanity's sake, we should not ravage what nature has developed for us. For his own benefit, and for the benefit of his own off-spring whose faces he has not yet seen because they will be born in the future, man on this tiny archipelago called Malta, must not plunder and permanently and willfully obliterate what ecosystems nature has taken millions of years to balance and evolve.

For his own benefit man must strike the required balance between pressing economical requirements and the price he has to pay for that. His endeavours at solving these problems, and his efficiency at managing solutions, cannot be shallow and skin deep. He should be able to look further than his own immediate requirements.

Man cannot, should and must not destroy the natural habitat for some of his species to be able to enjoy a game of golf and spend some money. Solutions to pressing problems do not entitle us to destroy once and for ever what we ourselves have hitherto considered a highly protected area!

What has saddened me is that people who are expected to voice their great concern about the matter have so far kept mum. Also, sections of the media even appear to promote the good idea of destroying those garigues for ever. Because they will be destroyed for ever. Unbelievable! There was a veritable hue and cry when someone wanted to destroy the rocky surface of the cliffs at Ta' Cenc, when they wanted to build another airport on tiny Gozo, and when they wanted to wrench the fields (and the water) from the Luqa farmers, Tal-Lira and Ta' Lazzru. Logic and good sense prevailed.

Please, let us not let anyone, any entrepreneur, any technocentric, any administration, any institution, anyone, destroy what unspoilt natural environment we still have on our small islands.

Must the unspoilt natural environment be turned into money to live by? What does man live by? Does man live only by the money he makes out of golf courses?

Does not the natural environment provide man with another type of food he badly needs as well, as all the world is becoming increasingly more conscious of?

Let us not let them rape those beautiful garigues, please.

Shame on our contemporary society for even wanting to ponder on this cruel possibility!