I don’t know the precise number of oak trees felled in Lija last week. What I do know is that the number of page views and shares of the news report in question was huge. The statistics on a page I administer showed that there were more page views even than when the Azure Window collapsed. Tens of thousands of views and comments rolled in – all desolate at the denuding of yet another avenue off any form of greenery.
Not even the lame explanation that this was a traffic-calming measure was enough to appease people. It’s quite significant that we have come to this. Up to a couple of years ago, the term ‘treehugger’ was a term of derision – an insult. Now things have changed as the realisation sets in that the country is ugly and sterile and being made increasingly more so. There’s no element of subjectivity in this. No ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ waffling. There’s a general acknowledgement that it’s vile out there.
It used to be that when politicians and some of our so-called ‘starchitects’ were discussing development, they would dismiss attempts at conservation as some form of nostalgia-fetish. They talk about the necessity of massive and different large-scale projects, as if the only other possible option was living in a mud hut. And then they invariably tell us that Malta cannot remain an untouched grotto (presepju).
Again – as if the only possible choices for development veer from the basic rubble-wall-and-girna combo to the blocks of hideousness that they propose. As if there isn’t the possibility of some form of balance. In the rush to distance themselves from the ‘grotto’ image, we have been forced into a ghetto model where there is absolutely no attempt to create buildings that are harmonious, that add to people’s wellbeing and which work in the context of their location.
Last Thursday the Planning Authority scored a hat trick in the game of the environmental degradation. There was the approval of a private lido in Qawra, increasing the built-up area on the perched beach as well as increasing take-up of public land for private development. There was the approval of yet another petrol station on ODZ land within a stone’s throw of half a dozen other petrol stations. And then there was the approval of a massive old people’s home in an ODZ area in Naxxar.
The PA’s constant rubber-stamping and active collusion with developers to build in ODZ areas is giving rise to an increased possibility of corruption
Even if we had to disregard all environmental and aesthetic factors, it is evident that the PA’s constant rubber-stamping and active collusion with developers to build in ODZ areas is giving rise to an increased possibility of corruption. Here’s why.
In theory – or by law – ODZ areas should not be built upon. Consequently the cost of such areas is lower than that for areas that can be developed. However, the Planning Authority is allowing large- and small-scale development in ODZ areas, which essentially means that land is bought on the cheap and then developed at a great profit.
The Planning Authority’s power to allow certain developments in ODZ but not others, means that it is in an ideal position to help certain people make a killing by keeping land costs down, and vengefully refusing development permission to others. There is absolutely no level playing field. It’s a two weights and two measures situation, which is profoundly unjust.
It’s been 25 years since Paolo Borsellino was killed by a Mafia car bomb. He was an Italian judge who battled the Mafia even in the most dispiriting times as his superiors caved in and colluded with the Mafia. Several times he was asked if he wouldn’t relish walking away from it all to take up some paper-pushing job or simply turning a blind eye to the filth that flowed through Sicilian society.
His reply was as follows when referring to the city where he worked: “Palermo non mi piaceva, per questo ho imparato ad amarla. Perché il vero amore consiste nell’ amare ciò che non ci piace per poterlo cambiare.” (“I don’t like Palermo, that’s why I learnt to love it. Because true love is continuing to love that which we don’t like to help change it.”). That’s the attitude we should adopt in relation to the ravages Malta is undergoing right now.
drcbonello@gmail.com