I just read with great dismay that, notwithstanding the public outcry, developers are going ahead with the insane project of the Sliema tower, which we all know we need… like a hole in the head.

The well-known people behind this project don’t seem to get the point. They try to fool us by telling us about the great care and precautions they will take to minimise inconvenience to the public. The construction will be a major inconvenience to all those living around there for a long, long time, adding hardship to the already grossly disfigured and crowded town of Sliema, with its monumental traffic and parking problems.

This project is purely an exercise in insatiable greed, the making of money. And this, of course, is not all. The point is, they don’t give a hoot about the general landscape which they are about to alter forever. This is a disproportionate monster fit for a King Kong movie. This is the tower that will mar the skyline of Malta forever.

Money will come and money will go but this stain on this little island, where we can already barely travel from one part to another, where we can hardly breathe, will remain forever, long after we and the developers have gone.

This project, obscenely blessed by the Planning Authority and with the government’s clear, unashamed backing, has betrayed the interests of all Maltese citizen. It must be stopped. I pray that Din l-Art Ħelwa and other NGOs, backed by normal Maltese citizens, can stop this madness, now before it is too late.