The tragedy at Notre-Dame Cathedral last week reminded me of the destruction of heritage close to home. After all, as somebody who is spending the second half of his 20s dedicatedly resisting the onslaught of overdevelopment, it was the closest relatable experience and analogy I have as a point of reference.
While Notre-Dame Cathedral is infinitely more valuable and old than much of the heritage we are losing in Malta and Gozo today, it is ironic how the outpouring of grief from our home soil has not been applied to the relics we are continuing to lose, and are set to lose as the years drag on.
In the past few years alone the heritage disasters in our country are truly beyond count. In Malta and in Gozo we do not need fire to destroy, for we are professionals at demolition ourselves, though not experts at construction safety.
Since Independence, we have seen the pillaging of Sliema, St Julian’s, Gżira, St Paul’s Bay and other areas in the north with particular intensity. These are all locations which, if they had been preserved, and had we enjoyed proper planning from the beginning, would today be bringing in tourists of great quality, ready to spend a lot of money to enjoy an authentic Maltese cultural atmosphere.
That identity and atmosphere has been all but obliterated, save for a few pockets of resistance. A case that is particularly appalling was the illegal smashing of Villa St Ignatius in Balluta, but it is a blip on the radar compared to what else we have experienced and seen. The most tragic aspect of all is that we may hardly be halfway through the construction boom, and we are set to lose a lot more before it is all over.
If we had enjoyed a stable administration with vision at any point over the years, we would have invested in the creation of a touristic product that does not try to imitate the steel and concrete of the United States but which would instead capitalise on the uniqueness of our country.
Why build mega hotels when we can spread tourists out over refurbished boutique hotels across the country, enjoying preserved, vibrant village cores that still enjoy vibrant and dynamic Maltese and Gozitan communities?
People go to Milan and Rome to see Milan and Rome. Yet the way Malta and Gozo are advertised abroad does not reflect what the government is quickly transforming us into.
As always, it cannot be the two political parties in the pockets of developers that will bring about the National Masterplan that Partit Demokratiku has been advocating in Parliament since 2017. So long as our first preference remains a corrupt oligarchy of whatever colour, the fires of Notre-Dame are going to keep burning right here at home.