Environment campaigner Astrid Vella handed Lifetime Achievement Award
Recognition by the university's Faculty for Social Wellbeing
Environment NGOs Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Ramblers Association, Moviment Graffitti, Friends of the Earth, and Nature Trust Malta have welcomed the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the University's Faculty for Social Wellbeing to Astrid Vella, coordinator of Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar.
"Astrid has been a tireless heritage/environment activist for decades and has had several successes, the most recent being when FAA’s court action led to the overturning of Transport Malta’s illegal permit for the ‘Capitanerie’ building in Gżira’s public garden. The fact that this award came from the Faculty for Social Wellbeing was most significant, confirming FAA’s long-held conviction that cultural heritage is not just about the preservation of buildings and artefacts, but that heritage is a public resource and asset that benefits people’s lives," the NGOs said.
On receiving the award, Vella urged Malta's political leaders to act swiftly on their recently announced intention of looking beyond GDP as a measure of the country’s success by tracking wellbeing, disposable income, and education to measure progress over the next 25 years.
“As we are all painfully aware, Malta’s reliance on GDP to measure progress does not assess how prosperity is shared, and fails to address inequality, mental and physical health. This was driven home most painfully when the Prime Minister declared that ‘Taking Manoel Island back from developers would not be the best use of taxpayer money,’ she observed.
“Legal arguments apart, given that Manoel Island is the last green area in Malta’s most densely-populated zone in Malta, where residents suffer high rates of health problems related to air pollution and mental issues, one struggles to think of a better investment than returning Manoel Island to the public as a heritage park.”
The NGOs urged the public to support a petition calling for the return of Manoel Island to the public as a heritage park: https://www.manoelislandcampaign.com/