Letters to the editor - July 29, 2024

And, yes, more hotels

So, yes, the Planning Authority has sanctioned another two permits for new hotels in Sliema… this country has gone crazy.

Are the PA and the Malta Tourism Authority not yet convinced that full hotel capacity has been reached in that area given the number of such properties, apartments, boutique hotels, and airbnbs?

Can we take even more of the societal and environmental disruption this industry causes?

Why, but why do the PA and the MTA continue to reject the fact that certain parts of Malta have reached saturation point?

Overflowing sewers, polluted bays, garbage collection disasters, endless traffic jams, people peeing and poohing in public, street fights, dirt all over… the list can go on forever.

Please, dear decision-makers, do give consideration to the idea that certain areas in Malta (Sliema, Gżira, St Paul’s Bay, Swieqi, Mellieħa, and others) all  deserve a long-term moratorium on the issue of any further permits for hotels and similar accommodation.

Yes, this will anger vested interests. But the choice is now ever more than clear: kowtowing to the speculators, the tourism industry, the Malta Development Association and their capitalist ilk versus the real present needs of this country.

John Consiglio – Birkirkara

Tribute to workers

The workers’ monument at Msida. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Monuments are visible signs of our appreciation for the past and they point us to the present and to the future. They are more than simply nostalgia.

The monument to the workers, of more than 40 years ago, continues to challenge us now, the workers of today. It celebrates the workers of today. We form part of the great reality of the necessity of work, primarily for sustenance.

What about the many immigrant workers who do so many manual (and menial) jobs? Are they part of this monument? Do they have the honour to form part of this monument?

Victor Degabriele, S.J. – Mosta

Eternal bliss

With reference to the letter ‘No need for religious funeral’ (July 17), I have always admired persons adherent to their respective creeds promoting their ideals and living in harmony with the rest.

But humanists cannot hide the fact that they are atheists and their latest revelation is that eternal bliss is fairy tales. Without going into the merits of mysticism and phenomena that have existed throughout the ages, if the wonders of the visible heavens proclaim and sing the glory of the Creator, as the psalmist has well said, what shall we say of the hidden marvels of souls raised to the highest states of holiness and bliss?

John Azzopardi – Żabbar