Plurality of man’s nature

In The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn discussed the concept of duality within human beings. He observed that “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the very heart of every human being. And who’s willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

The same concept is explored in detail in the 1886 novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, in which he wrote “that man is not truly one but truly two. I say two, because the state of my own knowledge does not pass beyond that point. Others will follow, others will outstrip me on the same lines; and I hazard the guess that man will be ultimately known for a mere polity of multifarious, incongruous, and independent denizens.”

In his introduction to Stevenson’s novel, John Mason Brown, a New York drama critic, remarked: “It must be remembered, as many have pointed out, that Stevenson’s psychological thriller appeared years before Freud or Jung or Adler had explored the shadowy recesses of the mind, the dark realm of the subconscious, and the conflicting traits and impulses which torture men and women, not by neatly halving them in the Jekyll-Hyde fashion, but by subdividing them into endless overlapping claims.

“We have long since come to admit the plurality of man’s nature, rather than its duality.”

John Guillaumier – St Julian’s

One of two reservoirs at Valley Road. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Upgrading Valley Road in Msida

The conspicuous stagnancy of the ‘water-collection reservoir system’ in Valley Road, Msida threatens to convert these waters into a potential source of pollution and disease.

The solution is not to close or build over these reservoirs but to inject a healthy, constant, water flow into this dual reservoir system.

Environmental sources recommend:

(1) the comprehensive emptying and removal of all liquids and debris from the present reservoirs;

(2) the dredging of easily accessible, seaward-sloping, water channels to and from these reservoirs;

(3) the effective inclusion of aeration-inducing water fountains;

(4) the persistent clearance of adjacent, harmful, algae-boosting, vegetative growths; and

(5) the constant monitoring of the waters for pollutants (chemicals or unsuitable nutrients, including certain duck-feeds).

In due course, an upgraded reservoir system will not only collect water: it will also convey public health and environmental appeal.

Mark Miceli-Farrugia – Ta’ Xbiex

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