Prince Harry and Meghan recently revealed that the favourite words of their two-year-old son, Archie, were “drive safe” and “hydrate”. Right. That’s California for you.
My two-year-old nephew, a mere couple of weeks older than Archie, has a totally different vocabulary repertoire. The other day, he was with me in the car as we drove through the Central Link in Attard and we could just as well have been driving through Disneyland.
His joyous shrieks from the back of the car were resonant: “Kiki,” he shouted, willing me to look at what he was seeing from his window. “Crane!” A few seconds later there was further awe and excitement “Kiki! Truck!”
Forget any well-being glossary, my nephew is a veritable expert in the heavy stuff: bulldozer, excavator, asphalt paver, drum roller, concrete mixer, the works. But, then again, that’s Malta for you.
We’re not to worry about it. Martin Saliba, Planning Authority CEO, assures us that “Malta is moving into a modern era” of more construction and more buildings.
Judging by the interview he gave last week to Times of Malta, I think that, although he’s now a fully grown adult, Saliba still giggles with joy every time he sees a crane, despite the fact that his job is essentially to ensure that the ratio of cranes to people on the island is balanced.
Some context first: prior to this top post, Saliba was head of the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal where he decided on appeals such as the ITS-DB project, the Tumas Group’s Quad Towers of Mrieħel and the Central Link Project, and we all know how those appeals ended.
With a CV like that, therefore, we cannot be surprised that Saliba is chiding us for complaining about the island’s construction frenzy. He is insisting that “good or bad … we have to accept it” and that it is a “necessary evil” for the country to be economically strong.
He urges us to look up to buoyant economy of “Mediterranean cities of the wealthy”, by which we can assume he means Monaco, which is essentially a series of concrete blocks on a bit of land, posing as luxury living.
Does it matter that vast countryside land or beautiful, historic buildings are being demolished along the way to make way for economic success? No. They’re a “sacrifice”. He tells us to “stop” it with this “nostalgia” business. Indeed, why yearn for beauty when you can have ugly?
The way the boss of Malta’s planning values property is a clear insight into his logic. Does he take into consideration the context, the history, the conservation, the architecture or, maybe, the aesthetics of a property? Pfft, no. “Property is valued on its potential for development,” he says.
A good economy is one that offers sustainable growth. Ours isn’t. It’s an economy which is based on encouraging people to spend, spend, spend- Kristina Chetcuti
So, in his book, if you have a property, you are perfectly entitled to develop it, whatever the repercussions – even if it means your neighbour’s property is dwarfed and blocked. It’s their fault, he says, in more or less words, they should have developed it too.
He says that development is dictated by “the demand” and that it’s the “smaller families and two-person households determining the quality and size of buildings”. I don’t know about that. Has he been doing some scouting with estate agents, lately? Because, the way I see it, it’s the developer’s greed which is determining everything. The average two-person households cannot really afford anything more than chicken coops with bathrooms.
Does he look into whether this “demand” is sustainable? I’m asking because a) it is his primary job and b) a study carried out by MCAST using satellite images reveals that, between 2017 and 2020, Malta lost the equivalent of more than 250 football pitches of rural land to development.
That’s 250 Ta’ Qali football grounds of soil, garigue, shrubs, wild plants and trees replaced by asphalt and concrete. Now, only two per cent of the entire island is left covered with trees. But ‘sustainability’ does not exist in Saliba’s dictionary. He just tells us to lump it so that the economy can flourish.
Which is a load of rubbish. A good economy is one that offers sustainable growth. Ours isn’t. It’s an economy which is based on encouraging people to spend, spend, spend.
We can’t even put our money in a bank account because we won’t be saving anything, rather we’d risk losing it to inflation. So, the only way to invest is by buying bricks-and-mortar assets. But, now, building prices are reaching such stupid steep levels that, surely, sooner or later, everything will go bust. And then what? What will happen to our economy?
Ah, the answer is in the letter box. In that little envelope of wildflower seeds that the government of Malta is sending us all. As soon as you open it, there’s a huge photo of – not the wild flowers that will grow from the seeds – but of a grinning Aaron Farrugia, the Environment Minister. He’s been quite proud of himself lately, posing as the environment saviour in jacket and tie and wearing surgical gloves (!) while watering a plant.
The message is clear: in return for state-sponsored land grabbing, we are getting a packet of seeds. The nation’s favourite words should really be “panem et circences”.
And on that note, je me casse. I’ve got some serious truck/bulldozer spotting to do with my nephew.
krischetcuti@gmail.com
twitter: @krischetcuti