Those blessed cannon!

It is official: the experts at Heritage Malta have decided that the cannon outside the main door of the Cathedral inside Victoria's citadel are to be transferred to one of the museums in Gozo.

So the robust, massive bronze guns, created by the Knights of St John to devastate and withstand devastation, having endured for hundreds of years, and are still in excellent shape to the ordinary eye, are to be removed for treatment.

But the cannon are to find their final resting place in a museum. Still unnamed and unidentified, it will most likely become the "Museum of Bronzes", as monument after monument, artefact after artefact slowly retire to entertain the hundreds of thousands of tourists who throng Gozo's museums.

Tongue in cheek sarcasm is the only way I can find to vent my disgust at this perplexing piece of news. How sad!

The cannon are a landmark adorning the steps to Lorenzo Gafà's baroque cathedral - they are history and romance, immortalised in innumerable paintings, sketches, holiday photos, tourist brochures and never missing in films and documentaries about the citadel, for centuries the focal point of Gozitan life and soul.

I sincerely expected much better from Heritage Malta's Gozitan chairman, Mario Tabone, until now fairly constructive and imaginative in his ideas for taking the organisation forward. If the cannon are in need of preservation then get on with it but we should be told the truth about the intention to remove them permanently.

Shame! Instead of concentrating their efforts on reviving Gozo's ailing economy, rekindling industrial activity and generating productive employment, preserving Gozo's environment and its appeal (including the citadel itself, weeping in a general state of abandonment and neglect) and creating viable attractions for tourists, the authorities have made the removal of the cannon their number one priority.

Start being serious and get your act together once and for all!