For the past number of months (and years), we here in Xagħra have been under attack. 

The weapons of choice have been cranes, cement trucks, grinders, drills, skips and a cacophony of noise. Dust fills the air and there is no time in the day free of attack, be it 6.00 am or 10.00 pm. The frenzied assault must be allowed to continue in the name of ‘progress’. 

Xagħra is, of course not unique. Most areas are under attack, some a bit more viciously than others. Our homemade tycoons and their political underlings must not be hindered or slowed. The Maltese and Gozitan ‘miracles’ are indeed sites to behold. 

The sheer lunacy of what is happening can be viewed any Friday or Sunday afternoon on the road to and from Mġarr as what appears to be about 50% of the population of Malta attempts to squeeze into or out of Gozo. And all at the same time and on the same set of ferries and all in the name of ‘leisure’ and ‘relaxation’. 

It’s hard to imagine a more ludicrous scenario for ‘leisure’ except perhaps the madness that is the current undeclared but fully waging ‘war’ on Comino. Despite its self-evident contradictions as the country rapidly approaches peak unsustainability, Maltese society still engages in its own version of ‘cakeism’. 

This is the philosophy and strategy beloved of Boris Johnson that insists, despite all evidence that not only can we all have cake, but we can also all continue to eat it in ever larger quantities without consequence of any kind. 

Considering the government’s strategy of maximising the plunder of the islands and their resources and considering the absence of any official control of any kind, opposition to the rape of Malta must (and is) coming from increasing citizen power and direct action.

In this context the recent statement of the Catholic Church’s Environment Commission that enhanced militancy from environmental groups, residents and local councils might be the only effective way to save Malta's land from ‘overdevelopment’ is telling. 

‘This lack of action to review current policies seems to indicate that perhaps the only effective way to save the Maltese environment is through enhanced militancy from environmental groups, groups of local residents and local councils.’ 

Crucially the statement argued that ‘It is only when public protests are held that some action is taken.’  Examples of such action have included the public protests against planned developments in Marsascala, Zonqor point and most recently the direct action of Moviment Grafitti members  at Comino’s Blue Lagoon. Of particular interest in this latter case is the overwhelming public support for this action. 

Such actions represent a significant light in the tunnel that is current Maltese environmental economic and political maldevelopment. The assertion of engaged and effective citizenship will be fundamental to any future well-being in Malta as elsewhere. Re-asserting the primacy of the ‘common good’ over the interests and agendas of the country’s elite is vital.

This pattern is growing in importance worldwide as evidenced at the 2021 COP-26 climate summit in Glasgow where thousands of activists took part in daily street protests (in what is now a  worldwide phenomenon) to pressurise politicians to take real and effective action.  As in Malta now, such action is ‘outside’ traditional political and economic frameworks and is more empowering and powerful for it.

In February of this year the International Panel on Climate Change called for a ‘wholesale revision’ in how humanity lives.  Just tweaking our social and economic systems ‘is not going to get us to a climate resilient future’, instead we need ‘transformational changes... everything from our food to our energy to transportation, but also our politics and our society’.

Scientists worldwide, activists on the streets internationally, church and faith-based commissions and leaders and activists at local level here in Malta represent important lights in the dark tunnel.  There is increasing evidence that such lights will amplify in the coming months and years.

The lunacy of Maltese ‘cakeism’ is rapidly reaching its boundaries.