Db has done anything but listen. It has certainly not listened to us, residents of Pembroke. To the thousands of registered objectors, a national record, who have repeatedly rejected its “column in the Mediterranean,” as one of db’s architects infamously called its tower.

Neither has it listened to objections about its massive hotel, a monument to architectural bullying, pushing its weight around in Pembroke’s most densely populated area, towering over the apartment blocks of residents.

Db has not listened to our local council and our mayor, Dean Hili, who have repeatedly stated that db’s hotel and tower are totally out of proportion in our town. Neither has it listened to the St Julian’s local council and the Swieqi local council, or the many NGOs that have the common good at heart. It has not listened to the Association of Local Councils either. That’s all the local councils in Malta coming together to denounce the unsustainability of db’s project.

Db has even refused to listen to the impartial and highly respected Auditor General, who has cast serious doubts on the circumstances (and, therefore, the legitimacy) of the sale of the public land on which db wants to build its private project.

It’s all about db. Nothing but db. So much for listening

In one of the latest episodes of the db PR show, the company CEO pens an ‘opinion piece’, part of his PR team’s ‘We Listened > We Acted’ series, to tell us how much the company has listened. And then proceeds to talk about db. It’s all about db. Nothing but db. So much for listening.

Db’s latest spate of ad bullying has bombarded us with more numbers and more irrelevant statements. It does not  say that not a single respected institution or organisation, not a single one, has come out in favour of its building spree.

For us, as residents, the horrible spectacle of Mercury House arrogantly rising into the sky has brought home even more the horrible spectacle of db’s tower and massive hotel sprawl in our town. So much for urban planning.

The ‘mitigation’ measures db is getting very excited about make elements of their original application even worse – the awful formalisation and prettifying of our public beach sounds very much like the prelude to a beach concession on a protected Nature 2000 site.

The car park for residents they now propose is not included in their land concession – that’s public land.

Db is talking about ‘A New Tunnel. A Solution for Everyone’. It wants us to build the db tunnel, essentially using public money for private interests. From the main road near St Catherine’s High School, it cuts through a beautiful green area, which was earmarked as a nature park, St Patrick’s Park, in the north harbour local plan of 2006. It then dives underground and heads straight to db’s ridiculously called ‘City Centre’.

It seems to be telling us that Transport Malta should substitute the TEN-T tunnel under St Andrew’s Road, which would serve thousands of commuters every day, with its own, publicly financed private tunnel serving db and all the other mega projects hogging up more of our public space, sky, and light.

Db, you have not been listening: we do not want your project.

This article was co-authored by Josef Buttigieg, Stephanie Buttigieg, Adrian Grima, Rafel Grima, Alison Pullicino, Eric Pullicino, Sonya Tanti, Norman Zammit and Rita Zammit.