In 1970, before many of you were born, the singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell visited Maui, in Hawaii, and felt compelled to write a new song: “They paved paradise / And put up a parking lot / With a pink hotel, a boutique / And a swinging hot spot. / Don’t it always seem to go / That you don’t know what you’ve got / Till it’s gone?”

She could, just as easily, be writing about Xlendi. Or, come to that, almost any part of Gozo. “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

Her second verse was about trees (remember trees, fields, and flowers?).

“They took all the trees / Put ‘em in a tree museum / And they charged the people / A dollar and a half just to see ‘em.”

Which hasn’t happened, yet, on Gozo, although if you want to see trees and wild flowers on Maui, these days, it costs $5 to get into the Botanical Gardens.

We are expecting an election here soon, or not so soon, depending on which day you read the paper. But it won’t make any difference and it doesn’t matter which party wins because the people who run the country after election day will not be either of the main political parties.

The place will continue to be run by the so-called developers. When, not if, they want to develop (a word that long ago lost its definition which included ‘improvement’), they will just go ahead and do it.

They don’t even bother to ask. They “take paradise and put up a parking lot, with a pink hotel…” If challenged, they will be prepared to put in an application and continue building. In the unlikely event that the application is turned down, they will appeal and keep on building. The application will be approved when the building is finished.

Who’s in charge here? We don’t even bother to ask the question.

Buildings are becoming so high you can barely see the sky, let alone enjoy the sunshine on your balcony- Revel Barker

The “strategy” for Malta tourism up to 2030 was announced recently. It includes: “continuing to push Gozo as a distinct tourist destination, focusing on its strengths as a gastronomical and rural tourist experience.”

The problem here is that Gozo is no longer “distinct” from anywhere. It is the new Benidorm (once a quiet fishing village with dirt roads on Spain’s Costa Blanca; now a resort known for cheap package holidays and crummy hotels).

Gozo no longer attracts the ‘quality’ tourism that Malta is chasing and that it seems to believe the country deserves.

It is becoming a party island.

People used to come here for peace and quiet. Others came on day trips from the main island to see what was, effectively, Malta’s garden. They would see trees (believe it or not, Gozo was once forested) and there would be goats on the streets and, once upon a time, old ladies sitting in doorways, making lace.

Now what they see is a building site: new hotels; historic houses being converted; tower cranes and cement mixers in every village; the dust and noise of stone cutting; the constant movement of overladen trucks full of rocks, soil and bricks.

Honestly… just look at the place. If, or when, it is ever ‘finished’, it will be a dump.

Houses and apartments have lost their cherished sea view by the building of more apartments between them and the sea. The buildings are becoming so high you can barely see the sky, let alone enjoy the sunshine on your balcony.

Historic buildings have been demolished in the cause of ‘development’. If this happens to be illegal, it is too late, the history has already gone.

The Knights – for some odd reason revered for generations in Malta – kept Gozo as their get-away hunting ground. They built only what was necessary to facilitate their sport. It was, if you like, their green legacy to the nation.

Even the governments of Dom Mintoff and George Borg Olivier (long before your time, I know) introduced and maintained strict planning and height restrictions on the island.

What has happened since? Successive governments have completely lost control and allowed the developers a free hand.

If that is what Malta and Gozo want, it is none of my business.

It is your country. I’m not even permitted to vote (as if that would change anything).

I can only repeat the words of Joni Mitchell: “You don’t know what you’ve got… Till it’s gone.”