Beating about the bush (and trees!)

A few days ago, Ministers Ian Borg and Jose’ Herrera held a press conference to try and convince us that government is not really uprooting trees, that people are exaggerating and that the government is really sensitive to the environment.

Dear Ministers Borg and Herrera, you can say whatever you like, you can hold as many press conferences as you will but the Maltese people are not dumb asses: we have a mind to think with and eyes to see with too.

Whatever sugar coated words you address us with, we are much more trustful of our own eyes, which witness what is happening daily in our country.

The new petrol stations being built are not the fruit of our imagination; the taparsi ODZ agro-tourism hotels in the middle of what is left of our countryside are not the result of some irrational fantasy; the high-rise towers mushrooming in Gzira, Sliema, St. Julian’s, Pembroke, Paceville and Mriehel are not the invention of some sick mind.

And the uprooting or relocation of trees all over Malta is a concrete reality too, whatever you, Ministers Borg and Herrera, state.

The uprooting of trees is not something new that started with the present PL administration. We all remember how Castille Square was cleared of all trees by the PN administration to create an open space. And what is the end result today, thanks to the brilliant minds in the PL government today? An open space with a glorified “anemic white knotted turd” in front of Castille and a bronze structure that makes one puke on the other side. Two supposedly artistic masterpieces that have cost the country close to half a million euros.

Even the lonely old tree next to the Emigrants’ commission building has not been spared.

This mania to clear up our squares of trees in order to create open spaces seems to be spreading like wildfire. Pjazza Trituni is such an example. I must admit that the end result of such project is quite impressive, with an elegant and imposing square. However, those in power seem hell bent on ruining even those things done properly. So, lo behold, instead of the trees we end up with those container shaped boxes which cost another €400,000 to ensure that the entrance to Floriana and Valletta is duly uglified.

The fifty-sixty year old trees in Paola square have also fallen victim to this pseudo open space mania. These trees have been uprooted and transplanted elsewhere. Young saplings have replaced them. “Be patient, give them time to grow,” chant in chorus the architect, the Mayor and the Minister. My answer to them is, “Now go and tell the 60-year-old pensioners that they should have the patience to wait thirty years for these trees to grow and provide meaningful shade.”

I have used the word “pseudo” with reference to the open spaces. My hunch is that there is so much money involved in the contracts dished out for these projects -concrete laying in lieu of trees, paving with fancy tiles or stone, street furniture, lampposts, etc.- that these contracts become the real reason for all this tree cutting.

Do we want to bet that in a few months, where there were trees we will now find chairs and tables laid out by the local cafes, restaurants and kazini? Complemented by those enormous (ugly?) umbrellas that take up the place of the former trees?

Santa Lucija, Zejtun, Attard, Balzan, Victoria: the attack on trees is everywhere. The recently announced Attard-Rabat project has revealed the crass amateurism of our government and some planners. 200 trees were originally planned to be uprooted. People rightly protested and these became 60 and then 15 and now 3... and all in the space of five days!

Who advised the government originally on this folly? As Alfred E. Baldacchino rightly pointed out, whoever convinced the government that Aleppo Pine trees can be replanted elsewhere gave totally wrong advice.

And this mania about road building and widening - with trees being removed in the process- must also be rethought and reworked. Government policy seems to be concerned only with accommodating car use and the automobile industry. Instead, we have to put into practice planning policies that benefit the quality of life of the human beings living in Malta.

As Carmel Cacopardo has pointed out elsewhere, “Government’s policy of massive investment in the road network will, in the long term, be counterproductive as it will only serve to increase the number of vehicles on our roads and, consequently, cause more congestion.”

Let us reform our present mentality and make Malta and Gozo a liveable place for the citizens and residents living here.

And please, Ian Borg and Jose’ Herrera, let’s stop this abuse of the environment immediately.