A, the Bee and the Flower

to make way for taller buildings, the tallest they could build. I am sure they would have built skyscrapers had they been able to – permits were apparently never a problem to Attila until recently! Probably Attila never needed permits, as he always managed to get them later on anyway. Some hotels were even allowed to completely enshroud and hide from sight a historical watch tower! Attila even moved a prehistoric dolmen! How’s that for Attila the Hun?

The list is painful and endless. In the early 90s a baroque castle was ripped open and destroyed, vandalised wilfully by Attilas, experts at destroying Malta heritage. That was the real Attila already at work. Not one single NGO protested then, even if the individuals who today form these NGOs were around in Malta! But they kept mum then. An embarrassing silence that now should understandably haunt them. I remember very sadly the endless talks I once had, hours long into the night in the early 90s with the boss of an important very vociferous NGO imploring their support. I never got the support I needed from them, and I was left fighting alone. But I did, and as expected, I lost. But I do not regret having tried my best against a too powerful and too arrogant Attila. He did savage our national heritage, which now remains savaged for us and for the future. So don’t say that it is now that Attila is at our doors please! Don’t mention Attila and tall towers please. He has been here for decades befriending the very men who should have stopped him, but did not.

Attila and the Church

There was a time when the peasant was left all alone, even unprotected by the Church of Malta. He was robbed of his fields and he died, literally heartbroken. Monsters bulldozed their way through corn and clover, destroying and uprooting trees mercilessly. I remember talking to a number of peasants over the years, old people who knew only how to turn the soil into vegetables and fruit – but not into good, easy money. They had to give up hope simply because the Church land they had, was suddenly taken away from them by powerful Attilas. Not a single person of those getting so red under the collar today protested on their behalf! Not a single monsignor or a simple priest. Very sadly, not even the local Church because interests lay elsewhere. Land that parents had bequeathed to offspring for hundreds of years was suddenly built over, and the helpless peasant, expert at his work in the fields, had to witness the destruction of produce, the savaging of his fields, the uprooting of his trees. He now had to earn a living by mixing concrete for a construction contractor on land his own family had worked for the last two or three centuries! The Church, priests and parish priests just sent them away when they asked their help! Incredible!

I can mention some people who died heartbroken because of this cruel, inconsiderate act by the local Church. I have written their full story elsewhere. I assure Archbishop Scicluna that many peasants cried in silence because of this. Attila was too strong for these peasants and my help was useless to them. I, too, was too feeble, too young. I could only cry with these peasants. They also died unable to understand why Attila could be so holy, so saintly but yet so merciless. This is why I cannot take the Archbishop seriously. My heart still aches and I still cry when I remember these old people crying, which is why I cannot understand the very happy, so insensitive grin on my bishop’s face when he speaks of the environment. How I wish I had noted the slightest semblance of understanding and shared sorrow Popes John Paul and Francis have made me accustomed to.

For this very simple reason I am sure it would have been more appropriate and credible for Mgr Scicluna to apologise for the sorrow meted to these people by our Church. This, I believe should have been the natural step of a loving father rather than “empowering” (of course “instigating” would be too blatantly obvious) the clergy to take up arms and shoot ideas that are aimed to do, and will certainly do, less damage than the Church’s passiveness allowed to be done in recent decades.

The Flower and the Bee

Back to tall buildings. I fail to understand those who shoot tall buildings because of a skyline. Of course towers are unthinkable on a new xagħra, and they must not be built there. But what is wrong if they are constructed where towers already exist? Why do we shoot them down even if proposed in places like some parts of Sliema, Paceville, St Julian’s, and Tigné to mention some sites where the skyline is already a built one, and where it has been altered and re-altered over and over again? Of course we should not repeat the skylines we invented at Magħtab or Verdala near Mdina, or Wied id-Dis, or Għajn Żejtuna although Attila would have definitely built towers there had there been enough energy! It seems to me that some people cannot stomach the fact that good ideas can materialise only now that there is enough energy in the country. I suspect that this whole orchestrated battle cry about Attila, holy empowerment and skylines shooting down high-rise build- ings, smacks of hypocrisy and is meant to score against the freshness and the energy creating these possibilities in Malta.

Both Nationalist and Labour administrations, although in grossly different degrees, have not been careful enough to save our environment and skylines. But past mistakes wilfully wasting footprint must not be repeated. Upwards is the only way to go – if build we need. There is no other way.

Savaging creation in the past does not of course justify further savaging. Enough harm has been done. Mistakes of past administrations must not be repeated. The argument should not be politicised although the final political decision should have “love the environment” in the equation. A humane Pope Francis advocates this, encouraging solidarity and study to repair damaged creation, and collaborate to preserve creation – an invitation miles away from the spirit of that local call for empowerment! “Loving creation” is the only solution in all considerations.

It is difficult for some individuals, holy or not, to acknowledge that we see a genuine attempt to preserve the footprint of these islands, putting at the same time love of the environment in the equation. I am aware that many still cannot believe that finally we have bold energy personified in the driver’s seat, genuinely committed to preserve the natural environment. New ideas keep unfolding. This energy now listens to people. Talks to people. In the past people high up smiled broadly at you when you protested against environmental rape. They grinned cheekily without uttering a single word; arrogant destruction eventually prevailed. Let us please be honest and objective: for once there are clear indications that we are emulating the busy bee, taking only what is absolutely needed from our natural environment – but not killing the flower.