Plague doctors, trees and automobiles

One could be fooled however, into thinking the land itself is groaning and sweating in some epi- demic.

Our government seems to be made up of plague doctors who have no idea how to cure the problems our country is facing. In fact, we are suffering from a misdiagnosis. For example, we are trying to solve the traffic problem by destroying hundreds of trees to widen roads. Such infrastructure projects are motivated by a complete lack of imagination, as they are shortterm solutions which promote car use. Soon, we will have even more cars and will need to widen the roads again.

Projects which do not take into consideration a sociological dimension or an anthropological one will ultimately alienate people. James Debono raised this crucial point this week. If people are not at the heart of a major project, and if numbers and statistics are the only compass point we are using for human health, happiness and wellbeing, then any solutions we come up with are going to run contrary to genuine public interest. At least in little Malta, they will be snake oil solutions. Consider again the plight of our trees.

We can keep giving the public its junk food, but what Malta needs is real medicine. Sometimes medicine does not taste great. We need to stop relying on medieval plague doctors and leeches for policy solutions to our problems. We need to put residents and people back at the heart of our vision for the future and come up with modern, green solutions. It is clear that an unregulated economy is not going to ensure the survival and success of our people in the long term. Endless growth requires endless resources. Malta is running out of both space and resources. We need to plan strategically and push for better public transport, bicycles, fast ferries and smart infrastructure.

Strip away the exorbitant marketing budgets and media platforms many politicians have to work with, and one realises that the solutions currently on offer are medieval and lazy. We need a breath of fresh air, not a rampaging sickly economy, and people need to be brave enough to make themselves heard. I ask you to help us wake the public up and feed it good medicine. There are real alternatives to our current economic model out there, just as there are ways to provide alternative modes of transport.