Easter Week in Malta
Traffic, high property prices, immigration, tourism, pollution: Salzburg and Malta are facing the same problems.
As I had not been home for Easter for many years, I decided to spend Easter week there this year. I won’t bother you about the terrible trip we had trying to reach the island, suffice it to say that we arrived at the hotel tired, thirsty and hungry at a quarter to midnight due to a technical malfunction at Munich Airport.
Visiting my favourite places on the island, I could not help noticing the variety of wild flowers blooming in the dwindling countryside. I even saw a coral tree in full bloom which must have been brought over to the island by an English gentleman in colonial times. This was the same tree that had never bloomed once in all the eight years in which I attended a secondary school close by!
Wild thyme, aniseed and many other herbs mixed their intoxicating smells as we walked along the cliffs of the island. As my family had told me, it had really rained buckets this winter and I was seeing the result.
Among all the dandelions, poppies, thistles and succulent flowers, I unfortunately could not ignore the fact that the green, unbuilt areas are being encroached upon bya rampant building lobby. It might surprise you to learn that the little island of Malta is grappling with the same problems facing the city of Salzburg. The island is experiencing a dubious economic boom partly due to the shady passport scheme initiated by the present government. Malta is already the most densely populated country in the EU, so it seems illogical that we should offer our nationality for sale to anyone who can invest a lot of money and buy a property on the island. This has made property prices rise sharply much to the dismay of local young couples looking for their first home. More and more buildings are going up but not in the traditional Maltese style. High-rise buildings have started popping up all over the island ruining tranquil and beautiful views. A lot of Maltese are livid about this but others are content because they see all this as “progress”.
More cars are on the road than ever so that traffic jams are everywhere. You have to understand that almost everyone owns a car and there are over 400,000 people living on these small islands.
Strangely, you won’t see a lot of electric cars on the roads even though almost every house has solar panels on the roof and the sun shines on Malta for most of the year. The resultant pollution is ignored because it is always a bit windy in Malta so everything is blown out to sea. No one questions what this is doing to our fish stocks.
Mass tourism and the recent arrival of immigrants from North Africa have exacerbated these problems putting a strain on the infrastructure, housing, public services and the environment.
The government’s response to all this has been, frankly, questionable. Instead of controlling what is left of the environment and trying to limit the number of cars on the island, it has opted to give the building lobby a free hand and started widening many roads to accommodate more cars and to shorten journey times! Many Maltese people confuse the environment with landscaping. From my hotel balcony I could see 14 building cranes! Thankfully, looking straight out, I had an unimpeded view of the sea but I pitied the neighbours of those building sites.