Well...not really my first post, but about 2 years ago I had written a letter to the Times of Malta and just remembered about it. I won't be using my website to gloat over the charming sceneries of Malta, but also to raise some awareness about the useless, and excess construction going on.
Pretty as the Mediterranian sea may look from Dingli, and lovely as the hills may look from Bingemma, it's not all sunshine and laughter. From the Laferla Cross, the growing population of concrete buildings seem to be taking over the green land you had seen when you had visited some year prior.
Unfortunately in my country, the building industry is prioritised over nature, which as a result, isn't getting the respect and importance it deserves.
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A plea to save Malta
I am only a child and I cannot change the world by myself. I have so little power and authority but I have been told that I have a talent for writing, so I am using it for a good cause.
I am writing about all the beautiful qualities Malta has and how we are destroying our culture for greed. We do not seem to be proud of the lovely Maltese architecture. Do you see a skyscraper instead of the stone-built towers in Tuscany, Italy? Can you imagine a five-storey building set among the picturesque cottages in the Cotswolds, England?
We have lovely traditional houses, like, for example, our traditional farmhouse with colourful Maltese balconies, shutter windows and great doors with a unique brass knocker on each side. It seems we are not aware what a jewel of a country we have.
Do you realise that by building plain flats or modern villas, we are just getting a reputation of a colourless and ordinary country? We are losing our unique Maltese mark. Tourists will no longer come to see our charming villages, even though we have a lovely coastline. They will probably go to the French Riviera instead.
“Why should I fly all the way to that island to see nothing but construction? I could easily pop into the next town to see huge rectangles of building ruining the skyline.”
On another note, it feels so proper to see a row of houses in the same style! Thought for some, it is much nicer to own a house with a completely different design than the others, I suspect that building more and more floors is plain greed.
In most European countries, buying a home is not as expensive as it is in Malta. While I am well aware that in big cities, such as London, an apartment would cost quite a lot, I know that, out in the country, one can find cottages for sale from £70,000. That’s much cheaper when compared to Malta. I would really like the prices to go down.
The greedy people among us will eventually realise that a nice view of birds singing, animals in their happy habitat, lovely sea views and a walk in the non-destroyed fields are much more rewarding that stacks of money.
Money is not all, especially if all we can see is a wall outside of our windows. You can only earn true happiness by appreciating life and living it as Jesus would like us to.
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