Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1380662
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 JUNE 2021 INTERVIEW in Gozo today. Maybe it was always like this, but I was too young to notice it before. But I do feel – and this sentiment is shared by other members of the organization, and by a lot of people in my generation – that the situation, right now, is 'full on'. It's as though Malta – includ- ing Gozo – is doing well, in a lot of areas… but at the same time, our daily life is full of frus- tration. It's full of complaining. And no one wants to live like this. No wants to live, moving from one construction site to another… A lot of people certainly seem to have 'woken up' to the en- vironmental threat, of late; but there is a flipside. Many Gozitans still argue in favour of development, on the grounds that it represents 'progress'; or because it would be unfair to deny permits today, when so many were dished out in the past. Isn't there some truth to that? I don't deny that is a very com- plicated situation to navigate. My parents, for instance, live in Kappuċċini, at the far end of Victoria. Ours used to be one of the last houses, on the edge of open fields. Now: our house was built on what was once a field. Surely, then, our neigh- bours have the right to build their houses on fields as well… But… at one point, you have to say: 'Stop, enough'. And when we say that; when we complain about overdevelop- ment… people turn to us, and say: 'It's Ok for you to object, because you've already built your house'. And I completely understand that. Our parents' generation needed to build, for their families to grow. There was nothing, at the time; and they built their houses out of nothing. But now… it's just houses, houses, houses; apartments, apartments, apartments; and we keep asking ourselves, who is actually living in all these flats? Because there is no work on Gozo. So many of us have to leave, because we cannot find work. Yet at the same time, all these new apartment blocks are going up… it just doesn't make sense. And people are getting angry about this now. We are told, for instance, that there is invest- ment that needs to be done in Gozo; and yes, this is true. But 'investment' does not mean building only apartments. Don't get me wrong, I'm not busi- ness-minded… in fact, I don't understand business at all. But the way I see it: you first cre- ate jobs; people come for those jobs; and then, you build apart- ments to house those people. Not the other way round… To play the devil's advocate: a lot of these projects consist in tourist accommodation, or holiday homes for Maltese visitors. Like it or not, this is also a reflection of Gozo's current economic climate. As you yourself put it: 'there is no work'. So what alternatives are there, really, to construction and development? If you your- self had a free hand to design a strategic economic plan for Gozo; how would you go about it? I have a very simple answer to that. I am a tax-payer; I pay peo- ple money, to develop plans… so it's not my job to figure out any alternative economic vision for Gozo. In fact, it's one of the things I find really frustrating. We are here to ask questions; to discuss; to hold our leaders accountable. We pay our lead- ers a lot of money, to develop these plans… this is, in fact, why we have politicians, and a pub- lic administration, in the first place. As for myself: I'm a medical scientist, not a public adminis- trator. I have no expertise what- soever in how to manage a small island economy. But still: like everyone else, I can tell when things are not being done right. And things do not feel right, at the moment. It's not just me saying this: people are uncom- fortable. People are upset. And we need our leaders to take re- sponsibility for this situation. So while I appreciate your question, I don't feel it is my place to answer it. Providing al- ternatives is the government's job, not mine. And already, this organization takes up a lot of our time. We're all very pas- sionate about it, so that's per- fectly fine… but already, it feels like it could be a full-time job: just to ask questions, and to find avenues to discuss questions… let alone, to actually solve all the issues ourselves… Fair enough: but that only rais- es the question of how your own NGO – and I could extend the question to civil society in general – actually plans to make a difference. How do you envisage the role of an organ- isation such as 'Ghawdix', an- yway? As things stand, our NGO is only four days old. Of course, we've been planning for a while; but we are still in our infancy. But what triggered us to found an NGO of our own is that, we see how other organisations – such as Flimkien għal Ambjent Ahjar, Moviment Graffitti, etc – do a lot of good work… but there is such a lot of work to do. And we also realised that there isn't any one organisation, that is focused exclusively on Gozo. And the state of Gozo is not the same as that of Malta. It is something that requires specif- ic, dedicated attention. Still, we certainly do take in- spiration from all the NGOs that are doing such good work in Malta… objecting to MEPA permits; finding, sharing and disseminating information; educating the public; organis- ing clean-ups; holding events where people can connect with nature… Because this is the thing, re- ally: we keep talking about the need to 'safeguard the environ- ment'. But before you can 'save Gozo's natural environment'… you have to first connect with it. We have to connect with the landscape, in order to truly understand its value. And then – from that emotional connec- tion – we can find the strength to fight. Because there's a lot to be fought. Developers have money, they have influence, they have motivation. What's our moti- vation? We want to 'save Gozo', OK… but, are we connected to it? So that's a big part of it as well: bringing the public into con- nection, with that which we are trying to save. Going back to what I was saying earlier, about my parent's generation: those people built their houses on open land… because that is how things were done, at the time. So they can relate to the needs of other people, to also build houses of their own. They can relate to the need to, say, start a family, or set down roots. But… can they relate to the need for open spaces? Green spaces? An unspoilt, undevel- oped landscape? Probably, not as much. So what is really needed is a shift in mentality. This, I think, is the hardest challenge… but also the most important. Of course, it is still important to carry on with the daily struggle against indi- vidual developments: objecting to planning permits, and pro- testing against particular pro- jects… but that's like putting out a fire. It is something that has to be done, yes; but we also have to change people's mental- ity, so that they don't start fires as often… In a nutshell, we need to ad- dress this problem at its roots. And the root cause is that peo- ple are simply not connected to the natural landscape. They don't understand the value of empty, undeveloped land: oth- erwise, no one would ever let these things happen. To give one example from abroad: in Berlin, there was re- cently the question of what to do with the disused Tempelhof airport: a huge stretch of basi- cally open land. They issued a public call, ask- ing the people what they want- ed to do with this airport… and overwhelmingly, the reply was: "Leave it as it is. Don't do any- thing with it at all…" Would the Maltese public do the same? Would the people of Gozo also want to leave such a massive open space undevel- oped? [Pause] I doubt it. Most people, in Malta and Gozo alike, would probably think you're mad if you even suggested such a thing… So unfortunately, we don't have the same appreciation of open spaces, and of nature in general, in our DNA. And we need to change that…