Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1381190
OPINION 12 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 9 JUNE 2021 OH look: Jason Micallef is back. What a relief… I was starting to get a little worried, you know. Almost a whole hour had gone by, without the head of the Valletta Cultural Agency throwing some kind of online tan- trum or other… or lashing out at the latest 'traitor', or 'enemy of the State', for the grave crime of pointing out a few uncomfortable truths that his government was busy trying to hide… In fact, I was almost going to call him up, to see if he was feeling OK. But of course, it wasn't necessary. One French 'Arte' doc- umentary later, and up he sprang again… throwing all the toys out of the pram, and bawling 'IT'S NOT FAIR!' at the top of his voice… Only this time, the target of Jason Mi- callef's criticism was Dr Claire Bonello: that is to say, one of the very few whose environ- mental activism has been entirely consist- ent over the past 20 or so years… regardless which party happened to be in government at the time. I thought I'd get that out of the way first, because the first inevitable effects of Micallef's tirade was to elicit the usual, hackneyed Labour troll response: 'Where was Claire Bonello, when the Nationalists extended the development boundaries in 2006?'… or 'ruined Tigne Point'?… or 'signed away Manoel Island to develop- ment'?… or [fill in with any other PN-era environmental catastrophe you care to name. There are plenty to choose from…] Well… I know the answer to that one, as it happens,. Throughout that time, Dr Claire Bonello was always at the forefront of numerous protests against the Nation- alist government's environmental poli- cies (for which crime, naturally, she was likewise labelled a 'traitor' and 'enemy of the people'… only this time, by PN gov- ernment apologists instead). She was also busy filing objections to various MEPA permits; fighting illegal development in court; representing the residents of vari- ous localities, in their bid to halt the latest of countless monstrosities to be approved (often illegally) by the Planning Authority and/or ERA… And… my, what a surprise. There she still is, doing all those same things, right down to this very day. Even more so, in fact, be- cause - and this is precisely the part Jason Micallef doesn't seem to understand - the environmental damage being perpetrated today is of an order of magnitude worse than anything we have ever experienced previously. So I suppose the question those Labour trolls should really be asking is… where was Jason Micallef, throughout all that time? And where, if it comes to it, were they themselves? Because as I recall, the Labour Party had participated in those PN-era environmen- talist protests with much gusto, too… you know, back in the day when 'protesting in favour of the environment' somehow felt a good deal less 'traitorous', 'disgraceful' and 'appalling' than it does today. But in any case: by this time, enough has already been written about the absurdity (not to mention sheer hypocrisy) of Jason Micallef's 'traitor' insult. So instead, I'll fo- cus on another small aspect of his latest ti- rade: the one which concerns 'honesty' and 'truthfulness'. Micallef also accused Claire Bonello (and, presumably, all the other 'traitors' who ap- peared in that documentary) of "actively participating in DECEITFUL [my empha- sis] foreign productions trying their utmost to harm Malta and the Maltese…" and that the French producers harbour a "complete- ly imbalanced, anti-Malta agenda".... In a nutshell, then: Jason Micallef is im- plying that there was something 'untrue' or 'dishonest' about that particular docu- mentary. So of course, I watched it again… and… Erm… Dr Micallef, would you care to ac- tually specify which parts of that film you found 'deceitful' or 'dishonest'? Because I'll damned if I heard or saw anything that doesn't correspond, with 100% accuracy, to the current environmental state of Mal- ta, as we all experience it on a daily basis. Starting with the choice of footage – which is usually where the 'biased agenda' of any film-maker is most clearly visible. Strangely, for a film entitled 'Concrete Paradise', and purporting to expose the 'uglification' of Malta… the images in that documentary were actually quite flatter- ing, you know. Yes, yes, there were plenty of close-ups of construction sites, and bulldozers, and the ongoing destruction of unspoilt coun- tryside/farmland to build more (and more, and MORE) soulless apartment blocks… but there were also quite a few panoramic (mostly aerial) shots, that were clearly in- tended to illustrate the sheer natural beau- ty that is being lost to all this construction. For this, too, was part of the overall visual impact of that short film: somehow, it also managed to incorporate those rare glimps- es of an unspoilt natural beauty that does still exist, here and there; and which also makes the entire environmentalist cause - as represented by Claire Bonello, among others - worth fighting for in the first place. But still: the focus was undeniably more on 'ugliness' than 'beauty'… and while Ja- son Micallef himself might not (in all fair- ness) actually be able to see this, through the thickness of his political blinkers… that is also, in itself, an inevitable consequence of trying to film anything in Malta at all. Let's face it: the sad truth is that you can't point a camera in any direction, in this country, without also capturing some degree of construction and development going on somewhere. It is quite simply im- possible: there is just too much of it hap- pening, in too many places, to avoid film- ing even if you wanted to (still less, when capturing it is precisely what those film- makers were all along trying to do). Besides: the footage shown in that docu- mentary does indeed represent a fair – bal- anced, even – portrayal of what our coun- try has come to look like today. And this is an undeniable, self-evident truth that we can all easily confirm, with our own two eyes, just by looking out of our windows, or venturing outside our front doors… Yet Jason Micallef tells us it is somehow 'deceitful' or 'untrue'. What does he mean, exactly? That those are actually images of another country, masquerading as our own? Or that Malta 'doesn't really look like that' (when we all know full well that: yes, actually, it does)? Or wait… maybe he was only talking about the arguments put forward by the various Maltese participants: who, for the record, also included Moviment Graffitti activist Karen Tanti, Din L-Art Helwa ex- ecutive president Alex Torpiano, farmer Cane Vella, landscape architect Antoine Gatt, and – curiously, for such a 'biased' production – also Sandro Chetcuti, of the Malta Developers' Association. If so, then… again, perhaps Jason Mi- callef should specify exactly what any of those people said, in that documentary, that was so very 'deceitful' or 'dishonest'. Starting with Claire Bonello herself: whose contribution, by the way, was actually quite understated. In the less-than-one minute she appeared on screen, all she really said was: "The laws relating to ODZ… people actually make fun of them, because there are so many loopholes, and they are interpreted in such a lax manner, that 'ODZ' now stands for 'Outrageous Development in all Zones'… You can change a farm into a dwelling very easily. You can increase the size of a build- ing in ODZ: so if you have a tiny hut, you can try and build a villa, basically…" So… which part of that does Micallef feel is 'untrue'? That people 'make fun of ODZ laws'? As far as I can see, that's an unde- niable fact (and I know, because I'm one of them myself). The 'Outrageous Devel- opment in all Zones' slogan, for instance: it was used on a placard during one of the more recent protests; and I've heard it re- peated often enough with my own two ears (at least, on those rare occasions when hu- man speech is not drowned out altogether, by our never-ending national orchestra of bulldozers and excavators…) Or does Jason Micallef deny the existence of such 'loopholes', which developers (and architects) routinely exploit to circumvent environmental legislation? If that's the case… well, perhaps Jason Micallef should read the papers more often. Ever since the 2014 demerger between MEPA's 'Planning' and 'Environmental' arms – which, incidentally, was one of the first actions taken by Micallef's Labour Party, after winning the 2013 election - this newspaper alone has been awash with reports and editorials about rural policies which "[permit] the reconstruction of ex- isting countryside buildings, including ru- ins, into villas with pools if proof is submit- ted that these buildings had been used as dwellings in the past…" Were all these reports 'deceitful', too? And if so: how does Jason Micallef ac- count for the fact (this time, reported in the Malta Independent) that "In 2019 and 2020, over 600 planning applications that proposed partial or full developments in ODZ areas were approved by the Planning Authority, despite the case officer recom- mending for their refusal"? And how, above all, does he intend to 'disprove' all the evidence of our collective experience - as people living in Malta to- day – that… yes, actually: those loopholes do exist; ODZ does now mean 'Outrageous Development in all Zones'; construction and development has undeniably spiralled out of all control in recent years… … and all this happened on the present government's watch (and in blatant defi- ance of all its own pre-electoral environ- mental pledges)? Well, the answer to that last question is, at least, straight-forward enough. He can't. Because what was said, and shown, in that documentary is indeed the truth… and if telling you the truth makes you a 'traitor': well, maybe we need a few more traitors in this country, from time to time. Maybe we need a few 'traitors', from time to time… Raphael Vassallo