Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1495215
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 MARCH 2023 OPINION 10 OPINION 'Parks and cars' are like 'oil and water'. They just don't mix TAKE a good look at this picture, and tell me: what do you see? Hang on, wait. I keep forgetting that you can't actually do that, can you? No, you'd have to wait until this article is already online, before posting all your comments beneath it... by which time... um... Tell you what: much simpler the oth- er way round. What do I see, when I look at that picture? (And just to fur- ther complicate matters, for no particu- lar reason: I'll start with what I would I have THOUGHT I was looking at... if I didn't already know the answer, only too painfully well.) At a glance, my initial gut-reaction would probably have been to assume that this could only be one of two things, really: the first (and most likely) being... ... SATIRE, of course! I mean: it's got to be a joke, right? Because let's face it: no one in his right mind could SERI- OUSLY think it's a good idea, to com- bine a 'petrol station' with... a 'public garden', of all things! You know: a place that is supposed to be synonymous with 'clean, fresh air', and 'healthy outdoor activity'; where children can play in safety, in surroundings that are as 'close to nature' as can possibly be contrived, within an urban environment... In a nutshell: a place that is supposed to be 'secluded' from all the stress, noise, hassle, noxious fumes and (above all) DANGER, of, erm... 'cars', 'traffic', and 'vehicular exhaust'. What better place to actually put one, then, than slap-bang on top of a 'petrol station', no less? Which combines all three of those things, together... and which also – in this instance, at least – includes "an additional tyre shop under the proposed garden, a reservoir, and an additional seven parking spaces in ex- isting landscaped areas"?) I mean, come on. It would be an utterly daft proposal, even if we weren't already living in a country where 'air pollution' - caused chiefly by motorised traffic, by the way - remains the number one cause of 'respiratory diseases among children' (not to mention, the most serious pub- lic health risk facing ALL categories of the general public, indiscriminately). All things considered, then: I would almost certainly have mistaken this for one of Matt Bonanno's satirical of- ferings, on 'Bis-Serjeta.com'. In which case, I'd also have to congratulate him for so perfectly capturing the sheer 'surrealism' of Malta's situation, today: a country which willingly permits ALL its green, urban spaces (right down to the last remaining public garden) to be literally 'gobbled up' by commercial de- velopments, everywhere you look: just like that petrol station you see in the picture... And that is (or would have been) in- genious, not only because it can be taken as a direct reference to an actual case – happening right now, in Gzira - where a public garden really IS being partly gobbled up by a (very real) pet- rol station, even as we speak; but also because – like the very best of satire – it uses that real-life image, to project a much deeper underlying concern. Allow me to expand the metaphor fur- ther. If we interpret the public garden as a 'metonymic' representation (if my memory of A-level literary criticism serves me well) of ALL such 'open ur- ban spaces', currently under threat by encroaching development... ... it also becomes, by extension, a metaphor for 'the concerns of the wider Maltese general public, itself' (at least, insofar as its 'quality of life' expecta- tions are concerned: health, leisure, safety, welfare, environment, etc). By the same token: the 'petrol station' could easily double up as a cynical al- lusion to ALL such commercial inter- ests, that are currently bull-dozing and jack-hammering their way directly into (what little remains) of that very same 'public space', and all it represents. So if you put it all together, it becomes an instant snapshot of the so-called 'bal- ance between economy, and environ- ment', that every government of Malta has always (supposedly) tried to strike. Including the roads, car-park and all other associated infrastructure... that 'petrol station' actually takes up a good deal more than 85% of all the space available, in the entire picture! [Note: except the sky above the horizon, nat- urally: but don't worry, those 'vertical spaces' will no doubt all be gobbled up soon, too...] Not only that: but by placing the pub- lic garden so far in the background, huddled against what appears to be a 'wall' - in stark contrast to the domi- nant (and ominous) central position of the petrol station itself (that almost seems to point, arrow-like, menacingly in its direction)... the dynamics of the entire picture suggest that it is actually the 'general public', that's being pushed forever further towards the bottom of the national priority-list... ... while those who greedily profiteer from our losses, are constantly being awarded more - and more, and MORE – of what was once OUR land; OUR space: leaving the Maltese public with forever less (and less, and LESS) that it can realistically call 'its own'. And what is that, if not a spectacularly accurate 'satirical comment', about the precise level of importance given by the present government (and a 'Socialist' one, too!) to 'commercial', and 'nation- al' interests, respectively? On the basis of this picture, alone: it works out at '85%+' to commercial in- terests; and 'less than 15%' to the con- cerns of the wider Maltese people, at large (including, naturally, the Labour government's own supporters)... Honestly though: it's almost as though we didn't even that Steward-Vitals rul- ing, to conclude that the government was 'placing private commercial lob- by-groups, above the national interest'. (Nor that MaltaToday poll, either, to confirm that a growing number of peo- ple have finally had enough, of being 'robbed blind' from right under their own noses.) No, indeed: all it would have taken was just one, single 'satirical image', of a public garden in the process of being 'devoured' by an instantly-recognisable metaphor for 'commercial greed'... Alas, however! By now you will prob- ably have worked out that the picture was NOT actually intended to be satiri- cal... which also means that – apart from Matt Bonanno having to be deprived of those earlier 'congratulations', after all – we have no option but to progress to 'Option 2': ADVERTISING! This image must have been taken from some kind of billboard campaign: presumably for the latest brand of 'eco-friendly' automotive fuel, to hit the market. You know, the sort of thing a Public Relations exec would come up with, at