Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1499757
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 MAY 2023 9 INTERVIEW mean 'economic strength' Not to mention the most im- portant one of all: that they put a stop to the practice of tourist boats, catamarans, and pleasure cruisers simply swamping the island, with literally hundreds of tourists at once... What we were (and still are) demanding was, in fact, a change to our entire tourism strategy regarding Comino, in gener- al: a movement away from the 'mass tourism' approach - which would also include that larger vessels are not allowed to even enter the Blue Lagoon, at all - and towards a more sustainable approach, that respects Comi- no's status as a nature reserve. That was the most important of our demands; and it still hasn't been met. But there's another thing I would say, in answer to that question. From my own expe- rience - working at community level with the residents of var- ious localities, etc. – the sort of complaints we hear from people in the street, on a daily basis, are not: "We're happy with all the good work the government is doing on the environmental front, so we don't see any reason to protest." On the contrary: what a lot of people tell us, these days, is "We're very unhappy about the situation: but we also feel that it's a 'lost cause'..." This is, in fact, the biggest problem we face, when it comes to trying to mobilise people in this country. It's not that they don't share our concerns... it's that many of them are so disil- lusioned, that they have simply 'given up' altogether. There is a perception out there, that it is now 'too late' to do anything about the situation. That 'too much damage has been done'; and that the system itself is too ingrained, to even be able to re- form at all... But the examples you just mentioned – Clayton Bartolo, on Comino; and Robert Abela, on 'reforming the planning sys- tem' – are in themselves proof that this perception is... wrong, basically. Even the simple fact that government is now making efforts to address at least part of the problem, clearly shows us that the opposite is true: i.e., that public pressure actually WORKS. And they're not even the best examples, either. Let's face it: a number of the 'battles' that we, as Moviment Graffitti – togeth- er with other organisations, and civil society in general – have fought, in recent years... have al- so been 'won'. OK: maybe they weren't won, in any 'final' sense of the word. No victory can be 100% 'abso- lute', after all. But there have nonetheless been significant vic- tories, recently. Take the Wied il-Ghajn yacht marina project, for example. It was public pres- sure that put a stop to that mon- strosity, at the end of the day; and not because of any 'decision by the law-courts', this time. No: the projected was halted, because – faced with such organ- ised, concerted public pressure – it became politically unfeasible for the government to actually go ahead with it. And the same could be said for a number of other projects, too. Like the ex- tension of the American Univer- sity of Malta campus, between Bormla and L-Isla. Once again, it didn't happen... the government abandoned that project, after en- countering enormous resistance from the residents. Not to mention all those oc- casions when the law-courts overturned Planning Author- ity permits, in cases instituted by residents, Local Councils, NGOs, etc. Like the case in Mistra, or example: where [on May 10] the Court of Appeal re- voked a PA permit for a massive residential development, after objections were raised by local residents. Or the DB project, for that matter... where, OK, the battle itself might still be ongo- ing: but in June 2019, the courts revoked the PA permit; and the project itself was halted in its tracks... The bottom line is that: when people unite, and take action – whether through the law-courts, or just by exerting political pressure – they are very often successful. We might not have won every single battle we ever fought; but the victories we have achieved, are certainly there. And it's the same with Comino... Let's turn to the substance of Next Saturday's demonstra- tion. Earlier, you said that – unlike previous occasions – this one is "a national protest against the root of the entire problem itself". Can you elab- orate? What are the main 'le- gal/policy structures' that you are actually trying to change, here? Let me put it this way: all these battles we've being talking about – though they may differ, in the details - all 'came from some- where'. And I'm not just talking about mega-projects, here. There are also all the smaller-scale pro- jects: all the apartment blocks that are sprouting up every- where; all the construction that is going on, all the time... all of it 'comes from somewhere', at the end of the day. And that 'somewhere' can be narrowed down to three specific structures, within our country's planning regime. Starting with the planning policies them- selves: with their loophole-rid- den regulations concerning height-limitations for hotels; building in ODZ... and many, many more. Then, there's the travesty that passes for 'regulatory au- thorities' in this county: the Planning Authority, the ERA, the Superintendence of Cul- tural Heritage, etc. It is, quite frankly, a farce. For some time now, the law-courts have been repeatedly finding that - in one permit approval, after another – these authorities have simply been 'breaking the law'. And if it wasn't for the fact that resi- dents had the stamina to keep challenging those permits, in court... Malta would have been littered with countless such 'projects' – all approved by the PA; and all completely illegal... Those are the first two as- pects that we would like to see changed. And they are obviously interlinked: because let's face it... it's useless having 'good planning policies' – and the ones we have right now are very far from be- ing 'good' – if the regulatory au- thorities are going to just ignore them (or, even worse, actually break them) every single time... The third aspect, however, is a little broader than that. What we are asking for, is basically a change to Malta's entire eco- nomic model. At the moment, our country's economic model is focused only on 'economic growth'. But 'economic growth', on its own, does not mean 'eco- nomic strength': on the con- trary, you could end up with a 'fast-growing economy', that is actually very fragile. Because if your economic model depends on constant growth – in all cir- cumstances, at all times – the moment the economy stops growing... it will collapse. We, on the other hand, want an economic model that does not depend only on 'econom- ic growth, at all costs'. So that – even if the Maltese economy might not grow at the same rate... it will nonetheless be stronger: in the sense of being more capable of meeting the people's needs, without the need for this exag- gerated, unrealistic 'never-end- ing growth' approach. Because at the end of the day, economic growth – without any limits – has a devastating impact on the environment. For exam- ple: in order to keep its econo- my growing, Malta had to bring in tens of thousands of workers from overseas, in the space of just a few years. And through no fault of their own (because it's the economic model that's to blame)... these people all need a place to live. They all need a means of transport. In a nutshell, they all need a certain amount of infrastructure, to sustain them. And this translates directly in- to more construction, more traf- fic... and ultimately, more envi- ronmental damage. So to return to that earlier question, about 'why are we even protesting, at all?'... I would say the answer is in our slogan for next Saturday's demonstration: 'Xebbajtuna!' We are, in a word, 'fed up' with this situation... and we want to see a change.