Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1519725
those fatalities could have been avoided. For instance: even the fact that most local workers refused em- ployment in Tsavo, to begin with – and the few who accept- ed, always left - should have been enough to alert the Colonial au- thorities to the scale of the prob- lem they were facing. Similarly, it should have occurred to them that – by replacing experienced local workers, with inexperi- enced foreign labour – they were effectively just 'ringing the dinner bell, for any hungry lion within a radius of around 20 miles…' But, oh well. Hindsight is, alas, a commodity which is never ac- tually there, when you need it the most. So much so, that… … well, just take a closer look at the details of the latest build- ing-collapse here in Malta, and see for yourselves. Earlier, I hinted that the col- lapsed home had 'fortuitously' been empty.… but it turns out that: "The elderly owners of [the house] had moved out of their home in recent months for fear of becoming Malta's latest con- struction victims". One family member even said: "My father was scared, he said he did not want to end up like Mir- iam Pace" [who, let's face it, had died under almost IDENTICAL circumstances, to last Friday's collapse]. Now: I'll grant you that my Tsa- vo analogy may not always hold up, 100%… but I think we can all agree that there are certain 'com- monalities', between the two sce- narios. For instance: just like the 19th century British Colonial govern- ment, the Maltese construction industry is clearly finding it dif- ficult (assuming it is even trying) to hire local workers for their construction projects. And they, too, have filled the vacancies with foreign labour. Now: it would be facile, of course, to suggest that Maltese workers shun the construction sector, because they are some- how more 'aware' of the risks in- volved, than their foreign coun- terparts. Likewise, it would be ridiculous to argue that foreign workers are in any way 'incapa- ble' of perceiving the danger of an imminent building collapse, etc. No, there are obviously other reasons (involving 'aspirations', 'quality of life', etc.) to account for the situation. But it cannot es- cape notice that the vast majority of construction-related fatalities have indeed been foreigners… and the question, in their case, becomes: 'What choice do these people – who overwhelmingly come from (no offence, or any- thing) extremely poor parts of the world - really have: other than to face those risks, or remain penni- less forever?' Much as I hate to say it: the same old 'exploitation' issues that dogged the Tsavo workforce – where the authorities clearly val- ued company profits, above hu- man life – apply to 21st century Malta, too. Then, there's the issue of fore- sight. To put this as simply as I can: if even an 'elderly Maltese couple' could clearly 'read the warning signs' [Note: a little hard not to, really, when they consist in 'great big cracks and holes, opening up in your own home's ceiling'] … how on earth was the same danger not equally visible to (inter alia) the PA/BCA/OHSA officials who were supposed to be inspecting the site; the archi- tect who designed the project; the site-manager; the contractor… not to mention and all the other entities/authorities that were in- volved in its approval, and super- vision? Clearly, the answer cannot be – as it was, in the case of the Tsavo lions – because those people are not 'experienced', or 'knowledge- able' enough, to recognise those warning signs when they actually see them. Equally clearly, however: the an- swer can only be that they must have 'disregarded' (for want of a better word) all the times that the hapless Floriana family had tried to alert them to those very dangers. Or as one member put it: "Our architect spoke with the BCA and other authorities, but never got anywhere." Coming back to our Tsavo anal- ogy, then… how did the British colonial authorities eventually solve their 'man-eating lion prob- lem', anyway? Once again, the answer is simple. They finally lis- tened to the advice of local tribes- men (whose families had been hunting lions for generations)… and hired a team of experienced Masai trackers/warriors, to assist Patterson in the hunt. Now: there's a lesson in there somewhere, waiting to be learnt by Malta's local construction industry/regulators. All that re- mains, I suppose, is to count how many more people have to die, before that lesson finally sinks in. 11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 APRIL 2024 OPINION The skins and skulls of the man-eating lions of Tsavo were sold in 1924 to the Field Museum in Chicago, Ill., where the skins were mounted into taxidermy that can still be seen today The same old 'exploitation' issues that dogged the Tsavo workforce – where the authorities clearly valued company profits, above human life – apply to 21st century Malta, too.