Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1546363
THERE is a wonderfully irrever- ent line from Woody Allen that author Parag Khanna uses in an essay on the entropy of the inter- national order: "Sooner or later, everything turns to shit." Behind the humour sits one of the most profound laws of phys- ics. The Second Law of Ther- modynamics tells us that entro- py increases, energy becomes progressively dispersed, ordered systems tend towards disorder, and maintaining organisation re- quires a continuous input of en- ergy. Khanna uses the concept to describe a world in which power and authority are becoming more fragmented. Yet the more I have thought about entropy, the more I have wondered whether it also provides an unusually powerful way of understanding Malta. This thinking was reinforced re- cently when I returned to Jeremy Rifkin's Entropy: A New World View. Rifkin remains one of my fa- vourite authors precisely because he has always been willing to take ideas from science and ask what they mean for economics and so- ciety. The First Law of Thermody- namics tells us that energy cannot be created or destroyed, merely transformed. The Second Law in- troduces the uncomfortable qual- ification: Although the quantity of energy remains, its capacity to perform useful work diminishes as it becomes more dispersed. A hot cup of coffee cools, buildings deteriorate, machines wear down and maintaining order requires continuous effort. Rifkin's insight was to ask what this means for economies that constantly trans- form concentrated energy and resources into economic activity while simultaneously producing waste, pollution and disorder. Countries are obviously not literal thermodynamic systems. Human beings can innovate, reor- ganise and build institutions that improve efficiency. But entropy provides a particularly useful lens for Malta because we lack some- thing larger countries possess in abundance—space to absorb dis- order. On little more than 300sq. km, almost every additional ac- tivity interacts with everything else. Another development affects roads, electricity, drainage and neighbouring communities. An- other car affects everybody else's journey. Another hotel requires workers, water, energy, waste ca- pacity and transport. Another resident needs housing and pub- lic services. The externalities of growth are compressed geograph- ically, meaning the consequences of inefficient organisation become visible remarkably quickly. Per- haps, in practical economic terms, entropy simply feels faster on a small island. When more starts producing less Cars provide perhaps the clear- est illustration. At the end of the first quarter of 2023 Malta had 426,720 licensed vehicles. By the end of the second quarter of 2026, that number had reached 463,734. That is roughly 37,000 additional vehicles in little more than three years, an increase approaching 9%. Passenger cars alone now number more than 339,000. Yet the road network did not become 9% larger during that period. Malta did not acquire additional territory. We simply added substantially more machinery attempting to move through essentially the same con- fined system. The individual decision to buy a car remains perfectly rational, particularly given the structure of Malta's transport system. Yet hundreds of thousands of indi- vidually rational decisions can produce a collectively irrational outcome. Every additional vehicle increases mobility for its owner while marginally reducing mobili- 14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 AUGUST 2026 NEWS JP Fabri Sooner Economist Pieta's village core under attack: Residents seek meeting with Abela A new proposal for 19 apart- ments and four penthouses in Triq Santa Monika, Pietà has renewed concerns over devel- opment pressure around the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fa- tima. Residents are now seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Robert Abela in the face of what they consider to be an onslaught on the town's his- toric core. The new application (PA/05119/26) proposes the demolition of existing dwell- ings, retaining part of their facades, and the construction of two levels of garages, two maisonettes and an apartment at ground-floor level, 15 apart- ments over three floors and four penthouses at receded level. An objection to the appli- cation argues that its scale is incompatible with the charac- ter of Triq Santa Monika and would detract from the nearby Grade 1 scheduled sanctuary. It also notes that the Pietà local council has requested an ex- tension of the UCA to cover all of Triq Santa Monika between Triq Hookham Frere and Triq id-Duluri. Approval of the new development would prejudice the council's request. The application is the latest in a series of development pro- posals that have put the street's historic character under pres- sure. The latest application follows another controversial approval in the same area in December 2025. The Planning Authori- ty had approved a five-storey block just 10 metres from the Grade 1 scheduled church, despite opposition from Pie- tà Mayor Stefano Savo, who argued the development was destroying the heart of the lo- cality. The 2025 project replaced three existing terraced houses in a streetscape largely charac- terised by early 20th-century two-storey townhouses. The Superintendence for Cultur- al Heritage had called for the façades to be retained and for the development to be limit- ed to three full floors and one receded floor, but the PA ap- proved two receded floors. The approval came despite the PA having already started assessing UCA boundaries in Pietà following the council's request to extend the protect- ed area. Most recently, the Planning Commission stalled a deci- sion on another application (PA/04992/25) for a seven-sto- rey guesthouse opposite the parish church. The application was suspended for six months and the PA requested revised plans. The guesthouse proposal involves the demolition of a two-storey townhouse, with the retention of its façade, to make way for a 20.58-me- tre-high building. A PA case officer had recommended re- fusal, finding the scale incom- patible with the established urban grain and warning of an impact on the heritage setting of the nearby Grade 1 sched- uled church and other histor- ic assets. The UCA extension request was specifically raised during the June hearing, with concerns that approving the guesthouse before the UCA assessment is concluded could prejudice the process. That assessment was an- nounced by PA CEO Johann Buttigieg in an interview with MaltaToday in 2025. He said he was satisfied with the Pie- tà council's request and had instructed the Planning Di- rectorate to analyse UCA boundaries not only in Pietà but throughout the localities covered by the North Harbour Local Plan. Buttigieg said the exercise could identify areas worthy of protection that had been left outside existing UCAs, as well as areas that may have been included unnecessarily. It could ultimately lead to local plan changes and extensions of UCA boundaries. Residents are now asking Abela for a meeting over what they describe as an ongoing threat to the historic core. In the latest letter, archi- tect Edward Said, on behalf of residents, urged the prime minister to give serious and fa- vourable consideration to the council's UCA request before further development perma- nently alters the setting around the church. The appeal follows earlier let- ters to Abela, including one in May. The UCA request dates back to January 2025, when the council formally sought an ex- tension covering the historic area bounded by Triq Santa Monika, Triq Hookham Frere, Guardamangia Hill and Triq id-Duluri. The existing UCA bounda- ries, established in 2006, ex- clude the Fatima Sanctuary and its pjazza, parts of Triq Santa Monika and several modernist villas associated with local benefactor Luqa Gauci. Reporting by James Debono Triq Santa Monika, Pietà