It seems that our society is becoming more and more prone to two particular syndromes – the nimby and banana syndromes. The former has been with us for quite some time now, but it seems to me that the latter, which is more severe, has surfaced quite recently. However, it is highly contagious and is spreading like wildfire

Every one of us has a mobile phone; we don’t even dare to think that we try to spend just a few hours without it. Some of us, perhaps to underline their strategic importance within the society, carry two or even three. I know a friend of mine who boasts about having four mobile phones.

But it seems that no one wants a mobile antenna within his vicinity. Although they are not that popular anymore, I witnessed whole communities protesting and gathering petitions against their parish priest because he decided to generate some revenue by installing a telephone antenna on the church’s roof. They were suffering from the nimby – not in my back yard – syndrome.

I can mention several other examples. Almost every one of us eats pastizzi on Sunday mornings but no one dares to have a 15-square metre pastizzeria in front of his residence. No one doubts the importance of schools and nurseries, but no one wants to live near any one of these. These developments are essential, if not indispensable, they can be built everywhere but not in my back yard!

But the new disease which hit town is almost shocking. It seems that the whole society has been captured by this new virus and caught the banana – build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone – syndrome. Red light flashes in the mind of every citizen when he/she sniffs the possibility of any type of development in his/her remote neighbourhood, even if it is a small washroom on top of a two-storey terraced house. Everyone wants to oppose any type of development. Development has become the most evil of all acts! The banana syndrome is gaining ground.

Rather than viewed as professionals, architects are more perceived as accomplices in malevolent acts. This is not by chance or sheer coincidence. There has been a drive by some interested parties fuelling such perceptions. Some are even hiding very well behind the screens of NGOs and other organisations. Most of these people know how to use the media very well and it is almost a shame that the media, or components of it, are continuously falling to this obvious trap.

Is it a coincidence that a day or two before the hearing of a particular case by the concerned Mepa Board or Commission, you find the same case splashed on the newspaper, being it digital or conventional? And is it a coincidence that in all such cases the arguments brought forward are always against? Is it a coincidence that, more often than not, you find the same people behind such stories? Has somebody questioned the added pressure such articles cause on the people who are going to decide on the particular case? Or adding pressure is the main purpose of such reports?

An article in the local press I read recently claimed that property slowdown is driving architects out of business. However, I feel that this same article stopped short from analysing in depth the local situation as I strongly feel that the above referred perceptions and phobias which the few have managed to infiltrate in our society are major contributors to the slowdown of the local architectural profession.

Philip Mifsud is parliamentary assistant in the Resources and Rural Affairs Ministry