Last Wednesday’s inauguration of the finally completed Dock No.1 project in Bormla no doubt signalled a new beginning not only for that wonderful, for-too-long neglected city, but also for the rest of the Cottonera region and its picturesque suburb of Kalkara.

I do not of course refer to the ceremonial attributes of that memorable evening, but to the fact that someone in power at last feels the people of Bormla, Birgu, Isla and Kalkara – as much as anyone else anywhere on these islands – deserve to have their own open spaces where they can rest, walk, jog and generally enjoy themselves with their families in a pleasant and healthy environment. That they can do so against a breathtaking background of history and culture is a reality few ever bothered to consider in the past, for various, inexcusable reasons.

Even before the time of the Knights, where the dock stands today, Bormla used to have a beautiful sandy creek famous for the seafood it produced and a natural haven for the galleys of the time. No wonder it was for long known as Xatt ix-Xwieni until the dock was built to serve British naval and imperial needs.

The Knights too had earlier set their eyes on the area and Grand Masters Perellos and De Rohan both had plans to build their first Malta dock there, but problems with water seepage from an array of natural springs convinced them to move elsewhere, exactly in nearby Isla. The Bormlizi no doubt sighed with relief, but their joy was short-lived when, not much later in our history, the British took over from the Knights and the French and moved quickly to dig their dock regardless of the natural and logistical problems that had happily provided a much welcome respite for the people of Bormla.

Needless to say, for the British the empire was more important than the simple wishes of the natives and on 1 May 1843, the foundation stone was laid with traditional naval pomp. It is still there, 14 metres deep. Once built, Dock No.1 gave the impetus to a fast and effective development of the Malta naval dockyard at the expense of most of the Cottonera coastline where walls, gates and tunnels were constructed to make sure that the empire had full control of its activities in and around what became the most important ship-repairing establishment outside the UK itself.

In truth, for the people of the area this development meant jobs, the level of which depended on whether Britain was at war or not, but it also meant an end to the natural environment they had enjoyed and which they then continued to be denied for so many decades. Bormla, Birgu and Isla gradually turned into dark and walled-up urban enclaves subjected to incessant noises and dangerous fumes from the steaming dockyard at their very heart. They had to endure it all until the early seventies when the Cottonera’s greatest son, Bormla’s own Dom Mintoff, finally started the slow process of ridding the town of its blackened high walls.

Political events and subsequent changes of government slowed down even further that process, but it is fair to say there have been efforts in the recent past to allow a much-deserved breather to the Cottonera. Birgu in particular started attracting hordes of Maltese who, incredibly, had hitherto never been to the area, as well as some new interest from tourists and tourism operators. For too many years, however, the people of Cottonera were left to cling discontentedly to hopes and empty promises as they watched other parts of Malta and Gozo getting more than their fair share of the economic cake as far as development and embellishment were concerned.

The No 1 Dock project had been mooted for far too many years, backed by impressive artistic designs on how it was to be; then everything went silent as soon as the general election was over. The last Gonzi administration finally gave its election-eve go-ahead to the project, but there was no heart in it. The election was again round the corner, and the whole thing gave way to a free-for-all as contractors took on other contractors, the workforce kept yo-yoing in size, and too many work assignments fell behind schedule as the people of Bormla found themselves in as bad a situation as they had been immediately after WWII, with chaos in the streets, people falling into dangerous, open pits, and old men and women having to clamber across unfinished pavements and other pedestrian zones. Shopkeepers in the area, in the meantime, could only despair.

The situation in March 2013, when Labour finally took over from the Nationalists, was – not surprisingly – in total disarray. Someone needed to take the bull by the horns and seriously commit to delivering the No.1 Dock area back to the people of Bormla. Minister Joe Mizzi actually did so last Wednesday. It was no easy task, especially since much of the little work already carried out under the previous administration had to be redone to correct quality and even basic measurement standards.

For many of us who originally hail from the Cottonera, the No.1 Dock project is hopefully the first of many good things to come, not in contestation with other no-less-deserving regions, but in harmony with what should be a holistic and realistic approach to sensible embellishment and development aimed at upgrading Malta’s touristic potential while still serving the needs and aspirations of the local populations.

There is still so much to do, particularly with regard to the intended use of restored or to-be-restored buildings, but the Cottonera breathes again, at last.

 

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Bring it up… if possible

The galley found so close to Gozo and believed to have belonged to the Phoenician period, should be salvaged, along with the collection of jars found in the wreck, restored and scientifically protected and put on display in an appropriate place. The Maritime Museum in Birgu would be ideal. I may be talking out of my hat as it has to be technically possible to do so, but we all know what incredible work was done with Viking ships in Norway and Demark, the Tudor warship, the Mary Rose, in Portsmouth, the 17th century Vasa in Stockholm, and other grand or unique vessels salvaged from the depths.

The excavation and salvage of the Mary Rose are in fact recognised as a milestone in the field of maritime archaeology, comparable in complexity and cost only to the raising of the Swedish Vasa in 1961.

To have Professor Timmy Gambin from the University of Malta saying the Gozo find is probably the oldest galley ever found in the Central Mediterranean is justification enough for a fully-fledged salvaging operation once it is all scientifically and expertly declared possible. Justice and Culture Minister Owen Bonnici rightly said that while the government would like the site to be accessible to the public, scientific research and preservation experts would have to be consulted first. Bringing it up would certainly make it a lot more accessible.

 

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Overreaction

I found the drastic action taken against a part-time fisherman who luckily landed a couple of tuna, as rather an official overreaction. Yes, we should all be for preservation of fish stocks and the protection of threatened species, but there has to be a more realistic attitude to such matters. Has anyone ever heard even a whimper on the mid-sea sale of Maltese-caught tuna to Sicilian and Japanese-connected entrepreneurs? Of course not, there are cool millions being exchanged there.

So while the world watches the Japanese plundering the oceans for their expensive whale meat, we descend with a momentous thud on the head of a hapless part-time fisherman who even had his small speedboat confiscated!