This week I have had a busy week. This included visiting towns and villages, rural areas that, unfortunately, I had last seen and remember as characteristic, quaint and typical of any Mediterranean Island. This alerted me to the seriousness of your situation on these Islands. You are accepting too much, taking too much for granted when it comes to the utter destruction of your heritage, culture, character and landscape.

The time for couch criticism and placid attitudes is over as, indeed, the end is well in view now of any tourism activity here if this institutionalized destruction continues. You need to take a stand – as a group, opposition or as an environmental and heritage NGO – this must be consistent, continuous and loud and vociferous. Face the fact that the authorities and those unethical business persons are taking you all for a long ride to oblivion. For the past decade the Islands have been plagued with one scandal after another.

This affects YOUR quality of life and the experience of any visitor to these Islands. Visitors can see and touch the chaos in the bad planning of roadworks, erratic buildings and unsightly abstract blocks of flats that make your towns and villages look like third world slums, and then there is the increasing number of cars (latest count is over 600,000 vehicles I think!), the careless and irresponsible drivers and the violent nature of most people today here. It is time for change, time for action if you want to revive the Islands as that “Jewel of the Mediterranean”. Only you can do this, collectively and using common sense and thoughtfulness for the national interest.

First of all you need to open your eyes, understand that the destruction and chaos of the character, heritage and culture is not being done in the national interest, but in the personal interests of those who should be acting in the national interest. Face the facts that there is a situation of institutionalized vandalism – roads being “repaired”, ”rebuilt” and “repaired again and again” not out of necessity but out of sheer spite for the national interest; I have already commented in my previous articles about the half kilometer road in Iklin that has (and is still taking) taken five months to rebuild; I commented on a project to rebuild the public convenience in Birkirkara by the council where a skip was placed on a pavement beside an arterial road – endangering any pedestrian lives; we have all experienced the erratic building in our localities that has meant buildings that should have A grade listing are demolished and replaced by dreary blocks of matchboxes, and also the increase in crime across the Islands because of this “laissez faire” attitude (not to mention the legalization of cannabis for common and not medical use). Face these facts, and I invite you to take note of more examples that I may have missed out and comment on my article. When you face these facts, then we can start to take action, then we can start to see the collapse of the institutionalized chaos that is intentional and not accidental, then we can start to rebuild these Islands as a quality home for the local community (YOU) as well as the tourist, the visitor who wants to be here. Continue to accept this chaotic state and you will continue to see dregs of tourists who only mar the image of these, otherwise wonderful, Islands.

So here are my six suggestions for those who want a better life here for themselves and future generations and for the QUALITY visitor :

1. Start to meet with like-minded people – neighbours, friends and family, and make a list of those issues that are annoying and affecting your standard and quality of life. When you draw up this list form a local working group to lobby your MPs, your local councilors, and your other friends and neighbours to take decisive action at the local level.

2. Each local group should work through social media, regional meetings and activities to spread the concept of civic responsibility, awareness and action.

3. Draw up a statement outlining your objectives, scope and action plan to work as a community to change the state of governance, planning and management of the Islands.

4. Learn to accept nothing below the objectives, scope and “raison d’etre” of your community networks; challenge the authorities, challenge those businesses working against the national interest.

5. Each month make sure your network does one thing to improve its neighbourhood – planting trees, cleaning sprees, objecting to unplanned and careless works and buildings and other civic actions.

6. Finally, understand that the authorities and councilors are public officers answerable to YOU and not the other way round; this includes the police. They have a duty to listen to you and take action NOW or be removed from that position.

By following these six stages, we can ensure that these Islands are managed professionally, sustainably and with the idea of developing a quality activity that attracts the visitor who wants to be here. Travel and Tourism to these Islands today is about quantitative gains for the greedy and uncouth. We need to put professionalism and hospitality back in the equation.