“Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works!” said the infamous Gordon Gekko to a hall packed with awe-struck shareholders. It was music to their ears; precisely what they wanted to hear. The film was Wall Street, the actor, Oscar winning Michael Douglas. The “Greed” speech, as it is still known, was delivered at the height (or more aptly depth) of Reagan’s neo-liberal wave. A B-grade actor had almost convinced America that the market was absolute, the stockholder king, the worker a commodity tradable at the whim of the next corporate raider. The film revealed the excesses of untamed power and limitless wealth and their ability to corrupt “the almost innocent”. In the end Gekko goes down; not because of his belief in capitalism but because of his obsession with it. Money, its possession and accumulation, had become an end in itself. The moral was spelt all over the silver screen. The film was perhaps the only way Hollywood liberals knew how to give the middle finger to conservative America.

Coincidentally, Wall Street was released in 1987. The same year the Nationalists were, very deservedly, returned to government after an absence of 16 years, the last six of which were spent undemocratically, though legally, in opposition. The political agenda they brought at the time was one of political freedom and economic liberalism. It was inevitable perhaps that in the process of transforming what was left of this country, after KMB was allowed to tinker around with it for three horrendous years, a rush of greed was unleashed. In all fairness, nobody, apart from the odd masochist, could deny the Maltese the chance of have their uninhibited shopping spree. Labour’s obsession with trade restrictions, import substitutions and unjustifiable protectionist policies had led to the single-toothpaste, single-chocolate, single-detergent consumer society. It was immensely senseless, frustrating and, by the mid eighties, completely ideologically driven. Miserly public investment resulted in public infrastructure of barely Third World standard when a typical telephone conversation involved one or two uninvited speakers and the locally produced “Deserta” tasted like anything except chocolate. Nobody gave a damn about the extent of our foreign reserves and the fact that our budgets were almost balanced. The reaction to those years was the unleashing of spending power. We were out, all of us, to spend it. Within five years Malta was a consumer society. Foreign franchises, both retail and catering, began lining our high streets. The pathetic shopping journeys to Sicily, to stock up on biancheria (linen), became futile, a trip for nostalgic insomniacs. We soon had it all; Mac-this and Mac-that, were all over the place.

Undoubtedly, the trademark of the greedy years was the boom in property development. It was what the Nationalists believed and knew would revive the economy back to life. They had pumped up the economy back in the sixties with real estate. It was to be the perfect case of history gladly repeating itself. This time round however the development (what a misused word!) was savage and generally tasteless. Whole areas of Malta were uglified, flats sprouted up everywhere, and the ruthless rape of our countryside took off. The boom, real or perceived, hasn’t stopped since, MEPA or no MEPA. Fortunes have been made and easily doubled. The boom has managed, at least on a mental level, to turn most of us into aspiring property moguls. I never cease to be amazed when conversation among friends turns to the discussion of the skyrocketing value of one’s home as though they are for sale! Malta has been on a seemingly unstoppable high! However, like everything else in life, there is always a price to pay.

In the process of this economic orgy, we have truly lost some of the values that had typified us for centuries. The sad part of our new reality is that everything in this country now needs to have that wicked metaphorical price tag attached to it. Everything seems to be for sale, or on sale. Indeed, when something does not have a price tag then everything is done to give it one. When this fails we discard it as worthless. Nothing is more characteristic of this than our regard as a people for what always was, what still is and what increasingly will become our scarcest resource; our land. Mammon has taken over in these islands, and he usually takes the shape of some green area waiting to be dug up, layered with concrete slabs and plastered over. Land speculation and property (mis)development have attained Midas status, so much so that a number of our businessmen and several of our hoteliers have abandoned their productive activities to “go into property”. Most businessmen I know, and they are quite a few, are one of three types; they either develop full time, or they develop property “on the side” or they are hoping to start developing. You really cannot blame them.

Continues on Page 49

Continued from page 21

A year and a half ago our own government decided to do some property speculation of its own, this time in an asbestos-laden block in Brussels. Recently we had the Prime Minister, almost in Gordon Gekko mode, speculating about turning one of Malta’s greenest sites, Xaghra l-Hamra, into a golf course. It is obvious that he, as well as his (and unfortunately our) Environment Minister, cannot put a price tag on such a green area; they misconstrue the term “priceless” I guess. Therefore they dream-up some monster development to ensure that the land is then worth something. Privatisation by development.

The latest in greed-onomics is the proposal to build some 120 properties at Ta’ Cenc, plus an extension to the existing hotel and a new hotel – for now, allow me to surmise. The mere thought of it is mind-boggling; at least this one. Is everything up for development, or is it just the green bits? Are we going to build every corner of this country? What for? Just so a few dozen can add a few more millions to their balance sheet? Where will we go for walks and picnics in 30 years’ time, to some shopping mall with an artificial blue ceiling beaming “neon sunlight”? I don’t blame the Ta’ Cenc developer; he is only exercising his trade, being true to his nature. What is the value of 900 tumoli of green area? The government should write him a cheque and give Ta’ Cenc back to its rightful owners – the Maltese. If he refuses, then List the area.

I was hoping that accidental heroes like Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, whose recent dissent with his party on the landfill monstrosity made his something of a legend, would stand up and be counted; then I remembered that he does not contest Gozo. I was hoping that Labour would, if in government, be more sensitive in this regard. However, the recent publication of their Environment Policy that proposes to shift the centre of control of property development from MEPA to Castille, as well as their leader’s commitment to golf (what is it about golf, anyway?) convince me that, at least in environmental matters, both parties are ta’ l-istess stoffa (of the same cloth). Mark these words: if Ta’ Cenc goes, then everything goes. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, will be spared.

We need not give up. They are 65, we are some 400,000. The only person that could put a stop to this is you. Voice your concern, make your political party (blue or red) aware that you value the little countryside that is left, write to this paper and others, and make your voice heard. Tell them that Greed is not good, it is not right, it never works.

Edward P. Fenech is spokesperson on Finance, the Economy and Tourism of Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party.

“Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works!” said the infamous Gordon Gekko to a hall packed with awe-struck shareholders. It was music to their ears; precisely what they wanted to hear. The film was Wall Street, the actor, Oscar winning Michael Douglas. The “Greed” speech, as it is still known, was delivered at the height (or more aptly depth) of Reagan’s neo-liberal wave. A B-grade actor had almost convinced America that the market was absolute, the stockholder king, the worker a commodity tradable at the whim of the next corporate raider. The film revealed the excesses of untamed power and limitless wealth and their ability to corrupt “the almost innocent”. In the end Gekko goes down; not because of his belief in capitalism but because of his obsession with it. Money, its possession and accumulation, had become an end in itself. The moral was spelt all over the silver screen. The film was perhaps the only way Hollywood liberals knew how to give the middle finger to conservative America.

Coincidentally, Wall Street was released in 1987. The same year the Nationalists were, very deservedly, returned to government after an absence of 16 years, the last six of which were spent undemocratically, though legally, in opposition. The political agenda they brought at the time was one of political freedom and economic liberalism. It was inevitable perhaps that in the process of transforming what was left of this country, after KMB was allowed to tinker around with it for three horrendous years, a rush of greed was unleashed. In all fairness, nobody, apart from the odd masochist, could deny the Maltese the chance of have their uninhibited shopping spree. Labour’s obsession with trade restrictions, import substitutions and unjustifiable protectionist policies had led to the single-toothpaste, single-chocolate, single-detergent consumer society. It was immensely senseless, frustrating and, by the mid eighties, completely ideologically driven. Miserly public investment resulted in public infrastructure of barely Third World standard when a typical telephone conversation involved one or two uninvited speakers and the locally produced “Deserta” tasted like anything except chocolate. Nobody gave a damn about the extent of our foreign reserves and the fact that our budgets were almost balanced. The reaction to those years was the unleashing of spending power. We were out, all of us, to spend it. Within five years Malta was a consumer society. Foreign franchises, both retail and catering, began lining our high streets. The pathetic shopping journeys to Sicily, to stock up on biancheria (linen), became futile, a trip for nostalgic insomniacs. We soon had it all; Mac-this and Mac-that, were all over the place.

Undoubtedly, the trademark of the greedy years was the boom in property development. It was what the Nationalists believed and knew would revive the economy back to life. They had pumped up the economy back in the sixties with real estate. It was to be the perfect case of history gladly repeating itself. This time round however the development (what a misused word!) was savage and generally tasteless. Whole areas of Malta were uglified, flats sprouted up everywhere, and the ruthless rape of our countryside took off. The boom, real or perceived, hasn’t stopped since, MEPA or no MEPA. Fortunes have been made and easily doubled. The boom has managed, at least on a mental level, to turn most of us into aspiring property moguls. I never cease to be amazed when conversation among friends turns to the discussion of the skyrocketing value of one’s home as though they are for sale! Malta has been on a seemingly unstoppable high! However, like everything else in life, there is always a price to pay.

In the process of this economic orgy, we have truly lost some of the values that had typified us for centuries. The sad part of our new reality is that everything in this country now needs to have that wicked metaphorical price tag attached to it. Everything seems to be for sale, or on sale. Indeed, when something does not have a price tag then everything is done to give it one. When this fails we discard it as worthless. Nothing is more characteristic of this than our regard as a people for what always was, what still is and what increasingly will become our scarcest resource; our land. Mammon has taken over in these islands, and he usually takes the shape of some green area waiting to be dug up, layered with concrete slabs and plastered over. Land speculation and property (mis)development have attained Midas status, so much so that a number of our businessmen and several of our hoteliers have abandoned their productive activities to “go into property”. Most businessmen I know, and they are quite a few, are one of three types; they either develop full time, or they develop property “on the side” or they are hoping to start developing. You really cannot blame them.

A year and a half ago our own government decided to do some property speculation of its own, this time in an asbestos-laden block in Brussels. Recently we had the Prime Minister, almost in Gordon Gekko mode, speculating about turning one of Malta’s greenest sites, Xaghra l-Hamra, into a golf course. It is obvious that he, as well as his (and unfortunately our) Environment Minister, cannot put a price tag on such a green area; they misconstrue the term “priceless” I guess. Therefore they dream-up some monster development to ensure that the land is then worth something. Privatisation by development.

The latest in greed-onomics is the proposal to build some 120 properties at Ta’ Cenc, plus an extension to the existing hotel and a new hotel – for now, allow me to surmise. The mere thought of it is mind-boggling; at least this one. Is everything up for development, or is it just the green bits? Are we going to build every corner of this country? What for? Just so a few dozen can add a few more millions to their balance sheet? Where will we go for walks and picnics in 30 years’ time, to some shopping mall with an artificial blue ceiling beaming “neon sunlight”? I don’t blame the Ta’ Cenc developer; he is only exercising his trade, being true to his nature. What is the value of 900 tumoli of green area? The government should write him a cheque and give Ta’ Cenc back to its rightful owners – the Maltese. If he refuses, then List the area.

I was hoping that accidental heroes like Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, whose recent dissent with his party on the landfill monstrosity made his something of a legend, would stand up and be counted; then I remembered that he does not contest Gozo. I was hoping that Labour would, if in government, be more sensitive in this regard. However, the recent publication of their Environment Policy that proposes to shift the centre of control of property development from MEPA to Castille, as well as their leader’s commitment to golf (what is it about golf, anyway?) convince me that, at least in environmental matters, both parties are ta’ l-istess stoffa (of the same cloth). Mark these words: if Ta’ Cenc goes, then everything goes. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, will be spared.

We need not give up. They are 65, we are some 400,000. The only person that could put a stop to this is you. Voice your concern, make your political party (blue or red) aware that you value the little countryside that is left, write to this paper and others, and make your voice heard. Tell them that Greed is not good, it is not right, it never works.

Edward P. Fenech is spokesperson on Finance, the Economy and Tourism of Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party.