Marie Benoît argues that we have to assume that it is a finite world and that we have to look after what remains of it – but can we rely on the watchers to enforce the law and not be corrupted?

I was unable to go to the demonstration a couple of Saturdays ago in Valletta but I had to resign myself to this and was very much there in spirit, though it is not good enough. Well done Astrid and so many others. Take courage and keep going. This is my small contribution for not joining you.

The AD Gozo Regional Committee sent out a petition in which it was stated that “with 22% of Malta and Gozo’s surface area built up, as opposed to an average of 7% in Europe, every bit of our island’s fast disappearing countryside is precious. This is even more true of Ta’ Cenc…” I will not repeat what you already know. This is a precious piece of land and we simply cannot allow them to construct 106 villas and bungalows and a golf course on it. If the polite demonstrations, useful as they are, do not work, then we must chain ourselves to the railings of Castille if need be, to make certain this project does not get MEPA’s blessing.

Perhaps it is thanks to Ta’ Cenc that the population has at last become an active public. Citizens kept their ear tuned to the debate, voiced their concerns and joined in the action.

Perhaps it is not unfair to say that the average Maltese is ill-informed and unequipped, too busy or bored to bother with issues, and therefore easily manipulated. And people, generally may not exactly grasp the details of certain issues although they want to. It is not because they are dumb but because they are disconnected. Many don’t bother to read the papers. The public at times may be alert and engaged, but just as often it struggles against other pressures that can win out in the end. Problems overwhelm it, fatigue sets in, attention falters, cynicism swells and so it goes on.

Often there is a disinclination for people to think of themselves as citizens, with a stake in the community’s affairs. Perhaps this Ta’ Cenc business has pulled people out of their private worlds and to some extent restored civic engagement.

We need to go on encouraging average citizens as well as influential people to meet and engage with some of the choices the island faces.

In this instance a group of strangers came together and gained a common identity as citizens for a common cause close to their hearts. Perhaps at last we are going to leave complacency behind.

Who is going to win the Ta’ Cenc battle we want to know. Will this precious land be taken over and bungalows and a golf course built, or is the Maltese citizen who wants to save the garigue, the birds and so on, win?

We know from past experience that the bold have built on government land before. I do not think, in this instance this will happen. But we can only fight on so that we will win the Ta’ Cenc battle.

Land in Malta, more than anywhere else is finite. The tragedy is that anything which is ‘common’ is abused. There are individuals who intend only their own gain. Unfortunately on the material side, it is not those who have a conscience but those who are bold, ignore the rules or law, corrupt whoever needs to be corrupted, those without a conscience who win. ‘Winning’ may mean falsifying the records – or an application to MEPA. In the latter case presenting an ‘acceptable’ plan but building something quite different to the plan that has been submitted and approved can happen. The most recent case is that of St Anne’s Square in Sliema. Or so it is alleged.

Common land, therefore, presents an enormous problem on an island which is already overbuilt and where land is so precious.

Then there are the seas around us common to us all. The oceans of the world continue to suffer as maritime nations still respond automatically to the “freedom of the seas.” The belief in the inexhaustible resources of the oceans is a fallacy of course, but they bring species after species of fish and whales closer to extinction by over fishing. Again it is the bold nations with the powerful fishing boats which are doing this, not the little fishermen.

A friend sent me an article by Jamie Wilson writing from a dusty fishing village in Senegal. The article is dated 2000 and entitled Fishing for a future. Since the fish that were once plentiful nearer to the shores of Senegal have disappeared, fishermen now have to travel further afield to find the shoals. But this is where the industrial trawlers from the developed world now fish. Mr Wilson recounts the story of a pirogue, far out at sea, with the fishermen sleeping in it, which was cut in two by the steel hull of one such trawler. As a result one young man lost his life and another had to have a leg amputated.

These industrial trawlers have to find new places where to fish with the rapid depletion of fish stocks in Europe and Asia. The sea is common to all and therefore exploited. So, trawlers from European countries, Japan and Taiwan as well as the former Soviet republics have targeted the fertile waters off West Africa to keep pace with their countries insatiable appetite for fish. Seventy-eight EU boats are licensed to fish in Senegal in a deal that nets the government in Dakar £7.5m a year, a vital source of currency it simply cannot do without.

Senegalese fishermen rarely know where the boats responsible for the accidents come from.

There are other boats apart from the EU boats. Often they are fishing illegally inside an area reserved for the artisan fishermen, but “the boats cover their identity numbers with mud. They turn off their lights so they cannot be seen from the shore at night, with the inevitable result they cannot be seen by the pirogues either. After an accident the trawlers never stop.” According to the author, even if they do identify the boats fishing illegally, they are rarely penalized. The industrial boats are very powerful with a lot of money and they can buy their way out of trouble, one local fisherman said: “They corrupt the persons who are meant to stop them.” Laws are made but enforcing them, as we know only too well, is far from easy. The corrupt are happy to take bribes and turn a blind eye. (And then we wonder why so many Africans risk their lives to come to Europe.)

However, even in these waters, the number of fish is decreasing at an alarming rate because of the industrial trawlers. And this doesn’t just apply to the higher quality fish that used to proliferate along the West African coast but even the number of sardines, the cornerstone of the artisan fishing industry in Senegal, has been decreasing at an alarming rate. It is the Dutch with their new breed of ‘super trawler’ – roughly the size of a cross channel ferry – that are benefiting from the sardines following an EU agreement with the government of nearby Mauritania which allows 22 trawlers of unlimited capacity to fish the Mauritiana coastal waters.

According to the author of the article, Jamie Wilson: ‘Despite the EU’s stated policy of sustainable fishing, the fishermen of Senegal say the insatiable appetite of the trawlers are decimating the sardine population.’

The pollution problem also affects that which is ‘common’ to us all. Maltese women are known to be very houseproud but generally, we think nothing of polluting beyond our homes. The pollution problem is a consequence of a bigger population and more consumption. It did not matter so much how our forefathers disposed of waste for there were much fewer people and poverty was rife. Using everywhere as a cesspool, except our home, is going to become unbearable unless we restrain ourselves. Maybe with the recent legislation we are going to be more careful as we know too well that if caught we shall have to pay fines.

An initiative has been taken regarding carbondioxide emissions from vehicles but it is going to be a long time before there is total control and our air free of toxins.

Then there are the birds – and in other countries – animals. Shooting animals and birds when there were many of them and hunters were a few, did not matter so much. Now, with so many species extinct or near extinction and more and more hunters we are realizing the consequences of these actions and at last becoming appalled at such behaviour. But can we get the birds to fly across our island and feel safe again? Hardly likely. And the hunters are finding it hard to jettison years of habit. And which party is going to dare pass – and enforce – more stringent legislation? The hunter’s vote is still coveted and so neither party dares.

Whether it is land use, pollution or hunting appeals to individuals to restrain themselves for the general good, by means of their conscience is as good as useless.

It is ironic that Malta has taken commendable initiatives on the world stage in favour of environmental preservation. Two initiatives come directly to mind: the concept of the climate as common heritage of mankind and the UN Law of the Sea. And yet on the local level our islands have ended up as an exponent on how not to develop. Sad but true.

I know no Latin beyond a few phrases. One professor at the University of Mauritius whose main subject was Public Policy liked to say: Quis custodiet ipso custodies?and then quickly followed it by its translation: Who shall watch the watchers themselves? This, as we know, if often so true. Administrators, trying to make sure that the general public obey laws are, as we know, singularly liable to corruption. It is easy to legislate but not necessarily to enforce. We need to keep custodians honest, though how, I do not know. We need to appeal to people to restrain themselves for the general good, though whether this would work or not in all cases, is improbable. This is perhaps why American president John Adams insisted that we must have “a government of laws and not men”. You cannot corrupt laws. But laws need to be enforced. For although it may be in just a few cases, the bribe is everything. It happens everywhere and we know it happens here too although there is omertà surrounding this vile practice, for who is going to blow the whisle? Those who corrupt? Those who are corrupted? So above all, as my colleague Gaetan Raynal, god bless his soul, used to say: Quis custodiet ipso custodies? Who shall watch the watchers themselves?