Everything points to a Cottonera comeback into the mainstream of Maltese society as the region’s rehabilitation process goes on, sometimes at a snail’s pace, sometimes at an exhilarating one. But things there are definitely changing and people are happily becoming more and more aware of the historical attractions and tourist potential of Birgu Vittoriosa) in particular, Bormla (Cospicua), Isla (Senglea) and their ever-growing suburb of Kalkara.

The recent launch of a first-rate website, part of a holistic approach to the Cottonera by the Labour Opposition and the four local councils concerned, was further proof that the revival of the region is not solely the result of some half-hearted government initiative, but more of a new, albeit long overdue, national reawakening. Labour as a political force was born in the Cottonera where it continues to enjoy unbridled support, so it is no surprise to find this helping hand being given from the Opposition benches.

There is something about the Cottonera that has always fascinated me. Peopled mostly by working-class families, it has always been the source of much social turmoil and merriment. I know, because I happen to have been born and lived the first good part of my life there. It is where I broke – literally, at the Fortini sports ground during a primary school sports session – my football teeth and where, as a teenager, I got into my first amorous escapades!

At this moment in time, though, I am thankful that after having left to live my married life outside the region more than 30 years ago, I still feel a part of it and, more importantly, I still feel welcome. With the ruthless passage of time I may have lost some of the distinct linguistic accents, but once there among family and friends, they all come back automatically. Just like when Gozitans at the office phone home, switching instantly into a kind of Maltese you can hardly understand.

For too many years, decades really, the Cottonera has been treated shabbily by both the do-gooders and the blatantly disinterested. Often taken for granted, the people of the Cottonera still offered their support. Often ignored and treated like second-class citizens, they simply knew why. The “new tarmac” campaign of the late Sixties is one famous example. While roads and country lanes in towns and villages all over the island were being plastered with the black stuff that was supposedly set to raise the standard of Maltese driving, the Cottonera was shamelessly kept waiting. The last tarmac line was all too purposely drawn outside Ghajn Dwieli tunnel between Paola and Bormla.

By the early 1970s however, things had changed drastically. As the British military fitfully counted their last few years in independent Malta, the region finally saw the first serious infrastructural projects being undertaken with enthusiasm. New wharves took shape, unsightly dockyard walls fell and the Birgu, Isla and Bormla promenades that we know today were part of that refreshing period of change. While many then still described the Cottonera as “Malta’s little Naples”, the Cottonera waterfront was flatteringly being seen as “Malta’s little Venice.”

The pace soon faltered, though, and the Cottonera was back in its accustomed isolation mode. Intermittent changes of government were mixed with intermittent promises of new hope, but the pace never really picked up. Perhaps one of the most interesting projects ever to be drawn regarding the Cottonera involves the Number One Dock that sits idly right in the shadow of the magnificent Bormla parish church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. How many times have we heard Nationalist ministers talk about it and how many flashy designs of it have we seen projected in the media, only to realise that the project has been shelved or abandoned, possibly plagued by the John Dalli political woes.

With the tourism industry shell-shocked into crisis, people have since been coming round to the idea that the Cottonera has a lot to offer, after all. Hello, strangers. Suddenly the Birgu festival has become a major event on the cultural and tourist calendar, the Three Cities have some unique places of interest to visit, though I would say their people are even more unique, and there are now good and well-run restaurants and wine bars where you can have a proper meal or indulge in some good plonk and nibbles. Not enough yet, but it’s a good start.

So much more can be done. The Cottonera has no rivals in historical value. The very stone of its churches, forts, bastions and street-side niches tell wondrous stories. The band clubs have colourful pasts that enrich the present. The festas, the annual celebrations such as Easter and the Good Friday processions of the Cottonera are packed with historical anecdotes and artefacts. The sporting activities, from those of the first-ever Maltese soccer team to the 8th September Regatta, create intense regional interest while they now attract national attention.

Let us not delay the Cottonera comeback any further. This new flicker of hope can gradually grow into an eternal flame for the good of a national industry and for the good of its own people who deserve absolutely no less.

I am pleasantly surprised to find, in Labour’s own Cottonera website, that like me, Prime Minister Gonzi hails from Kalkara. My problem is I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. We never used the word arriverderci there. Perhaps he came from a higher echelon of Cottoneran

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