Just drop eco and return to Gozo. Gozitans have many a time been confronted by various half baked plans ranging from the island of the goat to Gozo as a destination for upmarket tourism with an own cruise liner terminal.

But Gozitans have an inborn feeling that when it comes to give Gozo a major impetus, they are always left alone. Grand ideas for fantastic projects never made it to the light of day. This resulted in fragmentation because little frustrated Gozitan Johnnies tried to do it their way and created the soulless Marsalforn and Xlendi and are about to spread this hotchpotch all over Gozo. This fragmented mentality reaches its peak when individuals dream of an own airport, a tunnel or a bridge between the two islands to render Gozo accessible 24x7. Obviously the right measures and proportions get lost with the missing plot.

In short, Gozo has to keep up with the whims of its 30,000 inhabitants and with those of its numerous visitors. Differing demands are not just an expression of a healthy pluralistic society but also a way of airing dissatisfaction with the present product. Therefore something tells me that eco-Gozo was ventilated to serve as the biblical fig leaf, as a cover-up for failing to forge a sound holistic plan for Gozo.

One does not have to be a marketing genius to praise a low quality product with a virtue that it does not really possess. Words like ‘eco’ and ‘smart’ or the name of a charismatic leader added to an expired entity have always lured people to think that there is new substance where there is none. It’s like pouring old wine into new bottles.

Gozo could certainly do without icing sugar but it urgently needs an intelligent and viable plan to generate some 3,000 new jobs built on three different pillars. The first pillar should ensure and enforce the best quality of Gozo’s natural resources, i.e. pure air and water, tranquillity, natural beauty combined with clean countryside and beaches as well as clean transport systems and routes.

The second pillar should venture in two or three centres of excellence for renewable energy and for innovative ideas where Gozo serves as an ideal size backdrop in the application of a ‘prosumer’ society meaning that citizens are not just consumers but also producers. Gozo could also serve as a venue for spiritual regeneration. At the same time this pillar could also be a way of attracting foreign students and of keeping the best brains in Gozo.

A third pillar should engage in the production of intelligent products and services that do not strain our limited resources. This should of course include the improvement of Gozo as a whole and its marketing as a destination where one gets the best value for money. But first of all one has to return to Gozo and discover its real soul for a sound beginning.

Agnes Debono

Kercem