I write in reference to the article ‘Of nimbies and bananas’ by Philip Mifsud (TMID, 27 April).
He writes: “But it seems that no one wants a mobile antenna within his vicinity. Although they are not that popular anymore, I witnessed whole communities protesting and gathering petitions against their parish priest because he decided to generate some revenue by installing a telephone antenna on the church’s roof. They were suffering from the nimby – not in my back yard – syndrome.”
Mr Mifsud, for the sake of your health and that of your family I hope you do not have a mobile antenna anywhere near your house! Do you, a member of parliament honestly have a problem with citizens being concerned about their health? What studies has the government conducted to verify if these antennae actually cause harm or not? The people I speak to who have such antennas close to their house began suffering from headaches from the moment they were installed. If you really and genuinely do not have a problem with this without having used your position as an MP to ask for studies to be conducted, you are a disgrace to your position as an MP, to the voters who put their trust in you and to the party you represent. You should resign or be asked to resign.
He writes: “I can mention several other examples. Almost every one of us eats pastizzi on Sunday mornings but no one dares to have a 15-square metre pastizzeria in front of his residence.”
Luckily, I do not eat pastizzi every Sunday. I’m already overweight as it is. That’s all I need. Are you actually saying that everyone eating pastizzi on a Sunday is the norm and is OK? I wonder what (Health) Minister Cassar thinks about this. No wonder our health bill is so high. If I was an MP, which I have no interest in being, in my ignorance, I would be trying to discourage the opening of pastizzerias. Obviously, your intelligence by far surpasses mine.
He writes: “But the new disease which hit town is almost shocking. It seems that the whole society has been captured by this new virus and caught the banana – build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone – syndrome. Red light flashes in the mind of every citizen when he/she sniffs the possibility of any type of development in his/her remote neighbourhood, even if it is a small washroom on top of a two-storey terraced house. Everyone wants to oppose any type of development. Development has become the most evil of all acts! The banana syndrome is gaining ground.”
Here, I assume he is referring to the claims made by the St Julian’s Residents Association, as we are the only association which has come out against over-development recently. Which part of “we are not against development but are against illegal development” don’t you understand? So far two of the projects the St Julian’s Residents Association has been against have come before Mepa, the Cortis and Fenech applications. In the case of the former we are insisting that the Villa Fieres site cannot be higher than four stories a condition imposed by the local plan, which was passed through parliament by a Nationalist government, which today you form part of.
Moreover, this project includes physically blocking up legal windows in other people’s property. Do you as an MP actually advocate this? The latter is the Portomaso extension which would be illegal since a previous Mepa permit, issued under a Nationalist government, stated that the site could not be developed further. Yet again I cannot believe that you advocate this illegality.
■ Michel Spiteri
St Julian’s