As a pass the parcel game goes on in the UK as to who will ultimately set off Article 50, thereby formally informing the European Union that the UK – if it still is the United Kingdom, will leave the EU, the nation waits as does Mr Juncker and the 27 other states.  Already the three leaders who had a say in leading to the decision, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and David Cameron by bringing the referendum, have bowed out.  The card is drawn but it seems to belong to a gamble that will bring the house down.

At first the proponents were all bravado, full of the right arguments and false statements but never bothering to own the facts.  All it took was a blunder bus  - a Polish manufactured bus by a German company - that Boris Johnson used to launch his Brexit campaign - and a few beers and laughs at the expense of honest, hard- working immigrants to set off the vote in favour of leaving.  At the other end, the Remain campaign remained complacent and never bothered to effectively fight for what they believed.  The fallout around Jeremy Corbyn comes too late to change the result.  David Cameron begun each speech by saying “Look, I know the EU is not perfect and it frustrates me but it is the right choice”.  Well, how would a daughter feel if her father told her that the guy she should marry is crap but he has money so go for it.  Not very convinced, I imagine.  Better the boy next door perhaps.

None of these arguments are sane or worthy.  But in the same naive way we in Malta are hurtling headlong into an inevitable fate if we do not seriously and honestly stop and think about the consequences of allowing high-rise buildings wherever and however they may be.  The decision is not written and there is time to evaluate the benefits and the negatives. 

Those investors who sink their egos into seeing their huge monuments reflecting the sun-light, practically making out their own image in it, are telling us that we need the towers because we are now a hedonistic society and like to have ways to spend our money and have offices that can be occupied by ghost companies and neighbours that have a postal address in the British Virgin Islands or Panama. 

The people who make problems and protest against the investment do not have Malta’s interest at heart, is the argument in reply.  Besides, we are all aware that ground space is limited, so going high-rise is actually environmentally friendly.  All of these perspectives need to be properly tested.

We had already experienced a similar watershed when the beautiful Victorian houses of Tower Road in Sliema, lining the seafront, gave way to the bland row of luxury flats.  The graceful houses and villas with their little front parapet, were once the emblem of Sliema.  Dingli Street is hanging by a thread as the change is camouflaged and hidden.  Could we have stopped that development and would we stop it now if we could go back?  Those who managed to get back a good sum of money for their property after decades of war-time rents or high maintenance costs, could be pleased and rightly so.  Property owners just behind the front row flats probably, not so pleased.  Residents of Sliema, in general, also feeling sorry to see the lovely houses fall one after the other and with them a piece of our history and identity. 

St George’s Bay is well pictured in my mind.  It is where my mother spent the best part of her childhood and I can remember clearly going down to the bay with my grandmother.  It is already quite unrecognisable but are we willing to take it all the way now and transform it into a concrete grave yard?  That relaxed curve of sun and shining sea, now to become shadowed by steel and stone. 

The businesses who have made their plans realistically and know that the demand is there and the buyers too, are simply providing the supply of flats and offices, hotels and commercial outlets that are already imagined and desired.  Others are ready to jump on the bandwagon because that is where the money is, or so they believe. 

Who then will press the button for our ‘Article 50’ and give the green light to change Malta from that Mediterranean holiday destination to a mainstream city?  Muscat’s government, despite all claim and promise to the contrary prior to the election, has opted to forge ahead with off-the-shelf ideas that only provide impulse buyers with the ego boost they crave and provide a chance to line their pockets.

What will happen when people see that their soul craves more than bread and they long to see the sun and their island again? 

But that will be something for the next generation to deal with.  Those who grew up knowing a care-free, relaxed and sunny island will assume that their grand-children will have the same advantage and maybe more.  By the time all the vitamin D is gone, they too will be. 

But if we must build because we must buy and if we have to go up because we cannot go wide, let us at least be sure that it is worthwhile sacrifice and not just speculation. 

There is tourism, there is the price of property for first and second time owners, the quality of life, the huge infrastructural overhaul that is needed to serve these multi-storey buildings, the roads and parking.  Are we ready for the domino effect it will have on the economy and on our communities?  Are we ready to cope with the result of radical change that no-one voted for or asked for?

Trigger the day if you must but know that the future of your children and grand-children is at risk – something they may take for granted but which you were called to ensure.