In my last article, I wrote about one issue that is really destroying our culture and our quality of life – the dreaded escooter (although this could be an excellent way of improving and managing the reckless traffic and private care situation) is becoming a chronic illness for these islands because of total irresponsibility and a lack of care by the hiring company and the stoned users! This week we will be considering the impact of not having any community spirit in our localities – the lack of care for neighbours, for friends and for the environment; a totally introvert sense of behaviour that results in aggresiveness, arrogance and a complete ignorance of any civic sense of behaviour that is manifested in our tolerance for bad governance, management of our quality of life and care for our environment.

This week, I think, we experienced a taste of this lack of civic care when we read about the plans to turn our baroque city, that city built by gentlemen for gentlemen, into a cheap and hellish place for drunkards and drug merchants; but I will discuss that horrible thought in my next article. I will start this week by discussing the importance of trees in urban and rural communities.

There was a scheme or project that, up to 2013, was catching on fast and involved a good sense of crowdfunding and stewardship of our urban and rural landscapes – the Tree 4U project. Unfortunately, this disappeared with the advent of a new government and the greedy developer and entrepreuner. Trees can not only give shade and coolness to our urban and rural areas, they can also add to the aesthetical value of our landscapes. Yet in the last 10 years we have seen so many of these precious assets cut down and destroyed to make room for more of the dreaded vehicles we depend on to show off our social status. Yet the tree can not only improve our own quality of life but will also attract that visitor who wants to be here and will appreciate our care and management of the environment.

I am quoting from an interesting site that confirms the importance of trees in our urban and rural communities and the responsibility we all need to have to build better and not just bigger or uglier (vide Paceville and many of our once characteristic rural villages like Gharghur and Iklin). I urge you all to read this citation and then let us act together in trying to reverse some or most of the damage done to the environment and our quality of life in the last 10 years. The citation states thus:

“Humans and trees have much in common. After all, our own lungs look much like trees and trees are sometimes called “the lungs of the Earth”. In fact, the connection between humans and trees is a recurring theme in the Hebrew Bible. Trees and humans are repeatedly found together, linked by the same key words, images and scenes (as pointed out in The Bible Project). Trees are mentioned more than any other living thing, except for people and God – from the first page of Genesis to the last page of Revelation. God chose trees as his symbol of life: a source of wholeness, healing and abundance.”

“Yet humans did not choose the way of the Tree of Life. Today our world is painfully fragmented. When I sit with the dead trees at my local park, mourning the larger loss brought by climate change, development and deforestation, I remember the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad –  the one we picked because we craved control, rather than staying within our natural limits. While we've been filling the air with toxins, trees have continued to purify it, absorbing harmful carbon emissions and breathing out the very oxygen we need to survive.” Reference: https://www.christianitytoday.com/better-samaritan/2021/april/what-trees-teach-us-about-community-and-crisis.html

Recommendations and Summary

1.      Let us each take responsibility through a national awareness steered by a group of NGOs focussed on the environment and communities. I am proposing here that the two NGOs I chair, together with other NGOs, come together to spearhead this campaign. We need to take the lead and not depend on government and politicians.

2.      We should identify areas where we can plant trees in urban sites (roadsides, parks and places for relaxation or rural localities) that need to be enhanced with trees)

3.      Recognise our duty as communities to enhance our environment and care for the precious trees that will add value to our moral, ethical and physical quality of life

4.      Those NGOs and persons (including local councils) interested in working with me on this project should email me on [email protected] or call me on 9916 7805.

Let us get going – let us really build better and reverse the horrendous state of this island.

I sometimes wonder – am I writing for the converted? Are there any other persons who agree or disagree with me? I frequently meet people who read these articles – but these articles are not just there to be read on a lazy Sunday afternoon, they are there to sow the seeds of change from apathy to commitment – to make tourism an activity we can be proud of. Let me know what you think and how you feel about tourism.

Dr Julian Zarb is a researcher, local tourism planning consultant and an Academic at the University of Malta. He has also been appointed as an expert for the High Streets Task Force in the UK. His main area of research is community-based tourism and local tourism planning using the integrated approach