In my last article, I wrote about the need to develop Community Days in our localities. I am still waiting for local councils to react to this and contact me to start taking action about one practical way to induce that community spirit which we so lack on these islands. I have still not received a reply except an enquiry from one locality out of 68. I am disappointed with the lethargy and total lack of national interest today on these islands; the attitude of hatred, envy and jeolusy that has gripped communities here in the last 10 years, the institutionalised concept of “divide and rule” but as someone told me, I must persist because there are at least some people like me who want to see the back of these sad and black days, and for that reason I will not give up now even if I still wish I were back in Old Blighty miles from these islands. Today I will discuss another issue relative to comunity spirit – stewardship of our heritage, history and character. This means that those sites that have a history and heritage associated with the passage of time on these islands are not the personal property of politicians or government.

Stewardship is the duty of every member of the community who has the national interest (as opposed to their own egocentric and financially viable interest) and this means we are all responsible for the damage, destruction and erradication of heritage and history if we sit placidly and allow this to happen by unethical and corrupt businesspersons and developers as we have done this last decade. YOU and ME are to blame for this fracas. YOU and ME will have to answer to our children and future generations of these degenerate and degradated islands if we take no action to stop these criminals now. Stewardship does not mean we can pick and choose which sites or heritage to preserve and which to destroy, it means we need to make sure that these are preserved in their entirety without favour or preference. I am coordinating an interesting project to develop community-based tourism as an alternative to the quantiative, mass tourism that has destroyed the real benefits from tourism as a hospitable activity. Recently, we have been working in Lija where the primary or key attraction has to be Villa Preziosi (today Villa Francica). I consider this to be a site of national heritage, no longer a private residence and we should have access to its gardens and visits to the home and we should be inviting visitors to share in this heritage; unfortunately the situation there towards visitors is totally different. Stewardship means we all own the national heritage and history and it does not belong to one person or a group of persons alone.

If we want to develop community spirit we have to inculcate the idea of national stewardship and we need a guideline to develop this. I will be working on this publication and I would welcome any person or persons who would like to contribute to the Guidelines for National Stewardship of Culture, Heritage and History for the Maltese Islands.

Recommendations and Summary

1.       Let us build community spirit by developing the guidelines for Stewardship together, I invite all those interested to contact me;

2.      We should identify areas where we can regenerate local tourism for the quality visitor;

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; and

5.      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.