Despite all that's said about it, there can be little doubt that environmental protection in Malta is not being given sufficient importance. The spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak. And so the rape of the environment continues.
Sometimes to compound matters, even developments that should be considered progressive end up getting presented in ways that undermine their credibility. Like for instance the recent launch of a Climate Action Authority, aimed to ensure that Malta honours in concrete terms and on the ground, its obligations concerning the targets set out to combat climate warming.
Much was said about the powers that are being given to the authority which will be another member of a constantly growing portfolio of government agencies. Its members are people of great standing. However the most important point about the new institution was not referenced. What are the funds and resources allocated to the authority now and in the future? Or perhaps this information was supplied but the media failed to report it?
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GOZO AIRPORT
The worst thing in life is not to commit mistakes but to go on repeating them. Governmental authorities and the representatives of the private sector in Gozo are marching down this road. It appears that they have learnt nothing from the problems of Gozo Channel, the helicopter service and the fast ferry project. At last, so it seems, they will get the airport they have long been dreaming about.
They tell us that this project will improve the connectivity of Gozo as an island, and that it will upgrade Gozo's attractiveness for high quality tourists, without damaging the environment. What a mirage! It's as if with airplanes that can carry less than ten (?) passengers, connectivity will improve significantly and high quality tourists arrive in much greater numbers. It's as if the farmland to be taken up will not eventually increase in order to accomodate bigger airplanes and the businesses that will seek to ride piggyback on the project. It's as if the operator flying the planes (?) will not sooner rather than later fold up and the government will need to come to his rescue in order to avoid a total fiasco.
It's difficult to understand why the government and the Gozitan private sector are again combining to ignore the obvious... as they did when they came out to trumpet the breakthough achieved when two fast ferries got to compete for travel between the islands. Surely, Gozo deserves better.
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A SOCIAL BUDGET
A lot has already been said about the next budget, as always happens from year to year. It's a normal process and part of our democratic system. Every government insists that according to prevailing circumstances, the budget aims to deliver economic and social improvements. Sometimes the emphasis is greater on the economic side of things, at other times on the social.
This year, the budget priority should be to emphasize the social chapter. Not just in the traditional sense of the word, although this remains important ...especially with regard to social inequality and mental health... but even more in the need to find solutions to the stress which too big a number of our citizens are experiencing due to "new" factors in our way of life, like excessive traffic and construction, the evergrowing population and environmental ruin.