It was a very good crowd that gathered in Valletta last Saturday for what was called a national protest against the changes being introduced by Robert Abela to the permits regime, which most see as a blank cheque to developers to over-ride opposition by civil society.

Elsewhere in Europe other crowds were marching but in anger against the Israeli continued pressure on Palestinians. Many of these protests turned violent. In Italy no less than three million people took part in various protests across the country.

In Malta people were marching on behalf of the environment and the atmosphere was good natured with people banging on drums and making a huge din with whistles while chanting "xebbajtuna, dardartuna, qazzistuna ... Irtirawha"..

As crowds go, it was very well attended. Not the usual attendance at political meetings. Hence its importance when we are so near, it seems, to the election.

To my great surprise, seeing that the protest was being carried live on Net News, I switched on Net TV and found a repeat of a discussion about over-population with Peppi Azzopardi (as usual interrupting everybody else), Malcolm Seychell and two others.

Possibly the protest would be covered in the evening news.

The fact remains that two channels of the same broadcaster were on divergent paths, blocking each other. 

After which Net reverted to its normal programming which included a huge dollop of TV adverts.

I didn't even try the national channels let alone One TV. The protest would be relegated to a couple of minutes in the evening news. If at all.

Now in a few weeks' time we will all be called to cast our vote and all the various strands of public opinion will be under scrutiny.

What can we distill from Saturday's crowd? 

Anger against the government, for sure, which is claimed as being in hock to the developers who are tearing up what remains of the Malta we used to know.

But despite everything this crowd is still far away from leading to votes for the Opposition. At most, it may lead to less votes going for Robert Abela. In that case, PN might, I repeat might, get to power by default.

I am still rather sceptical about the whole thing. If the protest was against high rises, as one could deduce from Robert Abela jumping into the negative camp, then let's have a proper debate. And what's wrong with high rises?

i was one of the few who had applauded the high rises at Qormi-Marsa, today's Quad buildings. And without any backing from the developers. In my mind, they resembled the high rises outside Frankfurt as one comes in to land.

Now go and see what they have made of it. I haven't been but from all I hear words of praise.

On the other hand, we are creating a monster area, St George's Bay and around with the monster DB building next door to another monster, the Villa Rosa area or what will replace it.

We are creating a massive problem for people circulation, for the facilities, for drainage etc in place of a rather sustainable, pleasant, environment.

And all this because the political appointees on the regulatory boards could not stand firm against the developers. Now the government wants to give even more power to these manifestly weak boards.

The people on Saturday were protesting against this but did not offer a credible alternative.

Have a look at other countries and see how countries far below us as GDP goes are scrambling hard to catch up.

I give you Georgia, just a few years ago incredibly poor and dirty with a monster Monti outside the main station (but still with a cable car over the valley which Austin Gatt despite his boasts was unable to deliver).

And see today's Georgia still battling against the Moscow police with an incredibly patriotic population which is not shy of showing the national flag along the EU one.

A Georgia with interesting innovations and a new spirit. You don't get this by just coming together once in a while and holding a mammoth protest.

But the country that has gained my admiration is .. Belarus and its capital Minsk. Wide open spaces, ditto roads and no clutter. Both are countries with a GRP a fraction of Malta's.

Another thing seems to have happened over the past week - the prime minister roaming between seats on a KM plane and speaking to people sitting there and being buckled up, like we are on planes. A captive audience if there ever was one.

A scene like that could induce some to forego the national airline altogether or else drive people to do what Roberta Metsola did when accosted in like manner by Joseph Muscat.

For the prime minister of a country to take electioneering to such heights means only one thing - the stakes are high, the predictions are shaky and there is much at stake. The polls diverge but the most benign of them shows Abela winning by a whisker, 8,000 votes.

Note of history 

An unpublished account of the Siege of Mdina in 1429 by the contemporary Arab Chronicler Al- Maqrizi

By Frans X Cassar and Simon Mercieca

In Besieged Malta ,1565 vol II

Heritage Malta 

This paper presents a new Arabic text dealing with the siege of Malta by the Moors in 1429.

The author, Al-Maqrizi, recounts how an Arabic force attacked and destroyed the Sicilian city of Mazara and then proceeded to attack Mdina and completely destroyed its suburb.

The narrative explains why the 1565 siege is called Great not just due to the magnitude of the Ottoman force but also to compare it to the 1429 siege.

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