That’s All Right Then

[Xlendi Bay: Ad Maiorem Turisti (ut Melitensi) Commoditatem]

from di-ve.com:

The permit issued by the Malta Environment & Planning Authority (MEPA) for the re-development of the former Ulysses Lodge in Ramla l-Hamra was issued exclusively for a tourist complex. The Authority pointed out that, for the first time since its inception, it has entered a condition in the permit which allows the sale of the property only as a whole complex and only for tourism purposes. This condition is registered as a public deed and enforceable not only through the development planning act but also through the civil courts, MEPA said. Moreover, the public deed ensures that the villas on the re-developed footprint may not be sold for residential purposes and may not be leased for residential purposes.

It also sets a limit on tourist residency, establishing that a tourist may not lease a villa for more than a year and, if using time-share, for not more than two months in a year. The condition further specifies that the development has to remain as a single business under one ownership and that no unit within the development may be issued with an individual compliance certificate by the Authority, nor may any such unit be individually serviced by a water or electricity meter by a national service provider. MEPA also reiterated that proceedings for the withdrawal of a permit may be instituted by anyone who has proof which is accepted by the Development Planning Act, but added that all allegations of irregularities are void without such proof.

That’s ok then isn’t it? I mean the buildings are not going to be houses for anyone in particular. They are only allowed to be buildings for tourists. Nobody can speculate and sell them individually. They have to be owned by one person/entity as a villa complex and leased out to tourists for a maximum of one year.  Great.

You can all go back home stop protesting, put down your posters and tear up your petitions. Or maybe not. Because MEPA have not explained whether the environmental and aesthetic impact of the development changes in any way because of these foolproof clauses regarding who may own or rent what and when. For some reason MEPA seems to think that the sweetener here is that we will be attracting a too-rist who will spend a year (maximum) perched on the hill much like Ulysses in his time with Calypso. MEPA must be really thick to believe that it will win any brownie points by upping the tourism factor and trying (vainly) to convince us that this is not some speculative bit of business by land hungry contractors.

The spectres of Chambray and Santa Marija Estate are on the horizon. Sorry planning aimed at attracting that devious prey called too-rist that ends up being a useless eyesore and a flop. Yet I am sure that there are many bureaucrats in Malta who have been reduced to a pathetic macchiavellian way of thinking that is probably induced by the fact that they participated at a political party strategic planning at some point in their life. People are dealt with using oversimplified equations.Ghax il-poplu iblah. They are unhappy? Give them a rock concert or something to deviate their mind. It’s bad for the environment? Tell them it will bring lots of tourists and money. And if all else fails tell them that the alternative to your style of government is much much worse.

And so, the headless chickens have replied to the popular protest about the development – more tourism and we promise you it will be controlled. You people doth protest too much. I am not sure that the gurus at MEPA know what is in store for them. Whether they are lying back complacently in full belief that this latest answer satisfies those ignoramuses in the street.

What I do know is that people are angry and will continue being so until the Ramla Project is as much of a Myth as Ulysses’ trip and the Golf Course. For hell hath no fury like a protester ignored.

Pie in the Sky (with Children)

Robert jokingly insists my non-scoop was a gaffe. I insist it was a scoop. A relative one. Meanwhile the home of gaffes produced another gem that must be seen. Reporting another event organised by NIMBY inc. the Di-ve News Team has reached new depths of linguistic classics and are beginning to rival Dame Lorna. It appears that at a public hearing organised by MEPA at the Jerma Palace was sabotaged by residents who wanted to make themselves heard.

Here is a sample of di-ve’s report (my red):

Some 300 residents were present at the meeting together with various mayors of the nearby localities to voice their say against the proposed recycling plant. Placards reading ‘MEPA bulldog or Poodle’, ‘SOS Stavros Dimas’ ‘Guarantees, a pie in the skies” were held up along with children wearing gas masks.

I still cannot decide which is the best. The placard with “pie in the skies” (possibly Greek)? Or the idea of an incensed resident waving his mask-bearing child angrily in the air at the organisers? Anyways, the report ends like this:

In their letter the residents called on Ciantar to sign the guarantee to ensure that no more than 71,000 tonnes of waste will be disposed within the recycling plant [I can already see the residents taking it in turns to weigh the waste as it enters the plant to confirm that the guarantee does not remain a pie in the skies] and that this will not have negative impact on the property value in the area. The controversial consultation meeting [another CCM brought to you by NIMBY inc.] was chaired by Vincent Gauci, MEPA’s assistant director.

Deeper and deeper.

Ad Maiorem Popoli Commoditatem

The Porte des Bombes as reproduced in Times of Malta

CHAPTER 74 OF THE LAWS OF MALTA
PORTE DES BOMBES AREA (PRESERVATION) ACTTo provide for the preservation of the area outside Porte des Bombes.
(5th July, 1933)*
Enacted by ACT XX of 1933, as amended by Acts
XIII of 1983 and XXIV of 1995.

1. This Act may by cited as the Porte des Bombes Area (Preservation) Act.

2. In this Act -”the area outside Porte des Bombes” � means the whole public space between Pieta Creek, Porte des Bombes and the public gardens at Blata l-Bajda, Marsa, shown in red on the plan which, after the introduction of this Act, was laid on the table of the Senate and of the Legislative Assembly and a copy whereof, signed by the Governor, the Chief Clerk of the Legislative Assembly is hereby ordered to attach to the fair copy of this Act which, in terms of section 52 of the Malta
Constitution Letters Patent, 1921, he is required to cause to be enrolled on record in the Office of the Registrar of Courts.

3. The area outside Porte des Bombes is hereby declared to be a non-building area and excluded from commerce, and any deed of conveyance of any part of such area or of any real right over such area which any Government Administration may make in favour of any third party shall be null.

4. (1) The right of action for a declaration of nullity in respect of any transfer made in contravention of this Act shall appertain indistinctly to any person and he shall not be required to show any private interest in support of his action. (2) No fee shall be charged by the Registrar of Courts in respect of the filing by the plaintiff of any judicial act in connection with the exercise of the said action or of the service of any such act, and no registry fee shall be levied in respect of any decision on such action.

5. It shall likewise be competent to any person, in the public interest, to bring an action for the demolition of any building or other structure erected by any person, or by the Government, on the area outside Porte des Bombes.

6. In any action under sections 4 and 5 the court shall, in allowing the claim, order the defendant to pay to the plaintiff a sum not less than fifty liri nor exceeding five hundred liri: Provided that such sum shall be awarded to that plaintiff only who shall first have brought with success the proper action under this Act.

*See Government Notice No. 218 of the 19th of June, 1933 and Act No. V of 1927 omitted under the Malta Statute Law Revision Ordinance, 1936, and the Statute Law Revision Act, 1980.
�See the Porte des Bombes Area (Exemption) Act, (Chapter 119) exempting a specified site from the provisions of this Act.

The Porte des Bombes Act is a clear indication of the significance of this monument to the Maltese people. Much before the advent of UNESCO Heritage Sites, the Maltese self-government was enacting legislation intended to protect the area. Il-Bombi as it is affectionately known, is our Arc de Triomphe, our Tour Eiffel, our Colosseo, in its own way. The inscription on the Arch decries “For the greater comfort of the people”. Much more eloquent than the Amsterdam Arch with the witty aphorism but a description that befits an Arch placed there to serve the people.

And it is the sons of the sons of the very people who it was intended to serve who were forced to wake up to the humiliating attack on this monument. Some cave-dwelling cunt decided to daub oil across the face of this very monument. The arch that is there for the people was defaced by a part of the people. Il-Bombi does not seem to have been the only target of the desp-oil-er but it is the most significant one of them all. It is an insult. A spit in the face of the people. It is not a political protest. It cannot be. Political protests are intelligent and most times constructive � even when you disagree with them. This is the basest form of expression of disagreement and the perpetrators should be hung, drawn, quartered and preferably daubed in oil and burnt.

But everyone knows that. It is ironic that the law protecting the Bombes is the only one in Malta that allows for an actio popularis. Articles 4 and 5 allow any person to act in the interest of protecting the monument. It could be one person or a group of persons (a collective action). The patrimonial value of the monument could not be more evident than in this exceptional case under Maltese law. You do not need to demonstrate a personal interest, a lien, with the Porte des Bombes. Anyone. Anyone can defend it.

The question is�. Will we?

If civilisation has got the better of barbarism when barbarism had the world to itself, it is too much to profess to be afraid lest barbarism, after having been fairly got under, should revive and conquer civilisation. A civilisation that can thus succumb to its vanquished enemy, must first have become so degenerate, that neither its appointed priests and teachers, nor anybody else, has the capacity, or will take the trouble, to stand up for it. If this be so, the sooner such a civilisation receives notice to quit the better. It can only go on from bad to worse, until destroyed and regenerated (like the Western Empire) by energetic barbarians.
- John Stuart Mill