Il-proġett li se jeqred 48,000 metru kwadru ta’ art agrikola, joqtol iktar minn 600 siġra, jiżola 1,200 ruħ u jkeċċi 47 bidwi – filwaqt li ma jsolvi assolutament xejn -għadu kemm għadda mill-Bord tal-Awtorità tal-Ippjanar bi 3 vota kontra u 9 favur.
Moviment Graffitti react to PA vote
Mad dogs and artists
Seven. That’s seven football fields worth of agricultural land. They are being frittered away in order to purportedly give way to a more fluid transport situation. Cars have to move apparently. To do so 600 trees have to die. Forget about replanting and make no mistake about it. The trees will die. There will be less trees, more tarmac and if the artists’ impression is anything to go by two parallel high walls locking the cars in their smog driven ecstasy of a trip.
The artists’ impresssion also includes a madman walking his dog on a superhighway of a pavement. No billboards or lamposts feature in this impression but then again the impression is only there to give some form of ‘substance’ for the ‘visionaries’ backing Ian Borg’s latest transport brainwave. According to the twitter reactions by the idiot savants who trumpet Borg’s cause, the people will soon forget the minor inconvenience of environmental armageddon once they gain their 5 extra seconds on their commute to Saqajja.
#thesystemisbroken (reprise)
The guys at Moviment Graffitti are rightly taking up the challenge. They speak of encouragement because residents, environmentalists and farmers got together to argue against the development. The arguments, they say, were rock solid and unquestionable. The problem is that the Planning Authority – a regulator that should be acting in the interests of the people voted in the large part in favour of the road – they call it the Central Link.
Unlike what happened in the case of the Marsa Racetrack development where the PN barely lifted an eyelid, it would seem that the PN rep on the PA board voted against the development. The other two votes against came from an NGO and from an Attard councillor. Still, votes against notwithstanding, the system remains heavily rigged in favour of a party in government that has no qualms about bulldozering over the real public interest.
It should already be shocking that the distribution of positions on such boards has to take into consideration a form of par condicio for the two parties. Instead of experts in the field acting on a clear policy remit we have party interests represented. Add to that the blatant interest of strong lobbies such as the construction and development lobby paired with a state captured in their interests and you will begin to understand how the backsliding of the rule of law in this particular quarter is having its undesirable effects.
This iconic farmhouse in the area known as Taht ir-Rahal in Attard is set to be demolished as part of the Central Link Project which has just been approved by that criminal organisation otherwise known as the Planning Authority.
A Republic based on Automobiles
Public transport policy and the general management of cars is a farce. An island that should be aiming to reduce cars to the bare minimum instead plans and builds around the dreaded automobile. Proper public transport is shunned for the exaltation of the private vehicle. More roads, more tarmac, more development.
Don’t forget more petrol stations too. This notwithstanding the lip service paid to a supposed target date for going electric. There is really no way out. Today’s lesson is that the livelihood of 47 farmers is of no consequence to policy makers and shapers so long as cars will supposedly shave a couple of seconds of their commute (which they will not).
What about the trees? 600 of them. The “replanting” lie has not yet been put paid but the more it gets exposed the harder it gets to use it next time. If there is a next time of course.
Ezekiel 25:17
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the
Ezekiel 25:17, Pulp Fiction (Quentin Jerome Tarantino)
Inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men
Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will
shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness
for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious
Anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers
And you will know
My name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee
Unfortunately the battles that need to be fought by the likes of Moviment Graffitti are twice as hard because the system is rigged against them. Where equity, justice and common sense should apply there is a state capture of gargantuan proportions led by the corrupt and the selfish. It is time to transform the multiple minor skirmishes into the full battle on all fronts that leads to systemic change.
It’s either that or continue down the road to perdition.
perdition/pəˈdɪʃ(ə)n/
noun
- (in Christian theology) a state of eternal punishment and damnation into which a sinful and unrepentant person passes after death.
