When Construction goes too far

When people talk about construction, they think of economic progress and advancement, yet in our capitalistic society, this is often not the case.

Environmental degradation, theft of land, gentrification, and an increase in traffic are all symptoms of this construction. Even when looking at this tiny rock, the damage can already be seen. The Planning Authority, under the control of a so called Labour Government seems to think that its mission is the uprooting of as many trees and the destruction of as many old buildings possible, to be replaced by wide roads and shiny new blocks of flats.

Yet we need to ask ourselves, who is this for?. Is the widening of roads in the manner seen really needed?, Is the constant demolition of houses that are at least 100 years old really necessary?. In the eyes of the capitalist, yes.

Not one developer or businessperson seems to care about the destruction of our nature and of our historical buildings, built to mesh well into the environment. These people do not care about the destruction of everything that is of value because they do not value anything except money. It does not matter if widening a road is pointless, as has been shown by multiple studies around the world. It does not matter if the massive blocks they build will remain mostly unoccupied, if they can make a single cent off of someone due to the project, they will do it.

It is sickening to see the state that our country has devolved to, when you find people defending the demolition of not only our old houses, but even our historical forts. Fort Cambridge, built by the British in the late 1800s has simply been built over in Tigné Point. Its history and significance, ignored, simply to built a vanity project, and which is not even fully occupied.

Instead, the properties in this monstrous structure are sold to rich foreigners who use these houses as ways to cheat countries out of tax, and buy a Maltese passport to export our access to the EU. Many do not even live here and instead choose to rent the house for exorbitant prices, which has led to a massive decrease in poor people living in this area. While in the past businesspersons would have stolen poor people’s houses outright, instead they are now pushed out via the “free market”.

It is wholly unacceptable to live in a society where profit is put over human lives. These buildings do not have sufficient parking, making parking worse, and in turn, making traffic worse, worsening the air quality in the area.

Looking at the road projects, we can see a massive contradiction by the Government. The neoliberals in power seem to have given up lying pretending to tell the truth and are simply lying directly to our faces. They claim to want to focus on a switch to electric cars and bicycles, yet have not done much in the way of suitable infrastructure for this. The roads seem to not include bike lanes, and the number of petrol stations are going UP, not down.

You might realise by now, that this simple issue is linked to a whole number of other issues, not limited to pollution, gentrification, destruction of historical sites, and exploitation of the poor by the rich. These are not isolated symptoms that can be fixed by capitalism, but these are a direct result of this decrepit system.

We can no longer sit by idly and watch the corrupt classes take over and destroy what is left of this country. We must take action, first through peaceful action, as is occurring now.