There is no place like home
Last week, we saw that almost 60 percent of Maltese young people prefer to live in another European country instead of their own. According to the survey, nine out of 10 young people feel that Malta’s environment is getting worse and blaming its seemingly uncontrollable construction industry.
Like any other “negative” news that does not agree with the narrative “it’s always sunny in Malta”, it will probably be swept under the carpet, but it is interesting to see that under the carpet, cracks are starting to appear. It is unfortunate that things had to get this ludicrous.
For example, did you see the proposed plan for two new blocks in Xlendi instead of the two existing waterfront restaurants? I have, and it is nothing short of an abomination. Sticking out like a wolf hulking at a sheep’s birthday party, they are a monument to the unbashed, untied greed.
I can’t imagine how anyone, anyone, could have looked into this eye and thought it was a good idea. It’s so bad. They don’t come in, they don’t do anything for the horizon. They literally look like they came out of Dubai and came out in a big way in this once picturesque seaside village that is already struggling under the weight of an urban metropolis that it was never meant to carry.
And yet, it seems that people found less of a problem with this hippopotamus during a ballet recital than they did with the second piece of news coming out of Gozo this week.
Wanting to send a message to people not to ignore strangers in need, St. George’s Basilica in Gozo had a photograph of Lassana Cisse Souleymane painted on one of the smaller domes in the side aisles. For anyone with more insight than a drunken parrot, the message had to be clear: the importance of loving your neighbor and helping him regardless of circumstance or color. Again, it was literally like an open day at the zoo with everyone coming out of the cages to ask why Maltese was not immortalized instead.
The choice to show Lassana was a smart and modern way to show the congregation what their attitude toward their brother should be. It is not rocket science– Anna Marie Galea
Lassana is up there and Freddy the grocer not because Lassana was shot like an animal (another thing we’re big into) in what was allegedly a completely unprovoked attack by two of our soldiers, perhaps sparked by sadness and a deep xenophobic streak . Is your racism so deeply ingrained that you are incapable and do not want to see the importance of showing such a message in an entity that preaches the importance of serving others?
The roofs of the church had teaching paintings on them as a means of communication with believers for hundreds of years so that even if people could not understand what was being said, they could at least look at the pictures and reflect. The choice to show Lassana was a smart and modern way to show the congregation what their attitude toward their brother should be. It is not rocket science.
I often wonder why my articles always end up so negative, but the truth is that while things continue to happen as they are, and while we continue to grow only when it comes to construction and road works , there will always be a need for things to be said by the few who are still willing not to give up on this exhaustive black hole of land.
Don’t stop trying to ignore all the signs as if you had another country to go back to; none of us do.
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