MLP spokesman on the Environment and National Heritage
Published on www.gozonews.com on Sunday 30th September, 2007 by Roderick Galdes.
The open letter to the Malta Labour Party by James A. Tyrell (Gozo News, 26th September 2007) deserves some reflection. First of all, I do not accept Mr. Tyrell’s excessive comments about politics and politicians. Politics is not about “exploitation”, as Mr. Tyrell states; my experience so far is that politics is a noble service that entails a lot of family hardships and personal sacrifice. The last thing on the mind of honourable politicians like Dr Sant is the “screwing” of people, especially at election time.
Mr. Tyrell may have grown accustomed to the screwing antics of the party in government over the past several years, but then that should be another valid reason to vote Labour in the next election. We are the party of change.
Mr. Tyrell lambasts Dr Sant and the Labour Party for what he calls a “U-turn in the matter of Hondoq”. He states that he remains unconvinced with Mark Farrugia’s media release in which, according to Mr. Tyrell, Mr. Farrugia has “adopted the classical political tool of semantics”. Sheer nonsense, Mr. Tyrell! But many thanks for raising the issue once more and providing me with another opportunity to clarify matters even further regarding Labour’s position on the Hondoq ir-Rummien project proposal.
Apologies, but this is not a matter of answering with a blunt “yes” or “no”. I refer all Gozitans, the environmentalists and, nonetheless, Mr. Tyrell himself, to the Labour Party’s Media Release of the 14th October 2006 in which the Party’s views about the abovementioned project are clearly stated. As far as Labour is concerned, both the steam-rolling of public opinion (but especially the Qala residents) by government and MEPA in the handling of the Hondoq proposal, and the scale of the project itself are totally unacceptable. Mr. Tyrell’s portrayal of a situation where Labour is taking its same councillors and the Qala populace for a ride is unjust and blatantly malicious.
I understand that Mr. Tyrell’s wrath is fuelled by his complete misunderstanding of Dr Sant’s reply when the Labour leader was interviewed by Saviour Balzan on TVM (Reporter, 11th September 2007). On that occasion Mr. Balzan raised the Hondoq ir-Rummien development issue and, on asking Dr Sant for further clarifications about the matter, the Labour leader promptly intervened about the need to strike the right balance between safeguarding our islands’ environmental resources - especially the unique Gozo sites - and the exigencies of the country’s tourism sector. Whereas Dr Sant argued that well-planned “stand alone” projects such as yacht marinas may be compatible with developing our tourism industry in a sustainable manner, he did not mince his words with regards to the deleterious impacts resulting from overly massive projects such as the one being proposed for Hondoq.
Mr. Tyrell may have expected Dr Sant to refer to Hondoq more specifically. Instead, the Labour leader preferred to talk in broader terms arguing that the rampant over-development and speculation with real estate in Gozo are effectively harming Gozo’s economy and the island’s tourism industry, and this needs to be kept in check in the interest of society at large. I assure Mr. Tyrell that under a new Labour Government no decision about any yacht marina or any other project whatsoever shall be taken unless the project in question is deemed sustainable and within the parameters of the environmental impact assessment regulations as stipulated by EU law.
On a final note I would like to remark on Mr. Tyrell’s inspirational quoting of the words of 19th century American lawyer and US Democratic Party politician William Jennings Bryan. Good to know that the annals of history recall William Jennings Bryan as a staunch opponent of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
The open letter to the Malta Labour Party by James A. Tyrell (Gozo News, 26th September 2007) deserves some reflection. First of all, I do not accept Mr. Tyrell’s excessive comments about politics and politicians. Politics is not about “exploitation”, as Mr. Tyrell states; my experience so far is that politics is a noble service that entails a lot of family hardships and personal sacrifice. The last thing on the mind of honourable politicians like Dr Sant is the “screwing” of people, especially at election time.
Mr. Tyrell may have grown accustomed to the screwing antics of the party in government over the past several years, but then that should be another valid reason to vote Labour in the next election. We are the party of change.
Mr. Tyrell lambasts Dr Sant and the Labour Party for what he calls a “U-turn in the matter of Hondoq”. He states that he remains unconvinced with Mark Farrugia’s media release in which, according to Mr. Tyrell, Mr. Farrugia has “adopted the classical political tool of semantics”. Sheer nonsense, Mr. Tyrell! But many thanks for raising the issue once more and providing me with another opportunity to clarify matters even further regarding Labour’s position on the Hondoq ir-Rummien project proposal.
Apologies, but this is not a matter of answering with a blunt “yes” or “no”. I refer all Gozitans, the environmentalists and, nonetheless, Mr. Tyrell himself, to the Labour Party’s Media Release of the 14th October 2006 in which the Party’s views about the abovementioned project are clearly stated. As far as Labour is concerned, both the steam-rolling of public opinion (but especially the Qala residents) by government and MEPA in the handling of the Hondoq proposal, and the scale of the project itself are totally unacceptable. Mr. Tyrell’s portrayal of a situation where Labour is taking its same councillors and the Qala populace for a ride is unjust and blatantly malicious.
I understand that Mr. Tyrell’s wrath is fuelled by his complete misunderstanding of Dr Sant’s reply when the Labour leader was interviewed by Saviour Balzan on TVM (Reporter, 11th September 2007). On that occasion Mr. Balzan raised the Hondoq ir-Rummien development issue and, on asking Dr Sant for further clarifications about the matter, the Labour leader promptly intervened about the need to strike the right balance between safeguarding our islands’ environmental resources - especially the unique Gozo sites - and the exigencies of the country’s tourism sector. Whereas Dr Sant argued that well-planned “stand alone” projects such as yacht marinas may be compatible with developing our tourism industry in a sustainable manner, he did not mince his words with regards to the deleterious impacts resulting from overly massive projects such as the one being proposed for Hondoq.
Mr. Tyrell may have expected Dr Sant to refer to Hondoq more specifically. Instead, the Labour leader preferred to talk in broader terms arguing that the rampant over-development and speculation with real estate in Gozo are effectively harming Gozo’s economy and the island’s tourism industry, and this needs to be kept in check in the interest of society at large. I assure Mr. Tyrell that under a new Labour Government no decision about any yacht marina or any other project whatsoever shall be taken unless the project in question is deemed sustainable and within the parameters of the environmental impact assessment regulations as stipulated by EU law.
On a final note I would like to remark on Mr. Tyrell’s inspirational quoting of the words of 19th century American lawyer and US Democratic Party politician William Jennings Bryan. Good to know that the annals of history recall William Jennings Bryan as a staunch opponent of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
posted by Hondoq at
9:53 AM
