SOS Hondoq News

Thursday, July 24, 2008

True green all the way

Published on The Times of Malta on Tuesday 23rd July, 2008 by Charles Sammut.

It is indeed remarkable that an Irish national like James A. Tyrrell (July 16) can see through the efforts of the Minister of Gozo to bamboozle the Gozitans when she launched the Gozo Eco-Island campaign and, yet, many fail to do so. I wonder how much partisan politics are behind this reaction.

Eco-island indeed when the sword of Damocles is constantly hanging over Ħondoq ir-Rummien and Ramla Bay. Minister Giovanna Debono kept referring to the pending scientific study about the ecological ramifications a marina and condominia would have on Ħondoq. As if the outcome of this study is in any doubt!

In my opinion, if she were really serious in her desire to protect the Gozitan environment, she would have ruled out any development once the study predicted doom and gloom to the environment. She did not even say that.

Of course, a person seriously in favour of protecting and preserving the little undisturbed landscape left on Gozo would have proclaimed these areas as "untouchable" and that development would take place "over my dead body".

That is my idea of a real stand-out friend of the environment.