That the Gozo airport, airstrip or whatever you may want to call it, has been on the agenda for aeons speaks volumes of the shallow, superficial and frankly nutcase policies shared throughout the years by the Labour and Nationalist parties.
A pundit of Xarabank fame lately (in October), in one of his monologues on the click-bait ‘media’, defended this duopoly because in so many words ‘we cannot expect perfection’. Completely missing the point of the politics of ideas, of pluralism, of the healthy exchange of ideas, he defends the tribes he’s so indebted to. We’re drowning in shallowness and public discourse is dominated by narcissists in love with their voice. No wonder nutcase policies are hardly challenged.
The Gozo airport saga is symbolic of PL and PN’s lack of vision and race to the bottom. On the political level the Gozo airport was supported on and off, depending on where the winds were blowing by the Fenech Adami administration, reconsidered again during the Gonzi administration, and obviously revived by Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela. Fast forward to a week or so ago, the project was approved by the development-permit-issuing-authority.
The reactions were obvious. The shallowness self-evident. Bright-sparks, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri and PN Gozo MP Alex Borg, supposedly ‘leadership material’ according to some (is lol still a thing?), rushed to welcome this stupidity. Their arguments simplistic, childish and superficial; same as their pathetic arguments defending ‘our traditions of hunting and trapping’. This is laughably called being ‘close to the people’. Being shallow and superficial, insulting people’s intelligence, is being ‘one of the people’, whatever that may mean.
In fact, they are standing up for the politics of destruction and of appeasement. They represent the politics of cheapness, of myopic politics and of propping up particular parasite industries. The politics of actually being against the common good, against wasteful use of resources, while at the same time posturing, spouting out empty mind-numbing rhetoric at one of their coffee mornings, and providing shallow content for some so-called ‘media’ outlets.
It is pertinent to point out why the Gozo airstrip is totally nuts. Not that it will make much difference now. My only ask is that when the project fails just remember the posturing clowns proposing and supporting this madness. Just remember that it was the Green Party that made the political arguments about the insanity of this project. The same as we had done about the other crazy idea of a tunnel or bridge, pushed so much by the Nationalists, for some time supported by Labour, and now, it seems shelved, hopefully for good by Robert Abela. Shelved, thanks to us, and some ever-consistent NGOs, and nobody else.
It is nuts, to build an airport on a tiny island in a tiny country, where the international airport is barely 40 kilometres away by road, not to mention the cheap ferry service from Valletta. Tourists who want to visit a destination off the main island because it’s supposedly quieter and quainter are more than ready for an additional short road or sea voyage. Otherwise please just do everyone a favour and just don’t visit.
It’s nuts to take up the space equivalent of 11 football grounds on a tiny island. On top of all the unbridled development taking place on this island with the blessing of the authorities, further urbanisation and development is simply unacceptable. What’s more, some small aircraft operators already want an even bigger airport. What’s next? A runway for 50-seater aircraft, or for Ryanair flights to Sicily? Absolutely nuts.
It is obvious that since the project’s economic viability is not sound from the outset, there will be pressure down the line for it to be extended – in fact, this has already commenced. Similar to the tunnel proposal, the short distances prevailing from Malta International Airport to Gozo render this project as simply one of prestige without any justification. The Gozo airport project is nuts because it is simply untrue that it will only take 15 minutes to get to Gozo – those already in Malta will need to travel to the airport first and even those incoming from abroad will need to wait for the transfer.
When it comes to employment, the estimated increase of 48 jobs does not justify the destruction brought about by this project. Even when it comes to the added value to the tourism industry; it is only estimated that this will lead to an additional five full time jobs only. Not that we need any more tourists or badly paid jobs in tourism anyway.
What’s more, despite the Prime Minister’s posturing in the United Nations about climate change, the setting up (or rather reorganisation of existing agencies) of a climate change authority, and the theatrical declaration of a climate emergency in parliament, first by the Nationalists, joined by Labour, pathetically without any legal standing and policy consequences, we will now have another airport contributing to increased carbon emissions. At the same time as a country we will continue to oppose any taxation on aviation fuel, and expect understanding and help when it comes to climate mitigation.
This is the politics of shallowness, based on what looks grand, on an old-world notion of ‘progress’, on impressing constituents with empty rhetoric and posturing. Something the PL and PN, and Clint Camilleri and Alex Borg do rather well.
(First published in Maltatoday – 20 October in print and 24 October 2024 online)
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