There is something morbidly fascinating about Coruscant – the seat of the Galactic Empire in the Star Wars movies. But do we really want something like this to overtake our ‘real’ world?

The decision to transfer the land at Zonqor Point to Sadeen further proves that Muscat’s government is intent on turning Malta into, essentially, one big airport.

The social and cultural wellbeing of local life – in all its forms – will become further and further sidelined, in the interest of turning Malta into little more than a platform, a jumping on and off point for financially powerful international players able to pump money, but little else, back into the island.

Obviously, Muscat’s aggressive neo-liberal philosophy is an easy ‘sell’ in every sense of the word.

It’s easy because capitalism is the primary motor of the world right now, and so many will either be swayed immediately, or convinced to look the other way, when there’s an immediate inrush of money to be made.

One meme that has circulated ever since the Zonqor/ODZ debacle first started raging, was the old chestnut about the environment being a ‘middle class’ concern – something that only the bourgeois presumably had the luxury to cry over when others would welcome any boost to their pockets.

But Malta isn’t a poor country. Those proposing some kind of stark division between the haves and have-nots, particularly on vague – read: false – ‘cultural’ grounds are misguided in every sense of the word. Malta ‘needs’ this project like it needs a bullet to its – limestone – head.

Also, saying that the previous government did exactly the same thing as some kind of excuse to make the current mistakes seem better in comparison, is also deceptive and false.

If anything, it is precisely BECAUSE the previous government operated on the same principles that the need to safeguard our environment is becoming all the more urgent.

Supporting the ‘American’ University makes you neither a champion of successful government hustling for cash, and it certainly doesn’t make you a champion of the supposedly impoverished underclass that stands to gain from this toxic land-grab.

All it makes you is a supporter of the status quo.

A status quo that would sooner have Malta as an extension of the Malta International Airport.

Paved to ‘perfection’, with artificial outlets providing transitory needs for transitory people.

Of course, right after Muscat and co. have demolished all that is unique and attractive about the Maltese islands, the supposed economic excitement this is meant to engender will gradually fade away.

But of course, who will care at that point? The locals will be dulled into submission by promises of more money, or will have moved away in disgust. And Muscat’s decisions will have insulated him from any further unpleasantness or hurt.

*

I’m writing this while I eagerly await a screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in a beautiful Parisian cinema. On the one hand, the impulse of looking forward to a cash-boosted blockbuster – the legacy of which is actually directly wended to the financial behemoth of the blockbuster as we know it – appears to be in direct opposition to the sentiment expressed above.

But as with all things, it’s down to how you process them individually.

Various thoughts and feelings jostle within us at any given time.

The influence of Star Wars on how I viewed storytelling will always have an influence on anything that I do. As will my indignation – and yes, sense of powerlessness – at something like the Zonqor tragedy.

I’m hoping that something productive comes out of this alchemy, very soon. And with the help of some truly inspired friends and collaborators.