Maltese often compare what we do with what is done “barra minn Malta “. Put differently everything all other countries do is right and everything Maltese do is wrong – a sure sign of an inferiority complex.

[Daphne – Except where divorce is concerned…..]

Without having the foggiest idea what happens in other countries (other than possibly Britain), Astrid plays on people’s inferiority complex to gain more support.

I would have thought that we would have grown out of this inferiority complex by now. The truth is that all countries have their own problems and all countries address these problems as they see best. All countries do good things and all countries make mistakes. Malta and the Maltese are no exception.

To those who believe that everything done “barra minn Malta “ is good, you should know that “barra minn Malta” nobody would be so arrogant and presumptuous to claim to speak on behalf of “the people”.

[Daphne – By other countries, I assume our Astrid doesn’t mean Saudi Arabia, Iran, China – or that country which alone is bigger than the whole of Europe, Russia.]

Making a Facebook group about someone is the antithesis of ignoring them.

That’s hardly an environmental issue. That was Astrid Vella scratching Charlotte de Trafford’s back, which is why Mrs de Trafford now scratches hers with letters of support in the newspapers and tea at Villa Bologna.

But you’re right: Charlotte de Trafford first sold that field – or rather, she got her husband to do so because it was his family inheritance and she owns no part of it – and after receiving payment for it she began a campaign to prevent the new owners from building on it and upsetting her status quo.

So in other words, she wanted to keep things exactly the way they were, but with more money in her pocket, while the suckers who bought the field came under attack from the ‘seller’ and her friend Astrid Vella.

Instead of joining in Mrs de Trafford’s highly questionable efforts, Astrid Vella should have pointed out that she had a perfectly good way of ensuring that the field was not developed: keeping it, instead of selling it.

This takes FAA’s interference in property rights to fresh heights of arrogance. It’s one step up from telling people what they can and can’t do with their land: telling people what they can’t do with the land that used to be mine and which I have sold you only recently.

Ah … The “field” in Attard, back-to-back with Villa Bologna, if I am not mistaken. Does that ring a bell? (If I recall correctly, the “field” was sold by the Villa Bologna owners, who then objected to it being built upon. I may be wrong, of course, as I may be about the FAA objecting very publicly about it too.)

I say it before and I will say it again. I really get annoyed and angry when these individuals claim to be speaking on behalf of the people. I never gave them the right to speak on my behalf and as far as I know none of the other 400,000 people living on these islands gave them that right. Their arrogance is beyond belief.

John Azzopardi: I fully agree with you. FAA do not realise how offensive it is for a professional to be accused of bias on the basis of who commissioned the work. (Or if they do realise, they just don’t care). A professional’s first allegiance is to his profession and to the truth.

Unfortunately, Astrid Vella has a fixation about consultants being less than honest and throwing ethics out the window to please their clients or even aid and abet them to circumvent the law.

She is on record as saying that consultants who prepare environment impact assessments (EIAs) are in the pocket of developers and they prepare reports that favour their clients. I have heard her say this personally during presentations at MEPA meetings regarding projects in which I was involved as one of the consultants who had prepared the EIAs.

People like her want EIAs but then they do not trust the consultants who draw them up. It is a very sorry state because it is very obvious to me that people like her do not even bother to read the EIAs and the recommendations that the consultants include.

In the case in which I was involved Astrid definitely had not read the report. Because consultants are paid by developers it does not mean that the consultants will support the projected development. I have colleagues who are environment consultants with PhDs under their belt, and they would never dream of tarnishing their reputation by producing a report that can be shot down in flames. I wouldn’t either.

Such reports are scientific and objective, and produced at arm’s length, irrespective of who the clients are. But they are also fair, a word which is not in Astrid’s vocabulary.

[Daphne – Of course it isn’t. But I can’t help as I’m not on Facebook and have no plans to be.]