Deborah Schembri: “The area will remain ODZ even when the university is built.”

Gebel ma’ gebel

I’m watching Xarabank. The Labour Party’s representative, Deborah Schembri, has just made the dumbest comment: “We are saying that the area will remain ODZ despite the project. We are telling the investor that if he doesn’t carry on using the place as a university…”

And Arnold Cassola interjects, mockingly: “U mhux hekk! You’ll dismantle it bit by bit, stone by stone, and return the area to its natural state.”

A super-stressed farmer is talking now. “The university is going to be right there on my fields. My son and I are going to end up registering for work. What are they going to do with us, where are they going to send us?”

Now there’s another farmer on: “I have 15 tumoli there and they are going to take them all, all.”

More farmers now – this really brings home how shocking the situation is. The government announces that it is going to hand over Zonqor Point to a Jordanian businessman, and the tenant farmers who make a living from that land hear about it from the press conference reported on television and the online news portals.

Where are we – China, the Soviet Union, Bolivia? So much for the listening government. It’s not even democratic.