Trees, eh? Who’d have them.
Published:
December 21, 2011 at 5:45pm
Don't look at me like that. I'm trying to be as unobtrusive as possible.
I read about the new Spinola Bay project with interest, but what fascinated me particularly was the description of the trees as “unobtrusive”. It was as though somebody sat down and mapped the thing out, then said: “Look, there’s no way we can avoid putting in some trees, but people might get upset, so let’s make sure they’re as unobtrusive as possible.”
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…….and Eve would not have been tempted.
The comment on the trees is a mirror of what most Maltese actually think. Most people in this country have zero tolerance for trees in general and green things in particular.
What really upsets me is that when these same people go overseas and actually see some real trees they go gaga and say that in Malta ”m’ghandna xejn”.
This past summer I simply had to give in and allow the local council to chop down the only tree in the area where I live. The council said that it had a lot of complaints from residents who stated that the tree was too large, it was casting too much shade, it was damaging the tiling in their GARDENS. young people were getting drug fixed underneath it etc…
Probably most of these morons believe Sargas about carbon sequestration as well.
Unobtrusive trees … imma l-aqwa li ha’ jkun hemm il-funtani.
NOTE TO GEORGE PULLLINO: Please make sure that whilst the area is being restructured or whatever, the puny monument with Mintoff’s name on it at the entrance to the Tigullio car park in Spinola is removed. The only purpose it currently serves is that of a pissoir and spit target … and rightly so, perhaps.
Yes I know the feeling,
The local council in Mellieha chopped down a dozen or so protected tamarisks to make way for…nothing, and are now attempting to chop down the beautiful ficus trees in front of the police station because of ‘the bird droppings’.
Sad.
The Maltese can’t bear trees as manifest nature surpassing their existence. That’s reserved for Sunday afternoons and even then, what they term picnics are transformed into domestic spaces with all creature comforts, defeating the purpose.
Summer barbecues are even worse.
Call it a particular strain of anticlerical modernism averse to rurality. Nature, according to them, is old, unbearably nostalgic and a constant reminder of humble origins.
When adamant individuality, typical of islanders, restricts the urban space, the trees are the first to go. This contradiction in the sense of proportion and size requires the extension of mental space to create sustainable habitat.
Malta, given the population, cannot afford to ignore this any longer.
This doesn’t imply hanging old cart wheels all over the place.
Undoubtedly the wrong term. Suppose they meant the opposite of dominant, as in, “the trees dominated the square”.
I was at the press conference. ‘Unobtrusive’ was the actual word the architect used.
Though to be perfectly honest I don’t see much wrong with it.
Trees, just like any other noun, can be unobtrusive.
Would have been fun if the article described them as ‘inconspicuous’.
Can’t they install retractable trees, like the bollards?
‘Umbrella’ trees would be just fine – remember to add an ‘up and down’ button.
And to shake out the birds. Squashed Tweeties aren’t a pleasant sight for your toddlers out on their Sunday buggy-ride, and then we’d have no end to press conferences from the Children’s Commissioner.
Nation of complainers..no one ever wins and our island loses.
“Nation of complainers..”
You bet – PL especially.
Trees need space, and if anyone has a ficus tree in front of his house like the ones there are in Valletta by Saint John’s Cathedral then he would experience the lifting of tiles in his property, damage to his sewage system , leaking wells ,leaking swimming pools,constant dirt on the road, and dark and cold houses.
The Ficus Australianis trees which were planted in the 50’s are being uprooted and transplanted in open spaces where they will embellish big open spaces without creating damage to the surrounding areas.
There are ‘trees’ which create a lot of pollen like the Acacia(bush) and there are ‘trees’ which take all the nutrients from the surrounding soil surface like the Eucalyptus(bush).
These two types of fast growing bushes which I mentioned here are going to be obliterated from our islands in the near future.
In the meantime endemic trees are being planted, the planting of olive trees and vines has been given a boost since we joined the EU.
People who have a small garden would invariably have at least a lemon tree and an orange tree.
People become allergic to trees when they start suffering consequences of lack of light in their homes and damage to their buildings.We cannot afford the luxury of having a forty foot driveway people have in Australia or the US.
The planners who planted palm trees in Blue Grotto Avenue in Zurrieq seemed to have struck the right balance.
@Jozef
You left a very important issue out of your comment and that is diversity. Most of our endemic flora is not endemic at all but typically Mediterrenean…and some ‘endemic’ tree and shrub species take forever to grow. That is not saying that these shouldn’t be planted.
And by the way, the two ‘tree species’ you mentioned are not bushes at all but trees, with some of them being shrubs. A quick google search will reveal the difference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-qf7-66NMI