Homes cannot be our coffins. The tyranny of complacency ends today

When homes become coffins, then we truly have reached rock bottom. This senseless and irrational drive for development has been around since the 60s, and look where we are now.

As Dean I feel terribly distressed by the week’s events. It is shocking but unfortunately a completely unsurprising, logical conclusion to the race to the bottom we have undertaken as a country for the sake of the economy.

We do not merely look at instances but at overarching patterns within society. The complaints and groans of ordinary residents have long been overshadowed by the never-ending cacophony of building and demolishing. It has become convenient to ignore the effects on the mental wellbeing of residents and the issues of those with mobility issues, who move across craters, broken pavements; or the non-reimbursed damages that so much building has caused, which should be shouldered by the developers. Not only, we are well aware that our houses are not able to take in the external pounding of neighbouring construction work, not to mention that they are inadequately prepared for any tremors.

By and large it has also been quite easy to ignore the writing on the wall; that these building practices were occurring too fast, not being researched enough and that health and safety practices were being ignored and laws broken, resulting in the damaging of a number of buildings. But yesterday a line was crossed. Our stash of miracles, our meaningless ‘wegħdiet’, our ‘u ija’ attitude did not come through for us. We find ourselves unequivocally facing the results of our hubris and the person and family that has paid the price were not causes of the fate that befell them.

This moment must be used as a turning point, if we want to take anything from this tragedy.

We cannot accept the mediocre and inferior results produced by a somewhat corrupted and tainted system, which serves the interest of self-appointed elites in such a crass and abrasive manner anymore. We must stop desiring to benefit from such a broken system, but have the resolve to fix it, even if that means that in the short run, we might stand to lose some temporary advantage. Politico-entrepreneurs, developers and investors do not get the audacity to break the rules in a vacuum.

If we are to prevent such tragedies, we need to become a lawful nation, that holds persons in power to account using laws and regulations accessible and known to everyone.

We need to wrestle ourselves from the hegemonic domination that the term ‘economic growth’ has imprisoned us in. Not everything can be about the economy and about money and about growth. There is intangible and unquantifiable wealth and wellbeing which is to be protected even if it is not obviously convertible to euros.

Finally, we must take on the dictatorship of the haves and demand that our little island becomes a sanctuary also for the have-nots. The tyranny of complacency ends today.

The Faculty for Social Wellbeing extends its deepest condolences to the family of Miriam Pace. Loss, especially senseless Loss, is inconsolable, but as a Faculty we promise that we will use this pain to ensure that such a tragedy never occurs again.