Yesterday’s meeting with residents of Prembroke, St. Julians and other areas to discuss the proposed DB Group project on the former ITS site was truly encouraging. Over 200 persons turned up for the meeting, organised by residents with the support of Moviment Graffitti and Kamp Emerġenza Ambjent. There were also a number of NGOs, representative of political parties as well as the mayors of Pembroke, St. Julian’s and Swieqi. The meeting was only made possible through the commitment of a group of Pembroke residents who spent weeks organising it. They have been meeting regularly, read project-related documents and distributed hundreds of flyers to inform other residents about the event. These residents are an inspiration to those wanting to fight greed and injustice.

During the meeting, widespread opposition to the project was clear, and this is not surprising. Who wants to be buried under a 37-storey tower? Who wants his/her locality’s character to change radically as a result of savage commercialisation?

The public meeting was a steady first step towards organising a wide and determined, non-partisan, opposition to this monstrosity. On our part, we are committed to standing up to the so-called developers who think that they can conquer and occupy our island, our lives, without us fighting back. Time and again, we have seen that people have power. When we unite, when we raise our voices, when we are determined to fight for our quality of life and our children’s life, we can achieve a lot.

This is about our future on this island. Surrender is not an option.