Letters | Sunday, 22 March 2009

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In defence of Astrid

Being in favour or against the now defunct St John’s project is a democratic right but attacking Astrid Vella and her integrity smacks and smells of political arrogance, disrespect towards everyone’s right to oppose, and intolerance.
For the record Ms Vella has as recently as last December won the European award for voluntary work after she received no less than 12,000 votes from different EU countries in recognition of her tireless efforts to save what is left of our untouched heritage and charm. It was Astrid Vella who on the 5 November 2008, a mere three months ago, won the Volunteer of the Year Award presented by SOS Malta, a prize which according to Dr Gonzi himself is “an expression of the value of volunteering”. Had Astrid Vella and her organisation not voiced concern about the project, in all probability we would have been slyly bamboozled into believing that the project is all beneficial and this would have been said to be confirmed by some fictitious “consultation” exercise to which we have become so accustomed to by now.
Ms Vella was never against an EIA on the project but had doubts on it because it was being funded by the Foundation itself which at the time had all the reason to see that the project goes on unhindered. For the record it was Dr Gonzi who scrapped the project (and not Ms Vella) after ignoring everyone except the Archbishop!
Unlike Astrid Vella the louder some armchair-know-it-alls shout, the more they become enemies of their own mission. So to Ms Astrid Vella a word of encouragement is due, as it is with people like her that this country could ever hope to protect itself from greedy politicians, developers and those who so eloquently and “politely” attack NGOs to make sure that the status quo in this country remains untouched!

Albert Gauci Cunningham
Bugibba

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