The Ta’ Qali ‘ramel fin u gravel apposta’ saga

In June this year I started posting on Facebook images of the rapid transformation the picnic area in Ta’ Qali was going through. By August I had published four such posts. In August a post on this topic by artist Thomas Camilleri went viral.

Questioned by The Times, Jason Micallef, the brainwave behind the action to cover the Ta’ Qali picnic area in gravel, called Camilleri’s claims “nonsense” and insisted the area was never covered in grass at the height of summer”. Micallef also stated that the gravel would not prevent the grass from growing back in winter.

At the beginning of September, podcaster Trudy Kerr went to verify with her own eyes what the situation was and confirmed that the whole area was indeed covered in gravel in a video she posted on social media. Jason Micallef retorted with insults and threatened that he would take Kerr to court.

This saga brings up two important national issues: The first regarding the state of the environment; the second regarding the impunity in our country of politicians and their faithful lackeys.

First issue: Jason Micallef is right when he says that the grass will grow back. The COVID-19 experience has shown one and all how nature fights back and that it is so powerful that vegetation will even start taking over whole areas concreted by humans, if given the possibility.

But did Jason Micallef need to cover the picnic area in gravel to help the natural vegetation (not lawn, as many erroneously refer to it) grow again? My answer is a resounding ‘no’. The grass has been growing naturally there in winter ever since God Almighty created the world. Every summer it dries up and the cycle restarts every year. Nature does not need Jason Micallef’s help to grow and thrive.

What is sure is that this multi-tasking expert—he is involved in Mużika Mużika, Malta Football Association commercial activity, Valletta Cultural Agency, Arts Council activities, the Buġibba regeneration and Ta’ Qali National Park (for which, all combined, he gets over €100,000 a year in taxpayer money)—has caused damage to the biodiversity of the area in question.

For the last four years he has allowed mass activities to be organised in the family recreational area. The compacting of the underlying soil because of the mass trampling does a big disservice to all the living organisms in the soil. Then, covering the area in around two and a half inches of the so called “ramel fin u gravel apposta”, which my ministerial informants say comes from Greece, gives the final blow.

But, let us say that experts have advised Jason Micallef on this move. So, we at Momentum want: A copy of the expert’s report; a copy of ERA’s permit to proceed with works; a copy of the public tender issued for the importation of such gravel; to know who was awarded the public tender; and the cost of such tender.

We look forward to a speedy answer to our freedom of information request. Failure to provide this information would make me suspect that no expert was involved in this decision and that some bażużlu might have been awarded a juicy direct order for the importation of the gravel.

Which brings me to the second issue—political impunity. Despite having led the Labour Party to an election defeat as its secretary general in 2008, Jason Micallef still wields enormous power within the PL. He must know a lot of secrets about the latest PL leaders.

In order to get of rid of him from the party in 2009, Joseph Muscat had to appease him by handing him the paid chairmanship of the party’s broadcasting stations. In the past 12 years, he has been rewarded with taxpayer funded jobs and/or consultancies in several government agencies. He is also chairman of the commercial enterprise of the Malta Football Association, Sports Plus company, that brings over foreign football teams for training camps in Malta.

Micallef has this year returned to the PL executive and has the supposed task of overseeing the implementation of the party’s electoral manifesto—something which Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi already does. In reality, he has been placed there to remind Robert Abela that Joseph Muscat has his watchful eyes on the prime minister.

This concentration of power in the hands of Micallef has made him the arrogant person we know him to be. But with his vicious attack on Trudy Kerr, he has crossed a red line. Whilst I can reluctantly tolerate him attacking rival politicians, since we are all participating in the political game, he has no right to vilify normal citizens, who are just expressing their opinions based on factual observation of things.

So, it is up to each and every one of us, especially those involved in the political debate, to stand up to such arrogant, cowardly bullies. Maltese politics do not need such behaviour.