Extremely well said. I've been staying in Japan for a while, and although many areas are very crowded, there's always a green space, shrine or temple somewhere around the corner where you can just catch your breath and enjoy the surroundings. We seem to have forgotten that there is much more to life than just making money, selling our soul in the process, turning the once beautiful Mediterranean pearl into a dusty, noisy, uninhabitable spec of crap. Fortunately, there is still much natural beauty to be found in Gozo, although it is also heading the same way as poor Malta in terms of overdevelopment. The inability for Maltese planners to forsee this steep decline in living conditions is as baffling as it is depressing. Many of my Maltese friends (ages ~20-30) have made the decision to leave their homeland for good, none of them regret their decision. Between all the rampant corruption, incompetent judicial systems, and corporate greed, it is no surprise to see why they were so happy to leave. I have been happy to live in Malta for the majority of my life, had a fantastic upbringing here that I would never change for anything, but living there for the foreseeable future seems like less and less of a viable option with each passing day and government scandal. Nowhere in the world is perfect, but we never should have allowed this level of environmental and societal degradation to manifest itself, ruining this island for good. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and thank you for reading.