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Newsreport
by Saviour Balzan
Emergency
We can
rejoice that the hospital service in this country is unchanged.
In other words there is little or no shakin steven kind of revolution.
Noticeable change I mean.
Very well,
statistics will prove me wrong but a visit to some wards will
not.
What is far
worse are the emergency services.
I am told
by a shocked onlooker that only the other week, medical services
who had just arrived to assist a dying man did not have the necessary
equipment, such as an oxygen tank.
More. There
was no doctor, but only a nurse.
Needless
to say the man died, perhaps not because of such sloppiness but
then we will never know.
If I had
not spent three years of my study life at St Luke’s hospital
I could be excused for being so negative. But I did and we all
know, how careless some of the medical staff have turned out to
be.
Not all by
the way but some.
I can remember
the case of a friend who was injected the wrong dose and the other
friend who was languishing in his own excreta on the floor for
an hour.
And the friend
who was operated and stitched even though her bile duct had been
pierced. And of the 8:30am to 1:00am consultant who came up to
me and said: "Such things happen."
St Luke’s
is that wonderful experience which brings us closer to our creator.
The other
day, on a radio, one person made the very important point that the
human trade takes place with the consent of the family members.
In other words there are many people who know what is happening
and are simply looking the other way.
Are we surprised
that people can stoop to such criminal and vile acts.
Maltese have
always been natural born criminals.
The prostitute
industry in London in the sixties is a case in point.
The young
men who run the human trade are well known, they keep their fast
black boats in small harbours and have been seen on many an occasion.
We know they are armed.
The truth
is that omertá does exist in this country.
And it is
widespread.
In Naxxar
the other day, someone pointed out the local drug dealer, everyone
knows who he is and no one does anything about him.
Is this a
sign of apathy or is it simply a sign of the times.
The leader
of Opposition has promised to keep our Saturdays busy. He takes
out his calculator on Friday and provides us with numbers on how
cheaper it would be to import from Italy compared to producing
in Malta.
In essence
he is trying to say that come Europe our melon farmers will be
an extinct species.
His hatred
for anything with a Brussel tag has taken his arguments to the
cliff edge.
Fredu, as
we affectionately know him, is fully aware that he is taking this
debate far too far.
There is
no such thing as a full time melon farmer and even if so, the
supreme interests of the consumer outweigh those of a few farmers.
By the way yesterday it was the meat man.
But having
said this, Dr Sant must be given some education into agricultural
practices and their historical evolution over the years.
Decades ago,
Malta was better known for it’s cotton farming. Today it
is not. Farming changes according to prices, demand and supply.
Europe or no Europe, one cannot go on protecting forever.I love
the sunshine, but I hate the sun, and my heart goes out to those
beasts of burden. They brave the summer months with no shade.
Where the hell have all those noisy expat animal lovers disappeared
to.
saviourbalzan@maltamag.com
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