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Will Rogers says: “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” He would find plenty of jokes if he were to watch the PN government. Just take the Malta Freeport story. The PN government always hailed it a big success story and insisted that its chairman Marin Hili deserved a national monument. After so many years of deceitful spin the PN government had to admit that it was making unsustainable losses and the best way forward would be to privatise it.
Government has reached a deal with CMA CGM a French company represented by Marin Hili’s family in Malta. Government privatised Malta’s only deep-sea cargo port to this French shipping company - not a terminal operator - and said this would enhance the Malta Freeport facilities and improve Malta’s links with the rest of the world.
No new substantial investment is flowing into the Malta Freeport to improve its facilities - apart from some of its cranes - and the number of ships serving Malta’s importers and exporters is down since CMA CGM took over Malta Freeport.
Since the privatisation Malta Freeport is picking up less inter-Mediterranean trade. Some mother ships provide a shipping link to other Mediterranean ports when they are plying on a schedule that embraces Malta to both ports within and outside the Mediterranean. But their scope is limited.
Feeder operators have traditionally been the principal carriers on the intra-Mediterranean trade, but since Malta Freeport’s privatisation to CMA CGM last October, third party feeder services no longer provide the essential
shipping services that Maltese importers were accustomed to.
Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Cyprus and Greece are no longer linked to Malta after shipping lines like UFS and others discontinued their East Med services to Malta. The trade between these areas has literally been choked dead. In today’s restricted environment, there are only two UFS’s feeders operating on the Italian Tirrenian and Adriatic ports to Malta, one of which is jointly operated with CMA CGM. The three ships on these trades are small and can hardly cope with trans-shipment traffic let alone domestic imports or exports.
Maltese containers have often been left on the quay to the detriment of our factories and importers because CMA CGM/UFS give priority to the trans-shipment business. Thankfully, the few independent sea carriers using the restricted facilities within Grand Harbour are providing
a small measure of relief. But Grand Harbour can only sustain limited cargo services and sheer necessity imposes a ban on deep-sea trades between North Europe - Malta - Asia that can only use Marsaxlokk.
As Mr Uwe Malezki of Malta Freeport admitted to the Financial Times Correspondent (4 April 2005), Malta Freeport too is suffering and its cranes and workers are idle over long periods. On his part, minister Austin Gatt had openly boasted that the Freeport privatisation to CMA CGM was a blessing that will bring new investment and improved shipping services.
So far all we know is that no new substantial investment is flowing into the Malta Freeport. Maltese exporters and importers are worse off as they have fewer ships to service them. Shipping agencies have already shed workers because of poorer business when the shipping operators stopped using Marsaxlokk. But Marin Hili must be smiling; he got his monument after all!
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The business of teaching English
Alan Marsh has been involved in Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) over 30 years. “Gosh, that makes me sound old!” he tells me. What is to be done to improve the TEFL sector in Malta and Gozo? He replies: “Upgrade the teaching and learning of English at all levels of Maltese education, starting with primary schools. This entails giving more importance to English for communication - oral skills in particular. The standard of English in Malta is fundamental for the TEFL market, as most clients expect to be able to use English outside the classroom. And of course, we need to ensure that our future EFL teachers are fluent in English.”
Alan also believes that “private EFL schools - particularly those with professional credentials and expertise should have more say in decisions which directly affect the sector. Invest more in teacher training and development. Set, maintain, and enforce higher standards in host family accommodation. Be aware of, and if appropriate adapt, developments in the EFL sector in other countries- we don’t have to re-invent the wheel all the time!”
“Regular in-service training and development, research opportunities, opportunities to participate in international conferences, promotions and increased responsibilities (and remuneration) based on performance - these are lacking in all but a very few of our language schools. Schools are investing more and more in sales and marketing, but they also need to invest more in those sectors that deal with their clients once they are here. I and several others are also concerned at the lack of pastoral care provided for teenagers. Of course, some schools are very careful to look after their youngsters 24 hours a day, but more need to do so.”
As English for beginners becomes part of the curriculum in many countries that now provide a lot of clients for this sector, what future does Alan see for this sector in the years to come?
”A rosy one - if the sector can rise to the challenge! There are two aspects here, I think. First of all, more and more post-beginners can come from Asian countries, particularly China, and from Eastern Europe. We need to make sure that teachers receive appropriate training in making learning effective using techniques that are not based on teacher explanations - because they won’t be understood. We also need to be more aware of learner expectations and learning experiences, which are often very different from those of western European learners, who make up the lion’s share of our market at the moment. Schools also need to employ customer care staff who speak the language(s) of such learners, and who can help ease their integration into a Maltese context.”
“The second aspect is that as English language teaching provision becomes increasingly effective in many of Malta’s traditional European markets, schools should gear themselves up to the fact that more learners coming to Malta will be at higher levels of English proficiency. This means that teachers may be required to possess a higher standard of English than is sometimes the case at present. Those whose English is not already at an advanced level of fluency may need to upgrade their own English grammar, spoken fluency and vocabulary. They may also be required to teach English for specialised purposes - mainly for business.”
evaristbartolo@hotmail.com
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