(This letter is written in reply to Archbishop Paul Cremona’s article ‘A wake-up call’, published last Sunday)
I have to state that I do not usually write my personal thoughts on the newspapers. I have also to state that I have not carried out any research related to the subject in caption. However, I am a separated person, now living happily with my partner for more than four years, but denied the possibility of officially having a new married life by the State.
I say this because I believe in the concept of the family.
I have read with interest the Archbishop’s comments about your published article, and feel that I have to write down a couple of things.
First of all, I congratulate the Archbishop for his open-mindedness, something which we had never witnessed in his predecessors. I also understand that if the Catholic Church does not believe in divorce, for whatever reason, then it should also expect its followers not to get divorced.
What I cannot accept is that these followers, who are not divorced, want to impose their beliefs on the rest of the Maltese society. Do they think that it is a pleasure to be married for 13 years and then get separated? Do they really believe that people like me have done it for fun? Or because we are immature? Or because we do not care for our children? If they do believe so, they really have petty minds.
Once a marriage fails, it is very difficult to bring it back… and if the couple does not get separated, this does not mean that the marriage has been saved. I can argue that at that point in time, it is much better for the children to have their parents separated, than to have them living in the same house, supposedly through a saved marriage, but living separate lives in hypocrisy. Does the Church, or anyone else for that matter, have any statistics to quote here? How many marriages have been truly saved? Or better still, how many have NOT been saved, notwithstanding all the efforts?
We must not mix up the family as a unit with the concept of the family. Our politicians have to understand that saving the concept of the family does not mean stopping individual family units from splitting up. In all truth, they already realise this, as separation is legal in Malta. Yet, they prevent the formation of new families! This does not make sense to me and to all those who are separated. It only seems to make sense to those who have either never been married – and hence cannot understand what it means to live with an incompatible person day in day out – or else by those who got it right first time round! This is pure egoism and hypocrisy.
Going back to the Archbishop’s reply, the Church wants “to mend the cracks”. The Church must, in my opinion, make sure that the foundations are right in the first place. That is the only way to reduce the risk of failure. Of course, in addition to that, and notwithstanding all one’s good intentions, then sometimes cracks do develop. And the right strategy is to fix these cracks, rather than condemn the building.
But what about those cases where the problems are so big that the buildings have to be pulled down? Do you leave a demolished site? No! You erect a new building. Without divorce, this new building, this new family, is not possible. And please, do not accept this but at the same time say that the numbers are too small!
The Archbishop mentions the statistics in the UK, saying that the situation has deteriorated because of divorce. Is he sure that the situation has deteriorated NOTWITHSTANDING divorce? Is he sure that, as is the situation in Malta, the amount of true marriages is not decreasing at an overwhelming rate? This is happening here even without divorce. Youngsters are afraid to get married! They are afraid because they do not have the possibility of a second chance should the first one go wrong. Divorce gives them that chance. Remember, we are not talking about the family unit here, but about the concept of the family. Politicians must not miss the wood for the trees!
And finally (I do not want to take up too much space) the issue of the numbers related to separations and marriages in Malta. Are we sure that we are talking about the same thing? Of course there are more married couples in Malta than separated ones! I do not think that anyone was arguing about that. But what are the yearly amounts of new marriages when compared to those of new separations? Can somebody enlighten us all?
This divorce issue in Malta is a shame to us as a nation. It reflects an imposition of the view of the majority on the rights of a minority. Divorce is a social right. As long as the present laws remain as they are, we will always be a fundamentalist country with a legal system that discriminates against the minority by imposing the religious beliefs of the majority. Let’s not just be disgusted at the way other third world countries mix religious issues with state affairs.
Vincent Magri
Via email
The article that appeared in your newspaper on Sunday 1 June 2008 under the heading ‘Sliema council denies being consulted over Exiles extension’ is not only misleading but total inaccurate to the facts of the case.
The facts speak for themselves:
In March 2005, the application was published in a local newspaper and a notification of this application was subsequently mailed to the Sliema Local Council.
On 9 June 2005, the council, through its executive scretary, wrote to MEPA requesting that it is consulted on this project to ensure that its residence are spared of any inconvenience or loss of rights over the bay.
On 13 September 2005, MEPA sent the relevant documents to the Local Council for a 30-day consultation period.
On 27 October 2005, the Sliema local council wrote back to MEPA as follows (in translation): “Reference is made to the proposed works in the Exiles Sports Club, Sliema. I would like to inform you that the Sliema Local Council finds no objection to the proposed alterations, to the said building, so long as these do not diminish the rights of those who currently enjoy the use of the bay. The Local Council disagrees with any increase in the beach concession which could be to the detriment of the citizens.”
On 6 March 2008, the DCC decided that the development had to recede further back from the coastline. The outline application was approved.
The fact that the current Sliema Mayor was elected to office in March 2006, does not make the functions, responsibilities and decisions of the local council, prior to this date, irrelevant and ineffective. The extension of the Exiles waterpolo club had the ‘blessing’ of the Sliema local council.
Peter Gingell
Marketing Executive, MEPA
The letter published last Sunday, ‘Warden does it… the wrong way!’, included a photo that was taken on 11 April 2008 at 9.30 am in Balzan, and subsequently reported in It-Torca on April 20.
On April 27, this newspaper also reported that, after the Guard & Warden Service House Ltd was asked to investigate the case, Balzan council was informed and a contravention was issued to the warden in question. The person who made the report was asked to act as a witness before the tribunal on this case.
It is worth mentioning that public officials, like wardens and the police, can stop in prohibited places to issue contraventions.
The person who lodged the report was also informed that, should further steps be required to be taken against the warden, the company was prepared to co-operate because it believes that no one is above the law.
Malcolm J. Naudi
Msida
Squawking shrill and crooked nose, pointing a metre rule savagely, like a spear, towards spectacled, pimply students, the teacher marches in a definite, sturdy pace, looking high above the lecture hall of fretful A-Level victims.
“The game has been taken up a notch,” contemplates the tyrant teacher through the thick worry, “the A-Levels are now literally unsurpassable!”
And the teacher squeals a high-pitched villain laugh, pointing threateningly at her aghast audience.
Well, okay, maybe not quite as melodramatic as the actual situation is in real life, but I would definitely not put it past some professional spoofing cartoonists to devise a plot similar to the above for the case of the Matsec Board’s… how shall I put it… well, carelessness. It has apparently always been the case that certain mistakes, if rather minute, have been at times present within the blood-sealing pages of the examination booklet. I shall not even exclude, as some semi-patriots do, that abroad such occurrences do not happen, and that thus we Maltese are somewhat arbitrarily donned with a sense of ignorance and apathy.
What I will point out, however, is that it greatly disturbs me to realise, that in the case of national education, where the grade of an A-Level dictates your admission into further education or employment, the examiners are residing over one of two possible options: 1) scribbling down a few random questions according (some of the time) to the set syllabus, but not proofreading or checking for deficiencies before sending it to print; 2) smoking some conspicuous substance while they write, and/or possibly proofread it.
For both conventionality’s sake and my own legal welfare, I will look upon the first option as the most likely explanation.
The Matsec Board nevertheless has managed throughout the years to maintain a specific standard by which people regard the intensity of our locally baked exam sheets. It may be also worth noting that the Matsec certificates are also recognised as a tough comparison to other examination boards such as Cambridge or IGCSE.
Thus I ask, if we are somewhat fortunately granted with exams of such a calibre to put to our names, why do these examiners blatantly show such a sense of carelessness towards doing their job well? I have presently heard of more than three different cases where major deficiencies have been spotted; this is not to add, of course, to the questions that were exempt from the syllabus.
In a rather twisted rendition of Juvenal’s “Who will watch the watchers?” I then ask, in eager awaitingness to my own feeble execution next year, tell me “Who will examine the examiners?”
Erin Stewart Tanti
Swieqi
Some time ago I wrote a letter, which was published in a Saturday edition of a rival newspaper, posing several pertinent observations (to politicians and Government in particular) relating to the happenings at Tigné/Qui Si Sana. I did think that at least one Minister or MP would offer a reasonable answer through that medium, none ever did.
The statements I made then bear repeating:
1) The Sliema Midi project originally applied and was granted permission for a host of 2/4 storey buildings with a tower of some unspecified height. Within a short time space these became 11/12 storey towers with barely enough space between them to enable natural daylight to show through. In fact with most of them you can almost shake hands with your opposite neighbour from your own balcony. Why?
2) Fort Cambridge Complex originally applied for a 16-storey block, which within the bat of an eyelid was raised to 23 storeys. Work goes ahead at an amazing speed despite the lack of an EIA. Why?
3) Sliema Town Square Development: originally the developers were seeking a 12-storey development that was then refused. They now have permission for a 26-storey block. Why?
4) The Qui Si Sana car park project is merely “on hold” and not scrapped. How long will this “on hold” go on for? Does it, as I suspect, mean that after the next election it will be given the go ahead?
I don’t have a vote and I only visit the island occasionally. My mother and stepfather do live here though, and I know many concerned residents in the area who do not make themselves heard publicly, for fear of recrimination (perceived or otherwise) but none the less are privately concerned as to what is happening.
These people do have a vote which most will use. They need concrete evidence that their wishes will be upheld and, that what’s been wrongly done can and will be undone. It is not good enough at this late stage to say that MEPA will be reformed. That promise is vague and hardly worth the paper it’s written on, and doesn’t go anywhere near answering our concerns.
So far, it seems all the prizes are given to the developers whilst the compromises have to be borne by the ever-suffering residents.
Anthony Fenech
London
I am a fan of Malta, staying on this interesting island for some months every year for the past six years.
But lots of things make me angry: for instance, how the Maltese maintain their cities.
Living close the Rocklands, Block 2, Tower Road and the New Tower Hotel, I have been watching a huge water leak for two months (but I guess it lasts already longer). Water is running day after day out of the building on the street and nobody cares about it.
It is not just a waste of water on an island were fresh water is precious. The street also looks dirty.
Why does nobody feel responsible for it? No landlord, no Sliema mayor and no water company...? It is a shame.
Karin Landschulz
KHPM, Germany
I refer to the article that appeared in your newspaper on Wednesday 7 May 2008 under the heading ‘No sanctions for appointees breaching MEPA code of ethics’ whereby your journalist Matthew Vella rashly wrote that “Such a situation would legitimise meetings such as the alleged meeting held between MEPA chairman Andrew Calleja and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, and the former ministry official Lawrence Vassallo serving as MEPA complaints officer, over the controversial Mistra project.”
This alleged meeting, between the MEPA Chairman, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and the MEPA complaints officer, to which your journalist is referring, never took place. We expect that this misinformation is clarified and given the appropriate prominence that this article received. Should we not feel satisfied with this remedial action we will consider legal action.
Peter Gingell
Marketing Executive, MEPA
IF there was any doubt that Alfred Sant did not see eye to eye with Michael Falzon for most of the past legislature, now it is gone. During the whole electoral campaign and every time both the leader and deputy leaders were sitting near each other, even in party meetings, I have always noticed the body language of Alfred Sant, who never, I say never, appeared to bend to his left side, where Michael always was sitting, to say a word. But he always looked to the person on his right, who happened to be Charles Mangion.
After reading the whole analysis report on the performance of the Labour Party during the last election I can only conclude, and after hearing the genuine reaction by Michael to it, I can only deduce that Alfred Sant has given his personal instructions to the members of the commission what to report and whom to mention by name. He ensured that both himself and Michael Falzon will never be part of the leadership anymore. Poor Michael.
Carmelo Dalli
Via email
Morena was excellent, the song was good, but I do not think that the recording was commercial enough. This has happened with other Maltese entries.
We do not only need excellent composers and writers, and we do have, but most of all a good producer, who can process a song and make it more commercial.
On a different theme, Malta is not well known to most Europeans.
Paul Debono
Qawra
I cannot remember such an extraordinarily early excitement for an election that is due in five years’ time. The reason is obvious. The Malta Labour Party is still in an internal election mode to elect its new leadership and its administration a few months later. Labour voters and the country are understandably anxious to know and to guess who will be the person leading the party to face the electorate in 2013.
Labour is lucky to have five valid contenders in the race for the Leader’s post. The collective credentials of George Abela, Evarist Bartolo, Marie Louise Coleiro-Preca, Michael Falzon and Joseph Muscat are a rich mixture of political experience, vision, initiative and electoral appeal. This gives Labour delegates have a very difficult task to choose just one of these contestants to lead their party hopefully to an electoral success next time around.
Last Sunday saw the publication of the Labour Party’s commissioned report to analyse the reasons of its defeat in the March elections. This report cries out for a renewal, reform and rejuvenation in Labour’s set up and the way it does politics. It also lists a number of reasons for the defeat and mentions the party’s failure to attract young and first time voters as one of them. It is estimated that 32,330 new voters were eligible to vote last March and it is an undisputed fact that the Nationalist Party won the biggest part of this vote. It is also estimated that in 2013 there will be around 100,000 voters aged between 18 and 35 years. It is clear therefore that one of the biggest challenges facing the new leader elected on 5 June is to sway this electoral segment in Labour’s favour.
Your survey on the appeal of Labour’s leadership contenders, published on Sunday 4 May, puts Joseph Muscat as the top favourite for voters aged 18 to 34 with a 49% approval, a clear 23-point lead on the second favourite George Abela. Another survey on the Malta Independent on Sunday (25 May) gives Joseph Muscat a lead with a 73.46% approval for his appeal to young voters. These results speak loud and clear. If Labour wants to capture the crucial favour of new and young voters, the delegates have no other choice but to elect Joseph Muscat. At 35, Joseph Muscat has a finger on the pulse of young first-time voters still studying or entering the labour market, he speaks their language and has a firsthand knowledge of the problems and aspirations of young couples raising a family.
Joseph Muscat’s appeal with the young voters is not his only asset. The results he obtained in his four-year stint as a member of the European Parliament speak for themselves. He was instrumental for the groundbreaking reduction in the roaming charges of mobile telephony in the EU, the campaign to phase out the vehicle registration tax to be substituted by an emissions contribution in line with EU regulations and the abolition of the licence fee on satellite dishes.
But above all, Joseph Muscat is presenting himself for Labour’s leadership with a clean bill of political health, an important attribute needed in a leader who would be able to guide the party in its search for unity and harmony. If one week is a long time in politics, five years should be more than enough for Joseph Muscat to make Labour electable in 2013. He has the drive, the energy and the will to achieve this objective.
Vincent Camilleri
Mosta
A further increase in energy bills will only make life more difficult for thousands of Maltese families.
Unjust surcharges will increase inequality in Malta, which is already characterised by high inflation rates. Malta’s class inequality is increasingly also being reflected in the use of basic appliances such as water heaters and flushing systems. Such basics in people’s everyday lives should not be taken for granted by policy makers and lobbyists.
Instead of increasing consumer surcharges in a flat-rate manner, Government should introduce short-term and long-term changes which are more socially just whilst still generating revenue or cutting costs. Wasteful practices and not normal consumption rates, should be penalized. The basic energy rate should remain affordable to low and middle income earners. If anything, this requires a decrease in the surcharge rate.
The State should maintain ownership of energy supply and distribution yet diversify the use of different types of energy. This should be done in a manner which realistically caters for Malta’s energy demand whilst being as ecologically sustainable, efficient and sovereign as possible.
Zminijietna – Voice of the Left believes that energy use is a universal right and should not be limited to the privileged social classes.
Michael Briguglio
PRO, Zminijietna – Voice of the Left
My family and I were excited to go to Euronics since they just opened today and we knew this company has a reputable image abroad.
The opening hours advertised on billboards, newspapers and all other media was from 0900 to 1930hrs, though at 1900hrs sharp the main door was closed and in front of it there was a fleet of trolleys blocking the entrance.
When we and several other people asked the security person at the exit door about this, all he could reply was that the establishment was closed and he had no answer to our questions.
This is truly shameful and surely the worst way to start business in a new country.
Keith Z. Davis
Via email
Reference is made to the article ‘From Nanny State to Big Brother’ (1 June), by Pamela Hansen.
This is very worrying. I very much doubt that all the information will be confidential. Will insurance companies have access to medical records, is a question that springs to mind. Will they then start refusing insurance policies because some layman without any medical training decides that you are a risk?
Who will be allowed to access bank accounts? I expect banks will and that way they will know what your transactions are at any other bank.
Will Mary down the road, who works at the bank and has access to your account, be telling all the neighbours your business when she goes shopping and spends an hour at shop telling all and sundry what’s what?
And what about travelling? Already the USA insist on knowing what food you eat (just in case you eat halal meat and are then labelled a Muslim), where you travelled to and a million and one other bits of information.
Please do not tell me it will not happen. The ordinary citizen in Malta has absolutely no protection.
What is even more worrying is that people in this country take everything thrown at them lying down and will not protest about civil liberties, intrusion of privacy, etc. etc.
Anthony Borg
Mellieha
An editorial of nearly 1,500 words (“Unashamedly unrepentant”, 18 May) just to say that “this could happen” but then “there might result this and not that”. “That is possible, but also this”. “One might look this way but others could look the other way”.
Notice that this is only verbosity written by some one who cannot come to a decision and avoids compromising himself by expressing his personal opinion. Wasting 1,500 words of a newspaper’s space writing suppositions and conjecture does not reflect much on its popularity and the flow of readers, both instances being synonyms.
It is like trying to forecast the result of a football match when asked and ending by saying both teams are potential winners.
The reader becomes more confused and if he insists on getting the best advice to try and make a bet he will end either in a maze or substantially poorer.
Michael Debono
Via email
I am writing this letter to share my concern with the Opera House project. I used to think that the much awaited and discussed proposal, would finally have done justice to architect Barry and to our heritage. I know that a lot has been said over the years, and that the possibilities were infinite. Now, it seems that we have settled for an iron and plastic extension, built on a plan by Giovanni Trevisan, an Italian. The fact that an Italian architect got the commission did not surprise me. This post-colonial attitude has become a constant over the years (Richard England excluded).
So my first question goes out to those responsible: why this project? Why now? And why an Italian?
Secondly, why fabricate an aura of grandeur around this project, by attributing a work to Caravaggio? Especially when the person who came up with this theory, is also involved in the Opera House Project?
This project seems to be another fund-raising activity for the privileged chosen few.
Dustin Cauchi
Gzira
I am looking for a long-lost cousin and her husband, with whom I lost contact with in Paisley, Scotland, about 30 years ago. I just recently found out that they are now living in Malta. Their names are, Kenneth and Sadie Lorrimor (maiden name, Cameron) If anyone can find them for me it would be greatly appreciated. My name is Mary Noble (now married name Mc Nabb).
Mary McNabb
rmmcnabb@shaw.ca
