A bazaar for a capital city

Anyone who has visited Valletta will surely notice the transformation our capital city has undergone into a kind of large bazaar. Tables block passages, the odour of food fills the air and music rings in your ear at all times of the day and night.

Surely, the authorities—the Lands Authority, the Planning Authority, the Malta Tourism Authority, the police or whichever authority is responsible—need to revisit their policy when issuing permits for tables and chairs to be put out on pavements and roads.

If Valletta was once a European Capital of Cultural, it is now a European Capital of Bars and Tables with little in style and standards to boast about. It is quite ironic that just in front of the offices that house the Culture Ministry in Merchants Street, a bar plays its music, loud enough to be heard in the ministry to the detriment of employees.

The agencies tasked with issuing permits seem to have one criterion to follow—find no excuse not to issue permits. The authenticity of Valletta has long gone. Today, all restaurants have only a Maltese patron to show for with the rest of the employees being foreigners with little knowledge of custom and tradition.

We need tourism and we need trade but we cannot go on selling our soul to satisfy the greed. The ball is in the feet of the politicians; the same politicians who makes the laws and legal notices. And needless to say the Valletta local council needs to raise its voice and show its teeth.

There are of course the Valletta residents, a community that continues to suffer from a capital city that is treated like a whore. Things need to change. The frustration of residents and the inconvenience caused by this unbridled greed are simply another layer of concern that add to other worries.

Left unaddressed, these concerns and frustrations will translate into anger and despondency towards our elected parliamentarians.

Welcome Madame ambassador

The new American ambassador to Malta Sommers Farkas is a Catholic and was reported saying she looks forward to praying with Maltese Catholics.

To her probable surprise, she will find that many Maltese adore Donald Trump. The common ground would be bullish, homophobic and racist men with a very poor understanding of international politics.

But she will also find a polite, educated class of Maltese—red, blue, turquoise and green—who will restrain themselves and either refrain or politely suggest that they consider Trump to be an erratic, unfit person to lead the strongest economy in the world.

From the comfort of our homes we have seen Trump’s politics and tried to convince ourselves what we are hearing and seeing is not true.

Worst of all, from a journalist’s point of view, we are worried that Trump’s attitude towards the rule of law will embolden politicians on this side of the globe to follow suit.

There used to be a time when the US would preach rule of law standards to the Maltese. That time is gone.

Today, we have a more robust democracy than Trump’s US. The American president is surrounded by sycophants who never question his decisions even when they are very wrong.

The US has a vibrant media scene which has received all sorts of flak from the Trump administration. In Malta we also have a free and inquisitive media and yet we also have a political class, which despite all its faults, still does not commit the same mistakes carried out by Trump’s administration.

Malta has had its ups and downs but whenever I meet well-meaning Americans, they start off by apologising for the actions of their president.

So, a big welcome to the US ambassador to Malta, a country where its foreign minister suggested that Trump should receive the Nobel Peace Prize and where many believe the US is the greatest country in the world.

But madam ambassador, you should know that most Maltese never say things as they are. In our heart of hearts, we still think of America as a big bully that believes it can dictate and rule the world but would rather not say it to your face.

Delia’s population gamble

Adrian Delia has not changed one bit when he talks of overpopulation. He denies that he is being a xenophobe but ignores the fact that there is a fine line between concern and xenophobia. Delia knows that he has crossed that line at times.

The truth is that Malta’s woes with foreigners are so different to the problems other countries face. We have foreigners here, who were brought over to sustain a growing economy. Other countries have foreigners because they are refugees and asylum seekers.

Today, the people who are foreign and work in this country arrive here through normal channels at the MIA. They do not enter the country illegally.

Some do stay on illegally once their permit expires or is no longer valid but most work here for two years and then leave.

The problem with Delia is two-fold: The first is that he is trying to be popular and willing to shed his political correctness to do this; the second, which is even more serious, is that Delia has no real alternative or solution.

He knows that without foreigners everything will crumble and disintegrate. Even the FIAU and ERA employ foreigners, not to mention the public transport company, the postal service, hotels and restaurants, retail, manufacturing, construction and even accountancy.

Today, third country nationals, like the ones Trump wants to eradicate from the US, are found everywhere in Malta and Gozo—from picking potatoes in fields to serving cheesecakes at Serkin.

Delia, who lost the PN leadership by 44 votes, is racing all over the place with political statements, leaving Alex Borg in the shadows. In other words, Delia is setting the political agenda and, in the process, dragging the PN into one quagmire after another. Alex Borg is not even following; he is just letting runner up Delia take all the attention and limelight. Borg is allowing Delia to set the agenda and that is not good at all.