I could not believe it happens but that’s how it is.

You’ll have a contract for the provision of internet in your home. Then the day comes when the service is totally out.

You try to get to the provider’s offices for them to send their technical people to check about the problem or even to inform about it.

Then you discover that their customer care service is only reachable through the internet. They seem to have no phone number. But if the internet service is kaputt, how can you reach them?

Actually, when I tried entering the company’s web site, I found that their customer care system is all designed to “help” you solve connectivity problems... by using the internet, which they have ceased to provide!

On that basis you’ll find an array of “diagnostic” programmes you can go through on your own... and no doubt they must be quite effective... but how can you access them with no internet service available?

The push by companies for cost reduction even at the expense of consumers has been taken too far. No way is consumer protection keeping track of it. And oligopolies are being allowed to implement disgusting practices just like they were monopolies.

A friend told me: Why get so hot under the collar about this internet service provider? Have you ever tried accessing Ryan Air’s customer care service when you face an emergency?

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The arts and the private sector

The backing that the government is giving to the arts sector is most praiseworthy. Public outlays on artistic productions of all kinds have been pumped up regularly and in a planned manner. Initiatives and activities have increased in number as well as qualitatively.

What is even much better is that in this progress – there’s no other word for it – young people have been given a leading role.

One point though perhaps needs more attention: Could it be that while the state has continued to increase funding for artistic ventures, the private sector’s share has declined?

One remains with the impression that since the government is doing all it can, the belief has developed that there is less scope for private inputs.

It would be a pity were this to be true. “Pluralism” in promoting the arts must remain apriority.

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Saint Mary

Mid-summer is still celebrated in many European countries as a civil and a religious holiday.

I remember the first time I learnt how this holiday became so significant locally: at a time when farming provided most jobs, mid-August was when rent contracts for fields would be renewed or terminated. I was surprised by how an important day for high religious celebration had been twinned with a practice that was economically so important.

It might be that the celebrations have remained popular not only for religious and “economic” reasons but also because they amount to an occasion for summer worship. This we celebrate in “our” way, with merrymaking, sweat and alcohol (to only mention these three) at centre stage.

If in August, tourism were not already at overflow, it would make sense to promote internationally the Maltese festa of St Mary as an authentic event you need to experience at least once.