Thursday 11 May should be a date to remind us that competing in the Eurovision Song Contest is simply throwing taxpayers’ money down the drain.

How many more years are to pass in order to learn a lesson? How many more years are to pass for us to realise that we are being taken for a ride?

It would have been more worth it had the thousands of Maltese liri wasted in all the preparations, filming and excursions abroad to market our song been invested in either a project that would benefit all and sundry or been donated to a charitable institution.

In a country where the powers that be boast of accountability and transparency, can the minister responsible kindly issue an account of how many thousands of Malta liri have been wasted during the whole campaign to market our song, which proved futile?

In some cases we are copycats of other countries. Why don’t we copy the example of our neighbours Italy, who for obvious reasons decided not to compete anymore?

What happened during the semi-finals should be an eye-opener.

Victor Ciangura

Qormi