Well done to the Maltese national football team for once again giving local supporters so much to shout about by holding Turkey to a 2-2 draw at the national stadium last Saturday. With some extra attention, maybe the result would have even been better, but at the same time one must praise the Maltese lads for their gallant effort. It was also so great to see the stadium full of supporters. Good results bring more people – and let’s hope it remains this way.
It is natural that local sports commentators show bias in favour of Maltese teams – and this is how it should be. Yet there are some comments that should be avoided. Last Saturday, the commentators of the Malta-Turkey match passed some comments about the official shirt Turkish coach Fatih Terim was wearing, even mentioning that he must have bought it from the open market that morning. Sports commentators should stick to football, not fashion.
As ever, it is the consumer who gets the worst deal. The bakers have been allowed to raise the price of Maltese bread by 1c, and have also been given an increase in the subsidy the government pays them on flour. And the consumer gets an ever shrinking loaf. The small kind, which from 12c now costs 13c, will soon disappear at this rate. A labourer will hardly satisfy his hunger with today’s small loaf. There used to be a time when a housewife who asked for a hobza ta’ ratal would be given one that was weighed and if it came short in weight, she would be given a gonta to make up the difference. That was when traders were honest.
It has been over a month now that the Chadwick Lake road was given a layer of tarmac. But it was left incomplete and with lots of damages. The road seems to have been swept before the tarmac was laid and material was dumped on the water courses. The same was the faith of a number of bricks and slabs in different points that formed the kerbs of the road and were reconstructed during the last winter by the Works Department. When are we going to learn? More attention should be given to this important valley to be enjoyed appropriately by the taxpayer.
Each time a public holidays falls on a weekend consumers find it hard to buy products such as milk. Yesterday, all the shops that normally sell the product had run out of it the day before and their supplies were not replenished. Maybe they should stock more milk – but then refrigerated storage space is limited – or else the supplier should make the rounds at least on the Saturday or the Sunday.
Drivers who park their vehicles in the area designated for a bus-stop are rightly booked. This is because buses should use that space specifically to allow other traffic to continue moving while people are embarking or disembarking from the bus. Yet, many are the bus drivers who simply stop in the middle of the road to pick up their passengers, and therefore the purpose of having a bus-bay is defeated. Bus drivers who do not use the bus-bays should be booked too.
Disc-jockeys should be more careful in their choice of words when introducing a song or making comments, especially during the times of the day when they know that some of their listeners could be children. Certain types of programmes are prohibited on television before a certain time simply to protect our children. It is more difficult to make such regulations for the radio; but this does not mean that disc-jockeys should not be more responsible.
The road along the aqueduct in Santa Venera – between the start of the Mriehel by-pass and the roundabout next to the Bank of Valletta offices – needs to be redone. Some patches are good but others are in a horrendous state, forcing drivers to shift from one side of the road to the other so as to have a smoother ride. It is a stretch that is used by many drivers, and the authorities should see to it that it is rebuilt.