From Mr M. Bugeja

The advocates of positive psychology are right when they maintain that every cloud has a silver lining is not just a proverb but veracity itself: the numerous and pregnant clouds, which broke their waters over the Maltese Islands throughout last month indirectly gave us long-suffering motorists that rare opportunity to savour the exhilarating experience of rolling our car tyres over freshly laid luscious tarmac, once the disbelief gives way to pure joy that is: “Look dear! They’ve done this road at last!”

“It can’t be! You’re probably seeing a mirage – the General Election isn’t due for another three years. No, wait! You’re right. We’re actually sailing along! I can’t believe it! So there is a God after all! Now I know how Robinson Crusoe felt the moment he caught a glimpse of those sails on the horizon.”

The truth is that with the exception of a few recently reconstructed roads (mostly paid for with EU money) and others that were simply patched-up, the majority of them were already creaking at the seams long before January 2009’s record-breaking rainfall, thanks to continual neglect from each and every government we’ve had to put up with since Independence.

I’ve personally travelled along superb roads stretching for hundreds of miles across developing countries like Kenya and Pakistan. And to think that the Maltese archipelago covers an area of just around 320 square kilometres! I have finally given up driving to Dingli Cliffs (visited by so many tourists) via Siggiewi. Unlike Klaatu (he who made the earth stand still that day), I do not have the power to simultaneously take in the scenic views and avoid the vicious potholes.

I’ll never forget hearing two prominent politicians, one from each side of the House of Representatives, say that they would like Malta to emerge as a “centre of excellence” (centru ta’ eccellenza) by the middle of the next decade. Malta a centre of excellence with these roads? Poppycock – with a capital P!

Martin Bugeja

BALZAN