What I find really hard to understand is the way people adhere so rigidly to party politics in Malta, no matter how ineffective their party of choice is. The Maltese people are paying through the nose for things like heating oil, gas, petrol, food, medicine, even school uniforms to mention but a few, and yet they continue to support the same bunch of idiots who are imposing these hardships on them. In order to soften the blow, the government give the people a pay raise of just over one euro a week while giving themselves a raise of €500 a week. Is that fair? Of course not but the diehard supporters still hit the papers with support for their beloved government.
Not content with destroying the countryside with their continual building programmes in support of their developer friends, they decide to spend over €100 million on a new Parliament building, a futuristic building on stilts designed by a foreigner who, obviously like the government, has no regard for the Baroque nature of the city. Valletta has a glut of beautiful old palaces just crying out to be restored to their former glory but they are left to fall into ruin while a new circus is built for the clowns to play in. And still the supporters back their beloved government. The old City Gate, which no one liked, has been removed under this same scheme but rather than restore it to the status it deserved as the entrance to Malta’s capital, it has been replaced with a hole! The people have been crying out since the end of the war for their beautiful old opera house to be rebuilt. Now, instead, they are getting an open-air theatre. No doubt the stars of the world will be queuing up to come to that. And still they have the support of the people.
The transport system, from the roads themselves to the buses using them, has always been a problem and more so for the local people who have to put up with them on a daily basis. To that end, has the transport reform worked? Well you know the answer to that, the new buses are a bigger nightmare than the old ones were and the roads are still a joke, as they are washed away every time there is heavy rain. But the people still support their beloved government.
On Wednesday of last week Mepa announced a new draft environmental permits system to improve the regulatory framework applicable to industrial activities of environmental significance. The timing for this was really good given that the day before the same Mepa approved the use of heavy fuel oil for the Delimara power station! Anyway it is just more words from an authority which has shown in the past, remember the dumping at Dwejra, that they cannot carry out effective enforcement.
The question is just how much do the PN have to screw up before people say enough is enough?
James A. Tyrrell
N. IRELAND