How long is it going to take to build the terminal at Ċirkewwa? A whole summer season has come and gone and usually, the focus is on tourism.

But what about us mere citizens. The roads are gridlocked and completely smashed to bits. The never-ending roadworks from the top of Mellieħa through Marfa and into Ċirkewwa just compounds the situation even further. But the terminal has been under construction for how long now? Two? Three years?

It is amazing to think that Japanese engineers took 10 days to rebuild a highway that was torn to shreds in the Fukushima earthquake, and yet it takes us years. It is an endemic thing that we have to put up with on these islands. Things just take absolutely ages to get done. The plan is nearly always changed from the original, and it usually goes over budget. Let us hope that by this time next year, works will have been completed and that things are finally finished. It’s been ages. We pay taxes to the government for a reason. We pay into the system, but what we get out of it is lacklustre and below par.

■ John Abela

St Julian’s