Recently, I needed to go to Żurrieq. In the past I used to go quite frequently there. For a number of reasons, I had not visited for quite a while. I still remembered how to go there with eyes closed, or thought I did. It so happened however that I got lost.
Close to Luqa, I encountered a traffic diversion, which I knew about – that occasioned by the unending works around Malta International Airport. I meet it whenever I go to Brussels or come back, worst of all at night for the works loom like a dark labyrinth before you as you drive. This time I thought all I needed to do was watch carefully for where a traffic sign would appear denoting Żurrieq and follow its instructions.
Easy to say, most difficult to do. Wherever the traffic sign with Żurrieq appears, it’s either muddled or plain wrong. Once I ended up on the road to Qormi, another time I had to take the road back away from Luqa towards the crossroad at its end. Finally I decided to enter and cross the airport grounds to the exit and drive from there to the tunnel that leads to the roundabout that leads to Żurrieq.
I continue to be amazed that after the professional knowhow displayed when the Marsa flyover project was implemented, the similar project that is being built at the airport continues to be carried out with so much amateurism.
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NO FUEL
It seemed like Europe took some time to realize that there is a good chance it might end up with not enough fuel to last through the coming winter. The sanctions that the EU (with others) set up to confront Russia after Putin’s war in the Ukraine was launched, account for this.
Some wished right from the start that sanctions should also extend to an immediate embargo on the importation of fuels from Russia. That would have dragged the leading European economies – mainly Germany but not only – into an immediate crisis. The measures that the Kremlin has adopted in retaliation by reducing the volumes of gas being sent to Europe will be achieving the same result.
Meanwhile, the EU is launching programmes under its so-called “Green Deal” to divert its procurement of energy to sources that will eventually all be free of the label that they contribute to climate warming.
The situation is extremely delicate.
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EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS
About how the results of our educational outcomes show that a too large number of our students are failing to reach the required standards in basic subjects, we know and agree. We also know how European data is very unflattering when it compares the number of our students who continue with their higher education to those of other countries.
It would be a huge mistake if in reaction to this latter problem, we clip the standards required for entry to higher education, as a way by which to increase the number of such students. Unfortunately the time is fast approaching when muddling through and down will not just be a waste of time. It would also serve to dig the problem in deeper, perhaps making it irreversible.