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As you wait to be served

We have been frequent visitors to Gozo for more than 20 years and we usually take home a good supply of Maltese currency in notes as where we live these have to be ordered in advance. This has now turned out to have been a thoroughly bad policy. The Central Bank of Malta decreed - doubtless for its own convenience - that exchange into euros could only be effected at the Central Bank in Valletta after the end of February.

So a special trip to Valletta to change the old lira on May 15 - we pitched up at the Annex of the Central Bank at 10 to find a queue snaking out of the door, only one (!) cashier in action and a potential wait of up to two hours.

I was informed by a receptionist wearing the smug face of officialdom that I could speak to the manager if I wanted to. I did want to and she informed me that she was suffering from a "shortage of staff and that the Governor himself had just been down to assess the situation".

Nothing for it then but to stand in the queue for two hours or keep Gozo ferries solvent by coming back another day. Drinks trolleys pushed by Central Bank minions passed to and fro, presumably for the refreshment of further unseen minions, but during our long wait nobody so much as offered us a glass of water.

This, far more than all the empty ministerial cant about the importance of tourism to the economy, shows what one really thinks of foreign visitors. Surely it was not beyond the wit of the Central Bank to nominate at least one commercial bank across the islands to exchange on its behalf until the close of the first tourist season following conversion. Here in Luxembourg it is still possible to take old francs to a retail bank (as long as you are a customer of that bank) for exchange into euros. And we converted to the euro at the end of 2000!

The population of Luxembourg is about the same as that of the Maltese islands. I suggest that the whole process was insufficiently thought through and that the Governor of the Central Bank owes us a formal apology.

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Comments

Louis Farrugia (on 19/7/08)
The situation at the Central Bank was certainly chaotic,and yes the queues were long.This situation would not be tolerated elsewhere.The problem is most Maltese do not complain enough to those that matter, though they complain enough amongst themselves.

You have conditioned yourselves to be cowed by Authority,thats the problem!

Mr Alder has as much right to complain as I have.
Paul Bonnici (on 19/7/08)
Mr Alder has a good reason to complain. Why should he not complain about the poor service at the Central Bank of Malta merely for the fact that is is foreign? Central Bank of Malta - please note Mr Alder's complaint and please get your house in order, not only for Mr Alder but also to poor frail elderly Maltese people who have to put up with this inconvenience.

James A. Tyrrell (on 19/7/08)
The obvious question to Robin M.H. Alder from Luxembourg is why didn't you change your Lira to Euros in Luxembourg? Like you I used to bring home Lira every year but when the currency changed I simply went into my local bank and exchanged my Lira for Euro.
ray ciancio (on 19/7/08)
Dear Mr Robin M.H. Alder, I have visited your country before, i loved it, lovely country, but there were a lot of things that i didn't agree with, did I complain? No. Why? How could i go to somebody's house and tell them how to run it.

I think your problem started when we tried to accomodate the likes of you a lot better by changing over to euro a currency that you will not have to order in advance in your country. Obviously by trying our best to accomodate you better, we still got it in the neck, maybe we shouldn't try to please the likes of you so much. If you are used to drinks trolleys pushed by Bank minions for the customers in your country, you must be using a different bank than i was cause i certainly didn't see any in Luxumber.

I am glad that we finally sorted out your problem and next time you come to visit you don't have to go the bank wasting your time, but spend your time on the beach spending your euros in the maltese island instead of bringing them back to luxumberg with you.
Charles.j.Schembri (on 19/7/08)

Dear Mr.Robin M.H. Alder, of Luxembourg, I do travel a lot and in not other country have I been treated any different to the locals.....so please you are a guest in my country like I myself am when I travel abroad, and accept it. We might not have the best solutions, but we manage. Thank you very much for your tips....................................
john brown (on 19/7/08)
dear mr luxemburg, i am a british person living in gozo and sometimes i am embarressed with the influx of foreigners retiring to these lovely islands trying to tell the locals what to do, we used to moan about the packistanis doing the same in england and now we come here and do the same to the maltese, we are no better. these people have their heritage and they are proud of it, we must either like it or prepare to stick it if we have to come here and live in their lovely country. as they say when in rome you do what the pope does. they welcome us into their homely coutry with open arms, let's not complain and try to rule them, we did that for long enough.

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