Conversion time

At the top of my agenda this week must be the fantastic sell-out concert featuring our own world famous tenor Joseph Calleja, which was held at the Mdina Cathedral square on July 7.

Congratulations Joseph - you had us, your audience, on our feet for about five times, one standing ovation after another. The rest of the cast was equally brilliant, Joseph's wife, the Moldovan soprano Tatiana Lisnic; the Sofia symphony orchestra and its conductor - our own Maestro Brian Schembri - shamefully so under-estimated by the local cultural powers that be: Bravo Maestro. Also not forgetting our own Maltese guest musicians among whom Mro Sigmund Mifsud, performing the Aida trumpet solo. The choir, led by the multi-talented Simone Attard was also outstanding.

Please allow me to make two constructive comments to the organisers: 1) Next time make sure the arias to be performed, as printed in the souvenir programme, are the correct ones. 2) The stage and the giant screens should have been about three or four feet higher; then perhaps we would have been able to better follow the concert.

We have passed all our tests and it is definitely official that Malta and Gozo will change from the lira to the euro as from January 1, 2008. The conversion rate has remained the same and all you have to do to convert the old currency to the new one is to divide by 0.4293.

However, I have a slight difficulty. Many importers carry out business with their counterparts abroad and not all of them are in the eurozone. What happens if business is carried out in pound sterling? Or Danish and Norwegian kroner? Or US dollars? Not to mention the Czech, Hungarian, Russian, Turkish and UAE currencies. The list is endless. Will the conversion rate with the euro be pegged to a fixed one or will it fluctuate from day to day and so create an escalating cost of living for all of us when buying goods imported from these countries? Also, how will it affect the thousands of Maltese and Gozitan holidaymakers travelling abroad to countries that do not have the euro as their currency? Will they lose out on the exchange rate? I would be really grateful if someone should kindly answer my questions.

A few weeks ago I hinted, in this column, that come next budget this government would do away completely with the remaining Lm10 departure tax for passengers commencing their air journeys from Malta. Now I can confidently predict that this will become a certainty. Let me explain my reasoning.

The European Union has taken the Maltese government to the European Court of Justice about this issue and is certain to win unless we have a change of heart and abolish it before the EU court reaches its verdict. If our government does this, then the case may be dropped (and I strongly emphasise the word may). If not, the government will still have to do away with the tax but also, probably, be penalised into handing back every Lm10 to all passengers who started their flights in Malta since we joined the EU, which will mean that the Treasury Department will have to refund about Lm4,500,000. On the other hand, this will become legal if all air passengers, irrespective of where they start their journey from, are charged a departure tax - but then can we afford to tax tourists and risk losing their coming to Malta?

Sounds like a Catch 22 situation. And this is not all. What about the departure tax - another Lm10 per passenger - for all persons starting their sea journey from Malta? This applies to people travelling by catamaran or on cruise liners.

What is the EU going to do about this and, more importantly, what is Lawrence Gonzi's government going to do about it? Roll on the next vote-catching budget and we shall see what will happen then.

So much is written and spoken against smoking - and I couldn't agree more. However, here's a little bit of news I came across, tucked away in an obscure corner of last Wednesday's Times of the UK. It stated that smokers are less likely to develop Parkinson's disease. Researchers also found that those who smoked more seemed to develop greater protection. Smoking may delay rather than prevent the onset of this condition. This research was originally published in Archives Of Neurology and pooled data on 11,809 individuals. Still don't forget what it says on cigarette packets: Smoking Kills.

I read with interest Victor E. Ragonesi's letter to the editor (Waste Of Time) published in last Thursday's edition of this newspaper. All I can say is - well written, sir, I couldn't agree more but someone has to draw the bureaucrats' attention since, as you stated, all the grey matter seems to have disappeared from between their ears.

norman.hamilton@hotmail.com