Doulos to give away books to visitors

The saga of the floating bookshop Doulos, which has so far been denied a trading permit, took a new twist yesterday when the organisers announced they would be donating books to their visitors over this weekend.

The Maltese-registered charity ship arrived in Malta on Tuesday and applied for a permit to sell books between last Thursday and June 9. No such permit has been issued yet.

However, International Programme Manager Edward David and project coordinator Ben Wyatt announced at a press conference on board that the management have decided that for today and tomorrow all adult visitors may choose books up to the value of 600 Doulos units (Lm5) as a gesture of goodwill. The visitors can then decide to make a donation.

"The books will still go through the cash register to calculate that each visitor will take up to 600 Doulos units. We would appreciate donations because we need them to carry on with our projects," Mr David said.

He added that there were no restrictions on how many visits a person can make to the Doulos and benefit from this offer, which was only intended for the weekend. The organisers will then evaluate the situation.

Asked whether this meant they had found a creative way to sell books, Mr David insisted that the books would be donated. "Obviously we would welcome donations."

Mr David said they had talks with the ministry of finance yesterday but "there are not developments yet".

He said 500 schoolchildren visited the ship yesterday: "You should have seen the look on their faces when they realised they were not able to purchase any books. They were really disappointed."

Mr David also said members of the crew will be donating books to various institutions around Malta. The first beneficiary would be the Eden Foundation, and other charities and orphanages would follow.

Mr Wyatt and Mr David made a strong appeal to the Maltese people for support through donations to be able to carry this project further as they sail around the world. "Without this continued goodwill, our charity projects will not achieve their aim," they remarked.

The chairman of the Doulos , Dirk W. L. Knies pointed out that Malta had voted to join Europe and a free market. Thus, if there was ever a time that it should be given more freedom to sell books, it was now.

Mr Knies said the Doulos provided books to poor countries which would have absolutely no other way of receiving them. "Selling books in Malta helps make this possible. Thus, when the ship is blocked from selling here, it cuts deeply into the ministry it has in many of the poorer countries," he said.

The Consumers' Union said it had asked the parliamentary secretary responsible for consumers, Tony Abela, to investigate why the ship was being denied a permit to sell books, and to put pressure for the permit to be issued.

The union said it did not feel that the sale of books from the Doulos would distort the market, and asked for proof of this. Otherwise the law which safeguarded free trade would be used to destroy competition to the detriment of consumers' interests.

It pointed out that books were also sold over the internet and it was consumers who benefited from the competition.

The GRTU said that its insistence that the Doulos should not be allowed to sell books or other wares was right and fair to Maltese traders.

Regulations should be there for everyone and all those who wanted to trade in the Maltese market should be treated equally, it said, adding that the EU was not an issue, as it did not give anyone the right to trample upon the market and threaten the jobs of workers and shop owners.

Alternattiva Demokratika called on the government to grant a trading licence to the Doulos and the Malta Library and Information Association said that while it respected the local book traders and their concern about a level playing field, it could not but feel sad that such an opportunity would be lost.

The Doulos is open today between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. and tomorrow from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.