English for business, government and public life

So, Italy wants to stop English being used in business, government and public life (April 11).

I’m assuming that this is the usual attempt by a wobbly government to divert people’s attention from its current internal, political and economic problems.

The upside, of course is that there will be a huge demand for translators/interpreters, multilingual lawyers, reams of paper with multilingual texts, etc., etc., all of which might well be affordable to big businesses but not all. Indeed, small businesses probably outnumber the larger ones and they’ll find this mind-boggling insanity unsustainable.

Then you will have a never-ending number of clauses ‘lost in translation’ and legal contentious cases blocking the already overworked courts. There will be time wasted in documents being continually perused in order to ensure accuracy (or looking for loopholes).

It would actually have an adverse effect on the economy. It’s been tried by other countries and it failed.

Whatever the most common business language is at the moment, it seems to be working fine. So it just happens to be English.

One hopes that air traffic control is not included in this rather courageous (putting it mildly) but somewhat crazy notion.

If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

PAUL BRINCAU – Uxbridge, UK

An apology

I offer a sincere apology to Fr Charlo Camilleri for a serious misunderstanding of his article ‘What if God had sent his daughter?’ (March 26).

I am grateful for the further explanation in his letter to Times of Malta (April 9) and I hope that I am the only one of his many readers to have so misunderstood his meaning.

ALAN COOKE – Sliema

Effects of justice denied

In an opening address to the European Parliament discussing the rule of law in Malta, Véra Jourová, European Commissioner for Values and Transparency, criticised the investigations into high-level corruption cases and described them as very lengthy. How right she was.

Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba

And MEP Sophia in ‘t Veld described the local justice system as weak and said journalists are still under pressure. She was right too.

Nationalist MEP David Casa was quick to confirm this failure. There are clear examples of corruption and they are there for all to see except for the police commissioner, who is nowhere to be seen or heard. Another absent person is the attorney general who has been silent throughout.

On the other hand, Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba accused the European People’s Party of “absolute deceit and hypocrisy”, instead of confirming what is so obvious.

Agius Saliba’s comment is not surprising. He has to follow Labour’s policy of complimenting wrongdoers and, worse still, rewarding them.

The subject in question are the chats between Rosianne Cutajar and suspected murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech. Instead of condemning Cutajar, Agius Saliba condemned Mark Camilleri for publishing the chats. Incredible but true.

Agius Saliba would have cut a better figure had he condemned the continuous inaction of the police commissioner and the silence of the attorney general. The Labour MEP should take a careful look at Malta’s situation before losing his credibility altogether.

EMILY BARBARO-SANT – Mosta