Letters to the editor – April 9, 2025

Green spaces

“We dare to have a dream” was Graffitti’s and other NGOs’ call for Manoel Island to be turned into a public park, which is badly needed in such a densely built and populated area of Malta.

Way back in 2019, I had written a letter in this newspaper, titled ‘I have a dream’’, and suggested the same thing, having just returned from a week’s holiday in Minsteracres, not far from Durham, in England. 

Green space at Ta’ Qali. Photo: Jonathan Borg

I had spent a week on a holiday with members of the Lay Fraternity of St Charles de Foucauld, coming from different European countries. I am a member of this fraternity.

I enjoyed the beauty of nature surrounding the house where we were staying. I wished I could stay for a longer holiday. The peace and tranquillity I experienced are something I still treasure.

Some years before, I had also visited Mainau Island, in Germany. This island is also a national park where one can enjoy the beauty of nature. If the Germans, who can still enjoy vast areas of countryside, saw the need to have this park and many others in their country how much more should this be done in Malta.

We always hear of the growing number of cases of stress and mental health problems, even among children. When is something going to be done about it? We all know that open green spaces are a must for us to rest, something the health authorities know and admit. However, little is being done as more tracts of land are being built. When is our cry going to be heeded?

Doris Borg – Mosta

Surreal allegation

Who remembers Jason Azzopardi’s allegation, that Identity Malta had issued “18,000 fake identity cards” to foreigners? That surreal allegation was promptly taken up by PN leader Bernard Grech, and other PN MPs, besides PN opinionists in the English newspapers.

A few days ago, in court, the claim of the “18,000 fake ID cards racket” was blown to smithereens when the police testified there were only seven fake ID cards. The question which comes to mind is this: is it possible that Azzopardi had been fooled by someone to believe such an incredible allegation? Or had Azzopardi himself created the allegation? 

Now that he knows that it was his story which was fake, will he apologise to all those who believed him? No, instead he has had the gall to say he had never mentioned that there were 18,000 fake ID cards. 

He now insults the intelligence of thousands who heard him say those exact words, and implies that Grech and other PN exponents and opinionists who repeated his allegation, had lied.

Another PN exponent, Nationalist MP Darren Carabott, lied through his teeth when claiming that “Maltese soldiers were training Ukrainian soldiers”.

That astounding claim, obviously aimed at undermining the prime minister’s claim that Maltese soldiers will never participate in the war in Ukraine, was immediately shot down by Robert Abela. The prime minister told journalists that only one AFM officer, based in the UK, was acting as liaison officer between the UK and the EU.

With hand on heart, how can anyone with a modicum of intelligence and self-respect, even consider trusting these people in running our dear country?

Eddy Privitera – Naxxar