Letters to the editor – August 8, 2025

The streets of Sliema

Nicolette Zammit Lupi of Sliema writes:

Something must be done to clean up Sliema. Our streets are in a dreadful state. There is too much traffic and construction going on at any one time and we are breathing fine dust and exhaust fumes continuously. 

The pavements are a hazard to walk on. Pedestrians have to avoid potholes and garbage bags everywhere. The noise level from the beach concessions is often unbearable.

Construction in Sliema is continuous. File photo: Times of Malta

But, even worse, we have an infestation of pigeons. 

They are breeding in their hundreds on building ledges, roofs and window ledges and the pavements are covered with their droppings in practically every part of Sliema. They sit on our balconies and enter coffee shops and restaurants with impunity.

Pigeons are flying rats and can carry diseases. They thrive on absolutely anything, including their own excrement. It is time the Sliema local council started culling these pests on a regular basis and also hose the filthy pavements.

The health authorities should also take note.

The KMB monument

Mark Sammut Sassi of Attard writes:

It is good that the proposed monument to the late prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici (in office 1984-1987) should give rise to public debate.

Charles Xuereb’s ‘Valletta’s memorial landscape’ (July 30) covered much of what there is to cover about monuments in general. His argument is the normal way of thinking in the rest of Europe.

As to Mifsud Bonnici, there is so much to say about him, his biography, his leadership of the Labour Party, his premiership, the lyncean eyes with which he reviewed legislation in its preparatory stage in parliament, his later sovereignist persona, and possibly more.

But none of all this is reflected in the monument being proposed, which looks more like an unconscious nod to Michael Douglas’s character in the 1993 movie Falling Down than the monument to a chief of the Maltese government.

One has to agree with Mifsud Bonnici’s niece. Instead of a monument, use the money for the furtherance of research. Let a Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici Research Fund be created for researchers interested in industrial law or anti-imperialist narratives.

Whether misguided or not, Mifsud Bonnici consistently stood for the underdog. Whether he did it with any nous is another story. One that is best left to the hands of historians, not to monuments with ambiguous messages.

No sense at all

Joseph Croker of Balzan writes:

Recently, a man was found guilty of harassing a woman.

His identity was not published to protect his career since, apparently, he is a politically exposed person!

Does this decision make sense? Had he been a normal Tom, Dick or Harry, his name would have been a plastered all over the place, career or not. Seems we are not born equal before the ‘justice’ system.