Letters to the editor – June 9, 2026

Loud noise from motorbikes

Mark Miceli-Farrugia, of Ta’ Xbiex, writes:

Some young motorbike riders enjoy loud exhaust noise because it gives them excitement and a sense of identity. 

However, most residents are more concerned about how this noise affects their comfort, sleep and peace in the neighbourhood.

Photo: Shutterstock.com

To balance these interests, many countries regulate vehicle noise levels while still allowing people to enjoy riding motorbikes. 

The police are increasingly enforcing these rules through vehicle inspections and noise cameras that can detect excessively loud vehicles.

Blinded by hedonism

Jacqueline Calleja of Naxxar writes:

Answering a journalist’s question as to why the figure of Jesus Christ has proved to be so fascinating over the centuries, not only for believers but also for those who profess no faith at all, Pope Francis was simple but profound: “Because He is the Lord.”

Indeed, belief in Christ as being the son of the living God who entered humanity to share with man trials and tribulations, offering salvation from the slavery of sin, is the core belief of the Christian faith.

Many, especially in the western world, illuded themselves that the denial of Christ and his gospel would inevitably lead to a better level of happiness and well-being. Yet, today, we are facing problems that seem to be intractable – overwhelming stress, wide-spread solitude, broken families, the abuse of drugs and the social media and the serious problem of mental health illness even among the young.

Sadly, this denial of Christ has often led to an illogical manner of assessing problems facing society, eventually leading to future devastating and unforeseen consequences. Thus, in the early 1960s, the pill, artificial contraception and, later, abortion were considered a solution that could finally lead to living one’s life as one wishes free from the ‘shackles’ of the faith.

Fast forward to today and, faced with an ageing population and the dearth of young people to fill the workplace, governments repeatedly hand out benefits to entice people to have children.

Even more striking and contradictory is the fact that scientists, who have for long been searching for signs of bacteria on other planets, especially Mars, would, if this were to happen, decree that some kind of life is or was present.

Yet, incredibly enough, a 12-week embryo, in which science unequivocally tells us life is present, is discarded and eliminated, labelling it just as being “a clump of cells”.

At a certain point during his ministry Christ, faced with the cries of a blind beggar called Bartimaeus, asked him what he wanted from him. 

The poor man answered: “Let me see, Lord.” 

May we also ask Jesus that, with his help, we shake off our blindness and see everything in the manner that he does.