Is Malta a bilingual country or not?
Our country is proud to be a bilingual country and is advertised as such.
Yet, we have numerous occasions where one really wonders if that is truly the case!
Why, for instance, did we have my medical colleague, Charmaine Gauci’s recent excellent programmes about this awful COVID pandemic only in the Maltese language, without English subtitles?
We have a substantial proportion of English-speaking foreigners living in our country.
The irony of it all is that when some journalists asked her questions in English she answered in Maltese, without the people directing her programme adding subtitles in English. An extremely peculiar and surreal situation!
Finally, during my worldwide travels and living abroad for so many years, nowhere have I ever encountered a television programme where a person asks a question in a particular language and gets an answer in a different one, without subtitles in the original language used.
The single, sensible and simple answer, in such a case in Malta, is to have English subtitles.
Is that too much to ask for from our local television producers?
Raymond Bencini – Żebbuġ
Self interest
I can understand Bernard Grech (left) not wanting an election just yet.
His real reason is, of course, his self interest – he wants more time to regain some ground electorally and, if possible, avoid, or lessen, the ignominy suffered by Simon Busuttil and Lawrence Gonzi before him.
His advice to the prime minister is not to call an early election. As Eddie Fenech Adami did, I suppose, when the results of his profligacy were threatening to swamp his administration?
Roger Mifsud – Rabat
Imminent danger
I have recently read a report of the great success Mongolia had in dealing with COVID-19. If true, this was due to the fact that the country took all the measures against the epidemic as soon as they heard reports of the new disease at Wuhan. It had not yet been classified as a pandemic. There was only the danger of it becoming one. If only all countries did that, the world would have been spared most of the wailing and hand-wringing we are seeing now.
Anyway, it is useless crying over spilt milk. But it is good to see how to avoid spilling it again. We are in imminent danger of a world disaster immeasurably greater than COVID-19. It could mean the end of our race.
In spite of the warnings of almost all scientists, the WHO, the UN, the EU, many world leaders and, not least, Pope Francis most ordinary people are hardly aware of the seriousness and imminence of the danger and what they have to do about it. Many of them consider activists like Greta Thunberg and her millions of followers, Extinction Rebellion, Green Peace, etc. as unbalanced hotheads.
There are many reasons for this situation but what I want to emphasise here is the very serious responsibility churches have to tackle the lack of awareness of the pending global disaster and the lack of responsibility of their followers.
Christian leaders should realise that a danger to the very existence of our race is a supremely moral issue. It is not sensible for a priest to say this is a matter for politicians, for scientists and technocrats. He might just as well say abortion is just a matter for doctors and politicians, not for priests. Abortion is about life in the womb; the imminent danger facing the climate is about all life on the planet.
We have just finished the year which Pope Francis dedicated to the teaching of his encyclical Laudato Si’. By God’s grace this will make many priests realise our duties towards creation and fellow creatures. Many Church leaders will faithfully inspire whole congregations with the spirit of that encyclical. But they may try to deal with the whole subject of ecology and fail to point out the immediate practical measures to be taken. They would be like lecturers on house maintenance who do not realise that the very house they are teaching in is on fire.
What they have to do before anything else is lead everyone to extinguish the flames. This means stopping pollution of the atmosphere by cooperating in the quickest possible transition from fossil fuels to green energy.
Two very urgent practical measures are advocating for the upgrading of our power station to zero emission fuel and electrifying all machines and gadgets used. Do this as a sacred duty to humanity, including your own children and grandchildren.
Albert Said – Naxxar
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