Same old game

They always play the same game. On one hand they blare out regulations and blow their own trumpet. On the other hand they let irregularities run amok.

Take as an example how we are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. We, as a country, are taking this pandemic lightly and raising false hopes that all will be back to normal soon. They are playing a partisan political game while the numbers of cases is still high and a number of vulnerable persons still unprotected. They boast about more fines and enforcement and, at the same time, leave loopholes.

The same applies to the protection of the natural environment. Despite the nice words, we are still witnessing the continual encroachment on the natural environment, eyesores in villages, our urban environment being turned into a concrete jungle, the reduction of open spaces and a slipping backwards in our recycling strategy.

Joe Portelli – Nadur

Gone with the wind?

I confess to finding the title of Alan Deidun’s piece ‘Crazy about the wind’ (March 7) puzzling. From the body of the writing, it seemed we have not been fans of any form of wind power in the recent past. A change from South Wind to North Wind in the space of a week does not exactly merit the adjective “crazy” as a description of its intensity.

After a good account of wind power situations and aspirations in other places, Deidun comes back to home waters, where he follows a rather erratic course. Proposals for local wind farms were published in a report from a group – Deidun was a member – convened by then minister George Pullicino. There were four suggestions: two onshore, Baħrija and Ħal Far, and two offshore, Sikka l-Bajda and Gozo North Shore. The onshore proposals, like another sited in the region of it-Torri l-Ahmar made by a Spanish company, died a lingering death. Nothing serious was done at Baħrija and the Ħal Far site was blocked by the new airport approach radar.

Sikka l-Bajda “was given the thumbs down in 2015”, Deidun says, forgetting to mention the very relevant fact that “the thumbs” were those of Konrad Mizzi, now known to have already been wagging in a search for wind farms in Montenegro. Deidun also forgot that Times of Malta, on Monday, November 2, 2009, carried the headline on page 3: ‘If offshore wind fails, we are stuck – Pullicino’.

The environmental reasons for ditching Sikka l-Bajda were valid: destruction of Posedonia beds and disturbance to the nesting habits of the Cory Shearwater (Ċiefa) nesting in the nearby Rdum tal-Madonna. But giving any weight to disturbance of ship bunkering activity is illogical, given that ship anchors were causing major and recurrent damage to the Posedonia beds. 

The Gozo North Shore proposal was for 21 x 2MW turbines in 20-30m of water, 250-550m distant from the shore, set between il-Qolla l-Bajda (Marsalforn) and San Blas Bay. Calculations using wind velocities measured at the University of Malta Giordan station gave an annual energy yield of 4.5 per cent of 2009 power station generation. No further consideration was given to Gozo North Shore after publication of the 2009 report but one of Pullicino’s advisors had put forward a plan for an onshore farm at Ras San Dimitri. Nothing came of that, either.

A year or two after that, the then minister for Gozo, Giovanna Debono set up a wind- speed measuring mast at Għammar but, again, to no avail; no results were ever published. It may have been intended as a sop to some contractor, a first stirring of the urge to buy wind farms in Montenegro. In any case, this sudden cheering for offshore wind power needs careful scrutiny. We are now sold on floating wind turbines, with no clear information on availability, costs and time scales.

The section on hydrogen has an odd start to the third-from-last paragraph: “Hydrogen does not come with strings – read costs – attached.” That statement is promptly followed by a long list of “costs”. That apart, timescales for hydrogen to be widely available are not known and pipelines able to carry hydrogen are few and of very limited length as yet. Blending hydrogen with methane in order to use existing methane pipelines seems self-defeating in the longer-term, given that methane is a fossil fuel.

From another angle, the doubts recently expressed by government about the life left in our LNG tanker-store suggests that we will need some type of interim solution to our power problems before we reach our floating-wind-and-hydrogen heaven. A secure and market-priced supply of LNG and a new tanker-store may prove necessary.

The problem is that such a course of action requires a huge soul-searching from the present government as well as clear ideas from the opposition. These commodities appear to be in fairly short supply at this time. 

Edward Mallia – Attard

Sheep or mafia country?

In the light of what is going on in our law courts at the moment, in the horrific Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case, the mind just boggles.

So, like sheep, are we expected to follow what our prime minister told us a couple of weeks ago, that no politicians were involved in the assassination of Caruana Galizia?

Strangely, it seems that it may not be the case after hearing some of the evidence during the last few days!

With all due respect to the late and greatly lamented journalist, I was not a great supporter of all her comments. Indeed, we had a few ‘friendly’ e-mail confrontations!

However, as a writer and a physician, I have always followed Voltaire’s famous quote: “I do not agree with what you say but I will defend it with my life”.

These are apocalyptic times when false news is so rife. Just look at the various comments about the COVID-19 vaccines!

I will end with another famous quote by the Russian poet Yevtushenko, which sums up all the goings-on in this murder trial. “When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.”

I guess that says it all.

Raymond Bencini – Żebbuġ

The AstraZeneca vaccine

Whom shall we rely on regarding the present confusion going on about the AstraZeneca vaccine, the World Health Organisation or the countries that banned or suspended it? It’s becoming extremely confusing for us who are about to get the jab.

I don’t think Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Ireland were joking when they suspended the AstraZeneca vaccine.

If, as the World Health Organisation said, it was only a fraction of people who were affected by the blood clotting issue, why didn’t the above countries just exclude people with blood clotting disorders from taking the vaccine instead of suspending the AstraZeneca vaccine outright?

Alfred Gauci – Sliema

Photos of the Għadira Camp in WW II

While researching and gathering material and photos for my publication Wartime Mellieħa 1940-43, I discovered a large amount of new material. However, one of the lacunas that I encountered was the lack of information and photos about the Għadira Camp, which was where the Mellieħa Holiday Centre is now situated.

I’m writing this letter to appeal to readers. If anyone has anything related to the Għadira Camp, especially photos, please send a copy to my e-mail address: charles.a.debono@gov.mt. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Charles Debono – Curator, National War Museum, Valletta

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