Not the time for costings

One of the wildest, uncosted promises made by the PN’s “temporary leader”, Bernard ‘the Greek’ Grech, was his pledge to turn around 50,000 square metres of development land into ODZ land each year. When asked by journalists from where he intends to start, Grech’s astounding reply was: “From the Labour Party’s headquarters.”

How can anyone with just a few brain cells even consider this man and his party to ever govern our dear country with such a retrograde mentality. Even if he had not meant what he said – he seldom does – to say such a thing in public only proves that when Repubblika and its allies, the so-called ‘Blue Heroes’, chose Grech to oust Adrian Delia from the party’s leadership, they made a similar fiasco as their mentor, Manuel Delia, had made with Arriva.

To put the cherry on the cake, all these electoral promises are uncosted. Hence, Grech and the PN have no idea if they are sustainable or not. When journalists justly asked if the PN knows how much the pledges they are making would cost the country, the reply was: “Now is not the time for costings.”

It is certainly not the time to have such plain irresponsible politicians trusted with the governing of our dear Malta and Gozo.

Eddy Privitera – Mosta

Customer care one cannot bank on

I would like to thank Bank of Valletta for the non-existent service of customer care they purport to offer. A few days ago, I needed the help of customer care to sort out a problem I had.

After going through a whole gamut of numbers, I finally settled on the one that, hopefully, brought me nearer to the solution I was seeking from customer care. I appreciate their endeavour to keep me entertained while waiting to be served but after 18 minutes and two seconds of waiting I had to give up.

Life is too short to spend on the phone waiting to be served. Is this the best that Bank of Valletta can offer its clients?

Antoinette Azzopardi – Nadur

Paying a severe price

A child looks on as residents evacuate the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv. Photo: Aris Messinis/AFP

Correspondent Christopher Camilleri immediately showed his bias in his letter ‘Unstable times’ (March 4). The western democracies are described as “decadent and immoral” whereas Russia is, of course, disciplined and an oasis of culture!

Ukraine formed part of Russia’s various empires by force, not by choice, and its population was rewarded by the Holodomor, a man-made famine from 1932 to 1933, leading to thousands of deaths. Indeed, the Ukrainians welcomed the German troops as liberators during Operation Barbarossa.

Many Ukrainians, including the Cossacks, fought for the Germans against the Russians. They did not do this because they were Nazis, although, undoubtedly, some were anti Semitic like many other Eastern Europeans. They did this to get rid of their fraternal overlords, the Russians.

The so-called “neo-Nazi Azov battalion” Camilleri mentions operated in Mariupol, in the Azov Sea coastal region, so I fail to see the reason for a massive invasion of the whole country by the Ukraine’s beloved Slavic brothers. To label a country as “Nazi” when it has a Jewish president, who lost most of his family in the Holocaust, is manifestly absurd.

Camilleri should remember that Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons on the express understanding that Russia would always respect its territorial integrity. The value of Russia’s word in the world of diplomacy is now clear for all to see. The West would never have stationed nuclear weapons in Ukraine, not after the Cuban missile crisis. Membership of NATO would simply have constantly reminded Russia of its commitment to Ukrainian territorial integrity.

Countries that now count on Russian sincerity, especially under Vladimir Putin, will, undoubtedly, pay a severe price for their naivety.

Charles Gauci – Sannat