Don’t make me cross

Gozitan government workers were told not to risk crossing the channel because – even if they could get to Malta on the ferry – the weather might be too rough for them to get back and they would be “stranded” on Malta.

Perhaps it’s opportune to ask what the workers (we don’t have a number but, apparently, there are ‘hundreds’ of them) do when they get to Malta that couldn’t instead be done in, say, a satellite office in Gozo, or even (as the pandemic might have shown) from home.

I have suggested before that it would be a good idea to move an entire government office to Gozo. Identity Malta is one that springs to mind, another is vehicle licensing, or the Malta Gaming Authority, or statistics, or information technology. Why do these offices need to be in Malta?

It’s been years since the UK government shifted entire departments to regions of high unemployment (driving licences to South Wales, health and pensions to Tyneside). To a lot of public servants, it wouldn’t make any difference which sector they were working for.

People complain about the lack of jobs for Gozitans (where, incidentally, it has been estimated that about 45 per cent of the population is already in ‘government work’) but, instead of having hundreds shipped across the channel to Malta every day, why not ship a government department, or two, to Gozo and save the bother of telling people not to try to get to work when it’s windy?

Is it because it sounds like a sensible thing to do?

Revel Barker – Għajnsielem

More of the same

No matter how many letters are published, books written and quotes inserted will Charles Xuereb show any interest to find what caused the Maltese to rebel against the French after just 82 days governing the island. For him, it was the ignorance, superstition and the Church that must be blamed.

He acknowledges the death of thousands of Maltese of starvation under the French but he never explains why and he never mentions that the Maltese were barred from using the hospital which was reserved for French citizens, or that  all the money in the Treasury was carried away by Napoleon Bonaparte.

If I were French, I could never forget how 5,000 of my fellow citizens could have been neglected by Bonaparte in Malta only to be saved and carried home by the enemy.

“The Maltese could not possibly ever experience worse hardship then what they had to go through since the beginning of the French occupation,” Bosredon Ransijat wrote in 1801.

Thomas Zerafa – Naxxar

Of humans, animals and archaic laws

Last September, I read in this paper about the push by MEPs to end animal experimentation. Cruelty and killing of any life, human or animal, is never acceptable. The EU, in destitute situations which required attention, always took initiatives. This is praiseworthy.

The cry for help and protection of life is continuous. However, the cries of help from unborn children fall on deaf ears.

Considering the responsibilities of MEPs, it is incredible how they do not take action against abortion, the killing of the unborn. Excuses to justify abortion are given maximum attention while responsibilities and the benefits of seeking advice and guidance is seldom recommended.

It seems to me that preferential consideration is given to animal life while the unborn’s own right of life is dismissed. The lives of unborn children are more sacred and valuable than all others. European legislators have a duty to ask the European Union to stop these killings. Ignoring the value of human innocent lives in favour of animal rights seems deceptive.

Also, with reference to Isabel Stabile’s letter (September 24), on behalf of Doctors for Choice, titled ‘Archaic laws’, I take this opportunity to reply from my end.

She sustains that the term ‘unborn’ has no legal basis. From her end, she prefers to refer to the term ‘embryo’, and later, ‘foetus’ and this according to her preferred scientists. Other scientists, including those who were pro-choice and are now pro-life, recognise the embryo as the beginning of life.

Our legislators were faithful to legalise the protection of embryos through a law enacted by the Maltese parliament in 2012 (amended 2018). Therefore, and contrary to her assertion, the unborn do have a legal basis. This is not an ‘archaic law’. The definition of the law is an attribution to the humanity of the embryo and the law disposed to protect it. The same definition is scientifically based according to the natural process of development.

Stabile was right to condemn men who refuse support to their partner after birth. I join her in asking why such individuals are not criminalised. I feel this issue stems beyond antiquated legislation in many cases. Archaic laws may be a cause, however, there may be other reasons. In many cases, the truth is obscured and personal gain plays a role. Regardless, the real victims are the children that are being deprived of family love.

In the last part of her letter, Stabile hints that the pro-life movement, whom she called a brigade, is lobbying to control women. Are Doctors for Choice implying deception by pro-lifers?

It is puerile on her part to avail herself of a particular woman’s problem to attack those who are giving a voice to the unborn. I did not expect Doctors for Choice to replace knowledge with deceit. They have also proved to be intolerant and disrespectful.

Carmel Vella – Mellieħa

€400 million

The title of my letter refers to what the government says how much it spent in three years on our roads.

I do not question the amount but I do question where the money was spent. I am sure that a sizeable part of this amount was spent on the flyovers in Marsa and on the Attard to Żebbuġ/Rabat roads.

While these new roads are being built, the roads in our towns and villages are deteriorating at a fast pace.  Sliema and St Julian’s have not had a road resurfaced for as long as I can remember. The side streets in these localities look like a lunar surface.

I had sent a letter to the responsible government department, suggesting that the government should embark on road maintenance of all the streets, main and otherwise, of two villages at a time.

As things stand today, it is impossible to attend to all the roads of Malta and Gozo; there are far too many! Therefore, some sort of approach has to be taken.

If I am not mistaken, another €40 million are being earmarked for road maintenance. Having seen where €400 million has gone, I cannot gauge how many roads can be resurfaced.

I will go one step further in, once again, advising the government to start laying water and drainage pipes under the pavements. In that way, the roads can remain unblemished. There are far too many instances when a freshly-resurfaced road is ploughed up soon after because some person forgot to carry out some works beforehand.

Possibly, one day, one department in a government may realise its priorities.

David Demajo – St Julian’s

Stop digging

According to Charles Xuereb’s latest missive (October 24), the death of thousands of Maltese during the French occupation was the result of the “conceivable misdeeds by irresponsible leaders”. 

By his view of things, I suppose he would lay the blame for the slaughter of the thousands of Poles during the Warsaw Uprising firmly on the shoulders of their leaders not on their German occupiers.

Application of his same strange logic would exonerate the misdeeds of all foreign forces occupying any country, which move to crush all forms of resistance to their rule.

My advice to Xuereb is the old adage that if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

Charles Gauci – Chief Herald of Arms of Malta, Sannat

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