On the Dot

• A huge chunk of rock at a very popular bathing area just below the Dolmen Hotel at Qawra, known as Buleben, collapsed recently. This has destroyed a natural cave, which used to provide shade for scores of bathers during the swimming season. The collapsed rocks have wrenched the ladder out of its anchoring, now blocking access to the sea. Swimmers who already frequent this bathing spot would be grateful to the local council if it lost no time in clearing the fallen rocks and debris.

Congruence

• A similar situation is likely to occur soon at the area of Bognor Beach, Buġibba, immediately to the left of the fast-food restaurant, looking at it from the sea. People often stand on the roof of the cavern, not realising that they are in great danger. Meanwhile, the rusted skeleton of a summertime attraction continues to pose a danger to those foolhardy enough to use it as a climbing frame.

Corners

• Despite the inherent dangers, people are still entering Valletta on foot through the route leading to City Gate. There is no protection between them and the space through which buses pass. One hopes that all drivers have their eyes on the road, and are not distracted by anything, while negotiating this dangerous juncture.

Consideration

• The behaviour of Transport Malta was recently deemed “arrogant and unacceptable” when it told a person to whom a refund was due that this would be delivered in 25 years. One hopes that this judgment will be a yardstick against which all other cases are measured; the public deserves respect. One hopes, moreover, that refunds due from any other department will now be effected as soon as possible, for the sake of goodwill.

Cacophony

• Expatriates who return to Malta are often worried that we have lost our priorities. Hundreds of buildings stand derelict and unused, while at the same time new ones are constructed. Is it possible that all the former are subjects of court cases, or that they are uninhabitable because of the damages accrued over years of disuse? Cannot anything be done to renovate at least some of these buildings into social housing?

Communications

• On March 29 the computer at the Go offices in High Street Ħamrun developed a fault. The young lady at the counter only had one manual receipt book at her disposal. Therefore, people who turned up to pay bills had to be turned away. She didn’t even ask them to wait until a new book was delivered from another branch. This is ironic, seeing that the company’s slogan is “made for you”.

Connections

Melita does not fare well in the customer care stakes either. On March 28, a client was left waiting all morning for a technician who did not turn up. Whatever the reason – be it that he was running late with appointments, or that he was out on sick leave – the fact remains that the client ought to have been informed that he was not going to make it.

Contradictions

• The majority of car owners heading to Rue D’Argens from Valletta are not observing the recently installed sign indicating access to “Valletta only”. Drivers are now meant to use the second turning to drive towards Rue D’Argens. The traffic sign was originally placed so that traffic leading to Valletta only passes through the first bend, and vehicles headed to Rue D’Argens were supposed to use the second exit in order that bottlenecks be avoided. How often does a warden stand there watching and waiting, as many of them do at other locations?

Consequences

• The press was agog about how a damaged stretch of the Naka highway in Japan was rebuilt in six days. In Malta, the Minister for Gozo has to justify the delays with regard to the Villa Rundle upgrading, the reconstruction of the Xlendi Road and the operating theatre at the Gozo Hospital. The point is not that no EU funds will be lost as a result of the delays; it is the delays themselves.

Consideration

• Politics, religion and football divide Maltese families that have nothing better to do than quarrel about trifles. Yet an incident that threatens to stain the national blotter finds us as one. Perhaps we should be truly thankful to Massimo Giletti for the generally concordant reaction to his comments. Perhaps we even ought to nominate him for an award – say, the Tapiro D’Oro, handed to him by his compatriots.