Politics in Gozo

Just when I started wondering why there had not been any written responses to my recent letters - when verbally I had received plenty of them - several friends sort of warned me to be 'careful' because not everybody liked what I had written.

Be careful of what? Perhaps my assassins will drive by in a black limousine in front of my house door, ready to gun me down on my way to the grocer?

It really irks me how quickly people are labelled with coloured stickers - and that everything under the sun is being politicised.

If you vote for a government, you must not criticise it and, more importantly, not condone ideas that come from the opposition.

On the other hand, by default, the opposition is under pressure to ridicule anything originating from the government.

To balance things out, maybe I should step on toes of all colours at once, by giving just one example, namely the road leading from Nadur to Ramla Bay.

During the summer months, it must surely be one of Gozo's busiest roads. Is there a particular reason that in many years, and through several government changes, it has remained in the same pitiful state?

Other roads and streets were surfaced and resurfaced in the meantime, and even field paths were blessed with a layer of concrete!

It would be easy to praise the successful efforts of the Ministry for Gozo, there undoubtedly have been a lot of them. But the aim is to draw attention to matters that are amiss.

Naturally, not everything can be fixed at once, especially if they have been neglected for long. That's what politicians often urge us to understand, and rightly so.

However, a lot of time has passed that could have been used more efficiently. And with Gozo being as small as it is, it should be feasible for all concerned to sit down, discuss and prioritise matters, and subsequently put the house in order.

If only more of us would speak up about what is bugging us, it just might help the authorities in identifying priorities and start the ball rolling.

Gozo has been my home for almost half my life, I see myself far more as a Gozitan than a foreigner.

I am a pretty apolitical person; the sole driving force behind my prolific letter writing is the wish to make enough of an impact to help change things for the better.