Sorrowful feasts

I am writing to express deep anger and frustration at the way the Lija feast organising committee treated the people living in Lija and all others unfortunate enough to need to use roads in Lija in the past weeks.

Since mid-July, roads have been closed with a simple orange cone in the middle of the road, causing utter havoc in the labyrinth-like roads of the village. On three occasions, coming down from Tal-Mirakli area towards the centre, I would drive down Conception Street, a one-lane road with two-way traffic, only to find Bakery Street blocked by a cone. A young boy was once directing traffic through a one-way road, against the flow of traffic. Many just drove against traffic coming in the right direction in front of the residence of the minister responsible for the police!

The prize for the most disrespectful act towards the community however goes certainly to the people who thought it a good idea to block Transfiguration Avenue from the weekend with pieces of wood for use in the fireworks display on Tuesday night. For this half an hour hobby of a very few, the main entrance to the village was blocked for four days. Can a spokesman from the police, Lija local council and/or the Malta Transport Authority explain who allowed this to happen?

Feasts originated as a day of joy for the local community celebrating the patron saint of their village. Today, they have been hijacked by a few who transformed a joyous event for the whole community into an orgy of excess that causes nothing but disruption and disturbance to the community at large.