Who will pay the price?

It is being reported that the COLA adjustment for this year will be €10 per week in accordance with the agreement made with the unions and other parties 32 years ago.

During these 32 years, many things have changed. Thirty-two years ago, we did not consider a mobile telephone to be an essential item. We did not have to query the need for soup kitchens. We did not query why numerous private hospitals and clinics mushroomed all over the island. Why the price of medicines shot up.

Thirty-two years ago, we did not have ARMS mailing inflated bills every two months. Thirty-two years ago, we did not have an army of blue-eyed persons waking up every morning to find hundreds of euros under their pillow to do a job which could be done more professionally by a career civil servant.

Yes, many things have changed. I would even say that everything has changed. Except one thing! In these last 32 years, the mechanism for COLA increases has remained the same. It is manifestly clear to all, except those who have to pay a fair increase to workers, or to those who pay pensions, or to the docile politically correct trade unions, that the COLA mechanism established 32 years ago has been rendered obsolete, especially in the last 18 months.

Must employees, who work for companies that can afford a fair increase, be denied their due because other employers claim that they cannot afford to do so? In these exceptional circumstances, we must acknowledge that a price must be paid by someone. We will soon know who has to pay the price.

Joe Pace Ross – Sliema

Freedom, equality, brotherhood

Charles Xuereb, well-known to readers of Times of Malta as a fervent Francophile, takes me to task (August 25) over my suggestion that the British Empire, despite its undoubted faults, might also have brought some benefits to its colonial territories.

Perhaps he could recommend a book or four on the many beneficial effects of the French ‘mission civilatrice’, particularly perhaps in France’s former colonies in North Africa and Indo-China.

The dismal results of French colonialism can be seen not only in its former possessions, but also in the banlieues surrounding Paris, Lyon, Marseilles and other French cities, where Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité are nothing more than a group of contemptible bywords.

Alan Cooke – Sliema

A birthday present

On my 50th birthday, August 26, I received a biblical quote engraved on a piece of wood saying: The goodness of God leads... to repentance (Rom 2:4).

We invoke God’s mercy not to justify our arrogance but to let ourselves be truly transformed by it. God’s goodness moves me to let myself be changed by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit behind a repentant heart. A really cute birthday present to give!

Fr Mario Attard, OFM Cap - Marsa

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