Focus on climate change

In the run-up to the recent general election, we heard of programmes and promises about which the public is greatly concerned but hardly anything about global matters which, in the long run, may define the quality of our life even more than a lot of immediate local concerns.

This is because global concerns are not seen as affecting our health, our nation’s economy, our nation’s security etc. and most of us are not interested in the world as a whole.

I don’t think we heard much about climate change. Some politicians themselves may be highly concerned about it but it is not something which will gain them votes. And this is because the average person in Malta (and in the world) is not educated enough about the horrific danger that climate change is heading us to.

Of course, by now most people know about it but just as a bit of information lost in the deluge of so much more, and more interesting, news.

The United Nations’ general secretary, António Gutterez recently told a big gathering of highly influential VIPs: “We are sleep-walking towards catastrophe” (Times, March 22). Millions of young people, who are more than convinced that unless we take the proper measures they will face an uninhabitable world, protest mostly against the big polluters and the governments that help them or, at least, don’t do enough to control them. But it is not enough to lecture to the big polluters; ordinary people must be alerted.

To my knowledge, very little is being done in our schools, by the media and, especially, by the Church and religious institutions to teach ordinary people about climate change and the measures we should take to stop it.

This, I think, is because we do not realise the big say ordinary people have over the matter. Not only do the politicians need their votes but the technicians and businessmen need their money to go on producing green machinery.

For instance, carmakers say we are ready to produce electric and hydrogen vehicles but where are the people who want to buy them?

I was very happy, but a bit surprised, to read in a recent pastoral letter the mention of people’s moral responsibility in the use of fossil fuels. Thank God for that but we need much more of it.

Albert Said – Naxxar

Right to bank accounts

We refer to the article titled ‘The right to a bank account?’  by Kevin-James Fenech (March 30).

As we have already clarified when we originally communicated on this same issue when this featured in the Times of Malta – attributed to CEO and not the chairperson – Bank of Valletta would like to once again reassure its customers and the public that the bank is ready to open accounts and do business with all bona fide customers who fit within the compliance standards of the country’s regulators. 

Furthermore, the bank is sensitive to stakeholders’ demands to improve service and the bank is working hard towards this, while remaining compliant to regulatory requirements.

Charles Azzopardi – head of CSR and communication, Bank of Valletta, Santa Venera

Bank’s lousy service

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

On March 16, I visited the Sliema branch at HSBC. There was a long queue waiting outside the bank and more customers waiting inside.

The security guard informed me that there was only one teller serving customers. It’s disgraceful that HSBC provided only one teller at the busy Sliema branch.

I returned to the same branch on March 30. There was another long queue waiting outside the bank and more customers waiting inside.

If the chief executive officer at HSBC really cared for the bank’s customers, he would make sure that they don’t have to wait three-quarters of an hour – or more – in a queue at HSBC.

It’s about time that this abuse of customers comes to an end at HSBC.

John Guillaumier – St Julian’s

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