No abortion regrets

With reference to the letter ‘Traumatic effects of abortions’ (January 10), I have had occasion to chide the author, Tony Mifsud, before for his uncanny ability to tell only one side of the abortion regret story.

He should try visiting breakthetaboo.mt or look up Dear Decision Makers on Facebook to read exactly how women in Malta who have had an abortion feel.

Here are just two examples: “I am a woman who was trying for years to get pregnant. We got pregnant through IVF when I was 50 years old. At 14 weeks, we learned the baby would not survive the pregnancy. We were devastated  but I know it was the right choice to terminate. Do not let anyone judge you. Your body. Your choice.”

Or “I accidentally got pregnant with my first boyfriend and had an abortion a week before my 16th birthday.

“I am turning 40 this year. That decision, taken back in 1996, is one of the choices I have made in my life that I am still absolutely sure about.”

These real stories are consistent with research that shows that more than 95 per cent of women who have had an abortion do not regret it when asked five years later.

Isabel Stabile – St Julian’s

Whose pipe dream?

The LNG tanker in Marsaxlokk.

Petra Caruana Dingli’s article, ‘Pipeline or pipe dream?’ (January 10), was a long way below her usual high standards.

The ‘historical part’, up to the March 2013 election, is particularly patchy. Before “cheaper and cleaner electricity generation... were main battle cries in Labour’s campaign”, Enemalta had already made some bad mistakes. In answer to an NGO challenge to its 2012 proposal to test run the new BWSC for eight months on diesel rather than HFO, Enemalta commissioned an accounting firm to work out the extra cost involved.

Conclusion: an extra 10.2 per cent to power bills. Coming at a time when “the people” were loudly complaining about sky-high utility bills, such a rise was reckoned likely to lead to a storming of the Bastille. Unfortunately, the working did not take into account the fact that the BWSC was twice as efficient as the Delimara steam turbines.

This was pointed out at a MEPA session considering a permit for Enemalta to use HFO. An accounting firm representative, Enemalta engineers and the MEPA board,  including Caruana Dingli, were all present but unimpressed. The HFO permit was granted almost nem. con. by MEPA.

Labour’s battle cry that BWSC was a “Fabbrika tal-kanċer” (cancer factory) was without serious foundation when it was trumpeted by Joseph Muscat in March 2013. By that time, BWSC had a good set of scrubbers that removed most of the particulate matter in the exhaust. But no Nationalist Party counter was heard.  Neither was there any answer to the much-trumpeted Muscat claim that he would switch BWSC from HFO to diesel the day after he was elected.  To do that, Muscat would have had to flout an EU ruling about minimum reserves of principal generating fuel an isolated system like ours must keep. In fact, the switch of BWSC from HFO to NGas (not diesel) did not happen before late 2015 and was made by Shanghai Electric, the present owners.

The Sicily Interconnector (IC) came on stream in late 2015. I feel some points about the IC need to be cleared up. The present IC cannot by itself supply all our demand. The  accountant general’s opinion  that Enemalta could have lowered its costs by buying the bulk of our electricity from the IC rather than from Electrogas is not tenable, given the operating contracts signed.

The implication would be that Electrogas would have to have run its main (Siemens) turbine at half-cock, thus seriously affecting its efficiency and so putting up production cost of a unit.  Yet more:  the IC is not a completely ‘clean’ source. If we are not including the equivalent CO2 emissions on our account, then we are cheating.

If the Sicilians are not putting the same on their account, they are not cheating, given that they are not using the IC energy.

And, finally, the reluctance of engineers to have a major component of their generating system not under their direct control is understandable.

Whether it should be the decisive one in all circumstances is another matter. Yet, a gas pipeline is also vulnerable to “foreign interference”. Gela can just as easily turn off the tap as Ragusa throw the IC switches. The much-maligned LNG tanker in Marsaxlokk is a better bet from the local control aspect, were it not for its evident senility.

The questions asked by Caruana Dingli to Energy Minister Miriam Dalli cannot be given a good answer at this time. The European Commission gave our request for NG-pipeline finance short shrift. Dalli promptly countered with a search for other sources of money and a switch to a hydrogen (H)-ready line: a course of action unlikely to respect any deadline on the LNG tanker presence at Marsaxlokk given in the past.

From the other side, one can ask: how long is it going to take for a H-line to reach Gela? The existing Italian line on Sicily is certainly not “hydrogen-ready”. An H-ready pipe and supply is likely to take some time to be available. And when it does, it might make more sense for us to use the H on the spot and get the energy through a second IC, particularly if, by that time, the Siemens turbine is reaching old age.

But the sense of such a course of action would still depend on the remaining lifetime of the LNG tanker to ensure a smooth changeover.

Edward Mallia – Attard

Thank you from Albania

I would like to thank the Mission Fund for its generous donation of €5,000 in aid of families who are suffering the consequences of COVID-19, especially persons working in restaurants, hotels and certain factories, who are now out of work.

We continue to help poor families who turn to us for help, including medical care (to buy medicines or undergo an operation) and educational support (especially to buy text books and pay school fees for their children).

I appeal to readers to help the Mission Fund in its wonderful work by sending used stamps and donations.Donations may be made online or by direct bank transfer to one of the following accounts: BOV (IBAN No.: MT70VALL220130000000 16300798022); APS (IBAN No.: MT67APSB77079005231820000 820762); BNF (IBAN No.: MT94BNIF1450200000000087963101); LOMBARD (IBAN No.: MT65LBMA0500000000000 1440822115).

More information may be accessed from the website www.missionfund.org.mt.

Mgr George Frendo – Metropolitan Archbishop of Tiranë-Durrës, Albania

Disappointed

I have always appreciated and counted on this newspaper’s efforts to offer balanced reporting. I was, however, disappointed that, in marking the highlights of 2020 roundup,  space was given to the pro-abortion lobby as being noteworthy while none was offered to the massive pro-life promoters.   

Is it another instance where the killing gains more mileage than the life-giving?

Fr Paul Chetcuti – Jesuit Community, St Aloysius College, Birkirkara

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