The National Bank of Malta saga
The substantial uplift in BOV’s share price (as a result of the resolution of the bank’s disastrous involvement with the Italian Deiulemar Group, which ended in bankruptcy) brings to mind the question of the overdue compensation by the government to National Bank of Malta shareholders.
At the end of April, the market price was 76c. At the time of writing, this has risen to 99c. This additional 23 cents means that the government’s holding of around 116.6 million BOV shares has risen in value in a matter of days by €26.8 million to €115.4 million (+30.3 per cent).
It is time that nearly half a century of legal wrangling in court is brought to an end, possibly through an amicable settlement unless an ending to these protracted proceedings is imminent.
The minister for social policy recently boasted that the government paid out some €65 million to former employees of government and various parastatal bodies so as to remedy alleged injustices going back years.
Yet, NBM shareholders have been kept in the lurch for an unacceptably long period.
Anthony Curmi – St Julian’s
Will the Attard bike path be finished?
As you can see from the photograph, this cycle path veers away from the Attard Central Link across the old railway bridge and shudders to a grinding halt.
It miraculously reappears, not on this road but back on Mdina Road, as if the planner got lost. Neither central or in any way linking. It seems incomplete.
Can something be done?
Jim Wightman – St Julian’s
An accident waiting to happen
The pavement near the top of Republic Street, Victoria, corner with Triq Dun Karl Bondi, opposite Astra Theatre, narrows down to a width that is less than a couple of feet.
Pedestrians walking in opposite directions have to step onto the busy street in order to make way for each other, unknowingly putting themselves at the mercy of the oncoming traffic going uphill.
With the prospect of a busy summer ahead, signs should be put up warning pedestrians of the danger.
George Camilleri – Victoria
Lest we forget
In her letter (May 4) seeking to clear God of any responsibility for man’s history of war and violence, Jacqueline Calleja carefully fails to mention the part played by religion and religious leaders in this tragic history.
The Jewish and Islamic scriptures both appear to give divine permission and even encouragement for violence towards those who decline to accept their respective faiths.
Although early Christian tradition includes the clear statement that ‘all who draw the sword will die by the sword’ (Matthew 26:52), there are many examples in Christian history of warfare encouraged and sometimes perpetrated by popes and prelates, of whom Patriarch Kirill, present head of the Russian Orthodox Church, is only the most recent example.
If those who are believed to speak in the name of God give blessing and encouragement to war, it is surely hard to see how God Himself can be exonerated. Pope Francis is clearly opposed to war and violence but a fair number of his papal predecessors have not been. Better, perhaps, to leave God out of it altogether.
Alan Cooke – Sliema
To be expected
The two main headlines on the front page of the Times of Malta on May 4 read: ‘Families spend €100 more per month on food’ and ‘More than 75 per cent of Maltese men overweight’.
Hardly surprising!
Joseph Muscat – Attard
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