Traffic all over Gzira is chaotic. One reason is that all roads, including residential ones, are used as traffic feeders to Sliema. Our local council could not come to terms with this condition and instead of trying to solve the problem, it makes matters worse for us residents. However, the council seems to be succeeding in accommodating businesses.
Recently, they surprised all concerned by rendering Triq il-Madonna Tal-Gebla one way up from Sliema Road – the opposite direction to what we residents formally requested over two years ago.
Incidentally, this change made the owner of a retail outlet at the bottom end of Triq il-Madonna tal-Gebla the happiest man in Malta. His suppliers can now unload detergents without creating traffic chaos in Regional Road, while his customers have ample space to park, very often on both sides of the street. Nothing wrong with that, except an environment often similar to a rubbish dump.
The end result is that we residents are now worse off as we have to leave the locality the long and hard way – by driving through other chaotic streets thus irritating additional residents – let us call it the council’s way. Notwithstanding, the area is still being used as a traffic drainage pipe towards Sliema. They may have made the detergent man very happy, but we residents are very frustrated.
The Gzira local council has promised to solve traffic problems in its electoral programme. I wonder whether they can achieve this aim by adopting a policy not to consult the residents when taking decisions. Well, maybe because they think they know it all.

Carmel Tonna
Gzira

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First of all, hopefully MaltaToday will give me a voice. Something the Times of Malta never does. My contributions to blogs are never accepted.
Yes, that is just what the Gonzi government is capable of doing. Those who steal and fool the system are rewarded. This is another slap in the face from this excessive authoritarian government. There is no point in being honest.
Those who are always rewarded like the Armier squatters are: ‘single mothers’; boarded-out workers, or those who declare a minimum wage and have an undeclared, untaxed fulltime job; those who have jobs in the civil service, and are absent from work; those who do government propaganda and get permits approved at the bat of an eyelid.
This country is going in a downward trend. There is no sense of responsibility. No free press! Reading the other English press is like reading government press releases or a propaganda bulletin. Those who call themselves journalist are mostly reporters, few are and seldom they are gagged or their storied dissected before making it to print.
Yet in conclusion I firmly believe the result of this year’s election is that the Maltese are sheep who are happy to walk behind a shepherd who smiles like a fool and fools them by telling them everything is fine. The Maltese live in a surreal world where everything is great. It was not Dalì who was a surrealist. It is our politicians.

Lisa Galea
Via email

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I was both appalled and amused by Vince Farrugia’s comments regarding the employment of asylum seekers in Tuesday’s edition of the program Dissett (24 June).
Farrugia claimed that stories about Maltese employers exploiting asylum seekers are grossly exaggerated; that the latter hold employers at ransom; that these have to pay for their meals apart from paying them wages (Farrugia did not specify the kind of meals, or the salary generally paid in such circumstances); that the high incidence of immigrant causalities on construction sites is due to their stubbornness in refusing the safety apparatus which contractors offer them; and that local authorities privilege African immigrants ahead of Eastern Europeans because “of the look of their face”, rather than some logistic reason as indeed is the case.
(A few days before the said programme, Fr Mark Montebello reported the case of Ahmed Abubaker, a 19-year-old Somali who has been accused of rape and detained since March 2007, even though he has been wearing a catheter for about two years and hence was/is physically incapacitated from committing such a crime. This evidences the high regard in which Africans are held by local authorities).
Not to mention, when referring to the supposed slump in the price of property in areas where asylum seekers are housed, Farrugia raised the daft argument that people left their property to charities without intending these to negatively affect the value of their neighbour’s property, and hence these charities are somewhat betraying the will of the original donors. (It is like claiming that by installing electricity in one’s ancestral house, one betrays his/her ancestors since these did not stipulate the installation of electricity in their will!) But then, one should not expect anything better from one who, a few years ago, appealed to our Catholic culture in order to campaign against Sunday shopping yet, on TV debate a few months later, asked Fr Grech Marguerat to be serious when the latter appealed to Christian values while arguing against the proposed Rabat golf-course.
Returning to Tuesday’s programme, Mr Farrugia grounded his contentions on information he claimed to have received directly from the horse’s mouth. The problem is that he listened only to one kind of horse; the employer variety. Had he also listened to other horses, as I had the opportunity when meeting asylum seekers and immigrants, he would have heard a different story, one that would make you believe that newspapers stories about asylum-seeker ill-treatment are mitigated rather than hyped.
Had he listened to the other horses, he would have heard stories of people being paid one euro per hour; of employers promising a particular lump sum at the commencement of a job and then retracting on the day of payment; of employers who on the day of payment report their employees to the immigration authorities; of immigrants who are dismissed from work for asking to be provided with safety equipment; of employees who are blackmailed by their employer into denying that a dead/injured colleague was indeed employed by the employer in question; of employers who justify their misbehaviour by claiming that they are not employing human beings but “dogs”, “stinking animals”, etc.
Obviously, I am not claiming that all asylum seekers are immaculate. Listening only to stories told from asylum seekers will give a one one-sided picture with similar limitations to the one described by Farrugia on TV. Nor am I implying that all employers are filthy bastards. Indeed, I also known of Maltese employers who deserve the most laudable of commendations for the manner in which they treat their foreign workers and the help they offer them to integrate. Yet, if one had to weigh the misdeeds of asylum seekers on the one hand and those of certain Maltese employers on the other, I think it will be fairly obvious to your readers where the balance would tilt.
Notwithstanding these divergences, I wholeheartedly agree with Farrugia as to the need to set firm rules for the employment of asylum seekers and on the inadequate manner in which local authorities are mishandling the immigration phenomenon. One must keep in mind that before their release most asylum seekers spend about 18 months locked up in detention centres where, obviously, no one prepares them for the world they are likely to face.
Moreover, while on Tuesday’s programme Farrugia was rightly standing for the category he represents, workers’ unions were conspicuous by their absence, not merely on the programme (they might not have been invited) but, as emerged from the talk show, from what goes on in the employment of these workers. So much for worker solidarity, which was once supposed to transcend frontiers and nationalities.

Michael Grech
Gharghur

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I was wondering whether I should write out and express my feelings about Malta Shipyards. My father is a humble person, a person whom I have admired all my life, a person who strives hard and who has put his life in danger in order to keep his family going, paid for my education and built up family values... like most of the 1,700 people working at the docks, some of whom have died during their daily duties. Maybe some people know about these facts. However, there are loads of others who can’t imagine under what pressure and danger these people work.
Just few weeks prior to the election, Dr Lawrence Gonzi sent a letter home addressed to my father’s name (as if to impress), to reassure him that his job was secure and he could put his mind at rest, to put it briefly. Many others also received this letter, and most of the population knows about this. I was only wondering how come, now, under these circumstances, people or rather families don’t protest in a national scale. This is going to affect hundreds of families, like shipyards other companies about to close.
We always shout that this is a democratic country, and we add that because we are in EU we should have better human rights. Are these human rights? Deciding what to do with a company without consulting other entities in the country? Other countries are not afraid to go out and protest, why are Maltese people are so naïve? Why is it that whatever happens, in this country we have to abide by it, even if the majority says no?
I wish that the people in power can organise something not only by words but by calling people out to protest against what is happening to our once-beautiful country; not only for Malta Shipyards but for the sake of our future. Young people like me should wake up from their sleep and find a way out of this maze.
 
Sue Ellen Borg
Marsaskala

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I can confirm in full what you have written in this article (15 June), and more! It is a shame that if one decides to go to Gozo and use public transport there is only one bus waiting for the ferry to dock. This fills up in a matter of seconds, so that commuters have to ride on the steps leading to the driver.
This is the situation that we had to face last Easter, when we decided to go for a trip to Gozo. As I have two small children I had to go with two pushchairs. There were my parents assisting me. When we arrived we found that the bus was already full up. The driver wanted me to sit with the children on the steps. As I decided not to, he insulted me for wasting his time and drove away. After two minutes or so another bus arrived. As we entered the first thing that the driver told us was that in Gozo – or as you call it, the republic of Gozo – the ‘kartanzjan’ is not accepted. So my parents had to pay the full fare. But this is nothing compared to what I heard later. I asked the driver when the bus would leave Mgarr. It was already more than half full. He told me that we would wait for the next ferry to arrive, fill up and leave. So imagine: we arrived in Gozo at 10am and we were left stranded at Mgarr until 11, as that was the time when the next ferry arrived. Of course, outside the bus, smiling happily at the bus driver, there were some great white sharks – otherwise known as taxi drivers – who offered their services for a trip to Rabat for ‘only’ 6 euros per person. When we arrived at Rabat it was time to pick up the bus again and go back to Mgarr, as everyone was already packing things to close for the morning.
This was a disgusting ordeal to say the least and one which leaves Maltese and tourists alike frustrated. I think that time has come that the transport system in Gozo is totally revamped, because leaving sour tastes in Maltese and tourists alike is not healthy, either for the Gozitans, nor for our image as a tourist destination.

George Portelli
Mqabba

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Kindly allow me to rebut the false information appearing in a news item titled, ‘New’ PN executive paves way for secretary general’ by journalist Charlot Zahra (MaltaToday, June 1, 2008) in which article the journalist in question stated that Marthese Portelli is Nationalist Party councillor in Xaghra (Gozo). This was mistaken since Marthese Portelli is National Party councillor in Xewkija (Gozo).
Instead of having singled her out by saying that she, (Portelli), just ranked ninth out of the 13 contested vacant seats in the Friday, May 30 election to the Nationalist Party Executive Council, the author of the article in question should have stated that contestant Marthese Portelli made it to the Nationalist Party Executive Council without having to resort to the positive discrimination clause which favoured female candidates.

Edward Torpiano
Floriana

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Reference is made to the article “St Helena men remembered… with fireworks fundraiser!” (22 June).
Kindly note that your article is completely misleading and it’s not true that a BBQ is going to be organised on the anniversary of the tragedy of St Helen’s Fireworks Factory.
The truth is that on the first anniversary of the tragedy of St Helen’s Fireworks Factory, il-Grupp Armar, l-Ghaqda tan-Nar Sant’ Elena, il-Banda Duke of Connaught’s Own and is-Socjeta Muzikali Sant’ Elena are going to commemorate this day with a mass celebrated in the Bazilika of St Helen at 6.30 pm.
Everyone is invited to pray for Vincent Galea, Paul Bonnici, Sunny Borg, Richard Cardona and Carmel Farrugia, who lost their life on 27 June 2007.
Furthermore on the 27 of each month a mass is celebrated in a chapel in Birkirkara to commemorate our lost friends.
We would like you to correct the article and giving it the same priority you did on Sunday 22 June 2008, as it is totally incorrect and misleading. Please be better informed before publishing such an article.

Bernard Cauchi,
Obo Grupp Armar, Ghaqda tan-Nar Sant’ Elena,
Banda Duke of Connaught’s Own,
Socjeta Muzikali Sant’ Elena
Birkirkara

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