Anna Mallia | Wednesday, 18 March 2009

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My letter to the Archbishop

Your Excellency,
I fully concur with the pressure that you made to the local authorities on what happened in Nadur and on the extension of St John’s Co-Cathedral, although in the latter case, I fail to understand how your representatives in the foundation, failed to inform you about their plans for such extension.
However, I cannot understand how you are not using the same pressure on the sprouting of gambling shops in Malta and how you are not urging government to regularise the situation immediately.
Please do not bother to instruct your PRO to tell us how the Church is against gambling because such press release will not suffice.
In the case of Nadur and of the Co-Cathedral you did not instruct your PRO to issue a press release but you sought direct action with the authorities concerned.
I fail to understand why you are dragging your feet on this issue when you know that your yawn is the government’s tremor.

My letter to the Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister,
I refer to the issue of the electricity and water tariffs and to what you have said in Parliament in this regard. You very much reminded me of the former PL leader.
Please understand that your euro is worth 0 cents, the minister’s euro is worth a bit more, my euro is worth 75c – but for most of the workers and pensioners, the euro is worth €10 or more.
Your vote was not a vote against Labour but against those workers, pensioners and families who are trying to make ends meet to cope with the living expenses.
Mind you, it even happens to me that sometimes I think that everybody’s euro is as valuable as my euro but this does not mean that we can put all the eggs in one basket.
So please, understand that the issue is not the Government vs the Opposition, but about tariffs that are more socially acceptable.

My letter to the Leader of the Opposition

Dear Dr Muscat,
I must say that I was very disappointed about the way that the party handled the motion on the energy tariffs before Parliament on 18 March 2009.
I browsed through the minutes of the sitting as published on the Parliament’s website and I was appalled when I discovered that three members of your party were absent.
You know that the vote was 33 against the motion and 31 in favour.
You also know that if these three members of Parliament were present, the motion would have gone through.
The minutes of the sitting say that Dr Chris Cardona was absent, and Ms Marie Louise Coleiro Preca and Dr Joseph Sammut were excused as they were away on Parliamentary business.
I do not care what parliamentary business they were attending, and I hope that Dr Cardona gave a plausible explanation to the party for his absence; but the Whip ought to have made sure that none of them left the island.
It is a shame how these three members of parliament did not realise that by their absence they helped the Nationalist party and turned their back on the workers and the pensioners.
I hope that this irreparable mistake does not repeat itself.

My letter to Ivan Camilleri of the Times

Dear Mr Camilleri,
Recently you have been reporting from Brussels on how our political parties have had a change of heart, and how the Nationalist Party is the first party to make sure that his MEPs are accountable to what they earn in Brussels.
However you fail to inform your readers that the stand taken by our political parties is not something spontaneous, but is the result of what is being dictated from Brussels.
You know that in July 2009 the new Member’s Statute will come into force and the new rules make transparency and accountability a must.
So the next time you write, please inform your readers about this new Members’ Statute and what it is all about.

My letter to the Chairman, Malta Maritime Authority

Dear Dr Portelli,
Congratulations on your appointment and I wish you best of luck.
I emailed this query to the Malta Martime Authority on 1 March but I did not even get an acknowledgement.
My query is for the Malta Maritime Authority to explain how the Malta Powerboat School issues a nautical license following a two-day course, that is valid in all countries in the EU, when the course in basic seamanship held by the Malta Maritime Authority, is a four-week part-time course and the license is only valid for Malta’s territorial waters?
Can you please explain?

Sincerely… Anna Mallia

I think that for today, dear readers, this will suffice. Until the next time!

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