Welcome to 2008. Let’s hope the wet and windy exit 2007 regaled us with blew away as many cobwebs as possible to help us start the New Year with some fresh ideas. And we are going to need them.
What with an election in the offing, the threat of EC fines coming in at a regular pace, a new currency and our building environment in a mess, we need some new blood on the political scene.
Let’s face it, the current scenario is stale and I am talking of all parties and it includes the younger members. Besides, the only people who seem to want to make a foray into politics are just not up to it. They only seem to target a minority and lack charisma.
Where are the passion, energy and intellect that inspire trust? Will the New Year surprise us? I hope so. But it is not just the politicians who need a shake-up. MEPA is by far the most unpopular authority. If the politicians insist on running the show, the only decent thing to do for the officials who are meant to be running it, is resign. Resignations not being accepted by the government are hogwash; they only further show the weak moral fibre of the people involved.
The government and the Opposition would be well advised to give the future of MEPA some serious thought before the next election.
Then of course we have the Hunters’ Federation who cannot see the writing on the wall, and who regale us with stupid outbursts. The last time I recall a protest on children being “brainwashed” was in mid-October, when a UK school governor asked a judge to ban the showing of “An Inconvenient Truth” to secondary school children because he said the government was brainwashing children.
Within the same week, Al Gore, who produced and fronted the documentary was awarded the Nobel prize together with the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
It is extraordinary that certain people only seem to worry about children being ‘brainwashed’ on environmental issues.
Here in Malta, the hunter’s federation decided to play at copy cat and had written to the Education Minister, Louis Galea, complaining of “brainwashing of schoolchildren” at a Zurrieq primary school in late October. This came to light last week when Lino Farrugia, the federation’s secretary protested yet again on the “further brainwashing of schoolchildren”, this time at a primary school in Siggiewi.
But the hunters are not protesting about the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” but over a questionnaire, which might reveal some inconvenient truths about hunting, distributed to the children before the holidays.
Now I would not have included the question “Is or was anyone in your family a hunter?” It is like asking a primary school child “Is anyone in your family gay?” Not done.
But in my book indoctrination is when you tell children what to think, which we do see rather a lot of elsewhere, not to ask them what they think.
And it is educational to ask them to respond to the questions: “Do you think hunters damage Malta’s natural environment?” and “Do you think hunters improve Malta’s natural environment?” They could answer either way.
Getting children to debate current political issues is educational, what we should be concerned about is that children are bombarded with all kinds of indoctrination daily from various media sources.

Things to look forward to
What happens as soon as a plane taxis onto the tarmac? All the mobile phones jingles start off. Am I the only person to find this irritating? What is it with these people who cannot wait for ten minutes to half an hour to tell others they have landed? Or are they all waiting for the all important business call that will clinch a deal?
I bring this up because not before too long those very people who seem to be talking to themselves loudly in the street, and in other public places, will be doing it on the seat next to you on flights.
There was a time when the only people to behave in that way (talking loudly in the street), were nutters. But nowadays it is perfectly acceptable for individuals to gesticulate and shout in public as long as they either hold a phone to their ear, or are wearing earphones or those silly contraptions that make them look like Dr Spock.
Do we really want to hear people’s ‘private’ conversations even if they seem to want us to be voyeurs? Mobile phones do seem to bring out the exhibitionist in some people and unless the person showing off is either entertaining, or is giving me some useful information, I would rather not be sitting next to him or her on a flight.
I suggest airlines start issuing questionnaires to people who intend using their phones on flights and only allow the ones who might spill the beans on some hot issue to use them. Alternatively, we could have switch-off times to give the rest of us a break, or better still herd them in a soundproof pen at the back of the plane.

pamelapacehansen@gmail.com