Just to get you spluttering over your breakfast, or lunch, or whenever you get round to reading this, here’s a thought about what happens to your remains when you die.
Health Minister Louis Deguara told parliament the other day that there are 3,320 pending applications for graves at the Addolorata Cemetery.
We were not told how many are available now, but that 2,782 new graves are to be built. We were also not told when exactly these new graves would be available but that 2,500 of them will be allocated in the near future.
Does that mean that 820 graves are available now? What does pending mean? And if 2,782 new graves are to be built and 2,500 will be available soon (of course we still don’t know how soon. Before we vote or after?) What is envisaged for the remaining new 282 new graves?
I always find that answers to parliamentary questions raise even more questions rather than answering them.

Moving on from endings to beginnings. Apparently, one of the things Labour is promising on education is that they will be introducing a reception class between kindergarten and primary school.
Minister Louis Galea responded to that proposal by saying that would mean that all five-year-olds would be held back by a school year.
I must say that it would make more sense to provide extra help for the children who need it and let the others get on with it. However, Labour’s promise that it would ensure that classes would not have more than 25 pupils and that more resources will be allocated to primary education is worth noting.
Although of course, though s/he should be, the middle class voter is not worried about state education. They are more seduced by tax rebates on private education, including Labour MPs.
Alfred Sant, giving his speech at the end of the MLP’s general conference said the Labour Party is also committed to building a new Sixth Form in the north of Malta and insisted that the MLP in government will not use education as a political tool. God forbid!
It will only do it while it is campaigning.
Dr Sant said that our standard of living needs to catch up with our European counterparts. He claimed that since joining the EU, Malta has fallen behind practically every other EU member state with regard to workers’ income, the economic growth rate and the increase in the tax burden.
He also recommitted to halving the fuel surcharge. Now I must say I like that idea. However, since I also pay taxes, I know that something has got to give and if it isn’t fuel bills that eat up my cash it will no doubt be something else.
Although, it would be interesting to know more about the MLP framework plans that will encourage the use of alternative sources of energy and ways of saving energy.
One of the digs at the government the Labour Party leader relished was the loss of EU funds through missing deadlines. He said the MLP is committed to reverse these weaknesses and ensure that funds allocated to the country are obtained on time and used wisely, without any wastages and corruption.
Zero tolerance towards corruption and incompetence is a good one and something that many will vote for and Sant’s jibe at the PM at the end of his speech “Those who fail to fight corruption are corrupt themselves”, should get more of a response than “Together, everything is possible.”
What a tough choice we have, folks: “A New Beginning” or “Together Everything is Possible”.

Back to endings
At a recent GWU conference concentrating on Health & Safety, emphasis was made, yet again, on unnecessary loss of life through bad practice.
I say yet again, because having sat through many such conferences in the last 15 years, I have witnessed the same litany being repeated year in year out with little result.
A high number of reports of occupational deaths and accidents, mainly construction related, over the last few months, have apparently rekindled interest in the issue.
Mark Gauci, chief executive officer of the Operational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA), reported that 60 fatalities had occurred at the workplace since 2000.
General secretary Tony Zarb said the GWU is proposing the setting up of an ad hoc committee to draw up a strategic plan to avoid future accidents at the work place. About time. Why has it taken the GWU so long to come up with such a proposal?
Mr Zarb, quite rightly, criticised the government for failing to ratify important conventions of the International Labour Organisation in the field of occupational health and safety, some dating back to 1986. But the GWU has not done much either.
Minister Louis Galea, in this crucial election year, is also pulling his finger out and is promising that the Occupational Health and Safety Authority will be strengthened with the employment of more enforcement officers. He said the authority would shortly also issue a call for the employment of officials for duties in the construction and engineering industry as well as others to provide an occupational psychology service.
Stiffer penalties were being planned, including fines and imprisonment, especially where breach of the law led to fatal accidents.
Time will no doubt tell whether any of these initiatives will be actuated and work in curtailing premature death through preventable accidents at work.

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