Round robin

Not the plump red-breasted little creature that flies to my window each morning for crumbs of chocolate-coated doughnut. (Whoever said robins prefer pomegranates?)

Another meaning of the phrase "round robin" is a petition or protest having the signatures in a circle to disguise the order of signing. That was in the days when ring leaders and harbingers of change were shot. Taking the circular or scenic route, here are some observations of late:

The National Commission for Sustainable Development held a consultation meeting with NGOs, one in a series of various sectors leading up to approval of the draft strategy. The national strategy does not set targets and presents no plan. It is intended as a direction to be followed.

The commission has been criticised for not being representative enough. The commission itself has noted that the person representing local councils, a crucial gateway for implementing the strategy, has failed to show up for meetings. It is no secret that government as a whole "cares little about sustainable development."

NCSD task force co-ordinator Professor Lino Briguglio notes that achieving sustainable development, based on the ethic of thinking about future generations, is more difficult here than in other countries. On top of its own huge density pressures Malta is under strain with a tourism influx equal to the entire population of Gozo each year with tourists consuming energy and water at a higher rate than the residents.

At a consultation meeting for the construction industry it was confirmed that stone could and should be used at the point of excavation for construction purposes. A case in point was the Mater Dei Hospital project where good building stone underlying the site was hacked out and discarded at sea while a fresh supply of stone was purchased from an off-site quarry to meet construction requirements - a waste of money and limited resources.

The Gozo Ministry has finally come around to supporting organic farming. A proposal made several years ago for agriculture on Gozo to go organic through the University of Udine as a small island project for sustainable agriculture, found no support from the Ministry at the time. EU membership seems to have made all the difference.

At the opening of a week-long international conference on organic farming, organised by the Genista Foudation, Minister George Pullicino remarked on the enthusiasm of Gozitan farmers who wished to go organic.

Organic certification

With 20 farmers in Malta and Gozo now turning 16 hectares of land over to organic, the Malta Standards Authority is now subsidising a scheme to support farmers growing genuine organic produce. More than three hectares at the government experimental farm at Ghammieri has gone organic and two scientific officers have been sent to Italy to be trained as assessors.

The MSA is also studying the possibility of becoming a certification body under the EuroGap scheme and eventually to prepare national agricultural product standards and certify against these standards.

"We are conscious of the opportunities that will be opening in this area combining Malta as an EU member state and the vast agricultural market in North Africa," states MSA chairman Francis Farrugia.

Farmers registering with the scheme will pay an annual fee of Lm50 for up to one tumolo surface area which includes at least two visits per year and the cost of any testing. Those having an area greater than one tumolo will be charged an extra Lm25 per tumolo to a maximum of Lm200 irrespective of the farm area.

A source within the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Environment has indicated that the authority originally intended to charge more than double that figure but has come down to a more reasonable figure.

Mr Farrugia comments: "We have taken the task of acting as a certification body to support genuine farmers as we know that they would never be in a position to pay foreign certification bodies the fees asked. Considering that each test costs more than Lm20 we will be running the scheme practically at a loss."

Systems and fables

A favourite anecdote and true story is the one of the Beef Wellington served up in a purportedly classy restaurant where the head chef was beaver eager to take personal credit for the meat being cooked to perfection. But on the little matter of the pastry being scorched black... well, that was the fault of the kitchen boy.

Every good establishment has one. There is always an anonymous ragazzo to take the blame. That is the system and it goes to preserve honour, save face and render managers wholly unaccountable as well as ineffectual while events unwind beyond the borderlines of their control.

You may also have heard the old joke that goes, "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup," to which the Maitre d' promptly retorts, "Don't say that too loudly sir, or everyone else will want one too".

We are not just talking of the joys and hazards of restaurant dining here.

Seeing a simple task through to the end - discovering the most efficient route for its implemention, from minister to road digger, and just who is responsible along the way for pressing all the right buttons - is a daily challenge whenever the average citizen (raise your hand) is mildly annoyed enough to pick up the phone and initiate some action in the hopes of solving a problem.

There are instances where management estranges itself from crucial factors affecting the quality of the end product or service. Systems to meet customer satisfaction do exist but if too widely publicised they may easily collapse and become unworkable.

To further illustrate here are some recent examples.

Abandoned police barriers

A lane leading off the Mrabat junction (not so famous for being a roundabout), is dug up for the usual reasons. A police barrier is placed across the lane to head traffic off at the pass. When all is patched and done the passage of traffic to the lane is reopened with police barrier (PB2 by number) being pushed to one side against a wall. And there it stays.

A dirty shred of plastic ribbon flutters from the candy cane-coloured barrier. A new and innovative place to dump rubbish bags at all hours is created to the delight of people who do that sort of thing. Well, they reason, if the police dumped their barrier, then why not add to the pile? Such logic sets a mass of litterers in motion when the body entrusted with keeping the law contributes to an encouragement of its breaking.

Pick up the phone and ring St Julian's council again. Do I know who the barrier belongs to? It seems that an unknown number of police barriers have gone awol.

The council informs me they will contact the police to remove it. Still no result after a week. Following further contact it was decided that the council would summon that commendable service known as "Bulky Refuse". A week later the barrier is still there.

Asbestos water tanks

Asbestos waste is considered to be a very dangerous category of hazardous waste but as long as the water tank is in one piece there is little immediate danger of the lethal material being released into the environment. What to do with disused cement water tanks containing asbestos is a still concern for the environmentally conscious. Addressing this query to WasteServ the response was a prompt one.

First and foremost, an asbestos tank should never be broken up since this releases the cancer-causing material into the atmosphere. If it is too big to manhandle down the stairs from the roof and out of the door onto a truck then it will be necessary to engage the services of a crane for its safe removal.

If one succeeds in loading the tank in one piece onto a truck then this can be deposited in a tunnel being used for temporary storage at Corradino. Eventually arrangements are to be made for its shipment abroad and final disposal in permitted facilities.

For further information ring WasteServ on 2385-8000.

Dangling telephone wires

A whole durum spaghetti of cables adorns an Msida wooden balcony and doorway like dishevelled leftovers from a drunken party some time last Christmas. This unwanted addition to a façade which is located in an Urban Conservation Area behind the parish church is in danger of becoming a permanent fixture. The landscapes convention draft document recently put out by MEPA identifies loose wires on buildings as an eyesore that should and must go but where to start.

When in doubt consult your local council. They may or may not have a useful lead even if the arduous task of pursuing must be done by yourself. In this case I was directed to Maltacom where general enquiries directed me to Faults where a well-meaning soul directed me further down the line to an individual with a name, a real live person who was seemed to be trusted with the charge of untangling spaghetti and nailing it in a neat array to said wall.

To my chagrin, having got this far, real live person informed me that the go-ahead for such an activity as tidying wires in the street must be had from executive secretariat in the form of a Mr Joe Micallef whose e-mail address was dispatched forthwith.

A swift response came back from Mr Micallef:

"I have directed this message to the attention of the technical officer in charge of maintenance for execution of works requested. These works will be carried out as soon as possible, unless there are circumstances beyond our control." So do not wait for "il-gvern" to do it. Just pick up the phone and set the wheels in motion. Truth to tell, if we all get on the phone at once to start solving these niggling little everyday problems in our environment then the fragile systems may not be able to cope with the demand.

Big noise

The Health Ministry has acquired €32,000 under the Transition Facility Programme 2004 to strengthen human resources and provide technical aid for the drafting of rules on pollution from excessive noise in residential areas.

The use of car horns should be banned in urban areas. Hooting at every single corner is a bad habit which drives residents unfortunate enough to live at crossroads to distraction. The arrival of the gas man need hardly be heralded by a series of blasts on his air horn when the clanging of cylinders can be heard from blocks away.

With every summer the number of letters complaining of festa noise is on the increase. We also expect that serious discussion should now begin with fireworks committees in the hope of regulating excess noise which has an impact on our health.