Smoke-free public places

I never needed a reason to come to Malta and I do in fact spend more and more time on the islands than ever. But I must admit that since the adoption of the ban on smoking in public places in Malta, I now look forward to coming more to Malta and to...

Those of you who know Switzerland may understand better what I mean. Switzerland is probably one the last countries in Europe and North America that does not have such a law. In fact, I now go less and less to eat out in Geneva, because of the smoking problem in restaurants.

The people in Geneva seem to rush to bars and restaurants and immediately light up before, during and after the meals. They do this with a lot of pizzazz, as if they have something to prove, like wanting to fill the room or rooms with smoke with a vengeance to chase out as quickly as possible any one who does not smoke. This not only makes the food less enjoyable, but leaves one smelling like Maghtab and the smell also permeates through the apartment.

Recently there have been efforts to have no-smoking areas in Geneva's eating places, but in our favourite restaurants these have not been too successful. I also hear that the Swiss will probably soon follow the EU in this respect, but I would not yet hold my breath. In Switzerland things happen slowly, but the country is beautiful, clean and most of the things work as they should. In my experience things hardly ever go wrong in Switzerland, but when they do sometimes the Swiss do not know how to fix them. In Malta, I feel it is different. Things go wrong more frequently, but we know usually how to fix them too.

I do not want to give the impression that people always follow the rules of no smoking in restaurants in Malta. During my last stay, a few weeks ago, for example, I was enjoying a nice meal with friends when the nice aroma coming from Niki's kitchen was replaced by the stale smell of cigarette smoke. At first we could not figure out where the smell was coming from since the person was holding the cigarette under the table but shortly after he lit up smoke started to rise and then we spotted the source. When I asked the person very politely in Maltese whether he knew that it was against the law to smoke in restaurants he quickly stubbed out the cigarette, apologising and telling me that he did not realise I was Maltese.

Golf courses and the environment

Not long ago I was interested by the debate in the local media on whether Malta should have more golf courses and where these should be situated. I do not think that it is difficult for one to conclude that more golf courses would be better for our tourism industry. I did not see any strong argumentation to the contrary.

To my surprise, however, the strong objections to building or developing the golf courses came from the environmentalists. I wondered whether I had missed something in the debate since, some of the best landscaping and natural views, some fabulous postcard views I have seen, have been of golf courses or the land around such developments. I need to be informed how a well planned golf course could damage Malta's wild fauna or flora.

European Constitution

The European Commission is calling for more reflection on the new European Constitution, raising some doubts on whether it wants to touch it at all. The Austrian Presidency seems to be having second thoughts about seriously reviving it, at least by presenting a time-table to bring it back in the centre of the European debate.

Finland, presiding during the second part of this year does not seem to have any plans to jump-start any initiatives on the Constitution. The German Chancellor, next year's President of the European Union, is not raising anyone's expectations for a shot in the arm of the ailing Constitution during her watch.

Malta's Foreign Minister is urging the EU not to lose focus on the Constitutional Treaty, and is urging EU leaders to be 'sharp and crisp', and that the next steps should be part of the process of the debate on the Constitutional Treaty and not a substitute to it.

There is little doubt that the process of the debate is clear: the people who were asked directly do not want it and in spite of this some governments continue to ratify it without recourse to the people, albeit legally. What can one do in the circumstances?

To be realistic, it makes little sense to do anything until a government or the Commission can truly present a concrete breakthrough for a constitution that will have grassroots support rather than force the continuation of a process that has the support of governments but not the support of the people who elected some of these governments.

UN reform

I WAS very pleased that The Times picked up George Soros's "A new bargain for UN reform" (May 13). Of course, Mr Soros is right that within the UN power has been shifting from the General Assembly to the Security Council for some time now. Actually the real power in the UN was never with the General Assembly, but it may be granted that any little power that the General Assembly had, eroded further over time.

Mr Soros has a good idea to give some power back to the General Assembly by letting it choose and elect the next Secretary General. But Mr Soros should also know that the world of the UN is different from the world of business, where usually common sense and good judgment is rewarded.

The reaction to the good and worthy proposal of Mr Soros will surely receive the same reaction to many earlier good suggestions for UN reform, including a more democratic and less anachronistic Security Council. The not so surprising reply to Mr Soros by the relevant authorities would certainly be that the election of the Secretary General has to done according to the UN Charter, which gives the primary role to the Security Council and simply a rubber stamping role to the General Assembly. But thank you, Mr Soros, for trying to bring some sense in the debate on UN reform.

The Da Vinci Code

I read The Da Vinci Code because I had earlier read Angels and Demons by the same author and I thought it was a good read, certainly a good fictional thriller. I was actually disappointed by The Da Vinci Code since Angels and Demons in my opinion was a much better book. To be frank, I did not give that much importance or attention to the historical and religious distortion until the debate on all this erupted. After all, I knew that I was reading fiction.

I followed the sometimes frantic debate in the local media and was pleased that the local Church authorities seemed to have been more pragmatic and practical than some of the authorities in Rome. Did this affect my beliefs and religious convictions? The answer is a categorical no. Would the movie, if I would see it, change my views? I do not think so.

Those of you of the same age may remember a series of movies on "Francis, the talking mule". I enjoyed watching those movies and I found them to be funny and a nice distraction from my regular routine. I did not for a moment believe that mules could talk; no one did.

Low-fare airlines

I do not intend to debate the merits and otherwise of low-fare airlines for Malta, since I do not know that sector of Maltese life well enough to come to any useful conclusions. I know that these airlines have been rather successful in Europe and also in the US and other places.

One only has to taxi in some of the major airports to see the mushrooming of some of these airlines. The major ones I notice in the airports I frequent would be EasyJet, Ryanair, Air One and many more smaller ones.

Cointrin airport in Geneva was hit by the demise of Swissair and the transferring of long-haul flights to Zurich. At one time the airport in Geneva was in a lot of trouble. But this all changed with EasyJet, which uses Cointrin as a hub. One sees an orange plane in the Geneva sky practically at all times of the day. There are 20 destinations served from Geneva by EasyJet, with at least 10 daily flights to London. What did this do to the regularly scheduled airlines like British Airways? BA has now 10 flights a day to London from Geneva.

Swiss also has flights to London daily. The traveller to London from Geneva is certainly much better off today than before the low fare airlines ventured to Geneva. Can this success be repeated in other places in Europe, such as Malta? That is the question that needs to be answered.

In one of his last official duties as Maltese Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Mr Bartolo signed the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on behalf of Malta in 2003.