On the Dot...

These two fountains, one dated 1881, situated at the Republic Street crossroad (right, top) and the other at the St Francis Square roundabout, near the Ministry for Gozo, in Victoria, have been waterless for ages. Yet, there is no sign that restoration is underway.

Call Sighs

Maltacom has now informed the public its payphone system will be upgraded with a more client-friendly system. One hopes the booths will eventually include a chair that may be folded back. More important, however, is the issue of spare parts; these payphones must be repaired as soon as they are broken, not as has been the case of late.

Boy Zone

It's about time a beat policeman was detailed to patrol the general area of City Gate, in Valletta. Last Tuesday afternoon, at about 1.30 p.m., there was another ruckus. A Maltese man was beating up a foreign lady, saying she had touched his car and annoyed his female friend. The woman was later taken home by a friend, visibly shaken and injured.

Counting Chickens

The situation prevailing inside the highest institution of the land, Parliament, at times leaves a lot to be desired. Squabbles and pique should not be alien to the people who are supposed to be setting common mortals a shining example. An institution should first respect itself if it expects respect from others.

Penny Wise

Following discussions with the National Commission for Persons with Disability, the Bank of Valletta has successfully implemented a plan through which people with visual impairment may make use of the newly-implemented customer support system. One hopes other institutions, including local councils, will soon follow suit.

Pound Foolish

However, any kudos from the aforesaid action has been lost through a policy change regarding the use of automatic teller machines. Whenever card holders use another bank's ATM, they incur a charge of Lm1.20. This is ridiculous for, obviously, most often, a "rival" bank is closer than the next BOV branch, when the machine is out of order or there is a long queue.

Light Brigade

Electricity bills are being calculated in an ex officio best of judgement assessment as if there were no tomorrow. This means that, since the surcharge rate is liable to change, several times a re-rating exercise may be necessary to bring payments in line with dues owed. This is ridiculous, and uses manpower in a futile way.

Kept Posted

Several people grumble about postal deliveries. Of course, one is usually judged by one's mistakes, but credit must be given where credit is due and one ought to note that the postal items that go amiss are few and far between. Maltapost plc does deliver tens of thousands of items daily, within 24 hours of their being dropped into a post-box, come rain or shine.

All Told

Media Warehouse recently ran a survey in which it obtained that di-ve.com was the most popular website. This might well be because it is constantly updated - and because it offers two different internet services; di-ve.com web mail and Maltanet web mail. Another plus point is that the customer care system is now more efficient, generating an almost immediate response to queries.