On the Dot...

Two "shrines" - one at Kalkara Gardens, overlooking Grand Harbour, the second at the bottom of the steps leading to the Central Bank annexe - hardly inspire any devotion. The décor is anything but that of a shrine and both are embellished with all sort of gaudy things, colours and writings.

XXX Marks

A street hawker was recently arraigned and charged with selling fake DVDs, PlayStation software and music CDs at the Sunday open market, in Valletta, last November. He was further accused of distributing pornographic material. Yet, alas, nothing is done about the dozens of items, inclusive of souvenir t-shirts, that could also fall under this heading.

Road Blocked

Since the development of a couple of commercial outlets located in the centre of Swieqi Road, residents in the area are at a loss due to lack of parking space. As an added inconvenience, residents having a garage or driveway also find vehicles obstructing the entrance to their property. This problem will keep recurring as long as wardens refrain from showing up there.

Traffic Jamming

The stretch between the church of the Immaculate Conception and Villambrosa Street, in Hamrun, is a disaster area where it comes to traffic management. Several wholesale agents, a couple of supermarkets, and other outlets there means that several vehicles and pedestrian shoppers constantly find themselves trapped in bottlenecks, and, moreover, competing for space with workers busy unloading produce.

Numbers Games

One particular programme on television has a competition that requires competitors to guess the combination of a safe. Chancing on the right set of numbers, the probability of which is never mentioned on the programme itself, must be very difficult. Moreover, the public's intelligence is insulted by the type of quiz questions callers are asked; even these are sometimes answered badly.

Bird Brains

Every time the trees start being pruned and the weeds start getting decimated in a mistaken effort to make the republic look leaner and meaner, the flora and fauna are the first casualties. It is not the first time that birds' nests are seen, complete with smashed eggs, in the lopped-off branches. Butterflies and bees lose their wild flowers - and the resulting mess is sometimes not cleared up immediately.

Free Flow

Some sections of the press see misdemeanours by members of Parliament of the side opposite that to which they support, as the brilliant occasion to make hay while the sun shines. Whereas this column is the first to condemn any type of law-breaching, one has to ensure that what is not good for the goose is not good either for the gander.

Class Act

Whatever has happened to the modern equivalent of truant officers? A quick look in any games arcade, let alone through class registers, is enough to indicate that many children are skiving school. Does nobody know, or care, that each morning there are many children out in the streets, who are not accompanied by adults, thus indicating that they may have a reason for skipping schools?

Fish Tales

Terrapins and goldfish are still being sold in plastic bags in open air markets. This means the animal welfare groups are looking after, literally, the big fish, while allowing small traders to get away with murder.

Radio Gaga

The way the administrations of some radio stations allow gaffes to go on air never ceased to amaze. Some announcers and presenters appear never to have been near a Maltese grammar book in their lives. Some of them are not even aware of how to pronounce the names of World Cup teams!

Name Calling

In Hamrun, two nameplates, just across the street from one another, proclaim that the road is called either Triq il-Lunzjata or Annunciation Avenue. A few metres away, two different plaques indicate Vincenzo Bugeja and Censu Bugeja as the same street.