On the Dot...

On an air ticket to Sicily there is a government tax/levy of Lm38 pushing the price to Lm82 for a 25-minute flight. This costs more than four nights accommodation there! Then we have to pay another 10 per cent tax on insurance. Is this moral and just?

Channel Progress

Gozo Channel may have been a success lately; the same cannot be said, however, for the luggage transport service, or the lack of, as was the case on July 15 at about 2.50 p.m. in Mgarr. Tourists could be seen carrying and placing there own luggage onto the trailer and then passengers had to unload their cases and carry them onto the ferryboat.

Bus Loud

The passengers on board bus 45 from Valletta to Cirkewwa on the late afternoon of July 14 had onboard entertainment of the first order. Throughout the trip the driver played loud music and chatted with two teenaged girls.

Hill Climb

It is not unusual for the dustbins lining Glormu Cassar Avenue - the hill leading to the Office of the Prime Minister - in Valletta to be overflowing with rubbish. Is it such a big deal for the local council or whoever to ensure this is not the case?

Tax Due

An elderly gentleman from Valletta, of pensionable age for a long time, recently received an income tax assessment indicating he owed the department money. A few days later, before he had recovered enough from the shock to query this, he received another letter, saying the first was a mistake.

Sea Side

In the general area of St George's Bay, St Julians there is an unsavoury smell akin to that of drainage. Liquid is still flowing on the rocks and its appearance and stench does not appear to coincide with the results published in a recent report about outflow from kitchen drains systems. Further investigations would be in order.

Baby Faze

Around a month ago the media was ablaze with the news that a "very important" draft law meant to protect human life from the conception stage was in the offing. Precious little has been heard then. What about it, especially now that the EU Council of Ministers has approved funding for embryonic stem cell research under the seventh framework programme.

Substantial Effect

We worry about 16-year old youths reaching school-leaving age yet still being illiterate. But it is more worrying to note that a minority of pre-teens have enough ready money to enable them to get hooked on drugs. If the former group has fallen through the net, then it would appear that the second lot has filtered through a strainer.

Hard Cells

The situation whereupon Alternattiva Demokratika called for an investigation into the dire confinement practices in detention centres need never have arisen. If the authorities had been responsible enough to allow NGOs and journalists access to these people and places, the situation would, by default, never have been allowed to descend to such a nadir.

Helping Hand

Twenty-five Maltese youths are experiencing voluntary service among the poor and destitute people at the Home of the Dying with more than 800 people in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is pertinent to note that these young people have paid over Lm700 in order to be able to carry out this sterling service. Surely, for the rest of us, forgoing some kind of treat is the best way to help Send a Hand in this worthwhile cause.

Two Swallows....

... indeed many more, appear to have made this a summer to remember. Watching birds going around their daily chores is to wonder at the beauty of nature. And when these birds happen to be such aerodynamically beautiful as swallows, the pleasure trebles. Indeed, let them fly.

Stand Still

Elderly patients at St Luke's Hospital who do not have any visitors find that the sands of time run slowly indeed through their personal hour-glass. How is it that nobody ever thinks to provide them with some other way of passing the time than pacing to and fro in the corridors, or wasting hours and hours watching television? They would appreciate therapeutic pastimes, or having someone read to them.

Instant Fine

Are wardens empowered to fine shop owners who take advantage of clients? This, of course, is taking the term "free market" to its extremity. But if on-the-spot fines were introduced for people who seek to profiteer from visitors and tourists those who are bitten could seek immediate redress, rather than having to take the long way around about it, with power at their elbows.

Sounding Off

Firecrackers are still being sold from itinerant stallholders in several festas. And, seeing that confetti is still being showered from windows and rooftops during festa-time, a repetition of the accident where a child was badly burnt, is only waiting to happen.

Black Copies

It is nearly, but not quite, amusing to note that raids are often made in flea markets to determine whether pirate audio-visual material is being sold, but shop outlets remain unscathed. These shops, indeed, often have machines that simplify the creation of ersatz copies of copyrighted material.