There was a time when mums and dads told their kids, when crossing the road, to look right, left and right again. It was politically correct to lean twice to the right before great doubts started to settle in and gnaw at our political rationality. Now everybody is talking about some driving and sailing licences which may not have been obtained following great manoeuvering and navigational expertise. Or perhaps the expertise was in the capable transmission, on the financial route, of operations from wallet to pocket - but not of the same person.

It is everybody's guess how many drivers possess a licence to peruse our road network without having sufficient knowledge of compatibility between vehicle, road surface and pedestrians. For, in some cases, insufficient driving performance was apparently greased by efficient bank notes. Which brings up ideas of safety efficiency. Maybe if we teach our kids and senior citizens to place a coin on the palm of their hand before crossing a road, their survival probabilities would increase (adjusted upwards according to correct consultant expression).

How do you recognise a driver who had to cough up more than capability to be granted permission to use the lethal weapon sometimes called the vehicle? Well, it's impossible to guess with certainty. However, one way of doing this is to observe traffic approaching from an opposite direction near a roundabout. Those who invade the roundabout road without using the indicator are probably drivers who have obtained a licence effectively et al or, as they say, de facto, de jure and de road hog at the same time.

Sailing licences seem to have, in some cases, been obtained with the same effectivity as above. Are some citizens thus piloting canoes, frejgatinas, dghajsas, luzzus, ferries and Titanics without possessing navigational finesse? In which case, watch your swimming.

But there is no need to worry. This is a country which, three years ago, embarked on a new way of doing politics (with disrespect to previous ways of doing politics). Corruption will not be tolerated any more, as serious whistle-blowing legislation will eradicate it completely. The fact that prime ministers and ministers will not be allowed to participate in whistle-blowing exercises is neither here nor there. What difference will it make if these can use inimitable scapegoat-searching alternatives to having clean souls?

Missed ceremony

I was surprised, to say the least, to notice that a handing over of documents from Skanska to the Malta government did not figure in the Mater Dei Hospital "inauguration" ceremony - with a state-of-the-art bus transport system carrying only drivers for some time. Is this government doing away with the ceremony it usually adores? Since Mater Dei no longer belongs to Skanska, the handing over ceremony from builders to owners should have been esthetically mandatory. I was even more flabbergasted to realise that there were plenty of fireworks but no blessing ceremony. Have fireworks become more important than holy water for the government? Whatever happened to Christian Democracy?

Can Maltese kids not dance?

The euro coins event for Malta and Cyprus in Brussels "was dominated by children, mainly Cypriots, with their faces..." (July 11). Thus, Cypriot children danced wearing the Maltese faldetta and Maltese colours on their faces. So, with all the dance schools in Malta, can Maltese children not dance and do they need foreigners to dance Maltese dances for them? Is this another case of inferiority complex?

Having a heart

The recent Ohloq tbissima marathon was characterised by marked differences between the main political leaders. According to Dr Gonzi, the Maltese like to boast that they have big hearts. I disagree with this as I feel that the Maltese have big hearts without boasting. Otherwise they would be Pharisees, like the Gospel says. Indeed, boasting and generosity are diametrically opposite. Dr Gonzi also declared: "I want to see the same spirit of solidarity towards irregular immigrants". Excuse me, but in a democracy, rarely does a Prime Minister order "I want" to citizens; "I would like", perhaps.

In sharp contrast with the above, Dr Sant stressed that being generous with poor people meant "more importantly, providing them with tools they require to educate them and improve their situation". So there you have it; one opinion is in favour of helping immigrants here in Malta and the other suggests sending help on the spot. The latter opinion is promoted by the UN - especially Unesco.

Good strategy

Considering that Dr Sant writes and speaks better English than Dr Gonzi (but I still have to challenge him for a debate in French), it is a clever tactic for the PN strategy group (including its spiritual director) to declare that Labourites don't like Dr Sant's articles. It is also excellent strategy to invite the queen of England to Malta in November, just before the election. Some euphoric neocolonialist Anglophiles may be influenced. Yes, but what about the Pope and Prodi? Lessons about strategic defence mechanism can easily be learnt from Aesop and La Fontaine - for adults and for children.

Difficult rendez-vous

I find that one of the most difficult ministers to meet is Education Minister Louis Galea. These last years I have asked his secretariat for an appointment with the minister to discuss matters of importance. As a result, I only got a deafening silence. So much for the PM's promise, after local council election defeats, that they would listen more to the people!

Corps nostalgia

The pre-budget document mentions a plan related to the "introduction of a mandatory work scheme for the long-term unemployed". The latter "would have their unemployment benefits topped up by 75 per cent of the minimum wage in exchange for 30 hours of community work or work with the public service". To me this is a typical socialist idea (apart from "mandatory" which sounds Communist), and very obviously inspired by the "horrible" labour corps that were so much criticised in conservative/capitalist circles. Is the PN moving left? At the same time, the rest of the pre-budget document is seriously lacking in new ideas in redemption of present hardships. I hope the real budget will be a little more inspiring and a lot less boring.

Casa on the sea

On July 15, Conservative MEP David Casa was quoted as saying that "the European future is in the sea". This is not true; it is also on land.

Dr Licari teaches psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and geolinguistics at the Department of French of the University of Malta.