In God's name

Saturday evening. Out the family for a nice evening. On the way to your destination, you decide to use the major road that connects the northern part of the island to the south. You meet a huge traffic jam. You wait in the queue thinking there may be some bad accident down the road... until you discover the real reason. The main road from Tal-Qroqq tunnels to the Sta Venera tunnels is closed due to fireworks for the Msida feast. Drivers increasingly frustrated. Traffic congested. All other secondary roads blocked with diverted traffic.

A week passes. It's a Sunday. Out for the evening. Sta Venera tunnels closed again. What could have happened this time? Simple. More fireworks, this time for the Sta Venera feast. More congestion. More frustration.

This situation repeats itself every year throughout the week of these two feasts. And they are not the only times that main roads get closed. The Birkirkara bypass is sometimes closed for other feasts. Some years ago even the airport runway was closed off for fireworks.

To make matters worse, this happens at the peak of the tourist season, so that not only do we irritate fellow Maltese citizens no end but also make a bad impression on tourists, on which we are so dependent. Year in, year out, the same thing occurs. And every year we hear the same complaints. To add insult to injury one hears parishioners who have applied to close the roads boasting that when they hold their feast they are capable of paralysing Malta.

This common, law abiding, tax paying citizen would like to ask: Why should a major traffic artery be closed to allow a small group of people let off fireworks? How can the authorities, including the police, possibly issue the relevant licence? And how can the Church authorities be insensitive enough to allow their feasts to cause such irritation and inconvenience? Are people in high places afraid to take a tough stance on what can only be considered abuse? What right have people got to bring part of the country to a standstill? Do they think that celebrating a religious feast gives them the divine right to close roads?

The answer is simple. No, it does not give them such a right. Roads are paid for through taxes from the wages of ordinary citizens. The need of citizens to drive through them should be considered by the authorities as more important than the desire to let off fireworks.

Closing roads for such activities constitutes an abuse of power. The ADT, the police, the Church and all those directly involved are to be held accountable for such actions. It is not something they should take lightly.