On the Dot...

The pavement at Marina Street, Pieta is in the running for the Worst Kept Pavement in Malta Award. Marina Gardens are similarly gaining a reputation for lack of maintenance, despite the efforts of the gardener in charge who deserves the public's compliments for doing an excellent job despite all the odds stacked against him. The fountain is out of order, the ground lights are out, the gazeboes are riddled with graffiti and yacht owners are parking everywhere, on the passages of the gardens, causing untold damage.

Bridging the Gap

One of the cartoons lampooning the Mississippi disaster featured two workmen mending a bridge with duct tape. According to news bulletins, traffic was congested on four lanes because the remaining four were undergoing construction work. This would appear to indicate that uneven weight distribution could have contributed to the tragedy. Has this been taken into account in the works in progress on the Regional Road Bridge?

Free Ways

Ever since the local council decided to remove the regulation sleeping policemen along Triq il-Mediterran, in Pembroke, this one-kilometre straight road has become a testing track for fast, noisy flashy coloured racing cars. An accident is just waiting to happen. It is also worrying that several of these racing cars do not have a licence number affixed to the front. Have the police dispensed with this legal obligation, or is it just that the vehicles are being put through their paces without a permit for being on the road?

Dress Code

Soon after the Costume in Malta exhibition, the relevant authorities had promised us the launching of a national costume museum. It seems that ever since nothing has materialised from those empty words. In the meantime rare, esoteric, historic national costumes, some of which comprise easily deteriorating lace accessories, continue to wither away in scattered places on the islands!

Sun Shines

It would seem that it is Ghajn Tuffieha's turn to be taken over by sun beds and paddle boats, the presence of which is very conspicuous this summer. With every day that passes the sun beds seem to creep closer towards the centre of the bay. At this rate, the whole bay will soon be a no-go area for those who choose not to hire any of the paraphernalia or who opt to take their own umbrellas. Who is responsible for the periodic checking to see that this does not occur?

Band Aides

Industrial action by a section of the health care professionals means that student nurses in their work phases have to share the workload between them. This is unfair on them and on the patients; the students are too young, and too inexperienced, to carry out certain duties - and the elderly and infirm are the ones who suffer more.

Pot Holing

How long will it be before people begin to sue local councils for accidents that happen not through their own negligence, but because road surfaces have not been kept up to scratch? A woman who drove into a pothole caused by a ruptured sewer pipe in Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, which was more than three feet long and four feet deep, was awarded a $1.25 million settlement after the trial got under way in Brooklyn Supreme Court. This happened although a city road-repair foreman testified that it was properly fixed about two months before the accident, because the repairs were done in a shoddy, unsuitable manner.

Sale Prizes

Along El Camino Road in California, an enterprising garage owner had apportioned a stretch of pavement besides which to display cars for sale. Since this is a state highway, local police have not had the authority to tow for-sale cars - until now. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure allowing local police in Palo Alto and Millbrae to start ticketing and towing such cars. This move, if emulated by each and every local mayor, would no doubt uncover many similar scenarios locally.

Under Pressure

Certain blocks of flats, without the MTA licence attached to the façade, are being let to foreigners who appear to have no discernible source of income, seeing that they come and go at all hours. This is slightly worrying on both counts, both because it appears that the law is being broken and also because a number of residents of these places appear to think they own them, and persist in behaving noisily whenever it suits them.

Smoke without Fire

To their credit, a good number of pubs, bars and restaurants appear to be enforcing the No Smoking rule. However, patrons who desire to smoke are often told that they can do so at the doorway of the establishment, rather than in a lounge. This means that the draught blows the smoke and the smell inside - straight into the nostrils of those who have patronised that place to avoid it in the first place.

Water Annoyance

It is patently clear that the Water Services Corporation needs to re-introduce a telephone contact number solely for emergency purposes. When calling 8007 2222, the only WSC number that gets any kind of reply, one is left holding the line in a queue of clients making complaints or queries. Occasionally, no one is able to take the call physically, and callers are asked to leave a call-back number. This means that when a call for urgent assistance was made at 6 a.m. to this number, nobody had turned up by 8.30 a.m. In the end, residents of a particular building had to take drastic action themselves, because a huge volume of water was pouring inside it.