Legs are made for walking

A pleasant walk along the Strand in Sliema and the Gzira fringe on the opposite side to the promenade has become impossible.

Walking is meant to be encouraged for a variety of reasons, which are all important, but some affect the individual directly and others the entire globe.

Obesity has been in the news for a while now and even if one is not obese, but only slightly overweight, we all know the benefits of exercise and keeping fit.

Walking is a very good way to keep healthy on a personal level, but looking at the wider picture, which of course also affects the individual, walking rather than driving a car, or using public transport - in fact anything using fuel - keeps the world healthy.

Healthy living means more exercise (not including hand to mouth) and getting off one's butt. And of course getting rid of that other butt (preferably, before it becomes a butt) - that big, silent enemy of the people, the cigarette - and other air pollutants.

So what do we have in Sliema to encourage this kind of behaviour? There is one stretch, beyond Forestals walking towards the Ferries from the Waterfront Hotel, where you are choked with cigarette smoke as you slalom through the tables and placards advertising menus.

The pavement has been taken away from the public domain and has become a smokers' zone. And where there are no tables, chairs and other paraphernalia blocking access, the pavements are a disaster area of rubble and holes.

One has to cross over to the promenade, whether one wants to or not, and it is not that easy to cross over.

If you just want a nice walk to the shops at a brisk pace rather then a promenade, forget it!

Then further on, just after the Magic Kiosk, the public has to walk, rather then run, the gauntlet in single file as they avoid lit cigarettes jutting out away from the smoker and jostles with pushchairs and people stopping for a chat with their friends sitting at the tables monopolising the public pavement. Sometimes even a single file does not work and people just cannot get through.

So, I was quite intrigued to read, a few weeks back, a letter from the Sliema council's executive secretary, Josef Grech (The Times, September 19).

Mr Grech was taking issue with Angelo Xuereb's letter title (August 30) regarding the pavement outside the latter's hotel in High Street.

"The title to Angelo Xuereb's letter is misleading as it seems to indicate that the pavement 'belongs' to the hotel. This is far from the truth", Mr Grech wrote.

I was so pleased to hear that, Mr Grech. I assume that applies to all the pavements in Sliema!

"The traffic chaos in High Street started with the newly and hastily constructed pavement by AX Holdings which extruded for more that the original pavement, much to the disbelief of the residents and the local council," he continued.

The council was so incensed by this infringement of a public pavement that it went to a lot of trouble chasing various authorities, including the Lands Department, ADT and MEPA to establish the legality of this pavement, and

"Sliema council is still at this point questioning the legality of such pavement widening since this is clearly public land," Mr Grech said.

Now, I have been caught in the traffic chaos in High Street several times since the hotel started operating and it is encouraging to see the Sliema council getting involved in protecting "public land".

But it seems to me that the council is only taking an avid interest where infringements of public pavements affect traffic. Where pedestrians are concerned, pavements are being taken over daily with no comeback.

One of the latest hijacks of a pavement is by Times Square, opposite the Sliema pitch. One cannot cross on to that part of the pavement any more. You can, of course, run another gauntlet, in front of the bar, if you want to be engulfed in second-hand smoke.

Not only has the pavement been taken over by tables and chairs, but a permanent structure has also been built all along the edge of the pavement, right to the corner where a small billboard has been permanently fixed.

Now I am all for pavement cafès. I like the atmosphere and buzz they create, but what is happening in this country is that the whole pavement is completely taken over in some cases.

We have no limits. That is the problem. MEPA allows a few metres and there is no comeback when the permit is outrageously abused.

The pavement next to Marks and Spencer's can take such cafès, as there is still ample space for pedestrians to mill about. But this free-for-all and complete takeover of pubic pavements in Sliema, with pedestrians having to form a single file queue to get through, is outrageous. So what is the Sliema council doing about that?

Lungs are made to breathe fresh air

Smokers really are like lemmings. I am not sure what size brain lemmings have, but we humans are meant to have sophisticated ones. Lemmings are driven by strong biological urges to move in large groups when their population becomes too big, and in the case of Norway, the urge to keep moving, and the pressure from more lemmings marching forward behind them, causes them to jump over the cliff overlooking the ocean and start swimming sometimes to exhaustion and death.

Lemmings seem not to have any control over this urge, which leads to their destruction. Humans, on the other hand, should have control over their urges, although addiction is a problem and the cigarette companies have a lot to answer for on that score. However, there are ways to combat addiction, but one has to engage the brain to meet that challenge.

Smokers know cigarettes are harming them and they know that they will kill many of them. Yet they insist in filling their lungs with hot poison and causing untold damage to their health and those around them.

At least, we are spared the lethal smoke inside public buildings now, although there are rumours that some places blatantly ignore the law, but as Malta is an al fresco country in the summer months, we still are inundated with smoke and litter from the deadly weed.

I am amazed at how many people still smoke, especially young people. Don't the young women realise that smoking, as well as the sun and weight juggling, ages the skin? They will have wrinkled faces well before they should and Botox is not the answer.

Siesta time

Disturbing the peace is something many Maltese indulge in. We call for friends in our car, we sound the horn. It is such an effort to get out of the car and ring the doorbell.

The gas cylinder distributors, the bread sellers and a host of other purveyors also sound their horns to let people know they have arrived.

There is a particular red mini van, which really annoys me. It picks up elderly people for outings at weekends and the driver insists on sounding his horn repeatedly.

Now I know that some elderly people are hard of hearing, but they are likely to get the message more clearly through their doorbell.

Since every body blares their horn to announce their arrival, how are they to know which horn is blowing for them?

Of course this is just a little sample (I could fill page after page on noise nuisance) sparked by a letter from an elderly gentleman "on the wrong side of 70" who likes his afternoon siesta.

He complained that he "was rudely summoned from the bliss of the land of nod by a phone call soliciting my views on 'the present situation'".

When he told the caller that the time was "rather inconvenient", rather than an apology he got a mouthful "Ahna fuq xoghol qeghdin, hi!" and a cheeky, sarcastic rejoinder.

Cold calling is a 'new' enterprise here and seems to be attracting a lot of people willing to do the job. Their level of education (I mean civility here rather than certificates) though seems to leave a lot to be desired.

The least employers can do is train their staff to be civil and please rid them of the horrible "hi" - it is so unprofessional.

But for the gentleman who likes his siesta, the phone is an easy one to solve. I hope he reads this, because all he needs to do is unplug the ruddy thing and plug it back at his convenience. I wish all nuisances were that easy to solve.

pamelapacehansen@gmail.com