Why, may I ask

Why is the Leader of the Opposition denigrating a hospital he himself called "state of the art" and, in which, as far as public knowledge is concerned (in an unfortunate episode somewhat shrouded in mystery), the same man received first-class treatment, having thanked all and sundry for that?

Why does the ever-black-thinking Malta Labour Party, through its diabolical One TV news, attempt to portray the introduction of the euro as being a negative exercise and rubbish ordinary shopkeepers on their handling of the new currency while their leader continues to insist in his articles that the euro should not have been introduced when Malta is clearly making a success of it?

Why is there no more talk about disasters in the tourism sector, when we have learnt that figures increased by 10 per cent last year, and this after months of red campaigning against the government, the Tourism Minister and the Malta Tourism Authority and why no talk now of the problem of a lack of beds and, accordingly, the need for more hotels of class?

Why no highlighting of unemployment figures or the national deficit, for that matter, figures which are below four per cent of the working population (and will soon cause a very serious shortage of manpower in this country) and a deficit which is fast moving towards a surplus in 2010 (not 2020 mind you!), which must be a first ever for this country?

Why no longer the feeble attempts of Labour exponents to obstruct the SmartCity mega project and to ignore the fact that some 6,000 new employees will be taken on and no comment on the government's vision for 2015 in a number of key areas, including IT?

Why so much more? I could go on and on. Yet, Labour Party people prefer to go down to the streets and hold a grand press conference over a few cracks in the road. Had they been around in Dom Mintoff's times they would have to have taken a ladder to get down into the crater (take the Birkirkara bypass as an example). But then even Mr Mintoff loved to declare "niggvernaw mill-pjazez" - we will govern from the squares" - in his usual intimidating and threatening manner.

This is serious and sad lack of political maturity from a party that aspires to govern and that has the backing of some 50 per cent of the electorate. How many times do we have to ask for concrete plans and proposals? Not policies - that's easy. OK, we have a plan for the Grand Harbour area - everybody seems to have one (I'm waiting for Josie Muscat's by the way). There's something about Bugibba and Qawra, a carry over from 1998, I suppose. But what else? Besides study groups here and study groups there and reports within three months (And then what? We'll see.). When will Labour have serious visions (not dreams) and doable ideas? Alas, not by the next election.

On a totally different note, I was alarmed to read about a 13-year-old girl (a kid) being jailed - for seven days! - in the Corradino Correctional Facility (the prison) because she verbally abused some other kids, used blasphemous language and slightly (I presume) injured another girl by pulling her hair.

Prison is the place where some hardened criminals reside. There are sections and sections of prison, of course, but prison is prison and a 13-year-old is a kid. Furthermore, seven days in prison for a kid who insulted others, blasphemed and pulled another girl's hair (which, by the way, is all that a member of the female species can do when having a squabble with another member of that species) is very cruel and looks like something out of Charles Dickens.

We have been informed that her parents refused to appeal. Her lawyers have declared that they tried to persuade them but to no avail. But what did the lawyers do then? Did they have recourse to the courts to protect the kid's interests? The girl was soon transferred to Mount Carmel Hospital. Need one say more. Did she need medical assistance before judgment was delivered? Was the contravention she committed due to her mental state? Did her lawyers or the court attempt to establish her situation of health before proceeding with the case or passing judgment? Or was her medical condition the result of her most cruel seclusion in a prison?

I can quite understand the girl's predicament and that of her parents if she is from the city where the contravention was committed. I've seen a few around. Very serious social and humanitarian problems exist there. Somehow, all this seems so horrific.