So much for the curse

I was amused to read a letter by Alex Saliba from Tarxien (The Curse, January 30). The contents are grossly inaccurate.

May I enlighten the correspondent. In the first place, Tutankhamun (not Tutankhamen) had nothing to do with the pyramids of Giza (Cairo). He was, in fact, buried in a rock-cut tomb in the Valley of Kings in Luxor.

Secondly, a linguistic point. One does not "sacrilege", one "desecrates" a holy place, tomb etc.

Thirdly, while Lawrence Gonzi appears to move at a snail's pace, and sometimes loses out, the results of his administration are no curse. They contrast vividly with the very real curse one witnessed with the disasters of the two-year Alfred Sant rule of the 1990s.

Finally, while admittedly there were a few deaths from among those who desecrated Tut's last resting place which were attributed to an alleged curse, the bulk of the intruders survived to a ripe old age. It seems that, here again, there was no curse, after all.

Malta is a lovely little country, and I am a frequent visitor. But I find it beset by a number of ills. Among these one finds inertia and complacency. Things take forever. The country needs a thorough shake-up if it is to catch up with its vastly-bigger euro brethren, but certainly not at the hands of a Labour administration. Sadly, there is no strong third political party.