My tribute to a President

As I write, our new President is just about to take his oath of office.

I have known George Abela for some 40 years, having first met him at the University in 1971 when we both played table tennis and represented the University, though he was in the A team and I was in the B team. His wife, now first lady, Margaret, worked in the administration block (if I remember rightly). From day one I could see that he was strong, but humble and affable; a man of sound principles, which he would not bend. His career, both in the political and trade union sphere, has given ample proof of this.

He has been through turbulent times and has always come out with his head held high. He has the right attributes to lead this country in unity; not only but I am sure that his vast experience will be an asset to the Prime Minister in terms of timely advice when required. I wish him well.

Talking about the University, it is disappointing to see the very low turnout of students to vote for their representatives on the Students' Representative Council - less than 20 per cent of those eligible to vote.

One would think that participation in "politics" at student level would be high. In my days (when there were some 800 students and now there are over 10,000) there was much more involvement and, indeed, we were pretty militant. OK, times have changed and life is now easy for students. It is also civilised. In our time we had to fight for our rights, sometimes literally, that is physically. Now we are talking of stipends being too generous, when we had none, receiving the measly sum of 50c a week as "pocket money".

There is talk of stipends being removed. This is obviously opposed by students. But why then did they not turn out to vote for the Democratic Christian Students group, which pledged to work for the retention of stipends? This group, which has won the SRC elections for the third time running, is affiliated to the Nationalist Party and should, therefore, have substantial clout in this regard. Yet, student life has changed drastically since I left the Alma Mater 27 years ago. We would practically live there, either in the common room or in the games rooms - table tennis, darts, billiards. A game of pula was the most sought after activity. We would literally queue up, being controlled by the games room keepers, Fredu, Gejtu and Il-Woo.

The common room would remain open until 8 p.m. and we would idle there, drinking coffee. Sunday nights would often see discotheques organised in the common room; open to all.

When the University was in St Paul's Street, Valletta, there was The Club, which was a house opposite. Many hours were spent there. I used it as a Junior College student in 1970. It was a great place. We continued to go there at lunch time from Tal-Qroqq when we had moved on. Today, students tend to go to their lectures and then straight home. Campus life no longer exists - although this was a phenomenon, which started as far back as the late 1970s. What a pity!

There are good things and bad. The good thing at the moment is that road works are to be outsourced to private contractors. That is the only way that our terrible roads can become civilised. This will result in less expense for motorists, who are constantly changing tyres and, sometimes chassis, repairing damaged car bodies and replacing suspension systems. It is about time a collective action (such as the VAT one by the Labour Party) against the government and local councils is devised and organised for road damage. But, in any case, only serious and efficient private enterprise can get things right.

The bad thing is the plastic bag policy. The decision was taken hastily. To put all bags into one basket was a mistake. I mean, what is the scope of having bio-degradable bags if they are taxed on the same basis of the other bags? This was another mess up, although far inferior to the water and electricity gaffe. I hope the government sees sense and distinguishes between the two bags. It is not very convenient running around with cardboard boxes full of groceries or with handle-less brown paper bags, for that matter - as they do in the States.