Edwin Calleja (The Sunday Times, December 26) asked me to digest his points against a bridge linking Malta and Gozo. Well, let me give him some points to digest in favour of a bridge.
Mr Calleja tells us he lived in Gozo for a whole year – 50 years ago! And because he and another three have done this, he is expecting us to do the same, “this time round in Malta”!
As he said, 50 years ago it was he and three others. Now, hundreds of Gozitans have to live in Malta and hundreds have to cross over every day to earn their living.
With him it was, as he said, an assignment for a year, but most Gozitans who work in Malta do not have that option.
Some government employees know it will be years before they even stand a chance of being transferred to Gozo, and others working in the private sector know this will never happen.
One should also note that most Gozitans who need to cross over to Malta to work have to fork out the expenses themselves.
The government helps students and a few of its employees, but those in the private sector pay for their travel expenses out of their own pocket.
Time changes and no one expects life to standstill, or to live by our memories of 50 years ago. After all, the reason I replied to Mr Calleja’s letter was because he wrote “hands off Gozo”.
With all due respect, who is he to decide what Gozitans really need? Why not let the Gozitans decide? Let the authorities see if it would be a national burden, of which, unfortunately, we have many.
We are, after all, one nation. We are as Maltese as Mr Calleja. At least, he should try to come up with solutions for a better future for Gozo in the next 50 years.
Gozo is dying a very slow and painful death and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
If a bridge is, as Mr Calleja states, a panoramic intrusion, I wonder what the authorities in the US, Canada, Greece, Spain and so many other countries had in mind when they built some of the most beautiful bridges in the world.
Maybe we will not live to seeour dream of a Malta-Gozobridge come true, but the fightwill continue.
Not for us, at this point, but for our children and their children.