On the Dot

• One of two showers in the changing room at Mater Dei Hospital’s day care department has been closed for three weeks due to a fault in the wall. Employees have to queue to take a shower at the end of the day. Another fault in the wall next to the showers has been there since before Christmas. Where is the efficiency of the maintenance department?

Dangerous

• Next door to the Lija primary school is a house that appears to be either partly built or partly demolished. Either way, the place is very dangerous because a part of the boundary wall has fallen and access to the interior of the building is very easy.

Dodgy

• While the rest of the world is following the present crisis in Libya and the unfortunate triple blow that hit Japan, in Malta we remain utterly parochial. People have been calling in to radio programmes to complain about having to affix a microchip to their dogs against a one-time payment of €10. Love me, love my dog, indeed.

Doormen

• Some uniform-wearers are more equal than others. No sooner had a letter appeared in the press about the two soldiers guarding the main entrance to the President’s Palace in Valletta not wearing coats that these were issued to them. Meanwhile, MCAST students remain without a long-sleeved polo shirt. One notes the uniforms are purchased by the students themselves.

Delivery

• An author, writing a stream-of-consciousness pastiche about how the mind of an uncouth savage works, gets hauled to court and charged with promoting “obscene” material. A man who is filmed by an eyewitness beating a woman on a Sliema road gets away with a paltry €185 fine, despite his proven violence and obscene language, after the woman drops charges against him. This is surely a case where life does not imitate art – if you can call the former scrawl art, in the first place.

Donation

• The public has been asked to donate blankets for the people of Libya who no longer have a roof over their heads. Also, the sum of €40,000 has been collected for medicines. One hopes that, very soon, a similar initiative is undertaken for the people of Japan.

Doubled

• Double trap Maltese junior shooter Nathan Lee Xuereb posted some impressive results on Sunday during the Italian winter championship. The teenager placed first in category three, second in category one and third in the category reserved for excellence. Well done.

Decisions

• Plans for a retreat house, a visitor’s centre with ancillary facilities and car-parking areas, just beside the church of Ta’ Pinu, Gozo, could not but raise people’s ire. It is obvious there was a dire need for additional parking because the place is a tourist attraction for many reasons. However, there evidently is room for more convincing with regard to the need for the buildings themselves.

Divided

• The crash barrier along the street from Msida to Pietà is in a terrible state. Parts of it are out of alignment where they have been hit by vehicles involved in minor accidents that may or may not be reported. The whole stretch is covered in a thick layer of dirt.

Debts

• Usury is alive and well as can be inferred from the outcome of a recent court case which involved beatings, threats and other types of intimidation. But if the victims prefer to remain so, rather than seek help, nothing will change. As it is, they fear for their lives and they have no incentives to spill the beans on who is lending them money at exorbitant interest rates.

Dangerous

• It is a well-known fact that for sale at flea markets are several appliances that may be plugged into electrical outlets – such as night lights, radios and fans. One wonders how often safety checks are carried out on these items and also on similar ones for sale in electrical outlets. The recent withdrawal of socket-outlet night lights featuring cartoon characters indicates this is not done as often as is warranted.

Debris

• More bits and pieces have fallen off the boundary wall on the Fleur-de-Lys Road side of the Vincenzo Bugeja buildings. It is evident the reconstruction of this wall stopped short after a few blocks on the roundabout side were removed and replaced. Passers-by think the holes in the wall are the ideal place in which to stuff papers and other rubbish. Many parents pass that way with children on their way to and from the area schools. Should, God forbid, the wall collapse, it will surely cause a bad accident.

Drawings

• Well done to the head of school teachers and support staff of the Lija primary C school. The Jungle Wonderland Literacy Room, inaugurated earlier this month, is set to foster a love of reading in young students. One wonders whether this centre could be made available, perhaps for a nominal fee, to youth groups wishing to hold sessions for their charges.