On the Dot

• Due to a rerouting of traffic from Paceville to the Corinthia Hotel Group’s hotels it is now necessary for all motorists to be diverted into a side-street. This arrangement means that traffic is now passing through a vast amount of litter, discarded cans, bottles, wrappers and buildings in a terrible condition, defaced furthermore with graffiti. Is this what should be greeting tourists on their first visit to Malta?

Clarity

• The Birżebbuġa local council is organising a series of lectures about Edward De Bono’s Six Hats Lateral Thinking Skills. Alas, the talks are only open to local residents. One wonders whether this initiative may be taken up by other local councils or whether the Birżebbuġa council would consider making this wonderful opportunity available to the public. It would make a change from the usual dreary offers to which very few subscribe.

Cash

• Statistics indicate that many people, bored to the back teeth with the local offerings on television, have turned to their personal computers to watch foreign TV stations. This means that the few old-fashioned viewers who retain their television sets have to pay licences whereas the aforementioned IT-connected people get the service as part of what they pay their ISP.

Connections

• As a gesture of goodwill, Go provides clients with eight free messages, via the mygo internet service. Will the company make good for the total number of messages that were lost when the system was down? Some people rely on them to keep in touch with family members, as a way to save money.

Crossing

• It is not the first time that up to 20 cars zoom by the Canon Road zebra crossing, by the main entrance to the Bank of Valletta buildings in Sta Venera. This is either because the camber of the road does not allow the stripes to be seen or because the lines are so faint that they are not acknowledged by drivers who assume they are no longer applicable.

Crash

• It is no longer a joke that in Malta we drive on the left, on the right and in the shade. The number of cars on the road, not to mention bicycles and motorbikes, weaving in and out of them when the traffic lights turn red is conducive to several near misses and accidents. Traffic policemen and wardens really ought to tear their eyes away from pavements and yellow lines and concentrate more fully on those foolhardy enough to risk their lives and those of others.

Care

• Victoria Gardens in Swieqi was originally meant to be the focal point of the neighbourhood. However, upon approaching Barmil Street one realises that, ironically, the place is in a right royal state because building debris has been allowed to accumulate all around it.

Configuration

• Floriana is advertising itself as the garden city of Malta and, as such, is taking part in the Gardmed project, a network of Mediterranean gardens (Italy-Malta programme 2007-2013). The gardens included in this scheme are the Argotti Botanic Gardens, Herbert Ganado Garden, King George V recreational grounds, Sa Maison Garden, Sir Luigi Preziosi Garden, St Philip Garden, The Mall and Vilhena Garden. Public gardens are usually taken for granted. It would be well for this awareness campaign to pass on to other areas.

Corners

• From Ibraġ Road, in Swieqi, motorists drive madly down towards Paceville, at times in an unbroken stream of traffic. Because of blocked footpaths, pedestrians have to walk along the streets, in the midst of all the traffic.

Commuting

• The powers-that-be have decided, to reintroduce the routes taken off the bus schedule because it has been realised that there really was a need for them. Why is it, then, that these were not introduced forthwith? Why has the public been made to undergo further stress while waiting for this non-change to occur?

Compromise

• Why is it that people on social assistance are denied direct debit? This system may solve a few problems, especially for those who have mobility issues and live alone. This is surely discriminatory.

Credits

• Energy vouchers sent to thousands of households have to be used before their expiration date otherwise, they lose their value making the whole exercise fruitless. There are many who would gladly make use of these vouchers later in the month because of other invoices. It is only logical to suppose that a voucher should be used by the recipient according to his/her needs. Hundreds of vouchers are therefore being needlessly lost for not being utilised by certain dates.

Conclusions

• There was a time when trainee postmen used to travel with area postmen in order to get used to the best way of covering routes, acquiring on-the-job induction training. This is apparently no longer the case because new postmen are seen doing deliveries alone on various routes every so often. Is it that there are not enough postmen for the routes to be learned, and covered, in the time-honoured manner?

Conservation

• The Greenpak lottery “tickets” consist in having people who use the system place their phone number on each item they discard in a so-called environmentally-conscious manner. Is it fair? There are people who use packaged goods and, thus, have more to throw away just as there are those who are really aware of what conservation means and do their best to cook from scratch and use natural products rather than shop-bought chemicals. Is the first being privileged over the second?