Cemetery to be privately managed

Saviour Sam Agius

Nov 1st 2011, 01:47

Let's have a multi-storey cemetery. :)

Pule' Carmel

Oct 31st 2011, 21:10

Any patch of earth or sea,
Will do fine, to bury me.

Mrs Mary Fisher

Oct 31st 2011, 20:39

In order to avoid the crowds this week my husband and I went to the Addollorata last Friday to pay our respects. It was wonderful to see so many cleaners gathering rubbish and emptying the usually overfull bins. We also noticed that they were embellishing the place with flower tubs. It was so refreshing and so gratifying. People who visit the cemetry do not do it for fun but neither do they have to come out disgusted at the state of the place. It would be a very good idea to let it be run by a private firm and it would be wonderful to have a crematorium as a choice. It is such a dignified way to end one's life especially for people who have not relatives left to look after their graves.

Mr leo attard

Oct 31st 2011, 20:18

i think the private owners will want to make money off this enterprise --How? Grave owners beware -- i think the time is here when you will startpaying rent under the title of 'maintenance'! You dont pay -- eviction!

S. Briffa

Oct 31st 2011, 19:51

Really some comments are so funny all political, sounds like POLITICS is their world!! Remember people once you are in Adolorata...we are all dust to dust and ashes to ashes!!!!!

Do you know how many old chapels there are in the cemetry, and what it cost to keep them up, do you know how long Malta has had nothing done on restoration of cultural sites, roads, bastion walls, and falling apart Museums and we want Tourism!!! Malta has been left to fall to pieces for too many long years!!!!

I really hope cremation will be in as soon as possible, there is no more space!!!

Joseph Gerardi

Oct 31st 2011, 19:10

What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the
shipwright, or the carpenter?

“A grave-maker.” The houses that
he makes last till doomsday.
(Hamlet Vi)

Karl Consiglio

Oct 31st 2011, 19:03

What do the dead care?

Charles Massa

Oct 31st 2011, 17:28

Issa Gonzi anki mal mejtin se jaqbad.............Issa biex tidhol ic cimiterju trid tibda thallas

Mark J. Magri

Oct 31st 2011, 16:02

In my whole life I think, talk,cherish and buy everything except for a grave....too wierd!!
GRANPINTO

edgar rossignaud

Oct 31st 2011, 15:00

15,537 graves at Eur 8,000 = Eur 124,296,000. That's some real estate!

dodi bartolo

Oct 31st 2011, 14:40

This is best news I read ....in my entire life......

At long last we are having a CREMATORIUM.....in the pipe line

Thank God for that

Joseph Calleja

Oct 31st 2011, 14:17

An extension of 2,900 graves at a minimum cost of €8,000 each grave? Seems like a person cannot afford to die anymore but unfortunately it is not our choice to make. Let's get busy and make cremation legal and readily available so that a person can die in peace and don't have to worry about being buried alive. (because of the cost of burial). Cremation is how I want to go and that is in my will. How can the government or the church deny a dying man's wish? I refuse to be buried under ground, the thought of becoming ant food is very scary to me, not to mention I am claustrophobic. As stated in the Book of Common Prayers " Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." like many others I prefer "Ashes to Ashes". There isn't enough property left for underground burials.

debbie Voss

Oct 31st 2011, 13:48

Even after my demise willI have to experience privitisation. Has this goverment no moral values left?

E Gatt

Oct 31st 2011, 13:00

Do motorists directly pay ELC for using the roundabouts and traffic islands that are landscaped by this privately owned consortium?

Does the public pay an admission fee to San Anton Gardens and other public gardens landscaped by ELC?

Are the roundabouts, traffic islands, San Anton Gardens and other public gardens owned privately, and are they looking better now, or before they were managed (not owned) privately?

As usual, a good idea, being shot down by paranoid Socialists suspecting some sinister GonziPN plan.

m. borg

Oct 31st 2011, 11:56

Obviously gonziPN is scraping the bottom to make ends meet. Must have run out of ideas and can't afford burdening us with further taxation.
gonziPN is making sure that a PL administration would be left with nothing except a high national debt, a large deficit and no money in the country's coffers, hoping that what happened in Greece would happen in Malta and PL takes all the blame.
Well the tough get going when the going gets tough that is what the PL is made of.
Bring it on.

John Micallef

Oct 31st 2011, 11:47

The Government is not even able to appoint its people to properly manage the dead.

No wonder it cannot manage the living!!!

James Tyrrell

Oct 31st 2011, 10:31

As with most things in Malta it appears that a cemetery is just another way of making money and no doubt once the winning tender is announced it will be found to be a friend of Gonzi PN. Then some other friend will win the tender to extend the cemetery. The people of Malta have been crying out for years for a crematorium to be built but as usual the Government have taken no notice of what the people want. It is stupid to say that 'currently, cremation is not regulated by law since there are no crematoriums.' What genius came up with that statement? The necessary regulations should be debated, formulated and then entered into law so that the people can get what they desperately need, a crematorium.

Phil Humphries

Oct 31st 2011, 10:23

Incredibly, this is a situation where :

1. Demand far outweighs supply.
2. There is a never-ending revenue stream.
3. The sole operator can choose whether or not to introduce competition (cremation).

Even an idiot could thrive in such beautifully contrived business conditions, so why is the Government presenting this golden cash cow to the private sector ? ( rhetorical question ).

At its most basic level this has to be seen as the Government abdicating its responsibility to provide a popular alternative to burial and a sensible solution to this problem. At its worst level, this stinks like a three week dead fish ! - I'm sure I won't be the only one asking what JM intends doing about this ?

Come to think of it ... What is the PL policy on cremation, or is that another game of wait and see ?

Mr Alfred Baldacchino

Oct 31st 2011, 10:20

Then now is the time to set up a crematorium at the place.

Godfrey Camilleri

Oct 31st 2011, 10:19

€8000 per grave is just atrocious. When we bought ours in 1991 it cost us €900 including all taxes. At that time the price had just doubled. So now after 20 years the price has gone up by 9 times. Is this how much property has gone up? And this does not include some €2500 to cover it with a standard tombstone. Yes cremation will be quite a good idea.

Joseph Gerardi

Oct 31st 2011, 10:17

What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the
shipwright, or the carpenter?
A grave-maker. The houses that
he makes last till doomsday

Adrian Sacco

Oct 31st 2011, 09:52

Hopefully privatisation will put an end to the horrible spectacle of the Addolorata's present gravediggers at "work", which I've had to witness at the interments of a friend and an aunt over the last year. But I shan't hold my breath.

Mr Joe Micallef

Oct 31st 2011, 09:29

What a sorry state we are in the goverment can't manage a cemetery how can be expected to run a country????

R. Caruana

Oct 31st 2011, 09:20

I am a European, I want the choice of having a crematorium available as long as someone is willing to operate one if not I'm just a child of a lesser nation.

pat muscat

Oct 31st 2011, 09:16

We are getting used to the formula: GonziPN lets the cemetries fall in shambles and then these are privatized to make a few 'good fellas' richer; privitization has a name, we will soon be know whom GonziPN is picking!

C. Muscat

Oct 31st 2011, 09:15

it-tajba ta dan il-gvern li meta jbiegh flok idahhal il-flus ... ihallas!

Carmelo Aquilina

Oct 31st 2011, 09:09

Will the government ensure that the beautiful and deteriorating gothic part of addolorata will be protected ? This is another part of our heritage that is beign lost to neglectful ignorant cemetry management - will it be any better under the new owner ?

Pauline Peterson

Oct 31st 2011, 08:56

Hope it won't turn out that we have to pay to get in to visit our loved ones. I dread the thought.

Someone will have to pay for the employment of cleaners around the Cemetery. Don't think I ever saw anyone there, let alone emptying bins and general tidy up.

fredu debono

Oct 31st 2011, 08:55

min jitkellem kontra l-privatizzazzjoni tac-cimiterju jidher li mhux midhla tieghu. ma jafx b'liema manipulazzjoni jigi mhaddem ic-cimiterju rigward dfin u tindif ta l-oqbra. bis-sahha tal-privatizzjoni ser tidhol ftit serjeta fejn jidhol dfin u tindif ta oqbra. jien li nkun hemm kulljum u nkun spiss vicin id-deffiena naf x'jigri. jekk tara kif ikunu lebsin u l-atitudini taghhom bizzejjed. proset lill gvern ta din l-inizzjattiva.

Joe Fenech

Oct 31st 2011, 08:54

Next step will be to have private jails like inthe US. SHAME ON YOU !

E Gatt

Oct 31st 2011, 08:51

Ghall-erwieh.

Victor Laiviera

Oct 31st 2011, 08:44

@ Jeffrey Mallia

That is very true. And the reason is that we have PRIVATISATION but not LIBERALISATION.

This means that a government monopoly is simply passed to private hands - but remains a monopoly. So the consumer is still ripped off - the only difference is that the profits go into private hands instead of the public coffers to be used for the general good.

R. Lewis

Oct 31st 2011, 08:44

Does it mean that the Govt is not capable of finding somebody to manage the Cemetry. And the bidding winner is ..... I already know. U hallina Ministru, how did you figure it out that from 3000 euro it goes up to 8000 euro, very shortly you will announce to privatise the air that we breath. Mr Minister you should start by giving instructions in reinstalling the original Cemetry iron gate which is lying on the floor on the right hand side of the entrance leading towards the Chapel. Its a shame a nice gate like that lying on the floor all getting rusty.

Roderick Micallef

Oct 31st 2011, 08:39

This Government has sold anything that was government owned and has now even turned to the dead bearing in mind that at the same time the Government expenditure is at it's highest ever. Remember 'Finanzi Fis-Sod' Slogan? I guess the Government was only refering to the few that benefit from these privatization schemes. It is ironic that this news comes out on Halloween day isn't it!

R. Cilia

Oct 31st 2011, 08:30

Can the minister please tell me how this will effect those who do not own a grave and will eventually be buried in a common grave?

Christina Pace

Oct 31st 2011, 08:29

hmm...i think it may be worth donating my dead body to science. Why should I or anyone have to pay 8000 euros for a place to rot it peace?

Lawrence Fenech

Oct 31st 2011, 08:26

Forsi nispiccaw inhalsu l-entratura.

Rosa may

Oct 31st 2011, 08:25

The sooner crematoria are commissioned the better for all concerned!

Jeffrey Mallia

Oct 31st 2011, 08:13

Just stop and think...........In the past 25 years the general public never ever benefitted from any sort of “privatisation” NEVER NEVER EVER.

Patrick Zammit

Oct 31st 2011, 08:03

"The cemetery will remain the property of the government, which will also retain control over the price of graves."

Very difficult to believe. Look what happened to prices after privatization, like in the case of gas and yacht mooring spaces in marinas.

j. mangion

Oct 31st 2011, 07:50

whilst we are discussing Maria Addolorata Cemetry,

can someone tell about
Resurrection Cemetry in Qormi?
the disastrous, shameful state,
this Cemetry is in?

our most loved ones
deserve much greater respect.

ACTION PLEASE

Peter Murray

Oct 31st 2011, 07:49

The fact that cremation is not regulated by law, allied with no crematoriums being available, is an abrogation of a citizen's freedom of choice and a national disgrace.It also displays a disrespectful stance towards religious beliefs and personal wishes in disposing of one's remains and how or where this may be achieved .To merely allow the ashes of a cremated soul to then subsequently be buried in Malta neither satisfies nor reflects a duty of obligation by the government to honour and respect peoples's wishes or religion and this privatisation of the Addolorata will not encourage the building of the pledged crematorium there as these are much cheaper to perform and do not require a grace site.Shame on the government .

Victor Laiviera

Oct 31st 2011, 07:38

Here we go again - "privately managed" translates as "run for profit". Will we start seeing the grieving relatives of the deceased being ripped off?

Carmel Cilia

Oct 31st 2011, 07:30

Taf x'baqghalu jipprivatizza il-gvern: it- toilets publici.

Carmel Ellul

Oct 31st 2011, 07:13

Can we future customers , who obviously have no choice , get a breakdown of the 8000 Euro.
I bet there will be markups for those with a view!!!!!