On the Dot

• Whoever named Triq il-Baħar l-Iswed in San Ġwann must have had a sense of premonition. Whenever it rains heavily, the accumulated rubbish pushes up a manhole cover there. This makes it extremely dangerous, both for pedestrians and motorists. The grille has been out of alignment for nearly a month now despite it having been reported to the local council.

Fraud

• It seems that each week, fraudsters come up with new ideas to separate fools and their money. This time, it is ostensibly Cindy Raines from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Security Department sending a note to the Accounting Department and copying the recipient in. The message speaks of a new security system, aimed at diminishing fraud and scams, which will suspend transactions until and unless the client installs “special security software” to rehabilitate the account.

Futures

• Another tragic incident on a building site indicates that not enough is being done to ensure the health and safety of employees, whether they are in paid jobs or volunteers. From press reports, it appears that equipment is not always being checked, as is supposed to be the praxis, before work commences.

Foundations

• Another worksite where health and safety precautions have gone by the wayside is the bus terminus at Valletta. On December 20, a foreign worker was seen sanding the ceiling of a new building without wearing a mask or safety gloves to protect him from the dust particles. He was not wearing a harness, either. Neither passers-by were protected from the fine white dust.

Freedom

• The Information and Data Protection Commissioner Office says that a considerable number of complaints refer to unsolicited communications for the purpose of direct marketing. The public eagerly awaits ex ufficio remedial action for another issue that involves breach of privacy. As it is, people receiving calls from withheld numbers have to take legal action to discover who the perpetrator is.

Fateful

• The audio visual media is broadcasting messages about drinking and driving, the wisdom of insuring belongings before going abroad. What is not being highlighted is the need for people to learn basic first aid. How many persons would know how to react if one were choking, or were injured by shards of glass, or collapsed because of substance abuse, or had a hypoglycaemic reaction, for instance?

Finally

• The skips at the end of Triq il-Palazz l-Aħmar in Sta Venera were finally removed on December 19. However, the selfish people who used to come from other areas with their garbage were not to know this. So, when they made their usual journey and did not find the skips, they left their black garbage bags under the pavement anyway. Where were the wardens who often used to turn up early in the morning and late at night to fine residents using shopping bags rather than black bags?

Frustrations

• On December 20, several young children were taken by their teachers to see a film in a Valletta cinema. It was interesting to see how some of the teachers spoke to their charges along the way, stopping every so often to see that the class was behaving. Others just walked along in front and expected the children to follow.

Fancy

• At least one pre-Arriva bus has been spruced up and will be used as a tourist attraction. It will be interesting to note whether other bus owners will follow suit, in which case it would be a good idea for the buses to revert to their original place-name colours rather than the one-colour-fits-all routes that had made them so dull. One wonders whether some of the much-vaunted low-floor buses could be pressed into Arriva service after being painted in the company colour scheme.

Fulfilment

• During Christmastide, mobile telephony companies do their best to drum up business. Sometimes this includes sending trainees out in the streets hoping to garner more customers for the firm, even if it means head-hunting them from others. It would be a good idea for such entities to give their apprentices lessons in manners; the comments they sometimes pass about people who would have refused their approach are far from polite.

Feasibility

• This column had long been saying that it would be madness to move the Tritons fountain. Now it transpires that what was so vehemently deemed “right” was not and this column’s stand has been vindicated. There is only one thing to understand: Will not dismantling the fountain, even in part, for restoration, damage it anyway?

Funny

• Every so often, the planning authority decides to bare its teeth and rather than sanctioning ugly edifices and slapping the people responsible for them with risible fines, decides to bring in the cavalry. This time, it was illegal constructions in Dingli, Floriana, Qala, Rabat, Siġġiewi and Żabbar that felt its ire. One hopes that next time it will be the ones at Armier, Ġnejna, Mistra and Valletta, at least to begin with.

Finality

• It has become common practice for certain businesses to feature opting out clauses in contracts or renewals of agreements. This is unfair on clients who would then have to take action themselves to sign their way out of the imposed contract. One wonders what the Directorate for Consumer Affairs has to say about this.