• From the Paola roundabout, all the way up to the Mcast buildings, the high walls on either side are both ugly and dangerous. Something should be done to make them both more aesthetic and also safer. Should they collapse, it will be a national disaster.

Blocks

• Another retaining wall that is in dire danger of falling apart is the one in front of the junction of Triq il-Batterija and Triq il-Palazzl-Aħmar in Fleur de Lys. Some of the stones have already fallen and this is putting Cannon Road, along which thousands of cars pass by at all hours of the day, in danger of sinking.

Barter

• The Labour Party is promising that up to the time they are 16 years old, youth will be studying and training or in employment. This is not much different from what the situation is today, save for those who opt out of the system in order to get a job, those who can afford not to work and those who become a burden to the state.

Boring

• Research carried out in Britain has shown that a combination of poorly-trained primary school teachers, parents who are unaware of the need for physical activity and a dearth of physical education lessons is raising a generation of children who are unable even to throw or catch a ball. Fortunately, the education system and the parenting tendencies in Malta make this unlikely to happen here but one must always be on one’s guard against such negative trends.

Bother

• Some people must be making quite a packet from selling e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and physical addresses of people to punters. Calls, e-mails and mailshots are being received, with correct names and addresses or telephone numbers, encouraging people to purchase anything from detergents to investments. This happens even when those contacted would have already asked not to be bothered again.

Better?

• A lot of fuss is made about how teenage mothers are urged tocontinue with their educationand how regular checks at the genito-urinary clinics will lessen the incidence of sexually-transmitted diseases. Not enough emphasis is laid, on the other hand, on abstinence-only teaching, which is given by religious groups as a hush-hush part of the catechism lessons.

Bombastic

• Is it absolutely necessary for gas cylinder delivery trucks to make so much noise when passing through neighbourhoods? Surely the fact that deliveries are made on the same day and, more or less, at the same time, as well as the sounds of the cylinders clanging against one another ought to negate the use of loud horns that disturb the elderly and the ill.

Breach

• It is obvious that children who would have left school for the holidays would appreciate earning some pin money. However, it is unfair that some of them are roped into family businesses, having to keep long hours and paid much less than the owner, that is, their parent(s), would have had to pay an employee.

Backlash

• Not enough people are awareof the possible complications of strep throat, one of which is scarlet fever. It is just not done to “be brave and soldier on” by going to work, since this could potentially infect several colleagues. It would be a good idea to hang posters to foster awareness about this illness on local council and workplace noticeboards.

Bribed

• Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti firmly wonders whether the football leagues in his country should be suspended for a couple of years or more to allow for a thorough purging of the sport from bribery, match-fixing,and other negative issues. Yet, football being a ‘religion’, it is likely that virtual leagues could also siphon millions of euros from aficionados of the game, including Maltese ones.

Bitter

• Jason Micallef, erstwhile secretary general of the Labour Party, head of One Productions and former member of staff at the state broadcaster, is adamant that heads should roll over the way “Malta performed in the Eurovision”. This statement is fraught with questionable logic. Short of buying votes from individuals on a gargantuan scale, there is no way Malta can have a say of how the voting goes.

Better

• Kurt Calleja and his band were rightly congratulated for their performances both at the semi-finals and the finals. Mr Calleja, however, also deserves kudos for the way he behaved in every public appearance and interview. Comparisons may be odious, true, but he outshone most of his predecessors.

Buses

• ln Malta, the police, wardens and Transport Malta are doing precious little to ensure that all school transport vehicles are equipped with seatbelts and, moreover, that these must be worn by children when the vehicles are in motion. Moreover, some of the drivers still persist in taking on a lot of trips and drop some children off behind school gates quite some time before schools start. Not all heads of school give instructions for children to be allowed into the grounds; some actually shop for junk food during this interval.

Benches

• The tract of land in front of the Tal-Għolja housing estate in Mosta is in a shambles. With a little attention it could be made into a wonderful public place where residents or visitors could relax and enjoy the relative peace and quiet away from the city centre. Moreover, each time it rains, there are minuscule avalanches of soil and stones. Should the land become saturated, the slides will be much larger.