I just came back from a morning of playing hopscotch, tug-of-war and skipping rope and it was such good fun that in my mind I’m thinking how great it would be if we all did it more often.
This term, at school, my daughter’s grade covered World War II, which is commendable because wars and their sour horrific effects should be drilled in our children’s minds, in the hope that they grow up to abhor them.
They all learnt about Hitler banning migrants and burying them behind walls, which was very timely considering that in present time, the US President is banning migrants and building walls.
They drew charts about Stalin, Mussolini and Churchill; the George Cross and the Konvoj ta’ Santa Marija. They covered the way of life in the 40s: the scarcity of food, the Victory Kitchen, the seeking cover in stinky claustrophobic shelters, the getting out and finding that your house is now rubble, and the children’s games in the streets.
And so it was that on Friday, to the background of 1940s music, parents and kids grouped up and played games children used to play in that era: tug-of-war, It, hopscotch, boċċi. I had forgotten what it’s like to play and run around and laugh breathlessly while someone is trying to catch you.
We complain that children are mostly on screen. But I believe that given a chance they’d rather do something active. But the thing is: where?
This is a country where there’s more cars than people. I myself have often been nearly squashed by vehicles when on my bicycle
Where, for example, can I take a 10-year-old cycling? If you notice, all public parks have a no-cycling sign. My friends and I on quiet weekdays still take the kids and their bikes to Ta’ Qali, but effectively we are breaking the law.
This is a country where there’s more cars than people. I myself have often been nearly squashed by vehicles when on my bicycle because there is no concept that pedestrians and cyclists have right of way. Cycling is one of the best joys of childhood – a bicycle gives you and your friends the freedom to cycle away from your parents and you can go to the far edge of the park and build your own secret hide out.
Now that the streets are no longer the playground space they were six decades ago, we need open, unstructured places where cycling for fun, and the space for simple children’s games, are not only permitted, but also encouraged.
■ While on the subject of cycling, this week the Bicycle Advocacy Group appealed a suspended sentence handed to a drunk driver convicted of the manslaughter of a cyclist in 2006.
Here’s the brief: Fadla-Lah Mohammed Ahmed Moh Bahkret who was cycling in Aviation Street, Gudja, at around 5.30pm on December 8, was hit by a car driven by Eric Zammit. Bahkret died on the spot.
In handing down judgment earlier this week – a whole 11 years later! – the court said that Zammit was 20 years old at the time of the accident, his car was moving at 68 kilometres an hour – a “moderate” speed, he was driving under the influence of alcohol, he was not insured and he had been conditionally discharged in another case six months earlier. However the bicycle, he said, had no lights on and the cyclist was not using the parallel service road used by pedestrians and cyclists.
BAG is right to appeal this because the lack of lights should not have been considered as one of the factors that contributed to the accident: it happened at twilight, the area was well lit and in fact the cyclist was seen by the driver.
Also, the “service road” mentioned by the court is just a pavement. Go and see it: anything but a cycling lane. It is just a one-way track in the direction of Luqa, starting on Ħal Far Road – the opposite direction of where the cyclist was heading, which means that if he had been on this track, he would have been cycling wrong way, and would have been breaking the law. The court clearly has a severe lack of knowledge of the road infrastructure cyclists have to use in order to be on their bikes.
BAG is insisting that as the driver was not insured and was also drunk, he should have never been behind the wheel. And the plain truth is that had the car driver not broken every driving law in the book that day, Mr Bahkret would still be alive today, something which one hopes, will weigh heavily on Zammit for the rest of his life.
The appeal is justified, mostly because of the comments of the court, which seems to have flippantly dismissed the life of a man who died while abiding the law on his commute home.
krischetcuti@gmail.com
Twitter: @krischetcuti