We live in strange times that are as unstable as two psychopaths playing Russian Roulette. Seriously, only last week Indonesia went on red alert because of an earthquake that may have been, but mercifully wasn’t, followed by a tsunami.
Mepa is regaining its reputation as the defender of the people...- Kenneth Zammit Tabona
There are tragedies and cataclysms happening all over the world, both natural and man-made. That is what our newsreels are made up of and we have become so desensitised that most of us are quite capable of placidly munching through a TV supper while watching a cataclysm unfold in our living rooms on our HD flat-screens without going off our comfort food. No, not for a moment!
We live in our own fish pond quietly going about our business as if the rest of the world were some other planet. It takes an electricity bill the ridiculous size of the one I received last week to shake us out of our torpor. However, it was so disproportionate that I am quite sure that ARMS Ltd or whoever will realise that I do not run a guesthouse or a small hotel but have a modest-sized apartment in St Julians, which I share with my octogenarian mother, her carer and a black and white doctored tomcat named Feliċ! A €3,400 bill for six months is simply ludicrous and way beyond my means to pay.
Be that as it may, life goes on and we have had various reactions in St Julians to the 10 mega-projects which, collectively, threaten to destroy our quality of life for years on end and with debatable results too.
People may have noticed that the Malta Environment and Planning Authority is changing and that since it was taken over by Minister Mario de Marco there has been a marked change of attitude, which respects the traditional ambience that identifies Malta as Malta and takes aesthetics into consideration more than before. Mepa is regaining its reputation as the defender of the people and not a tool through which contractors have carte blanche to bulldoze and blast to their hearts’ content. Let’s hope that this line of reasoning prevails.
The stupid bill I got from ARMS Ltd last week did, I admit, cause me not a little stress and stress is not friend to diabetics. My glucose levels spiralled and it took me almost three days to (sort of) get it under control. Diabetes is an insidious disease that affects what I would imagine to be 75 per cent of our population in one way or another. I was delighted to read that MEP Simon Busuttil has managed to spearhead a greater awareness in Brussels of how difficult diabetes is to control both on a national level and a domestic level and has promised to do something positive about it on a national and EU level.
Diabetes is called the silent disease as it creeps up on you when you least expect it. When it strikes, it strikes viciously. It is the cause of terrible amputations and blindness if not treated with attention and is also a major cause of heart disease.
I have been plagued with it for 15 years and I find that the biggest problem is that one simply becomes a rebel as with Type 2 diabetes one can easily fall into the trap of fooling oneself into thinking that it is merely a minor inconvenience and not a full blown disease.
The health authorities are fully aware of this fact and there have been several initiatives that have been taken to heighten awareness and enhance the treatment of it. Still, the fact remains that, for many people, following the rules to the letter is not only a boring business but a very expensive one too especially, if like me, you are allergic to governmen-supplied metformin and have to take other medication, which is comparatively very expensive.
In addition, strips used for gauging glucose levels, recommended for use at least three times a day for Type 2 diabetics, also cost the earth and one, of necessity, keeps back from using more than what is strictly necessary. One can easily forget all about them till, as happened to me on Good Friday, I was overcome with a tremendous fatigue that I could not explain and, upon measuring, got the shock of my life to discover that my levels were quadruple the maximum reading!
I must say that the outpatients system at Mater Dei Hospital is excellent and that the drive for awareness of the disease’s side effects, pitfalls and their treatment is second to none. However, the unit simply cannot do anything about the expense of eating healthily, for instance.
Healthy food does not come cheap. Remove starchy staples from a diet and one is left with food that, overall, is more expensive. Add the cost of the medication and one simply ends up between a rock and a hard place rather like what happened over my insane electricity bill.
With January and February temperatures never rising above 10°C it was a choice between freezing to death or switching on heaters, which, in my case, are electric as both my mother and I are asthmatic. Short of putting on enough layers of clothes to look like the Michelin Man we simply had no choice.
A friend of mine who lives in France complained that her electricity bills for a mainly unoccupied apartment in Malta were exorbitant and that she had decided to install photovoltaic panels on her roof. I asked how much her Maltese bill was and she replied €60 for two months! That may not sound like very much compared to the astronomical sums we are constantly receiving. However, for my friend it was as much as she pays in France for two months of round the clock central heating! Something here doesn’t add up, does it!