• For several years, minor staff in the Education Department has been employed on a part-time basis. Is it possible that these people, some of who are soon to reach pensionable age, have not proved their worth enough to be employed full-time, throughout all the years they have been giving a service? Or is the issue a matter of finances?
Obvious
• By virtue of their very existence, companies offering financial services ought to be dependable. How does one begin to trust cold callers who insist they found a householder “in the telephone directory” when they address her by the baptismal name she does not use and when, in the event, the entry is either under an initial or under the name of the husband?
Odours
• The European Council has adopted a regulation intending to cut the level of phosphorus poured into the sewage system and, hence, the aquifer and the sea, by restricting the use of phosphates and other phosphorus compounds in consumer laundry and automatic dishwasher detergents. Next on the agenda should be the reduction of scents. Surely, by now most people know that clothes do not have to smell in order to be clean. Certain scents annoy people who have to work in proximity of those who use them.
Others
• In Ġużè Paċe Street, Ħamrun, there is an area that is used by traffic but where double-parking is constant. It is a place where there are many food and drink agencies and shops as well as a reasonable shortcut to Birkirkara if one wants to avoid High Street. However, by virtue of the heavy vehicles using it on a regular basis, the road surface is all broken and has been for a long time. It is necessary that this road be seen to as soon as possible.
Outrageous
• Every so often, someone decides to conduct a charity campaign... on his own account. Apparently, it is fairly easy to forge a form upon which the letterhead of a particular parish appears and easier still to concoct a sob story involving accidents, illnesses requiring treatments abroad or even death. Since this is technically begging, which is illegal, what is the position of anyone who is approached by these persons? Are they obliged to report these persons? Would donating money in good faith be interpreted as collusion?
Occasions
• Despite it having been pointed out several times from this column, there still exists an unpleasant element in those people who are in charge of operating the ramps of the Gozo ferries. Workers who use the public transport system frequently report how, as their bus approaches the terminus, the ferry sets off. The excuse given for small vehicles, viz. that they were not seen, surely does not hold here. Missing one boat, especially in bad weather, thus causes extra hardship to workers.
Obnoxious
• No sooner had Whitney Houston died than wannabe stand-up comics had begun penning nasty jokes, mostly involving race, colour and substance abuse. This does not reflect well on their sense of humour. Rather, it shows that their lives are so empty that they have to fill them with such hollow pleasures. Shame indeed.
Ostracised
• Despite rules and regulations, the fact remains that certain medical conditions, such as epilepsy and diabetes, are frowned upon by prospective employers. This creates a Catch-22 situation: a person who hides them in order to gain a job chances losing it when he has a grand mal or hypoglycaemic reaction because of not having disclosed his condition at the start of his contract.
Obsessions
• Yet another elderly person has been attacked and robbed while using an ATM. Unfortunately, some of these machines, like the one in Schembri Street, Blata-l-Bajda, afford no protection to users, who are seen using them by passers-by and people in moving vehicles. They have to be extra-quick in order to place cash inside wallets but, nonetheless, this is no guarantee that they are safe from thugs who are not prepared to earn their own money lawfully.
Operators
• How many trees are pruned according to instructions, let alone diagrams, given out to the workmen beforehand by tree surgeons or other experts? The impression one gets is that branches are lopped off according to how they affect road visibility. Then, a few more are taken out for good measure, for the sake of symmetry.
Obscene
• It is becoming a sad fact of life that perpetrators of sex-oriented crimes receive suspended sentences while other criminals are sent to prison, supposedly for rehabilitation. Would the judiciary consider making it a point to explain why in their judgements? Otherwise, society will be justified in speculating and reaching its own conclusions, which, admittedly, may not be based on fact.
Orientation
• Much ado is being made about two attacks on persons, supposedly because of their sexual orientation. Violence is, of course, always wrong and condemnable and the same applies to intolerance. Yet, respect to one’s dignity and rights must be mutual. Thus, let’s avoid doing things that annoy third parties like picking one’s nose in public, spanking children, discarding rubbish on the ground, throwing burning cigarette stubs from moving cars, blaspheming in public and, obviously, behaving in a way that could offend others.
Opus
• Has the time come to have a living national poet, not merely on the lines of the poet laureate of other countries, but one who would retain one’s crown until death? Deserving nominees there certainly are and perhaps a natural choice too!