• A 22-year-old from Tarxien who appeared in a photograph touching a girl’s breast was hauled to the law courts in Valletta and given a suspended jail term. In contrast, international celebrity Peter Andre, who also featured in a picture cupping his former girlfriend’s breast, was made Cultural Ambassador to Valletta. True, the Maltese girl was a minor and Andre enjoys fame and fortune. Still, Valletta deserves more respect.
Labour’s take on Gozo
• Labour have not updated their billboards in Gozo. Since the tablet billboard there have been at least two more in Malta. Is this a sign of how Labour will treat Gozo?
Ticket chaos
• It is not exactly clear what happened but there was some confusion when a number of passengers who had just disembarked from a cruise liner last week tried to get the lift to Valletta but to no avail. Apparently, the ticketing machines were out of order and there was nobody around with the authority to allow them a free ride up. In such circumstances common sense should prevail.
The little big word
• One little word which seems to be disappearing from the Maltese vocabulary in the media is fi. Why do most presenters have to say ġewwa l-Belt, or ġewwa l-Italja instead of simply fil-Belt or fl-Italja? Very often this ġewwa verges on the ridiculous. And then everybody seems to copy them.
No access
• The zebra crossing at the foot of Ġlormu Cassar Avenue, in Valletta, must have ramps on both sides if people on wheelchairs are to be assured full accessibility. There is only one ramp on the bus terminus side. On the other side there is a ramp, further up, where the old zebra crossing used to be. This means that somebody on a wheelchair will have to use the busy road for some distance, even if it is just a few metres.
Easy money
• An Arriva ticket booth in Paola (the one forming part of Paola’s main Arriva stage, in front of the prisons) is not distributing tickets. On Friday morning, a commuter inserted two €1 coins and no ticket was produced. No sign indicates that it is out of order. He was told the booth has been inoperational for some time now and customers are regularly inserting coins with no tickets being produced. Upon arriving in Valletta he forwarded a complaint to Arriva and also complained via Arriva’s customer care number. To make matters worse he was told that to claim the money, he has to pay €5.
Clear message
• Some may argue that it was too tough a punishment, but Magistrate Doreen Clarke made it very clear she wanted to transmit a clear message to society when she sentenced a developer to 30 months in jail after finding him guilty of causing a toddler’s death when he fell down an uncovered shaft. Well done. Not the same could be said for Magistrate Carol Peralta who declared in court he had “private” information that the alleged victim in a case before him was a “difficult person”. Should such information not have been communicated in open court rather than in ‘private’?
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