My attention is usually drawn by one argument that deserves to be discussed in some depth. But occasionally my fancy is struck by several topics which I feel I should, at least, say something about. Today is such an occurrence.
One can take a very practical view about the surcharge. Oil prices are becoming obscenely high. We use oil. We have to pay for the oil we use. If the cost is too much we have to change our lifestyle to afford what we use. And there is only one thing which is certain. Tomorrow the cost will be higher still. End of story. Is it?
At the end of the line there are people. Some can say a little “uff” and get on with it. Others will say a big “ahh”. The latter should be helped. The ggovernment is currently excluding from the surcharge some 30,000 families. More will cross to the wrong side of the poverty line. A healthier economy which will place more money in the pockets of more people is the ultimate solution.
I think that the MCESD should have been involved in the process. It is true that it was not involved when the surcharge was increased from “x” to “x + a bit”. But now the increase has been so big that a discussion in the MCESD about the increase and the way forward would have been of benefit to all.
Bye-bye common sense
The Board of Nurses and Midwives are a sweet lot. Read this.
A foreign nurse comes to Malta and sends his/her qualifications to this Board for tegistration. The Board replies curtly: Do you have a work permit? The nurse goes round medical establishments in search of employment. The potential employers ask the nurse: Are you registered?
Malta needs nurses … lots of qualified nurses … but instead of facilitating the process the Board of Nurses creates an artificial bureaucratic hurdle and a capricious Catch 22 situation. You cannot register if you do not have a work permit but you will not be given a work permit if you are not registered!
Registration implies that one’s qualifications are good enough to be considered a member of a profession. This is the business of the Board of Nurses. Get on with your business and let the ETC bother about work permits.
Hands off the parties?
The rent reform white paper has had quite a long period of gestation. Minister Dalli gave a deadline and respected it. The white paper has now been born and formally presented to the world. I have not read it but diverse reactions I got were quite positive.
The Partit Nazzjonalista has a secret provision in its statures stating what should be done when the going seems to be too positive. In such a situation whoever is responsible is to call the Shoot-yourself-in-the-foot Department at the PN headquarters. Whoever was responsible did and these people came up with the fantastic idea of creating controversy where controversy there should be not. They said let us exempt for the moment – which could turn out to be two or three decades – social and political clubs. The impression was created that there is one law for us common citizens and a less harsh one for political parties.
Alternattiva Demokrtika lambasted the provision. The Secretary General of the Partit Nazzjonalista has publicly declared that he would be ready to renounce his party’s rights over any property that they are using and is benefiting from the present unjust rent laws. Don’t know whether the Labour Party has taken a position.
Government should immediately state that the mentioned provision will be changed so that the country can debate serenely the heart of the matter not the diversion.
Bye-bye housing problem
The Gonzi-Muscat tandem working in the national interest initiated its programme by a common and frontal attack on the housing problem. Dr Muscat fired the first volley. During his maiden speech as Leader of the Labour Party he said that the Dar tal-Hgieg was to be the house of each and every one of us. Dr Gonzi was not to be out done. When he inaugurated the revamped stamperija he made it a point to stress that even this was everybody’s home.
How sweet of our political leaders to provide for our shelter! “Come to us all you who are homeless and we will give you a decent abode.”
With leaders like these who needs the Housing Authority?
Good job WSC
A few years back I was trying to fix an appointment with the Water Services Corporation for a meter reader to check the meter at my garage. They gave an appointment for a particular day adding that the meter reader will call anytime between 9 .m. and noon. I hotly contested this during a phone-in programme where the WSC official present could not see anything wrong with the procedure. I was none the wiser by the end of that argument. Then the phone rang. “Father I heard you on radio. I am a meter reader and I live near your house. When can I come and read the meter?” Informal contacts are fantastic in Malta!
This year I needed the same service. The WSC gave me an appointment for a day convenient for both of us. The day before the meter reader phoned to try and fix the time. He was extremely courteous and efficient. The time he offered was problematic for me. He phoned back later after juggling around his schedule.
The WSC have come a long way in customer care. Prosit.