Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1096093
19 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 MARCH 2019 Mikiel Galea Land beneficiaries IN recent times, we have become ac- customed to hearing the use of the word "beneficiaries". The primary connotation is financial, related to due diligence and the infamous "money laundering". "Beneficiaries" has a much wider meaning, going back to olden times. If a warrior of a tribe conquered the en- emy, he became the automatic benefi- ciary of the land, property and people within the border of the conquest. He could then pass on the right of "ben- efit" of the conquests on to his barons and ecclesiastics. The commoners had no say. Land is "owned" by beneficiaries, be it through war booty or after com- pensating the original beneficiary with money or barter gifts. It is funny how the word remained up to our times to refer to someone strong, powerful and untouchable! But ironically, as in the famous Lord Tennyson's poem 'The Brook', benefi- ciaries "may come and they may go" but the land "goes on for ever". It is in this context that, recently, Astrid Vella wrote about the need for the very rich magnates in Malta to see beyond their nose and control their greed. That Manoel Island should be "lent" to a rich beneficiary is under- standable, and there is nothing wrong with that. For that same beneficiary to disregard what should be the common good use of a jewel of a patrimony, it should take little thinking for a benevo- lent mind to conclude that the honour of posterity rests with the lord who shares his wealth with the common people. Examples as to why this does not happen in our country abound. Why should Dolmen have taken away from us common citizens the little ground of public gardens when recently the Hotel expanded the area near the Qawra Police Station? Was the encroachment of the beach on the other side by the same hotel not enough? Why should San Antonio DB aim at taking over the beautiful little artificial sandy beach on the sea- front, enjoyed by hundreds of people local and foreign? Was it not enough that it had been allowed to overde- velop what was once a decent balance between hotel rooms and nice open spaces and gardens when the Hype- rion was conceived? These are examples that should put to shame our authorities, past and present. George Calleja, Attard Trusting HSBC I could not agree more with HSBC Malta CEO Mr Andrew Beane's state- ment that "banking is a business that is built on trust". But a prerequisite is honesty; otherwise trust becomes just a buzzword, built on a very shaky foun- dation. Your readers will probably recall that HSBC's deposit machine had caused me serious injury, which the bank still fails to acknowledge, notwithstand- ing having been afforded irrefutable digital proof and supporting medical certificates evidencing it, back in 2017. Following the considerable direct and public pressure I applied during this saga (including communications to HS- BC's Group Chairman UK – Mr. Mark E. Tucker), the bank sought a meeting, intended in its own representative's words, "to regain your (i.e. my) trust". From the CCTV footage finally seen, it was incontrovertibly established that contrary to the bank's unfounded claims made in its official letter of response through the Law Courts, no less, I had not made simultaneous use of its ATM and Deposit Machines, or improper use of the latter. In its same official letter, the bank also incredibly contended that I had refused to hand over medical certificates evidenc- ing the wrist crush injury in question (and not a mere scratch, as the bank unfairly maintains). This when an of- ficial admitted to having copies of these certificates, which the bank's lawyer is also aware of and yet, HSBC ignored my requests for it to acknowledge these facts and officially retract its untruthful statements! Worse still, HSBC will not even provide me with a copy of the com- plete CCTV footage concerned, which speaks volumes, and labelled my legiti- mate demands "an impasse", as a pre- text to stop communicating about the matter. HSBC's continued denial of the undeniable, is perhaps tactically expe- dient from its point of view, but I deem it shameful and totally unexpected of a bank, which has to date failed itself, far more than it has failed me; for "To err is human, but to persist in error is dia- bolical". HSBC really needs to respond publicly to this letter and come clean, if it sincerely wants to promote trust. Jean-Pierre Azzopardi, Swieqi Letters & Clarifications