Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1195815
25 OPINION maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 DECEMBER 2019 See? Lost things sometimes have a way of f inding themselves when you least expect it. So take heart, Keith. Do not despair. Just remember the advice of a wise man who lived long ago (and whose birthday, coincidentally, is this very Wednesday): 'Seek, and ye shall f ind'… LEGAL NOTIFICATION The English Language Teaching Council would like to draw the attention that the provision of Home Tuition and Distance Learning is being regulated via legal notice 221 of 2015. ELT Home Tuition Providers and ELT Distance Learning Providers must be in possession of a licence to operate as per legal notice requirements (link: https://bit.ly/2sco9v3). Application form and relevant information may be found on website: eltcouncil.gov.mt, DLP and HTP section. Any queries Any queries regarding the subject matter are to be addressed to info.eltcouncil@gov.mt MALTA The Building and Construction Agency will extend its service to Gozo for the acceptance of bank guarantees pertaining to the Avoidance of Damage to third parties (LN 136 of 2019). Any person who would like to submit to the Agency original copies of Bank Guarantees or their release after certification of completion of works may do so every: Tuesday and Thursday between 8.00am and 12.00pm at: Citybel, Level 1, Triq Santa Marta, Victoria, VCT2551, Gozo www.bca.org.mt pre-arrest fishing.) But not only did the police go to such great lengths to help those people find their mis- placed belongings… but they even volunteered to use their own state-of-the-art technol- ogy to retrieve what data they could from the waterlogged devices: you know, just to make damn sure that the own- ers got back as much of what they had lost as possible. Now that's what I call a police force to be proud of: not there just to arrest and prosecute; but also to go that extra mile, and help distressed citizens in their time of need… No such zeal or determi- nation was shown to Keith Schembri, however. And there's no other word for that, but 'discrimination'. No two ways about it: Keith Schembri was treated differently by the police, simply because – unlike us more privileged mortals – he happens to be involved in politics. And it's just… not… fair. Nonetheless, this is no time to be losing heart. Let us not forget that the great paradoxes of life sometimes work in other directions, too; and that hope can also be found in the unlikeliest of places. So, if it's any consolation, I'd like to take the opportunity of the Festive Season to offer Keith Schembri my own hum- ble advice on how to recover lost items. I have a certain experience in the field (though it is admittedly more in the 'losing' than the 'finding'); and in my many years of misplac- ing various possessions, I have observed that there is a certain, shall we say, 'pattern' to how things tend to work out in the end. Just as you lose things when you need them most; you also tend to find them the moment you stop actually looking for them. Like the last cup of coffee that vanished, for instance. I hunted everywhere, in all the usual suspect locations: on the table by the toilet; between books on bookshelves; on eve- ry conceivable surface on the trajectory of my daily absent- minded pacings, coffee-cup in hand, up and down the hall (which conveniently also leave a trail of spilt coffee that can later be retraced)… But nothing. I was eventu- ally forced to conclude that it must really have been spirited off to another dimension; and shuffled along to the kitchen to make another. Then, the inevitable: no sooner did I open the cup- board door to bring out a fresh mug… lo and behold! There it was, the original mug of coffee I had made earlier: steaming serenely away next to all the other empty cups, where I must have replaced it myself. See? Lost things sometimes have a way of finding them- selves when you least expect it. So take heart, Keith. Do not despair. Just remember the advice of a wise man who lived long ago (and whose birthday, coincidentally, is this very Wednesday): 'Seek, and ye shall find'…