Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1416377
3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 OCTOBER 2021 Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications Anti-choice agenda SCIENCE tells us that zygotes and embryos are clusters of cells. They are not babies, infants, or children. The foetus is a potential human being, but a missed period is not a person. I really do not see why this is such a difficult concept for some, especially some men, it would seem, to understand. Meanwhile, I wait, somewhat im- patiently, for regular anti-choice correspondents such as Azzopardi and Vella Bardon (12 September), among others, to mention at least once, their support for comprehen- sive school-based sexual education as well as access to free or subsidised contraception. Vella Bardon is Vice Chair of Life Network, an entity that receives gov- ernment funding to promote unsafe medical procedures such as reversal of medical abortion, an entity that coerces women into continuing with their pregnancy. Their website proudly advertises their allegiance to Agenda Europe, a far-right Christian-extremist net- work, committed to the 'restoration of natural order'. Their goal is to remove the human rights in matters of sexual and re- productive health of women, young people, and the LGBTQI community in Europe. This is so very dangerous and this is here, right now. Readers beware. Prof. Isabel Stabile St Julian's Barmy Balluta designs I am at pains to understand how the St Julian's local council could be in favour of one of the most unaccept- able of designs for a lesser-known part of the Balluta area. Being born-and-bred in the neigh- bourhood, the mound that turned into a hill connecting an 'upper' and 'lower' part of the streets around Balluta Buildings, has been a fixture of the town. Whether one lives on either side of the Balluta 'border', that is Sliema and St Julian's, walking down to the seaside via the Balluta steps is a daily event for many people: walk- ing down to the bus stop, taking the main entrance to the parish church, or walking to the Balluta square. It is a simple staircase which also offers an organic break between the quaint two-storey houses abutting the Car- melite Church, and the fantastic Balluta Buildings, while acting as a passageway for commuters. So why should the St Julian's local council 'enhance' the staircase with an excessive sense of 'decor' that only seems to complicate the simple nature of this walkway, into an over- done, expensive, attraction-like am- bience for outdoor furniture? Instead of catering, justifiably, for better passage down to Balluta, the St Julian's local council seems intent on making it harder. For if there is one way that a stair- case should look like, then it has to be... a staircase! Consider the way Renzo Piano employed simplicity and the beauty of stone to connect two sides of the Valletta entrance via a magnificent staircase. If anything, it is Balluta that de- serves an uplifted staircase, with added modalities to allow the easy movement for its ageing population, with a lift for pedestrians, children's buggies, and bikes and scooters. Surely it would be a better spend of €400,000 and one that would cre- ate a more harmonious context to the quaint Balluta area, where 19th century housing co-exists with the Carmelite's neo-Gothic style, and the beautiful Balluta Buildings. Francis Mifsud, Mellieħa