Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1479276
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 SEPTEMBER 2022 OPINION 11 'failed to meet its annual finan- cial targets' – which is kind of difficult, really, when those schools don't actually charge their students any tuition fees; and have no other (legitimate) means to actually 'make any money' – well, that would be the end of 'Free Education for All' right there, wouldn't it? (Not to mention 'the end of Maltese Socialism', to boot…) But wait… I detect a certain hint of scepticism – if not downright incredulity – even as you are reading this. Surely, I hear you ask, the service pro- vided by Air Malta cannot real- istically be compared to that of Mater Dei Hospital… or Mal- ta's free education system… or any other of the many, many areas where government DOES intervene financially (without, I might add, encountering any resistance from the European Commission)? To which the short answer, I suppose, is… well, the same as it was before. "YES, YOU BLOODY-WELL CAN!' For one thing, many people might be surprised to discover that Air Malta IS, in fact, al- ready (indirectly) regarded as 'part of the broader National Health Service'. This is from its own website: "Air Malta is the only airline operating from Malta that car- ries both stretcher cases with patients that require urgent medical treatment abroad, as well as incubators for new- born babies. The national car- rier is also regularly in contact with health authorities to car- ry medicines and other urgent medical material to and from Malta, sometimes even ad- justing flight operations to ac- commodate this. Some of this material includes time-sen- sitive radioactive substances, required for around 40 cancer patients every week…." The operative words there, by the way, are: 'the ONLY air- line'. Because let's face it: it's not exactly a service you'd ex- pect airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet to willingly provide, is it? (Ryanair won't even let you board with hand-luggage larger than '40cm x 25cm x 20cm'… unless, of course, it was pur- chased from its own outlets. Just imagine, then, how eagerly it would accept a consignment of 'radioactive substances'… for no profit whatsoever.) Air Malta, on the other hand, DOES do things like that: and I would say it does a little more, too. At the risk of repeating a point I made quite recently: during the Libyan uprising of 2011 – when several Maltese citizens were stranded at Trip- oli Airport; and bullets were flying all around them, instead of planes – it wasn't exactly 'Ryanair', or 'EasyJet', which risked their own aircraft, pilots and crew (not to mention prof- its) to evacuate them… No, it was Air Malta; and it could ONLY have been Air Malta… because no private airline – managed along pure- ly commercial lines – can ever be expected to fulfil such an essential, emergency service… out of a sense of 'civic duty' alone. For that, you need a NATION- AL airline, not a commercial one: yes, even if it means 'op- erating certain routes at a loss', from time to time; and even if it means 'defying the Europe- an Commission (again), and to hell with the consequences'. Because here is where I feel Clyde Caruana most deserves all the 'criticism', that he al- ready knows he's going to get: "I will do nothing at the airline that does not enjoy the Europe- an Commission's support…" Oh? Really? Funny Clyde Caruana should say that: at a time when his own government is actually doing quite a few things, that very emphatically do NOT 'enjoy the European Commission's support' right now. For instance: Malta insists on permitting the hunting of a protected (and endangered) species – the turtle dove – in open defiance of the Wild Birds Directive. This has already re- sulted in multiple infringement procedures by the Commis- sion; and an ongoing case in the European Court of Justice. It looks to me, then, that Clyde Caruana's government simply 'picks and chooses' those moments when it either: a) stands up for (what it be- lieves to be) Malta's interests, in the face of an intransigent European Commission, or; b) backs away with its tail be- tween its legs, dutifully mum- bling: "Yes Sir, Yes Sir, Three Bags Full", with every step... Ah, but what issue did it ac- tually choose, to incur the Eu- ropean Commission's wrath (over and over again)? Was it: 'Saving Air Malta'… and the priceless, irreplaceable strate- gic value it undeniably repre- sents? Or was it: 'pandering to the hunters' lobby, in its own bid for votes'? Oh well. At least, it doesn't change that one part we all agree on. Remember? "Many will criticise [the Labour gov- ernment's] decisions"… oh, yes; and probably, for many generations to come… During the Libyan uprising of 2011 – when several Maltese citizens were stranded at Tripoli Airport; and bullets were flying all around them, instead of planes – it wasn't exactly 'Ryanair', or 'EasyJet', which risked their own aircraft, pilots and crew (not to mention profits) to evacuate them