Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1504697
A court-appointed expert re- porting to the magistrate con- ducting the inquiry on the death of Jean Paul Sofia found a lita- ny of failings at the Corradino building site where the accident happened. To the trained profession- al, this was evident from the way the building collapsed, but, even so, the report of the expert appointed by the mag- istrate makes shocking read- ing. It embodies the superficial mentality of those who think that everything is easy and pro- fessionalism is a sham. It is this type of people that are, in fact, a sham. Workers said they got their orders from one of the project's developers who was indicated as a supervisor and who has no background or qualifications in construction. He also appears to have falsified the signature of the listed builder on the pro- ject's commencement notice. The other partner appeared to handle issues related to project permits and official applica- tions, due to 'his contacts'. I need not go on to quote a lot from the court expert's report: it is a horrible tale of woe. The main reason for the col- lapse was the structural design of the building, which failed to consider aspects of wall sta- bility, according to applicable standards, as well as resilience or ties of the structure against a catastrophic collapse in the case of an incident. 'The configura- tion of the walls, big apertures, on two sides, resulted in a lack of structural capacity of the long side wall that carries the weight on it. The failure to tie changed this failure into a total and catastrophic collapse.' What bugs me is the arrogance of people who are dilettantes and who think that profession- alism is a waste of time or a ruse to grant a monopoly to certain 'privileged' people. Many moons ago, when refer- ring to an issue about a Maltese who graduated in architecture abroad, Alfred Sant in Parlia- ment argued that the refusal of the authorities to grant him a warrant solely on the basis of his studies was simply a result of an 'elite club' designed to give an advantage to those who are granted a warrant. I had to reply that the need of a warrant was necessary to protect the or- dinary citizen from quacks and not to give some unfair advan- tage to the warrant holder. In the Corradino case, the quacks left their signature all over the rubble that crushed and killed Jean Paul Sofia. Peo- ple registered as 'carpenters' suddenly became construction workers. How's that for dilet- tantism? This trait that was openly fo- mented in the Mintoff era has again resurfaced under the cur- rent regime. It seems to be a 'Labour Party' problem. People who think that the necessity of doing things in a professional way is just a mantra to give an unfair advantage over people who think they know it all while most of them are, in fact, just arrogant dabblers. Much before the magisterial inquiry was finalised and pub- lished, INDIS Malta, the gov- ernment company operating industrial parks, started court proceedings for the termina- tion of the emphyteutical con- cession awarded to Kurt Buha- giar and Matthew Schembri. It seems that INDIS realised it had made a mistake and sought to cover it up by getting back the land it had granted as an aid to 'Maltese industry'. What else could be the motivation of this decision? By then it was too late, of course. It is also interesting to note that in her report, the magis- trate also stated that the mag- isterial inquiry is not able to examine whether there were administrative or legislative deficiencies in the situation... She added that the evidence she collected indicates institution- al, systemic and even legislative deficiencies, and that these de- ficiencies can form the merit of other investigations by the competent authorities accord- ing to law; thus giving the lie to the official line that a public en- quiry was not needed. A terrible heatwave As I write, it seems that the terrible heatwave that hit Malta in the last two weeks or so has lifted and it is not as hot as it was a few days ago. This heatwave has uncovered the serious deficiencies in our electricity distribution system, parts of which are over 60 years old. Konrad Mizzi's efforts to increase the production of electricity forgot all about the efficiency of the distribution system that is needed for this electric power to arrive in our homes. Meanwhile, we kept on building more residential units and increasing the resident population as if this would have no impact on the electricity dis- tribution system. Now, we have even had a number of deaths related to the heatwave. Enemalta needs to go back to the drawing board. Taking a minister's advice to read while the electric power is off, I came across an interesting leader and a book review in a re- cent issue of The Economist on the subject. According to the leader 'The best thing that has happened in Phoenix, Arizona, since the be- ginning of July is that the elec- tricity grid has kept function- ing'. Tell that to Miriam Dalli! Actually, there is a spate of heatwaves all over the world, including in the Mediterrane- an area with temperatures ex- ceeding 40 degrees. In cities, it is worse: less vegetation, more sunlight-absorbing tarmac and more waste heat produced. In the long term, the things one can do to cater for these situations are possible only in the devel- oped world that can afford them. Statistically, the average glob- al air temperature in July broke three records in a week and records were broken in both America and Europe. The reviewer of the book titled The Heat will kill you first writ- ten by Jeff Goodell says that it 'reads like an anthology of hor- ror stories.' The review goes on to say that the book 'is a remarkable ex- ploration of the deadly conse- quences of rising temperatures wrought by humans pumping greenhouse gases into the at- mosphere. Unlike wildfires and hurricanes - which create whirls of flames, paint skies an apoc- alyptic orange and drown cities - heatwaves cannot be captured on film. Heat slaughters silent- ly, snuffing out more American lives each year than any type of weather'. The author of the book asks: 'How do you make visible the story of an invisible killer?' 7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 JULY 2023 OPINION The arrogance of dilettantism Michael Falzon micfal45@gmail.com The main reason for the Corradino collapse was the structural design of the building