Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/208710
26 Letters maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2013 Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. St Julian's development: a loss for all The St Julian's Residents Association is sorely disappointed with MEPA's approval of the application for a car park, supermarket, shops and residences in St Julian's as the residential and commercial units will only serve to increase the traffic problems faced by residents. This is ironic, as the project started off as the building of a car park to alleviate the parking problem in the area and in the words of MEPA's own deputy chairman Franco Montesin, the project will not alleviate the traffic problem in the area as the building of shops and a supermarket would generate more traffic. Mega projects such as these only serve to make St Julian's unbearable to live in. All the more so when they are built on the side of valley. Moreover, some objectors to the project did not receive notification from MEPA regarding the hearing, The amnesia of faith In his encyclical on faith, Pope Francis described the Christian faith as a defence against the "massive amnesia in our contemporary world". The amnesia equally applies to those who fall under the spell of religion, "the opium of the people". The religious amnesia starts when the believer takes his first steps in his studies. He is taught to subdue his reason and to deny the evidence of his senses. He never questions 'whether flesh be bread or bread be flesh; whether the juice of a certain berry be blood or wine' (Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels). As he grows older, he learns to suppress the scepticism that hides in the heart of faith. Pope Francis wrote that the amnesia in today's world is partly caused by "the subjective truths of the individual" – which include the subjective "truths" of faith! Every religious man believes that he possesses the one true faith while rejecting all the rest, just as cardinal Ratzinger did when he offended Anglicans and Lutherans by describing their faith as "deficient". Faith is a matter of geography. If Pope Francis had been born a few hundred miles south of the Vatican, he would have been a Muslim imam preaching the Koran! The amnesia of faith is not confined to the credulous populace but is also found among highly intelligent people, especially if they're sick or depressed. The mathematician Blaise Pascal, the chemist Robert Boyle, and the entomologist Jan Swammerdam retreated from science to religion after their health broke down. Their retreat from science to religion, observed the historian Will Durant, "personified the hesitation of modern man between a search for truth that smiles at hope and a retreat to hopes that shy from truth". Will they prosecute a mother who threatens her child? The habit of overstating things is in our Semitic culture, and although things were said to provoke a reaction (which they did) you cannot judge on presumptions. This is also the case with Mr John Dalli, who is being judged on something which may not have even occurred. One can There is a lot the EU should learn from the three musketeers. For a start, how about adopting their trademark motto? In case anyone needs reminding, it's: 'One for all... and all for one'. Lino Callus Balzan Old buses could be a boon for tourism John Guillaumier St Julian's judge the Nationalist administration for having sent back over 200 Somalis in the past and deported refugees to Libya (during Gaddafi's tenure). These are facts, and although I am old enough to remember, I do not recall these hypocrites ever protesting. Charles Coleiro St Julian's Time for scalpel politics? EDITORIAL – 9 NOVEMBER 2003 IT is all over now – the Labour Party conference is past tense. Next Monday, the budget and fiscal measures will be forefront of people's minds. The general public and business community are tense – worried over measures that will have an impact on their spending and operational power. What is to happen? Awareness that we face a chronic problem with our revenues is not the only problem. The issue that has to be faced is finding solutions to our recurrent problems. Axing costs is one solution, but is it the long-term solution? Taxes are the other obvious solution. Finance minister John Dalli must appreciate that certain sectors cannot take anymore 'taxing' pressures. And he is fully aware that other sectors have had a holiday for far too long a time. As we talk, we know that there are concrete proposals to augment VAT and take the pension time bomb by the horns. Hopefully on the pension crisis, the unions and constituted bodies will be responsible and look beyond their next term in office. If something is not done today, we will be facing chaos in the not too distant future. On VAT, there is no question that linking to a consumer service or to a particular product would be helpful if we are to implement a fair system. There is a fundamental difference between the purchase of 200g of ham and a 20hp sports car. The measures that need to be taken have to be long term. Perhaps Mr Dalli should look at short-listing those measures that have been shelved because of political expediency. Downsizing government is one aspect that cannot be taken lightly. But it will need tough reforms… reforms which until now we have not heard much debate about, let alone an implementation programme. The issue of a smaller government haunts certain quarters in the unions and government. But this is the only long-term solution. It will require a blueprint and it will need to avoid replicating the awful mess, the like of which we have all seen at the dockyards. Mr Dalli has a job to do. But he must not get carried away. He carries a heavy burden, but on the eve of Malta's entry into Europe he knows that this is the only chance to kick start the reform mechanism that will shape the future of this country. Everyone knows that he has the stamina to do it, but everyone dreads to see what his solutions will be. Nonetheless, this is the time for 'scalpel and forceps' politics. Mr Dalli will only succeed if after the surgery he leaves little sign of stitches and scars. Michel Spiteri St Julians The EU vs The Three Musketeers The Maltese habit of overstatement It's becoming all the clearer that a concerted effort is being made by Nationalists diehards to put Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in a bad light vis-a-vis the illegal immigrants saga. Having undergone a complete trashing on 9 March, they cannot stomach what has happened to them. Dr Muscat is being judged on something he said but did not do. which means they were not able to express their objection at the public hearing. Earlier this week I saw one of the very old buses – the one which used to service the Valletta-Zurrieq route – resprayed in its original orange colour, new leather seats, new glass windows, and the old leather hanging straps for standing passengers, parked in front of a Hotel in Qawra waiting to take tourists on some day trip. What a lovely and nostalgic sight! Just imagine if we have quite a number of the very old buses refurbished, and resprayed in their original different colours – Dark blue (Rabat), Yellow (Siggiewi), light blue (Mellieha) Red with green strip (Zabbar) and so on, being used for tourists' trips around the island! I am certain that tourists will simply love them, and that it will be a boon for Malta's tourism product. Is it possible for the government to consider ways of encouraging owners who still have these very old buses in their garages to bring them back on Malta's roads? Of course, to be allowed back on Malta's roads, they have to be refurbished to the same standard of the bus I saw this morning. There's no need for air conditioning, as long as they have new glass windows which can be opened. How about it, Minister Karmenu Vella ? Eddy Privitera Mosta