Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/234240
22 Letters maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 DECEMBER 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. The public transport fiasco Two years ago, the Maltese public has been promised a public transport revolution. This revolution ends this year. Back in 2011, the Arriva consortium, comprised of the British transport operator and Tumas Group, had won the tender to operate the Maltese public transport for the coming 10 years, a public transport which has been designed by Transport Malta with the help of some transport experts who probably have never taken a bus in Malta. King (L)Kong buses have been introduced to the Maltese roads, thanks to the Tumas Group being their local agent. Back in 2011, Mr Bastow, CEO of Arriva, was saying that "the vision of the Maltese government and Transport Malta is for a 21st century public transport system. Arriva and our consortium partners, the Tumas Group, and suppliers such as King Long, have the skills and expertise to make that vision a reality". Unfortunately this vision ended in a financial nightmare, for Arriva and for the public. Already back in 2012, Tumas Group had sold silently its 33% share in the consortium, an indication that Tumas Group already did not see any future in Arriva or by the end of the day, was only interested in selling the buses. The public quickly realised that the new public transport could not deliver its expectations, due to mainly two factors: the already saturated road network which makes it impossible to oper- ate timely any scheduled service, and the buses, which were clearly oversized for the local roads. Arriva has since reported losses of over €30 million, while the government has paid out subsidies amounting to €23 million. From 1 January, Transport Malta will take over the operations of Arriva for a transitional period, and it has committed itself to maintain the workforce of over 1,200 employees. This certainly has a cost: so far the government has not published the price it will have to pay for the takeover, nor the monthly expected operational expenses (only the salaries will amount to €300,000 a month). The government is also very silent on the expression of interest for the service Raphael Vassallo recently dedicated a whole article about the recent environment rally to a handful of politicians who turned up on the day. While it is understandable that Raphael questions the sincerity of these 'rotating politicians' who were nowhere to be seen in protests during the previous government's tenure, we assure him that no politicians "marched shoulder to shoulder with the Ramblers' Association and Flimkien ghal-Ambjent Ahjar". What is more worrying is that Raphael Vassallo has taken on the chant of the "usual government apologists" in questioning whether "Saturday's protest was in fact a genuine environmentalist rally at all" – even though MaltaToday Editor Saviour Balzan had recently commented on the consistency of our message. Instead of commenting favourably on the coming together of all environment NGOs – a worrying line-up for our 'divide and rule' politicians – Raphael Vassallo has played into the hands of politicians who have long tried to undermine NGOs by alleging that they are driven by a political agenda. After hearing this mantra for years from the PN camp, it is now being fielded by the PL bloggers! This comes as no surprise for although 50 years have passed since Independence put an end to military rule, Maltese politicians' drive to retain a monopoly of power has meant that civil society was never given a real voice. However this is changing, as over the last seven years, groups calling for greater democratisation have created a groundswell which is now gaining ground with calls for referenda on key issues. The mutters of once-silent citizens are suddenly being voiced in residents' press conferences. Lack of trust in politicians is prompting sincere questioning of long-held political beliefs and deeprooted change in socio-political dynamics. Therefore Raphael Vassallo's superficially writing off this democratic expression as simply a Maltese tendency to complain is the very opposite that one would expect from a person like him. Maybe he would prefer us to allow the development juggernaut, unremitting traffic, air and noise pollution to roll over our lands while we limit ourselves to writing letters to the papers? Sorry to disappoint but we do not intend quitting just yet. On the plus side that will spare Raphael competition from other armchair critics! Nitpicking about environmentalists The tippling beak The order for the arrest of the Times journalist by Magistrate Carol Peralta was perfectly in line with Peralta's character. Many members of the gowned fraternity seem to mistake their High Bench for the High Horse. I have seen legal eagles fawning upon, if not groveling at, their feet (high up in the courtroom), giving the Average Joe like me the impression that it''s not what they have to say that will resonate with the Mighty One on high, but how they say it. Obsequiousness, apparently, is the order of the day, when not the Rule of (the) Law (Courts). Isn't it high time that something was afoot for those feet, at stratospheric heights, to be brought down a few hundred feet or so, so that their owner, on looking down, does not mistaken those below as a low form of life? There's no question that the beak in question was as serious, and as sober, as a judge. Joe Genovese Birkirkara Astrid Vella, Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar and Alex Vella, Ramblers' Association CLARIFICATION In the editorial of MaltaToday's issue of 22 December, 2013, erroneous reference was made to the presence of Magistrate Francesco Depasquale inside the courtroom of Magistrate Carol Peralta during which a Christmas party was ongoing. The name should have referred to Anton Depasquale, and not Francesco. The error is regretted. of a public transport: it takes normally months of studies to design a public transport system fit for the local environment, and it also requires the involvement of Transport Malta which would certainly have to provide the infrastructure (bus lanes for example). Further to this, the fact that Arriva, one of the most respected and experienced providers of public transport services, has failed to deliver an efficient public transport service in Malta, is certainly not making it very easy to find new companies participating in the tender. And finally, how is that temporary nationalisation of a private public transport company compatible with EU laws? This rather looks to me similar to the case of Air Malta a few years ago, when it required government fund injection to be able to survive. Will the public ever get to know what Arriva actually had proposed to the government to be able to achieve the set targets? The most natural way would just have been for Arriva to file for liquidation and a new call for tender to be issued after a study made by independent transportation professionals, and not burdening a new service provider with an existing oversized bus fleet and work force. Henrik Piski Spokesperson for Digital Society Alternattiva Demokratika The flight of the eagles A flock of sixty eagles in flight must be a majestic sight. A magnificent bird at the peak of its evolutionary cycle. A species millions of years in the making. Such a spectacle was about to grace our shores. It was not to be as these birds were shot at, maimed and decimated by ignorance. Bird hunting in Malta is glorified as culture or even as tradition. To a degree this is true but not for the reasons one might expect. The history of Malta, as that of all other countries, is a dismal tale of conflict, conquest and death. We have the dubious honour of being the most destructive and murderous species on this planet. In a way we can therefore say that slaughter is part of our culture and tradition. We consider ourselves to be civilised and outside of nature and have set up all sorts of institutions and belief systems to justify and support such a deluded thesis. We continue to destroy species after species driving them to extinction. Millions upon millions of years of evolution and creative force brought to nought. This sad and horrendous state of affairs should be obvious to everybody as it is historical fact. Why is it not therefore so obviously known? There is no conspiracy at work here. We simply appear to be unable to learn from history and totally incapable of perceiving any consequence from our actions that is further away than the tip of our nose. By far and large people have little or no knowledge of what has brought about the nations, culture and various economic systems that exist today and control our lives. We blindly follow organised religion, governments and social norms. On the one hand one should take off one's hat to religious organisations that have survived and thrived for 2,500, 2,000 or 1,500 years, just to name three. On the other hand one must surmise that in all these centuries religions have never been sensitive to environmental degradation or the wilful killing of any creature that is not human. Let's move on to governments. Governments do not have any philosophical underpinning to redeem them. Politicians, and the governments they run, are held at ransom by votes. Even if we assume that they are honest and competent, their hands are tied. Their actions are motivated by survival strategies. One is not really going to find any moral compass here. All this happens while the rest of us plod on day after day and week after week and month after month and year after year living with blinkers on, as if in a vacuum, clueless about the past or the future. You would be right to think that we should have learnt something better than this over the 200,000 years that we have trodden this planet upright on two legs. It is not too late to take responsibility for our life, the earth and the countless species that coexist with us on this blue planet. Let us stop now destroying our children's world. David Marinelli Via email Now for the truth game EDITORIAL • 28 DECEMBER 2003 When it was certain, there was jubilation, celebration and mass hysteria. After a gruelling campaign, the democratic will of the people invited the Maltese Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami to the signing ceremony of the EU accession treaty in Athens. It should have been confirmed a month earlier with the referendum result. Yet the puerile interpretation of simple maths by the Opposition Leader Alfred Sant cast the die for the long awaited national elections. After being independent for some 39 odd years, Malta took a deep breath and went in for a long siesta, content that by May 2004 it would become the smallest nation state in the 25-strong European Union. When Malta did wake up it discovered that former ardent eurosceptics Alfred Sant and Union boss Tony Zarb, who had already offered to stand down from their posts, hung on to their reins of power at the very last minute. Thunder finally struck with the declaration that pension reform was a must for the country and not a consideration. As Iraq was invaded by the US/UK axis on the false pretext that Saddam Hussein had been producing weapons of mass destruction, tourist arrivals to Malta continued to nosedive, undeniably putting more strain on the suffering industry. The long hot summer hit Malta, with hoteliers complaining that not enough was being done to support the industry, proving that in their case, the slogan 'there is no such thing as a free meal' apparently has little or no bearing. Dockyard workers were given a golden handshake in early retirement schemes amid consternation from the general public that the government had caved in to the union's demands as the yards' colossal debt amounting to over Lm250 million was written off by government. The economy failed to perform and in November, the 2004 budget revealed the new austerity and reform measures will be characterising Malta's development from now on. By early autumn, the impatient general public was sick and tired of seeing no immediate returns from European Union membership, taking consumer confidence to a new low. Evidently 2003 has not revealed the bigger picture most expected to see, and will wait through next year for the crucial political choices. It will be makeor-break year for many Maltese people, especially for those in industry, big and small businesses alike. This is our brave new world, and we are waiting.