Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/444527
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 JANUARY 2015 24 Letters 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 latest U-turn on the rates of eco-taxation for plastic bags is indicative of a symptom which the current administration has made his hallmark. The reversal of the eco-contri- bution rates for plastic bags was not the most earth shattering of news and the issue cannot be compared to many others, more serious, that face us. When Environment Minister George Pul- licino and Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech stood in front of the media Friday they admitted to no mistake, but it is more than clear that somebody, or more than one person, did not do his homework. A legal notice is often introduced secretively is legally binding, but this legal notice in particular was bound to attract attention as it affects us all. The fact that the news of the suddenly higher prices spread like wildfire and had industry up in arms, is a clear indica- tion that people took the issue to heart. While the word on the street was that it was good to tax plastic so as to protect the environment nobody could believe the prices that the legal notice introduced. George Pullicino said it was producers of plastic bags that changed government's plans at the last minute and caused the price of denser and larger bags to shoot up so that large garbage bags would have sold at 76 cents each. Asked whether he consulted with anyone at all Pullicino said that there was consultation with manufacturers of plastic bags. Obviously that was the wrong choice as the result of that consultation was disastrous. But where was the consultation with the constituted bodies, civil society, environ- ment groups and people that could do simple maths and point out that the eco-contribu- tion rates were untenable. Even if there was to be no consultation is it possible that nobody involved in the prepara- tion of the legal notice noticed that not all plastic bags are thin and light weight and that applying a price per kilo would affect differ- ent plastic bags differently. If the announced rates remained in place a supermarket would have faced a bill of Lm760 for 1000 plastic bags and some companies would have faced additional costs in the region of Lm200,000 annually. That proper forward planning is of the essence is something that this government, which is not made up of a bunch of novices, should surely have learned by now. The lack of planning is equally evident in that degradable and bio-degradable bags are not commonly available for people to buy as an alternative to the environmentally unfriendly ones, something that both the ministry re- sponsible for the environment and WasteServ that has been purchasing these bags should have thought of. The recent U-Turn would not be so worrying if it does not follow other simi- lar clumsy handling of decisions including the topical one related to vacation leave, the smoking regulations, Mater Dei, the sleight of hand related to increased electricity prices, the new regulations for bars and restaurants. Dialogue, which was a hallmark of the PN in the eighties has now become something that was and is easily done away with. Having said all that, the decision to change the eco-rates to 6 cents for 'normal' plastic bags, 1 cent for degradable bags and nil for biodegradable is not only a welcome step forward, but should lead to an improvement in the environment and forgetting the few messy days of con- troversy and the confusion people will face when no degradable or biodegradable bags are to be found in supermarkets, the new eco- contribution rates on plastic bags are to be wholeheartedly welcomed. They may well be a feather in the cap of this Administration yet. Bad planning, u-turns and plastic bags EDITORIAL • 9 January 2005 Scoring cheap political points The environment and us I am writing with reference to an article published in your newspaper that quotes Dr Jason Azzopardi, a Nationalist MP, as stating that Dr Joseph Muscat had no right to question the Hibs Football Club's decision to hire a convicted rapist, when he had hired me as a consult- ant to Malta Enterprise. I have always had the greatest respect for Dr Azzopardi's capabilities as an opposition spokesman and a credible and intelligent politician. I am therefore extremely surprised by his correlating me to a convicted rapist. For the past year and a half, I have been the whipping boy of certain sections of the local media which have, sometimes incorrectly, associated me with the introduction of foreign direct investment to Malta. Much has also been made of the fact that 17 years ago I was accused by the World Bank of operating a cartel with other companies on bank-funded projects – an accusation that has never ever. been tested in a court of law, in spite of several attempts made by me. I have no civil or criminal accusations against me in any courts anywhere in the world, and even if I had been convicted of something, by now, after 17 years, the slate would have been wiped clean. Yet in Malta, a country that I consider my home, where I live with my family and from where I run my businesses, I am attacked day in and day out by people like Jason Azzopardi who appear to feel that only they have the wherewithal to bring development to this country. I believe that any legitimate investment in Malta's infrastructure can only lead to an improvement in the quality of life for all of us living on this island, Maltese and non-Maltese alike. The terms on which such development comes is ultimately the responsibility of the government of the day, which rules on the strength of a mandate given to it by the majority of the people. By equating my appointment as a Malta Enterprise consultant with the signing of a convicted rapist by a local football club, Dr Azzopardi is not only insulting a vast majority of his constituents, by trivialising rape and violence against women, but also showing how low he is willing to stoop in order to score cheap political points. Dr Azzopardi claims that the footballer in question, after serving six months in prison, has repaid his debt to society. He is however happy to attack Dr Muscat for authorising my appointment even though the events that I was accused of, took place 17 years ago. Surely what is good for the goose is good for the gander? Shiv Nair St Julian's I don't know if you feel the same as I do, but I am having the subjective perception that our quality of air has seriously degraded during the last few years. Every morning when I drive back from Rabat to Qormi, I can visualise a brown layer of air covering most parts of the island, stretching from Mosta to Naxxar, from Sliema to Marsa. It scares me to think that we all breathe these fumes without much realising it. The other day, I was searching for some figures on air pollution on MEPA's website. It clearly shows that their statistics site has been designed by some IT gurus, showing fancy charts and numbers, without really giving a clear picture. I finally figured out that during eight days in December 2014, the con- centration of nitrogene dioxine and carbon monoxide was clearly above the European Air Quality Standards. Humans can be adversely affected by exposure to air pollutants in ambi- ent air. In response, the European Un- ion has developed an extensive body of legislation which establishes health based standards and objectives for a number of pollutants in air. These rules should all have been transposed to national laws. Air pollution originates from many sources: traffic, electricity generation, combustion. My subjective impres- sion is that traffic is the main reason for the poor quality of air we have. One does not need to have a PhD to realise that the sheer number of cars, trucks and buses contribute to this. I am still amazed that in the times of mankind flying to the moon, col- lecting stones on Mars, the different Maltese governments have failed to introduce an alternative to private transport, that the Maltese still need to rely on their private cars to commute. Despite the privatisation of public transport, the introduction of fancy colored oversized buses, no alternatives have been delivered. My recent bus trip from Qormi to St Julians lasted 100 minutes. Miracles are once again expected from the new public transport operator after the first failed revolution – the Spaniards will bring the "smooth" change. Honestly, I cannot see how: these buses will be once again stuck in traf- fic, thus not being able to respect any schedules and ultimately not being able to convince private car drivers to use public transport. I clearly don't see any vision on transport from the actual govern- ment. I have not seen any public transport policy papers or visions, only monorail studies, bridges and road network extensions. Simple immediate and "free" solu- tions exist to solve road congestion: all dual carriage roads only need to have one lane reserved for public transport, the introduction of heavy fines for drivers using bus lanes, the increase of car taxation and price of petrol to increase the public transport subsidy, and finally let the public bus operator design and operate the net- work without government interven- tion (you surely remember well when Transport Malta people who never travelled by bus imposed the routes on Arriva and on Tumas Group the purchase of clearly oversized buses). I am also failing to see materialise any alternatives to public transport, maybe the introduction of "velo-lib", a bicycle rental system used in many European towns, cheaper collective transports like Uber or car pooling would certainly do the trick. I really hope that I will see the day when my bus trip from Qormi to St Julians will only last a maximum 20 minutes, the bus departing at its scheduled time... Henrik Piski Qormi Way back in May of last year (15 May, 2014) I had quoted Simon Busuttil's words: "Under the Nationalists we were proud to be Maltese. Under the Labour government, one is ashamed to be Maltese". Recently, the leader of the opposi- tion has more or less said the same thing but changed the words. This time Simon Busuttil said: "They have made our country the worst country in the world" ("Ghamluna l-aghar pajjiz fid-dinja") !!! I am sure that no one would be proud to be a citizen of " the worst country in the world ". So Si- mon Busuttil is again showing that he feels ashamed to be a citizen of Malta, which for him is "the worst country of the world " ! Or should we all be ashamed to have such a leader of the opposition? Eddy Privitera Mosta The worst country in the world? The strongest are hardest hit There is an extremely small percent- age of leaders and individuals who are not affected by stress. They worry only when they don't have anything to worry about. However, by far the greatest percentage of leaders and individuals are affected by stress. We have seen throughout history, leaders succumbing to illnesses brought about by stress such as ulcers, strokes and so on. However there are very few leaders and individuals who keep fighting stress and give an order to their subconscious not to allow stress to manifest itself by disabling some organ or other. These leaders and individuals keep going regardless of the enormity of stress and then catastrophe happens, the brain will not be able to resist any more and it breaks and a mental illness develops. So those who succumb to certain mental illnesses are really the strongest as they kept stress from mani- festing itself in some other organ. Therefore we should not look nega- tively at people who suffer from certain mental illnesses. Josephine Gatt-Ciancio Kalkara