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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 JANUARY 2016 26 Letters News • 15 January 2006 LABOUR deputy leader Charles Mangion has accused MaltaToday of "being in collusion with the PN in character assassination" on his part, when asked about his politi- cal credibility following revelations in this newspaper that he was the notary in the sale of a government property which for months had been criticised by the Malta Labour Party. Mangion was the notary for the Lm10.6 million sale of Pender Place, a government property which the MLP said was an "impulsive sale, done for reasons which have no proper justification." Mangion, the party's finance spokesperson, admitted he was aware he would be notary on the Pender sale three months ahead of the 23 December sale. As late as 25 September, the MLP was claiming Pender Place was be- ing sold to finance a Lm4 million investment into the failed Brindisi port, a government investment in the southern Italian town that had been run to the ground by Brindisi's mayor. Labour leader Alfred Sant himself, whom Mangion says was informed of his role as notary in the sale, had publicly asked back in June whether "some fat cat" (bazuzlu) had been found to buy Pender Place. According to official notary fees, the sale of the Lm10.6 million property covered by a loan on the whole sum would mean a no- tary drawing up such a contract is entitled to Lm37,361 in fees. In September, Alfred Sant said the quick sale of prime site properties "was not a seri- ous way" to finance the government deficit. Sant even said Pender Place and Mercury House, the other St Julians property the gov- ernment was selling, should not be sold "at a time not propitious for such a sale just for Gonzi's government to cover up its own mistakes… that is why, in the national interest, a complete explanation of how and why these properties are being sold is needed urgently." Mangion has told MaltaToday he does not believe his political cred- ibility has suffered for criticising the sale of the government property and later acting as the notary in the trans- action. The question now is whether Man- gion himself believes in the criticism he and the MLP expressed over the sale of Pender Place. When asked whether he would have been pleased had the sale not gone ahead if gov- ernment heeded Labour's criticism, Mangion replied: "so what?" Mangion has accused the Nation- alist media of being unable to dis- tinguish between his professional role and his political work. "I was appointed by my clients who have a right to chose the notary they want. The fact I criticised the government and I keep on criticising the government strongly is a confirmation that my profession and personal interests do not stop me from attending to my political duties in the best way I can…" Labour MP accuses MaltaToday of being in collusion with PN What training in passenger safety? On Mother Teresa's 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. On Tuesday, 12 January, a horren- dous accident was averted in the nick of time. It was around 5pm, on the Msida bus stop for those boarding public transport coming from Valletta and heading in the direction of Birkirkara. As Route Bus 22 pulled in to take on passengers, a sizable throng of some two dozen surged forward and jostled its way to get on board. A handful got on, for it was already crowded to the point that passengers obstructed the driver's vision, sandwiched in as they were between the driver's seat and the automatic doors. Without any warning that he wasn't taking on any more pas- sengers, the driver activated the closing mechanism, with the doors swinging shut and catching, in the process, a foot of one of those attempting to board the bus as no signal was given as to what the driver intended doing. With the man's foot firmly wedged in between the door and the upright post, unseen by the driver for the dozen or so pas- sengers obstructing his view, the stranded passenger with one foot on the bus stop and the other caught in the doors, began franti- cally banging on the doors and screaming to attract the driver's attention just as the bus was about to pull out. What saved the man wasn't his banging or his screaming, but the remaining stranded passengers who happened to be in the driver's line of vision. Hadn't it been for them, Malta Public Transport, hard on the heels of the Portes des Bombes tragedy, would have been in the news again. What is unnerving about this incident is that the driver, without (what one would have assumed was) the customary "Full Up" sig- nal, swung the doors shut despite having a severely degraded field of vision of those he was shutting out. One would have thought the basic training a driver received was to give the "Full Up" signal before pulling out, especially when mobbed by those trying to board his bus. Yes, one would have thought. Joe Genovese Birkirkara Mother Teresa's private letters reveal that her inner life was in turmoil and that she struggled for a long time with religious doubts. Time (August 23, 2007) reported that Mother Ter- esa's "letters, many of them preserved against her wishes, reveal that for the last 50 years of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever. Although perpetually cheery in public, the Teresa of the letters lived in a state of deep and abiding spiritual pain. "In more than 40 commu- nications, she bemoans the torture she is undergoing. She compares the experience to hell, and at one point says it has driven her to doubt the existence of heaven and even of God." In her anguish, Mother Ter- esa drifted from one spiritual director to another. Perhaps she sensed that they had no more idea of God than she did! Time quotes several Catholic priests and theologians who have nothing to offer but platitudes and stock phrases to excuse Mother Teresa's reli- gious doubts. Seeking to preserve her public image, Mother Teresa ordered her private letters to be destroyed. In one of them, she remarks to an adviser: "I spoke as if my very heart was in love with God – tender, personal love. If you were there, you would have said, 'What hypocrisy'!" Time said that Mother Ter- esa was "actually aware of the discrepancy between her inner state and her public demean- our... Her smile, she wrote, was 'a mask'." John Guillaumier St Julian's