Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/712794
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 JULY 2016 I just laugh when I read in newspapers about old bach- elors in cassocks – and with no sex life – getting hot un- der their clerical collar about the morning-after pill. There would have been no need for this pill if, the night before, the celibate bachelors had not railed against the use of con- doms! John Guillaumier St Julian's Following the hasty concrete layer- ing and reopening of Triq Ghajn Qajjet shortly after Bahrija resi- dents protested against excessive roadwork delays, exasperated Bah- rija residents immediately resumed their commute between Bahrija and Rabat through that road. While driving towards Rabat along this road Wednesday morn- ing, I encountered a deadlock when a construction truck from the op- posite direction navigated through this stretch of road, forcing an elderly driver in the car in front of me to desperately squeeze aside to allow the heavy vehicle to pass. I immediately phoned the Rabat council and queried the absence of mobile traffic lights or traffic wardens directing two-way traffic. The reply was that Transport Malta and not the Rabat council was responsible for mobile traffic lights or wardens to direct traffic and the request could only be communi- cated and not implemented. While driving to Rabat through the same stretch of road Thursday morning I encountered several traffic wardens. To my shock and disgust they were issuing contra- ventions for residents travelling to- wards Bahrija from Rabat. Ambigu- ous one-way signs apparently aimed at motorists travelling into Bahrija from Rabat, were the 'reason' traffic wardens used for issuing the fines. Such signs indicated it is not per- mitted for motorists travelling from Rabat to Bahrija to drive along Triq Ghajn Qajjet 'except for residents'… of where? Together with other Bahrija resi- dents, I immediately took to social media to raise the alarm that hefty fines were being issued and vent frustration at the situation. Seeing our anger, Rabat Mayor Charles Azzopardi promptly stated that the council was not responsible for instructing wardens to issue such traffic fines. Residents quickly pointed out that the wardens themselves stated that it was in fact the council which gave orders, which was once again vehe- mently denied by the mayor. To add insult to injury, Azzopardi scapegoated the ambiguity of the one-way signs by highlighting the problem of access to nature, instead of the extreme inconvenience we residents are facing. He then sug- gested that residents collectively contest the fine, to which a resident had to explain that to take half a day's leave from work to contest the fine is useless assuming that the case would be won. I am requesting the Rabat Local Council, Transport Malta and the Local Enforcement System (LES) to once and for all manage the situa- tion seriously, suspend all contra- ventions issued for the above stated 'reason' and issue a written apology to Bahrija residents for the way the situation was handled. Lee Bugeja Bartolo Bahrija Exasperated Bahrija residents 26 Letters FORMER Air Malta chairman Louis Grech has advised caution against de- picting low-cost carriers as the "holy grail of Maltese tourism", pointing to- wards other structural problems affect- ing the ailing industry such as service, the environment, hospitality and con- sumer interests. In comments to MaltaToday, the La- bour MEP paid tribute to Air Malta as the entity which created the Maltese tourism industry without subsidies and incentives. He warned that any displacement of passengers on just few of its major routes, could easily have a domino effect throughout its network. In the wake of two confidential reports revealed exclusively by this newspaper, the controversial debate over the advent of LCCs to Malta has developed into a stand-off between the national airline and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association. The hoteliers' association said Air Malta cannot "hold hostage" Malta's tourism industry, but the national air- line fears it will lose 50 per cent of its passengers if Ryanair is given the green light to open a six-aircraft base in Mal- ta. Air Malta fears it will have to shed three-quarters of its workforce in such a scenario. While saying that change in the indus- try was inevitable, Grech said it would be "equally futile and myopic to assume that the advent of LCC would prove to be the holy grail of Maltese tourism." His predecessor Joe N. Tabone, also warned against the volatile nature of LCCs. "LCCs operate where there is a profit, which is how heavy discounts can be sustained. To keep tourism viable you cannot depend on a situation where to- day you might expect to fly, and tomor- row no." Grech also warned against the unjus- tified preference of an untested foreign airline, saying all revenues would leak out of the Maltese economy. "A level playing field scenario necessitates that any incentives which are going to the former have also to be provided to the latter." The issue over whether LCCs are to be introduced in Malta or not hangs over the hefty discounts LCCs such as Ryanair and easyJet are demanding from Malta International Airport. The MHRA are proposing that both the pri- vate sector and the government should meet any shortfall between what MIA is ready to offer, and what the carriers are ready to pay. MHRA claim the net benefits of a four-aircraft Ryanair base and two daily routes flown by easyJet will bring in rev- enues of Lm29 million annually, with 800,000 passengers flown in by the two airlines. The association also claims their plan will bring a possible one to 1.5 per cent growth for the economy and Lm3.6 million more towards the VAT coffers. But according to Grech, policy-makers have to be careful not to allow a stake- holder with no "social or economical obligation to the Maltese islands" to dominate the local tourism scene to the detriment of the industry. "Any deci- sion taken will have to take into consid- eration the effects all this would have on the tourism economy as well as on Air Malta and its employees," Grech said. Tabone lamented the weaker represen- tation of the airline abroad, saying traf- fic had been decreasing, partly because of the closure of overseas offices. "It is important that Air Malta continues to be the contributor to tourism it is today. And if it doesn't have the strength to do it, circumstances will be hard. It has to be ready for this sort of competition." Grech also defended the national air- line from criticism that it was not up to the competition from LCCs. "Air Malta has always had competition from some of the strongest international airlines belonging to major alliances. However, the airline has to face new realities, adapt itself to the direct sell phenomenon and make sure that its cost structure permits it to operate in the low yield environ- ment which is prevalent today." Former Air Malta chairman, 'LCCs are no holy grail' 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. 16 July, 2006 Now you see them, now you don't! ARTE is a public Franco-German TV network, a European chan- nel that promotes programming in the areas of culture and the arts renowned for the quality of its documentaries. Late in 2015 it also started subtitling select programmes in English and Span- ish. A few weeks ago it broadcast a documentary which I am sure readers will find fascinating. As a person involved in lan- guages, I was first of all struck by the translations offered by the net- work's various linguistic versions of the French original "Le fin des Chrétiens d'Orient". Spanish was closest with "El fin de los cristianos de Oriente"; in German it was a less ominous "Christen in der arabischen Welt"; while in English it was "The end of Christians in the Middle East" which I felt was more accurate than the original French, or the Spanish or German transla- tions because the programme in fact centred on the Christian disap- pearing act in the Middle East. The basic statistic is quite stark. At the beginning of the twentieth century one in four people in the Middle East was a Christian. At present, on the other hand, they are 11 million in a sea of 320 mil- lion Muslims. An accompanying dossier available on line at http:// info.arte.tv/fr/la-disparition-des- chretiens-le-moyen-orient-face- une-nouvelle-crise gives additional information, showing that over the period 2001-2015 the number of Christians has dropped most dra- matically in Iraq by 59% to 270,000; in Syria by 37% to 1,060,000; and in Egypt by 28% to 4,290,000. Tiny Lebanon, on the other hand, has seen its number of Christians increase by 101% to 1,620,000 as a result of an influx of refugees. Turkey has also received many Syrian refugees and among them there are a number of Christians, but it is unclear from the graphic how many Christians there are there at present, although Tur- key's own Christian communities only amounted to 0.2% of a total population of over 80 million prior to the crisis in Syria. The documentary is a timely reminder that the Middle East is where Christianity was born and it shows a fascinating mosaic: Copts, Chalcedonian Antiochian Ortho- dox, Melkite, Armenian Catholic, Syriac Catholic, Maronite, Chal- dean Catholic, Latin Catholic, Ar- menian Apostolic Church, Syriac Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, Chalaeans, and many others whose ancient pedigree pre-dates anything the West can offer but all have one thing in common: they are all under threat. The documentary is a heart- wrenching testimony of how a God-less West has simply looked away while Christianity is wrenched from its roots. The docu- mentary is available at http://www. arte.tv/guide/en/060824-000-A/ the-end-of-christians-in-the-mid- dle-east?country=MT#xtor=CS1- 38-[july]-[Christians%20 ]-[5000433] until 29 August 2016. Prof. Carmel Vassallo Sliema Not one whimper The censorship reform bill became law on 12 July, 2016. Due to the repeal of the crime of religious vilification, Archbishop Charles Scicluna had declared it diabolical, and more recently several National- ist MPs expressed their deep discomfort with it. Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi went so far as to an- nounce with substantial bom- bast that this was the "most dangerous decision yet" taken by the Labour government. One wonders why in the light of all this, Bill 113 passed its third reading in the House without any vote being taken and with no division being demanded by the Opposition. Is one to conclude that all this distress was for show, and that in the last instance the Bill was not deemed important enough to deserve a principled last stand? Ingram Bondin Front Against Censorship Bachelors against condoms