Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/725667
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER 2016 26 Letters The secretary-general of the Malta Labour Party, Jason Micallef, has de- clared a letter to a newspaper penned by Marsaskala mayor Mario Calleja, expressing anti-immigrant sentiment, does not tally with MLP policy on ir- regular immigrants. Calleja is claiming the letter he penned to The Times on the 24 July, ominously entitled "The Looming Cri- ses", was "not racist". The Labour mayor wrote that "our na- tion, our culture and indeed our race" would face "extinction in a century" due to illegal immigration. "These peo- ple should be sent back to where they come from at once. It is the only way to meet this challenge." Jason Micallef has now told Maltato- day that "any action with regards to Mr Calleja's personal opinion in his letter to The Times will be dealt with inter- nally and through the party's struc- tures" – a measure that still does not pour light over how political parties are dealing with cases of racism amongst their members. The Nationalist party had also claimed it would deal "internally" with the case of a local councillor, also a member of the tourism minister's secretariat, who publicly associated himself with far-right organisation Al- leanza Nazzjonali Repubblikana. A former police officer with 21 years of service, Mario Calleja claimed with MaltaToday that he wrote the letter out of concern for the army and police forces who "would be using their time better" in other areas rather than man- ning immigration centres. "I know of a nurse who was told by a migrant to take care of their boats because the Maltese would need them to get out of the island in the future. That's what spurred me on to write the letter," Calleja claimed. But his spurious letter, in which he freely quotes from the Bible to claim Malta cannot take on migrants, claims that migrants cannot "assimilate" due to their religion, culture and way of life. According to Calleja, there has been no reaction from the Malta Labour Party. "I did not write it in the name of a political party, it's my personal letter, and I don't even think it is a right-wing letter," Calleja said when prompted over whether the letter's contents jarred with Labour's own statements on racism and migration. In his letter, Calleja speculated about how, unlike Maltese migrants who integrated into other societies, "Islamic Africans" could never become Mal- tese, "after even the third and fourth generation". Instead, he advanced the prospect of Maltese themselves becom- ing so-called "Islamic Africans". He also wrote that "many babies are being born generated by illegal im- migrants", leading to "unwanted guests (taking over) the mansion". Calleja said his letter was in not rac- ist, despite his letter's content giving credence to undeniably racist assump- tions. In June, a Nationalist party councillor and member of Minister Francis Zam- mit Dimech's secretariat was publicly denounced by PN director of informa- tion Gordon Pisani for his statements on TV programme Xarabank and his public association with the extremist and xenophobic views of the Alleanza Nazzjonali Republikana. Pisani had said Guillamier's com- ments on live TV to army minister Tony Abela were in conf lict with the PN's beliefs. "The PN is clearly against racism and xenophobia. There is no doubt about it." But Minister Zammit Dimech did not sack Guillaumier, who reportedly told the minister he disassociated himself from all forms of xenophobia, and com- mitted himself not to participate in any public activities in the future without the minister's prior consultation. Zammit Dimech disassociated him- self "absolutely and categorically" from Guillaumier's comments. 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. 10 September, 2006 Lost without rubbish skips in Valletta Dear Mayor: Imagine a Knight's city. Imagine Valletta. Imagine its streets all perfectly proportionate and meeting each other at ninety degrees. Now imagine the people living in it - someone frying an egg; another cutting his hair in front of the mirror; others chat- ting away, and still others throw- ing their garbage in the skip. Now imagine there is no skip anymore and all of a sudden you decide that people are going to start leaving their waste in front of their doorsteps between 1 and 3pm every day. Imagine that they obey you and they do all that, even if they have a full-time job elsewhere and what you are trying to imagine is an oxymoron, but let's say that it happens. You have imagined it so it can happen as a possibility out of infinite pos- sibilities. Then what happens? The garbage collector will pick the garbage up, load it into his truck and leave. Valletta is finally empty of the day-to-day rubbish thanks to your imagination. Because that is what it is: a fan- tasy in your head! What you don't imagine is people not actually doing what you ask them to do, leaving their garbage at night in the open air, attracting all sorts of animals and insects to their not- so-fresh contents anymore. Now imagine the reality. People are people. They are statistics. They are measurable and so is their rubbish. If you expect everyone to do as you imagined then you need to provide tools for unexpected consequences. Skips in Valletta were useful for two reasons. They catered for "noctambules" who were not home between 1 and 3 pm, and for the unexpected too. What is the unexpected? Basically everything that you cannot imagine. A guy walking his dog at midnight and having to make use of a skip for obvious reasons, or a party with friends, where you might want to throw the garbage and percolate of alcohol into a skip rather than letting it sit in your kitchen wait- ing for cockroaches and rats to continue the party themselves. What I am basically trying to say is that skips were invented for a reason. If you think you can do away with them then you need to provide for either a very good reason or an alternative frame of reference with which to measure our lives. Or simply give us the capacity to produce less waste. Give us a tiny mini skip that we can leave outside our doors at night and that no one has interest in stealing. Teach us not to steal. Provide for a better education. Give us some time at least! We are lost without our skips. If you want to change our mentality, how we look at garbage and waste and the environment, then start by educating us to this process. You cannot change people's mentality overnight. Imagining is a very powerful tool but we need to work in a pragmatic way. Otherwise what we imagine will hang there as an indefinite dream, a possibility on other possibilities, and in the meantime practices will not change, and the waste will still sit there, with or without a skip. Abner Fabbro, Via email 'Mayor's racist letter does not tally with policy' – Micallef At the end of a failing justice system How many times have we heard about court cases being deferred over and over, terminated without even taking off, or not instituted because police reports had not been adequately filed? The reasons behind such maladministra- tion are rarely known. For a better understand- ing let's relate this to specific cases. Following potentially-considered criminal activity which took place in November 2015 and after filing a police report, it transpired that the facts as communicated by myself to the police were not included within the report and therefore charges were not issued. After chasing the police and making sure the report was completed, it was communicated that the charges (based on threats and misuse of telecommunications act) were going to be is- sued. In March 2016, I queried with the police about the sittings and was told that the person, against whom the charges were issued, was released since I was not present for the sitting where I had to provide my version of the story. Maladministration 1: I was not present for the sitting since I was not informed about this sitting and the accused was released without a fair hearing, irrespective of whether guilty or not. Who should have informed me and why was I not informed? In parallel to this, for a separate case, the third person being charged was released on the basis that she was not adequately informed. There was no date stamped on the police notification letter. Maladministration 2: Was the person charged, released because of administrative mistakes? Who processed and delivered the notification? Who is to be responsible for such actions and outcomes? All concerned and relevant authorities have been made aware about this case and asked to look into this, questions have been raised, and responsibility has not been shouldered, leaving questions unanswered. With this letter it is being hoped that the ad- ministration takes note, forthcoming sittings are held and relevant related cases are fairly processed and investigated. A follow up letter to this could be published once the cases have been concluded. Alexei Zammit Douglas Hamrun Naxxar trade fair grounds in a dire state I would like to bring to the attention of Naxxar mayor Fatima Deguara and the rest of the locality's councilors, the delete- rious state in which the trade fair area has been left. Weeks have gone by with none of the domestic waste illegally deposited by the football field near Triq Torri tal-Kaptan be- ing collected by the local waste company. Residents in the street have to withstand the stench of the rubbish that has been left for at least eight weeks during the worst summer months, to fester out in the open. Adding insult to injury are the witness accounts of our neighbours, who say they watched Naxxar residents from other areas beyond Pjazza Celsi, depositing their own garbage bags by the trade fair pavement! It is simply an unacceptable situation that has exposed us to the threat of vermin and other stray animals which at night tear gar- bage bags open. I hope this plea will not fall on deaf ears and that come next week, the Naxxar local council will have taken effective action with a general clean up of the trade fair area. Erica Mallia Naxxar