Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/887355
maltatoday SUNDAY 15 OCTOBER 2017 16 News Operation Programme II – European Structural and Investment Funds 2014 – 2020 "Investing in Human capital to create more opportunities and promote the well- being of society" Project part-financed by the European Social Fund Co-Financing rate: 80% European Union; 20% National Funds OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MINISTRY FOR HEALTH d,D/E/^dZz&KZ,>d,/Es/d^WW>/d/KE^&KZ d,WK^/d/KEK& WZK:dD/E/^dZdKZ &ŽƌƚŚĞ^&&ƵŶĚĞĚWƌŽũĞĐƚ"EKEͲd,E/>^>^dZ/E/E'&KZ ,>d,ZWZ^KEE>"Ͳ^&ϬϮ͘ϬϱϮ ĞƚĂŝůƐĂďŽƵƚƚŚŝƐĐĂůů͕ĂŶĚƌĞůĂƚĞĚĐŽŶĚŝƚŝŽŶƐĂƌĞĂǀĂŝůĂďůĞŽŶƚŚĞ 'ŽǀĞƌŶŵĞŶƚ'ĂnjĞƚƚĞŽĨϭϯ ƚŚ KĐƚŽďĞƌϮϬϭϳ͘ ƉƉůŝĐĂƚŝŽŶƐǁŝůůďĞƌĞĐĞŝǀĞĚzEKd>dZd,E EKKE;EdZ>hZKWEd/DͿK&&Z/zϮϳ ƚŚ KdKZϮϬϭϳ Limiting number of petrol stations could boost use of electric vehicles, expert suggests PAUL COCKS ISSUING no more permits for petrol stations while incentivising the installation of electric charg- ing points in car parks and public spaces could lead to a greater up- take of electric and hybrid vehicle use in Malta, a leading proponent of EV use told MaltaToday. "The government's decision to completely remove registration tax on the importation of electric and hybrid vehicles should also help entice used car dealers to start importing affordable second-hand cars from abroad," he said. Neville Zammit, who holds an MSc in Environmental Econom- ics and is the administrator of the Facebook group Electric Vehicles Malta, said that the new budget measure will mean a reduction of €2,000 to €3,000 on the purchase cost of a new vehicle. "However, passing on this ben- efit to the consumer is still at the discretion of the car importers," he said. In fact, unlike the €8,000 grant already in place and offered by the government to whoever purchases any electric or hybrid vehicle, the new measure – announced in the budget speech for 2018 – does not make it obligatory for importers and dealers to pass on the savings to the purchaser. The prices of the most common electric or hybrid vehicles sold on the local market today start from €7,500 for Twizy, a snazzy quad- ricycle by Renault, to €32,000 for Toyota's Prius, a non-plug-in hy- brid that was launched more than 10 years ago. Zammit said that the new meas- ure notwithstanding, electric and hybrid vehicles are still more ex- pensive than their diesel or petrol counterparts and might still be too expensive for many buyers. "When you factor in the home charger installation, the change in lifestyle required to accommodate occasional charging and other con- siderations, it may still not make sense for much of the population," he said. "However this is changing rapidly with the improvement of battery technology, the spreading of infra- structure and of course the fall in prices." As to whether Malta's infrastruc- ture is geared up for a greater up- take of electric vehicles, Zammit was more optimistic. "Such a modal shift does not hap- pen overnight. Were we ever ready to switch from horse drawn car- riages to cars?" he said. "Slowly but surely we will be getting there and the government is committed to increasing the number of charging stations from today's 100 to around 400 in two years." With Malta now set to discuss a cut-off date for the sale of new pet- rol and diesel vehicles, as many EU and western countries are doing, as well as car manufacturers them- selves, more will need to be done to entice Maltese drivers to switch to electric. As things stand, the uptake so far is hardly anything to call home about. Of the 287,422 passenger vehicles on Maltese roads at the end of June this year, a mere 1,064 were electric or hybrid vehicles, amounting to just 0.37%. And that's considering only pas- senger vehicles. If one were to also take into consideration goods-car- rying vehicles, special-purpose ve- hicles, agricultural vehicles, buses, minibuses, coaches and road trac- tors, that percentage would fall to 0.3%. Zammit acknowledged that, in the past few years, the government had done a lot to financially en- courage the uptake of EVs in Mal- ta. He said that the latest measure announced in the budget boosted government incentives to over €10,000, making Malta's grants one of the highest in the world and on par with those offered in some states in the US and cities in Scan- dinavia. "What can be done better is to stop issuing permits for new petrol stations, and heavily incentivising car parks, work places and super- markets to offer free charging sta- tions," Zammit said. "Businesses can already benefit from a €2,000 grant when installing such parking spots, what it needs is maybe better marketing." The view WE are trained to make stories out of real-life events. On the one hand, this is both an understanda- ble and useful psychological tactic. It stands to reason that the human mind would need to create coher- ent narratives to make sense of the chaos that is life. And stories – be they fictional or factual – have their own rhythms. Reams have been written about how to actually structure and put together a little story, and as I'm typing this right now, tons of as- piring novelists and screenwriters are poring over the likes of Jo- seph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces and Robert McKee's Story in an attempt to give their own burgeoning tales a semblance of dynamism and plausibility that will help to propel them into the wider world, and to survive in an ever-more crowded stratosphere of media overload. On the other hand, however, this desire to create stories that are clear, easy to understand and – often, in the long run – pleasing, can create its own problems too. Because historical narrative is a narrative too, at the end of the day. And shrink-wrapping the complex web of any significant historical episode into what amounts to a "good read" or a repeatable tale for the benefit of local folklore – and in the worst instances, propaganda – can lead us to some unpleasant cul de sacs. Take the Great Siege of Malta. The defeat of the Ottoman in- vasion on Malta in 1565, by the Knights of St John, then led by Jean de la Vallette, is a picture- postcard example of how a his- torical narrative can be distilled for the purposes of patriotic pride, sheer romance and even – at its crudest – a lure for tourists. Part of the reason for this lies, perhaps, with the succinct way its essen- tial elements can be drawn up to be enjoyed – and thus, again, be made repeatable – by all; the broad brushstrokes of it being, 'The for- ty-thousand strong invading force tried to invade Malta but, despite being outnumbered, the Knights and the Maltese defeated them'. And, as if to bolster the story with physical, enduring footnotes, the city of Valletta sprang out of the Siege's ashes; a proud reminder of the victory. Which is to say that the endur- ing appeal of the story is hard to miss, and those without much in- terest in digging much deeper will remain content to revel in this his- torical confection. However, with his new publication, the historian and politician Arnold Cassola has decided to crease this flat narrative with a new weave, in the form of his newly-published book 'Süley- man the Magnificent and Malta 1565: Decisions, Concerns and Consequences', launched earlier this month by Moorone Editore, and marking a return to a topic that has been a source of fascina- tion for myriad historians – Mal- tese, and beyond – as well as Cas- sola himself. This time, however – and as the book's title suggests – the focus takes a hard-left turn from any 'patriotic' triumphalism associ- ated with the Knights of Malta, and shifts the focus on Süleyman the Magnificent... the Ottoman sultan who ordered the Siege of Malta and who, if we're going to go by the superficial reading of the Siege detailed above, stands as the 'villain' of the piece. On the face of it, the effort may sound like a direct affront to the established Great Siege narrative, at least in the eyes of the popular imaginary. But Cassola is quick to quell any suggestion that what he's attempting is some kind of comprehensive rebuttal on the back of this – comparatively slim – 126-page volume. In fact, Cas- sola underlines that his research into the book, conducted un- der some duress in Istanbul, as he chased important but elusive documents across various librar- ies and archives, "only confirmed that Süleyman's invading armada was a very big one... the largest ever invading force to set foot in our country, taking into account the boots on the ground," Cassola says, adding that the difference be- tween his book and that of other "established Western narratives" Politician and historian Arnold Cassola is keen to portray a different side to the Great Siege story. TEODOR RELJIC looks into his latest publication, 'Süleyman the Magnificent and Malta 1565: Decisions, Concerns and Consequences' to discover a different perspective to this defining narrative of Maltese history Süleyman the Magnificent