The land of contradictions

The police question the captain of a ship who saved 234 lives, and arraign him on charges that he broke maritime law, and yet a minister and the prime minister’s chief of staff are not even investigated by the police after allegations that have left Malta red-faced with embarrassment.

While foreign cities are working hard to introduce more greenery in their cities, here we are chopping down trees indiscriminately to make more space for bigger roads and to construct new ones on what is now arable land.

We make a big fuss and close part of the beach when a turtle lays eggs there, as has happened in Gnejna this week, but then parliament enacts a law that “gravely weakens the protection of the human embryo at its most vulnerable stage”, as 100 University academics put it.

All over Europe governments are cutting down on their bills by reducing the number of people employed in the civil service, but here the government keeps recruiting people at the taxpayers’ expense and, what’s more, continues to dish out jobs for the boys.

We want the judiciary to appear impartial

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and transparent, and yet former politicians are appointed as judges and others who have links with politicians are given promotions with the result that questions are always raised when judgments are given.

The Planning Authority issues directives for excavation, demolition and construction work not to be carried out during the summer in tourist areas, but reports that this continues to take place while the PA turns a blind eye continue to flow in.

The Planning Authority says it will carry out inspections in a bid to control building irregularities – but it announces it will be doing so six weeks before the exercise starts, giving contractors enough time to put everything in order before the inspectors arrive.

We are planning a revision of policy with regard to petrol stations, but in the meantime permits continue to be given for new ones to be built. By the time the policy is drawn up, there will be no need for more petrol stations.

We do something right, for once, and then go on to spoil it. The Tritoni Square finally gave Valletta the entrance it deserves, and then we go to disfigure it with those kiosks which look like discarded containers.

There is greater awareness on the need to eat healthier food, and yet the number of takeaway outlets serving junk food keeps growing and obesity is increasingly becoming a serious problem.

We all complain about traffic issues and how they have grown exponentially in the past years, and yet we are the first to use a car to travel 200 metres down the road and create further congestion, sometimes by parking illicitly to buy some bread or a bottle of water.

We say that Maltese roads are too narrow and that parking spaces continue to shrink, yet many continue to buy large cars which are difficult to manoeuvre and take so much space (not to mention the selfishness, or the inability to park properly, and so taking up two spaces instead of one).

We keep our homes spotlessly clean, but most of us throw cigarette butts out of car windows, empty snack packets on the ground and dispose of our unwanted rubbish in public places simply because we think that what is public is not ours.

The list is endless.