Archive for the “Miscellaneous” Category

With the recent public transport strike concluded and the prominence of the event rapidly on its way to becoming little more than just a hazy memory to the forgetful populace, the general flow of things has mostly returned to normal. However the underlying malady that plagues the islands still yet endures.

No, I do not speak of dishonest political entities that dispense eleventh-hour electoral promises that they either have little idea how to fulfil or have little intention of fulfilling to begin with. Neither do I directly speak of the general inefficiency, inadequacy or pricey nature in the service offered by the public transport sector (particularly with certain taxis with the last of these), although both of the aforementioned problems do require address by competent authorities.

The malady that I speak of is ongoing and is fully integrated into our daily lifestyles. It leeches upon our limited resources to an ever-increasing degree… and by this I do not directly refer to wither out fuel-guzzling power stations or the government’s doubling of the very same surcharge that the nationalists succeeded in making the people forget this last election.

I speak of the 280,000-odd registered vehicles that circulate within the second-rate infrastructure of our islands, a catastrophically sad figure if one were to consider it unlikely that the overall population of Maltese individuals capable of or willing to drive exceeds 320,000. Yet upon all levels we fail to realize that more is less. The roads are growing more congested and travel times are growing more lengthy. Seeking parking space is becoming more of a problem and one can occasionally note a faint haze that looks suspiciously like smog hanging over well-traversed low-lying areas such as Regional road in the vicinity of St. Venera.

And in the meantime the government is now speaking of plans to introduce a tram service. In all truth the idea is a good one, in principle, but this greatly depends upon the competence with which it is implemented. Furthermore a tram service is no solution in and of itself, although it is respectable enough as part of any solution, which is why I anticipate this year’s 2nd Valletta conference for sustainable urban transport “towards a new culture” in urban mobility.

While I do not consider myself an expert in the field of transportation I do possess some understanding. Put very simply I am of the belief that I have in my possession the key to Malta’s transportation woes. The problem with my key is that it actually solves the core problem of the issue at hand – dependency – and would entail a degree of economic restructuring that some would not appreciate… but it would solve the issue. In the run-up to the previous election I stated that my goal was to gradually slash the number of registered vehicles in Malta by over 90%.

I do realize that this contribution has been more of both a lament and a tease than a true contribution. It is unfortunate that suspicion should rule within a situation of such great need. I do however take this opportunity to appeal to interested entities to make themselves known as with a collective effort I have reason to believe that we could take over the transportation sector and simultaneously make the islands a much better place to live in.

For many pregnancy is a joy. It is a climatic point within almost any stable and lasting relationship. It represents a continuation of the self, the ultimate union of the partners and the prospect of forming a new branch of the family. For such individuals the news is not only welcome but cause for celebration, neatly fitting in with their imagined prerequisites for their ‘happily ever after’.

However there exist others for whom the news or prospect of pregnancy is not a joy but a fear or a nightmare scenario come to life. For these the prospect of missing a period cycle is a heart-stopping moment, a harbinger of foreboding times ahead and an end even more cataclysmal than the prospect of being seriously gored in an accident. Of course the latter category of persons tend to be young or at the height of their careers, dancing upon the knife’s edge in the game of presumed love.

For such individuals a pregnancy could spell disaster. The loss of one’s job, career and livelihood for the working woman, being abandoned by a deserting boyfriend to face a mountain of responsibility on her own, and I am not even going to get into the psychological anguish in the scenario of the impregnation having been involuntary. For all of these scenarios and more, the pregnancy is akin to a single card within a house of cards suddenly collapsing and bringing the rest down with it.

In the Maltese Islands one of the more prominent support groups goes by the identifier of Gift of Life with Paul Vincenti a lead spokesperson for the group. They strive to socially and psychologically support single mothers, rape victims and other persons who have been less than joyous about having fallen pregnant. Their priority has been the protection and preservation of all new forms of life from conception.

Prominent on the choice front, on the other hand, has been Dr. Emmy Bezzina whose stance from the outset has been the permitting of would-be mothers the choice to abort a pregnancy in order to release themselves of the shackles of circumstance and to regain control of their lives. Of liberal persuasion, he has steadfastly argued in favour of the sanctity of choice for the would-be mother in situations where there exists a conflict of interest.

While these two individuals may regard each other as opponents and perhaps also a threat to their own outlook, it is interesting to note that both individuals genuinely feel that they maintain the moral high-ground over the other, that their rival is unable to or unwilling to understand their own respective viewpoints, and that their opponent’s respective outlooks are in fact a recipe for disaster. However neither individual possesses a monopoly on common sense and it is to be expected that their on-going struggle will be superseded by revelations that neither individual may fully concur with. Both individuals’ contributions are necessary but for as long as they work to each others’ exclusion, life after pregnancy will continue to seem like a grim scenario to the unexpectant.

It is that time of year again. When dozens of students look upon their university result report with dilated eyes upon the spot where an ‘F’ or two offensively blotches the computer screen. The rest of the results, even the ‘A’ s seem to shrink in their presence as hope is sapped from within the student’s very core. A few other students look upon a half-dozen failed units with tear-stained cheeks, contemplating their next job application for chambermaid.

An exaggeration, you might say, but results mean a lot within the university grinder, much more so than the academic levels preceding it. For, as is the case with a number of other universities world-wide (to which this contribution applies equally or more so), the regulations pertaining to resits state that, short of absence for a proven health reason or for some other reason arbitrarily decided to be good enough to justify absence, a student resitting several months later would be able to achieve a mark no greater than 45% of the mark, or a ‘D’ grade respectively. This when it is very clear that the paper being sat for is every bit as challenging as the first sitting session.

In other words it does not matter how good a student ultimately is within a given subject unit, if for any reason whatsoever short of the above reasons that student should fail, be excessively late for or even absent for the first sitting, that student would not only deservingly get an ‘F’ for that sitting but would then effectively be asked to swim with a brick chained to his or her ankles, the resit process severely weighted against success at a stage far more delicate than the  first sitting had been.

This is supposedly done to cut down upon abuse of the system. Yes, a student ‘might’ well decide to shun the final examination in order to brush up his or her grades within other study units but then why not implement a system similar to that of the Matriculation certificate? In other words why not charge a fee for every resit examination sat for? In that way the true abusers would pay without scuttling the chances of those genuinely unable to make the grade for whatever reason.

In case readers are wondering why it would be at all important to allow students to gain a fair grade, kindly reflect upon the following. The difference between a ‘C’ and a ‘D’ can make the difference between a distinction and a merit. The difference can also make the difference between being able to progress to the next academic year or repeating the present one… and it can also make the difference between a student remaining within the game and that student failing the course entirely, effectively meaning that several years of that person’s life have effectively gone to waste.

In the run up to the election the Nationalists lambasted the Labour party’s suggestion of a repeater class and yet they persist in failing to realize that they have been presiding over a repeater system for many years now. For how is one to ‘pass’ through one’s resits if the system sets the student at a disadvantage before they have even sat at the table? Just because other places have such a backwards system in place does not necessitate that the university of Malta is justified in persisting in this folly. The student organizations should take note and make their voices heard because this is every bit as serious a situation as any delay in the release of results.

It is not such a difficult issue to decide upon. What I am calling for, and I believe that other students and representatives should be calling for, is the right of a student to be assessed upon the basis of one’s own performance within a resit session and not upon some medieval dumbed-down mockery of a session intended to see if the quality of that student’s writing is sufficient to make a pass. Dolores Cristina please take note. This issue will come back to haunt you if it is not promptly rectified. The election is no longer at stake but the futures of thousands of students are.