Forty… fifty… sixty… seventy… Oh, darn there is a 50 kilometre per hour speed limit road sign ahead! My right foot applies pressure down on the break pedal and the next 500 meters of straight downhill is spent quietly plotting against the retarded planner who decided that that particular speed limit was justified. Further up the road one comes across another example of road engineering genius as I do my best to ignore the brightly neon back-illuminated adverts that line the dark road, obscuring the precise location of the concrete wall beside it. Experience and a little bit of luck pulls me through yet again and off I head to another ridiculously slow speed limit.

It never ceases to amaze me just how poor the planning abilities of the road planners can be, nor does it comfort me to know unboisterously that I could do a lot better. On the other hand I have to acknowledge that they have long faced the unenviable task of attempting to cater for a highly disproportionate vehicle ownership density, again thanks to opportunistic mismanagement, which has done nothing to make their task any less complicated.

This is obviously a country where money not only talks but walks, where hypocrisy exists even upon the level of standard road safety. How can a governing party not hide its face in shame when its apparent solution to deteriorating road qualities is similarly deteriorating speed limits? How can such a government land heavily upon drivers unfortunate enough to be caught 5 kilometres an hour over the speed limit in upon a stretch of road insultingly graded as safe up to 50 kilometres an hour? How can such a government apparently ignore the risks that back-illuminated signs can pose to on-coming drivers, drawing their attention off of the road, and then have the cheek to lecture us about the dangers of using a mobile phone while driving? How exactly is this not hypocrisy?

Oh and just to clarify, no I have not as of yet been caught “speeding”. I am a relatively mindful driver and one of the things that I am mindful about is fuel efficiency, not one of the best bed partners of true speed. I have, however, directed the mysterious powers of my admittedly feeble ill-will towards the speed cameras, willing the fuse to blow or for the device to otherwise malfunction. Thus-far results have only proven that my ill-will is indeed feeble, but I still try.

Perhaps if I were to hear that they were being coupled with more safety-orientated rather than profit-orientated speed limits, and perhaps if they were to ‘not’ be contracted via private firms, and perhaps if I were to learn that the monies generated were actually going towards improving the roads rather than private interests, then I might redirect my feeble powers of negativity towards another worthy adversary – perhaps the rust forming on my car’s bonnet or maybe some of the more poorly-designed speed bumps, more than able to rattle one’s suspension at under half the supposed speed limit.

I am of the belief that sports can be a very powerful and positive force within any society. I am also of the belief that the realm of sport should not be confined to the level of the arena concerned. However any force with a great potential for positive influence also has a similarly great potential for abuse and spoliation. Sport is no exception here and one of the greatest challenges facing sports today, for as far as I am concerned, is money.

No I do not refer to the lack of funds, though having some money is certainly a plus for the development of sport. I refer to the potential for corruption attached to money, especially for as far as the interests riding on games and the trading and claiming of players is concerned. Through money the corrupting structures within many sports may be found to be rooted. A secondary source is egotism. We are all too familiar with this later phenomenon although we may not recognize it. Intense rivalries within sports burn on for years and years, through regattas, football tournaments and firework shows. Some of us just need to feel superior to others so as to feel good about ourselves.

While one can understand that competitive sports are… well… competitive, and that it would be foolish to attempt to take the competitiveness out of competition, and while one can also understand that there are always egos at stake during such competitions, there comes a point when the spice within the mix becomes excessive and ruins the lot. Why is it that sports are not well integrated into society for individuals beyond their teenage years? Why is it that sports in the Maltese Islands are so disjointed from each other? Are sports really that alien to each other?

And why, oh why, do local teams persist with importing foreign nationals from abroad? What is the point of, for example, the Filfla team (and lest there actually exists such a team, the reference is a complete coincidence), winning the local leagues if the squad consists of an array of foreigners and naturalized “locals” with the odd real local inserted for good measure? Is that really a win for Filfla? Is this how far local football will stoop so as to make it beyond the World Cup qualifiers? Teams worldwide do it. This should not be taken to mean that it is the natural thing to do. If the Maltese unconsciously feel that they are not up to the task of competing in soccer then perhaps they should perhaps substitute the sport rather than the national identity of the teams dispatched. How about the other kind of football? I am of the understanding that Malta is doing pretty well, without substituting our boys and girls for imports in the process.

Now I am not saying that no foreign nationals should be allowed to play, but I do not think that the importation of players does anything more than serve the egos of the elite cluster behind the team, and perhaps a few die-hard fans who would rather obtain a hollow victory than a respectable defeat.

For those of a slightly nervous disposition I advise to give this particular post a miss. For those of an inclination towards depression, epileptic seizures, cardiac instability, those in need of hope and more, they may also wish to give this post a miss. It is not due to any particularly graphic content but rather due to the high concentration of bitterness and disdain heavily interlaced throughout.

While I would very much like to fill these pages with more positive yet outlandish concepts, I recognize that not only are you as my readership likely unprepared to digest what I might put to your screen with sufficient effectiveness or enjoyment, but we sadly live within a world of plagiarists – and they exist upon all levels and within all fields, both locally and abroad. In this regard I would suggest that we have not come a long way since the early days of old communist Russia where the mere suggestion of doing old things in new ways could potentially lead to one’s downfall. Today we have political parties that would have the people believe that they themselves actually come up with the ideas that they present to us. After all, the electric city taxis came from the blue party’s mystical palm like a rabbit out of a hat. I’ve yet to forget the utter disappointment and anxiety on the face of the person who in quiet desperation claimed to be the true designer. I remain unaware whether he ever got the credit that he deserved but he is a prime refutation to the old adage that the meek shall inherit the earth. No… like ex-communist Russia we have our own ways of dealing with trivialities such as merit. If it floats the party gets the credit (or worse, the party mascot) and if it sinks then the creator is left to carry the can, whether or not it was implemented properly by the master plagiarists to begin with.

It is little wonder that the people fear the parties; vote for all the reds out of fear of the blues and vote for all the blues out of fear of the reds. It is little wonder that the people have been likened to sheep in the past and within this simile one may very well compare the media to the dogs that use energetic or threatening movements and barking to usher the people into the desired pen. The people bleat in protest but not only are they herded every consecutive election but they keep their head ducked low, retaining as low a profile as possible. And of course the Shepherd, with one red glove and one blue, is quite happy to get out the shears and trim the sheep down ever further until there is little left to speak of or until enough sheep bleat in protest. Nothing that a reduction in feed cannot fix, turning the herd against the protesting sheep until they too learn to bleat in a way that the Shepherd likes.

The servants have the masters by the nose. The winter is here and the selfish shepherd is shearing, ensuring a profit for the coming 5 years before releasing them and forgetting them. After all, five years is more than enough for the people to regain their fleece, the people will adapt and look after themselves, and they will forget the suffering that they went through in previous years. They are content that their wool has grown back and so the world is again painted in tints of red and blue. This is exactly what happened with the surcharge in recent years, the “rounding off” of the development zones, the increase in VAT, the departure tax, illegal immigration and a lot lot more, much of which that I probably remain unaware of. The people will again forget and they will be shepherded back into the bi-partisan enclosure come 2013. The sheep will vote for all the nationalists candidates and all the labour candidates alternately, mostly unaware of whom they gave their number 3 to, let alone their number 26. The sheep will choose the glove by which they will be sheared and the shears will be waiting. The shepherd is gloating.

Mobile telephony is a phenomenon that exploded within Malta within the past decade. It rocketed to popularity and, as with any service that is considered of essence to ourselves, we have been moaning about it ever since. First it was the failings in the mobile telephony network infrastructure, then it was the expensive rates – having at one time been relatively amongst the most pricey in Europe, and then there were the pricey roaming rates for calls across boundaries.

Today I would like to add another one to the list – forced consumption. No, no telephony representatives are looming over your shoulder to dial a number or have you dial a number without your consent. I do however speak of the window system that mobile telephony companies use.

A time window is a set period of time. In mobile telephony, such as with GO, for every top-up card you purchase and consume your window is extended by a number of days relative to the value purchased, such as 90 days for a € 5.00 (less VAT) top up card. Should you have a single Euro cent or a thousand Euros stashed within your mobile phone at the end of your window, you lose your right to use your money until you purchase more call value and the consequent time window extension attached to it.

I personally consider it a highly questionable practice for a person to sell a usable product and impose a time-limit for consumption. The effect of the imposition of time-windows is effectively forced consumption as the mobile telephony companies set an invisible line in the sand representing a sales quota. The best way to make a sales quota in the absence of a truly open market is to impose restrictions that require a repeated purchase, which is a little like a car dealer selling you a synthetic fuel that becomes unusable if not topped up by a particular fuel station every few weeks (it is the concept, not the realism, that is important here).

Needless to say any such time window system is an imposition upon any and all individuals who watch the pennies when using a mobile phone, those who avoid using it for anything but emergencies or those who believe that less is more. Certain portions of the elderly could very well be amongst this population of conservative telephony users but any individual who does not feel wealthy enough to splash out on telephony is a candidate to hit this wall straight-on. And then, in the dead of night, when the vehicle sputters out and they reach for the dusty old mobile that they had invested some € 50.00 (less VAT) over the previous years and used very little, when they try to dial a family number to get some assistance the voice on the other side of the line odiously informs them that they either have no credit or their time window has expired. Such individuals are denied access to their own funds within the situations for which that they specifically invested money in it.

Needless to say I urge the telephony companies, both GO and Vodafone, to discard this insidious practice and to, for just once, place the consumers before the profit margin. Ironing out such ethical deficiencies is a lot more important than spamming the SMS in-box with all these special offers of how to save money spending more within one’s window. The responsible penny-savers will thank you for it.

The news carried by the Times of Malta would be interesting if it weren’t so grim. Apparently, after having turned an election around partially on the premise that a vote for Gonzi is a vote for not only stable finances and peace of mind it turns out that our deficit has since swelled to a heart-stopping € 3.4688 billion, which amounts to approximately € 15,000 per working individual, give or take a few thousand depending on how optimistic your view of employment figures is. The Times of Malta also reported that in all of this government spending relative to revenues continues to rise.

OK so it is nothing new. Malta has been running on a deficit for years. This is not what primarily concerns me about the news, though I would like to see the deficit disappear. What I cannot understand is how all this fits into Lawrence Gonzi’s pre-election vision to reduce the deficit to within European Union standards? How does this fit with his campaigning on the ticket of financial stability and peace of mind? Is it possible that he does not have a clue, even as recent finance minister, about what is going on for as far as the economy of the country he is leading is concerned?

Either way it is clear that the Maltese Islands are slowly but surely becoming further mired within a swamp of debt. It is also just another example of the dishonesty of Nationalist campaigning during the election. Why is it that roses always wither into ashes after the outcome of any election is decided and known?

Actually, let me take this opportunity to tell you why. But first a few more questions. Why is it that the electricity surcharge was all but forgotten in the last election? Why is it that the number of illegal immigrants entering the Maltese Islands decreased sharply in 2007? Why is it that the privatization drive slowed prior to the election and now we seem to be back on the privatization track (with the recent strike being a direct result of it – cause and effect)?

What if it was all tied in with an electoral effort? What if our political elite are intentionally placing the Islands through a 3-year lean period so as to cover their tracks in the run-up to the election? What if the population is gullible enough to fall for it? Would this not explain the roller-coaster ride that is the Maltese economy, so intricately tied in with the political calender?

The question on my mind is, why should the Maltese people, so clearly deceived, put up with such a government? Why should the people not take a stand and tell the Nationalist government where to shove their new-found post-electoral deficit and surcharge and demand their right to reconsider their votes cast in a fog of lies? Are the people afraid of their servant, the government?

Not too long ago there existed muted controversy over the pipes that dispel semi-treated human sewage into the sea. As with all such controversies, once the shores were officially declared safe enough for swimming the simmering outrage subsided and today the issue is practically all but forgotten, buried beneath other more contemporary issues. However the pipes continue to spew sewage and while the quality of treatment of the sewage may have improved it remains sewage.

Of course even such treated slurry has its effects upon the environment. Certain kinds of sea vegetation, upon which both desirable and undesirable fish may feed, thrive upon any opportunity for a ‘nutrient-rich’ zone, and certain bays make for perfect examples. The full effects of such artificial enrichment of sectors of sub-aquatic Malta are unlikely to be fully appreciated by the public for many years to come. After all, being a small set of islands we have the blessing of having our poor environmental choices shunted wherever the winds and the waves dictate.

However upon a different level the choice of the Maltese Islands to literally waste tonnes of sewage every day is a choice of incredible stupidity. While a Swiss city with one quarter the population of Malta worries about producing enough cow excrement to generate alternative fuel, we of the Maltese Islands appear to feel that we are wealthy enough to toss our excrement into the sea, not only soiling our chances of using it as an energy source but also soiling the “Sun and Sea” tourism life-line that the Malta Tourism Authority seems stuck on (which is every bit as reductionist in nature as some males’ demeaning perspectives of the female).

In Malta we have a population of 400,000-odd persons. That represents 400,000 individuals each using the sewage system several times a day. We currently throw the vast majority of it all into our seas.

Why do we do it? Biomass is by no means a new energy and has been used successfully in much cooler countries, just as solar panels have and, unlike the use of crops to directly make fuel, this is not nearly so great a threat to world food supplies. Why does the Nationalist government persist in dogging every effort to introduce alternative energy sources? Not only do ministers state that it is more expensive than exponentially pricey fossil-fuels but when a foreign company expresses interest to open an alternative energy laboratory in Malta the initiative goes up in smoke! Also, why is the Nationalist government hedging its bets with a highly expensive form of alternative energy (an offshore wind farm) which I honestly doubt they are capable of maintaining in good repair?

Could it be possible that spending a bomb upon another inadequate white elephant would pave the way to future excuses not to introduce further alternative energy? In other words could it be a case of yielding a foot to save a yard for as far as oil interests are concerned? Is it possible that the oil gurus have dipped their fingers into the pockets of Maltese politicians? Would this have anything at all to do with the redoubled efforts in “oil-exploration”? Sometimes I seriously do wonder whose interests the politicians, the supposed servants (’not’ masters) of the people, are safeguarding…

Well this is a right mess. The transportation workers have decided to go on strike, possibly inspired somewhat by their counterparts in Europe. Busy roads came to a standstill, the city was besieged and the shopkeepers felt rather lonesome. Tempers flared and acts of aggression, intimidation and vandalism took place in the presence of locals and tourists alike and many opted, voluntarily or otherwise, to remain at home.

I am of two minds about the strike. While on the one hand I despise the fact that the transport workers took their protests to the general public, their peers and also the tourists whom we owe a happy holiday (lest we forget that they actually pay to visit the Islands), and while I do not feel that the liberalization of the hearse sector warranted anything of this sort, I have heard rumours that the Nationalist government had offered promises not to liberalize the transportation sector during the election’s eleventh hour. It seems that the transportation drivers are in possession of a letter signed by Mugliett supporting this claim… and I personally do not take kindly to deceit or broken electoral promises. If this claim is indeed true then it would be more than safe to say that the wrong party is in power today, having won an election upon the wings of deceit and misinformation. If true then Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi should both call an investigation and either relinquish a seat to the Opposition in the spirit of stepping up to the plate of accountability or, if he would like to continue dancing the ballad of unaccountability, call for a vote of confidence.

However… a few comments about the Government’s handling of the protest. I am of the opinion that the daily slash in subsidies was an extremely efficient if slightly heavy-handed approach to seek to end it. The setting up of alternative forms of transportation was also commendable, even if it has hit a number of speed bumps due to resistance. While I also commend the initiative to set up an alternative taxi service for chauffeur-driven vehicles I would suggest that € 15 is a ludicrous price for any but the longest journeys upon the Islands, and is in fact a step backwards.

Lastly I would like to point out the obvious. Any situation where drivers own the vehicles is a situation where drivers likewise have a lot of clout. If one were to remove this privilege then the driver would no longer have the protest dynamic of a small entrepreneur but of a regular employee. Hence it would only be a matter of hiring replacements on a short term basis until resolution.