Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Untouchables

Our infamous/famous ex-Prime minister Mintoff will go down in history for a few bad things he is blamed for, and some other great things he did. Not the least being the only person in power to stand up to the untouchable bastards of the country, namely bus drivers.

Our current government, and all legislations before him never had the guts to solve one massive problem that plagues our country. We are cursed with the WORST public service transport on earth.

Why are governments so afraid of minorities? We had the case of the hunters’ minority, for which we had no balls to face ourselves but ran hiding behind the EU. I have to note here that both Labour and Nationalist party took a neutral stand, awaiting for the EU’s long arm of justice to decide for them. With respect to the Public Transport we cannot hide behind any big brother, we have to find our inner strength. This inner strength our current government lacks. He talks a lot and does little, up to election day, when all the imaginable corruption and nepotism takes place.

Who are these bus drivers, and why are they allowed to bully everybody from their clients to the highest authorities?

They are self a employed bunch of illiterate and downright vulgar individuals who are forming a cartel. On what grounds did the government years back give them half the money for buying a new bus? Which self employed individual enjoys the government’s blessing of half of his capital investment?

How can these arrogant people refuse to get in-line with the emission standards?

How are they allowed to smoke while driving when smoking on buses has been forbidden much before the smoking ban in public places went ‘in viguore’?

Our public bus transport service, the only public transport service we have is not only a plague for the locals but is continually giving a bad name to our country with the tourists that visit us. Therefore we are spending millions to attract more tourism, hoping to reach once more the 80’s boom, doing great leaps in taking care of our national heritage and doing nothing to offer a public service that is up to standard.

Last week after returning from abroad my car broke down, and had to use the public transport. I sat right behind the driver. When I purchased the ticket which was 58c he asked me to give him 60! My god what arrogance. Luckily I had all the small change. I then sat behind the driver, because in a bus full of glass and no windows that can be opened it was the only place I could breath some cool air. By the way he did not want to put the air-conditioning on, if it was working at all. Anyways, sitting right behind him I observed how he stole at least 2c from each person by giving the wrong change. A couple of times he managed to steal up to 1euro. At St. Paul’s Bay there is a bus stop next to a pastries shop. This driver stopped the bus there for about 5 minutes until he purchased some snacks, a soft drink and had a chat with the shop owner and the Public Transport Inspector! We then moved slowly slowly towards our destination while he ate and drank to his heart’s desire.

The Maltese public transport is a farce from top to bottom. In no country on earth do people pay the fee upon riding the vehicle for public transport. This system not only gives the drivers room for abuse, but also inhibits the service from ever being on time. It was definitely much more efficient in the old days when there used to be “il-kundittur” issuing tickets.

The Nationalist Government is akin to privatisation. Why does not he privatise our public service and employ the right people for the job?

Indeed, a worse public service is having no public service at all!

Ps: I was asked by my wife who’s not Maltese to write about our crappy public transport service!

1 comments:

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