Medicine shortage parliamentary committee set for January 16th

Jan 5 2023

The Maltese government has called a parliamentary health committee meeting in regards to the issue of medicine being out-of-stock.

Following pressure the Nationalist Party, which urged that an urgent meeting take place due to patients impacted, the government scheduled a meeting for the 16th of this month to address the issue.

The Opposition claimed however that the date of January 16th is not immediate enough as the issue is not a priority for the government.

This follows a statement by PN MPs and representatives Claudette Buttigieg, Ian Vassallo and Stephen Spiteri saying that a list of specific pharmaceuticals have been out of stock for one time.

These include insulin used by diabetics and eye pressure medicine. On Thursday, Health Minister Chris Fearne said that the shortage was mainly impacting the private sector.

#MaltaDaily

72 year old man grievously injured in Qormi traffic accident

Jan 5 2023

A 72-year-old man resident of Mellieħa was injured at around 1000hrs this morning due to a traffic accident which occurred in Triq L-Imdina, Ħal Qormi.

Preliminary investigations showed that a crash had taken place between a BMW X1 driven by a 34-year-old woman resident of Ħaż-Żebbuġ and a Triumph Speedmaster driven by the victim.

The man was given medical attention on site by a medical team and later transported to Mater Dei Hospital for further care. He was later certified as having suffered grievous injuries.

Police investigations are ongoing.

#MaltaDaily

€1.1 million in LESA fines will be used for 20 locality projects

Jan 5 2023

€1.1 million derived from LESA fines will be implemented to invest into 20 different projects around Malta and Gozo.

For the third consecutive year, LESA will be investing directly into the community through a collaboration with the local councils and Local Council Association.

Over 3 years, more than 60 projects will have been worked on through a total investment of €3.5 million. This was announced during a press conference led by Minister for Home Affairs, Security, Reforms and Equality Byron Camilleri alongside Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government Alison Zerafa Civelli.

The agency will be investing into a number of measures which include: local security; refurbishment of abandoned zones; refurbishment of open spaces; historical refurbishments and; investments into alternative transport among other thing.

Minister Camilleri said that LESA will invest into the community it already serves, with the projects undertaken through the scheme designed to better the citizens living in the localities.

On her part, parliamentary secretary Alison Zerafa Civelli praised the initiative of the local councils for putting forward their ideas and plans in order to help the residents of the regions they were elected to lead.

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The words ‘banished’ for the year 2023 by a university

Jan 5 2023

Every year since 1976, Lake Superior State University issues a compilation of choices of words which are to be banned for the entire year.

Over 1000 everyday terms have been included in this list, with some of them appearing more than once. This time around, the acronym of GOAT, which stands for Greatest Of All Time, has topped the poll.

For the 2023 list, the university judges reviewed over 1,500 submissions before coming up with a top 10. Some of the other words included were: inflection point; gaslighting; quiet quitting; moving forward; amazing; absolutely; does that make sense and irregardless.

Guess it is what it is for these words… oh wait, ‘it is what it is’ has also been included on this ranking. GOAT was deemed to suggest ‘literal impossibility and technical vagueness of this wannabe superlative.’

Words and terms which have suffered ‘bans’ in the past included ‘no worries’, ‘you’re on mute’, ‘vis-a-vis’, ‘I’m like’ and ‘giving 110 percent’.

The university has even copyrighted the concept of its Banished Words List to “uphold, protect, and support excellence in language by encouraging avoidance of words and terms that are overworked, redundant, oxymoronic, clichéd, illogical, nonsensical-and otherwise ineffective, baffling, or irritating”.

#MaltaDaily