Impressive anecdote of the day (make that ‘week’)
Published:
August 15, 2013 at 6:39pm
here’s a comment which just came in from Ta’ Sapienza:
Last week at Ghadira, my seven-year-old son came up from the sea distressed after a life guard made a scene because he was using a three-foot Lidl plastic dinghy in the swimming zone and ordered him out of the water.
I thought it was related to HIS safety, but the wind was blowing in. I remonstrated, showing the life guard that the lilos and other assorted inflatable animals around were actually much larger.
“You can’t come in here with a boat,” he said. Incredible.
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The life guard was right. What if the Maltese Navy followed in hot pursuit?
How about this then.
I pointed out to a worker sitting next to scaffolding that he was on site without a helmet, with pallets swinging from cranes overhead.
He held up a sandwich to tell me he was on his break.
He meant it.
Could be ‘boat’ parties were right.
The least MTA could do is to teach life guards the difference between a kid’s inflatable boat/lilo and a power boat. I shudder to think what action they will take when faced with an emergency.
Or a RHIB filled with the Law Commissioner, an assistant police commissioner, the MCST chairman, and several businessmen who might need favours.
I know this will be considered off topic, but some days ago I had an argument about the legality or otherwise of the arrival of ‘undocumented’ immigrants. From my point of view the issue was about saving persons in danger of losing their lives.
Anyway, the above anecdote shows what happens when stupid people are empowered to apply or interpret the law. The ‘letter’ of the law becomes paramount over the ‘spirit’ of the law.
The response is simple. It is perfectly legal to enter a country without documentation if you are seeking asylum.
People can’t get their head around that because they on’t never stand the meaning if asylum and the circumstances that drive people to seek it outside their home country.
As always, ignorance of the law is no defense. Not understanding the law doesn’t make it any less legal.
Call The Hof. He’ll teach ’em.
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Good thing this life guard was not on duty at 9a.m. on Sunday, 4 August. He would have passed out when a mechanical shovel ventured over the sand and right across the foreshore to the bewilderment of all present.
Some wise guy had decided that that was a particularly fitting moment to give the beach a clean up.
Am I to understand that you have to be a PL voter to qualify as a lifeguard?
So the lifeguard went by the book and saw a ‘plastic dinghy’ (Ta’ Sapienza’s own wods) as a boat in a swimmers zone!
Maybe s/he made a wrong judgement call, but are all the people posting comments here so always correct when they make their own judgement calls?
[Daphne – You cannot be serious.]
We’re not always correct, but most readers of this blog are not that stupid.
Wrong judgement call?
Just spot the difference and then post your comment again if you really believe it.
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The same thing happened to me, inching a kayak into empty part of Santa Marija Bay, Comino, to pick up my wife and four year old son.
The barely recognisable policeman on station there, having a drink with some guys, made a scene as if I were pulling stunts with a jet-ski.
I had to take my family on board on the jagged rocks at the side, making a deep 3 inch gash in the bottom of my foot in the process. I felt deeply offended because I am sensitive to and respectful of such safety rules.
I would have never have thought, that INCHING really gently, not actually paddling, an unpowered kayak into a bay to be unreasonable. One of the joys of kayaking is beaching somewhere to rest a bit. So much for eco-tourism.