People like this should be arrested
Published:
September 13, 2010 at 1:55am
Do the residents of those houses know what’s going on?
Once again, I’m going to have to ask what sort of country this is. The only possible answer is: a completely crackpot one. You can stand in an inhabited area with enough explosives to blow up a fleet of tanks, but God help you if you allow your daughter use your council laptop.
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…and more to the point, do the residents of the houses along the route through which these unstable explosives are transported to the village centre, and the persons inside vehicles moving behind and next to seemingly innocuous vans and trucks ever know of the danger to which their lives and property are being exposed?
Mr or Dr with lots of letters behind you name because that is what it seems you are pointing your finger at others as you if you know a lot ,
in this particular firework factory , fireworks don’t pass from the village centre as they are let off in fields.
[Daphne – ?????]
???
WRITE A QUESTION , IF YOU HAVE ONE NOT JUST SYMBOLS AS IF YOU DIDN’T UNDERSTAND MY ANSWER.
These pictures were uploaded on Facebook by the girlfriend of one of the young men in the photographs. The residential area is Mgarr.
I happen to be one of the people featured in this photo. Although a lot of people might not agree with what we do, I would like to point out that the photo was taken in a fireworks factory that has all the necessary permits.
We also keep a distance which is approved by the law.
I also want to point out that our fireworks are not transported anywhere but are let off from the factory itself.
Jason Paul Grima
9942 1801
Dear Mr Grima
I think that is Daphne’s whole point. Why should such a factory (a veritable time bomb) be given a permit so close to built-up areas?
I believe you when you say that the distance is according to the law. But if – God forbid – your factory were to explode, do you think the blast will respect the spirit and letter of the law?
Even if the law says that the distance has to be x metres, Daphne is asking – if I undestand her correctly – is this a sane country which punishes the use of a laptop but allows firework factories to be so close to inhabited areas?
My frank answer is: NO!
Your factory should be as far as possible from inhabited areas.
Mgarr’s is a small fireworks factory a long way from the houses and not as close as the photos make it seem. As in most cases the fireworks factory was built before the houses. These fireworks are let off in a field nearby and are not transported.
Instead we should be asking why they are giving permission for houses to be built so close, as in the case of the Lija fireworks factory.
They have the permits and necessary licences. Does Daphne have permission to publish these photos on her website. I don’t think so! In fact I know she doesn’t.
[Daphne – I don’t need permission. They’re on line already. I could as easily have uploaded a link to them, but this is easier for my readers.]
Daphne’s point is that the people in these photos should be arrested!
Jason, I am assuming that you are one of the young lads in the above photos. Can you also assure us that all the people in these photos, including yourself, are well trained and licensed to work in the fireworks factory?
Another question, do you think that the young girl posing with one of you next to some fireworks (photo on her Facebook) should really be there?
Do her parents know she frequents the factory? Is it legal too to allow outsiders to come close to these dangerous fireworks? I am only asking as I am genuinely concerned.
At least from what has been reported, it seems that the transported fireworks had nothing to do with the initial explosion. There is a good chance that someone was tampering with the fireworks or else doing something dangerous “that he was used to.”
“Just before that happened, there was a lot of shouting and remonstrations, and a person was heard replying that he was used to such things.”
The Malta Independent on Sunday: 12/09/10
@ mr frank the firework factory has been there since the 1960s. There weren’t any buildings then. There is enough distance required. The firework factory has all the permits and safe distance, now if some one decides to go and build next to it, it’s his problem, but the factory that is in the picture is still safe for the people living next to it as it’s far enough away.
Well isn’t this a surprise? Another person who knows NOTHING about fireworks making a comment about them?
Tell me Daphne? Do you know the law about fireworks? Well one thing is for sure, you know nothing about the law regarding people’s property (the photographs).
Photographs are the property of whoever took the photos no matter where it was published, even if it is on the internet. It’s sort of similar to a moving being shown on TV and you posting that movie on a website for everyone to see. It wasn’t yours to begin with so you have no right to put the photos anyways.
[Daphne – It works like that only with commercial interests, I’m afraid. If people upload their personal photographs on line, the assumption is that they do so because they want as many people as possible to see them. If you don’t want your photographs to appear on other people’s websites, don’t upload them on your own – and better still, stop others taking your picture and uploading it on theirs.]
And you are totally right. This must be a complete crackpot country for someone (yes you) to compare someone letting their daughter use their laptop who is a member of council, to fireworks! I really don’t see the resemblance!
[Daphne – Exactly.]
And how DARE you name the title ‘people like this should be arrested’, it needs to be more like people like you should be arrested. Mostly you have no back up or claim about what took place when the photos were taken. You weren’t there when the photos were taken, and honestly anyone who is posting here going on about ‘oh my goodness how could people carry that amount of explosives’ you all know nothing about working in a fireworks factory, or the laws.
[Daphne – Whatever the laws are, my dear, and whatever the practices, they are clearly hopelessly inadequate because eight workshops have blown up this year alone. So obviously, staying within the law is not enough. And if you want my honest opinion, which you clearly don’t, I cannot for a moment imagine what sort of mother allows her sons to get involved with explosives. They wouldn’t have started at 18, I imagine, and even if they did, it’s still possible at that age to give them the rollicking from hell and put a stop to it. Crazy. Utterly crazy. Those young men who died 10 days ago had been taken by their WHOLLY IRRESPONSIBLE FATHER to his explosives workshop from the age of 10. And his crass unbelievable responsibility, together with their mother’s wet and equally irresponsible inability to stand up to him and put a stop to it, resulted in the destruction of that family. For shame. For shame. If you take heroin and expose your children to it, your children are taken away from you. But if you take your children to play around explosives, that’s fine, and it’s OK to talk about it in the press. I don’t speak ill of the dead ordinarily, but in this case I have to make an exception. Shocking. ]
I do understand that there have been bad accidents as of late, but that’s what they are. ACCIDENTS.
[Daphne – No, Aussie, it’s negligence. The aim of the investigation is not to ascertain how an accident happened but where and how negligence occurred. An accident is, for example, my dog knocking me over and breaking my wrist, or skidding on a patch of oil while driving and then crashing into a wall.]
And the only reason why they have been shed to light and featured, due to the fact that this year they have been pretty big and loud ones. In a job like working for the fireworks factory, it is the only job that has to deal with working with that many explosives. So unfortunately dealing with that many explosives may cause accidents. All workplaces have them!
[Daphne – Haven’t you ever stopped to ask yourself whether our ‘accident’ rate for fireworks manufacturing is normal or astronomical?]
So do us all a favor. Unless you work in a fireworks factory, and you know the laws about them, keep your mouth shut!
[Daphne – I keep my mouth shut, Aussie, about people who kill themselves fall off mountains (and when they leave small children behind for others to care for, I don’t). But I certainly won’t keep my mouth shut about a dangerous activity which puts third parties and their property at risk. If your friends wish to blow themselves, ask them to begin doing so on a stretch of the Sahara desert and leave the rest of us in peace.]
Do you know for a fact that they are putting people’s lives at risk? No, you don’t! The only information you have is from the information you got from photos stolen from another member’s Facebook profile! So you have no proof whatsoever! If you want something real to complain about, how about you warn people how you stole these photos (it may have been you or another person). Make it an article about how easily you got these private photos. And warn people that if you were able to do so, that it is easy for someone else to steal your person photos which you share only for friends.
[Daphne – I think you must have missed the whole Consuelo Herrera episode. Photos downloaded from Facebook are not ‘stolen’. They’re out there in the public domain and you put them there. There is this mistaken assumption that Facebook is private when it is by definition one of the most open and accessible things on the PLANET. If you want photos to be private, keep them on your hard disk, on a CD or in an album at home.]
Back to the topic at hand, if you want these fireworks to be placed in the Sahara desert, then you are also putting people’s lives at risk. As they will be in the middle of nowhere to get any medical attention. So heaven forbid something were to happen, and and not receive any treatment.
[Daphne – Guess what? They needn’t make them in the first place, if they’re not prepared to do it properly.]
And if your only real claim is that fireworks should be made somewhere away from you, how about you pack your bags and move to an island where no one can harm others. Honestly there are more manmade building in any country that could just about everyone. Think of petrol stations? Or for the sake of some places in Malta where some petrol pumps are, an accident could happen, you see that on the news often. Would you like that to be in the middle of the desert as well? How about power plants? All the coal, gas and nuclear power plants? That has enough energy to blow up in much more of a larger volume then any fireworks factory.
So how about you stick to real news, and not just assumed news of fake information that you made up from a Facebook photo.
[Daphne – Fake information? Please don’t tell me that the people in those photos faked them using Photoshop. People like you need to get out a bit more. Fireworks are made all over Europe, and I assume in the rest of the world too. Do workshops explode and kill people with regular monotony? No.]
When I mentioned FAKE information I wasn’t implying that the photos were anyway changed by using PhotoShop, if I had meant that, I would have said it.
What I did imply is that the only information that you ever got is a story you made up from looking at these photos. Have you spoken to anyone who works in a fireworks factory? No I am guessing not. Anyone who works in a fireworks factory or even anyone related to someone working in a fireworks factory knows the real reason why there have been more accidents as of late. And it has nothing to do with the workers and it has nothing to do with the transport. You really need to speak to someone who actually works in one to know the real cause of these accidents. As the workers have been complaining about it for many years now.
[Daphne – Oh, what a mystery. To whom do they speak and complain – certainly not to the press or the investigators because otherwise we would have heard about it. And if you are so well informed, and have spoken to so many of them, I have a suggestion – tell us yourself. After all, you’re anonymous and they can’t come over and stick a couple of petards behind your door.]
They don’t need to make fireworks? Oh come on! The men slave at these fireworks factory for a whole year! They don’t do it for themselves, they do it for everyone!
[Daphne – Please cut the heroics. Most of them do it because it’s a fixation – pyromania.]
They are what make the festas in Malta REAL festas! You can’t tell me that you would enjoy a festa if there weren’t any fireworks!
[Daphne – I don’t enjoy festas. I find them utterly boring and always have done. And I’d choose a film over a fireworks display any day. I can see umpteen fireworks displays from my house throughout the summer. I don’t even bother going outside. The days when people where impressed by ‘magic’ shows of airborne fire are surely over. It’s just that there’s so little else to do in this titchy island that’s why people go. They go to Valletta to walk aimlessly around the streets at night because somebody calls it Notte Bianca, for heaven’s sake. How bored do you have to be to do that.]
Even if you hate fireworks or don’t like the look of them, you should feel proud of yourself that a country as small as Malta can produce such wonderful fireworks. And so proud that men who were born in Malta made them. I know for a fact that if fireworks were coming from another country like China for the feast, you would lose a form of your identity. And that would be a real shame.
[Daphne – Sorry, I must be from a completely different culture. I can’t relate to this sentiment at all.]
And just maybe, if you actually did some research as the assumption information you came up with you would learn that there have been MANY accidents involving fireworks this year. And not just in Malta.
China itself had a major one earlier this year where 19 were found dead, 5 are missing and 153 were injured.
Pakistan: 5 killed several injured.
Pakistan again: 15 injured
Philippines: 8 killed, 43 injure
Holland: 18 killed, 946 injured
Japan: 7 dead, 3 missing & 1 injured
Do your research before you start assuming!
[Daphne – I had done my research. But possibly unlike you I have a maths O level and know what pro rata means. Work it out, and then we’ll talk.]
Irrespective of what I think about fireworks and fireworks factories, one thing that bothers me is the title given to this commentary since ‘People like this should be arrested’ implies that these people are breaking the law and someone is turning a blind eye to it.
If the factory is licensed and the distances stated in the law are being adhered to as Mr Grima states, then the people in the said pictures are not, in fact, breaking any laws. It is therefore not right to imply that they are.
If the point is that the laws are inadequate then that is what one should say. It is not up to these people to change the laws, their role is to obey them, and nothing in your article proves that they are not doing so. The title is misleading, putting the identifiable people in the pictures in bad light for absolutely no valid reason at all.
daphne.
Let me tell you just few worlds ,
You can’t judge other pepole , saying they are criminals.
You can’t say that something is incorrect just because you don’t like it .
As you can’t publish these photos on your blog without permision of the pepole that are on the photo as from what i learnt there is the data protection law more than that you can’t call these persons “criminals” .
You accused those persons , that they should be arrested.
Just as for your information they are all licenced either with a or b licence , so no law has been broken.
Also the fireworks factory is in law and with all permits , if pepole are building more near the factory which isn’t the case , the factory cannot be blaimed .
More than that fireworks which are let off for the village feast are transpoted about 200 meters to the fireing site and they don’t pass through the village but from a field road with care.
Another thing nenu’s family erned there living from fireworks so they were working there not just having fun away from there family.
Also in the art of fireworks you can’t be pushed but its something that’s in you .
so please do us all a favor find a subject that you know about and you have nolige about, before you begin to accuse pepole and blaiming there family,
because you realy showed me that you just shot world without knowing on what you are speaking.
Why should they be arrested?
I was kind of expecting an answer D..
But I’ll reply to your question. Yes, the residents of those houses do know what’s going on. The Mgarr fireworks factory is in the fields and nowhere near those houses. It’s been there since the early ’60s and most of the buildings you see were built after that. Oh, and the big red flag that screams DANGER flapping around on the roof kind of gives it away. True – you can’t see it on the pictures, but I’m sure you must do some research before publishing an article on your blog, right?