Creating Positivity by Lino DeBono

by Gozo News · August 26, 2021

Time changes habits, customs, way of life with different systems from the past. Several are positive and creative whilst others are destructive.

Communications have made some tremendous steps, which for Senior Citizens like me are almost unbelievable. From attaching strings to bottles to talk to each other, now one can communicate with anyone around the whole world instantly and free of charge.

Facebook and other such Apps give people the opportunity to communicate and share their views. Sadly one notes that the majority of the written views are mostly destructive, cruel and negative. So one must simply ask “Are these the real Maltese/Gozitans?” Are we simply becoming a sour and desperate nation, seeing everything and everyone as black, corrupt and inadequate?

Are warring small political sides taking over our daily lives? Because after all one sees only a few groups or individuals who are leading these campaigns. Venomous poison is being spread and many are copying these hate remarks and speeches as their own.

In our Islands we are a very small community and as such we should never ever let our dark sides take over our normal intelligent behaviour.

Public Life

I believe that whoever ventures into the political arena, does so with good intentions. Each and every one has personal ambitions of how to promote and better things in general. On many occasions this cannot be so as the individual’s thoughts and ambitions do not coincide with the Party Policies and Lines.

Any Member who joins a Political Party has and must follow the general rules and policies of the Political Party they have chosen to join. So what must one do? Quit or from inside do something to bring chances that one hopes for? This, my friends can only be done from the inside and not outside any organisation.

So one’s energy must be directed to programmes that one can achieve. Here I will list only a few projections which I believe were and still are beneficial to the local inhabitants.

Horse Racetrack and Stalls Creating Positivity by Lino DeBono In Gozo, especially in Xewkija, Sannat, Xaghra, Nadur and Victoria, there are so many horse enthusiasts who never ever had the opportunity to race their horses at a professional racetrack. So after consulting the Director of Public Works Joe Mizzi, the Architect in charge of Gozo Projects and Dr Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici Prime Minister, it was decided that a professional racetrack was to be built at Tax-Xhajma.

A certain person “Ciantar or Ciangura” from Rabat, Malta, who was an expert, was brought in to see that the racetrack was professionally made and better sloped than that in Malta.

The contract was given to “The Vella Brothers,” one of the best builders of all time in Gozo.

This opportunity also provided Gozitan Dejma and Pioneer personnel the opportunity to cross over to work in Gozo from Malta.

Provision was also made for 68 Horse Stalls to be built so as to enable Maltese horses to cross over to Gozo and compete. Thus many job opportunities were created.

As Chairperson of Gozo Channel Company I proposed and the Board approved, that LM 15 Thousand Maltese Liri spread over 3 years was to be donated to the Racetrack Board for a race similar to the “Mediterranean Race” held at Marsa.

The prize was for LM 5 Thousand Maltese Liri yearly.

What happened instead was that the owners disagreed between themselves, as some wanted this sum to also include “Donkey & Pony” races. This was totally in contrast to what the Gozo Channel Board had agreed too. As the owners never ever reached any agreement, nothing happened and the Board retracted these monies.

Still the Racetrack was eventually finalised and horse races were initiated.

Scramblers Racetrack Creating Positivity by Lino DeBono Through the insistence of the late George Xuereb and his brother Frank, I was informed of how many scrambler enthusiasts were in Gozo with no facilities to practice their sport. So once again together with Arch and Director Joseph Mizzi and the Architect in charge of Gozo Projections (I forget his name at the moment) and of course with the approval of the then Prime Minister, a place also at Tax-Xhajma was found and constructed for this sport.

The first event happened in 1985/6 as shown in photo of Mr Xuereb winning the first race and receiving the Trophy.

Victoria Football ground Creating Positivity by Lino DeBono Football Teams in Victoria didn’t have any training facilities. Others did. So one of my very first insistence’s with my government was to donate a ground to Victoria Hotspurs to manage the ground on behalf of all Victoria Football Teams. This was in 1982.

The Hon Minister of Sports and Public Works agreed with this initiative and crossed over to Gozo to donate the ground near the Bus Terminus to the Secretary of Victoria Hotspurs. I once again must stress that this ground was donated to all Victoria Football Clubs but run by Victoria Hotspurs.

Clay Pigeon Shooting Creating Positivity by Lino DeBono Previously there wasn’t any Shooting Range. A large number of shooting enthusiasts had nowhere to practice their favourite sport. So starting in my case from 1982, my canvassers held shooting competitions in Xewkija as shown in the attached photograph.