Those Hamalli Men in their Driving Machines

Two op articles this weekend (Josanne Cassar and Mark Anthony Falzon) dealt with noise pollution in Malta and our inability to control any of it. One particular form of noise pollution is a direct result of neanderthals “pimping” their car in order to get a growl out of their silencer presumably to give the energumen driving the car the thrill and feel of driving a car that sounds like an F1 vehicle.

“Hamalli” might be an insufficient classification for this category of not so gentlemen since the thrill of a noisy, fast ride is not limited to that particular class of proto-individual. They are all over the place in Malta – creating the third lane on the coast road, “cruising” along promenades with the equivalent of a nightclub sound system in the place of their back seat and the inevitable paraphernalia of chains and tattoos hanging around or exhibited on a chest covered with a sleeveless shirt. They needn’t even be so osé in their get-up… what is important is that they believe they own the road (and most parking places).

I for one never understood the fixation for big and fast cars in Malta. Your average Peugeot 107 can get you anywhere in time without much problems. I often dream of a fascist, authoritarian law that does away with all cars on the island and allows onlz three models – Smart Size (the more common), Polo Size for small families, and mini vans for public transport. I guess I will only see that kind of thing again on my next visit to Capri but in the meantime, just like the Emissions business, something must be done to curb these bullies of the road.

There’s an email doing the rounds. It’s a pdf presentation about Antony Taliana – the accused in the hit and run case that took a cyclist’s life. Whoever wrote the pdf presentation must have had enough of seeing bullies on the road, must have collated some facebook pictures together and suddenly claims to “make an example” out of Taliana. There is an evident danger of mob vigilantism here that risks deviating our attention from the real danger. Once again it is important that we do not let events run away with us and let justice follow its due course.

If it turns out that our society requires stricter terms and more direct action on perpetrators of driving crimes then maybe we could consider changing the laws in this respect. We might take a lesson or two from US Penal Codes which have long dealt with similar crimes. Whatever the case we must not try to solve a social problem as are driving bullies by creating another one – that of expanding this cult of mob juries that judge and condemn outside the legal system.

Any normal person in his right mind feels angry at what happened to Cliff Micallef. If I had to follow my instincts the punishments for such crimes by the bullies of the road should be maximum (possibly including torture). I am a rational being however and I believe that a just society requires law and order. As I had occasion to state some weeks back: we are servants of the law so that we may be free.