Personal debts are often created by mobile phone usage in Europe. It is
mainly due to the non-transparency of costs and the myriads of different
prepaid and post paid contracts. Matters got even worse with the
introduction of mobile phone number portability as customers are not
anymore aware of the mobile phone operator they might be calling. The
pricing of calls inside a mobile phone network operator is usually much
cheaper than calling a number of another mobile phone operator.
The situation of prepaid users is even worse as they have absolutely no
control of their spending, they can not review their communication
history as they do not get statements or there is no online statements
available. There have been in the past some sms scam where people have
been invited to reply to a received sms (participation in a lottery for
example) while the reply number was a premium number costing often a few
euros…(actually if you want to invent a system to get very fast rich,
just set up a system like that 
)
So the action I would like to take is to oblige the operators to send a
sms to the client after each call, sms, mms or data connection informing
him about the costs involved in the last service been taken.
Arnold Cassola, Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party Chairperson,
urged banks operating in Malta to pass immediately and without any delay the decrease
of the interest rate straight to their customers.
“The European Central Bank has lowered interests rate for a third consecutive time. However, whilst interest on clients’ savings are immediately decreased, to the advantage of the banks, the interest on mortgage repayments remains what it is for a considerable time. This is unacceptable”, concluded Prof. Cassoa.
“It is very important that in these times of hardship when many families are facing dire straits due to the heavy increase in cost of living over the past twelve months, the reduction of the central base interest is passed to the citizens with a view to having lower monthly repayments for their mortgages.”
“We appeal to the social responsibilities of the banks”, concluded Mochael Briguglio.
Alternattiva Demokrattika – The Green Party is urging the Lotto Gaming Authority to finalize and publish the legislation for video gaming terminals and gaming halls.
Arnold Cassola, Alternattiva Demokratika Chairperson, stated: “While Malta has a well known and internationaly recognized remote gaming legislation, imposing very strict terms and audits on the over 220 gaming companies possessing a gaming licence, Malta has completely failed in imposing similar regulations and controls for its local market”.
Henrik Piski, Alternattiva Demokratika Spokesperson on IT, added: “So far only legislation for the importation of video terminals exists. but none for the running of gaming halls. These halls are spreading out without any control all over the island, even in the very core of our villages. Mepa should not allow any more of these gaming halls to open as long as no legislation is in place”.
Henrik Piski concluded: “The Lotto Gaming Authority is also urged to do an assesment about the existing gaming halls. A freephone for people needing help for their gaming addiction should be made available and displayed in every gaming hall. Gaming addiction is a serious addiction which can well cause strong family tragedies”.
Two of the biggest hurdles for using wind power have been cost and the need for strong winds. A Hong Kong businessman/inventor has found a way to overcome those problems with plastic, bringing the generation cost down to around 1 cent per kilowatt-hour — the cheapest wind power system available on the market.
The inventor, Lucien Gambarota, sought to find a wind energy solution that could be feasible and affordable for remote third world villages and urban settings, where towers are not practical or allowed. The typical wind speed in such settings is between two and seven meters per second.
The return on investment is between three and five years.
“Motorwind power generation starts with 2 m/s wind speed but it starts to be economically viable for winds of at least 4m/s if you are concerned by pay back time.” It can be installable anywhere due to the modularity. The size of Motorwind can be adapted to the available space and the energy required. The design simplicity and components used make the installation and maintenance very easy for anyone. The simplicity allows very low manufacturing costs and therefore very low retail price.”
Further information can be found here:
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:MotorWind:Pastic_Micro_Wind_Turbines
In these times of global recession, where living costs are constantly rising, while the population is facing an uncertain occupation future, while some of the workers are already working on a 4 day week, while this year's government debt increase tripled, it is highly immoral that the ministers running this country attribute them self this impressive salary increase!
