Officially Euro & New Valletta Access
Yesterday Malta received the much awaited official confirmation that it will adopt the euro on 1 January 2008. (For those interested in the details, there are a few more technical steps to go through, but yesterday’s was the announcement that really counted). So, now it’s €-Day minus 7 months and 2 weeks. Although the dual-display of prices is not mandatory until 1 July, an overwhelming amount of the receipts I have come across are already listing the totals in both liri and euros. And I wrote liri, not Maltese liri, because that would be superfluous. People here are always going through the extra trouble of adding that extra word in, when it should be pretty obvious considering that we are in Malta, and that the Italian lira ceased to exist over five years ago so there is no longer any possibility of confusion. But I digress.
As I keep mentioning, I am very excited about the euro changeover. It is a fascinating process to watch. Whenever I get a receipt, I take a moment to make a mental note of the euro total and thus start getting used to how much things will cost. It really is not so hard, considering I have gotten used to liri amounts since I arrived here. Now it will be like the entire country has gone abroad and has to get used to the exchange rate.
The current euro coins and notes do not show Malta, but this will now be rectified. The new euro coins will have to inflate Malta to the same size as Corsica in order for it to be possible to mint the island onto the metal. The new notes will also include Malta, but I have not yet been able to find an example of what it will look like. Cyprus will join Malta in adopting the common currency in January (at least the Republic of Cyprus, from what I understand the northern part will continue to use the New Turkish Lira) but I am not sure how they will work the much bigger island onto the money considering it is very far east and not actually in Europe. France’s overseas departments do show up on euro notes in little boxes, so I am sure that they will come up with a solution.
On completely unrelated news, there is a new traffic scheme to enter Valletta, the capital city. The streets of the capital are very narrow, and main thoroughfare Republic Street is even pedestrian-only for much of its length. Until now, a car needed a special license in order to be allowed to enter the city at all. The car owner paid Lm20/€46.59 per year for this privilege. Now, there is a complex new system called Controlled Vehicle Access, or CVA. I find it a bit troubling, it not scary. Let me illustrate…
Every car that enters Valletta will now have a picture of its number plate taken, and again upon exiting. A computer program then tallies up how long the car was in Valletta and charges the owner accordingly. (At least, I assume it is a computer, for I cannot imagine how many people it would take to do this manually). The first half hour is free, and then the charges start. The goal is to allow people to come into the city for small errands, but to prevent them from taking up a parking space all day. In the meantime, it is hoped that less cars will circulate around the historical streets of the capital.
Is anyone else troubled by this? There is now a record of exactly when you came in and out of Valletta, and how long you were there! It gets even creepier: Valletta residents are exempt from payment. But in order for the car to qualify as a resident, it has to spend 15 nights out of every month parked in Valletta, and a night is defined as at least two consecutive hours between the hours of 1:00am and 5:00am. So if you live in the capital, someone is keeping track of your whereabouts EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! Pardon the cliché, but this is a case of Big Brother is Watching.
