Reflections of a World Citizen

Building Bridges

2011-12-25T12:48:00.002+01:00

Ever since I was a child, I have always considered the Christmas season as a time of the year during which we ought to display our best qualities as human beings. Throughout the year, many people often end up burying themselves in their own personal matters without paying much attention to the community or the world they live in. Furthermore, there is little doubt that ignorance, misunderstandings, and various prejudices frequently lead to a degree of hostility or indifference when it comes to several relationships. As an imperfect human being, I am not immune from making mistakes, but the Christmas season serves as a reminder that I could do more for the community I live in. That I could start talking to a person once again in order to replace anger or ignorance with empathy and care or friendship.

Last Friday, I was contacted by one of my North Korean friends. Following the recent loss of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) much-admired Leader - Kim Jong Il - my friend invited me to meet him and some other friends to express our condolences formally. I did not hesitate. He picked me up from Ta' Xbiex and we went to an apartment in Qawra. Inside this barely-furnished apartment, there was a room with a portrait of Kim Jong Il hanging on the wall. Below the portrait, there were some beautiful flowers and wreaths displaying messages in Korean. Two young men stood guard on each side. A small video camera was recording the whole event. After bowing in front of the portrait (the Korean way of showing respect), I signed the visitor's book. We then went to have dinner at a restaurant in Ta' Xbiex.

Although I had already witnessed the generosity of my North Korean friends over the past year or so, I was impressed when they told me that they wanted to pay for my dinner. Even though they were not drinking any alcohol due to the mourning period, they insisted on buying a small bottle of wine for me. One of my friends even told me to order anything I wanted since they wanted to see me happy. They even gave me a number of gifts (see the photo above). Many of the gifts are DVDs from the DPRK. One of them is a movie (The Kites Flying in the Sky) with English subtitles. Such items are extremely hard to find outside the DPRK and I was so grateful for the fact that they showered me with such nice things!

During the few hours that we spent together, we talked about many topics. We exchanged our views on religion, the huge food portions served in many restaurants in Malta, illegal immigration, and other issues.

As I had dinner with my friends from the DPRK, I thought about all the negative things that are said about the country and its people. I thought about all the hatred that is directed against the DPRK. And I wondered about how much better this world would be if more people replaced their ignorance and hatred with knowledge and care.

On this Christmas Day, I encourage people all over the world to look at each other as part of a single family. Although each person and each government has their flaws, let us focus our energies on making positive differences. Let us sow peace and unity rather than hatred and division. Let us engage in building bridges rather than burning them!

Merry Christmas to All!

The Church

2011-11-05T16:17:00.000+01:00

The Human Family

Whenever the word "Church" is used, many people tend to associate it with a particular building or with a specific organisation. As far as buildings are concerned, there are several beautiful churches around the world. When it comes to organisations, there are also numerous ones such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and so on. Although the term "Church" could certainly refer to an architectural wonder or to a group of people, I prefer to go beyond these definitions.

To me, the Church consists of ALL human beings. Put differently, I consider the Church to be made up of the huge human family that includes all the people who have ever lived, are presently living, and even future generations. And yes...the human family or the Church is not limited to a group of individuals who gather in the same building every Sunday or who recite a particular set of prayers; prison inmates, athiests, agnostics, alcoholics, and suicide bombers, to mention just a few groups of people, are also members of the Church.

Us Versus Them

In view of the definition given above, a person cannot join or leave the human family. Regardless of what one says or does, they will always remain a member of such a family. Seen this way, the Church cannot be regarded as, say, a football club or a political party.

Throughout history, one could observe a tendency to carve the human species up into various groups. Each group would typically have a number of rules. The failure to comply with some or all of the latter would normally result in the suspension or even expulsion of the person who strays. In several organisations, the rules are laid down by a handful of individuals who are conditioned by the socioeconomic circumstances they live in. Once the rules are established, any person who questions them usually risks facing various types of threats. In many organisations, there is such a degree of fear of losing certain benefits or of being humiliated that numerous members resort to adopting a publicly conformist attitude whereby they avoid upsetting the status quo, even though their hearts might be tormented by countless doubts.

Over time, several groups pride themselves on being better than others. In some cases, a group can become so exclusive that any prospective new members are scrutinised very carefully prior to being allowed to join the organisation. Such behaviour leads to an us-versus-them mentality. It is hard to consider the latter as particularly beneficial to society because it usually encourages the creation of numerous stereotypes about all those people who do not belong to the same organisation. Furthermore, the division of human beings between those who are "with us" and those who are "against us" could also be said to contribute to a shocking degree of indifference towards all those who are perceived as outsiders.

Building Bridges

The world is made up of countless organisations. Although some are more inclusive than others, even those that stress the importance of peace and love in the world can generally be fairly hostile towards certain individuals. The us-versus-them mentality could still be witnessed in such organisations.

If one had to look at, say, various Evangelical Christian organisations, even if many of them might be working hard to combat various social problems such as drug addiction or alcoholism, most of these groups can be extremely harsh when it comes to anyone who does not express an interest in sharing their beliefs. Just to mention one example, a typical Evangelical Christian could easily say that since an atheist refuses to believe in God, they will suffer for eternity in Hell.

On the basis of what I have read about Jesus and in the light of how the Church was defined at the beginning of this article, the world would be a much better place if people tried to build bridges rather than burn them as a result of ignorance, fear or insecurity. If I am a true follower of Jesus, I must consider all other human beings as my brothers and sisters. I cannot see much love coming out of withdrawing love from other people simply because they are Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, and so on.

The Importance of Love

As atheism and certain lifestyles appear to become increasingly popular in many parts of the Western world, simply labelling people as sinners or as infidels and threatening them with an eternity of suffering does not strike me as a response that is characterised by love. Furthermore, the effectiveness of such labels and fear tactics is highly questionable nowadays. In a world that is largely obsessed with instant gratification and with things that can be seen and measured, simply talking about one's "spiritual destination" following death is clearly not filling up the churches or leading to more people deciding to base their lives on the teachings of Jesus.

Moreover, I am always puzzled by how several individuals who describe themselves as Christian appear to feel comfortable when talking about the possibility of millions of human beings ending up in a place of eternal torment for one reason or another. I believe that true love can never rejoice at another person's suffering.

When a family member does something wrong, provided that there is true love, the other members might feel hurt or angry when contemplating the consequences of the act, but they would not desire any harm to befall that person. They would actually want to do everything possible to help the latter become a better individual. As far as I am concerned, if I were in Heaven, I would not be happy until I was sure that every other human brother and sister who has ever lived is also there to live as happily as possible, cured of all those things that drive people to harm themselves or others.

Fr. Mark Montebello on Xarabank 22-01-10 - Part 2

2011-10-31T19:51:00.000+01:00

Gaddafi's Death

2011-10-31T17:22:00.004+01:00

When I saw the first image of Gaddafi with blood splattered all over his face, I was shocked. When I watched the news footage of him dead only a few moments after his capture, I was disgusted. Although he was clearly hated by the rebels, I was hoping that in the case of capture, he would have been kept alive in order to be able to give his side of the story during a fair trial.

Some parties have argued that Gaddafi died as a result of cross-fire between his supporters and the rebels. I am more inclined to believe that he was executed.

I have been against capital punishment and also against the notion of revenge for as long as I can remember. Regardless of all the crimes that Gaddafi may have committed, I do not believe that he should have been beaten and killed. If it is true that human rights are universal, they cannot only be safeguarded for the people that we like.

Notwithstanding the ongoing demonisation of Gaddafi in many parts of the world, I was surprised to come across several pro-Gaddafi comments on YouTube that are rarely given any attention in the mainstream media. Some of them are featured below:

"Colonel Gaddafi, the world will miss you. You were an international symbol of defiance and a tower of strength in your support for the weak with your magnanimity. The wise will see through the mire of all the smear, lies and propaganda that the West has directed at you." - GlassSeagull

"I cried for this man I'm 26 yrs old male and I curse every single american and pro-american who supports their government a.k.a the biggest terrorist country on the planet EARTH!!! What did he do to deserve this? R.I.P. Gaddafi you are a HERO!!!!" - HulkHooligann

"you will go to heaven oh great king!!!!" - oaxacaismo

"They just kill body, not his soul....." - lelemdronik

"it is funny how the western media never interview the people who support Gaddafi. Always on the TV they have the people who hate him. When even we in the west KNOW he has loads of Libyan supporters." - girlznguitarz

Some food for thought!

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A Letter to Kikko

2011-10-18T19:38:00.004+02:00

Dear Kikko,

When I woke up this morning, I was hoping you would jump onto the bed as usual so that I could stroke you while you purred. You used to make me laugh when you would raise your paw for me to continue stroking you whenever I stopped doing so. I looked at your small bed, but it was empty. I waited to hear your "good morning" cry, but there was only silence.

When I went to prepare my coffee, I saw your favourite food bowl. Do you remember how you would start jumping as soon as I touched it? Do you remember how happy you used to be whenever I gave you one of those special treats? I looked at the bowl, remembering how Wendy and I smiled joyfully as we saw you eating from it last Saturday. The bowl is still there, waiting for you...

When I returned home today, I did not find you waiting for me just behind the door. I was greeted by silence. A silence pregnant with pain.

I saw the water fountain we had bought for you. How you loved drinking from it! And all the small toys scattered all over the place!

I will start cooking soon, but you will not be there sitting next to me. You remember how naughty you were whenever I had some chicken on the table? Always trying to steal a piece?

I feel so bad that I was unable to do anything more to save you! When I took you to the vet yesterday afternoon, he told me that you were slipping away and that there was no real hope of survival. I hope that you still remember me next to you at the clinic, stroking your magnificent coat, as death edged closer to take you away from me. How I resisted the tears during those last few minutes! How I wanted to cry as I tried to imagine life without you!

I entered the vet's office with a cage, but I left with just the towel you were sleeping on. I still remember the expression of the man who had allowed me to enter before him due to the urgency of your condition. When he saw me leaving the office with the towel, he gave me a supporting hug.

As I walked back home, the tears just started streaming down my cheeks uncontrollably. I had not felt such a degree of pain since the day I had seen my mom's lifeless body at Boffa Hospital in 2006.

Dear Kikko, I hope that you are now happy in Heaven. I hope that you met your brother, Carlo, again and that you are now playing with each other. I hope that my mother was also there to stroke and comfort you; to tell you that we are missing you so much!!!!

I just pray that shortly after I take my last breath on Earth, you will be there to greet me. I pray that you will be purring there. And I pray that nothing will ever separate us again.

Camouflaged Dictatorships

2011-09-04T17:26:00.003+02:00

Nowadays, it has become extremely fashionable to write and talk in favour of democracy. The Western media hardly ever stops showing interviews and pumping out articles about the importance of democracy. Dictatorships are frowned upon. And there appears to be a growing aversion towards any person or structure perceived as a symbol of authority.

Although I am in favour of societies whereby people are given the opportunity to bring about various positive changes through campaigns and other initiatives, I am quite perplexed by the general tendency to support democracy only within a strictly political framework. In other words, I cannot understand how the thousands of people who would even risk their lives to have the opportunity to say certain things seem to fail miserably at extending the notion of democracy to other settings such as the workplace.

Even though we live in the 21st century and even though many countries have adopted multi-party political systems, it is quite shocking to see how dictatorships - as a way of organising several human activities - are still extremely widespread in those countries that usually describe themselves as fully democratic. Taking the Western world as an example, if one goes beyond appearances and marketing propaganda, the typical workplace could easily be viewed as a dictatorial structure.

Before analysing the nature of the average workplace in a capitalist country, it might be a good idea to examine what usually occurs in the case of most dictatorships. In order to simplify matters and to avoid being too academic, it seems possible to say that there are usually four groups of people within a dictatorship.

The first group includes the leadership clan. The latter determines the objectives that need to be achieved by the masses and is the one that will benefit most from the current state of affairs. The leadership clan tends to shun bottom-up communication or consultation and any thought that does not fall in line with its aims is frequently perceived as a threat that must be neutralised.

The second group contains the enforcers. These are the people who will usually go to fairly extreme lengths to support as well as defend the leadership clan. These individuals will often attempt to emulate their leaders and resent any criticism. Their loyalty is not always motivated by the material rewards they receive from the leadership clan; the belief that they are important and loved by the leadership group could also forge very strong bonds even if few possessions are given to them.

The third group consists of the silent conformists. In a typical dictatorship, this would be the biggest group. It is made up of the hundreds of thousands of individuals who come to believe that any attempt to change things drastically is extremely dangerous and that it is, therefore, safer to go along with the flow and to do whatever is expected of oneself. Although many people within this group might secretly want a change or might even detest the leadership clan together with the enforcers, any criticism is normally expressed very discreetly.

The last group includes the rebels. These are the people who cannot endure various abuses and unfair pratices any longer. They are the individuals who will attempt to organise resistance movements or organisations with the hope of struggling against the dictatorship. If detected or identified, they could face terrible consequences. They are usually aware of such dangers, but they are strongly committed to their visions of a better future.

It is now time to apply the above to the typical capitalist workplace. To what extent could the latter be regarded as a dictatorship? Although it is said that an increasing number of companies is becoming less vertical when it comes to organisational structure, this does not mean that they have necessarily become more democratic. In many situations, regardless of whether there is one or more supervisors/managers, the entire workforce is there to achieve the objectives laid down by the shareholders (the leaders): to maximise profit and to minimise costs. In several large companies, the shareholders would rarely know much about their workforces and their interest in the well-being of the employees would usually be limited to productivity issues. In other words, many shareholders would often only show an interest in their employees provided that the money is rolling in. If an employee succumbs to, say, a mental illness, a shareholder would usually pay more attention to finding a quick replacement for that person rather than spending money to ensure that the employee receives the best possible treatment.

Given that the leaders are not always around, a network of enforcers is absolutely essential to ensure that the objectives are obtained and that any resistance is crushed. Within a workplace context, although the enforcers would normally be the managers or the supervisors, there is almost always a small group of individuals who believe that they are special within the organisation and who would provide information about the behaviour of any employees who might not be toeing the line.

Most employees normally play the role of silent conformists. They might grumble and complain about the company with other employees who share the same rank or who could even be a rung or two below them, but they would usually be too scared to rock the boat. These individuals tend to be terribly scared of unemployment given that the income they receive from the job might be supporting a family or going to several creditors. Their loyalty is based on fear and if a better opportunity appears, they would not be scared to move.

The rebels are typically described by the shareholders and by the enforcers as the pessimistic, negative employees. Although there are people who seem to be hell-bent on complaining against virtually everything, the rebels are not to be confused with them. In an average company, the rebel could be that employee who is tired of earning less than a person with fewer responsibilities. It could be the employee who does not want to end up working on week-ends or on public holidays as a result of the company's decision to assign the work that would ordinarily be done by three people to one person. It could be the person who is tired of the lack of respect shown by an autocratic manager.

In view of the above, it seems pretty obvious that most workplaces function as dictatorships. They are, however, camouflaged by all the fancy websites and management guru books that portray the typical capitalist workplace as a sort of college that serves to mould human beings in such ways that they become better citizens. The typical capitalist workplace might be generating more productive people, but that does not mean that more harmonious societies are being created. Sadly, in countless workplaces, the main focus is on the self - devoting more of one's life to earning more money for oneself without paying much attention to the welfare of other human beings who might not be contributing to one's wealth and happiness. In such an atmosphere, other people are regularly perceived as rivals and not as partners in creating a better world.

Many politicians might boast about how democratic their countries are, but this article clearly shows that multiple dictatorships still exist within those countries. Even though some people would say that an unhappy employee is free to move to another company, such a move is normally from one dictatorship to another.

Some people might say that contrary to political dictatorships, a typical employer would not throw someone into prison or torture them. Well, when an employee cannot really move quickly to another workplace, that person could feel imprisoned. Furthermore, the anguish felt by many employees when faced with certain conditions could be regarded as a form of torture.

When will there be a serious effort to put an end to all forms of oppression? When will there be more structures that allow human beings to live decently without having to compete against one another? When will the members of a society be regarded as equal partners rather than being divided according to whether they are employers or employees?

A Few Days in Florence

2011-06-15T11:12:00.006+02:00

Following my return to Malta from Florence (Italy) yesterday afternoon, I kept thinking about the many differences that exist between Malta and most - if not all - of the other European countries. I am not referring only to culinary or to architectural differences; I am also talking about intellectual differences.

During the few days that I spent in Florence, I noticed that there were several bookshops that remained open until around 10pm. In Malta, most shops close at 7pm. The longer opening times of the Florentine bookshops fits perfectly well with the modern reality of countless individuals who might only have some free time to go book-shopping later on in the evening, after 7pm.

The bookshops that I saw in Florence dwarfed the ones in Malta. Indeed, there was so much to see that it was quite tempting to spend an hour or more just going through numerous books! The shops even had small seats so that customers could simply relax a bit whilst leafing through the pages of a chosen book.

Two other points that struck me were the books published by Italian academics regarding current events and the books about certain controversial issues. Starting with the first point, I was amazed to see that even though the fighting in Libya erupted only a few months ago, some Italian university lecturers have already published works focusing on the ongoing conflict and on the relationship between Libya and Italy. To my knowledge, not a single book has been written lately by a Maltese academic about the relationship between Malta and Libya. I have not seen a single book published by a Maltese scholar that attempts to analyse the present situation in Libya.

Turning to the second point, I came across books that shed light on topics that are not apparently given so much attention in Malta. One of the books I saw was called Sex and the Vatican. Written by Carmelo Abbate, an investigative journalist, the book focuses on gay and heterosexual priests who have struggled with the celibacy issue. Abbate's work includes accounts of priests who have had partners and even children. Another book which captured my attention was Cio' che credo (What I believe). The latter was authored by Hans Kung, a Swiss priest and theologian who has argued in favour of contraception (such as taking the pill) and against the concept of papal infallibility.

There were also several books that focused on gender issues, local as well as international politics, and so on. When seeing the titles of these books, it was interesting to note that different points of view would be present on the same shelf. Thus, if anyone was interested in acquiring more information about the many facets pertaining to a specific topic, it seemed easier to do this in a foreign bookshop than here.

On 12th June, my wife and I attended a brief organ concert held at the church of Santa Maria de' Ricci. Halfway through the concert, it started raining very heavily outside. After around thirty minutes, the concert came to an end and the person we had seen taking care of the church appeared on the altar dressed as a priest. We decided to attend Mass there.

The Mass was very different from the ones normally witnessed in Malta. Although there were less than 30 people inside the church, Fr Roberto Tassi addressed the participants as though they were family members. He interacted with the audience during a part of the Mass (he actually asked a question to one of the people present!), he provided information about the historical context during which various Bible passages were written, and he sat on a chair close to the participants whilst delivering the homily. When the time came to exchange messages of peace, he walked to the front of the altar so that all the participants could go to shake hands with him.

Once the service was over, my wife and I went to introduce ourselves to Fr Tassi. I told him that his style was very different from the one normally witnessed in Malta. I also talked to him about the recent divorce referendum and about how many representatives of the Church in Malta had acted towards those Catholics who wanted to vote in favour of divorce legislation. Fr Tassi challenged the notion that the early Christians were against divorce; he even stated that St Paul had actually written about the possibility of divorce in the light of certain circumstances. He added that when two people no longer want to live together and when such individuals actually hate each other, it is much better for them to go their separate ways rather than continue living together in misery.

Of course, Florence was not only about books, priests, and museums. As expected, the food was delicious! And there were so many beautiful shops, selling all sorts of things. There was also a Torture Museum (showing how people were tortured in Florence during the medieval period), but we did not go in since it looked quite disturbing.

Florence is definitely a place to visit!

When Doctors Become Mercenaries

2011-04-06T15:09:00.002+02:00

On Monday morning, I was not feeling well. I had been sneezing a great deal on Sunday, my nose was almost constantly dripping, and the back part of my mouth looked totally red. Following the usual company procedure, I sent a message to the person who takes care of sick leave at work to let him know that I was not going to the office that day. I was not sure whether they would have sent the company doctor and I, therefore, asked my personal doctor to come over for a quick visit.

The company doctor came to visit at around 1pm (just as I was about to start having lunch). She asked me about my condition and I gave her a very short history of my symptoms. She asked me whether I had any fever; when I told her that I did not have a working thermometer, she did not bother to check herself. She then proceeded to tap her fingers against my temples and against my throat, asking whether I felt any pain. I told her that I was not feeling any pain when she did that. I was then asked to open my mouth; she looked inside and informed me that there was no pus in my throat and that whatever I had was due to a virus. I knew that if one is suffering from a viral infection, there is no need to take antibiotics, but I just wanted her to confirm that I was not suffering from a bacterial infection. I asked her whether I needed any antibiotics and I also asked her to confirm whether the Day Nurse capsules that I was taking would be sufficient to treat my illness. She asserted that no antibiotics were necessary and that the Day Nurse pills would be fine together with some warm water with salt. She also advised me to drink much more water since I was dehydrated. According to her, I was suffering from URTI (Upper Respiratory Tract Infection).

My doctor rang the door bell around 10 minutes after she left. When he asked me about her diagnosis, he said that he still wanted to check for himself. When I told him that she did not bother to test whether I had fever, he took out his thermometer in order to check; he tried the thermometer twice and on both occasions, it was clear that I had a relatively high fever. When he looked into my mouth with his torch, he said that I HAD pus and that I was definitely suffering a bacterial infection. He prescribed, at least, one antibiotic product. When I told him about the company doctor's views, he just shook his head and said that such doctors are clearly only interested in sending people back to work as soon as possible. According to him, I was suffering from pharyngitis. He told me that if the company had any doubts about his diagnosis, they could contact him for any further details they required.

A similar story has probably occurred to many other people out there. It could be that several individuals just dismissed the matter as a disagreement between doctors or that they were too scared to challenge the company doctor's views. I have already come across the cases of two individuals who were advised to go back to work following the company doctor's visit. In both cases, the employees had also been seen by their personal doctors and had been certified as genuinely ill. As far as I am concerned, I do not believe that such cases should be taken lightly. Every medical doctor is trained to safeguard the patient's welfare; when a company's interests become more important than the patient's health, there is something seriously wrong.

I believe that whenever a company sends a doctor to check on someone's fitness to work, there is a clear conflict of interest. Such doctors are not being paid by the companies to treat the sick employees, but to send them back to work as soon as possible. If a company doctor allows various employees to spend many days recovering at home, it is very likely that the company director/s will suspect that the doctor is being too generous with the employees.

Why is the government not taking any action to prevent such unethical behaviour? It is my understanding that the government should only support the praiseworthy objectives of the medical profession. It should never allow medical doctors to become mercenaries.

If you have also experienced or witnessed a similar story, please share your observations on this blog...

A Few Thoughts about Money

2011-01-26T18:53:00.003+01:00

Money has not always existed. There must have been a time when human beings that needed something could either obtain it on their own or ask another person/group of people to help them acquire it without having to think in terms of a price to be paid.

Times changed. Societies were formed. Money was invented. Various objects and services could no longer be acquired for free; they had to be purchased.

Nowadays, very few things that are necessary to live comfortably can be given or obtained freely. Food, clothes, a decent roof over one's head, education...several of these have to be bought. And if one does not have any money to acquire these things, that is where some very serious hardship could be expected.

There is no denying the fact that in order to live well, money is indispensable. And, of course, the more money one has, the more possible it becomes to enjoy many of the pleasurable things that life has to offer. Individuals who are millionaires can roam the world and divide their time in the many properties to their names whereas the millions of human beings who earn little more than a minimum wage are frequently cautioned to avoid thinking about certain pleasures since they must "live within their means". For the people who are earning little more than a minimum wage and who have absolutely no external support, what exactly does "living within their means" mean?

I have sometimes asked this question to people earning far more than me. Their answers were along the lines of "Well, if you are not earning a great deal of money, it is irresponsible to think about travelling, eating out, going to the cinema, buying good clothes, etc." Such thinking suggests that all those people who are barely earning enough to survive should - in spite of spending the same amount of time at work as several other individuals who are earning much more money - just focus on shutting themselves up at home and spend the little money they have on pure survival. And let's not fool ourselves here...with the prices of many essential items going up, it is sometimes very difficult to imagine how a monthly salary of, say, EUR 650 could be sufficient to even cover all the necessities that could crop up during a given month!

Nowadays, I frequently ask myself: why have so many societies embraced systems whereby various things and services that could be provided freely must be acquired following payment of a sum of money? Why am I obliged to spend money in order to nourish myself? Why am I obliged to spend money to have a decent roof over my head? Why must I spend money to buy enough clothes to keep me warm in winter?

When I talk about the sometimes shocking financial inequalities between several individuals, I am regularly told that the people who are extremely rich must have done something good to possess such wealth; that they must have worked very hard for the money. To me, this is quite debatable. There are countless individuals who are incredibly wealthy simply because they were born in very rich families. Other extremely rich people manage to build an empire for themselves by using the labour of other human beings to generate the wealth, but then keep most of the proceeds to themselves. Of course, there are also many people who are incredibly wealthy as a result of engaging in several criminal activities such as drug trafficking.

When talking about the huge gaps between salaries, I am often told that the market is the master of such matters. To give a simple example, waiters tend to be far less paid than, say, medical doctors because the labour market has a far greater supply of waiters than of doctors and waiters are, therefore, less "valuable" than doctors. Thus, if a typical waiter would like to live an average medical doctor's lifestyle, they would probably need to think about how they could sustain themselves for several years until they are able to graduate as a doctor. But what if someone really likes being a waiter and has no interest in medicine? Must the waiter be constrained to spend the rest of their life deprived of various comforts simply because the market rules that waiters should not be paid as much as people working in many other professions? To me, this type of unquestioning worship of the market is terribly disturbing.

I believe that we should try to imagine - even if only for a few minutes - a world without money. A world where human beings can be happy without needing to spend a penny to achieve that happiness. A world where people are not valued according to how much profit they could generate, but where they are regarded as equally deserving of the many comforts that life has to offer. What is so wrong with such a world? Why do so many people keep putting up one obstacle after another to prevent such a dream from coming true?

Perhaps we should remember that the world and all its resources once belonged to the entire human species. Huge tracts of land never had anyone's name written on them. When apples and oranges grew on thousands of trees, they never had any price tags stuck to them. Countless things were available to all and they were free.

Mistakes

2010-11-22T12:07:00.002+01:00

Mistakes happen all the time. Thousands occur every month, every week, every day...Not all mistakes, however, have the same consequences. In several cases, the damage caused can easily be corrected via a simple procedure. For example, if a name is written incorrectly, it does not take more than a few seconds to rewrite it correctly. There are, on the other hand, many mistakes that create a great deal of damage or harm. Such errors are rarely, if ever, easy to deal with.

If a mistake is defined as an act that should not have taken place, countless acts could come to mind. The cashier who gave back the wrong amount of change to a client, the lawyer who did not provide good advice, the accountant that did not check the accuracy of the amounts shown on certain reports, the surgeon who made an error that killed a patient, the person who murdered another human being following an argument...

I think that every mistake has a two-fold impact. More specifically, a mistake is expected to affect the individual who made it and the person/s that suffered as a consequence of the error. Needless to say, the greater the mistake, the more worrying the effects.

One thing that perplexes and even disturbs me is the way that most societies react to people who make certain mistakes. Although it is frequently said that to err is human and even though new studies keep shedding more light about the fallibility of human beings, many societies react to several errors in a totally merciless way. Granted, when we read about people who broke into the homes of others to steal things or when we read about some doctor who made a fatal error, it is quite understandable to feel a certain degree of anger and fear. Such news tend to make people wonder: what if something like that had happened to me? Or to one of my loved ones?

Although I can understand the fear and anger that affects people who have suffered as a result of another person's mistake, I surely do not support the belief that the wrong-doer's life should be destroyed as a consequence of the error. As long as human beings are not changed in a biochemical way, people will continue making countless mistakes that are only made possible because of the way they are.

Any person who suffers as a result of a mistake should be helped. Yet, I believe that society should also help the individual who made the mistake. Whether the help given consists of psychotherapy or some other form of assistance, this should definitely be the preferred option rather than inflicting pain on another human being that requires help to avoid erring again.

Eric Cropp's story is a clear reminder of why things should change when it comes to mistakes. According to an article that appeared on USA Today, "Born in February 2004, Emily was diagnosed with a curable form of cancer when she was 18 months old. She underwent surgeries and four rounds of chemotherapy to eradicate the tumor growing from the base of her spine. The treatment worked, and Emily was expected to go home disease-free just after her second birthday. Her parents planned a Disney World celebration trip with Emily and her older brother and sister. Instead, Emily awoke crying on Feb. 28, grabbing her head in pain and vomiting. She died three days later. An Ohio pharmacy board investigation showed that pharmacy technician Katherine Dudash had made a tragic error. According to a notarized statement Dudash wrote for the board, she prepared Emily's chemotherapy bag with a 23.4% saline solution, 26 times the 0.9% normally used. Pharmacist Eric Cropp didn't catch the mistake. The board revoked his license last year over the incident and a string of later errors. In August, an Ohio grand jury indicted Cropp on charges of reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter 'in the death of Emily Jerry'".

Apart from having spent 6 months in prison, Mr Cropp was also stripped of his warrant to work as a pharmacist. Is this a healthy way to deal with mistakes? What good came out of Mr Cropp's imprisonment and the fact that - to date - he is still unemployed?

I will conclude with an anonymous comment that was left following an Internet post regarding Mr Cropp's case: "I am a retail pharmacist in New Jersey and have made my share of mistakes always to realize them later and follow-up immediately on them. This is almost always due to over-burden. So it just saddens me that an over-worked pharmacist made such a grave mistake unintentionally and is now paying so dearly for it that he has lost a means of livelihood. The law should understand that pharmacists are over-worked and instead of punishing one pharmacist for it, should ensure that all pharmacies have adequate help to sustain the pharmacy. I hope for the best for pharmacist throughout the States and for the profession of pharmacy."

What if you had committed a similar mistake? How would you like to be treated after making such an error?

Workers' Party of Korea

2010-10-07T13:09:00.003+02:00

Next Sunday represents the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea by Kim Il Sung. To many people who do not know much or are badly misinformed about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), this event might not mean much. Millions of DPRK citizens and their friends will, however, be celebrating this event.

Sadly, a reading of countless articles penned by many Western journalists about the DPRK suggests that such individuals have either never had any friends living in that country or they have never really bothered to take a good look at that part of the world often referred to as "North Korea". It could be that since those journalists have grown up in capitalist societies, they could find it quite hard to understand a society that tries to choose a different road. A socialist pathway leading to communism.

One of the things many people fail to understand about the DPRK is the organisation of society as a family. In such a society, the country's leader is regarded as a father and the Workers' Party of Korea is normally referred to as the "mother party". Indeed, in an article entitled "Mother Party" published in the magazine Korea Today, Ri Kyong Hui said that "The WPK takes responsibility and care for the people's destiny" (10, Juche 97 [2008], p. 2). The same article adds that "The DPRK government effected the universal free medical care system, when it was at war with the United States - a sure sign of its sense of responsibility for the people's health. The following universal free education system introduced in the late 1950s realized the hope of the people to study to their hearts' content free of charge. In 1974 the taxation system was abolished, and they have lived happily in the houses which the state allocated to them free, and they have no idea of the word of 'tax'" (p. 3).

More light could be shed on how life in the DPRK is organised by reading Kim Jong Il's works. In Socialism Is A Science (1994), he wrote "In our country, everyone regards and supports the leader as they would their own father. They trust and follow the Party, regarding its embrace as that of their own mother. The leader, the Party and the people form one socio-political organism, and share the same destiny. The whole of society overflows with communist morality. For instance, one devotes one's own life without hesitation to save one's revolutionary comrade from danger, and young men and women become life companions of honourably disabled soldiers and take warm care of orphans and old people without support, as they would their own relations. This is a proud result of the benevolent politics of our Party" (p. 31).

There are many other stories that reveal the care exhibited by the WPK. The aforementioned issue of Korea Today included an interesting article by Professor Kang Yong Ho, a researcher at the Kim Chaek University of Technology. This researcher spent the first few years of his life in Japan. Sometime around 1960, he was able to move to the DPRK with his wife and daughter. He wrote that "The day after our arrival home, an official sent for me. At the first glance he looked like a good man. He gave me two sheets of paper. One was a certificate of my appointment as a researcher of the Academy of Sciences, and the other was a certificate of my ownership of a good dwelling house. I looked at the official dubiously, and he said: 'Now you will be able to realize your hope to your heart's content under the embrace of the Workers' Party of Korea. You work as best as you can. And if you have any problem in your life and work, you may call on me at any time'" (p. 9).

In many other countries, millions of people do not feel that there is an organisation such as the WPK that acts as a mother to them. Instead of being made to feel important and part of a community, countless individuals in such countries are often left to fend for themselves. The lack of care and concern shown for millions of human beings is easily seen when one walks through various cities and counts the number of homeless people living in the streets. I still clearly remember how horrible it felt to walk through a part of Madrid littered with people sleeping on carton boxes during the winter season. No genuinely caring government should ever accept to have any of its citizens living without a decent roof over their head!

It is also important to remember that the WPK is doing its utmost to continue improving the standard of living of the people in the DPRK in spite of the many sanctions that are intended at sabotaging the socialist society chosen by millions of Koreans. United with their leader and guided by the WPK, the popular masses have resisted the attempts of various governments to replace socialism with neoliberalism.

Hopefully, the points mentioned above will be taken into consideration before another article is written by a Western journalist about the DPRK. By doing so, the readers would be able to obtain a better understanding of life in the DPRK.

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The Need for Socialist Communes

2010-09-20T13:20:00.003+02:00

I am really sick and tired of the present-day obsession with competition and individualism! On a daily basis, we are exposed to countless TV shows that do little more than exhibit one person trying to outsmart or shine more than one or more other individuals. The more brutal the competition and the greater the humiliation for the losing party/parties, the more attention is often given to the show. Several magazines follow a similar pattern - their covers do not normally feature a group of people that have done something positive for society. They usually prefer to show a couple whose marriage has broken down or to demonise some drug user who went on to commit a string of crimes.

When it comes to numerous workplaces, the degree of competition and individualism that pervades them makes it extremely difficult to develop genuine and lasting friendships. Considering that the average human being spends most of his adult life at work, it is quite sad to look back at the amount of time spent with other people and to still be unable to count many friends among that crowd.

Furthermore, it seems that an increasingly larger number of people are dedicating more time than ever before to studying after work in order to add more marketable skills to their CVs. Of course, if one spends a minimum of 8 hours at work and then an extra 2 hours attending some course or studying at home, there is not much time left to be with family and/or friends. For those people who do not have family or friends, the amount of time eaten up by work and study makes it fairly difficult to focus on building new relationships.

Some individuals might argue that communications technology has made it much easier for people to make friends. I would say that such technology has definitely made it easier to connect with many people all over the world, but the technology itself cannot replace the will to spend time and to share various experiences with other human beings. Taking Facebook as an example, it is possible to have over a thousand individuals tagged as "friends", but how many of those people would really qualify as true friends? How many of them know what you like to eat and drink when you go out? How many of them know what type of music you enjoy listening to? How many of them know what dreams you have for the future? How many of them would rush to visit you in hospital if you ended up there following major surgery?

Although various social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow people to share many of their thoughts throughout the day, a status update is often less than the tip of an iceberg in terms of trying to get to know a person. If I say that I am feeling tired on Facebook, this does not shed any light on some of my worst fears.

Whilst many people out there might be aware of which book we are currently reading or which movie we have just watched, this does not mean that all those individuals are committed to preserving a genuine friendship with us. Thus, when some people ask themselves "how many true friends do I really have?", they might feel a strong kick in the stomach as they find it hard to count the number of people who would provide some material and/or psychological help in times of need. When this happens, it is quite inevitable for several individuals to feel very lonely.

Loneliness. The social networking sites are great at trying to disguise this phenomenon. Loneliness is, however, very real and its effects should not be underestimated. Sadly, thousands of Euros/Dollars are spent every week on countless substances such as alcohol in an attempt to drown the pain that often accompanies loneliness.

There are many people who try to combat or to prevent loneliness by joining a religious organisation. This might have worked in the past, when several individuals were scared of questioning certain beliefs, but scientific thinking has become so strong these days that it is extremely difficult for many people to do or to believe something simply because it was written in a book many centuries ago. Granted, there are many positive things associated with the teachings of Jesus, but most religious organisations will not stop at those teachings; they will often also require their members to do certain things or to avoid countless behaviours which were never discussed by Jesus!

Another big problem that I see with most religious organisations is that they are way too judgemental. Many of them appear to be extremely eager to list the types of people that will never go to Heaven. A good number of them also use Hell in order to threaten people to believe; if you do not believe what I am telling you, you will spend eternity suffering in Hell! Isn't that horrible??? In a world where so many secular organisations are now talking about rehabilitation and about giving a wrong-doer another chance, the concept of eternal damnation looks totally absurd to me.

The main question that I would like to ask is this: if various religious organisations allow their members to live together, why can't there be secular ones that allow their members to do the same thing? Imagine how nice it would be to have socialist communes whereby the individuals living together share the same secular ideals and do not need to spend hours praying or reciting the rosary or memorising parts of the Old Testament! The people living together in this way would all contribute a share of their income to cover the commune's monthly expenses. Furthermore, if one of the commune's members falls ill or ends up unemployed, he/she would receive all the care and help that true socialists should give to those in need. The motto of these communes could be "All for one, one for all!"

The commune could consist of a block of apartments or a large house with many spacious rooms. All the members would be subject to a set of rules, but these rules would be motivated by the safeguarding of the community's welfare; they would not be based on something that must be believed simply because it was written by some "prophet" who lived many centuries ago!

So, could anyone tell me when the first socialist commune is going to be set up in Malta???

Forgiveness of One's Enemies

2010-09-13T16:35:00.000+02:00

As I was surfing the Internet today, I came across the story of a certain Fr Juan Alsina. The latter was a Spanish Catholic priest who spent the last years of his life working in Chile.

Like many other Catholic priests working in Latin America during the late 1960s/early 1970s, Fr Alsina was very dedicated to improving the welfare of the hundreds of poor people that he met during his missionary work. During those times, several Catholic priests did not shy away from criticising the devastating impact of the capitalist economic model on countless communities.

Instead of being showered with praise, Fr Alsina was punished for his noble deeds. A few days after the Pinochet coup in September 1973, he was arrested and taken to a bridge for execution. Just before he was shot, he told the 18-year-old soldier who was going to kill him, "Please do not blindfold me...shoot me as you stand in front of me because I want to see you as I forgive you!"

Fr Alsina was only 31 years old when he was killed.

Rebels Against A Specific Lifestyle?

2010-09-08T15:23:00.005+02:00

When talking about a typical adult's lifestyle, it could be said that most societies in the world clearly follow a specific model. The latter appears to be characterised by the following steps: having terminated one's full-time education (by choice or by necessity), a person is normally compelled to look for a job. Upon finding a job, an individual is usually expected to dedicate most of one's waking hours to that occupation throughout most days of the year. For millions of people, the cycle of waking up, getting ready, working, going back home, resting for a couple of hours, sleeping, and then repeating everything all over again is repeated for several decades. Given the fact that millions of human beings are constrained to borrow money in order to acquire a number of basic commodities, it is not surprising to see many people spending most of their lives trying to pursue freedom from debt.

Faced with the cycle mentioned above, it seems that most individuals just go along with the flow. These are the people who surrender a big chunk of their time on most days of the week so that they can earn enough money to survive and to enjoy some of the good things that life has to offer. These are the people who might have a number of jobs during a period of 30 or so years. They are the ones who believe that short of a "lucky exit", it is virtually impossible to think of an alternative lifestyle.

Although there are various types of jobs these days, it is difficult to regard the capitalist working culture that is encouraged in the majority of workplaces as the most socially beneficial one. In many private companies, there is cut-throat competition, a great deal of greed, and a shocking lack of concern for the general welfare of the employees. If an employee becomes ill for a relatively long period of time, instead of trying to think about ways of helping that person, it is not uncommon to hear many employees suggesting the need to get rid of such an "unproductive" individual in order to obtain a replacement. In countless private companies, nothing is more important than profit; whatever does not contribute to an increase of the bottom line should be eliminated or avoided. Several employers talk about "terminating" employees without showing too much discomfort.

Not all people feel able or willing to spend a good 30 or so years of their lives in such an atmosphere. Such individuals might believe that life is way too short to be spent on boasting about how much more efficient, smart, or productive one is compared to other fellow human beings. They might think that human beings were born free and that if a person wants to spend a year or two travelling and reading, one should be able to pursue such a lifestyle without the threat of starvation or homelessness. Such people might be very willing to help build a better society that would be able to encourage the positive development of every human being, but without having to compete against other individuals or to be constrained to one area of activity for countless years. Perhaps they would like to be able to help by spending two months teaching, six months building a community centre, and a year providing first aid services to several people.

Since most people do not seem to enjoy questioning the status quo and prefer to go with the flow, there is a widespread tendency to view those individuals who dare to rebel against the predominant lifestyle as "lazy" or even as "crazy". The attempt to be different is squashed by various measures which make life for such people virtually impossible. The most popular threat is starvation - if you refuse to go with the flow, you will not be given any money by nobody so that you will eventually die of hunger. With no money, you will eventually end up without any water and electricity, and perhaps even homeless.

I believe that it is far too simplistic to label all those people who decide that they do not want to form part of the predominant culture as lazy. Furthermore, even if they were acting in a "lazy way", something must have triggered such behaviour in the first place. Sadly, this issue does not seem to receive much attention during discussions about "the lazy people who do not want to work".

Throughout my life, I have come across some of these rebels. One of them had been working in a fairly senior position for many years before he decided that he no longer wanted to pursue such a lifestyle. Shortly after he quit, I asked him whether he was thinking of another job; his reply was, "I want to take a break...I want to spend some time without being bossed around by other people!" Of course, his decision had fairly predictable consequences. After a few months, his savings ran out and he started facing several problems to pay the bills, feed himself, and so on. In spite of all these hardships, he has still not returned to his former lifestyle.

Do you know any similar rebels? Have you ever talked to them in order to understand their motivations? Do you think that such people are just lazy and that they deserve all the troubles they face?

Trapped

2010-08-16T20:41:00.006+02:00

I have just finished reading an extremely interesting and entertaining book called Waiter Rant by Steve Dublanica. I loved the way in which the author managed to fuse descriptions of events at work with a number of reflections related to various issues such as immigration, substance abuse, and so on.

As I was reading this book, one of the issues that really struck me was the author’s feeling of being trapped at work. When he started working as a waiter at the age of 31, Dublanica wrote that the restaurant job was meant to be a short-term option until he moved on to something else. The problem is that as he faced a constant struggle to survive (payment of rent and other bills), quitting or moving to a new type of job was far easier said than done. Indeed, Dublanica ended up working as a waiter for several years until he managed to turn to writing as his main occupation.

Although the author eventually managed to switch to something he considered as more fulfilling, I strongly believe that the transition to a more rewarding activity is still a dream for millions of people around the world. More specifically, the feeling of entrapment mentioned by him seems to be shared by countless individuals who are presently engaged in a particular activity in an attempt to survive, but who would love to move to another occupation that is perceived by them as more rewarding economically as well as psychologically. The following post probably mirrors the despair of many individuals who are in such a situation:

"I'm married, have 2 kids and have been experiencing a debilitating depression recently. I feel my only purpose in life is to make money to support my family. I hate my job and feel stuck there, since I don't think I can get another job that pays as well and my wife doesn't work, so I'm the sole breadwinner. I know that I'll never be able to retire, and I will just work until I die. This situation leaves me very depressed and feeling trapped with no hope and no options.

I've become obsessed with money, figuring that if I can find ways to make money outside of work I might have a chance to retire someday. I tried the stock market and found it to be extremely stressful and it took over my entire existence. (I just lost $6200 this week day trading) The stock market was my last hope for a better life and I failed again. I feel like I'm a failure at everything, not performing well at work, losing my hard earned money by gambling in the market.

I come home completely exhausted from work and stressed out. I've lost interest in many things I used to enjoy. I have some better days, but often the bad days are so overwhelming they are nearly debilitating. There are many days I ignore the family and get drunk to escape from the pain of reality. I'm destroying my family in the process, the only reason I live, and I know that I need to change my behavior."

When I was working as a language teacher in Spain , I often felt trapped. Although I loved teaching, the job conditions I had were far from satisfactory. Similar to many waiters, I was paid on an hourly basis and there was no vacation or sick leave. There were several times when I dragged myself to work in spite of being sick so that I could earn some extra money to cover my expenses. It was quite difficult to adapt to a reality whereby it was hardly ever possible to forecast the amount of money I would be earning at the end of each month. Faced with such a lack of stability, it was virtually impossible to make various plans, such as a holiday trip to another country.

Apart from the irregularity of my monthly income, I also had to deal with odd working times. Since many students could only attend a language class following regular working hours, I often had to teach from, say, 6PM until 7:30PM. There were times when I returned home after 9PM! Given the type of students that I found, flexibility was a must. If a student was only available for a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon, it was a matter of either accepting and earning an extra EUR 30 or losing out on such much-needed money. If I had turned certain students down because of the class times, I am pretty sure that my income would have shrunk to the point of being unable to cover all my monthly expenses!

Desperate to find something more stable, I started exploring a number of courses that I could pursue in order to improve my general life situation. There was a time when I toyed with the idea of studying IT. I then thought about studying nursing. There appeared to be an almost constant demand for IT professionals and for nurses. In both cases, the main problem was that the courses were held at times when I would normally be teaching. Attending a course to improve myself was, therefore, impossible. To make matters worse, most of the courses were too expensive for me! In the absence of any additional financial help, there was no way that I could quit teaching to spend a couple of years as a full-time student.

I eventually managed to move to something more stable. I am, however, pretty sure that there are still countless individuals out there who are still trapped; people who are still struggling to make their dreams come true. As one year after another goes by for such people, I admire their resilience; their belief in a better future.

To conclude, I would like to ask about how the governments of various countries are presently trying to help all those individuals who feel trapped, who would like to improve themselves, but who cannot presently do so because of financial issues. Are professional educational courses being offered to people who are constrained to spend from, at least, 8AM to 5PM working to earn enough money to pay the rent or a mortgage? Or are those courses only available to people who can afford to avoid working for a number of years? If ,say, a 30-year-old customer service representative who has no family support would like to study Law at university, what options presently exist to help this person make his dream come true? Are there any schemes for those people who have absolutely no family support that would allow them to quit a job and to seek further training without the risk of starvation and/or homelessness? A society that talks about equal opportunities and then fails to provide them should take a good look at itself and attempt to improve things so that no person is left behind. So that whoever is currently trapped can be freed.

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"That's what friends are for..." by Dionne Warwick

2010-08-01T12:49:00.001+02:00

Criticism and the Diversity of Opinions

2010-06-25T16:50:00.007+02:00

It seems that many people praise the ability to criticise other persons. Indeed, if one had to take a look at the tabloids or watch a number of talk shows on TV, they would know very well what I am talking about. No action performed by a human being appears to be immune from criticism. No matter what one says or does, there will probably always be, at least, someone willing to engage in some critical activity. Is this good? Is it bad? Aren't we often told that we should promote the diversity of opinions?

This is not an easy topic to discuss. Each question could easily invite countless other questions. I would, however, like to attempt to go beyond the many cliches that are associated with the issue of criticism. In order to avoid any confusion, I would like to point out that I am linking critical activity to differences of opinion since it is very common for people who hold a particular set of beliefs to criticise any ideas which go against it.

Taking a look at the world's history, it is quite easy to identify how different views triggered so many terrible wars and persecutions. Millions of people have fought and died because of differences related to their religious and/or political beliefs.

At this stage, one of the questions in my mind is: if two people can only agree to disagree and are almost constantly criticising each other, does this necessarily mean that they must fight to the death? Of course not! When faced with such a situation, it is extremely important to exercise - first and foremost - tolerance. To me, tolerance means being able to accept that another person has a different view. I would, however, go a step further - tolerance should not just be limited to accepting that there are differences in opinions or beliefs; it should also trigger an attempt to understand why the other person views a particular issue differently. Such an understanding could shed light on why a person might find it so hard to change their mind about a specific topic.

There is little doubt that the acceptance of diversity and the attempt to understand its origins do not necessarily lead to any significant positive changes. To mention just one example, it seems quite unlikely that certain religious people who strongly believe that a drunkard will spend eternity in Hell would change their views following an acceptance of diversity and an understanding of why the drunkard ended up in such a state.

Although the diversity of opinions or beliefs has often led to social disharmony, a few words must be devoted to the distinction between positive and negative criticism. The former is still triggered by the existence of a different opinion, but it is usually said that such criticism is aimed at helping the other person to improve. Negative criticism, on the other hand, is normally associated with the attempt to hurt another person; to attack their self-esteem. If a person keeps failing an exam, it is one thing to tell that person "Your current studying strategies need to be revised since they are not leading to success", but it is something quite different to tell that person "Give up studying because your repeated failures only serve to show that you are dumb!"

In a world characterised by individuals who do not have a bird's-eye view of all the variables that exist in the universe and of how such variables interact with one another, a debate that is carried out with an emphasis on positive criticism could lead to great improvements and/or a fuller understanding of a number of issues. Given such a state of affairs, it would not be realistic to imagine resolving various problems without a certain amount of debates.

Sadly, there are still many times when debating is completely frowned upon. The avoidance of any type of debate opens the door to dogmatic, top-down communication that strongly resents ever being challenged or questioned. It appears that this tends to occur within several business, religious, and political organisations. When this happens, the consequences could be devastating.

If one had to focus on numerous religious organisations, it would not be difficult to notice how almost every attempt to question a core belief by someone is frequently regarded as "the work of Satan"!!! Whenever I hear that line, I immediately feel like telling the person who describes any type of questioning as Satanic the following words: "How do you really know that Satan exists? And please don't tell me that you know because you say that the Holy Spirit whispered it to you in your head!!!"

With reference to the Roman Catholic Church, more and more cracks are appearing in the walls of this organisation. The ban on female priests, the ban on contraception, the imposition of celibacy, the condemnation of homosexual behaviour...all these issues are being increasingly questioned by the members of this Church. A number of priests are also criticising certain positions that the Church still supports!

If one turns - to mention another example - to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it is possible to find some extremely sad stories about the pain that various members had to face because of the Church's teachings about homosexuality. By avoiding any questioning and insisting that it is right in condemning homosexual behaviour as something that goes against God's Plan, several individuals have endured horrendous amounts of suffering. A few have also committed suicide.

When it comes to political parties, many members seem to be afraid of questioning certain positions because they do not wish to be regarded as "traitors" or as "disloyal". For those people whose party membership gives them a sense of belonging, it can be very difficult to risk expulsion as a result of taking a position that goes against a party position. Consequently, a party member might end up preaching one thing in order to avoid trouble, but privately believe the opposite thing. Such situations could clearly be avoided if a political party could learn how to manage diversity in better ways.

What about the harsh criticism that is often witnessed in multi-party societies? Although one party might say that its critique is aimed at improving the country, there seems to be little doubt that the tone that is frequently used in debates between political parties is very harsh. Instead of focusing on ideas and issues, it is specific individuals who are often targeted by a rival party. In a society that tends to adore competition, such bashing between parties is usually considered as totally acceptable. If there is cut-throat competition at work, in schools, at home, why should the political arena be left untouched? The sad thing is that the social bitterness that is created as one party lashes out at the other is dressed up as "democracy at work". At this stage, an interesting question could be: does the existence of numerous political parties really lead to a greater degree of social harmony? Couldn't we try to discover better ways of working together instead of creating tribes to fight each other? Does democracy necessarily require a political party for every different opinion that one might have?

One final question: will there ever be a time when all people can live peacefully together without any disagreements? Without any bitter criticism or terrible clashes? Who knows?

All I can say right now is that as long as people continue to disagree on one thing or another, criticism will continue to exist. My hope is that any debate or any criticism could be utilised for exclusively positive purposes.

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Religious Organisations - To Join or Not to Join?

2010-05-28T17:38:00.004+02:00

Every now and then, I end up discussing the pros and cons of belonging to a religious organisation. I had one such conversation earlier on today.

I was talking to one of my colleagues about this person who belongs to a Neocatechumenal group. This individual should be getting married sometime next year. When asked about how many children he would like to have, his reply was along the lines of "As many as God decides to give us..." To my knowledge, members of such groups are against the use of any contraceptives. I said that this person must be earning a good salary in order to afford having several children! My colleague then told me that money is not such an issue for these people since they have an extremely effective support network. In other words, as long as one belongs to one of these groups, some sort of help - material or otherwise - should always be available. This colleague added that an aunt of hers who also belongs to the same type of group had ten children and that the family received a great deal of help from other group members.

In a world increasingly characterised by governments that do not show much care towards their citizens, one could say that numerous religious groups are managing to recruit several members as they provide the affection and help that is not being given by the State or by other secular organisations. Faced by issues such as poor job security, low wages, and inadequate housing conditions, it is plausible to argue that many people would be interested in belonging to an organisation that is aimed at improving one's position in life.

Sadly, many secular organisations that I have belonged to or witnessed have fallen very short of providing the type of care and help that is frequently seen among members of a religious organisation. Referring to my own experience within a secular organisation in Malta, I still clearly remember how the members would meet up to discuss group tasks without barely knowing much about one another. Granted, if the group was set up to achieve certain tangible objectives, there must be something to indicate progress, but there is no reason to justify why the members of a voluntary organisation should treat each other in a relatively cold way. With reference to the same organisation, I remember that no social events would ever be organised and most of the contact between the members was limited to a discussion or planning of specific projects.

As time went by, my interest in belonging to such an organisation waned. No matter how interesting the projects were, it felt horrible to spend time with people who barely knew anything about me, who never asked me how I was, who showed very little warmth...

Having also attended the meetings of a number of religious organisations, I could clearly identify the difference between the atmosphere within a religious group and a non-religious one. Generally speaking, most of the people I met at several religious gatherings showed genuine interest in me. Furthermore, many of them would keep in touch and try to meet up regularly in order to do fun things together.

At this stage, one of the biggest questions I have is: why does it seem to be so difficult to come across a non-religious organisation whose members are seriously interested in each other's general welfare? Why is it that one could attend numerous meetings of a secular organisation and still feel very lonely?

Although some readers could think that I am presently arguing in favour of belonging to a religious organisation, I would like to correct that impression. It is true that joining a religious organisation could lead to several material and psychological benefits. No doubt about that. Yet, such benefits are rarely offered to people for free. There is usually a price to pay. And there are many occasions when this price might be way too high to accept.

Focusing on numerous Christian organisations, membership usually entails a totally dogmatic mindset vis-a-vis several issues. For instance, in order to become a member of such an organisation, it is normally essential to consider the Bible as the true word of God. Every line, every word must be interpreted literally. The attempt to challenge a part of the Bible could easily be regarded as "Satanic influence". Whenever one starts questioning certain parts of the Bible, that person is often advised to pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance. Yet, what happens if you pray and pray and the guidance never comes?

Apart from not being allowed to question anything about the Bible, most Christian organisations seem to enjoy adding many extra rules of their own. For example, in order to belong to one organisation, an individual could be obliged to deprive oneself of food for several hours once a month (fasting). This deprivation is supposed to bring spiritual enlightenment and gifts to one's life, but this is - of course - extremely subjective. Many other rules could exist and it is usually impossible to challenge them. Naturally, the more rules there are, the easier it becomes for a person to feel as though their freedom has been taken away from them.

Furthermore, the tendency to rely on something that was written or said by another person would normally prevent a fruitful debate about a particular topic. For example, if one were to start analysing a specific behaviour, a member of a Christian organisation would normally just check what the Bible says and immediately judge that behaviour as good or evil. I think that such an approach underestimates the complexity of being human and frustrates the attempt to understand many behaviours in a new way. For example, what good comes out of judging an alcoholic person as a sinner who will end up spending eternity in Hell unless he/she "repents"?

When I sometimes hear certain people quote various chunks from the Bible, I often think to myself: what if all the time devoted to memorising a text that was written in a totally different culture hundreds of years ago was devoted to scientific research? Imagine if the efforts to memorise the Bible or other "sacred texts" were focused on trying to find a cure for countless diseases or on improving several aspects of our lives.

To me, the idea of belonging to a religious organisation always triggers the same question: in order to enjoy feeling loved and cared for, must I go from being a very analytical and open-minded person to a completely dogmatic one? I really enjoy being in an organisation that cherishes human welfare and strives to build a better world characterised by love, but it is too difficult for me to be a member of a structure that has such goals, but which also reduces one's life to embracing a personality cult (spending hours just singing songs of worship) and to following several rules in a totally dogmatic way. I keep asking myself: why can't people unite to care about one another and to build a better world without having to invent so many rules that could either harm them (take fasting as an example) or that deprive them of numerous harmless freedoms (the freedom for a woman to become a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, for instance)?

Promotion to Supervisor

2010-04-01T12:10:00.002+02:00

Last Tuesday I was promoted to the position of supervisor at work. Most of my work will still revolve around claims, but I will also be handling some underwriting activities.

I started working in insurance in late 2005. I spent a short time working for an insurance agency (handling hundreds of health insurance claims) and I then moved to an insurance broking/management firm. I joined the latter company as a trainee in 2006 and I have managed to climb my way up to the current position of supervisor in around 3.5 years.

Those Who Never Quit

2010-03-23T19:29:00.006+01:00

I have always strongly admired those individuals who never quit. The ability of such people to keep struggling in spite of all the setbacks they encounter is extremely inspiring.

For a fairly long time, I have believed that Western society has a relatively low tolerance for failure. It seems that most people are expected to achieve success quite quickly and without encountering any major problems. Furthermore, the belief that human beings are "born good" in one area or another tends to fuel the expectation that success should come quite easily. This perception - which is unfortunately still fairly widespread - suggests that if you do not manage to "get it right" almost from the start, you should consider turning your attention to some other activity. Whoever has managed to get a glimpse of the countless reality-TV shows whereby several individuals are humiliated and labelled as "incompetent" or "untalented" by a panel of "judges" knows exactly what I am talking about.

Sadly, a society which projects false notions about success and which does not tolerate failure is expected to include many people who give up very easily when they encounter one or more setbacks. You failed your Physics exam? Well, perhaps you are "not so bright" when it comes to Spanish! Your marriage broke down? Well, perhaps you should never enter into any other relationship in the future! You have been diagnosed with a particularly rare medical condition? Well, perhaps you should just accept your "bad luck" and avoid complaining! Does any of this destructive talk sound familiar? Unfortunately, such negative messages are transmitted thousands of times a day in various parts of the world.

Although there are many people who quit relatively easily when faced with a problem, there are others who are determined to stand up over and over again following one or more nasty falls. The rest of this post focuses on some individuals who did not quit when confronted with various difficulties.

Many people have surely heard about Sir Anthony Hopkins and have watched several of his movies including the famous Silence of the Lambs. Fewer individuals, however, seem to be aware of the hardships faced by Mr Hopkins during the early stages of his life. In an interview published by the Mail Online site, he said the following: "I was called Dumbo, like the elephant, as a child because I couldn't understand things at school...My grandfather, my father's father, told my mother, 'Tony's got a big head, pity there's nothing in it, unlike Bobby [cousin] who is brilliant'...The teachers would slap me about the head...I was hauled before the headmaster, who said there was something wrong with me. My teacher twisted my ear till it broke and said, 'You are only fit to grease your father's bread tins,' because I didn't understand arithmetic."

The article went on to say that "For the young Hopkins, feelings of inadequacy continued throughout his teens. 'I felt like the village idiot because I couldn't do anything right. I worked at the Steel Company of Wales when I was 17. My job was to supply tools to the guys working the blast furnaces. I would look at the chits and I'd always choose the wrong thing, and the foreman would say to me, 'What the hell is the matter with you? Can't you do anything right?' He'd say, 'Go and make me a cup of tea.' Then, 'No. Don't even do that because you'll blow us all up.'"

Though Angie Baker did not become as popular as Anthony Hopkins, her story also deserves to be mentioned. As a young woman, Angie wanted to have a baby. As stated in an article published in Grazia magazine (15/03/2010), "I was in my early twenties when I got pregnant the first time" (p. 119). After a few weeks, she lost the baby as a result of a miscarriage. Although saddened by the event, Angie did not give up. She tried again. And again. Each pregnancy, however, kept ending in a miscarriage. The worst thing is that "the doctors kept saying there was nothing medically wrong" with her. After the tenth miscarriage, she underwent a number of tests at St Mary's Hospital in London. She left the hospital with no additional medical information as "again they found nothing". Although many other women might have given up on having a baby following so many miscarriages, Angie was determined to keep on trying. She eventually discovered Dr Hassan Shehata, a doctor who had carried out a lot of research about women who were suffering from recurrent miscarriages. Thanks to the doctor's desire to help such women, he managed to clarify the root of Angie's failed pregnancies. Furthermore, as a result of his treatment, Angie eventually managed to have her own baby. Angie Baker miscarried 18 times before she gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

Another story that deserves to be mentioned is the one of Emily Holden. According to an article that appeared in Glamour (April, 2010), "A horrific car accident...broke every bone in Emily Holden's face, blinded her in one eye and burst a lung" (p. 32). The 21-year-old girl has received a great deal of assistance from the Saving Faces Foundation. She is aware of the fact that she still requires further treatment, but she is very optimistic about her future. Indeed, Emily stated that "When I've recovered, I'll counsel other victims. I'll visit them in hospital to offer advice and guidance." (p. 32).

I am sure that there are many other stories out there of individuals who have never quit in spite of having been beaten down once, twice, three times...I will try to post more about them in future articles. If you are one of those individuals, I would be very glad to hear about your story. :)

The Rise of the Communist Party of Malta

2010-03-19T12:31:00.004+01:00

Last Monday, the Times of Malta published an interesting article regarding the Maltese Communist Party. Although this party has been in existence since 1969, it never enjoyed the popular support that could easily be witnessed when talking about the country's two biggest political parties (the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party).

Although the Labour Party in Malta never embraced Marxist-Leninist principles, the Mintoff and Mifsud Bonnici administrations were clearly more leftist than the Sant and Muscat ones. During those times, the most prominent Labour Party representatives stressed the importance of doing things within an ideological context. Hence, if a measure was going to be implemented, it was fairly easy to fathom how such an action was intended to coincide with the party's ideological objectives. The speeches about the benefits of Socialism helped to distinguish the Labour Party from the Nationalist one. As stated above, the Labour Party was never a Communist organisation, but the discourse used by individuals such as Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici sometimes overlapped with that utilised by a number of Communists. By using this strategy, several Maltese people perceived the Labour Party as being sufficiently leftist and did not feel a strong need to move to another party that also talked about the fruits of Socialism.

With the introduction of Alfred Sant's New Labour strategies during the 1990s, there was a fairly evident desire to move away from the anti-capitalist rhetoric that was quite popular during the 1970s and the 1980s in order to embrace a more pro-capitalist stance towards various issues. Almost from the start, this change led to varying degrees of friction within the party. To many people, the key question was: if the Labour Party was planning to desert "the Socialist Cause", what really made it so different from the Nationalist one?

Over the years, the Labour Party developed into an organisation that would talk about social justice and about a number of topics frequently mentioned by leftist parties, but it would hardly ever specify how it seriously intended to remedy countless social ills. Furthermore, even though it was clear that numerous problems were being facilitated by the increasing penetration of capitalist practices in Malta, the bulk of the Labour Party politicians never dared to criticise this economic model. Once capitalism was embraced in the most dogmatic way, politics was reduced to a competition between who could be the best manager of a fundamentally capitalist society.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of Malta went underground. Although it was never disbanded, it became largely inactive.

When it became clear that the Labour Party had become just another pro-capitalist organisation, several individuals started feeling as though the country lacked a political vehicle that could seriously challenge the capitalist model that formed the basis on which the Maltese economy was built.

Aware of this reality, the Communist Party of Malta started noticing a growing degree of interest in a party that was seriously interested in preserving and/or ensuring free education, health care, stable and decent employment, proper housing, and so on. Unlike the other huge parties, the Communist Party of Malta was not going to pay lip-service to workers' rights and then fail to review the country's appalling minimum wage.

More and more people are losing faith in Malta's two biggest parties. As such individuals feel that neither one of those parties is truly working hard enough to ensure that ALL people residing in Malta have a certain level of welfare, the Communist Party will continue to grow day by day...

Capitalism Generates Prosperity?

2010-02-27T16:13:00.002+01:00

When discussing political ideologies, I often hear many people say that "capitalism generates prosperity". It might do so, but any prosperity that is generated through this system is clearly not being distributed fairly. Some political parties might talk about the importance of distributing the prosperity created by capitalism, but history has clearly demonstrated that most people who are only interested in earning millions of dollars for themselves are not really interested in sharing their wealth with other human beings. Furthermore, certain businesses have become so powerful that several governments have become little more than puppets whose strings are pulled in order to ensure that the interests of the business community take top priority. How scary!

The US has often been associated with easy money, luxurious lifestyles, and "democracy". The US might be similar to life in a holiday complex for a relatively small percentage of the population, but there are millions of US citizens who are suffering. The Hunger Report 2010, authored by the Feeding America organisation, "shows that hunger is increasing at an alarming rate in the United States". Listed below are some highly alarming statistics quoted from the same report:

* Feeding America is annually providing food to 37 million Americans, including 14 million children. This is an increase of 46 percent over 2006, when we were feeding 25 million Americans, including 9 million children, each year.
* That means one in eight Americans now rely on Feeding America for food and groceries.
* Feeding America's nationwide network of food banks is feeding 1 million more Americans each week than we did in 2006.
* Thirty-six percent of the households we serve have at least one person working.
* More than one-third of client households report having to choose between food and other basic necessities, such as rent, utilities and medical care.
* The number of children the Feeding America network serves has increased by 50 percent since 2006.

Absolutely shocking! I mean, every country could go through hard times whereby access to certain supplies might be reduced, but the incomprehensible part is this: there are 37 million Americans who are in desperate need of food in the US while individuals such as Kim Kardashian and Hugh Hefner are allowed to retain the resources that could greatly benefit their communities to themselves! Such greed leaves me reeling!

Perhaps I am so bitter towards the lies of capitalism because I also grew up believing that living well depended on getting yourself a good education and working. I have an Honours degree in Psychology together with a string of other qualifications, but the money earned until now has never been sufficient to invest it or to save for an emergency. Living in a credit economy where salaries are kept generally low so that people have to borrow money to buy various items, slavery to debt is practically inevitable. There are individuals in the US who owe thousands of dollars to one or more banks and such money was borrowed to get an education! Why put so much pressure on people? If people are not going to be paid much, there should - at least - be free education, healthcare, housing, transport...

Of course, it is far easier to live in state of denial and to continue thinking that everything is fine while we are almost constantly exposed to "talent" shows and to music videos produced by millionaires. The problem is that once celebrities such as Lady Gaga have finished singing a song, they will just continue raking in more millions of dollars whilst many other millions of people will be trying to make up their minds about whether buying certain medicines might mean the loss of a meal or two...

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A Jealous Lover Called Work

2010-02-20T12:42:00.003+01:00

Once upon a time, work was regarded as a part of life. Besides work, many people often engaged in various activities, such as reading, writing, participating in group events, and so on.

During the past few years, it seems that work is becoming increasingly similar to a very possessive lover that will not tolerate any other rivals or interference. Indeed, with all the modern communication gadgets such as I-Phones, Blackberries, and laptops that could be utilised in free WiFi zones, it appears that it is becoming very hard for several individuals to be able to draw a line between work and the rest of their life activities. How many times has a family event been interrupted by a work-related SMS or phone call on one's mobile? For more and more people, leaving the office is no longer tantamount to finishing a day's work and to concentrating on other things. You did not manage to answer the 150 unread emails in your inbox? Don't worry! Just go home, log onto the Internet, and continue working from your bedroom! Friends and family can wait another day! Your health? Only weaklings complain about such things!

With the spectre of unemployment and the threat of competition that pervades capitalist societies, many people feel obliged to prove that they are indispensable to the company. Consequently, they tend to bite much more than they can chew. By having one's finger in so many things, the idea appears to be that of giving the impression that should they leave the company, the company's work will grind to a catastrophic halt.

The desire to feel indispensable has also fuelled a phenomenon called presenteeism. Put simply, many individuals remain in the office beyond business hours with the hope that even if they are not on top on things, they are still doing their utmost to achieve the company's objectives. Some also make it a point to show that most of the week-end was spent on work-related projects.

Over a period of time, the people who succumb to the temptation of making work the centre of their lives often realise that even though work might satisfy many of their psychological needs, such satisfaction comes at a heavy price. Spouses and friends often end up neglected, invitations to social events are turned down, and finding time to pursue other educational activities such as learning a new language are postponed to "sometime in the future". Furthermore, when people end up dedicating 12, 14, or 16 hours a day to work, there is little doubt that such strain is going to have a negative impact on one's health. I wonder how many families have broken down because of work-related pressures. How many friendships have wilted as a result of neglect. How many children have grown up with nannies since one or both parents are always at work. How many individuals have lost their lives or developed chronic illnesses as a result of work-related stress.

The question I keep asking myself is: why should one devote so much effort to increasing the wealth of some shareholders at the expense of one's own health, family, friends, personal and social development? Don't people realise that no matter how glorious one's current position might appear to be, a day will come when one will have to retire? And then what? Are the shareholders going to come to visit you in hospital and to hold your hand when you are so sick that you can barely ingest any food? Are the shareholders going to look after your loved ones?

I think that most societies should take a fresh look at the whole notion of work. Why do people work? What objectives should work allow us to achieve - as individuals and as a society? Shouldn't workers be treated with care from the cradle to the grave? Shouldn't work be more about building a better society characterised by healthy individuals rather than swelling the pockets of a relatively small number of people? The investigation continues...

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This Blog is Not Dead!

2010-02-14T11:36:00.002+01:00

No, this blog is not dead! I have been extremely busy with so many things during the last few months, but I hope to have some more Internet time for myself in order to publish new, thought-provoking posts in the near future. :)))

Great Song!!!

2009-12-12T11:19:00.001+01:00

The Changing Nature of Romantic Relationships

2009-12-01T18:51:00.005+01:00

Over the past few weeks, I have been able to count - at least - 4 people who went from being in a romantic relationship to single. One of these individuals had even, up to fairly recently, been planning to get married! All these break-ups made me wonder whether many people are finding it increasingly hard to work through certain problems in a relationship and to simply move on in search of something better. Could it also be that more and more people are less willing to commit themselves to long relationships in order to enjoy a higher degree of personal freedom?

In the absence of any scientific studies close at hand, it is hard to come up with any statistics about this issue. Rather than focusing on how prevalent such trends are, I would prefer to analyse the reasons underlying the aforementioned phenomena.

As more importance is given to the individual in the Western world, it could seem only natural for many people to dedicate more time and energy to themselves rather than to caring about others. Consequently, if a partner develops an addiction to something which is harming the relationship, it might seem better for certain individuals to just dump the partner instead of trying to help out in various ways.

The use and development of communications technology and the introduction of countless social networking sites appears to have fuelled the belief that a better partner could just be a mouse-click or an email away. Given the temptation and the ease to look for an "easier" relationship, many people are probably finding it less difficult to ditch a partner when confronted with certain problems.

The Internet has also made it considerably easier for thousands of human beings to obtain sexual pleasure without going through the process of getting involved in a lengthy romantic relationship. Such sites also allow people to go in search of those specific things which really turn them on. A Glamour article (December, 2009) that analysed the issue of women who have sex with people they meet via the Internet mentioned a website whereby "users select what they're into: one-on-one sex, discreet relationship, erotic chat/email/phone fantasies or group sex. Forget waiting until the third date; forget dating altogether. Most users on these sites just want sex, and they're fuelling a booming trend" (p. 162).

At this stage, what could be said about the future? Will there be more people who prefer to just hop from one fling or short-term relationship to another without even bothering about the type of commitment that is associated with marriage? Will there be a huge increase in the number of individuals who are over 35 and single? Will there be more loneliness as a result of a growing tendency to just be with someone for a brief spell of flirting and sexual activity? One final question: assuming that a person has only had casual sexual and short-term relationships over the course of his/her lifetime, how many of those individuals would come to visit that person when he/she is fairly old and perhaps dying from an incurable illness?

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A Trip to Spain...and Back to Malta!

2009-10-28T16:04:00.005+01:00

My wife and I returned from a brief holiday in Spain yesterday afternoon. The time we spent in Madrid and in Toledo was magical. It really felt as though we had visited another planet! Faced with the many beautiful things that Spain has to offer, neither one of us was particularly enthusiastic about returning to Malta.

When it comes to living in Malta, there are some very positive points that should be mentioned. One is the high level of safety that exists. Another positive point lies in the small distances that exist between one place and another; this makes it easy to visit many spots in one day.

Once a person has spent some time abroad (working or studying or even on a holiday), comparisons are virtually impossible to avoid. My heart sinks when I start making those comparisons and when I become aware of the several negative points associated with living in Malta. Since I had spent over a year working in Spain, it is extremely easy for me to list a number of problematic issues related to life on the Maltese Islands:

1.) Low salaries: At little over EUR 600 a month, the minimum wage in Malta is a joke. Furthermore, with the exception of certain jobs in a small number of areas, many people are paid a pittance when compared to how much they would earn to do the same thing in several other countries.

2.) High cost of living: There was a fairly long time during which Malta had the highest inflation rate in the European Union! How is the average worker supposed to live comfortably when they struggle to make ends meet with the relatively little money that they receive every month? Whilst in Spain, we took a taxi from Puerta del Sol to the Barajas airport (a drive of around 20 minutes). The trip cost us around EUR 22,00. In Malta, one might easily end up paying the same amount of money to take a taxi from Ta' Xbiex to St Julian's (a drive that is often less than 10 minutes long).

3.) Public transport: The public transport system in Malta is a disgrace. Many buses are incredibly old, dirty, and uncomfortable. If you live in, say, Tarxien and need to go to work in Mosta, you would need to wake up very early in order to make sure that you get to work on time. In Spain, the public transport system is absolutely great! The use of the subway allows one to travel from one part of a city to another in only a few minutes. The buses are clean and air-conditioned.

4.) Entertainment: Malta is so small that after a few months, one would have done it all, seen it all...After a while, one ends up going to the same places, seeing the same people, doing the same things. Yes, there are exhibitions here and there, but it can be expensive to attend some of them and it may also be hard to go as a result of the poor public transport system. In a place like Spain, it is so easy to go from, say, Madrid to Toledo and feel as though you are visiting another country!

5.) Degree of conservatism: Although there have been some changes during the past few years, Maltese society could still be regarded as a very conservative one. To me, it is ridiculous that there are still huge debates about whether there should be a condom machine on the University campus! *rolls eyes* When it comes to religion, although fewer people are going regularly to Sunday Mass, the Roman Catholic Church is still quite powerful in Malta. Indeed, a huge number of youth organisations are somewhat linked to the Church.

6.) Making friends: Since many Maltese people do not move from their family homes until they get married, it is plausible to say that most individuals born in Malta stick to the same group of friends throughout their lives. This group would normally include childhood schoolfriends and some other people encountered at work/in some religious organisation. Once it is formed, a Maltese social group tends to be quite strong and does not allow an easy entry to "outsiders". This situation is very different from the one witnessed in other European countries whereby individuals often move to other cities for various reasons (such as finding a good job). In such cases, the person who moves has to start from scratch and this makes it easier to move from one social group to another. Furthermore, the fact that there are more secular groups abroad makes it easier for non-religious people to make friends.

In a nutshell, I strongly believe that Malta is a great place for people who have a certain type of job, are religious, do not have to depend on public transport, are fairly conservative, and who have belonged to a strong social network for many years. I do not match this profile and I do not, therefore, feel very comfortable living in Malta. Yes, things will probably get better as time goes by, but life is short and I am not willing to wait decades until Malta can offer what I can find today in many other countries...

To Love and to Be Loved

2009-08-18T14:08:00.004+02:00

Like millions of other teenagers, shortly after my 13th birthday, I was really looking forward to having a girlfriend. Unfortunately, the fact that I was attending a boys-only school and that I had no young female relatives made it quite hard to have access to potential girlfriends.

As time went by, the desire became stronger, but I was not having any success at all. All my friends were males and they did not have any female friends. Whenever we used to go out, my mind used to be flooded with images of gorgeous girls and my heart used to be racing like a Formula One car! During those times (and throughout most of my teens), I was extremely shy and that certainly did not help me to start a conversation with a girl I fancied.

By the time I was 18, I had still not had a romantic or sexual relationship with a girl. As more and more people of my age group were talking about having sex here and there as well as about moving from one relationship to another, I felt very sad. It seemed as though everybody was managing to find somebody to love whereas I often felt as though I were invisible.

Shortly after my 19th birthday, the use of the Internet allowed me to get in touch with various single girls. I went out on several dates, but virtually all my encounters were sexless one-night stands. Looking back, I am aware that my appearance during that time could have been better, but it was very painful to go from one date to another - hoping that something would eventually happen - only to be told that it would be better to be "just friends". Of course, whenever things went wrong, the usual phrases were used: "you're not my type", "I got back with an ex-boyfriend", "there was no chemistry", etc. There were even a couple of instances whereby the girls were even fairly malicious - one of them (who is still single) told me that we could not even be friends after our first and only date. Another girl saw me shortly before we met and said that I was so "not her type" that she was not even interested in being just friends!

With such a shocking dating history, I started wondering whether I would ever find somebody to love. A person with whom I could share the ups and downs of my life. An individual who would care about me. I started worrying that I was going to end up like Friedrich Nietzsche (photo posted above). The latter had been a very influential philosopher, but his life was characterised by a horrendous degree of loneliness and unrequited love.

My fears were washed away a few years later when I had my first romantic relationship. Although I am presently happily married, I have occasionally come across blogs written by individuals who are in their late 20s/early 30s and who are still virgins/have never had a romantic relationship. Whenever I read some of their posts, their feelings and thoughts mirror a great deal of what had gone through my mind when I was in a similar situation.

As I come across such blogs, one question comes to my mind: is it becoming harder for certain people to love and to be loved in our times? Considering the individualistic cult - which encourages the belief that if you are fine, you do not have to worry about anyone else - and the enormous pressure to look/dress in a specific way, it is plausible to argue that a number of people might be feeling excluded and totally forgotten when they fail to conform to society's expectations. As a person feels increasingly distant from most of the other members of a particular society, there is a greater likelihood for that individual to suffer from a number of behavioural problems (e.g., depression).

When talking about involuntary single people who have reached a certain age and have still not been in a romantic/sexual relationship, the feeling that "something is wrong with me" could be highlighted by the fact that this reality is almost completely ignored in literature and in most cinematic/TV productions. I remember that even though the Ally McBeal TV series had shed some light on the problems faced by a single woman in trying to find a romantic partner, she was clearly not a virgin or a person who was still trying to go on her first date. Many issues that a virgin has to deal with are different from those of an individual who has had some sexual experience.

Talking about TV productions, I believe that these could often be detrimental in the way that they portray a number of people who do not conform to Western society's expectations. The movie about the 40-year-old virgin was regarded as a comedy, suggesting that a human being who gets to that age and is still a virgin is a figure of ridicule.

Tackling this matter in a scientific way, there must be reasons to explain why Person A goes out there and is hit upon by various individuals whereas Person B may go out there every day and feel as though he/she is invisible. I think that, whether we like it or not, looks play a big part in all this. Many societies have been brainwashing us so much about the importance of having the slender, tanned, athletic physique that whoever does not fit into that equation might have a harder time in finding a partner. In my case, I still remember that some of the girls did not seem to be interested because of my complexion and because I was not 6 feet tall. :) Dress is also important. Although it is not necessary to wear the most trendy items, it is important to wear something which transmits the message that "I care about the way I present myself". The same discourse applies to hairstyles and to other accessories, such as the sunglasses one wears.

Social skills are also extremely important. The subject matter of a conversation, the tone used, the dominance of a conversation....these are all things that could make a difference.

Of course, all this is easier said than done. A person who is obese cannot expect to change overnight. Having said that, weight is thankfully one area that could be controlled. It is much worse when we are dealing with characteristics whereby medical science still cannot be of great help (are there any pills that would allow one to grow taller???).

It is very understandable that the thought process following a rejection or surrounding one's chronic single status could be quite painful. Indeed, a 27-year-old female blogger wrote that "I am trying not to dwell on the reasons why no-one has ever been interested in me romantically, or at least not enough to do anything about it, because it is too depressing, and frankly, too humiliating. Terminal loneliness is fairly ghastly at the best of times, and when a difficult patch in life coincides with the realisation that the overwhelming majority of ones’ close friends are married, engaged or likely to be that way within the next year, it’s pretty hard to take. I think even my mother, previously the champion of remaining independent and only being ‘friends’ with men – and she doesn’t mean the sort with benefits – has started to realise that there is something fundamentally off about a twenty-seven year old daughter who has zero romantic history. Single and twenty-seven is one thing. Twenty-seven, with no past entanglements at all is quite another."

As a chronically single person grows older and more of their friends become entangled in romantic relationships or start having families, it becomes easier to think that "something must be wrong with me". Furthermore, as previously single friends are no longer available, it is very likely that such people will experience severe loneliness. Katya, a blogger in her 30s, wrote the following about many of her weekends: "A lot of my weekends I don’t do much at all, and what I do do doesn’t vary much – grocery or clothes shopping, watching TV at home, a trip to the shop to buy a newspaper, a visit to church (yes I go to church but that’s most definitely not why I’m a virgin. I disagree with a fair few of the church’s rules on sex and relationships). Obviously all of this is done alone. Often the only people I speak to are shop assistants as I hand over money".

I strongly believe that many societies could do more to help those people who yearn to love and to be loved. Local councils could organise events for single individuals to meet and to do things together. Even if no sparks fly following a couple of events, it would still be possible to develop new friendships with people who are in a similar situation. Local councils could also organise a number of events aimed at boosting the participants' self-confidence. Of course, for such events to be organised in the first place, it is fundamental to live in a caring society. A society where no person is left behind.

It is hard to regard most Western societies as caring ones. Yet, it is never too late to start doing something to change the status quo. It is never too late to start contributing to the building of a better world for everyone.

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Things I Still Cannot Explain

2009-08-18T12:54:00.004+02:00

I consider myself to be a very scientific person. Having studied psychology, I enjoy analysing things. Furthermore, I believe that understanding the world allows us to make a number of positive changes. When people stop questioning things, it becomes quite easy for them to absorb many beliefs in a dogmatic way. For the past few years, I have always ended up pushing religion away from my life because it is way too hard for me to believe something just because I am told that it is the "Truth".

Having studied a bit of physics, I am aware that there are a lot of things going on in the universe which we cannot witness with our naked eye. Of course, the fact that we cannot see something does not mean that it does not exist. The electron had existed for countless centuries, but it was not identified before 1897. Having said this, the discovery of certain particles in the universe is hard to compare with the discovery of, say, an entity that plays an active part in human life.

Although I believe that various phenomena could be explained quite easily nowadays, there are a few things which I still cannot explain. Two specific events are mentioned below.

The Prediction

In October 2006, the Malta Labour Party won the general election. The Labour Party had not been in power since 1987. A few days following the Labour Party's 1996 victory, I remember that I was talking to some friends at the Junior College in Msida. One of them said that a certain woman from Girgenti had predicted that Dr Alfred Sant's government would not last for more than 2 years. (I believe that the same woman was also famous for having visions of "the Virgin".) When I heard the prediction, I was very sceptical; I told the guy that since Malta had become a Republic in 1974, such a thing had never happened. In September 1998 - almost two years following the Labour Party's victory - a crisis within the Labour Party sparked an early election. The Labour Party lost that election and the Nationalist Party was returned to power.

A Visit to a Psychic Medium

In July 2008, I went to a Maltese psychic medium. Although I had read a great deal about a number of famous psychic mediums such as James Van Praagh, I had never been to one. I had received some positive feedback about the Maltese medium and I decided to go with a very open mind. I clearly remember that I called from a phone that did not belong to me, but I cannot recall whether I gave my name. The reading took place around two days after I called.

At first, the guy seemed to be completely off the mark. He said that there were three spirits close to me. One was of a young male called Ivan. The medium stated that he was a dancer from Santa Venera. Nothing.

He then described a woman who seemed to match my mom's physical description ("light-coloured eyes, fair, and stout"). During the session, I was taking notes, but I was not volunteering any information. The medium said that there was a family connection between me and her, meaning that she was a blood relative. The medium was supposedly conveying information that he was receiving from my mom when he told me "inti ma tantx temmen" ("you are not much of a believer") and "inti z-zghir" ("you are the young one"). True. The most shocking part came when the medium told me the exact date of her passing! He was also spot-on regarding the cause of her death.

I am aware of the fact that with reference to both cases mentioned above, it is still possible to argue that the "information" was the result of guesswork. Having said this, I keep asking myself: was it just guesswork? Or could it be that such cases represent phenomena that still cannot be explained very easily using our current knowledge of the universe?

What Makes a Communist?

2009-07-31T16:54:00.002+02:00

Almost whenever the term "Communism" is mentioned, many people tend to think of a secret police force, labour camps, repression...but what does it mean to be a Communist in the 21st century?

Several decades ago, Liu Shaoqi had written an essay entitled How to Be a Good Communist. Although written many years ago, certain parts of his work could still be relevant to our times. Take a look at the following excerpt:

"What is our most fundamental duty as Party members? It is to achieve communism. As far as the Communist Parties of different countries are concerned, in each country it is for the Communist Party and the people there to transform it by their own efforts, and in that way the whole world will be transformed step by step into a communist world. Will the communist world be good? We all know it will be. In that world there will be no exploiters of oppressors, no landlords and capitalists, no imperialists and fascists, nor will there be any oppressed and exploited people, or any of the darkness, ignorance and backwardness resulting from the system of exploitation. In such a society the production of both material and moral values will develop and flourish mightily and will meet the varied needs of all its members. By then all humanity will consist of unselfish, intelligent, highly cultured and skilled communist workers; mutual assistance and affection will prevail among men and there will be no such irrationalities as mutual suspicion and deception, mutual injury, mutual slaughter and war. It will of course be the best, the most beautiful and the most advanced society in human history. Who can deny that such a society is good? But can this good communist society be built? We say that it can and will be. Marxist-Leninist theory has explained this scientifically and beyond all doubt. A factual testimony has been provided by the victory of the Great October revolution and the successes in socialist construction in the Soviet Union. Our duty is constantly to advance the cause socialism and communism in accordance with the laws of development of human society, so as to make socialist and communist society a reality as soon as possible. This is our ideal."

When looking back at what happened in Russia and in Eastern Europe during the existence of the Soviet Union, there is no doubt that many mistakes will be identified. Having said this, it is important to bear the following points in mind:

1.) A top-down approach to doing things was very common for a fairly long period of time in human history and certain changes in one's behaviour do not happen overnight;

2.) Russia and the Eastern European countries spent decades living in a state of siege (one should not forget the fear of a nuclear war during the times of the Cold War). When a population lives under such conditions, there tends to be a certain degree of paranoia.

3.) The construction of Socialism on the scale witnessed during the 20th century was unprecedented. Of course, when you are trying to do something for the first time, you are bound to commit a number of mistakes.

The mistakes committed by various Communist parties during the 20th century might have discouraged many potential Communists from joining such organisations. A 21st century Communist will admit that several mistakes occurred in the past, but he/she will criticise those errors so that they will not be repeated in the future.

At this stage, it is very important to note that just because one or more Communist parties committed numerous errors does not mean that the whole Communist belief system is wrong and that it should be discarded in favour of....neoliberalism?? Superstition? Communists have traditionally attached a great deal of importance to scientific thinking. Unlike the typical religious fanatic, a Communist knows that what might seem good today might need to be revised tomorrow. Marxism-Leninism was never intended to be a dogma.

So, what makes a Communist in the 21st century? I would say that the defining characteristic of a Communist is their strong desire to put an end to the capitalist economic model in order to replace it with a much fairer system. A system whereby resources are shared and distributed according to need.

The past should be discussed and analysed, but it is important to be able to move on in a constructive way. As stated in an article published by the Progressive Labour Party, "The working class has no reason to hang on to outmoded ideas, refight old battles, or embrace errors made by our heroic ancestors in the communist movement." It is essential to identify other groups in society that have had enough of capitalism so that more attention could be given to what unites such groups rather than what keeps them apart. At the end of the day, capitalism enjoys the support of several millionaires and billionaires; without a strong opposition, it would be extremely hard to do much in terms of social justice.

There are many parties that do not call themselves Communist, but which offer many interesting arguments when discussing the struggle against capitalism. Taking the Socialist Workers Party as an example, this organisation does not describe itself as a Communist one and it is very critical of the events that took place in Russia and in Eastern Europe during the existence of the Soviet Union. This does not mean that whatever they say is incorrect. I believe that the 21st-century Communist should be able to identify those points where it is possible to agree and to also employ rational arguments to criticise any assertions that might not appear to be factually correct.

I have recently borrowed a book entitled Anti-Capitalism: A Guide to the Movement. Published in 2001, the book contains numerous articles written by members of the Socialist Workers Party. Although I did not agree with the contents of every article written by the representatives of this party, I found myself agreeing with many of the points mentioned by Colin Baxter, one of the contributors to the book. I think that few Communists would disagree with the following words penned by Baxter:

"Those who hope to change things by persuading corporate bosses to behave morally are genuine utopians." (p. 330)

"Capitalism depends on an ever-expanding class of workers. Each, to live, must enter into a contract of unfreedom, agreeing to obey their employer. Each must compete with other workers for the privilege of being bossed and exploited. Each, to eat, must spend her wages on goods produced, not for need, but for profit. Workers for Ford, Nike, Safeway and McDonald's don't simply make cars, shoes, groceries, hamburgers; through their effort and weary sweat they reproduce and fatten the corporation bosses and their system." (p. 330)

"The capitalist system absolutely dominates the world, shaping everything humankind does." (pp. 330 - 331)

"So far as the working class is concerned, the argument goes, surely it's not the force it used to be? It's shrunk, it's defeated, it no longer has the capacity to change the world. But what's the working class? It's not confined to manufacturing. It's not confined to manual jobs. It's composed of everyone who, in order to live, must depend on earning a wage. In those terms, it's still growing. Shop assistants in supermarkets, computer technicians, teachers, nurses, bank and insurance workers and the like are, in the proper sense, workers...Today the majority of the world's population are workers - or would-be workers, the unemployed." (p. 332)

"A strategy for changing the world that doesn't directly involve that majority will always fail. Socialism has to speak to every facet of people's lives, and not least their working lives. It has to be about the majority empowering themselves, taking control of their workplaces themselves, putting themselves as people before profit..." (p. 333)

"Socialists have to change: they must be more open to impulses from without, more discussive in style, more able to relate to a multitude of new issues and arguments. They need to learn new ways of uniting in agreed common action with people who agree with them on many things but not all. Socialist organisations need, of course, to be inwardly democratic." (p. 335)

As more time goes by, it is hoped that more people will learn about how destructive capitalism is. Hopefully, more people will also learn about the possibility of building a much better world by embracing Socialism. There is no time to waste. As long as capitalism is allowed to reign, thousands of people will continue starving, losing their jobs, losing their homes, and seeing the environment around them being destroyed in order to generate huge profits.

A Sad Conversation

2009-07-31T16:24:00.002+02:00

A few days ago, I received a call at work. The person had applied for a post and he was calling to enquire about whether the vacancy was still open following his interview. The caller had apparently been unemployed for over a year.

When he called, I already knew that the post was no longer vacant. I told him so. He thanked me for the answer. As he did so, I could sense a certain degree of sadness in his voice.

When I put the phone down, I felt angry and sad. What has happened to the right to work? Why can't the government do more to eliminate unemployment in this country? Given that Malta is supposed to have the highest inflation rate in the EU, could you imagine what life might be like for a person who has been unable to find a job in over a year?

A Visit to the Public Library

2009-07-31T16:09:00.002+02:00

Last Saturday, La Delirante and I visited the public library at Belt is-Sebh. This library had been built for the masses by a Socialist government in the 1970s. It is important to remember that back then, a relatively small percentage of the population was able to buy books on a regular basis. The library was, therefore, an excellent place for a person to visit in order to borrow a book and acquire knowledge without paying anything.

One of the most interesting things about the aforementioned library is that it has several books that are no longer found in local bookshops. For example, I borrowed a book entitled The Marxist-Leninist Teaching of Socialism and the World Today. Published in 1978, the book was printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Such books are extremely engaging because they reveal several thoughts that were popular during a specific period of time.

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Stephen Gowans - A Different Voice

2009-06-29T09:50:00.003+02:00

I discovered Stephen Gowans's blog, What's Left, around two years ago. I consider it to be an extremely interesting blog that dares to challenge many of the dominant ideas that are broadcast by various pro-capitalist TV channels in the Western world. Furthermore, his posts are usually backed by extensive research.

Sadly, the views of bloggers such as Stephen Gowans do not seem to attract much attention. This could be due to the fact that when one does not have the sort of capital that various TV news channels have, it is extremely difficult to make oneself heard.

Earlier on today, I came across an article that he had written in April 2009. Although the article focused on Cuba, I was struck by the last part of the post. Talking about former East Germany, Gowans stated that "After experiencing two decades of a resurrected capitalism, half of East Germans want to return to what they had before. Reuters, hardly known for promoting socialism, revealed that a public opinion poll had found that 52 percent of East Germans had no confidence in capitalism, and most of them wanted to return to a socialist economy." A 46-year-old IT worker from East Berlin said, "We read about the ‘horrors of capitalism’ in school. They really got that right. Karl Marx was spot on. I had a pretty good life before the Wall fell. No one worried about money because money didn’t really matter. You had a job even if you didn’t want one. The communist idea wasn’t all that bad."

Taking a look at the comments that were left regarding the aforementioned post, I was struck by the first one. More specifically, one of the readers wrote the following:

"I was born in an Eastern European country which was formerly communist. My Dad did not have much love for that system, but even he admitted that there were good things about it.

1. Paid vacations for all. There were government resorts where you paid a pittance to go with your family and not have to worry about being broke after coming back.

2. Free health care. When there was a public health risk because of a disease, ie flu, the authorities immediately setup mobile vaccination units and told people to immediately get vaccinated. If you did not, they came to your house and made sure you got one (for free, of course)

3. You always had a job and when you got old, you were guaranteed a pension and could live out the rest of your days in peace.

4. It was against the law to be unemployed. If someone did not want to work, and they were healthy, the government found a job for you.

5. Public order and a very low crime rate.

This author is right about the fact that socialist countries may not have offered the high end luxuries that capitalist countries offered, but in a socialist country everyone was guaranteed a safe life with all the basics taken care of.
Many people there would like to go back to the old socialist system.
The world has two choices: luxuries and high tech toys in a capitalist system, or do without them but have all the basics taken care of in a socialist system.
It’s really a trade-off."

Using a Marxist-Leninist analysis of current events, I believe that Stephen Gowans does a great job when discussing the nature of journalism. Many people hardly ever seem to pause to question certain features on TV or to go beyond what is written in a newspaper article. Gowans, on the other hand, stimulates the reader to ask a number of very important questions pertaining to the media: who is writing an article? What is that journalist's socio-political background? What message are they trying to convey via a specific article? What issues might have been brushed aside for fear that they could challenge the points raised in the article? Focusing on the two US journalists who were recently tried and convicted in North Korea, Gowans wrote the following:

"Are Ling and Lee politically neutral? No journalist, no matter how hard she strives to be impartial, is free from class or national allegiances. As journalists employed by capitalists based in the dominant imperialist power, it is inevitable their reporting on north Korea would have had a decidedly pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist tilt, at odds with north Korea’s interests. Ling and Lee are every bit as much warriors in the struggle between Washington and Pyongyang over the question of whether the whole of the Korean peninsula will be dominated by US geopolitical interests as US military and intelligence personnel and Washington decision-makers are. Their battlefield, while it may not be one of missiles and artillery, is people’s minds, and is every bit as important. Ling and Lee are not innocent, politically neutrally journalists, who accidentally stumbled across the north Korean border. They are promoters of an imperialist ideology who almost certainly intruded illegally on north Korea with unfriendly intentions. The evidence suggests they are guilty as charged."

The Overwork Culture

2009-06-26T16:29:00.003+02:00

Today I managed to listen to some music. A few songs that I really wanted to listen to. I managed to listen to some good music for more than 20 minutes. I have not been able to do something so simple in a relatively long time. Why?

When I return from work during the week (at around 17:30), I am usually so tired and hungry that my first thoughts normally revolve around food. What am I going to eat? Are the necessary ingredients available in the kitchen? How long will the cooking take?

Once the food issue is dealt with, the Insurance Law coursebook on one of the tables reminds me that my exam is only a few months away. And that I still have to memorise tons of cases, some of which date back to the 18th century!

All the above after what is normally a fairly hectic day at the office. I really enjoy what I do, but the never-ending demands coming from above and the ultra-tight deadlines that are sometimes given could easily make one feel pretty squeezed! :)

When surveying various workplaces in Malta (and even abroad), it seems that there has been a great intensification of the work done by several employees over the past decade or so. As far as skills are concerned, it appears that many employers have been expecting more flexibility from an increasing number of workers. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to hear various individuals saying that they are doing the work that should be done by three people!

The intensification of the work done by thousands of employees could be regarded as a product of the overwork culture. A few months ago, I read an excellent book by Madeleine Bunting about this subject entitled Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives (2004). Focusing on the British working environment, the book's blurb states that "Work-related stress is soaring and Britain has one of the highest rates of job insecurity in the world. Over a third of the workforce is so exhausted at the end of a day's work that they can only slump on the sofa...Technology was supposed to create a leisure society. Yet the British are experiencing job intensification in every office, classroom, shopfloor and hospital as a cult of efficiency drives ever more exacting targets. The phenomenon has been masked by a type of management which promises much but delivers one of the most exploitative and manipulative work cultures developed since the Industrial Revolution."

Although the book deals mainly with the situation of many workers in Britain, there are many parallels that could be drawn when focusing on Malta. For instance, I believe that the following assertion could also apply to many employees in Malta, even though the statistics might be a bit different: "Nearly 46 per cent of men and 32 per cent of women work more hours than they are contracted for...For about 2.4 million [people] there's no overtime pay; their organisations depend on motivating the free labour they need because it is one of their cheapest resources. Don't employ more people, just devise an organisational culture which will ensure that people will give you their free time for free" (p. 7).

I yearn for more hours to spend doing other things besides working. It would be so nice if the working day were shorter so that one could have more time to spend with their loved ones. Or to indulge in various activities.

In view of the above, I keep asking myself: where are the trade unions? Where are the organisations campaigning for an acceptable work-life balance? And which political party is really doing something about the overwork culture that has, unfortunately, also invaded our country?

It is now time to go back to my work-related studies...

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Untitled Michael Moore Film - Official Trailer

2009-06-21T18:01:00.001+02:00

Looks good! :))

Another Look at the DPRK

2009-06-19T16:10:00.002+02:00

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been the subject of a great deal of criticism for many years. Most of the "news" channels of the Western world tend to repeat the same stories over and over again until most people hardly ever stop to question what they are hearing or seeing. Some of the most popular criticisms are that thousands of people are starving to death, no criticism of the government is tolerated, and that the country is still living in the Stone Age.

I have recently had the opportunity to review some literature that was published fairly recently in the DPRK. More specifically, I am referring to the Korea Today magazine and to The Pyongyang Times. I was struck by how different such literature is when comparing it to several magazines that are printed in other countries (including Malta).

First and foremost, when flipping through the pages, one does not come across countless pages that advertise things that are often beyond the reach of several people. With reference to some of the local publications that are included in the Sunday newspapers, if one had to tear out the pages showing the adverts, one is left with very little reading material.

Second, I was impressed by the content itself. In strongly capitalist countries, numerous magazines focus on the lives of a handful of ultra-rich individuals (company directors, singers, etc.). In such publications, the individual is frequently given much more importance than the society in which they live. A magazine such as Korea Today, on the other hand, is packed with articles about social issues. Furthermore, the individual is almost always depicted as a member of the collective.

In order to show the difference between the literature that is often found in North Korea and that found in strongly capitalist countries, I decided to focus on an article entitled If They Could See Their Houses. The latter focused on Kwangmyong Village, where 35 blocks of houses were specifically constructed for blind people. The article states that "Officials of the district People's Committee and the district Workers' Party of Korea committee decided to build houses for the blind residents first as part of the plan to facelift streets and villages in the district as required by the new century. They had always given primary thought to the blind working at the Sungho Kwangmyong Daily Necessities Factory. With the blind in their district, they had acquainted themselves with every article of the DPRK law on protecting the handicapped whereby they are to be treated preferentially by the public and their life is to be taken responsible care of by the state, and put the articles into practice" (Korea Today, 2, Juche 98 [2009],p. 24). Sadly, it seems that such articles are never mentioned by the most popular "news" channels in the Western world.

It is not true that the literature published in North Korea never deals with certain problems. I have, for example, seen articles that mentioned the food problems that affected the DPRK between 1995 and the year 2000. The difference between these articles and the ones that are usually found in capitalist countries tends to be characterised by the analyses that are carried out; a person who is interested in overthrowing the DPRK's socialist government is likely to argue that any food problems were caused because of the Workers' Party of Korea and might even come up with a few figures that are quite hard to verify whereas a more rigorous study of North Korea's situation during the aforementioned years would indicate that many natural disasters as well as various economic sanctions did contribute to a certain degree of hardship for several people in the DPRK. Such problems do not, however, suggest that socialism does not work and that the government led by the Workers' Party of Korea should be overthrown so that it could be replaced by a capitalist party.

Talking about food problems, I have recently discovered a website called Feeding America. According to the latter, "for 1 in 8 Americans, hunger is a reality. Many people believe that the problems associated with hunger are confined to small pockets of society, certain areas of the country, or certain neighborhoods, but the reality is much different.

Right now, millions of Americans are struggling with hunger. We all know and are in contact with people affected by hunger, even though we might not be aware of it.

These are often hard-working adults, children and seniors who simply cannot make ends meet and are forced to go without food for several meals, or even days. Most of us simply have no idea. It’s time to educate ourselves about America’s hunger problem." (italics added for emphasis)

In spite of the alarming food situation for millions of individuals in the US, it is hard to come across an article or a feature on one of the popular TV channels that asserts that the US government should be overthrown in order to solve this problem!!!

The aim of this article is not to say that there are no problems in the DPRK. The objective is to get more people to question what life is really like in that part of the world. And to reflect about the fact that just because the government in the DPRK opposes capitalism, it does not mean that it is evil.

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A Blog Award

2009-06-18T22:05:00.002+02:00

This beautiful blog award was received from G. She thought that it could look a bit girlish, but I guess that it's the thought that really matters... :))

I would like to present this award to Ninu Hadida and to Progressive Malta. :)

Another Political Party in Malta?

2009-06-09T18:46:00.002+02:00

Following last Saturday's EU Parliament elections, many people are debating the future of small parties such as Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) and Azzjoni Nazzjonali (AN). Compared to the 2004 elections, Norman Lowell's Imperium Europa did better this time round, but it still failed to garner enough votes to really make a difference to the way things are done in Malta or on a European level.

With reference to AD and to AN, I have never believed that such parties would go very far in Malta. First, when one is battling with two other parties that have their own newspapers, TV channels, and radio stations, it is incredibly hard to convey one's message to the electorate in the same way that is done by the two biggest local parties (i.e., the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party). Second, even though a party might be excellent at drawing popular attention to certain issues, if that party is not perceived as an organisation that is guided by a specific ideology, many people might not feel sufficiently attracted to it to give it the first preference during an election. Over the past few years, AD had frequently talked about a number of civil rights such as divorce, but the campaigning was not particularly strong and it is highly questionable that thousands of people would vote for AD because of one issue. No ideology, no road map, no vote. That is, I believe, the way many people think when it comes to small parties that only focus on particular issues without displaying the struggle for certain goals as a result of an ideological process.

Sadly, even though the European Parliament contains a group of parties that emphasise the importance of having an ideology, Malta has still not witnessed any organisations belonging to this group. More specifically, I am talking about the GUE/NGL group. The latter consists of a number of parties from various countries that strongly oppose the neoliberal economic model that has been embraced to different degrees by numerous European countries. The parties in this group believe in a different Europe. A more social Europe.

Many people could argue that as a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Labour Party could contribute to the construction of a more social Europe. I do believe that it is better to have a social-democratic party in power rather than a centre-right one such as the Nationalist Party, but the relatively poor performance exhibited by a number of other social-democratic parties in countries such as the UK and Spain could lead to one very important question: how can a party criticise the effects of capitalism and promise a different way of life without locking horns with the capitalist economic model?

Taking Malta as an example, both the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party stress the need for the creation of more jobs. When the government is unable to create more jobs on its own (possibly because it has sold most of its assets to a number of individuals), it will attempt to lure foreign investors to our shores. The key question here is: why would that person or company decide to set up shop here in Malta? Is it because they are being promised lower taxes compared to other countries? Is it because the "new jobs" would offer ridiculously low salaries to the employees? These are just some of the questions that I ask myself when I listen to the rhetoric of several politicians.

Will Malta witness another political party? A party that could truly contribute to the construction of a more social Europe by implementing a number of genuinely social policies? Only time will tell...

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A Massive Blow to Dr Gonzi's Government

2009-06-07T16:25:00.004+02:00

The first result is finally available! And it is extremely clear that the Labour Party has won the EU Parliament election in Malta.

After more than a month of destructive propaganda by the Nationalist Party (PN), a clear message was sent to Dr Gonzi's government in yesterday's election - his administration no longer enjoys the support of a majority of Maltese voters. From this day onwards, Dr Gonzi and the rest of the PN team need to bear this message in mind as they continue delivering one blow after another to countless members of the working class in Malta.

A quick look at the PN's electoral campaign suggests that it failed to address many issues that were affecting thousands of Maltese families. It is not enough to simply promise to create more job opportunities in Malta when several people are struggling to make ends meet. Dr Gonzi failed to offer concrete solutions in terms of how he was going to address the precarious employment conditions endured by numerous workers (especially those in the 18-25 years age group), the incredibly high inflation rate, the water and electricity bills...Instead of focusing on these fundamental matters, a great deal of time and energy were wasted criticising Dr Joseph Muscat's apparent lack of punctuality and on trying to deceive the Maltese electorate that the Labour Party was still sceptical about Malta's position within the EU!

Shocking!!!

2009-06-07T12:11:00.002+02:00

Whilst awaiting the EU Parliament election results, I was thinking about an article that I read a few minutes ago. The article was entitled Shortage of nurses at Mater Dei emergency.

Just a few days ago, whilst listening to one of Dr Gonzi's speeches, he was boasting about Mater Dei, the hospital that has often been described as a "state-of-the-art" one. During his speech, Dr Gonzi seemed to forget that when it comes to hospitals, the most important thing is that patients are given the most appropriate treatment they require. When a person needs to undergo an emergency operation and is constrained to wait for a number of hours due to a shortage of nurses, something is clearly very wrong! According to the aforementioned article penned by Cynthia Busuttil, "Patients requiring emergency surgery are at times made to wait because there are not enough nursing staff to man Mater Dei's emergency theatres..."

Scary and shocking news!!!

Waiting...waiting...

2009-06-07T11:53:00.003+02:00

The TV has been on since 8:30 this morning. Apart from checking the latest reports on the different channels, I have also been monitoring the news on the Internet.

The vote counting is expected to start pretty soon. I am sure that thousands of individuals will be glued to their TV screens as they look for any signs of the winning party.

The waiting game can sometimes be a fairly tiring process. Some journalists keep repeating the same list of statistics over and over...and over again! *Yawn*

Looking forward to the start of the vote counting in Naxxar!

The Big Day Has Finally Arrived!

2009-06-06T15:48:00.003+02:00

I went to vote in Ta' Xbiex a few hours ago. I did not see many people at the voting station and I was ready in less than 5 minutes.

Since my wife is still not a Maltese citizen, she was unable to vote. Whilst I was voting inside, she was instructed to stay at a distance of, at least, 50 metres from the voting station. Thinking that I had my mobile phone with me, she sent me a message to let me know that she was going to meet me at home. When I finished voting, I never saw the message since I had left my mobile phone at home! I waited for a couple of minutes near the entrance of the voting station, hoping to get a glimpse of La Delirante. Nothing. When one of the police officers saw me just standing there, he asked me if I had already voted. I replied affirmatively and told him that I was waiting for my wife. He informed me that I could wait for her at a distance of, at least, 50 metres away from where we were standing!

I walked away, hoping that La Delirante was not looking for me inside the building!! I stopped at the street corner, where some political party observers were taking notes. After a couple of minutes, one of them told me, "I think she went home". I had no idea who that man was and I am sure that I looked quite puzzled there. I asked him, "Are you sure that it was her? She was wearing a pink top." The guy replied: "Yes, yes, it was her. I live in the building in front of you and I have often seen you together." Good gosh, I thought to myself! I cannot recall ever seeing the guy and he seems to know about many of my behaviours!!! An excellent example of neighbourhood watch! :-)

When I returned home, I was just zapping from one TV channel to another in order to get the latest news. The different Maltese channels were not saying much. I watched the footage of Dr Gonzi, Dr Muscat, and Dr Abela going to vote. I also heard that compared to the 2004 European Parliament elections, there were an additional 5,000 or so votes that were not collected. This means that even though Malta has been a member of the European Union for 5 years and even though an increasing amount of Maltese legislation is originating in the EU institutions, there are more people who are not interested in the EU today than in 2004.

I just hope that those people who did not bother to collect their vote will not go around complaining that things are bad in Malta and that there is little one could do to change the current state of affairs. I believe that even though one might not agree with all the beliefs associated with a particular political party, it will always be possible to identify a party that shares a good number of one's principles. As we saw in the 2008 general election, every vote counts and every vote is fundamental to either maintain the status quo or to change the way numerous things are being done in this country. Fair enough, the EU Parliament elections should not be regarded as national elections, but with so many laws coming from the EU, many national policies are going to be reflecting decisions that were taken in the EU Parliament.

By the way, for those of you taking a look at the photo posted above, even though there is a PN flag in the background, please rest assured that I did NOT vote for that party! :-))

Members of One Family

2009-06-04T20:44:00.003+02:00

Many years ago, there was a Queen song that I really liked called “All God’s People”. During that time, I was still a member of the Roman Catholic Church and I was strongly attracted to the notion that all human beings are members of one family. It felt nice to think that all the people who have ever lived could be regarded as my brothers and sisters. Believing that life was eternal, it felt even nicer to think that no matter how many conflicts there have been in this world, a day would come when all human beings would be able to live together in an atmosphere of peace and love.

As time went by, I drifted away from the Roman Catholic Church and from all religious organizations. I never, however, stopped believing in how much better this world could be if we all attempted to regard each other as brothers and sisters. It is true that our own imperfections and the faults we perceive in many other people sometimes create a great deal of tension. Yet, if a person is committed to the ideal of living with others as members of one loving family, it becomes easier to overcome various impasses and to seek reconciliation.

Sadly, the cynicism exhibited by several people about human beings and what I have termed as the “individualist cult” have strongly contributed to a society often characterized by a shocking degree of selfishness. It could be that many individuals have become much more selfish because the economic model that has been adopted in many countries promotes such behaviour. Given the cut-throat competition that exists between numerous companies as they indulge their greed, it is not surprising that countless individuals are encouraged to believe that the only way to live decently in contemporary society is by embracing the social Darwinist creed that “only the fittest will survive”. On an almost daily basis, people all over the world are bombarded with TV shows about competing with the proverbial neighbour in order to be considered as more beautiful, more “talented”…and all this done to become rich and to acquire the power that is associated with fame. Nowadays, children below the age of 10 are sometimes gripped by despair when they get a B instead of an A in certain subjects at school!!

The “individualist cult” has pervaded numerous countries. Malta is surely no exception. The sickening number of dance and singing competitions that are held on an almost monthly basis bear witness to this point. Furthermore, various individuals have become so selfish to believe that if another human being ends up unemployed or homeless, it is only “that person’s problem” and “only they should deal with it”.

Considering that many Maltese people still pride themselves on being Catholic, the “individualist cult” exhibited by many individuals might come across as strongly at odds with the principle of fraternal love. What has happened to co-operating with other human beings? What has happened to helping those who need a hand in order to progress? What has happened to forgiveness?

I do not think that I would be exaggerating when I say that there are several individuals in Malta who feel extremely lonely and abandoned. Uncared for. It could be the single parent who gets no help with their child. It could be the 16-year-old who feels that they will have to go through life as a second-class citizen because they do not have any academic qualifications. It could be the person who lost their spouse/partner as a result of an illness or an accident. It could be the university graduate who spends months looking for a decent job. It could be the person who is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Earlier on today, I was talking to a foreign friend of mine who has been living in Malta for many years. She is planning to move to another country later on this year or sometime next year. She told me that she found it extremely hard to make friends here in Malta. Many people would talk to her, but they would not go the whole way to treat her as though she were family. It was only after she joined an Evangelical Christian Church that she met people who displayed genuine care towards her. It was only then that she felt treated as a family member.

I find it very sad that in many countries, several people are only able to nurture the goal of building a more fraternal society by joining religious organizations. At this stage, I do not intend to criticize such groups because I am aware of the admirable work that is done by many of them. My only concern is that many people seem to end up constrained to believe certain things dogmatically just to feel that they are cared for and loved as family members. As far as I am concerned, my questioning mind prevents me from joining a religious organization and accepting various things just because I am told that they are true. Having said this, I yearn to be with people who care about me in a fraternal way.

In the case of those people who prefer a more secular pathway, Malta does not seem to have many organizations characterized by fraternal love. Some individuals might attempt to find a bit of solace by joining a political party, but the excessive ambition displayed by a number of people within a party might occasionally make it quite hard to feel that building a more fraternal world is that party’s top priority.

In spite of the friction that can be witnessed within almost every political party, I still believe that becoming involved with a political party appears to be one of the best options for secular-minded individuals to contribute to the construction of a more fraternal world. Of course, it is important to analyse a party’s ideology and objectives prior to joining. Joining a party could give a person the opportunity to make a number of positive differences in one’s environment.

Hopefully, a day will come when all human beings can live together harmoniously as members of one family.

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People Should Come First

2009-06-03T22:22:00.003+02:00

Malta joined the European Union in 2004. Since then, although several individuals might have benefited from the country's EU membership, it is my impression that the greatest beneficiaries were a relatively small number of business owners. Following Malta's entry into the EU, such people have been able to expand their operations in many other Member States, thus increasing the chances of earning much more money. Having said this, how has the life of the typical Maltese worker changed since 2004?

There is little doubt that the EU provides various opportunities for Maltese workers to improve their skills. Many people have heard about the Social Funds that could be utilised to help various individuals acquire a number of skills. Being a member of the EU also makes it easier for a Maltese worker to move to another Member State where they could earn more money and live more comfortably. Since 2004, new companies have set up shop in Malta, making it possible for new jobs to be created.

In spite of the above, there are still several points that suggest that many Maltese workers are still not doing so well when comparing Malta to many other EU Member States. Indeed, earlier on this week, I heard that Malta presently has the highest inflation rate in the EU. At little over than EUR 600 a month, the minimum wage in Malta is a joke and a strong slap in the face to thousands of Maltese people, especially those that have dependants. Although there might have been an increase in job opportunities within certain areas of the Maltese economy, the Nationalist Government rarely talks about the conditions associated with many jobs that are being created in our times. What is the point of boasting about how many people are working when several of those individuals might be on short-term contracts, earning relatively low salaries, and working under very stressful conditions?

When politicians face each other during various debates, it is quite common for numerous spectators to feel lost or confused. Given that many politicians are lawyers or economists, it is plausible to expect a great deal of jargon about the Euro, the calculations underlying countless figures, and so on. To a specialist, such discourse is likely to be interesting, but wouldn't the typical Maltese worker prefer to listen to a different type of talk?

The EU needs to ensure that people come first. Of course, it is fundamental to safeguard the welfare of every citizen, but when we know that there are so many workers all over the EU that are yearning for a brighter and more secure tomorrow, it is so important for politicians to dedicate more time as well as energy to focusing on various issues. Could there, for example, be more talk about the possibility of creating a decent minimum wage across the entire EU? Could there be more talk about preventing work from spilling increasingly further into one's home life? Could there be more talk about specific strategies aimed at ensuring that there is full employment in the EU?

Next Saturday's EU Parliament elections are another reminder that we have the possibility to do something to change this Union. Next Saturday is another reminder that your vote could contribute to ensuring that the EU becomes an organisation that truly promotes the message: "People Should Come First"!

Fortress Europe or a Social Europe?

2009-06-01T20:42:00.002+02:00

Over the past few months, many EU citizens have been discussing the impact of illegal immigration on various countries. Malta has been mentioned by a number of EU politicians on countless occasions even though not everyone thought that enough was done to address the issue in the best possible way. As shown by the photo posted above, one of the key questions for this year's European Parliament elections is: What kind of borders should we have?

In view of the fact that I consider myself to be a citizen of the world, I strongly believe that human beings should be allowed to move from one corner of the planet to another without having to face a shocking number of hurdles. At the end of the day, no person gets the opportunity to choose the country that they are born in; why should one be constrained to spend all one's life in a specific country without the opportunity to move easily to another place? Why is it that if one is born in an EU country, they are able to move freely to over 25 other countries whereas an individual born in, say, Sudan would probably have to face an incredible amount of bureaucracy to attempt to move to another country?

People decide to move from one place to another for various reasons. One of them is that an individual could nurture certain beliefs that are much more popular in one country than another. One country could offer more job opportunities than another. One country could provide more space, more greenery, more cultural organisations...

If capital can move around the world so swiftly and, in many cases, with hardly any obstacles, why can't human beings also be allowed to move around so easily??? Is money more important than human welfare?

The immigration issue is not a Maltese one. It is affecting several other European countries such as Italy and Spain. In my view, it is extremely important for EU politicians to be able to come together to find solutions that will avoid creating first-class and second-class citizens. Perhaps the time has come to revisit the various laws regarding immigration so that the world could become a fairer place. Is it fair to treat an individual who simply wants to move to another country in order to work and live there like all other law-abiding citizens as a dangerous criminal?

Over the past few weeks, some people have strongly criticised the ways in which a number of supposedly socialist parties have reacted to the illegal immigration phenomenon. Real socialists, it is often said, should try to tear down the artificial barriers that separate human beings from one another. Having said this, it is still comforting to know that even though some socialists could sometimes appear to have been injected by a heavy quantity of nationalism, their parties represent much greater hope than others that are also contesting the European Parliament elections.

The European Union should not become a fortress. It should serve as a model of fraternity to the other regional blocks around the world.

Paceville and the Quest for a Romantic Partner

2009-05-31T18:29:00.002+02:00

When talking about Malta, many young foreigners would surely know about Paceville. The latter represents the island's clubbing capital and it attracts thousands of people every weekend.

In this post, I do not wish to analyse the virtues and vices that are frequently associated with Paceville. I prefer to focus on the popular belief that Paceville is the perfect place for a single person to find a romantic partner.

During my late teens, whilst complaining about being single, many people encouraged me to go to Paceville during the week and, particularly, on Saturday nights. I followed this advice for a number of months. Result? I remained single throughout the entire period when I used to stay out at Paceville until 6am.

Of course, there could have been many reasons underlying the lack of success in finding a partner during my frequent visits to Paceville. My appearance during those times could have benefited from certain changes, but I still believe that there were other issues to take into consideration. More important issues.

To this day, I believe that Malta is a country of clans or tribes. The clans tend to develop in many ways; sometimes they are formed by individuals who had attended a particular school for several years, people who had worked together, people who believed in the same religion, etc. As a member of a clan, it becomes relatively easy to be introduced to potential romantic partners, to individuals who could offer one a decent job, to a network of friends.

In my case, I was not very comfortable with the notion of being a part of a group for a fairly long time. I stayed away from the many religious groups that exist in Malta since I did not want to be a hypocrite; as an atheist, I did not want to go singing religious hymns just to make friends or to find a girlfriend.

Since I did not belong to any specific clan, whenever I went to Paceville, I often felt as though I were a total stranger. I would see pretty girls all over the place, but they were virtually never on their own; they tended to be with many other people.

Furthermore, the noise level inside most clubs in Paceville was so loud that it was quite hard to imagine myself trying to strike a conversation with a girl that captured my attention. Such loud music makes it possible to flirt using body language, but there is little more that one could do in similar circumstances.

Since those days, the Internet has become an extremely popular tool. With the appearance of social networking sites such as Badoo and Facebook, an increasing number of individuals have made friends and even started romantic relationships via the Internet. The latter has certainly helped several people in Malta who did not belong to a specific clan. More specifically, the Internet contains countless groups that allow easy membership and contact with other people. Such access to one or more groups is not always so easy when analysing, say, a group of individuals in Paceville.

To conclude, I am glad that - in a very small country like Malta - the Internet has provided another way to make friends and to meet a romantic partner. :)

Food for Thought

2009-05-24T16:33:00.003+02:00

Whoever knows me will be aware of how much I enjoy dissecting various articles related to current affairs. In this post, I have chosen to focus on a number of points that have recently struck my attention.

According to an article published in the latest edition of The Economist, "India is a land of bright promise. It is also extremely poor. About 27m Indians will be born this year. Unless things improve, almost 2m of them will die before the next general election. Of the children who survive, more than 40% will be physically stunted by malnutrition. Most will enroll in a school, but they cannot count on their teachers showing up. After five years of classes, less than 60% will be able to read a short story and more than 60% will still be stumped by simple arithmetic" (p. 11). When reading such an article, many questions come to my mind: why is India often regarded as an economic giant that has benefited greatly from capitalism when faced with such shocking statistics? When reading about such poverty and misery, there is hardly any talk from several countries about the need for "regime change" or any discourse aimed at introducing different economic policies. There is talk of implementing numerous reforms, but the arguments are often very broad and fail to analyse several details.

In the same edition of The Economist, there was an article which praised the recent election of four women in the Kuwaiti Parliament. Although the article mentioned the fact that "Parties are officially outlawed in Kuwait, meaning that candidates run as independents" (p. 45), the tone did not appear to be as harsh as that often used when describing political events in countries such as Cuba and Venezuela. It might be interesting to note that whereas this magazine frequently talks about political prisoners in Cuba, this article did not really say much about the human rights situation in Kuwait. According to a website that I found whilst carrying out research for this post, I came across the following information: "There are scores of political prisoners in Kuwait, and prison conditions are often inhumane. There have been reports of torture and inhuman treatment of detainees, and some of those responsible have been prosecuted. Freedom of speech and the press is severely curtailed, and journalists have been sentenced to prison for criticizing the government or Islam. Most practice self-censorship. There is no freedom of assembly. The death penalty is applied."

Having a Child

2009-05-22T19:21:00.003+02:00

As stated by La Delirante in her latest post, we have recently talked about the issue of having a child sometime during the next few years. Considering the fact that I am already 30 years old, an increasing number of individuals keep asking me about when La Delirante and I will have a baby; until now, our answer has often been something along the lines of "sometime in the future". Following yesterday's late-night discussion, however, both of us are having second thoughts about the matter.

At the moment, the thought of having a child in Malta could be described as a source of anxiety for both of us. There are several reasons underlying this feeling. First, La Delirante and I have virtually no family support in this country. Nowadays, given the high cost of living prevalent in several countries, it is extremely hard for numerous families to survive on one income. Consequently, both parents often try to maintain full-time jobs whilst recruiting family members in order to help with the baby whilst they are at work. I have witnessed this phenomenon at work; all the colleagues who have one or more children benefit from some type of family support. In the absence of such support, it is logical to ask: who could give us a helping hand? Private child care would be too expensive for us. Sadly, the current Maltese government does not seem to offer much in the way of child care centres; if my memory serves me right, many of these centres are not open throughout the whole working day and none of them appear to be free. Furthermore, it seems that a number of scholars have written against the idea of sending children to such centres before the age of three. If these scholars are right, one of us would have to stay at home and look after the child for the first couple of years. This would mean trying to survive on one income, which would probably lead to many problems (financial, psychological, etc.).

The idea of having a child is also a source of anxiety for us since this would undoubtedly affect our current standard of living. All the parents I know at work hardly ever go out to a restaurant or to the cinema and travelling becomes virtually impossible (unless some family members are able/willing to keep the children for some time whilst the parents relax abroad). Furthermore, the time that was once utilised to watch DVDs, read a good book, write, go to exhibitions would suddenly be replaced by changing diapers, frequent visits to the doctor, hours spent helping out with studying prior to exams, and so on.

When viewing the point mentioned above, some people might argue that we are being selfish in preferring to indulge in our hobbies rather than in rearing a child. Not really, I would say. In my 30 years of life, I have only been able to enjoy the things I liked during the past 3 years or so. I am not saying that I had an unhappy childhood, but my family was never the type to take me out to restaurants or to the cinema on a regular basis. I grew up as a very sheltered individual and I only managed to start enjoying the nice things that life has to offer during my early 20s. Even then, however, I could not do much because of my relatively low salary. Only now am I getting the opportunity to travel more frequently or to indulge in certain pleasant activities more regularly. La Delirante's background was strikingly similar to mine in this respect and we, therefore, both understand each other when we talk about the importance of having a reasonable amount of time for the things we really enjoy doing. We are still far from living the type of life we want to live. Faced with such a situation, when we ask ourselves whether we are willing to endure several years of numerous deprivations in order to have a child, the answer is a clear no.

Considering that La Delirante and I have bought a place for ourselves last year, there is still a lot to be done before the apartment looks the way we want it to. Bearing the ticking of La Delirante's biological clock in mind, we would only have around 4 years to carry out several huge projects before it starts becoming dangerous to get pregnant. Even though our salaries have improved over the past couple of years, we are still not earning enough to be able to do all the things we need to do during such a short period of time. The next few years will still see us trying to deal with a number of debts. Furthermore, the idea of trying to carry out numerous projects as quickly as possible would require sacrificing several things and putting a huge amount of pressure on ourselves.

Another worrying aspect of having a child in Malta is the country itself. Yes, one can eat well here and it is perfectly plausible to say that Malta is a very safe country. Yet, as stated in an article which appeared in the Times of Malta on the 21/04/2009, "Malta is the worst country for children to grow up in, if a study by York University is to be believed."

When it comes to State support, La Delirante and I do not believe that the current Maltese government could do much to help us rear a child. I have already mentioned the child care centres. Apart from that, Malta has one of the lowest periods of maternity leave in the EU.

The above are a list of points that we discussed vis-a-vis having a child. Bottom line: we are currently not willing/able to have a child.

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A Better World

2009-04-16T11:57:00.003+02:00

One of the best books that I have ever read was Vicente Romero's Donde anidan los angeles: Historias de la lucha contra la injusticia (Where angels nest: Stories of the struggle against injustice). Published in 2004, I had purchased the book in Madrid a few days before I went to live in El Salvador.

In his book, Romero - an atheist - documented the efforts of several individuals scattered all over the planet; individuals who were determined to fight against the suffering that still plagues so many parts of the world. Many of those interviewed were Roman Catholic missionaries.

As stated in a previous post, there is probably no other organisation that has done so much to help other human beings in the way that the Roman Catholic Church has done over a number of centuries. Of course, there have been several political parties and non-governmental organisations that have also contributed to improving the lives of thousands of individuals. Yet, as we read about the increasing inequality in most parts of the world and as we read about the many social ills that still affect millions of human beings, there are several times when the efforts mentioned by countless politicians in summit after summit appear to be little more than pleasant rhetoric. In such a situation, one could not be blamed for asking: how could the world be transformed in order to become a better place for ALL people?

In his work, Romero echoed similar concerns. Indeed, he wrote "What instruments of change are available to those who decide to rebel against a radically unfair system, established as the best of all possible worlds? Political parties, social movements, humanitarian organisations, individual projects...? All could count, but none are working. The classical leftist movement has disappeared, reduced to ideological discourse and to sterile testimonies...Parties and trade unions have lost their identifying traits and in practice seem to be accept the inevitability of injustice when it comes to the global distribution of wealth, giving up even the dream of revolutions against a system that was unacceptable in the light of the principles that had given rise to them a long time ago" (pp. 12-13).

As various organisations are hardly anywhere to be found in those parts of the world where a great deal of help is required, the Roman Catholic Church has never given up its commitment to provide assistance to those who have nobody else to look to for a piece of bread, a life-saving medicine, a hug...Even though Romero does not believe in God, he cannot hide his praise for the many missionaries who have brought some degree of happiness to thousands of people.

When I read Romero's interviews with the Catholic missionaries that he met, I was fascinated by how critical many of them were of the type of church that seemed to be more interested in rules and in dogma than in following Jesus's example of building a better world by helping other human beings. In the post I wrote a few days ago, I mentioned my belief that the Roman Catholic Church could attract more people if it implemented a number of changes. Taking celibacy as an example, one of the priests told Romero "The [Church] hierarchy should think seriously about it since celibacy is causing many dysfunctions" (p. 173).

One part of the book also contained an interesting discussion about the notion of salvation. When asked about the latter, Enrique Figaredo - the Jesuit priest quoted above - said the following: "God's salvation starts here. It consists in the fact that all people have something to eat, that people are able to get an education and medicines. Theologically, salvation is feeling loved by God. But how are you going to tell a person that God loves them if they lack a roof over their head and if their children are in pain because of hunger? I cannot understand religious work that is done only by preaching since deeds are also important, doing something that could change people's lives. For this reason, when dealing with the communities I work with, I try to avoid cult clubs and I try to ensure that they are organisations that can help others" (p. 172).

Talking about catechism, Joaqui Salord - another Jesuit priest - had some interesting views. Indeed, he said "Look, catechism does not worry me. I have never used it. That is something that belongs to a very narrow section of the Church. For example, when they say that what is moral is not cultural...yet most moral values are cultural! The same thing applies to catechism. Although I can barely remember what I had studied, I could not forget that it defined God as 'our Father who art in heaven, who rewards the good and punishes the bad'. Such an image of God was very harmful for me; I noticed that I was believing in a sort of judge, that I had grown up with such an absurd belief, and in order to be free I had to kill that God who had been transformed into a policeman. In my family, we believed in a different type of God; not in a salvation obtained through merit, but in a God that offers, invites, gives. There isn't a a heaven for good people and a hell for evil individuals. We construct heaven and hell. Good and evil are a part of every person, like the two sides of the same coin, and human beings have the potential to do both" (p. 176).

I do believe that it is possible to build a better world. At the risk of sounding too simplistic or romantic, I think that this can only be done if we are guided by love. A love for ourselves and for every other human being.

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Fake Intimacy

2009-04-16T10:53:00.002+02:00

It seems plausible to say that most human beings spend most of their waking hours outside their homes. Although those individuals might have romantic partners and a kid or two, a typical working day involves spending more time in the company of colleagues than with one's family. As people work together, it is quite inevitable that they will learn more about one another; personal beliefs, past experiences, and hobbies often end up being disclosed to a person's work buddies relatively quickly. Furthermore, as more people make use of Internet social networks, it becomes far easier to discover certain things about one's colleagues.

Spending several hours a day, week after week, month after month with a number of individuals could make one believe that such time could allow various friendships to develop. In this way, the workplace could be regarded as an excellent place to make friends. And even though I am quite sure that some wonderful friendships owe their origins to a work setting, my experiences have led me to believe that most jobs give rise to a fake intimacy between the employees. Some might accuse me of being too negative by using such a heavy term, but I will shed some more light on this phenomenon to show how real it is.

Whilst we are at work, we frequently have to collaborate with certain individuals, regardless of whether we want to or not. As this happens, colleagues tend to open up with each other; they talk about the movies they have watched, the books they read, the latest piece of furniture they bought, and so on. As personal information is exchanged, a certain bond might be created, but the strength of this bond often appears to be similar to the strength of a house of cards.

It is frequently said that hard times help to test a friendship. Thus, if a person is very ill at home, they would probably hope that their friendly colleagues at work would send a message or call to ensure that everything is fine. If there is a problem that is causing a great deal of stress, they are very likely to hope that the closest colleagues would attempt to provide some type of help.

Sadly, it seems that most work-related "friendships" are little more than forced and convenient relationships that are brushed aside and forgotten quite easily once a person moves to a new job or even a new department. Having said this, it is possible to understand how lost many people feel once they retire; after years spent working with other individuals, some of whom were probably regarded as "good friends", it must feel horrible to retire and to suddenly realise that those "friends" never bother to meet up, to call, or to simply continue forming a part of one's life.

The fake intimacy that seems to be characteristic of so many workplaces becomes extremely noticeable when an employee suggests organising a social event. All sorts of excuses start cropping up and the event often ends up being scrapped or is attended by only a handful of individuals.

With all the talk about team-work in countless employment settings, it is surprising to notice that even though individuals frequently team up to work on a project, all the care and attention that is seen within the team frequently seems to evaporate once the project is completed. Consequently, it appears possible to argue that whereas many people do not hesitate to bond with each other in order to make their employers richer, it appears that they do not find it equally easy to take a strong and enduring interest in the welfare of their colleagues.

Considering that we spend only a fraction of our time during the week with our family and with other loved ones, it would be so nice to see a different type of workplace. It would be so nice to witness a setting which encourages people to truly care about one another. It would be great to see more genuine intimacy.

Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin!

2009-04-14T12:47:00.003+02:00

Ever since I was around 16 years old, my views about justice seemed to differ from those of many other people I knew. Although defining justice is not something that could be done very simply in a blog article, I tend to regard it as the creation of the best possible conditions for ALL people. In my eyes, anything which is intended to cause physical or psychological harm cannot be regarded as just.

Sadly, there are many individuals who still believe that justice is mainly about punishment. According to this view, if A does something to hurt B, justice would involve a punishment being inflicted on A, depending on the type of harm caused to B. To me, this is not justice; such thinking is rooted in vengeance. And no matter how much one tries to justify harming another human being in the name of "justice", I strongly believe that any legal system that embraces the notion of causing pain to others is in desperate need of change.

This brings me to the topic of capital punishment. I consider the latter as the most barbaric way of dealing with individuals who are accused of breaking certain laws. It is even more shocking to see that this system is still so popular in the US, a country that talks so much about safeguarding human rights!

Over the years, I have read a great deal about criminal behaviour. I have read about dictators, rapists, serial killers, etc. Contrary to popular belief, as I examined the biographies of several wrong-doers, I never found a single shred of evidence to suggest that they were monsters; every person was born and lived as a human being. The sad thing that is often omitted from discourse about crime is that just as the typical human being is equipped to do a lot of good in society, the average person is also biologically equipped to carry out countless evil acts if they are exposed to certain circumstances.

There are several variables which are expected to affect human behaviour. The type of parenting one received, school experiences, formal and informal education, type of food that is eaten, national culture, and religious beliefs are just a few examples. At this stage, I believe that it is very important to highlight the relationship between a person's social and physical environment and the biological functioning of that person. More specifically, if I am living in an environment which promotes certain ideas, my brain is going to "replay" those beliefs over and over until they influence my behaviour to varying degrees. When an individual lives in a highly stressful environment for a long period of time, it appears that this could give rise to certain psychological conditions which could eventually lead to criminal behaviour.

The most frustrating thing about criminal or evil behaviour is that we are still not in a position to diagnose certain conditions very easily. Sadly, several diagnoses are made only following the carrying out of a criminal act. Unlike an individual who has a common cold and can be seen to be ill by several people, the groundwork underlying criminal behaviour cannot be observed in the same way. I could be standing next to a serial killer without knowing anything about the person's illness!

My position is that all ill people deserve treatment. Just as no society should turn its back on an individual suffering from HIV, no society should mistreat a person who is suffering from a psychological illness. The fact that certain illnesses constitute a grave threat to several members of a specific society does not mean that capital punishment is the only solution. Even if the illness itself does not seem able to respond to any existing type of treatment, executing people on an electric chair or by hanging or by lethal injection should never, ever be the solution.

Some people might be wondering about the victims of crime or evil. I believe that whoever has suffered as a result of harm caused by another person should receive all the necessary assistance in order to be able to move on with their lives. From a victim's perspective, it is essential that they feel safe. In other words, if somebody was sexually assaulted, they need to know that the person who committed the crime is being supervised or treated by the authorities. As stated at the beginning of this article, justice should not consist of a process whereby one party benefits whilst the other is subjected to a deterioration in their physical or psychological welfare.

As far as criminal law is concerned, it is my hope that the notions of vengeance will be replaced by the idea of rehabilitation. Criminals need to be cured; torture or any other type of harm will surely not contribute to creating a better society for everyone! Prisons need to be similar to secure treatment facilities. Furthermore, the authorities need to devote more resources to the extremely hard process of reconciling the criminal with the victim/victim's relatives.

Sadly, countless human beings have the habit of trying to judge others as good or evil on the basis of a handful of deeds. When analysing human behaviour in such a black-or-white way, it is very easy to forget that even the most evil person has probably done several good things throughout their lives.

Depending on its goal, judging itself can be a very destructive process. As stated by Dr M Scott Peck in People of the Lie, "We must also remember the purpose for which we judge. If it is to heal, fine. If it is to enhance our own self-esteem, our pride, then the purpose is wrong" (p. 294).

Perhaps it is possible to say that for most people, loving the sinner and hating the sin is much easier said than done. By loving the sinner, however, one is contributing to improving the life of another human being. As this happens, the whole society stands to benefit because as the saying goes, "What goes around comes around".

In People of the Lie, Dr M Scott Peck echoed the importance of loving those who have made mistakes sometime during their lives. Indeed, the Harvard-trained psychiatrist made his point in the following way: "How is it possible to love people who are evil? Yet that is precisely what I am saying we must do. Specifically, if we are to safely conduct research on evil people, we must do so in love. We must start from an a priori position of love for them" (p. 307).

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Job Hunting in Stormy Times

2009-04-13T20:14:00.003+02:00

Earlier on today, on one of the Italian TV channels, there was a programme featuring a 36-year-old guy who has been looking for a job since October 2008. The guy was sitting in the studio next to his septuagenarian mother; apart from her son, the woman did not seem to have anyone else who could look after her.

One of the things that really struck me was that the guy has a degree in languages and a diploma as a translator. He had worked as a salesman for 4 years, but the company shut down in September of last year. It is quite disturbing to think that given such a baggage, the guy has been unable to find a decent job for so many months!

Some individuals might think that he has been unemployed for so long because he was being choosy when it came to job hunting. That was clearly not the case. Indeed, he said that he had even applied to work as a school janitor, but he was not accepted.

At one point, he was asked whether he would consider moving to another place to look for a job. I thought that the question was a bit silly since the guy cannot just pack and move to wherever he wants to when he is also the primary source of help for his mother.

In my view, the most offensive part of the programme was when a psychiatrist and a representative of some employment agency expressed their opinions about the guy. The psychiatrist made the guy look as though he barely had any coping skills when he suggested the need for psychotherapy. The employment agency representative was even worse; echoing ideas that are frequently expressed by those who are fairly comfortable, he placed most of the blame on the guy. Between the lines, the representative was telling the guy: "Forget about the State and about other people...only you can solve your unemployment problem!" Honestly, if I had been sitting in the unemployed guy's seat, I would probably have told the employment agency representative, "Well, if the State cannot do much to help me, why on earth should I bother voting during election times? Why should I elect people to power when they will ignore my pleas for help?"

I think that the cult of excessive individualism has become so strong that even when discussing social problems such as unemployment, there is this idea that every person has to struggle on their own to solve their own difficulties. In this way, the notion of collective action is brushed aside and countless politicians just continue dishing out wonderful speeches about plans which are hardly ever translated into reality.

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Dawn

2009-04-11T19:03:00.002+02:00

Reflections about the Roman Catholic Church

2009-04-11T14:45:00.003+02:00

Another Easter Sunday is just round the corner. Although I do not consider myself as a Roman Catholic, I am still able to identify a number of very positive things related to this belief system.

The commitment to help the poor has, I believe, rarely been echoed by any other religious or secular organisation. Countless representatives of the Roman Catholic Church have ventured to places characterised by so much misery that I cannot help feeling the greatest admiration for such people. It must be fiendishly difficult for a person who grew up in a relatively comfortable Western country to drop everything in order to go to some corner of the world where whole villages might lack essential supplies.

Helping the sick has also been a wonderful achievement of the Roman Catholic Church. Many hospitals and clinics have been set up by the Church in order to provide much-needed medical assistance to hundreds of thousands of people.

Apart from the tangible achievements of the Roman Catholic Church, I believe that many lives have been changed for the better through an exposure to a certain view of Jesus. Similar to Socrates, Jesus never wrote any books and whatever we know about him came from other people. Having said this, many would agree that Jesus represents the type of person who believes that there can never be any true and lasting happiness in the universe as long as there is even one human being who is in some sort of pain. Furthermore, the message that is often attributed to Jesus is one of unconditional love; no matter how much other people might hate you or wish you harm, it is essential that such hatred is never returned with an equal or greater amount of negative energy. When we are told that Jesus asked God to forgive those who were killing him, I am stunned by his apparent determination to distinguish the sinner from the sin; the latter should be despised, but a hand should always be extended to the former in order to help them become better individuals. According to the Scriptures, Jesus never sentenced any specific person to eternal suffering.

The above factors had helped to guide me during my days as a Roman Catholic believer. Yet, since the age of 16, it has been virtually impossible for me to reconcile the nice things mentioned above with the many rules and beliefs that were written by human beings during the centuries following Jesus's death and which became part of the Roman Catholic faith. In my view, as long as the Roman Catholic Church continues to uphold the following beliefs, it will continue losing members and it will also continue looking more distant from the Jesus that comes across to the average reader of the Bible:

a.) The ban on female priests;
b.) The ban on contraceptives;
c.) The condemnation of sex before marriage;
d.) The fact that all priests must be celibate;
e.) The belief that homosexuality does not form a part of God's Plan;
f.) The absolute rejection of divorce.

I think that the Church will eventually change its position on many of the points listed above, but it will take a very brave Pope to initiate such changes. When will these changes occur? Sadly, there is no easy answer to this question. Some of the changes could start within the next decade, but it is extremely likely that most of the changes would require another 50 years before the world starts witnessing them.

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My Voice in the Blogosphere

2009-04-11T14:10:00.004+02:00

Why should one have a blog? Is it the desire to reveal our innermost thoughts and fears to the world in order to feel that there are other people who share our viewpoints? Is it the belief that blogging could contribute to expanding one's social network?

There could be numerous reasons that explain the modern phenomenon of blogging. Some individuals might prefer to focus on events in their personal lives whereas others could feel more attracted to analysing several political events.

In my case, I enjoy sharing what I consider to be pleasant with the rest of the world. If I go somewhere and take some beautiful photos, I like publishing them for everyone to see. Having said this, I also enjoy focusing on countless issues affecting the millions of people around the world who are suffering as a result of an unfair distribution of wealth and as a consequence of unfair laws. Unlike the rich and the highly-educated individuals, the suffering as well as the poor frequently find it extremely hard to sound their thoughts and fears. Many of them tend to be caught up in a daily struggle to survive which does not allow much time to educate and/or to develop their skills.

When I write against neo-liberalism and when I denounce the rhetoric of several politicians, I do this because I know that unless countless laws and economic systems are truly altered, millions of people will go on living in a state of unnecessary poverty and pain. Rather than using my blog to win a comfortable seat in some European Union institution, I often try to depict situations and arguments that tend to be brushed aside by the mainstream media. Every time I write about my belief that every person should be guaranteed a job by the State, my mind goes to the millions of people around the world who have been laid off or who cannot find a job. Simply telling such individuals that they have my solidarity is not enough! When faced with pain, I think that most people would not want pity or words; they would want an effective remedy!!!

As a person, I do not have the power to change laws or to alter the way in which wealth is currently being distributed in most countries. Yet, it is my hope that many of the articles I write reflect the thoughts of many out there who might not have the resources or the courage to express certain views. In this way, my voice will be their voice and they will feel a little bit better to know that there is someone who is determined to say certain things and who wants to see a number of fundamental changes being carried out as soon as possible.

The Pro-Capitalist Narrative

2009-02-16T20:21:00.004+01:00

A few weeks ago, I finished reading John Pilger's Freedom Next Time (2007). I had not read such a gripping book for a while!

John Pilger is one of the few writers who does not shy away from shedding light on those narratives that tend to be brushed aside or even suppressed by numerous pro-capitalist groups and individuals in countless countries around the world. Although he does not identify himself as a Communist, his harsh critique of the neoliberal economic model is reminiscent of the material penned by several leftist authors.

In order to write the aforementioned book, Pilger travelled to a number of places such as South Africa and Afghanistan. In the chapter about the latter country, he highlighted the role played by more than one foreign administration in nurturing the Taliban movement. Indeed, Pilger wrote that "The Afghani muhajedin - and the Taliban and al-Qaida - were effectively created by the CIA, its Pakistani equivalent the ISI, and Britain's MI6" (p. 364). Why did these administrations feel so compelled to interfere? Pilger wrote that "The immediate problem...was the coming to power of Afghanistan's first secular, modernist government, which promised unheard-of social reforms" (p. 364). According to Pilger, "the new government outlined a reform programme that included the abolition of feudalism, freedom of religion and equal rights for women" (p. 365). A female surgeon who ran from the Taliban in 2001 described the period of the new government in the following way: "Every girl could go to high school and university. We could go where we wanted and wear what we liked...We used to go to cafes and the cinema to see the latest Indian films on a Friday...It all started to go wrong when the mujahedin started winning...They used to kill teachers and burn schools...It was funny and sad to think these were the people the West had supported" (p. 365).

When the media in a country is owned by extremely rich and powerful pro-capitalist individuals, it should come as no surprise that whereas a great effort is made to praise excessive individualism and capitalism, socialist values or projects are rarely given any attention. As various pro-capitalist communication entities focus on and echo the same stories, it becomes possible to talk about a "pro-capitalist narrative". In a nutshell, the latter aims to indoctrinate people that no matter how serious the problems associated with capitalism and the neo-liberal economic philosophy appear to be, it is much better to embrace such ideologies instead of talking about socialism.

The selective attention of the media is not a recent phenomenon. With reference to the aforementioned book, Pilger wrote that "In the early 1980s, the historian Mark Curtis surveyed five hundred articles in the British press that dealt with Nicaragua. He found an almost universal suppression of the triumphs of the Sandinista government in favour of the falsehood of 'the threat of a communist takeover', which was then Anglo-American propaganda. 'It would take considerable intellectual acrobatics,' he wrote, 'to designate Sandinista success in alleviating poverty - remarkable by any standard - as unworthy of much comment by objective indicators...One might reasonably conclude that the reporting was conditioned by a different set of priorities, one that conformed to the stream of disinformation from Washington and London.'" (p. 14).

The creation of a narrative that serves as a means to an end is not only limited to the discourse about capitalism. When the US was trying to win popular support to attack Iraq before the first Gulf War in 1991, the "incubator story" was repeated over and over until hardly anyone questioned it. Even though the HBO movie Live From Baghdad was said to be based on facts, it also suggested that the "incubator story" was true. Subsequent investigations revealed that the story was manufactured and promoted in the mainstream media so that the public opinion in several countries would endorse the US's military plans. According to an Internet article, "Midway through the movie [Live From Baghdad], an actor playing CNN anchor Bernard Shaw informs viewers that 'more allegations of Iraqi brutality emerged today as Kuwaiti refugees testified before a congressional committee.' He segues to a tearful young woman declaring, 'They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators and left the babies to die on the cold floor!' It is a real clip of the 15-year-old Kuwaiti, identified at the time as Nayirah "to protect her from reprisals," who in August 1990 said those words to an ersatz "congressional committee" operating out of Hill and Knowlton headquarters...The incubator story was a fabrication, first invented for the London Daily Telegraph by an exiled Kuwaiti housing minister, picked up by Reuters, and then propagated by the international PR firm Hill and Knowlton, which received $10.7 million from the Kuwaiti government for this and other services...The story was repeated by the Americans to the U.N. Security Council and by President George Bush in a January 1991 speech before he ordered the bombing of Iraq. The incubator tale was a lie from start to finish -- exposed after the war by ABC's John Martin and denounced by the respected rights group Middle East Watch as "a complete hoax." Nayirah was a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family, daughter of Kuwait's Ambassador to Washington."

As the pro-capitalist narrative appears to gather strength in certain parts of the world, it is very easy to notice how the pro-Socialist or even pro-Communist narratives are suppressed, brushed aside, or twisted beyond recognition. Following some research that I had carried out, I discovered a number of books such as USSR: The Velvet Counter Revolution (EPO Distribution, 1991). The latter consists of a collection of articles written by Ludo Martens, a prominent Marxist-Leninist individual. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this book is that several articles were penned during the last few years of the Soviet Union's life. Whilst reading various articles, I was amazed to notice the amount of criticism made by a Marxist-Leninist person of certain events that had taken place in the Soviet Union since 1956. Martens often referred to errors made by a number of Communist parties without the need to reject Marxism-Leninism as an ideology. The fact that such books are practically never seen here in Malta makes it terribly hard for a person to think positively about the main goals of Marxism-Leninism.

With every person who ends up believing that there is no alternative to capitalism and to neo-liberalism in particular, the pro-capitalist narrative would have secured another victory for its creators and another loss for the millions of human beings who are suffering from malnutrition and poverty on a daily basis.

Snapshots from a Holiday in Gozo

2009-02-16T20:05:00.008+01:00

A Closer Look at North Korea

2009-02-03T12:14:00.010+01:00

To a person living in a full-blown capitalist country, North Korea might look like an extremely bizarre place. As one of the few places left on Earth that still believes in the importance of constructing socialism in order to move towards communism, North Korea is subjected to a barrage of very hostile criticism from various capitalist governments as well as opinion leaders. This should not come as a big surprise; whenever a country's government attempts to do things differently, many people often react by exhibiting distrust and destructive criticism. The capitalist economic model currently prevails in most of the world's countries and any nation that dares to challenge such a model risks being regarded as a gross irregularity by countless capitalists; something that is totally unacceptable.

To many people born and bred in the highly-competitive and excessively individualist cultures that are encouraged in capitalist countries, any discourse praising collectivism and co-operation over cut-throat competition might sound rather odd. In a discourse entitled Abuses of Socialism are Intolerable (1993), Kim Jong Il had stated "Collectivism is an essential quality of socialism and a source of the latter's superiority and validity. Collectivism is, in short, the concept of valuing the interests of the collective more than one's own individual interests. In socialist society, where all the working people have been transformed into socialist working people, the whole society becomes one big family whose members are united with one another through their common interests. Collectivism in socialist society finds expression in a high regard for the interests of the state and society. Socialist collectivism does not set the interests of the state and society against those of individuals; it ensures that they coincide....Socialist collectivism is against the pursuance of only individual interests at the expense of those of the state and society, yet not against the interests of individuals" (pp. 142-143).

Apart from reading North Korean government literature, I have also read other material about the country; material written by individuals who have lived and worked in North Korea. Indeed, I have recently finished reading Michael Harrold's Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea(2004). Mr Harrold was the first UK citizen who spent more than 5 years working in the country. Although he never became an enthusiastic supporter of the North Korean government, he did admit that "Despite the propaganda bluster about battling to raise production output and resisting the enemy to the last drop of one's blood, life was peaceful, if not idyllic, and far less frenetic than what I was used to back home. There weren't the pressures associated with finding and keeping a job. There were none of the financial concerns of paying mortgages, taxes and bills. Housing was guaranteed, the children's education would be taken care of; medical treatment was provided free of charge" (pp. 347-348). On a similar note, Kim Jong Il had asserted the following in the same discourse mentioned above: "In our country there are no jobless people, nor anyone who cannot receive education and medical treatment, nor are there vagrants or beggars...In our country our Party, a Juche revolutionary party, bears the responsibility for the destiny of the people as a political guide of society, leads them forward and takes meticulous care of all aspects of their life..." (p. 145).

I do not believe that this world has any perfect government or country. One can always identify things that could be improved or changed. In the case of North Korea, although capitalist supporters might use every mistake or problem as an indicator that "socialism does not work", it is fundamental to bear the country's specific circumstances in mind. With thousands of US troops stationed in South Korea and with talk of using aggression against North Korea in the US, one should not be so surprised to read about the importance given to the North Korean military forces by the region's government. How would you feel if you knew that the world's strongest military power was toying with the idea of bombing you to smithereens???

As far as the capitalist countries are concerned, it is amazing to notice that whilst thousands are losing their jobs (please see the Layoff Tracker for more information), the millions of individuals whose well-being depends on their monthly salaries are still almost constantly exposed to countless articles as well as TV features about the holiday destinations of various celebrities and about the exclusive dresses that are going to be worn by a very small percentage of the world's population during the Oscar ceremony. As one hops from one TV channel to another, it seems much easier to find the same celebrity on different channels than to witness the difficulties faced by thousands of individuals as they struggle to find jobs and to stay away from the grip of poverty. Such a situation brings to mind the following words uttered by Kim Jong Il during his 1993 discourse: "The long-cherished desire of the people to live free from any worries can only be realised in a socialist society in which the party and the state take responsible care of the people's life. In a capitalist society a carefree life for the working people is inconceivable. In this society even those who are fairly well-to-do are always fearful of sudden bankruptcy, job-loss and poverty. Living a prosperous life in idleness without any thought for others cannot be regarded as a genuine human life...The most important aspect of people's lives is to realise the demand of their political integrity to unite and cooperate with one another amid the love and trust of the social community. People cannot lead a life worthy of human beings and develop their political integrity in capitalist society in which the dignity and personality of the working people are trampled underfoot without scruple because of the privileges enjoyed by capital...Destroying the socialist order of life is a criminal act which makes the popular masses the victims of crime and social evil" (pp. 137-138).

All the photos shown above were taken by Eric Lafforgue during his visits to North Korea in 2008.

Never Give Up!

2009-02-03T11:14:00.003+01:00

Earlier on today, I came across a very interesting blog. The latter contains a great deal of motivational/self-help articles that could be hugely beneficial for many people.

One of the articles was about success and failure. I would like to share the following paragraphs from it as food for thought:

"Failure can either break us or make us. Those broken by failure are haunted by unpleasant memories. These memories are like shadows that lurk in front, behind, beside, beneath and above. It is also a cage that traps the mind, preventing it to entertain possibilities of freedom and success. They are convinced that they cannot do it; therefore, they will not try.

For those that failure could not break are those who became made “men.” Failure to them is not a ghost, but a friend who taught them well. It is also a stepping stone to wisdom. These men and women are convinced that true failure only happens when one gives up." (bold font added)

Yes, We Can...But Does Obama Want to Change the System?

2009-02-02T20:08:00.004+01:00

Millions of people all over the world rejoiced during Barak Obama's inauguration as the new President of the USA. Following the havoc wreaked on a local and on an international level by the Bush administration, many were hoping that Obama would represent something different...something much better.

As the first African-American President and as an individual who was not bred in the surroundings of the White House, there seems to be a popular belief that Obama is not "one of them"; he is not perceived as one of the ultra-rich US politicians who cares mainly about the fostering of big business. This belief was also strengthened during his electoral campaign with several messages that were aimed at minority group members and millions of US citizens who are facing increasing financial woes. With every week that went by prior to the election, we kept hearing the message "Yes, We Can!" Change was said to be in the air.

Now that Obama is in the White House, what changes can we expect? Domestically, it is hoped that he will be able to introduce more regulation as far as the financial arena is concerned and that he will be able to reverse a great deal of the damage that was done during the Bush years. Internationally, it is hoped that Obama represents the type of man who will build bridges with other countries and who will, as far as a situation allows, use brains rather than brawn.

Although I strongly believe that Obama will be a much better president than George W. Bush, I think that he has one major flaw; he is not willing to carry out any radical changes to the economic system that is associated with the alienation and the exploitation of the typical worker in the US. Deep down, Obama is a capitalist. And as long as he embraces capitalism, the US will never witness the day when every citizen can enjoy free health care, free education, free housing, guaranteed employment...Competition, rather than co-operation, will remain at the forefront of daily life and this will only serve to create a great deal of social unrest.

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Attracting Foreign Investment: The Truth Behind the Rhetoric

2009-01-26T19:56:00.005+01:00

Nowadays, one can often hear countless politicians and opinion leaders talking about the importance of attracting foreign investment. The idea is that new foreign companies that set up shop in one's country are supposed to generate several jobs and contribute to increasing the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). When talking about foreign investment, most Christian Democrat and even Social Democrat politicians frequently limit their rhetoric to the creation of many jobs. Far less discourse seems to be devoted to analysing the quality of the new jobs.

The facts about the many aspects related to foreign investment tend to be featured in magazines that are usually read by business owners and other individuals who wield a great deal of economic power within a particular society. One of the latest editions of The Economist (January 24th-30th 2009) showed an advert with the following heading: "Need to Cut Costs? Invest in Macedonia". The same advert included the following wording: "Competitive Labor at EUR 400/Month Avg Gross Salary". The most shocking part of the advert is the one which states "1/3 of social contributions cut by 2011". I can only imagine the facial expression of the Macedonian citizen who depends on his/her salary in order to survive when the wording of such an advert is explained in everyday terms!!!

As far as Malta is concerned, one could also find some interesting information in a magazine called Country Profiler Malta. Whilst leafing through a recent edition, I came across a section entitled "Why Malta?". Among the reasons listed to lure foreign investors to Malta, the following were rather striking: "Consistently pro-business government policies", "A 'can-do' business environment", and - most shocking of them all - "Dedicated, competitively priced human resources"!!! Among the "competitively priced human resources", one can find the thousands of Maltese employees who are being paid little more than the minimum wage every month. Furthermore, the same magazine reports that "Salary costs in Malta are 40 - 50 per cent of those in Ireland, the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg" (p. 46).

According to an article published in The Times of Malta (December 2008), the minimum wage in Malta amounted to EUR 612 per month in July 2008. The same article added that "Minimum wage legislation in Malta was introduced in 1974. Eurostat said that since 2000, the minimum wage in Malta increased by €105 a month or more than €157 a year." The biggest problem here is that EUR 612 or so per month cannot do much for individuals who have a mortage, need to feed themselves, have to buy new clothes every now and then, pay utility bills, etc. Sadly, during the 2008 general election, neither the PN nor the MLP mentioned the possibility of increasing the minimum wage so that it could reflect the current average survival expenditure for a Maltese person. The excuse is always the same - if the minimum wage is increased, Malta risks losing several foreign companies that will set up shop in countries whereby they can spend less money in terms of wages. And since Malta has "consistently pro-business government policies", top priority is not given to the worker, but to the businesses!

The more heavily one relies on foreign investment, the greater the dangers for the workers and for the country as a whole. When a foreign company decides to move to a different country, thousands of jobs can be lost and a great deal of taxation income could also be kissed good bye. Moreover, foreign companies are obsessed with generating profits to swell the pockets of the shareholders that might often be living abroad! It is precisely for these reasons that governments should try to set up as many state companies as possible. Any profits earned by a state company could be used to fund a number of projects relating to the company itself or to the country.

As is the case in many other capitalist countries, there are countless individuals in this country who are devoting several hours each day to making a handful of shareholders extremely rich. Many of these people do not seem to be aware of how much better their lives could be if a huge chunk of the wealth they were generating would be targeted towards the development of better schools, clinics, child care centres, etc. Instead, many of these individuals continue giving up a minimum of 8 hours per day to allow a few people to become richer whilst they themselves are given salaries that often fail to cover more than a list of monthly fixed expenses! What ever happened to the concept of a decent standard of living for each and every worker? The PN is clearly not interested in this matter and the MLP does not give me the impression that they are willing to do much to change the economic system that preserves the exploitation of thousands of Maltese workers on a daily basis...

2008: A Good Year

2009-01-17T10:42:00.003+01:00

2008 was definitely a good year! On a personal level, some of the most important events that took place last year were:

- Being promoted to a Senior Insurance Officer (Claims);
- Obtaining the mortgage to buy a beautiful apartment;
- Attending a political conference in Brussels;
- Going to Rome with my wife to celebrate my birthday;
- Passed the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) Business Practice exam.

Hopefully, 2009 will be an even better year! :)

A Walk to Remember

2008-12-13T13:27:00.004+01:00

Last Saturday, my wife and I went out for a drink with Kim and Glenn, two very special friends of ours.

As we talked about various things, they suggested that we watch a movie called A Walk to Remember. I watched it with my wife earlier on today and I must say that it is a wonderful film! I will not talk about the specific contents of it here in order to avoid ruining the surprise for those people who have still not watched it, but if you want to witness a story of love, friendship, and forgiveness, this movie should not be missed!!! The story was so moving that a few tears just streamed down my cheeks during certain parts of the movie!

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TRIBUTE - DOM MINTOFF

2008-12-09T20:25:00.001+01:00

Memories

2008-11-25T21:14:00.006+01:00

Around a month ago, I visited the apartment in which my maternal grandparents used to live. (The photos in this post were taken during my visit.) When my grandmother passed away in 2005, the flat remained uninhabited. Nobody has lived there since that time. Most of the furniture was left untouched. Even certain dry food items in the kitchen were left there. When I went there, it felt as though someone was still living there.

During my late teens, it was very common to spend Christmas Day with my maternal grandparents inside that apartment. My aunt used to join us and we always had a wonderful time, eating a delicious cake that only my grandmother knew how to prepare and exchanging countless funny tales! Any gifts were obviously welcome! :)

As I walked through the apartment, so many memories came rushing back from my mind's archives. I thought about my grandfather, who passed away in the year 2001. His brother had kicked the bucket only a few months before him. I visualised my grandmother, always ready to offer me some tea or something to eat. I saw myself on the scarlet sofas, laughing my head off, free of any worries, enjoying several Christmas Days...

The apartment belongs to the Government. The latter is expected to reclaim it by the end of this year. I wanted to visit the place before entry will no longer be possible.

As I left the apartment, I felt as though a thick chapter of my life was coming to an end. That place represented the source of so many happy memories. Walking through it without seeing the faces that I was used to seeing there filled the place with sadness. I left with a very heavy heart.

Christmas Day is exactly one month away. Talking about memories, during this time of the year, I cannot help thinking about my mom. Even though she passed away in 2006, I still think about her quite frequently. She was a stubborn person, but extremely loving. To her, Christmas was that time of the year during which one ought to do his/her utmost to transform this world into a better place.

Since she passed away, whatever was left of my biological family broke into several fragments. Since then, my wife and I always wonder where and with whom we might be able to spend Christmas Day. How different things would be if she were still here! She would probably still be calling almost daily to see how my day was, to see that my wife and I are fine, to make sure that we do not need anything...

My mind is packed with several wonderful memories of events shared with my mother. Having said this, almost whenever I think about her, my thoughts frequently go back to the last few months she spent here. Her pain as she struggled with cancer. The terribly cold night my wife and I spent with her at Boffa Hospital only a few days before she passed away. The times when she asked me to give her something to drink and I could not do so since she could no longer ingest anything. Imagine how you would feel if you could barely help a person who had devoted many years to making sure that you never went hungry, cold, penniless!

It is quite fascinating to think about the ability that human beings have to recall memories. They can make us feel enormously happy, but they can also reduce us to tears.

Conversations with an Evangelical Christian

2008-11-25T20:14:00.003+01:00

Red: So, do you think that homosexuality is bad?

Evangelical Christian: Yes.

Red: Why is it something bad?

Evangelical Christian: Because it is a sin and the Bible says so!

Red: Oh...but how can you be sure that the Bible is correct? How can you be sure that many of its writings are nothing more than a reflection of beliefs that were somewhat popular several centuries ago?

Evangelical Christian: The people who wrote the Bible were inspired by God...

Red: Ok, let me ask you another question. Do you believe that there is a place called Hell where there is fire and eternal pain?

Evangelical Christian: Yes, I do.

Red: I thought that if God represents the highest degree of love imaginable, he should be able to allow his children to progress, to develop, to change...don't you think that the concept of eternal damnation is against the idea of love?

Evangelical Christian: No!

When having such conversations, all the reasons which had compelled me to drift away from virtually any popular religion come strongly back to mind. I really enjoy thinking about the possibility of building a better world where all people could live together in peace, but it is extremely difficult for me to switch off my rational mind as I try to make a number of positive differences in my life. To believe that homosexuality is wrong or evil simply because of what a person wrote hundreds of years ago is unacceptable to me.

As a person, I like supporting my beliefs with various rational arguments. If, for example, I believe that socialism is better than capitalism, I will do my utmost to provide solid evidence to explain my position. I would never even contemplate going out there to praise socialism simply because somebody wrote that it is a great ideology several centuries ago!

I have to admit that during the past few years, my flirting with religion has often been motivated by the desire to enjoy the nice aspects associated with various religions - the commitment to friendship, to helping one another, to believing that we are brothers and sisters, etc. Those things could be quite attractive, especially in a world in which true friendships seem incredibly hard to find. In the past, I had tried to find such things in secular organisations, but the only time I came close to witnessing a genuine commitment to achieving goals such as co-operation with other human beings, helping those who are suffering, and building a fairer world was when I met several Communists at an international seminar in Brussels earlier on this year.

As stated in a previous post, I cannot deny the fact that praying has often made me feel good. Yet, I still wonder whether my mind was playing tricks on me to convince me that prayers really work...

It is so sad to think that there might be so many other people out there who yearn for friendship, support, and love...who try to find these things in a secular way without too much success...and who eventually end up forcing down a number of totally irrational beliefs down their throats simply to have some true friends, family-like occasions, and perhaps even a romantic partner. Why is it so hard for so many people to adopt the nice and practical qualities of various religions (such as caring about your neighbour) without carrying the burden of having to believe in countless ideas which often lack scientific support?

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An Interview with...Myself!!! Part 2

2008-11-04T19:31:00.003+01:00

Q: The current government in Malta, led by Dr Lawrence Gonzi, has often argued against the concept of subsidising companies such as the Malta Shipyards Ltd. The government keeps saying that if a state-owned company is transferred to private ownership, the company will be much more profitable. What are your views about all this?

A: Unless I am mistaken, the European Union strongly limits the amount of aid that the State can give to one or more companies. That is not something about which I am very happy.

As far as Malta Shipyards Ltd is concerned, I totally disagree that this should be privatised. Let me explain further. A company's success or failure is usually determined by its management. In the case of the aforementioned company, it is quite clear that it has suffered from fairly inadequate management strategies for many years. This has led to the company's incurring losses for a fairly long period of time. The government has pumped millions of Euros into this company in order to sustain it, but the masses keep being told that all that money was wasted. Nowadays, we have heard about the necessity to privatise this company so often that few individuals seem to bother to ask: why has the Malta Shipyards company been incurring losses for so much time? Furthermore, it appears that an even smaller number of individuals has wondered whether there are any alternatives to privatisation.

When it comes to the provision of subsidies, I am totally in favour of this, as long as certain conditions are satisfied. In the past, whenever a state-owned company faced countless difficulties, the government simply pumped huge sums of money into those organisations in order to help them remain afloat. What is so wrong about that? When a human being is in serious trouble, millions of people around the world would agree that providing some form of assistance to that person is a highly admirable thing to do. Is one, therefore, to conclude that it is fine to help another individual, but totally wrong to attempt to rescue a state-owned company that is caught in the grip of a financial storm? Whenever people provide charitable contributions, they hope that that money will be used for its intended objective. Likewise, whenever tax-payer money is utilised to help a company, a country's workers hope that those contributions are going to be used to achieve the desired goals. If money is given to a company and it is not used wisely, then it is quite understandable that several people might prefer to cut the umbilical cord with that company. When subsidies are used wisely, a company can generate more income and job stability is retained.

Going back to the Malta Shipyards company, I still believe that if the government had really wanted to help this organisation to get back on its feet, the subsidies that were given to it for so many years could have been utilised in a much better way. A good management team could have been assembled to rescue the company from chronic losses. If it is true that there were too many employees, the management should have consulted the government and the unions so that a plan could have been drafted to transfer the extra employees to other organisations. All this was possible without the need to resort to privatisation.

Q: Why are you so sceptical about privatisation?

A: A private company is mainly interested in the maximisation of profit and the minimisation of costs. A state-owned company also wants to be profitable, but it also has other interests, such as providing stable and fulfilling jobs. Obsessed with profit, most private companies would not think twice about sacking countless employees if such individuals are not deemed to be "profitable".

It is also important to remember that the profits earned by a private company end up in the pockets of a relatively small percentage of the population (the shareholders). Any profits made by a state-owned company would benefit the entire population. In a discourse published in 1993 (Abuses of Socialism are Intolerable), Kim Jong Il said the following: "The renegades of socialism are converting socialist ownership into private ownership, claiming that the 'administrative command system' relies on the absolute dominance of state ownership. The socialist ownership which consists of state and all-people ownership and cooperative ownership forms social, economic foundations which enable the popular masses to occupy the position of masters of the state and society and play their role as such. It is clear that if socialist ownership is dissolved and converted into private ownership, the means of prodution, having been privatised, will be concentrated, sooner or later, in the hands of privileged people, speculators and a handful of other exploiters, no matter what the method of privatisation may be. It is not long since privatisation was carried out in those countries in which socialism had collapsed, but millionaires have already appeared while the vast majority of the working people are suffering because of unemployment and poverty" (p.141). Kim Jong Il has been criticised for several things, but his comments have been supported by historical events in many countries.

Q: Any comments about Dr Joseph Muscat?

A: I like the fact that he is a very good diplomat. His attempts to foster fraternal relationships within the Malta Labour Party are highly admirable. Having said that, I believe that he should be more critical when it comes to the neo-liberal ideology that has pervaded virtually all the countries in the Western world. I understand that it is not realistic to expect huge changes to happen in a short span of time, but I would love to see Dr Muscat talk about the plight of the suffering in this country more frequently.

To be continued...

An Interview with...Myself!!!

2008-10-21T19:08:00.003+02:00

During the past few weeks, even though I was extremely busy with my insurance studies, I went over several things in my life. More specifically, I wanted to open the various drawers in my mind and to clean out any cobwebs or dust that had accumulated there over time. :) It was not an easy process, but it was definitely a rewarding one! In order to avoid a rather tedious post about my latest thoughts/beliefs, I have decided to list a number of questions to myself in an interview format. Hope that you will enjoy reading this "interview"! :))

Q: You have an Honours degree in Psychology, but you are studying and working in insurance. In a fairly recent post, you mentioned an interest in studying Medicine. As far as career aspirations are concerned, what plans do you have for the future?

A: It is true that I have an Honour degree in Psychology. It is also true that I have been studying and working in insurance for approximately three years. I cannot deny that there have been a number of instances in the past when I harboured the desire of studying Medicine, but this dream has always ended up being archived somewhere in one of the hidden corners of my mind! Although I will probably always remain fascinated by medical matters, I am hoping to build a future that is somewhat tied with my current occupation. At the moment, I am working as a Senior Claims Insurance Officer and I am presently studying to obtain my Diploma in Insurance. I have recently noticed that many individuals who work on claims tend to take a fairly active interest in legal studies. Working in an insurance management/broking firm, I really enjoy that feeling of safeguarding a client's interests! During the time that I have spent working in the said company, I have often managed to persuade a number of insurance companies to settle countless claims. If I see that a client is right and deserves to be paid a certain amount of money, I can be a big headache for the company that keeps refusing to pay! :)

Ever since I was a child, many people had encouraged me to pursue legal studies. Fascinated by Psychology, I never really thought about studying Law. Nowadays, as I gain more experience in insurance and develop a better understanding of various legal principles, I strongly believe that I could eventually further my studies in Law. I consider myself to be a very assertive person and my ability to communicate in several languages would surely be an asset!

In a nutshell, I plan to continue working and studying insurance for a while. Yet, I also hope to study Law so that I can work as a lawyer sometime in the future.

Q: Your favourite dish?

A: Spaghetti alla carbonara! :)

Q: Favourite TV show?

A: Boston Legal.

To be continued...

Socialist European Union ( Flash Anime )

2008-10-13T15:05:00.001+02:00

Interesting Video!

The Power of the Media

2008-09-20T17:21:00.000+02:00

When I was younger, I used to consider Western media such as CNN as the truth and nothing else but the truth. I never questioned what was said by the capitalist media and the views they espoused became my own during conversations with family and friends. During those days, I never tried to go beyond the rhetoric to see what was NOT being said.

As time went by, however, I became much more critical of the capitalist media. I realised that a journalist or a contributor to the media is, deep down, a person who is trying to transmit their viewpoints across to the world in order to achieve certain goals. Of course, given the fact that most Western countries have adopted a predominantly capitalist economic model, it is not surprising to see that most newspapers, radio stations, and TV channels broadcast pro-capitalist messages. Furthermore, I have noticed that anything or anyone who tries to criticise capitalism is usually either ridiculed, demonised, or simply ignored. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are the perfect examples of this phenomenon.

While the Western media barely ever takes a break from transmitting speeches about democracy and human rights by individuals such as George W. Bush or Gordon Brown, it rarely focuses on what has really happened throughout history once the sweet rhetoric of such people is brushed aside in favour of the hard facts. I will try to shed some light on this point in this post so that every time you hear a UK or US government representative talk about democracy and human rights, you will be able to go beyond the rhetoric and examine the facts.

I guess that few people have heard about a certain Sandy Mitchell. The latter was a British citizen who spent some time working in Saudi Arabia as an anaesthetic technician. In the year 2000, he was accused of being involved in two bombings that shook the country. The authorities arrested Sandy and subjected him to a great deal of torture. Back in the UK, his sister struggled almost constantly in order to push the British Government to do something in order to secure her brother's release. The Foreign Office was clearly terrified of upsetting the good commercial relations that existed between the UK and Saudi Arabia and were, therefore, very reluctant to do much in order to obtain Mr Mitchell's release. As stated by Mark Hollingsworth and Sandy Mitchell, the authors of Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corruption and Cover-Up Inside the House of Saud (2006), "It was clear from the Foreign Office reports that ministers were raising the case but there was no negotiation, lateral thinking or pressure being applied" (p. 163). The same authors added that "Secret trials, torture, no legal defence after uncorroborated confessions and arbitrary detention without charge are features of the Saudi judicial system. Crimes involving national security are so broadly defined that they encompass all non-violent opposition to the government. The Saudis refuse to allow the UN Human Rights Committee to investigate allegations of systematic torture in the Kingdom" (p. 228).

Sadly, it seems that the Western media hardly ever criticises the appalling human rights situation in Saudi Arabia. The authors of the aforementioned book stated that "Concern for human rights in Saudi Arabia ranks very low on the agenda of the US and UK governments. Apart from noting that women face discrimination and the court system is secretive, abuse of human rights is barely mentioned by the UK Foreign Office or in US State Department presentations to Congress about programmes to promote democratic values across the world" (p. 229).

The media is extremely powerful. I believe that it should do much more than simply broadcast capitalist messages. The media should trigger discussions and focus on genuine attempts to reduce the suffering of millions of people all over the world.

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Career Aspirations

2008-09-12T15:54:00.002+02:00

A few days ago, La Delirante and I met this girl at a private educational institute. She said that she graduated as a lawyer, but has never really worked as one. Indeed, her current job has virtually nothing to do with her legal studies. She did not complain about the fact that she is not working as a lawyer. The girl said that compared to some of her university colleagues who went on to work as lawyers, she has a much better job. We asked her about decent work opportunities for lawyers here in Malta; her comments were far from encouraging! She said that unless one comes from a family of established lawyers or has strong connections, it is extremely hard to find a good job as a lawyer in present-day Malta. A friend of hers, she told us, had tried to work as a notary and opened an office, but hardly anyone ever turned up. This friend ended up working in a call centre.

Studying something and ending up having to work in a sometimes totally different field is a situation which seems to be affecting a growing number of university graduates locally as well as in many other countries. I spent four years of my life studying Psychology. I was one of the top students in my course, graduating with a high B+ average from university. I also studied Philosophy for several years. When I started looking for a job related to my studies, I could not find anything that matched my knowledge and skills. Some of my classmates ended up working for organisations that helped individuals suffering from a number of behavioural problems, but their jobs were often terribly ill-paid and with very bad conditions. I still remember one girl telling me that she sometimes had to work at night as a sort of security guard in a home for troubled teenagers. She said that she would take a book with her and spend most of the night reading.

I eventually ended up working as a Support Officer for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. My job did not even require a university degree!

Although the acquisition of knowledge can always be seen as useful (and I surely do not regret having studied Psychology), it is extremely frustrating to see how nobody ever turned on the alarm bells when I was about to enter University. Why is it that nobody informed me that the chances of finding a decent job with an Honours Psychology degree were going to be minimal?

A great deal of the textbooks we used were from the US. Such books often gave one the impression that there is such a huge demand for psychologists that a graduate in that area would never have to face the spectre of unemployment! We were being exposed to the US and sometimes to the UK markets, but hardly anyone was ever enlightening us about the Maltese job market!

Several years have gone by since I graduated. I am presently studying and working in insurance. Up to mid-2005, I had absolutely no idea about how insurance worked. Today, I am working hard to obtain my Diploma in Insurance. As I said in a previous post, I love working in insurance. Yet, there are times when I feel that I could do something more than that since one of the things I like most in life is that beautiful feeling that flows in my system whenever I do something to make other people feel happy. At the end of the day, I studied Psychology for two main reasons: I had fallen in love with science and I wanted to help other human beings to overcome various problems in their lives so that they could feel better about themselves.

If I had the opportunity, I would love to be able to study Medicine. I am sure that the study of how countless body systems work would satisfy my craving for scientific knowledge. More importantly, working as a doctor would allow me to really contribute to improving the welfare of many other people. Moreover, there is always a huge demand for doctors and it is, therefore, virtually impossible to end up unemployed.

The dream is great, but how on earth would I be able to study Medicine today? The course is fairly long and it requires full-time study. With all my current financial commitments, I cannot just stop working to spend the next five years of my life studying! Sadly, this is a dream that is going to have to wait for quite a while until it is turned to reality...

I have focused a great deal on my own experience. Yet, I know that there are several other people out there who could identify with various issues mentioned in this post. During the last month or so, I have come across a girl who graduated in Communications and Psychology, but who is presently working as a receptionist (her duties include preparing coffee and hot chocolate for the directors!). I have also recently met another girl who graduated in Geography, but is working for a financial services company.

One question: shouldn't the government do more to see to it that if a person is studying something, there are several good opportunities to apply the knowledge that is gained painstakingly over a number of years? What is the point of having a Philosophy course at university when the newspaper adverts are almost always looking for graduates in Accounts, Economics, and IT?

The Gods that Failed

2008-09-08T12:49:00.004+02:00

I have just finished reading a great book entitled The Gods that Failed: How Blind Faith in Markets Has Cost Us Our Future (2008, The Bodley Head) by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson. I strongly believe that all true left-wing thinkers should read this book. The book, however, also offers a great deal of food for thought for all those individuals who support the free-market economy.

The "gods" referred to in the aforementioned book are a number of ideas that have been and are still predominant in several capitalist countries such as the UK. To mention some examples, the authors talk about the effects of "gods" such as liberalisation, competition, and privatisation.

I will end this post with some quotations that will hopefully encourage the readers to purchase a copy:

"In Britain and the United States a very strange sect has seized power. They believe that we can all reach financial paradise. If only certain sacrifices are made. There must be deregulation, there must be privatisation, and markets must be left unmolested, the better to perform their magic. Democratic governments, unions and professionals will all have to accept that there is no alternative. Meanwhile job security, affordable houses and decent public services wither away in the white heat of financial engineering." (taken from the book's blurb)

"The New Olympians are unconcerned with - in fact, hostile to - job security (other than their own), social tranquillity, and the traditional middle-class aspiration for both the good life and the quiet life. Our modern day Olympians sit in judgement in their central banks, their skyscraper blocks in the financial districts and in the headquarters of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation. In these houses of the holy, they roll their eyes in despair when they hear that the Detroit car worker, the Argentinian shopkeeper or the Cornish fisherman is complaining that their way of life is under threat. Like it or lump it, that's just the way it is and has to be, the New Olympians say." (p. 5)

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Two Years...and a Promotion!!!

2008-08-29T16:42:00.002+02:00

The 21/08/2008 marked my second year working for an insurance management/broking company. I had never spent so much time working for a specific firm.

I started working in insurance in September 2005. Prior to joining, I had practically no idea about what insurance was all about. I had never studied it or even come close to working in an area that was somewhat related.

My first job in this sector of the financial services industry was that of a health claims handler. The job was very interesting and I learned a great deal about various illnesses, surgical interventions, and treatment types. The company I worked for had also sponsored an insurance course for me to learn the concepts underlying the day-to-day work. I was doing quite well throughout the early stages of the course (I obtained a score of 96% in the last exam that I sat for!), but I had to drop out because of the many times that we had to work overtime. I also decided to drop out since my mom was very ill at that time and it was extremely hard to work, study, and deal with my mom's devastating illness.

I spent less than a year working as a health claims handler. Although the job was very interesting, the employment conditions were not so good. I, therefore, moved to an insurance management/broking company.

Since August 2008, I have dealt with countless commercial and personal lines claims. Thanks to the company's sponsorship policy, I have been able to further my studies in insurance. Indeed, earlier on this year, I obtained my Certificate in Insurance with the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). I am presently studying to achieve my Diploma in Insurance.

Given the fact that I am very good at communication and that I am able to express myself in other languages (such as Italian and Spanish), most of my time has been dedicated to the handling of the claims issues pertaining to an international client. Nowadays, it is very common for me to spend my day writing emails in Italian although I also send several emails in English. Every now and then, I also have to translate some material from Italian to Spanish or from Spanish to English.

As a person, I am an extremely analytical one. This helps a lot when discussing claims with one or more insurers. By using my argumentative skills and by being assertive, I have often persuaded an insurer to reconsider their settlement offer. :)

I love working in insurance! Once the basic skills are learned, one can go to almost any part of the world to work since insurance companies have become extremely widespread over the last few years.

As is often said, success is the fruit of hard work. After a little over two years, the directors have reviewed my performance favourably and decided to give me a promotion!!! Indeed, I have been promoted to the position of Senior Insurance Officer - Claims. :)) I received several emails from many of my colleagues and their words were very nice.

It is now time to celebrate!!! :)))))

Spreading Democracy?

2008-08-18T16:42:00.003+02:00

For the past fifteen years or so, the government of the UK and, especially, that of the US have frequently talked about the concept of "spreading democracy" to every part of the world. Indeed, various covert military operations have been carried out in numerous countries to ensure that "democracy" is sowed. Books such as Guns for Hire: The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering (by Tony Geraghty) and Veil (by Bob Woodward) provide ample evidence of the attempts made by several US and the UK administrations to instill their vision of democracy in many countries.

As a person with a very strong interest in world events and in politics, I have often asked myself: why do the UK and the US governments talk so much about democracy? Why is this word invoked so many times during countless speeches? What exactly do individuals such as Gordon Brown and George W. Bush mean when they speak almost incessantly about democracy?

Just yesterday, I was reading an article by Stephen Gowans about the demonisation of Robert Mugabe in the Western world. Whilst reading this article, I came across the following part which clarified the meaning of the term "democracy" when used by various representatives of the UK and of the US administrations: "To the US, British and European governments that back the MDC, democracy is more or less equivalent to free trade, free enterprise, free markets and above all, the sanctity of private property, within other countries’ borders. Equally, in the Anglo-American sense, democracy is an electoral competition among two or more parties committed to these values, or what Robert Dahl called polyarchy and Karl Marx called a contest to decide which representative of the bourgeoisie will oppress you for the next four years."

In the eyes of the UK and of the US governments, as long as a country allows the possibility of competition between two or more political parties of virtually any kind, there is nothing much to fear in terms of being able to spread their own business interests. This is because when such a political environment exists, it is extremely common for the UK and for the US administrations to work as follows:

1.) Identify a political party that can be used to further UK/US business interests;

2.) Provide economic and other support to help such a party win as many elections as there are in order to ensure the spread of UK/US business interests;

3.) If there is no political party that currently favours very close ties with the UK/US administrations, transfer a great deal of money to a particular group in the target country to set up a party that can try to win the elections;

4.) Once the chosen party wins an election, keep on providing all the necessary support so that this party can remain in power and so that the country is transformed into a client state.

The UK and US governments sometimes try to persuade the world's population that their desire to spread democracy is motivated by a wish to improve the human rights plight of every human being, regardless of where he/she lives. During the past few months, it has been possible to come across a number of representatives of both governments engaged in extremely heavy criticism of individuals such as Robert Mugabe and Hugo Chavez. The criticisms seemed to be triggered by a high level of concern about various human rights issues in Zimbabwe and in Venezuela. At this stage, it is very important to bear in mind the great opposition displayed by people such as Mugabe and Chavez when faced with a huge amount of pressure to implement countless neo-liberal economic policies in their countries.

As I listened and read the articles written by numerous representatives of the UK/US governments about several human rights issues in anti-imperialist countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Zimbabwe, there was one question that kept cropping up in my mind: if the US and the UK governments are so concerned about improving the human rights situation for every person in the world, why is it that individuals such as George W. Bush never talk about the human rights situation in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt? Why is the attention of capitalist countries so selective?

In view of the above, it seems pretty clear to me that the UK and the US governments are mainly interested in spreading their economic policies to every part of the world so that a relatively small number of their citizens can continue becoming richer and richer. To conclude, every time you hear a representative of a capitalist country talk about democracy, always go beyond mere rhetoric and appearances.

The Secret: 1st 20 minutes

2008-08-16T05:05:00.001+02:00

Extremely interesting!!!

McDumb As Bush

2008-08-16T03:50:00.003+02:00

Another interesting video! :)

John McCain Video

2008-08-16T03:50:00.001+02:00

Interesting!

Self-Development

2008-08-05T17:23:00.003+02:00

When I decided to study Psychology many years ago, one of the main reasons which encouraged me to choose such a discipline was the belief that the more we know about ourselves, the more opportunities we might have in life. Several years later and with a Psychology degree under my belt, I can say that I have learned a great deal about how and why certain behaviours occur. When I wrote about failure in my previous post, studying Psychology helped me very much because it shed a lot of light on the issue of human learning as well as coping mechanisms. Of course, it is one thing to know the theory and something else to start applying various principles to one's own life.

Over the past few years, I have come across several books, individuals, and Internet presentations which highlight the importance of thought in our daily lives. At the moment, I am reading an extremely interesting book called The Answer: Your Guide to Achieving Financial Freedom and Living An Extraordinary Life by John Assaraf and Murray Smith. A great deal of the material that I have read so far in this book is consistent with my Psychology studies. The contents are also in harmony with several scientific ideas that are normally found in Physics books.

Whilst reading the aforementioned book, I was really struck by the following sentence: "Thought creates everything". Perhaps this made such an impression on me because only two weeks ago, somebody asked me: "Do you know what is the most powerful thing in the universe?". I said, "Love?". His answer was "Thought".

As I kept thinking about the power of thought, I realised how certain beliefs we might have about numerous things can become so entrenched that they become habitual. Put differently, such thoughts become automatic. Sadly, some people might have incorporated so many negative thoughts during their lives that it might not be so surprising to see them living in very unpleasant situations.

Let us go back to the issue of coping with failure. If, say, John fails his English O-level exam, he might convince himself that his result meant only one thing - that he is "not good" when it comes to English. By repeating this thought over and over again until it becomes a dogma, it is extremely likely that John will not even consider the possibility that he failed his exam because he did not dedicate enough time to study. Or perhaps he was not using the best studying techniques.

When thinking about it, it is quite scary to imagine how many people have blocked themselves in several ways because of what other people have said to them over and over again. Parents, teachers, relatives, partners, friends...all of these individuals might have had a strong impact on the thoughts we hold today.

The worst thing is that like attracts like (this is known as the Law of Attraction). If I convince myself that I am fundamentally hopeless in Chemistry, I can only aspire to creating more situations in which I am going to fail.

If one wants to develop or to progress in life, it is important for each person to examine their thoughts. A good way to start is by asking oneself: what do I say to myself when faced with certain situations in life? What do I say to myself when I fail an exam? What do I say to myself when I get a poor review at work? What do I say to myself when I am rejected by a person I fancy? Surprisingly, you might discover that in the areas in which your "self-talk" is almost always positive, it is very hard to find any negative experiences.

To conclude, I believe that life is a journey during which we should be constantly trying to develop or to progress. As we acknowledge our potential and transform our negative thoughts into positive ones, we will realise that we have so many beautiful opportunities in life! Of course, nobody ever said that it is easy to change thoughts that have been repeated over and over again for countless years. But it is never too late to start changing! So...what are you thinking about now??? :)

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Perseverance

2008-08-01T17:11:00.003+02:00

Earlier on this week, one of my colleagues at work failed two important insurance exams. He was absolutely devastated by the results. Although he said that he was going to apply for a revision of the exam papers, he was immediately filled with self-doubt. He spent most of the week saying that insurance is not for him. To me, this was another case of a person whose future choices in life are strongly moulded by failure.

What about you? Have you ever failed an exam? Have you ever been deserted by a boyfriend, girlfriend, friend? Have you ever been fired from one or more companies?

When faced with questions such as the aforementioned ones, I believe that most people have had to deal with a failure of some sort in their lives. Failure can be a very tough experience to deal with. Whereas some individuals are able to stand back up on their feet almost as quickly as Bobo dolls, there are also many people who react rather negatively when they fail to achieve certain goals.

I hate failure. Whenever it strikes, for one reason or another, I always feel quite bad. The experience always comes like a strong punch in the stomach. And the worst part of it is that it usually takes me fairly long to get back on track.

Given the devastating effect that failure has on my thinking, I am a great admirer of all those people who never give up when faced by one or more setbacks. Indeed, it is sometimes said that the most successful people in life are those that never throw in the towel when confronted with failure. Perhaps that is why I love reading biographies and watching movies based on true stories; several of them portray people who have managed to persevere in spite of coming across a number of setbacks in their lives.

I am still working on improving my reaction to failure. I want to be able to say to myself,"Well, I must have done something wrong this time, but I will keep on trying because I know that as long as I want to achieve a goal, I CAN be successful!" I want to become a truly persevering person and never give up after the smallest setback. :)

True Friendship

2008-07-11T16:51:00.005+02:00

During the past few days, apart from following the world's latest news and doing my part to spread socialist values in the corner I inhabit, I have also turned my attention to some lifestyle blogs. I found a number of blogs that were quite interesting and have added them to my blog list.

Whilst reading a post on one of these blogs, I came across the following passage:

"When I mentioned how I hadn’t heard from a certain friend in months, mom asked, “So, why didn’t you call her?”

“Why should I?” I shot back angrily. “It’s always me. I’m always the one chasing after people to hang out with me. Do you know [how] that makes me feel? Like some loser who has to try and convince people to hang out with me all of the time. If they can’t be bothered to pick up the fucking phone or shoot me an e-mail every now and again, then why should I bother wasting any more of my time? I’m so sick of this shit.”

During my university years, I managed to develop some friendships with a number of classmates. Over the four years that I spent at university, some of those friendships grew quite strongly. The shocking part of the story is that almost immediately after the graduation ceremony, most of those people just drifted away. I used to send emails, call them over the phone to meet....I eventually realised that I was usually the one chasing these "friends". One of them got married around a year after we left university; he did not bother to invite me to his wedding. By the way, I was the person who had introduced him to the girl he married!!!

Nowadays, even though I am very happily married, there are still times when I feel that I have to chase certain people in order to do something together. I find this issue quite disturbing. As a person, I do not smoke or use any drugs whatsoever. If I drink, I only do so on a social basis and I never go overboard. I have countless interests and enjoy laughing. Financially, I could be in a better position, but it is not so easy to be very rich when you are working in a country that promotes its low operating costs to attract foreign investors! Why, I ask myself, do many people seem to get invited to events almost every weekend whilst I - with all the qualities I have - frequently end up being the one to chase another person to organise something?

In the past, I have often wondered whether I expect too much from those individuals that I consider to be true friends. I am aware that we live in a fast-paced world with several things to do in a relatively short span of time. Yet, with all the technological advances witnessed during the last few years, I find it extremely hard to believe that a person cannot find a couple of minutes to send an email, a text message, or to make a quick phone call. Is it really that complicated to show some care towards another human being, to say something like "Hi there, just wanted to make sure that you are fine! Can't wait to meet up sometime soon...!?" It took me a few seconds to write those words myself! LOL

Throughout the past ten years or so, many people have crossed my life path. The vast majority of them ended up drifting away for one reason or another. A few of them were initially very friendly, but ended up hurting me a great deal. Of course, you do learn from every experience, but the painful memories also add up. Every time a so-called "friend" drifted away, I felt abandoned, used, lonely, sad...

In spite of the above, I still believe in the existence of true friendship. To me, a real friend is one that will always stand by you. That person might not agree with you about everything (anyway, is that ever possible?), but he/she will always care about your well-being. It is a pity, though, that it seems to be so hard to find such people. Long live true friendship!!!

Another Attack on Workers' Rights

2008-07-06T14:13:00.004+02:00

Employers use federal law to deny benefits

Saturday July 5, 11:31 pm ET
By Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer

Workers - and some judges - frustrated in legal fights over benefits with large employers

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dying of cancer, Thomas Amschwand did everything he was told to make sure his wife would collect on the life insurance policy he had through his employer.

"He was obsessed with dotting every `i' and crossing every `t'," Melissa Amschwand-Bellinger recalled about her husband, who died in 2001 at age 30.

But Spherion Corp., the temporary staffing company where Amschwand worked, told Amschwand-Bellinger she would not receive any of the $426,000 in benefits she believed she was due. When she went to court, Spherion succeeded in getting her lawsuit thrown out. The Supreme Court on June 27 refused to review the case.

Amschwand-Bellinger received a refund of the few thousand dollars in insurance premiums she and her husband dutifully had paid. The total, she said, would not cover the costs of his funeral.

The story has played out often under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Designed to protect employee benefits, the law has been used by employers as a shield against suits.

Federal appeals courts, interpreting Supreme Court decisions dating to 1993, consistently have said companies that offer health, life and retirement benefits under ERISA cannot be sued for large amounts of money, or damages. Instead, they can be sued only for typically smaller sums such as Amschwand's insurance premiums.

Several federal judges have bemoaned the unfairness even as they have felt constrained to rule in favor of employers.

"The facts ... scream out for a remedy beyond the simple return of premiums," Judge Fortunato Benavides of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in the Amschwand case. "Regrettably, under existing law it is not available."

The Bush administration has argued that the appeals courts are misreading the precedents and has asked the high court at least twice to clarify the earlier rulings. So far it has refused.

Congress, which could amend ERISA to make clear such suits are allowed, also has taken no action.

The result, in the view of ERISA experts, the administration and some lawmakers, is perverse.

"The beneficiary under the policy didn't get the promised benefit," said Colleen Medill, an expert on ERISA at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "To say we're just going to return your premiums, that's a total farce. That's not what they paid the premiums for. They paid them for the benefits."

Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at a recent hearing that before ERISA became law, employees clearly could sue for benefits in state courts.

The court rulings, said Leahy, D-Vt., have left people "more vulnerable than they were before the law was passed."

Spherion's decision to deny benefits to Amschwand-Bellinger turned on an odd set of facts. Spherion, which employs about 300,000 people, switched insurers after Thomas Amschwand was diagnosed with a rare form of heart cancer. The new policy did not take effect until an employee worked one full day. Spherion never informed Amschwand of the requirement.

Amschwand asked repeatedly whether there was anything else he needed to do and was told no. He asked that the new policy be sent to him. Spherion never did so.

He died without returning to work. His widow said he easily could have worked a day if that was what it took to activate the new policy. Spherion could have waived the one-day-of-work provision, as it did for other employees but not for Amschwand.

Spherion spokesman Kip Havel issued a brief statement when contacted by The Associated Press after the high court declined to review the case. "We are pleased the court has made its decision and the matter has finally been resolved," Havel said.

The court also recently turned down an appeal from Louis Gerard "Gerry" Goeres, who sued Charles M. Schwab & Co. over hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement plan benefits.

For 16 months, Schwab mistakenly refused to acknowledge Goeres as the beneficiary in the retirement plan of his domestic partner, Stephen Ward, a Schwab employee who died in 1999. By the time Schwab acknowledged its error, the value of the account had declined by more than $500,000. Goeres sued for the rest. Federal courts dismissed the suit. "Unfortunately, legal relief is not available," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said in ruling against Goeres.

"You know the Schwab commercial, `Talk to Chuck?'" Goeres said. "I thought if Chuck knew this, he'd say, 'Oh my God, this is so wrong.' I live on naive dreams."

Schwab said in court papers that Goeres could have taken legal action soon after Ward's death, when he first was told he was not the beneficiary.

Amschwand-Bellinger said the cases show the need for either the court or Congress to provide "some sort of meaningful remedy for employees when employers have a breach of fiduciary duty."

A Texas native who lives in an unincorporated Houston suburb, she has since remarried and has an 18-month-old daughter. She is president and executive director of the Amschwand Sarcoma Cancer Foundation, which she founded with her first husband.

She recognizes that she is more fortunate than many others who have fought similarly futile battles for benefits under ERISA. "What if we had had children and I was a stay at home mom?" said Amschwand-Bellinger, who previously worked for a public hospital system. "What if I was 60 years old, with no skill sets, and I had to go back to work?"

Source

Virgins and Stereotypes

2008-06-28T18:29:00.003+02:00

The blogosphere is full of blogs written by single people. Among these sites, there is a small percentage that was set up by male and female virgins.

A few months ago, I stumbled across one of these blogs. It was entitled Almost 40-Year-Old Virgin. The author describes his site as "The blog of a man from New York City who's closing in on 40 yet still remains a virgin. And not by choice." The last post goes back to 16/03/2008. Visibly tormented by his "virgin status", several readers left their comments. I was intrigued by some of the contributions. One person wrote the following:

"I think that I understand where you're coming from. I'm a 30-year old male virgin. I tried and I tried to get a girlfriend (or just a willing sexual partner) all throughout my 20's and it never worked; I'm not outgoing or confident, I'm not physically attractive, and I make below-average income despite my education. Somehow, when I turned 30, it was like a huge weight was taken off my shoulders...a voice told me: "OK, you've missed your sexual peak, you've missed having sex in your 20's (and not out of choice) something's probably wrong with you, you're too old to start now (who wants to fuck a 30 year old virgin?), you've failed, you can just give up". It feels better, you know...kind of peaceful. Maybe we're better off without women in our lives; I don't have to worry about infidelity, betrayal, or getting STI's. Anyways, if it all gets too much to bear someday I can just "bow out gracefully" (this will probably involve a shotgun). Oh well, on that note, I'll end it (no pun intended)."

A female reader wrote:

"Well, I'm a 35 y/o female virgin (African-American) at that (you hear that we are oversexualized -- not all of us). I was thinking about trying to have sex with someone just to gain more experience (I've done up to the deed), but never followed through. When it is right, it will happen. I just don't want to randomly have sex with someone. I won't romanticize virginity. It is what it is. NO SEX."

Another male reader said the following:

"I just stumbled across this blog from the other end of the world. (Bangalore, India). Oh well..glad to know that I am not the only one out there and there are other men who have the same problem all over the world. I am am a 28 year old male and I unfortunately don't have any excuse - apart from being a nerd - on why I never got around to it. I only came close once. I like and admire most women - just that I am unable to get past talking :) Though, I am mildly surprised that one can be a virgin in NYC of all places. One tends to feel a freak sometimes. Lol, I *so* wish there was something special in being a virgin - one wouldn't mind the state then. :). Where I come from (India), one generally gets the opportunity to do the deed only *after* one gets married, not before. And most marriages are arranged - which is something I *dont* want. :( Thats also the one of the reasons why nearly everyone marries by their mid 20s here - they all get sex-starved. At 28, you have already missed the boat and if you hit 30, there aren't many women left. Unfortunately, with my kind of lifestyle (and attitude) there is little chance that I will be getting into any relationship with any sort of woman any time soon. :) I do hope things work out for you and you find a great woman in your life. Don't give up hope! Hope is what gets you on with life!"

Yet another reader wrote:

"I've had this blog in my bookmarks for probably a year now, checking back to see if you would ever post again. I'm happy to see you've returned, if only for one more post. I'm a 27-yo virgin who's never had any sort of female contact beyond casual conversation. While your stories didn't help me, they were certainly very interesting to read. Thanks for sharing."

The above comments and experiences say a lot about the expectations that are drilled into the minds of many people. Given the number of gender and age stereotypes that exist in several societies around the world, it is not so easy for an involuntary virgin to talk about their sexual status. I can still clearly remember my adolescent years and I surely cannot forget the importance attached to losing one's virginity before reaching the age of 20. I also remember how the notion of being sexually experienced was often said to enhance a man's ability to attract girls. Upon reaching a certain age, several people expect one to have reached specific goals in life. Nowadays, in most parts of the planet, if a 25-year-old male asserts that he is still a virgin and that his status is not voluntary, many people would probably suspect that there is something "wrong" with such a person.

The bulk majority of movies and TV programmes do not make life much easier for involuntary virgins. Nowadays, almost every movie includes some degree of sexual intimacy. Quite astonishingly, most of the couples portrayed on TV never seem to experience any sexual problems; their sexual activities are normally featured as relatively problem-free. Once again, this creates various expectations among the millions of viewers glued to their screens. It is quite amazing that the various health professionals who deal with myriad sexual problems on an almost-daily basis do not seem to be doing much to replace various myths with facts.

Some movies could also be blamed for apparently propagating the notion that if a person reaches a certain age and is still a virgin, he/she could be considered as a "loser". Such movies tend to portray virgins in a terribly negative light. This tendency is frequently exacerbated by linking a number of physical and psychological characteristics to the imagined typical virgin.

I think that some beliefs can be particularly harmful to involuntary virgins. When it comes to men, the notion that unless a guy has certain physical characteristics (such as a particular height) or has a specific job, he can forget about ever finding a partner with whom he could have sex is extremely likely to have very harmful effects on one's self-esteem. It is true that some things are more desirable than others in various societies, but the attempt to demotivate or to degrade those people who - for one reason or another - do not have a number of attributes is utterly unacceptable.

More Worrying News for the Exploited Masses

2008-06-22T12:20:00.002+02:00

As I read one article after another, it appears that the economic situation for the exploited masses of the world is getting worse. According to an article published on the Mail Online website (18/06/2008), "Chancellor Alistair Darling...told families to tighten their belts and accept lower pay or risk inflation 'spiralling' to the levels of the 1970s. As average pay rises fell behind the official rate of inflation for the first time, he said it would be 'disastrous' if Britain became locked in a Seventies-style vicious circle of spiralling wages and prices." The same article affirmed that "Traditionally, workers have always depended on becoming slightly better off every year thanks to pay rises above the inflation rate. But research yesterday revealed that they are now falling behind in a dramatic way. For a worker on the average salary of £23,750, a 3.2 per cent pay rise means take-home pay rising by £500 a year. This is only half the £1,000 extra which a typical family face on their annual bill for food and drink alone. And that is before they find the extra money for all the other soaring bills such as power, mortgage and motoring costs."

The turmoil caused by the international financial crisis is clearly also affecting thousands of Maltese individuals. Turning to an article published by the Maltese-language newspaper Illum (15/06/2008), "A survey that was carried out by the MaltaToday newspaper in September 2007 suggested that 37.4% of the Maltese population never go out to eat at a restaurant. According to another survey conducted by Illum nine months later, the percentage of those people who never go out to eat at a restaurant has increased by 7% and has now reached 44.4 %."

I think that these articles are sufficiently clear in their messages and any further comment from my end would be superfluous.

Image

YMCA: Two Thumbs Up!

2008-06-18T21:15:00.003+02:00

I have just finished reading an article that was published on the Times of Malta during the first week of June (01/06/2008). It seems that the Sunday edition of the paper is devoting some space to a number of individuals who have benefited very much from the care provided by the YMCA staff.

I decided to visit the website of the YMCA branch in Malta. While going through the site's contents, I totally agreed with the part which said "Malta is often referred to as a 'happy island', with a pleasant, mediterranean, sunny lifestyle. But for some people, this is only a distant dream. Their reality is dramatically different. " The site's "Untold Stories" section provides a sample of the chilling hardships that several individuals might face in this country when they find themselves in certain situations.

Living on a small island where the individualist cult appears to be increasingly popular, I could not help feeling the greatest level of admiration towards all the YMCA staff who do not hesitate to give their utmost to transform the frowns of the individuals they work with into smiles. It is so nice to notice that there are still some people in this country who cannot rest when they know that there are other human beings who might be homeless, involuntarily unemployed, sick, or facing tremendous hardships.

Although organisations such as the YMCA surely deserve the proverbial "two-thumbs up", their resources are fairly limited. I believe that the Maltese government should be doing much more to safeguard a number of rights in this country. The right to a job, the right to a decent home, the right to have easy and free access to health care services...these are all fundamental rights that every government should safeguard so that no person ever has to face the various horrors witnessed by the YMCA staff.

The government affirms that it does have a number of schemes to help those citizens whose plight requires emergency assistance. One of these schemes consists of the social assistance (relief) that unemployed people could apply for. Whoever bothers to investigate the weekly amount of money that these individuals receive would be shocked when comparing that amount to the sum of money that is necessary to cover several survival costs. In 2005, I remember that a single person would receive around Lm34 (EUR 79.19) per week whereas a married individual would receive around Lm39 (EUR 90.84) per week. I strongly doubt that the government has increased these weekly benefits to a level that reflects the current average weekly survival expenses. Of course, it is better to have something rather than nothing, but those amounts are clearly an insult to those who are dealing with a huge amount of psychological pain as they struggle to live a decent life.

Let us hope that the present government will do more to help those in need. In the meantime, I hope that organisations such as the YMCA will continue to represent a strong guiding light to all those people who feel trapped in the dark.

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Timpana

2008-06-15T13:41:00.008+02:00

A few weeks ago, La Delirante and I were invited to have dinner with some friends. As always, we laughed a great deal and enjoyed ourselves very much.

Something must, however, be said about the food. It was absolutely DELICIOUS!!! I am not sure whether I had ever eaten Timpana (baked macaroni) in the past given that I was quite fussy about certain foods up to a couple of years ago. As far as La Delirante is concerned, she got her first taste of this extremely popular Maltese dish...and she loved it! :)

Whoever is interested in learning more about Timpana, please take a look at the following site: http://rgalea.com/recipes/timpana.html

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