Now that the bells have relinquished their right to go into a frenzy (which I adore - don't get me wrong) and 'L-IRXOXT' has survived the customary sprint and made it back into His Place in one piece, it’s time for me to snap out of my deeper than deep reflections and get back to work. The suffering and triumph over evil celebrated during Holy Week invariably triggers a line of thought firmly in the direction of human compassion or the lack of it, and as is natural my thoughts kept drifting towards poverty... poverty in Malta.
Now, it’s perfectly true that defining poverty can be very tricky indeed because 'poverty' can be as relative as it is absolute, and as subjective as it is objective. The concept is therefore perceived differently in different countries, as well as in the same countries at different points in time, different realities, by people of opposite genders, ages and situations. In general however I believe that poverty can be surmised to be present when a human being or a community of people is in a state of mind (psychologically) and body (physically), or both which detracts from his/her ability to live a dignified life and maintain a minimum standard of wellbeing. (We can open another debate as to what is the definition of wellbeing!).
Therefore, to give you an example, the frail debilitated lady living in her freehold property in St Barbara Bastions whose drawing room is replete with Maltese silver, but who has been abandoned by her children or, worse, consistently and legally robbed by them and who depends on the benevolence of another elderly neighbour to change her nappy, and on the local priest for a five-minute stint of human interaction per week, is much poorer than Cikka l-ginglija who in her old age is comfortably living in her one-bedroomed ground floor rented maisonette, has a pension that makes her cut down on heating, but is constantly reminded that she is an indispensable part of the community and will still enjoy a bicca mqarrun tajba here and there even if she has lost both her legs to diabetes and her eyesight deprives her of finding the mqarrun let alone handle the steaming water to boil it.
The same goes for the children. A child who consistently returns from school to open her own door to an empty Villa in Madliena, and eats her pre-prepared salad alone, because her mum needs to work late to make ends meet at least until the court case of the separation is settled and she can sell her half of the house and reorganise her family's way of life, is much poorer than the child that returns home to a two bedroom rented flat with one sleeping quarters for three siblings but consistently to the smell of a frugal but home cooked meal, and is urged to shower quickly and do her homework before going to free music lessons at the local band club or to her pageant rehearsal at duttrina.
What I mean to say is that poverty is a complex experience and that each of the 94,000 Maltese who are on the brink of poverty (EU statistics show that Malta has 23% of its people at risk of poverty with 30.9% of children -22, 801 about to be certified as poor) is poor for different reasons and therefore needs a different approach to the solution of his/her situation.
The executive political class before and now acted on the 'problem' once it was forced to acknowledge the existence of the reality. The PN in government for 25 years who registered an economic success even when the rest of Europe was sinking in the financial crisis, tried to address the deteriorating situation by throwing money at the problem, treating the symptoms but not the causes, while at the same time endorsing a price hike in basic utilities which catapulted more families into dire straits.
The much awaited Labour Movement Government, engaged more highly paid consultants (the salaries of each of which can probably provide three full time jobs for three destitute families), came up with a green paper which put into one document what we already knew and has a concluding chapter which proves it has no strategy yet, and threw another 10 million of the 2014 financial budget at the problem... erroneously and immaturely stating by that gesture that people can be bought out of poverty.
We are a small country. It is possible to stop treating poverty as a statistic and give each and every single number thrown in our path its individual human face and human condition. Our efforts and resources financial and human originating from governmental, NGO's, Community societies, Church and individual endeavours should be orchestrated to go the roots of each and every situation , identify the root causes and painstakingly empower and reinforce the ability of each of our brothers/ sisters afflicted so as to snap out of poverty trap once and for all. Dishing handouts invariably creates more abuse by the few who have made it their business not only to milk the system but to teach others to do likewise , and in the process begrudge the genuinely needy of the tools and skills to regain and retain their dignity.
Its early days of this centre left government. We can talk of pushbacks... Yes...but only on poverty.
Marlene Farrugia is a Labour MP