There is nothing like sitting through a children's singing competition in this country to realise that we desperately need help.

We don't just need EU help to repair or build our roads, or to make our environment half decent, or to get our women to actively join the workforce (instead of only enjoying being yummy mummies). We need EU help, or help from somewhere to stop what we are doing to our children. To let our children have a childhood again. To allow them more joy and less competition.

I've often written about the killer that is our Matsec system, but even the extra curricular activities are over the top in their intensity, in their competitiveness, in their negating the joy factor

We must have one of the highest proportions of children who go to dance schools, or singing and piano lessons and other extra curricular activities. It’s not enough to go to school anymore. I remember doing some drama at schools, some sport, some art. Now everyone has to send their children somewhere. And

when they go is it for the joy or fun of it? Do we even know what these words, joy and fun mean anymore? It’s only to compete, to be better than the others. It’s

only about winning. But what does this do to the ones who lose? And what kind of moronic adults are we rearing? EU membership wasn't just about raising the

standard of living in economic terms. We have to make a quantum leap forward in social and psychological terms. We have to nurture a better generation. So far we are not even beginning to identify what’s wrong. If we cannot get it right with our children, it'll be too late for society later on and all the propaganda would have been a phenomenal waste of time.

In Switzerland for example, when children start taking piano lessons there are no grades or exams as such. They are allowed to enjoy the music, and learn to develop their skills for years before they sit for exams. Similarly, they do not start writing as such till they are seven plus, and yet when you meet these children at 15 they have not only caught up with the Maltese, illiteracy is very rare, and they actually surpass them in many areas

We need help to give our children a proper education. This children’s competition was awful, but I guess it was just raw Malta, still vulgar, still not putting children first, still all about winning and trophies, and so much less about nurturing talent and appreciating the talent our children obviously have.

This competition was international so there were singers from abroad. Remember we are talking about children. Some Maltese parents actually didn't clap for the foreign children, but clapped and screamed loudly only for their own. It was a sad and sorry spectacle. There were moments of hilarity too. Every time one of the little child presenters introduced someone they told us all to clap – and here is our special guest star from Malta, and “applaud” we did.

I suppose I finally understood where all our Eurovision frenzy starts, with so many vulgarly and tastelessly dressed young Maltese men and women, as well as awful songs. It all starts with our kiddies being fed this diet of trashy numbers, which they hope will win votes, which it does. An absolutely gorgeous group of little ones, a young boy with three dancers dressed in lovely frills, aged 5 or 6, turned round to show us all their bottoms during one number, bottoms with decent pants I hasten to add, but is our choreography so limited? Can’t five-year-olds dance like five-year-olds?

I know you can’t turn the clock back. I don't expect our children to be what children were 50 years ago, in a corner to be seen and not heard. Children develop faster today for a number of reasons. But why oh why are so many parents, educators and the like actually speeding up this process so much, that there is hardly any childhood left for them to enjoy?

Can’t we just send them to these classes for the fun of it? Can’t we just nurture a more genuine love for all the arts in our children without force-feeding them visions of stardom, whether they're dancers, playing football, or playing the piano?

Can we just turn down the volume of our vulgar ambitions and leave childhood alone... just a little bit?