Newsflash. Europe looks on in amazement. Maltese mums don’t work so Maltese kids are slim, well read, better behaved and not obsessed by television, video games and the like, which is making Europe sick!
First, we had the “breast is best” poster which reminded me of that one of a woman’s behind with a beer can from a few summers ago. Somehow, it is weird to see women’s bits enormously magnified up on billboards first thing in the morning while we, the less noble women (because we are working mums) of Malta according to our slowly outgoing Archbishop, are trundling to work.
Perhaps it’s the end of summer that explains it. Perhaps it’s the end of people’s careers. But we really do need to hear far more that is of value and vision, than we have been dished out in recent weeks.
On the one hand, the Pope up in Rome forgot he is no longer a clerical academic, and that billions hang on his every word, even those who are non-believers in the Catholic faith. The text he quoted from was bound to be offensive, and so it was. Now it’s not just “Bushites” and “Blairites” that the masses will love to hate, but “Popeites” too. The world is a dangerous enough place without stoking up the fire, I would have thought.
We don’t want our own clerics to behave in an old fashioned and medieval way. We want women to use their brains, to bring up their kids well, to earn money for the family, to give women the freedom and independence that only comes with your own income.
And locally, the Archbishop had again to talk about women making the noble choice to work. If we were not the placid sex, we would be running around protesting at this silly harmful pronouncement.
The majority of younger women are working, the older generation didn’t at all, hence the skewed figures we still have for our women’s participation in the labour force.
If Maltese mums are not working because they are well off enough to do so, and are happy to do so even once the kids are at school, that’s fine by me.
It is very easy to fill your day when you are at home and the kids are off at pre-school or school, I guess. The more time you spend at home, the more housework you generate, or the more things you see need to be done, and if some women are happy with that, I wouldn’t dream of commenting.
This life would drive me potty, but I am all for choice and for families to make decisions which are right for them. If the Archbishop thinks he is going to boost Mass attendance by making the local Church even more reactionary than it already is, he is mistaken.
Brains is best in my view. We need people who can think, men and women, girls and boys. We need to revamp our educational system to achieve this holy grail, so individuals can benefit from it, and to no longer push down their throats the moronic straitjacket of learning and repeating information. We need an education system that is not bound by the financial considerations of those who benefit from a system where private lessons are the norm.
Similarly, we don’t need a Church that forces our kids to hours of duttrina (religious doctrine), when kids already do religion at school. We need a Church that stresses real values and not just the outward facade of going to Church or staying at home with your kids (while they are at school too?). We need politicians who live the real life, who can walk the walk and talk the talk.
The Archbishop should be praising all the hard working women and men of this country. He should say, yes life is difficult, but don’t just leave your kids in front of the television or playing video games for hours on end while they are munching sweets.
Our children are the fatties of Europe. They eat badly and they don’t exercise. This in a country when many mums don’t work and so supposedly have all the time to cook healthily, take their children out to play, run in the fields (?) and the like.
If this isn’t happening in a country where many mums don’t work, is the Archbishop so sure that working mums are the only problem?
Brains are best. I wonder why none of the authorities push that message. Don’t they want us to think? Well, we do, you know.
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