LAWRENCE GONZI
(Prime Minister)
How will you be spending the Christmas and New Year holidays?
I’ll be spending Christmas day with my wife’s family. On 1 January, I’ll be at Auberge de Castille to greet the public and afterwards at home with my family.
Are you planning to make any new year’s resolutions?
I’ll endeavour to dedicate more time for my family.
What is your message for this Christmas and what do you expect from next year?
I expect this country to continue in its road towards success...
Harry Vassallo
(AD chairman)
How will you be spending the Christmas and New Year?
The festive season will follow the usual formula. It is a time for time-honoured rituals and nobody really wants novelty. We will be dining on Christmas Eve with my in-laws and will meet my side of the family on Christmas Day for tea. The change is brought about by the children as they grow older. This year Sebastian was a somewhat reluctant angel in his school’s play but his participation in rehearsals gave him a taste for Christmas carols and he was able to appreciate the Carol Service at the Anglican Cathedral better than before. That too has become an annual ecumenical family event. Nina is not yet three but her art work at school earned pride of place on the Christmas tree this year.
In deference to Susanna’s German ancestry we have had a proper fir tree decorated every year since we married. The children came along to choose one this year and it is very much their tree. The scent of its resin fills our sitting room and Sebastian noticed it when he came from school. It is one of the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas that combine every Christmas with all the ones that came before whether it is carol singing, the smell of mince pies fresh from the oven or the sight of the crib in candlelight.
There are presents to look forward to and office parties, going to friends for drinks and to family for more. There will also be the more formal exchange of New Year greetings with the President and with our new Archbishop which tend to put the brakes on New Year’s Eve celebrations as well as participation in public events such as l-Istrina.
Above all I welcome the exchange of greetings with distant friends and those I rarely meet any more. If I continue to resent the commercialisation of Christmas, this is somewhat compensated by the exchange of greetings with non-Christian friends. It is a very special time, a time to be shared.
ANDREW BORG CARDONA
(Columnist)
How will you be spending the Christmas and New Year holidays?
As of 17 December, lawyers tend to slow down and smell the roses (or tend their hangovers) so I should be doing the same. As always, I shall be eating too much, though that’s hardly a seasonal thing (duty calls, you see). As we’re planning a holiday in January, though, I suppose I’ll have to do a bit more work over the holiday in order to compensate. I’m sure that’s really got the readers feeling all sorry for me.
Are you planning to make any new year’s resolutions?
No. I’ve never made any. I’m too much of a realist for that. Show me a normal person who made some sort of promise at the beginning of the year and who was still faithful to it at the end of the year and I’ll show you a self-deluding optimist. Or an obsessive who needs to get a life.
What is your message for this Christmas and what do you expect from next year?
My message for this Xmas … now that’s a tough one, since I don’t want to descend into platitudes. I’ll quote Ian Anderson, then, and say “Hey, Santa … pass us that bottle, will ya?” That should baffle many of your readers – you might want to run a small competition which I’ll sponsor.
The first reader to email you the source will get a bottle of wine. I’ll leave it to you to administer the thing.
As to what I expect from next year, well the country will be going into election mode, so you can be sure our adored politicians will be showering us with sound-bites and photo-ops like there’s no tomorrow, which means there’s going to be plenty of work for you real journalists and plenty for us commentators to take the mickey out of.
GEJTU VELLA
(UHM secretary general)
How will you be spending the Christmas and New Year holidays?
Christmas this year will be different. This year which is coming to an end was rather heavy to carry from a personal point of view. Unexpectedly, earlier this year I lost my brother George and later a colleague Antoine from work. Both passed away at a tender age. Tough and difficult as it is, however I will still go and be present this year for dinner, at my parents’.
Are you planning to make any new year’s resolutions?
Resolutions are not my favourite piece of cake. I would rather not make any as I will have fewer sins to carry and the burden may be lighter!
What is your message for this Christmas and what do you expect from next year?
Well, my message for Christmas is to enjoy good food and good wine in good company but spare a thought about those in need both locally and abroad, even better get your wallet handy.........it will not make a big difference to anybody enjoying good food and good wine but it would to those in need.
The UHM will be holding the general conference in March and preparations have long been under way to ensure that everything will fall in place as the day gets closer. From a national point of view it seems that the economy is picking a faster pace which in turn will further stimulate economic growth and new job opportunities. The political debate between the traditional parties and AD will certainly take much of the attention, hopefully not to the detriment to what has been achieved so far. Undoubtedly the Maltese will further appreciate Malta’s EU membership with various projects taking shape.
JASON MICALLEF
(MLP secretary general)
How will you be spending the Christmas and New Year holidays?
Yuletide is a very hectic time of the year for any political party and I can’t imagine having any holidays during this period. Managing to be present for a large number of activities organised by the party’s local committees and candidates up and down the country is no joke, and this together with other public commitments on behalf of the party.
Also, this time of the year means that I, as the party’s general secretary, start working on the MLP’s annual general conference coming at the end of every January. On the personal side, I will definitely try to share enough time with my wife Josie and my son Marc Anthony. Also a couple of get-togethers with some of my closest friends are on my schedule.
Are you planning to make any new year’s resolutions?
I tend to find resolutions as a bit of an artificial thing, so no I don’t have any particular resolutions.
What is your message for this Christmas and what do you expect from next year?
I would like to wish a very happy Christmas to one and all. As for next year I expect to have a Labour government led by Prime Minister Alfred Sant at some stage or another of the year.
TONY ZARB
(GWU secretary general)
How will you be spending the Christmas and New Year holidays?
Christmas and the New Year are festivities which unite. As a trade unionist, as a leader of such a big trade union like the General Workers’ Union, I have very little time to spend with my family during the year. As I did in previous years, I will be spending Christmas and the New Year with my family, making up for the time I spend away from the family during the year.
Are you planning to make any new year’s resolutions?
My resolution for 2007 is that the General Workers’ Union continues to support workers and their families. I believe that solidarity is what unites workers and this is what keeps us going in our work as a trade union.
What is your message for this Christmas and what do you expect from next year?
My message for the festive season is for everyone to spread a sincere message of goodwill rather than a hypocritical one. While hoping that people’s egoism does not increase, I believe that those who are most in need – economically and socially – should be helped most and should receive the most attention.
ALFRED SANT
(Opposition Leader)
How will you be spending the Christmas and New Year holidays?
I will try to spend as much time as I can with my family, especially on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. For the rest, when I am not attending some reception or other, I will make a push to finally re-organise my stacks of books, which have overflowed impossibly these last three years. Also, I might try to find more time for reading fiction, and will go for some additional sleep.
Are you planning to make any new year’s resolutions?
The New Year’s resolution I am going to make must sound predictable: to organise my work schedule more efficiently and to meet more and more people.
What is your message for this Christmas and what do you expect from next year?
My message this Christmas is for people to enjoy the holidays in the right spirit, tolerantly, by taking it easy and by looking on the bright side of life. From next year, I expect a good and exciting run up towards the next general elections, which I strongly hope and believe, should provide Labour with a merited success.
MGR JOSEPH MERCIECA
(Archbishop)
How will you be spending the Christmas and New Year holidays?
Christmas time and the festive season bring along with them a series of religious and civil official commitments. Yet, for me it is always a pleasure to lead or take part in such events. Of course, I am even happier when it is also possible for me to spend some time with my brothers and their families in Gozo.
Are you planning to make any new year’s resolutions?
I hope that the New Year will be for me a new experience of pastoral work among and for our beloved people.
What is your message for this Christmas and what do you expect from next year?
My appeal to one and all, especially young people, is to accept Christ’s life as the model of our lives. The Child Jesus invites us to have the courage to become a new creation by truly following his teaching and love God above all and our neighbours as ourselves.