The story about the SadeenGroup’s project to build a new American University at Marsascala has dominated the news for the past weeks, with the result that other important news failed to get the attention it deserved.

I would like to dedicate this blog to the setting up of the President’s Trust to encourage vulnerable young persons to improve their lives through education and training. In simple words, the President of our Republic continues with her campaign to defy poverty. The issue of the needy is complicated because the real poor differ from the free-riders; theformer hide from the authorities and the media, the latter tend to be smooth operators who argue ably and are often protagonists of talk shows and meetings behind ministerial doors.

Such a Foundation was needed because Malta is today in a state of flux. Perhaps, one could argue that Maltese society was always in such a state but social changes are becoming more pronounced and pressing these days.

Therefore, unlike what has been stated by the Government’s envoy, Joe Grima, that our President is becoming irrelevant to history through such initiatives, the President is giving a new role to the presidency. The President is no longer the guardian of a welfare society but is slowly becoming the protector of the welfare state.

Mrs Coleiro Preca succeeded to rope in top academics and entrepreneurs.  Their ideas about social process do not always converge. However, as the chairman of the Trust, Winston V. Zahra stated in his opening speech, this brought him face to face with social realities, which were abnormal and unthinkable for him.

These changes are not due to the fact, as sometimes argued that our society is becoming egoistic but because our society has become egotistic. Like all other societies, our society is nowpluralistic and Malta like the rest of the Western World (and the gay marriage referendum in Ireland should be read in this context) is being inevitably led by what is being termed as the“supermarket mentality”. Today, we think that we can grab what we want and leave on the shelves what we are not interested in.  With intent, we are seeking now to tailor-custom our national identity, where identity is no longer based on what was considered clear cut reasoning but on outright individual choices totally estranged from any responsibilities towards anything or anyone.

At the same time, both our main political parties today are talking less and less about poverty, even if the individuals at risk of poverty are continuously on the increase.  Even the Church in Malta speaks less about this issue. I think that it is important for the Local Church to recover the strong role that it played in the past in what are now being termed as religious non-profit organizations. Historically, the Church had a number of institutions that were set up to help the poor. Many of these institutions appear today as fat cats.

Our politicians are ignoring decades of pro-welfare talk. Instead, they are more focused on the general picture ofeconomic performance. For this reason, the President may appear a voice in the wilderness.  

But in her efforts to combat poverty, the President is affirming the relevancy of this office. Her discourses can be described as positively provocative. She is pro-actively taking initiatives to counter-act poverty.   

Yet, the President did not only focus on the benefits derivedfrom theseforms  of trusts to the local community at large. She has looked to the future.

The President is looking beyond and found time to discuss pressing educational issues. It is of great demographic relevance the fact that today the number of girls who decide to continue studying is higher than boys. Perhaps, few today are aware  that when schools started to openup in the early nineteenth century, the number of girls was higher than that of boys. In a few decades, the situation dramatically changed. The girls’ attendance drastically fell and the percentage of boys started to increase.

Marxists and Feminists researchers will interpret this as an attempt by a chauvinist society to control girls’ education and confine themin their homes. Two hundred years later, girls are once again vindicating their rolein education. This means that in a decade or two, Maltese society will have to accustom itself to more women in a position of power. Starting with politics and going down to other areas, women are going to be the main protagonists. They will be the harbinger of change. Marie Louise Coleiro Preca is showing themthe way forward. The only anomaly is going to be the Local Church. Unless the local Church takes into account such an important social change, itrisks becoming a social irrelevance. The present Pontiff like Coleiro Preca understands very well the signs of the times.

Meanwhile one needs to wait and see whether the mixing school system will successfully address this educational deficit. Perhaps, it is within this area, that the Church will once again express relevancy. The Church voiced its resistance towards gender mix in her secondary schools, even if, the Church was a pioneer in the introduction of mix classes at sixth form level. One only needs to wait to evaluate whether the highest achievers are going to be from the mixed school system, which is now operating in both the private and government schools or from the confessional schools which continue with the old single sex system at secondary level.