While the government is busy making some people millionaires, others are facing dire straits.  Rather than ensuring there are policies in place to deal with this deprivation, the focus is on amending the code of ethics so that it can double the income of serving Ministers and Cabinet Members.

This is truly wrong.  I am not an expert on the subject of social welfare or poverty but even to me, reading the figures from the latest survey on Income and Living Conditions, I can tell that the situation is quite alarming, especially when viewed against the perception that Malta is wealthy and prosperous. 

The sale of passports did a massively good job of altering that perception abroad and indeed, gave the impression that in fact Malta is desperate for cash, as evidenced by all the headlines of major foreign journals.  On the other hand, positive figures for the economy and GDP are used to dispel the image of Malta as a poor country and the people at home are left to believe that all is well. 

In truth, the reality of those who make up the figures of at-risk-of-poverty, can tell the difference between the two versions quite simply.    The results published for 2013 are that 24.0% of children under 18 years of age were at-risk-of-poverty. Those mostly at risk lived in households with a very low Work Intensity, at 72.6%. On the other hand, the at-risk-of-poverty rate of children in households with five or more persons was calculated at 28.5%, and at 45.9% for children living in single-parent households.

With regard to persons aged 65 and over, the at-risk-of-poverty rate was calculated at 14.9%. Of these, 71.4% owned their home.

This is a significant percentage of the population, especially amongst children, to be facing such difficulty. 

Possibly, there has been an improvement since 2013, or maybe things have got worse.  The massive employment with the public sector could be one way of plugging this issue.   It may assuage some families in the short-term but for those with disabilities which prevent them for working and with the highest percentage of  victims being under 18 or over 65 years, it is likely that the benefits will not be felt across the board whilst the country will have to carry the bill in the long term.  Indeed, with a figure of 45.9% at risk, for children living in single-parent households, the prospects appear seriously flawed.  During the last budget, there was a new policy introduced, which would require single parents to study or work or they could be refused benefits.  This penalises the children and only discourages the parents from seeking help.  A more humane policy is needed in regards to the single parent families.  For many it is a predicament much the same as that for illegal immigrants in as much as they have very limited choices in front of them.

With respect to the definition of poverty, apart from a common sense one which can be obvious to those who see it and live it, the method used to calculate it is inadequate.  Eating meat every other day is not relative to today’s way of life, with people being encouraged to eat less meat and more vegetables.  The amount of pastizzi and cheap fast food consumed would be a better scale on which to measure.  So, it may be clearer to see what is eaten rather than what is not eaten.  Keeping the home warm in winter is also a poor indication in our climate and habits.  I have always known Maltese families to avoid heaters rather than stay warm, as they have the idea that they will catch a cold.  Having some warm clothes for the children, though, is imperative.  Sometimes you can see children, when it is bitterly cold outside, wearing just their track suit.  If then, too, there is not a warm healthy meal waiting for them at home, they are certainly going to feel cold, heater or no heater.  This applies too to the elderly, who, without proper sustenance and care, are likely to fall ill, as they did in great numbers this past winter and those who have to pay for special medication face grave difficulty.  

Overall, nearly a third (32.0%) of all children were considered to be at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion and this rate reached 20.8% for those aged 65 and over.  Recently on the Rete Quattro (Italian) socio economic  daily journalistic programme Quinta Colonna, there was a case of a man who was on a disability pension, receiving around 200 euros a month.  He was not able to work and was expected to live on that miserable amount.  From the panel of ordinary people who are interviewed from the public square, one woman attacked him and accused him of working “in nero” or “black”, not having declared his income when he was working as a taxi driver, which was not the case. The point is that we always assume the worst about the poor, that they deserve it because they are gamblers or have other vices, because they got themselves pregnant, because they treated their family badly and have been abandoned, that they prefer not to work or to work in the black economy, and so on and so forth.  Anything so that we do not have to feel guilty or deal with the problem of poverty, or to have to admit that there any many people and children in need.

Whilst going on incessantly about the high water and electricity rates, as though they were the only problem and now that problem has been solved, so we are led to believe that poverty is no longer an issue in Malta and all the endorsements in the way of cushy jobs and tailor-made positions for the inner circle of the privileged, works to give the impression that there has been so much wealth created under Labour, that they can afford to live the life of luxury and splurge the cash around like there is no limit.

This is false and many are suffering because of it.  In fact they are suffering doubly because not only do there remain many in serious need, but now they are ashamed to call attention to their plight and they become emarginated and excluded.  Nobody is standing up for them anymore.

Record amounts of money are collected for just causes, such as the new Community Trust Fund or Puttinu Cares, which again seems to indicate a high standard of living, but as long as the poor are so badly served in terms of a right to a better life, it is charity and remains charity which they may or may not even benefit from.

To add to their misery, the EU grant to help with food provisions is at risk too and in the spirit of solidarity, farmers are to be kicked out of their land in Zonqor and jokes made at their expense.

How shoddy is that? 

When all the Zonqor land is usurped and all the parcels of land given out to China or to construction millionaires and to the already wealthy, there will be not just material deprivation around Malta and Gozo, but moral, cultural and environmental poverty too. 

But for those who have a daily struggle and are fast losing hope that anything will be done for them, there is little consolation.   We should at least fight for them and lend a helping hand that will not just serve for one month or one day, but for a better life.  Making the rich ultra- rich at the expense of the nation, is certainly not the way to do it.