The only source of knowledge is experience – Albert Einstein.
How predictable of Labour this routine of kicking out the good guys has become. They are like a group of teenage girls who have decided that they must be the only ones to be admired and all the rest of the class are to be bullied, dismissed and ostracised.
Within such a mindset, the highly respected and sought after Prof. Albert Fenech MD who operated for the last time at Mater Dei Hospital last week, had his position terminated. The itch just had to be scratched. The sight of Nationalist MP walking amongst the corridors of Labour power is too much for it to handle and reminders of excellence, experience, knowledge and expertise are to be eradicated before they have a chance to challenge the jumping jacks who now find themselves running the show and basically failing to reach higher standards.
Others within Labour’s own pen, such as Dr Godfrey Farrugia have also had a taste of what inclusivity and good intentions can lead to. Having given him a chance to do the right thing and employ the “positive” force of the 4th floor manual on disempowering tactics, the good doctor was summarily “transferred” – choosing to not accept the job offered - when he looked instead like an honest chap, trying to do his best.
We can remember when Dom Mintoff turned on the University of Malta and made it as difficult as possible for deserving students to pursue a degree there. Many good students were deprived of their right to further education because any learning could threaten the control of the masses.
The destruction of part of the ancient site of Palmyra in Syria shocked the world. For some it was nothing alarming – just the destruction of some old stones. For those with a sense of history and respect for the evolution of man and civilisation, it was a great loss which cannot be properly described unless felt within the soul or higher consciousness.
The preservation and use of knowledge is essential to our evolution and survival. Destruction and corruption of knowledge has been a tool of tyranny throughout history.
Some may say that Prof. Fenech’s termination was a matter of routine, nothing out of the ordinary, a pragmatic use of rules and regulations. And so it may be. A book of rules can never identify and quantify the gift of knowledge and what really amounts to genius when the ability to combine extraordinary talent with experience is found together. In minimising the context of the case, there we find the injustice towards not just the individual concerned but the population as a whole. From now forward, experience and knowledge are worthless and actually, defective traits. Only those traits subservient to the cause are allowed to breed.
The whole approach leads to disempowering tactics. What Mintoff did with the University of Malta is now re-styled into the lowering of standards for the approval of the American University. All around us today there is an almost pathological obsession with subverting knowledge into crassness. It becomes a form of control to ensure that information is managed and the reign of power is protected and enhanced at all cost.
Age is a concept along which certain definitions can be applied. One of them is retirement which is there for society to enjoy the fruit of their labour. Those who have given their whole life to an extraordinary career feel the end of it even more deeply. Not just because their job has been more of a vocation rather than a career in itself. But also because age should be respected better and honour given to a life dedicated to the good of others. Amongst these people are the good civil servants of past generations. Men and women of honest principles with a sense of service towards society. They worked not for personal gain – far from it – but with integrity and impartiality. There have been amongst these good people, too, those who were too easily let go. From one day to next. A clever society will value the experience of those individuals who reach retirement age but who are still uniquely skilled and giving the great benefit of their knowledge to others.
With such a low standard we risk losing all sense of purpose in work. The number of people who have under this present administration, been given appointments on boards, institutions, and public entities, without scrutiny or without having applied for the position and been selected from amongst other candidates is an insult to the men and women of Malta who led a career of service and contributed greatly to the advance of the nation.
What will there be for the next generations? Nothing but ambition for money. If one really loved service and commitment they would know that instant promotions are not going to replace experience and knowledge and that the aim in gaining that new job was all about the money and self-serving interest. There can be little respect for these people.
It follows then that respect itself becomes gratuitous and the matter is only calculated within the parameters of what can be done to disempower those who stand in the way of opinion.
Many other men and women at the moment can identify with Dr. Fenech and immediately know that this decision to stop him from operating will be a great loss to the health sector of Malta. More so when decisions of this kind are entrusted to an individual who may or may not enjoy the trust and confidence of the public.
The future of our country should not be jeopardised in this way. Experience, especially in a 51 years independent state, should be honoured and esteemed in a way that can inspire others to achieve excellence and encouraged to thrive and contribute towards society as a whole.
Only that way can we say we are independent and secure. Anything else gives way to corruption, greed and manipulation of the truth. There is no going forward, EU or no EU, Azerbaijan, Russia or China, power station or no power station, without knowledge and self-respect.