'Imhabba Militanti - Charles Miceli'

Edited: Carmel Borg & Michael Grech

Publisher: Horizons Publications / 2023

Pages: 179

The outward appearance of this book, and also the way it is structured, remind the reader of that long series by the same publication house, Bejn Storja u Miti focusing on one person at a time with a series of contributions from people who worked or lived with this person.

For some reason, the series seems to have been discontinued in recent times but then this book appears in the same format.

The focus this time is a person who died rather suddenly on 9 March 2018 - Charles Miceli. De mortuis nil nisi bonum runs the old Roman adage, which is usually obeyed in newspaper obituaries and funeral homilies. But in this case one cannot stop feeling the praise is all worthwhile.

Although we both worked in related industries (he as a linotypist at Union Print and I at Il-Hajja Press) I do not recall having ever met him or conversed with him.

I was more friendly with his brother, who is never mentioned in the book - Giovanni, who like me became a priest and like me too left the priesthood. He later entered the Maltese diplomatic corps and served as Malta's ambassador to Egypt.

Through Giovanni I got to know the social background of the family, which Charles' widow, Pauline, former Children's Commissioner, describes. She somehow omitted the real name of the area where Charles was born - the Biccieni area or enclave in the heart of Zabbar. This was, or still is, a collection of poor, one storey, houses with equally poor alleys connecting the area.

We are not given much information about the social background of the family but it is to Charles' honour that he never forgot where he had come from.

Through the book, we are told the rest of the Charles Miceli story. How after many years working as a tradesman in the General Workers Union printing press, he made the first of many lateral moves in his career - he became a journalist.

One can say Charles never really fitted in. As a journalist on the staff of L-Orizzont he did not really form part of the paper's frontline staff (or at least I never remember him so) but soon found a niche for himself writing long ideological articles from the point of view of the Left. There were others like him on the staff.

Then he left the GWU stable and, surprise surprise joined Caritas, the Church organisation fighting the drug-taking culture. In this book the former Labour leader Alfred Sant tells of his surprise at this career change. Sant seems to have thought that Charles could have left the printing press and the newspaper but perhaps move elsewhere in the Labour movement.

Charles entered Caritas heart and soul. This movement, as led by Mgr Victor Grech, became a valid, perhaps the only valid tool against the drug culture in Malta.

Maybe other Caritas movements elsewhere do things differently. In Malta Caritas focused on running residential programmes for the addicts and many were weaned away from drugs, back to their families and helped to build their own family. With his quiet and gentle attitude, Charles helped many.

Through his experiences with drug addicts, Charles came to understand the trials and tribulations of people inside prison. This led him to focus on a system of justice that did not aim at simply punishing the addicts but rather a system of justice that offered reparation for the harm that had been committed.

And then, also through his helping of former addicts and prisoners he began to focus on those who, once out of prison, could not find adequate housing.

The Charles Miceli story is told through the words of those who worked with him or those who knew him. Not all contributions are equal. One would have liked more anecdotes.

Who knows what Charles would have made of the present business-friendly Labour government and the many stories of huge packets given to some insiders? There are traces too of the left enclaves at the university and the rhetoric they mouth.

At the end one still remains impressed by the achievement of this just one man who lived in coherence with his upbringing.