Traditional Maltese skills

Viewing the Malta Daily website about Freddie the cobbler, pastizzar/pizza making, cane manual works, glass making skills, ħajt tas-sejjieħ, etc., got me thinking.

I am aware that Mcast tries its best to provide courses and keep students adjourned with today’s technologies.

Students ought to be taught certain traditional skills, like how to build rubble walls, at an early age. Photo: viewingmalta.com

I have worked for a few months at St Ignatius School, Ħandaq and students with different levels of intellectual ability are found every year showing diverse capabilities.

Allow me to ask, on behalf of those students who have nobody to motivate them at home, whether skills are introduced and classes provided for ‘brilliant hands’ but not ‘brilliant minds’ to help them fend for their future, thus not allowing Maltese skills to die out.

Schools need to motivate whole classes with these skills from a tender age.

Colette Mallia – Paola

Miscarriage of justice

The news that, on June 1, a Maltese woman was taken to court for terminating her own pregnancy with pills at home stirred a lot of emotion in many people, including in our prime minister, who said he felt “uncomfortable” and, rightly so, because the woman was in an abusive relationship, is a mother of a young child, had mental health issues and was reported to the police by an abusive partner.

The prime minister wondered why this was not followed by a “wave” of reactions.

Alas, apart from pro-choice NGOs, who actively campaign for the decriminalisation of abortion, we have heard nothing but silence from the government and statutory institutions whose remit is supposed to be that of advancing equality and social justice.

Do we not have a human rights directorate? Is no ministry responsible for equality and reforms? Does the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality not have anything to say about this case and what it means to women?

This case is unlikely to be the last. Empowered by our judicial system that pounced on a woman who caused her own miscarriage by taking pills, other abusers are likely to take the cue and use the crimi­nalisation of abortion as leverage against their victims. This is with the blessing of our government, which, so far, has refused to significantly change the law and with the blessing of the anti-choice activists who have welcomed the judgment.

Just to put things into perspective: Poland, often regarded as the laggard on civil rights in Europe, would still not prosecute a woman who terminates her own pregnancy at home. This makes the situation in Malta the most draconian in the EU, which is hardly an accolade we should be proud of as we host Europride later this year.

The prime minister has called for more discussion on the issue. Well, it seems he has formed an opinion on what needs to happen and he has the power to make it happen. So, perhaps, it is time to move from words to action.

Christopher Barbara – Naxxar