Hope for a better future

Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder opened a Pandora’s box, shaking all institutions. The present pandemic adds to all that.

It seems to have touched us all so personally. At times, people suffer  in silence in front of this spectacle and ask whether we will see an end to all this.

Bloggers and opinionists no doubt help but, finally, it’s a transparent higher hierarchy people want to see and hear.

I won’t mention trolls; they are no ‘ordinary’ Jack or Jill. They twist, scheme, lie to ‘destroy’ and demonise their targets ‘on order’. Today, I can understand Caruana Galizia better. Scenarios are changing so fast that everything adds to that feeling of surrealism, abnormality, grotesque.

Youngsters (tomorrow’s adults) have a tremendous advantage: young age. They are ‘in time’ to modify their ill-fated ‘projects’ with an array of coping skills, culture, travel, arts etc. All that starts narrowing with age. However, even their ‘world’ is being challenged by the new current ideology: liberalism. The need for recreational drugs, liqueurs and sexual freedom, with its now evident increment of alphabetical letters being added to rights. Liberalism is claiming its young victims. Suicides in wealthy and important families are wake-up calls that something is wrong, somewhere.

My hopes are pinned on the next election, the only available chance for a change not just for the sake of it but for that something that might herald an acceptable political consensus... the ideal of a national unitarian vision.

Charles Abela – Sliema

The monarchy and public service

US media executive and talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Photo: AFP

In his letter ‘Racism and the monarchy’ (March 28), John Vassallo claims that the recent sugar-coated interview between Oprah Winfrey and the Duchess of Sussex casts “serious doubts about whether any country in the world should have a monarchy at all”.

I, for one, hope that we will never discard centuries of tradition based upon unchallenged, sensational claims aired for the sole benefit of a prime time television audience.

Vassallo clearly prescribes to a train of thought which depicts Britain as a hotbed of racism. Therefore, in order to enlighten him, I suggest that he avails himself of the recently published report issued by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities – instigated in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter – which found “no evidence of institutional racism in Britain  and that the country was a beacon of light for other white-majority countries”.

If he cares to look at those on the committee’s panel he will see multicultural Britain at its finest.

It goes from bad to worse when he attributes “hereditarianism” for so much that he believes to be wrong with modern Britain. Yes, it is true that the House of Windsor “inherit” their positions and if his belief in the power of heredity is applicable to them then it explains how their devotion to duty and public service runs in their blood. As a family, they undertake more than 2,000 public engagements every year. It might also help to explain why someone who married into their family has found it hard to retire from acting.

Jonathan Chard Deeley – Sliema

COVID-19 death anniversary

I suggest that, this week, all diocesan and religious priests offer one Mass intension for the repose of our Maltese brothers and sisters who passed to the other life to meet the Lord because of coronavirus and for their bereaved families.

The first victim of the pandemic was announced on April 8, 2020 and, to date, the number has reached 397. May the Lord not permit that the number reaches 400.

There are a total of almost 400 diocesan and religious priests.

Religious sisters, nuns and consecrated lay persons may unite with us in offering their prayer of the liturgy of the hours for the same purpose.

Fr Francis Bonnici – Żebbuġ

Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@timesofmalta.com. Please include your full name, address and ID card number. The editor may disclose personal information to any person or entity seeking legal action on the basis of a published letter.