Many peoplein Malta are pro-choice

We refer to the article by Ramon Bonett Sladden entitled ‘In defence of the president’ (June 27).

In October 2019, we were invited for a meeting with President George Vella. This invitation was a response to our public outcry at the time, objecting to his patronage at a screening of an unscientific anti-abortion propaganda film in an event organised by Life Network Foundation.

Doctors for Choice Malta had already built its momentum with a large following after voicing its concerns with several important issues and our concern with the position taken by the president did not go unnoticed.

During this private meeting, the president made it clear that the discussion would be professional among medical doctors and requested that no photos be taken and no issuing of statements. We respected these wishes but it appears that Bonett Sladden is well informed of this meeting and we cannot think of any other source other than from the President’s Office or the president himself.

There is clearly a disparity in Vella’s treatment of our organisation and the Facebook group (not an NGO) led by real estate agents and unsuccessful politicians. Just to put things into perspective, one of the latest posts by the administrator of this group shows Adolf Hitler making the Nazi salute with subtext reading “the airport is that way”.

This is the same person with whom the President of Malta has been meeting at San Anton Palace. Other administrators of that group posted material that is clearly hateful and demeaning to the LGBTI community  and, if given a chance, they would roll back civil rights for LGBTI couples and individuals.

We have no issue with the president meeting people and groups with different opinions. However, we do have an issue with him posing in photos with regressive individuals, posting about it on his Facebook page and having them use his authority to further their anti-civil rights agenda while clearly wanting to keep any conversation with pro-choice groups aiming for evidence-based reproductive healthcare hidden behind closed doors.

Such partisanism is no way to foster a sense of national unity that Vella is trying to achieve. Whether Vella likes it or not, there are many people in Malta who are pro-choice and there are many women in Malta who have had an abortion or will have an abortion.

With a recently proposed bill to decriminalise abortion being shut down immediately by the main political parties and a president who would rather associate with such individuals than have an open honest conversation about a medical procedure (abortion), the situation is rather sad. 

However, the whole picture is not all that bleak, with the European Parliament now officially recognising abortion as a fundamental human right. Regardless of local politician’s opinions, abortion will remain a reality in Malta and women in Malta will continue having abortions one way or another. There is no law in the world that has ever stopped abortion from happening and Malta is no exception.

It is time our politicians put their personal beliefs and unworkable ideals aside and prioritise the health of women in our country by decriminalising abortion and making it accessible for those who need it.

Gilbert Gravino, Isabel Stabile, Chris Barbara – Doctors for Choice Malta, Msida

Some good memories

I write to thank and congratulate The Sunday Times of Malta for printing the excellently detailed letter by Alfred Conti Borda about his stint as a border at St Emilie de Vialar School, in Rabat, 70 years ago (June 27).

Some of us students at that time still occasionally meet up to reminisce on those happy days.

Most of these students went on to become some of the country’s most prominent members of the community and we all remember those days with a lot of affection and nostalgia.

The attached photo of the students at that time (most still very recognisable today, 70 years later) will invoke some good memories among many of your readers.

Jovin Rausi – Birkirkara

Dedicated to their duty

Could we all please stop to think of, and spare a kind word for, the hard-working staff of the Malta Financial Services (MFSA), the FIAU (Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit) and the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) at these times of acute trials and stress?

Just think for a moment what these people have been going through over these past five years. First a wave of non-stop new directives from the EU, then the deep mind-stretching and research in setting up Malta’s envied virtual currencies legislation, then the pandemic and now this Moneyval/FATF saga.

I know many of these employees personally as they were my students in my banking regulation courses at the university and I can vouch for their total dedication to their duties. They are the last people who should have fingers pointed at.

John Consiglio – Birkirkara

Flights from Belfast

Could the Malta tourist authorities please push airlines to have direct flights from Belfast?

We came to Malta in the late 1980s when I worked for VF,  which had a factory on the island, and we have been back many times. However, we can’t  come directly from Belfast any more.

We like to meet our friends in Malta and we find the Maltese people the most helpful, caring and welcoming in the world. Direct flights would also increase tourism between Malta and Northern Ireland.

Sam Beattie, Newtownards, Co Down, Northern Ireland

Driving in Malta is crazy

Is it only my perception that driving in Malta has become an ordeal, with overcrowded roads and streets and many drivers’ hurried aggression and lack of consideration for oncoming traffic? Speed is the order of the day.

During the war, Malta and Gozo had six runways for our aircraft: Ħal Far, Luqa, Safi, Qrendi, Ta’ Qali and Xewkija.

Now Malta can boast of having vehicle runways all over our islands, especially for delivery vans and trucks, with their aggressive and inconsiderate driving. No wonder we hear about so many road accidents increasing by the day. Even our towns and villages have not been spared. Everyone is in a hurry and in a mad rush.

The Dalai Lama once observed about western so-called civilisation: “What’s this hurry all about?” Are we approaching the end of our over-exploited planet?

There is little control on our roads and our police are conspicuous by their absence. Driving on our islands has indeed gone mad! And we have not yet woken up to this dire situation.

Sicily, incidentally, has at least one road, now dubbed ‘La strada della morte’ (The road of death), between Catania and Caltagirone, because of its heavy toll of fatal road accidents. Our tiny Malta must have many other similar ones.

I have been driving on our roads for over 50 years and never has driving in Malta been so crazy. Who will deal with this issue now?

Bernard Vassallo – Swieqi

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.