Joseph Muscat’s silence

The short Facebook message Joseph Muscat published in the aftermath of last week’s arraignments was hardly worth the effort. It was more about Muscat as a victim than about our nation as a victim of the elusive ‘gang’ that President George Vella mentioned at the end of 2019.

One would have expected Muscat to at least ask the people to forgive him for the betrayal by his chief of staff, Keith Schembri.

It is so easy to brush away one’s own responsibility as a former prime minister by just telling us to wait for justice to take its course. The least Muscat should have done was to tender his resignation from the Labour Party to allow a thorough examination of the part Schembri played in the running of the ‘Labour Movement’ between 2008 and 2019. Winning elections by having a road map that led to the humiliation of our nation needs to be tackled by Labour.

But, then, most people voted for Konrad Mizzi and, by implication, for Schembri after the Panama Papers emerged. That is when the rot really set in and Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated.

Now there’s a victim to ponder about in silence, Dr Muscat.

Salvu Felice Pace – Għasri

Racism and the monarchy

The recent TV interview by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has raised serious doubts about whether any country in the world should have a monarchy at all.

Among the many commentaries on the interview and its consequences one struck me profoundly. The problem with racism does not lie with some or all the members of the British (originally German) royal family, nor does it lie with some or a majority of the British (or any other European) tabloid press, nor does it lie with some or all the citizens of the UK (or of any predominantly white and Christian European countries), it lies with the inherent flaw and embedded racist philosophy that is hereditarianism.

That anybody can believe, in today’s enlightened post-Darwinist world, that some humans have blood that is different from the blood of all other humans, blood that for some witchcraft provides the bearer of that blood to the exclusion of all others with rights to rule a country or to bear a title that gives them entitlement to sit in governance in a parliament is absolutely anachronistic.

It is fundamentally racist in that even within the same ethnical group of white Caucasians in the UK, in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg, for example, some members of the same nationality and ethnic group have superior blood that gives them, at birth, the sole right to become the head of state or to sit in a house of parliament.

This is absurd. Most countries in the world following the French Revolution have followed the principles of enlightenment and eliminated the monarchy and all inherent rights attached to hereditary titles.

Hereditarianism even went so far in some countries to allow only this right carried in the “different” blood to the males in a family which is more than absurd, it is disgusting and anti- feminist, but these distinctions have been eliminated.

In some countries this right to title and property was also restricted to the first born male through the system of fideicommissum which, thankfully, has also been eliminated in most countries allowing all members of the same family to have equal rights of inheritance.

This racist streak runs through all persons who adhere to these principles and that is what Megan Markle and Harry Windsor have brought to light.

Hereditary monarchies have no place in modern democratic societies. Yes, we can have kings but these have to have their reigns decided by general plebiscite of citizens on a regular basis like presidents in other civilised countries.

How the Battenbergs solve their issue in their own family in the UK and who the tabloids and the English citizens choose to have as their head of state is their business. If they choose to let their country follow the idiotic belief that some blood is better than others, then, they must accept to be called racist.

John Vassallo – Former Maltese ambassador to the EU, Germany

A gem of a health centre in Qormi

What a breath of fresh air it was for me when I made my first visit to the Qormi health centre last week!

To start with, all the staff, starting with the door entrance personnel and receptionists, were extremely polite and welcoming.

The nurses and healthcare workers were terrific. Everybody I met working in the centre was cheerful and a joy to meet.

What impressed me most, apart from the friendliness and efficiency of the staff, was the way the centre has been built. It is very bright, welcoming and extremely well organised. I was not aware that it had so many clinics, including an emergency, a chronic disease management, an orthopaedic, ophthalmic, physiotherapy, chronic kidney disease prevention, glaucoma, X-ray department and others.

I was so pleasantly surprised and virtually over the moon realising that we had such a wonderful health centre, just down the road from my house in Żebbuġ.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to use this facility in the past since I spent some 40 years abroad, serving as a GP trainer and senior medical officer in the British Army, returning to my birthplace a number of years ago, after retiring on pension.

I served in Northern Ireland, Germany, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Belgium, Brunei, Italy, the US and, of course, the UK.

I had the honour of working in some wonderful ‘state of the art’ medical centres abroad, however, I must say that the Qormi health centre compares very favourably with most of them.

Hearty congratulations to all the staff working at the Qormi health centre and to the person in charge.

Very well done!

Raymond Bencini – Żebbuġ

Didn’t we do well...?

According to official data, at the end of last week Malta was second only to the UK in terms of the number of anti-virus doses administered in relation to its population: the UK was 41 per cent, Malta’s figure an impressive 30 per cent.

This compares with the mere 12 per cent inoculated in France, Germany, Italy and Cyprus.

Although the Maltese figure – presumably – includes the number of second doses, this seems remarkable.

It is even more remarkable when one considers that, in Gozo, the over-75s are still waiting to be called for their first jab.

Meanwhile, at the start of another holiday weekend, cars were driving unchecked onto the ferry, heading for Gozo where there are, at last count, more than 140 active cases with eight people in hospital.

Revel Barker – Għajnsielem

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