Claudia Calleja
Malta last in league
Malta is not a pleasant place for children to live, according to research on young people's well-being that ranked the island in the last place among 29 countries.
However, results had to be treated with caution because missing data could have had a bearing on the low ranking, a spokesman for the group that conducted the research said.
The study was carried out by the UK charity organisation Child Poverty Action Group, which focused on children from birth till 19. A league table was compiled covering all 27 EU countries as well as Norway and Iceland.
The table placed The Netherlands, Sweden and Norway as the three best countries for children, while Latvia, Lithuania and Malta were the worst placed. The study, based on data compiled in 2006, provided a snapshot and not a trend, the report cautioned.
"This three-year time difference also means many government policy initiatives from the last few years are not fully reflected in the data," the report said.
A spokesman for the group said the study was based on 43 indicators in seven main domains: health; subjective well-being; children's relationships; material resources; behaviour and risk; education; and housing and environment. Malta provided data for only four domains and this could have had a bearing on its general low ranking.
"Missing data may mean that areas of strength were not included to counter balance weaknesses," the spokesman said. The research, carried out by York University, ranked Malta 28th, followed by Greece, for the health domain that included infant mortality, low birth weight, immunisation figures and children's health behaviour (such as exercise, eating fruit and brushing teeth). This category was topped by Sweden, The Netherlands and Denmark.
Malta also ranked 28th in the subjective well-being domain that looked into how children felt about their lives, whether they liked school and felt pressured and how they rated their own health. The Netherlands, Austria and Greece fared best here.
Malta followed Slovakia and Greece and placed 21st in children's relationships that explored quality of family and peer group relationships and gauged how easily children found talking to their parents and classmates.
When it came to behaviour and risk - covering violence, deaths, smoking, drinking and drug abuse - Malta ranked 14th and was followed by Denmark and Hungary.
No data was provided for the material resources (that looked into poverty), education and housing, and environment domains.
Earlier this year, during a homily at the World Peace Day 2009 Mass, Archbishop Paul Cremona pointed out that child poverty affected Malta.
National Statistics Office figures published in 2007 revealed that almost 15 per cent of the population fell below the poverty line, including almost 22 per cent of under-16s.
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Jpfm hermsee
Apr 22nd 2009, 23:06
It looks to me without being bias to Malta and Britain, talking from my point of view as a Dutch man who i must say i love and prefer Malta out the two apart fom my country of the Netherlands ofcourse, that the majority of the Maltese love and defend their country regardless and on the other hand the British likewise defend Britian and love their country also but then again Britian is a much bigger country and alot more immigrants mostly from Asia and other parts of the world and the ration of crimes in Britian is ofcourse much higher, but i must stress crimes are also committed by their own citizens and not always the other party from outside Britain or Malta, this also applies to the Netherlands,so in a nut shell i would say eveyone should form his or her own annalyses on this subject because no country is perfect and we could go on debating this issue till the cows come home without any official results. thats all. Good luck to both from the Netherlands.
Lawrence Walker
Apr 22nd 2009, 21:10
Well, well, well what a pointless and obviously flawed research exercise.
It should be noted that when this review was being conducted another survey (of 90 countries) found the following - at least our children are happy!!
Monday, January 23, 2006
Malta is the happiest country in the World!!!
Recently, researchers have found that when it comes to happiness, Malta is ranked first followed by Denmark, Switzerland and Colombia!
The new index uses data from 100,000 people in 90 countries who were asked, on a scale of 1-10, how happy they were. The average was then modified according to "equality of happiness" -nations with wide differences between the happies and saddest citizens were thus pushed down the ranking.
The new measure of happiness ranges from 1 too 100. According to the index Britain is tied with Germany on 64 points, while Malta emerges as the happiest place!!!
"Malta is very small so the family networks are very tight" .. "Wherever you are, you are never alone, The weather is beautiful, there's excellent education and a very good welfare state. There isn't a chasm between the poor so you never see beggars" [The Sunday Times, January 8th]
Paul Smith
Apr 22nd 2009, 18:40
Galea L be a bit more specefic please
It's you that are living in a medievil theocracy
Paul Smith
Apr 22nd 2009, 17:55
Charlie Galea
Thank you, i also wanted to bring this up. I love Malta with all my heart, The Doctor, Dr. Muscat Baron whom delivered my children is one of the best in the world, some of the engineers i used to work for put other countries to shame, but i often felt that Malta was a very theocratic society with all the brain washing that went along with that, the cover ups, the sex crimes, The blatant racism even to paying tourists not just to your over whelming african invasion is shocking and all brushed under the carpet.
Britain is a mess granted, luckily i live in a rural wealthy county and i dont have to encounter or come into contact with inner city trash.
Paul Smith
Apr 22nd 2009, 17:34
May Cassar
I lived in Malta for two decades, left with my maltese wife and children in 2006, i am able to talk of my sister country Malta. The UK has it's problems and loads of them, you are more likley to become a victim of crime in the UK if you live in an inner city, less likley if you live in a medium size town, i have never been a victim of crime in the UK, neither has any member of my family ever! I concur about bored youth getting up to no good and even in Malta. Malta is a good country to grow up in if your parents are resonably educated and both work. Malta is dangerous when it comes to road safety Malta also lacks open spaces for children to run a round in, Malta like the rest of the western world has an obesity crisis and i dont rate the schools, since my kids went to both, i think i can say this. Malta has a lot of catching up to do in child and family poverty but on the whole the report about Malta is incorrect mainly due to data
A Anderson
Apr 22nd 2009, 17:24
@ George Schembri
Well said. Living in the UK, in a relatively safe area - but still as an adult I do not feel safe let alone for children. I still do not feel safe walking home alone after dark no matter how early it is whereas as a child in Malta I did so.
Let's just say a 'survey' is just a 'survey' and sometimes 'surveys' do not capture the reality although they may give an indication. Plus there may be another survey later which shows otherwise.
And finally what counts is what people feel - and I (together with many others) firmly believe that Malta is a safer place to bring up children, for sure a better place than the UK.
John Borg
Apr 22nd 2009, 17:18
It's interesting that rather than take these comments constructively in order to make our country a better place to live, many people on this forum prefer to keep telling themselves that Malta is the best place in the world and that we have nothing to learn from what a bunch of foreigners have to say. The irony is that most of the issues raised in this project are reported and discussed in the Maltese media and in government and NGO reports pretty much every day. Apparently our problems are real when they are raised by Maltese but false when they are discussed by foreigners. It's called having a chip on your shoulder.
GaleaL
Apr 22nd 2009, 17:07
Paul Smith
Today is April 22 not April 1 Paul.
Stephen Sultana
Apr 22nd 2009, 16:54
Steven Brockwell: foreigners are not the only ones selling drugs in Malta. In any case, if the Maltese did not consume drugs no one would be selling them. There may not be many kids getting shot at but there are plenty of kids being abused. I have no idea if Malta is a better or worse place to raise children than the UK or Bulgaria, but why do have to pretend it's the best place in the world when it clearly isn't? Aren't you concerned that your children live in one of the most polluted places in Europe? That they have hardly any open spaces left where they can play? That they are smoking and drinking to excess? That they have insufficient physical exercise at school? And by the way, writing messages in capital letters is a bit like shouting during a conversation - it makes people want to listen to you less not more.
Daniel Jackson
Apr 22nd 2009, 14:56
Not surprising. There are almost no foreign cartoons on local tv... almost no comics are sold in the shops these days...
Even tv shows are the worst. We keep showing local productions like Becky/KC which in my opinion give the worst moral values possible, promoting the worst of us Maltese. People have said this on the radio it's not just me.
Better get and show the good tv shows from abroad, they have better values than what local tv has been producting anyway. But we haven't been getting them for money reasons.
I say its worth investing in good foreign tv with positive values.
Paul Smith
Apr 22nd 2009, 14:32
Trevor Mallia:
Read my comments, i dont know a country in Europe that lets it's children live on the streets, you are making things up. Anyone would think from your ludicrous comments that kids are abducted daily and beat up tied to train tracks, again you are making things up as you go along, I ask you 65 million people compared to your 500,000, i think if you had 65 million in Malta you would rank lower than 29th. Just imagine if you had 65 million - illitracy could be amongst the highest in Europe, so would abesity, robbery and murder.
I think Malta is a great country the only things i think are dangerous for children in Malta are:
Road saftey - non existant - drivers not respecting other peoples lifes (major danger to young kids) no open spaces for kids to be away from road traffic, lack of parks, open fields and green spaces, noise pollution - traffic pollution and the education system has a long way to go as well as higher education
George Schembri
Apr 22nd 2009, 14:31
@Paul Smith
I have not read the blog comments which you refer to, and you may be correct in that some of the posters are narrow minded and need to broaden their horizons. However, I strongly disagree with you and believe that you have NO idea as regards to how safe Malta is AND you are also biased in your opinion regarding the UK.
I was brought up in North America, lived in Malta and now reside in the UK.
All I can say is that I am disgusted as regards to the young british generation. Binge drinking, stabbing, vulgar. Young people in Malta do drink extensively on the weekend as well, but I believe the Maltese generation can handle their alcohol alot better than the british.
As regards to your comment regarding crime per capita, if you work out the maths you'll see that the population ratio is 1:130... the crime rate in malta is magnitudes less than that in the UK.
And you boast about having CCTV everywhere? How pleasent is that! Anyhow, we do not require CCTV everywhere in Malta... (at least not for now).
martin portelli
Apr 22nd 2009, 14:11
Why are you so surprised with these rankings , particularily with the one aboiut how children felt about their lives ? Our children learn very early in life that things hardly change here and so disengage early , by the time they are 19 they have enough experience to realise that the small window for change becomes a very tight squeeze or is at best an illusion..They are disheartened. What is so surprising about the ranking for risk behaviour ? That is what disengament encourages. Limited possibility for true change creates negative outlooks, we really should wake up.
May Cassar
Apr 22nd 2009, 14:02
@Paul Smith
Yes we do have crime in Malta though thankfully murder is a rear occurrence here. As for your comment 'Kids in the UK wear stab vests to school, we cannot walk UK streets of a night for fear of mugging or stabbing or shooting, our kids kill each other, parents murder there kids. yes there is crime in the UK - but per capita i'm sure about the same level of crime as in Malta.' I take it you have not visited Malta as yet. Except for the muggings of recent months the other crimes are unheard of here Thank God. Which makes it a reasonably safer place to be then the UK.
Charlie Galea
Apr 22nd 2009, 13:46
The fact that Malta does not protect children from sexual abuse, it protect the offenders identities, it dishes out light sentences and is in denial when it comes to sexual abuse by Catholic Priests within the Catholic church.
This is another reasons why Malta is not a pleasant place for children to live.
A. Ellul
Apr 22nd 2009, 13:42
A young relative of mine, who lives in NSW Australia was told by his Aussie dentist that the Australian Maltese he knows are the most honest of people. Need anyone say more?
The 'child well-being study' referred to in this piece of news is, in my humble opinion, an unscientific study, considering that the truth is very different. The missing 3 domains out of 7 is should have eliminated Malta out of the report.
How can one judge something by examining 60% of its whole?
I believe that Maltese children still have a very good moral upbringing compared to other countries. This is fundamental to all other child developments.
Michael Ellul Vincenti
Apr 22nd 2009, 13:28
Malta is at the bottom of the table but there is a lot of missing data because Malta
is not in PISA or SILC.
It is Surprising that the University of York could allow Professor Jonathan Bradshaw to publish an incomplete report.
I am sure that if the correct and full information was available to them, Malta would have a far better and realistic ranking.
Steven Brockwell
Apr 22nd 2009, 12:32
WHAT BULL I LIVED IN ENGLAND AND IT WAS NEVER SAFE, IN MALTA WE DO NOT HAVE PLACES WERE PEOPLE SHOOT UP IN PUBLIC. WE HAVE DRUG PROBLEMS HOWEVER, MOST OF IT COMES FROM EUROPE ANY WAY. DON'T INSULT ARE CHILDREN AND PARENTS. ITS FUNNY HOW EVERYONE CONDEMNS THE KIDS FOR TAKING DRUGS BUT NO ONE FINDS THE MAIN DRUG IMPORTERS ???? ELIMINATE FROM THE SOURCE.
Carmelo Palmier Cecy
Apr 22nd 2009, 12:06
Not much importance should be given to this study because, according to a spokesman for the research group, as reported in the present news item, 'missing data could have had a bearing on the low ranking'.
'The study was based on 43 indicators in 7 main domains. ... ..... Malta provided data for only 4 domains and this could have had a bearing on its general low ranking.' Needless to say, 4 out of 7 means that Malta provided data for only 57% of the domains.
And again: 'Missing data may mean that areas of strength were not included to counterbalance weaknesses.' (vide present news item)
Without going into the possible reasons why Malta did not provide the required data, I have to regard the final result as flawed.
Trevor Mallia
Apr 22nd 2009, 11:10
OH COME ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For how long are we going to have to tolerate these accusations that are totally unfounded. I strongly believe that the country should ask for explanations about the studies, because these type of accusations are doing a lot of damage to our countries image.
At least in Malta our children do not have to worry about going to school and being shot dead by one of their class mates like the Scandinavian countries (that ironically were ranked in the top places). At least we do not have children living in the streets because of poverty. At least our children do not have to worry of their parents not affording proper health care for them, because we are one of the few EU countries that provides free health care to all. And finally to the UK firm that directed these studies, at least our children can walk out alone in most of the country without fear of being abducted or being beaten or stabbed to death, or being tied to a railway line after having been beaten and having batteries inserted in their anuses
And we can keep going on for ever with these types of examples.
Paul Smith
Apr 22nd 2009, 10:58
I enjoyed yesterday's comments on the blog about this issue very much. Firstly may i say that some Maltese whom commented need to try and get a better picture of the wider world (get out more, take a trip abroad, read foreign media, look at maps to understand the scale of other countries).
Yesterday there were comments along the lines of: Kids in the UK wear stab vests to school, we cannot walk UK streets of a night for fear of mugging or stabbing or shooting, our kids kill each other, parents murder there kids. yes there is crime in the UK - but per capita i'm sure about the same level of crime as in Malta. There are some dangerous inner city areas but on the whole crime is quite low.
Our streets are very safe, we have CCTV everywhere, yes there are murders and knife crime and gun crime - but there are 65 million Brits not 500,000
LGalea
Apr 22nd 2009, 10:00
Full report at
http://www.cpag.org.uk/info/ChildWellbeingandChildPoverty.pdf