It is not just ageing bones like mine that are rattling. The cold spell that has gripped Malta, as it did the rest of Europe, has made one and sundry shiver. Air conditioners are steadily humming, and hang the electricity bill. Health department warnings have been taken to heart. Still, medical friends of mine tell me that illness has increased because of the cold, topped with our high humidity.

The figures revealed by the survey are frightening. Strangely, they do not attract the attention of our political class- Lino Spiteri

The coldness record, it seems, has not been broken. But it has been bad enough. Spare a thought, then, for those who could not afford to heat their homes in normal circumstances, let alone during the shivering spell.

At the last count, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO) 14 per cent of households – three per cent more than in the previous year – were not able to keep their home adequately warm in winter. A total of 55,608 individuals were affected, around one-in-seven of the population. That was in 2010. There is no reason to conclude that the number has decreased in the winter of 2011-12.

Unlike in snowbound countries in Europe no deaths from the cold have been reported here. Yet too many people, certainly those who cannot afford air conditioners and other heaters running on costly fuel, must be passing through a tough time. I doubt that those of us who are lucky to enjoy an adequate degree of comfort give much thought to them.

Social statistics are not quite up there in preferred reading. Add to that the fact that the NSO’s 2010 survey on income and living conditions did not attract that much attention.

The social sector is not at the top of our attentions list. If it were, the NSO survey would cause not a few consciences to ask to what extent is social justice prevalent in Malta. In summary the survey had the following to say on living conditions, in addition to the data on individuals who could not come in from the cold:

• Twenty-seven per cent of households – containing 109,942 individuals – could not afford to face unexpected financial expenses in 2010.

• Households in arrears on mortgage or rent payments, utility bills, hire purchase instalments or other loan repayments totalled eight per cent (29,676).

• Ten per cent of households (41,219) could not afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or vegetarian equivalent every second day.

• Sixty-four per cent (245,918) could not afford to pay for one week’s annual holiday away from home.

• Households deprived of at least three of the NSO living conditions indicators numbered 15 per cent, one in seven, affecting 60,160 individuals. Households deprived of at least four – considered to be severely materially deprived people – represented six per cent of the total, containing 23,467 fellow folk of ours.

• It does not get much better when we look at the NSO’s income indicator. It states that those on the at-risk-of-poverty threshold for 2010, which stood at €6,260, numbered 63,474. The threshold is two-thirds of the mean (roughly the average) income during the year. It includes social security transfers. Without them, the number of those at-risk-of-poverty would be higher. As it is, one-in-six of households could barely make ends meet.

Figures do not make interesting reading, do they? They are cold and boring, one might say. On closer conscientious consideration, I suggest that those revealed by the income and living conditions survey are frightening. Strangely, they do not attract the major attention of our political class.

Listen to the two main parties speak, taste the flavour of their cooking – more than anything else they focus on the middle class, as if the poor do not exist.

It is not that politicians are heartless. It is just that they believe that the middle class is the largest class where floating and undecided voters reside. That is their target catchment area, where the election make-or-break numbers lie.

In fairness to them, over the years politicians have given us a substantial social security net. Some people may live in old cars, or curse the cold, or wish they too could stake a week’s holiday.

Yet nobody dies from starvation. Social security, family solidarity, a number of NGOs and individual priests and others combine to ensure that. In technical terms, we say we have no or little absolute poverty.

I am not aware that has been scientifically measured. But I’m prepared to accept it for argument’s sake, though social workers like Mgr Victor Grech and Fr Hilary Tagliaferro, plus a number of family doctors and individual politicians who still bother to knock on doors, would probably be prepared to argue the point. They see and touch extreme poverty.

But let us say that our islands only contain what is called relative poverty. Should we be happy with the extent of that? Should our political class be mainly interested in the vote represented by each person, rather than the needs within him?

Jesus said the poor will be with us for always. But couldn’t we all work to make them fewer? Could not politicians sit up a bit straighter and pay more notice?

• A number of parents of disabled people have asked me whether the Prime Minister responded to my article of December 18 (‘Inspired’ plea to PM’) regarding the disabled and the Inspire Foundation, which I have the honour to chair.

In it I asked the government to re-start buying services from Inspire at 2008 and 2009 levels, thereby to get quality support to Malta’s disabled. I e-mailed the Prime Minister the article before it was published, out of courtesy and because I am sure he too has the disabled at heart.

The e-mail did not bounce. There was no reply.

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