Last week I spent some time in the archives reading old reports about Valletta and the Three Cities. Nearly 150 years ago, an unusually high number of deaths occurred during a particular winter. The Chief Police Physician at the time, Dr Antonio Ghio, and the medical doctor Dr Gavino Gulia, were requested to look into it.
Their report identified extreme poverty and a spell of cold weather among the chief causes for the increase in mortality. They described the appalling living conditions of the poorer classes around the harbour area, especially in some parts of Cospicua.
The inhabitants “resorted to bread of the worst description”, and meat was “an unknown luxury”. Children were given “improper and indigestible food” and many “died from neglect, abandoned by their mothers for indefinite periods” while they sought employment to be able to survive.
The mezzanini or kerreja in which they lived had poor ventilation, and some streets were filled with unhealthy gases from the sewers, with people often “closing their nostrils with a handkerchief” to avoid the offensive smells.
“It is hardly necessary to emphasise the outrage to decency, which must result from the occupation of a single room by eight or 10 persons, in which all the functions of life are performed,” wrote Gulia.
Fast forward to 2013, and we find a posse of reporters following Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, then Minister for Social Solidarity, as she toured an apartment owned by the Housing Authority.
Attempting to justify immoral behaviour by pointing towards a fat wallet, food on the table and money in the bank is utterly unconvincing
This was soon after the national elections and the visit highlighted the state of social housing in this apartment block, as inherited from the previous government. The main focus of the visit turned out to be a broken soap dish in the shower cubicle, causing untold misery to the elderly lady living in the flat.
The CEO of the authority was reported to be “visibly flustered” as the minister walked around this Floriana apartment and interviewed its dejected resident, cameras in tow. To make matters worse, the tiles in the yard had not been properly cleaned by the contractor and were splattered with paint. Scandalous!
Seriously now, I don’t doubt that sectors of the community are in financial dire straits, living in sub-standard conditions. I will not dive into discussions about relative or absolute poverty here.
Last week, Caritas issued a report on poverty and the minimum wage, presenting a picture of the situation in Malta today. The Opposition declared that, contrary to the government’s pre-electoral promises, the report shows that poverty has gone up alarmingly under this administration. The Prime Minister, on the contrary, reacted by saying that the report proves government success.
What is the reality? Unless you are prepared to read the report yourself and come to your own conclusions, you will be none the wiser.
We are faced with similar contradictions on a daily basis. We are suffocated by spin, and there is often nowhere to go for sound objective facts, especially not on television.
The Panama Papers, for example, are of major national importance and have hogged the news for weeks, but the Prime Minister just keeps flatly denying everything. We read a scandalous story, and he simply says it is untrue. That is just not good enough.
Despite a mountain of suspicions about Keith Schembri and his overseas accounts and companies, the government has just voted against setting up a parliamentary committee to establish the truth about his actions. The government has voted against transparency.
If Schembri has nothing to hide, wouldn’t it be better for him to muster up courage, face the questions, set the record straight and defend his reputation? It takes guts, certainly, but in his position of responsibility he should be able to handle it.
The other possibility, of course, is that he may indeed have plenty to hide. Unfortunately, shunning scrutiny gives that impression.
One of the worst aspects of Panamagate is that the government seems unable, or unwilling, to distinguish between what is legal and what is ethical. Joseph Muscat has promised an audit but refuses to recognise the ethical issues at stake. It is not even clear who is conducting the audit.
Muscat’s tactic seems to be to let the issue roll on until it runs out of momentum and stops. On the contrary, it is more likely to snowball and just grow bigger and bigger.
When people are desperately poor, it is understandable that they only care about basic material needs. One of the most shocking points in Gulia’s report, 150 years ago, is that so many children died from neglect. He explained that moral lethargy caused by extreme poverty “rendered the parent apathetic of consequences”. How very sad.
Malta is a completely different place today. Attempting to justify immoral behaviour by pointing towards a fat wallet, food on the table and money in the bank is utterly unconvincing. Fortunately, people have moved far away enough from the breadline, including the lady with the broken soap dish, to care about a lot more than that.
Promoting money as the justification for everything is a disgusting political creed. And this from a party that is supposed to be leftist. A thriving economy is no rationale for moral lethargy.
petracdingli@gmail.com