Time and again in various instances in public life, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, now President of the Republic, has shown the real mettle she is of.
In an emotional speech she recently delivered in the wake of the publication by Caritas Malta of a report themed ‘Minimum essential budget for a decent living – 2016’, she called on the government to allocate funds to bail out those living in poverty.
This piece is inspired by yet another bold statement by the President: her appeal for good and responsible use of the social media and her assertion that even the fundamental right to freedom of thought and expression as enshrined by the Universal Declaration is to be viewed within the constraints naturally imposed by ethical limits. Here, she practically echoes Pope Francis in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack.
The report by Caritas Malta should serve to raise poverty issues to a higher standing on the national agenda.
The report comes at a time when there is practically a consensus that the Maltese economy is booming and that the prospects look good. This does not mean, however, that it is all a bed of roses and that poverty is a thing of the past.
It is perhaps at times like this, when unemployment is at an all-time low and there are clear indications that there is vibrant trust among stakeholders and confidence to invest, that society should look upon itself with a focus on those who lag behind.
Read unwisely, econometrics can be hugely misleading. The gross domestic product is the usual reference but one other interesting measure is the economic sentiment indicator, a composite tool comprising five sectoral confidence pointers with different weights: industrial, services, consumer, construction and also retail.
Eurostat employs confidence indicators to gauge economic stakeholders’ feelings about the current state of play and assess the propensity to invest. The ESI, published by Eurostat on a monthly basis and expressed as an index with a mean value of 100, gives Malta’s average rating for the first five months of 2016 at 107.3 compared to the EU28 of 105.5.
It is perhaps at times like this that society should look upon itself with a focus on those who lag behind
Should this kind of statistic be interpreted as a blanket statement that we are all faring well and we can only expect the quality of life for each and every member of society to get better, at least in the foreseeable future? In discussing socio-economics, perhaps nothing is more erratic than blanket statements.
The Prime Minister was prompt to rise to the occasion and point out the need for a debate on poverty and taking seriously the possibility floated by the Caritas report that the minimum wage should be raised. Indeed, this is the right time to seriously consider a way forward to this effect.
We live the era of globalisation that started with the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria on which Christopher Columbus sailed to the West Indies in 1492. It did not take long for the European magnates of the time to realise that there was a boundless cornucopia for the taking on the other side of the Atlantic. Columbus’s venture nowadays takes the form of the internet and the communication revolution through which not just the lives of people have changed but also trade, the very lifeblood of globalisation, has been made easier and faster.
It has not made, however, everyone richer. Eminent economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz, argue that, in fact, the global divide between rich and poor has actually been widening. Political parties in Europe have been responding to this by shifting towards the centre, especially those from the left of the political spectrum. In so doing, however, and in the construction of ‘big tent’ holy and unholy coalitions, it is often the poor that risk losing further ground, especially when the lure of generating more and more wealth is allowed to obfuscate the social dimension. It is this, not the frozen stare of economic figures, that matters most.
Malta’s political parties should look deep into the Caritas report recommendations. They should ponder on the fact that the report does not shy away from specifically mentioning the Social Security Act on the lines that the provisions under this law should be strengthened to ensure a sustainable national health service that should remain sensitive to the implications of increased longevity and the elderly.
The last thing we can afford is to take rash decisions under the impression that all those who rely on the State’s social welfare apparatus do so capriciously to the detriment of the vast majority of honest taxpayers.
Political parties should ponder on how their ways of delivering politics have evolved in recent years when it has become amply clear that unless the needs and wants of a wider political centre are targeted there is no chance of getting electable.
How does this fit within the wider context of elevating those at the lower end of society? Does it necessarily mean that the policymaker can rest on his laurels by simply providing the necessary structures that facilitate millionaire-driven mega-investments? Not at all.
Where trickle-down economics fails, the policymaker must be bold enough to intervene in the market system to correct the failings that invariably arise, which failings are usually responsible for increased poverty or, perhaps, even worse, the rich getting richer at the expense of the poor getting poorer.
The Caritas report sheds lights on another important aspect: education for sustainable development. Addressing poverty is also about ensuring that all segments of society are equipped with the necessary tools for better living, as from a very young age, through both formal and informal education set-ups. The effort is not to be channelled through an attitude that promotes any single individual academic subject over another. That would be counterproductive, reinforcing the siloing and the usual straightjacket diktats in formal education.
We cannot complain about the intensity of schooling and certification inbuilt within Malta’s education system.
Any genuine effort aimed at the eradication of poverty has to be well thought through by thinking not just outside the box but surely beyond what can be delivered within the confines of the traditional classroom.
Sadly, it is also antiquated educational set-ups – physical, curricular and pedagogical – that diminish learners’ stimulus and militate against the development of an active thought process that the roots of poverty are inadvertently reinforced.
The Caritas report should serve to trigger a national debate that goes beyond the minimum wage and how this should be elevated in sync with modern-day realities.
The debate should also touch upon local governance, not least the legal frameworks within which it operates, and what adjustments should be made to further promote educational opportunities at grassroots level within the community.
A radical shift away from the dogma of brick-in-the-wall classroom routine.
May the poor be bailed out and poverty abolished but may the bailout also provide for a community-based holistic milieu of educational opportunities that equip society for better futures.
Addressing poverty goes way beyond the money.
sapulis@gmail.com
Alan Pulis specialises in environmental management.