If we let children rule Malta in 2015, how would they change the country? Kristina Chetcuti talks to seven children, aged five to nine, about what laws they would pass to make Malta a better – healthier, cleaner – place.
There is a livelier mood in the newsroom with children dashing around, pretending to be typing hard at their computers and answering calls. Or maybe that is because journalists are keeping their outbursts in check for once.
It is the day when a new generation of reporters temporarily take over and, having highly opinionated journalists for parents, they all have something to say about wishes for the New Year.
As an icebreaker, the children are asked what they would like to be when they grow up. Teaching seems to be the most popular career.
“Art teacher!” “Gymnastics teacher!” “Maths teacher!” “PE teacher!” One wants to be a teacher and a part-time YouTuber. YouTuber? “Yes. That’s a guy or girl who films videos and uploads them on YouTube to entertain people.”
Aha.
There’s also the little problem that if sweets were free, ‘then the people who have a sweet shop won’t earn any money’
Two want to follow in their parents’ footsteps: “A photographer!” “A journalist!” Another one opts for a complete career change: “I want to be an IT expert,” he says solemnly.
The youngest, Gianluca, 5, wants to be... “a Ninja baby”.
What is sure is that none of them wants to be Prime Minister. As the offspring of journalists, they are all aware that it is the Prime Minister who rules the country. Maya, 9, would be “too stressed out” by having to take so many decisions all the time and her “mind would explode”.
Amber, 9, asks: “Does a Prime Minister have to be all on his own on his desk in his office? It’s a bit lonely, I think”. The others assure her that he has helpers. “Like Santa, he has his elves, only they don’t wear green.” “Yeah,” nods another one knowingly. “I think they wear brown.”
What if, they were asked, in 2015, they had to be appointed Prime Minister of Malta? What laws would they pass? The views they came up with are certainly very topical: obesity, hunting, policing and environmental law enforcement.
“I’d pass a law so people would eat less sweets,” says Matthew, 6.
Maya argues that there needs to be more electrical cars on the street. They all discuss this at length, pointing out that factories need to make more of these cars; they need to make them cheaper “so my mama can afford one”, and there needs to be more electrical charging points “or you can end up stuck in the middle of the road”.
Maya is not done with her proposals though. She explains in great detail a complicated system of fines for people who throw things away without recycling. We all stare at her as she highlights all the never-ending possible loopholes.
Pippa says that if she were Prime Minister she would stop hunting, “especially in spring”. “Because the baby birds get killed in spring and then we’d be left with very little birds in the sky,” she says. Birdlife take note.
Our junior observer, Gianluca, 5, suggests a law for people “to help other people carry stuff when they tired of carrying bags”.
Rebecca, 9, says she would stop people from smoking. Amber, 8, agrees and says she would also make sure people stopped throwing rubbish in the street. Then she proposes a law “to stop robbers from robbing” (her father, a photojournalist, chased a robber earlier this year and successfully managed to pin him down).
Luigi, 9, opts for a merrier law: “I’d pass a law so there’s more fireworks and festi and candyfloss – every day.”
They are all very savvy when it comes to parental rules. When I suggest that if I were Prime Minister I would let children watch television all day long, they all wag their fingers with an outcry of “No!”
I am told that I would “be absorbing all the energy”, I’d get “square eyes”, I’d grow “sideways instead of lengthwise”. They also shoot down an idea of building a huge sweet shop giving out free sweets. “Your teeth will fall off,” chides Matthew, the most health conscious of the group.
Others say that sweets are unhealthy and there’s also the little problem that if sweets were free, “then the people who have a sweet shop won’t earn money”. However, for all their good intentions, when they learn that their might be some sweets at the end of the interview, they all go very diplomatic: “One chocolate a day is allowed,” “And two,” “Or even three.”
What are their wishes for the new year? They vary and there’s opposing views: Pippa wants more children to read books, Luigi wants books to “go extinct”. Rebecca wants to travel the world and take photos, Maya wants to improve her grades, Amber wants to improve her gymnastics and Matthew his football.
What do they plan to do to improve? Hands shoot up: “Practise, we have to practise!”
“And pray,” booms Maya.