Deep into the electoral campaign, it’s easy to forget some concepts which, just a few days ago, seemed so important and we were celebrating. Though the electoral campaign never actually stopped, we’ve just gone through Christmas – a time of gift giving, a time of enormous generosity and responsibility on behalf of the Maltese people towards their neighbour, near or far.

The dimension of life seems to be lost during this electoral campaign

Gifts are not given only at Christmas but I believe they are what life is about. Life itself is a gift and, whatever belief one may hold, one cannot avoid this dimension of life.

From its origin, life and nature were given to us as gifts. But, unfortunately, many a time – and technology leads us into a distracted or alienated way of thinking – we think we are entitled to the gifts we receive, that we are in control, only to be reminded, sometimes by terrible natural disasters, that we are not legitimate owners of anything we have and that we are not in control after all.

This dimension of life, with all the humility and respect that it entails, seems to be lost during this electoral campaign. The main issues deal more with the things we expect: things we perceive to have a ‘right’ for and are entitled to, forgetting all the responsibilities. Many a time, this arguing is about ‘rights’, which, in my opinion, don’t act in our benefit after all.

The issue dominating the first part of the campaign was that of reducing water and electricity tariffs. No one can protest, and least of all myself, about getting a lower water and electricity bill. But what about the gifts of water, gas, oil and coal? Are we just expecting to use and overuse these resources without even paying anything in return? Where is the discourse of energy-saving, renewable and sustainable energy sources, which, in my opinion, should override the one about non renewable ones in the decades to come?

Thinking of natural resources as gifts that have been made to us would appear to be ludicrous in a campaign that only concerns itself with marketing an energy deal that wins votes.

The right to life and control over life was the topic of many social issues brought up in this campaign.

Children appear to be seen as a right, rather than a gift. The same people who are fighting to save our environment are in favour of IVF and methods whereby we take control over creation and manipulate it to our advantage, with no attention to the ethical issues involved.

It is interesting to point out that countries where people have taken total control over life for decades are seriously rethinking and now are going back in their own steps, having places like the state of Mississippi closing its last abortion clinic.

Not that I am equating IVF with abortion but, in my opinion, on this level they are the same: they are, after all, both about control and about one forgetting this dimension of life: the dimension of gifts.

Let us allow nature to give us what it has and enjoy what we have, whatever our life, whatever our vocation.

In this campaign, there is, on the one hand, a big urge to take control and create life while, on the other hand, an urge to sabotage it so that we might allegedly ‘enjoy’ our life.

The way children are being treated in this campaign keeps highlighting these contrasts. I can imagine how childcare centres are a blessing to working parents but I ask: aren’t we creating new institutes to ‘place’ children in while we strive to earn more money... To do what? To celebrate which life?

While we criticise the institutions that care for orphaned children and which, despite their limitations, give them a lot of love,aren’t we creating new ones under the name of ‘childcare centres’?

While parties promise the world to the Maltese people in their efforts to win votes, they dedicate no investment or energy into discerning what kind of values and lifestyle they are promoting. Politics has, sadly, become a competitive market where one is not interested about the quality of the product one is offering but only that it sells.

Let’s take more time to reflect on providing more opportunities that again allows quality time between children and parents such as family-friendly measures that truly create a person-centred economy and not a money-centred one.

Are we sure that, in the long term, the economy will benefit from a lifestyle where most people live away from the inner wealth, which one receives from a more stable and loving family life?

If we just look around our beautiful country, the gift of our environment should be top on the agenda. Stretches of land have, in the past years, been dominated by large empty structures, large numbers of abandoned houses stand there unused and, yet, we continue destroying more land in order to build on it. We perceive this to be our right but what about our responsibilities?

The problem of the transport system has been tackled but still a lot has to be done. In my opinion, our mentality has to change and somehow we should understand that the gift of the air around us and the gift of technology are both our right and our responsibility. We, as citizens, have the right and the responsibility to protect our environment because it’s but a gift, which was intended both to us and to our descendents.

Technology can come in to our aid but it can also distract us from the true meaning of life. Handing over laptops to be used by teachers is one thing but dishing out tablets to the younger generation without speaking about the importance of an education that helps children develop a mature use of technology is a curse, to say the least.

These are but reflections that a heated electoral campaign as is ours can provoke. It’s much easier to feel entitled than to actually feel receivers of gifts with all the gratitude and responsibility that this entails.

Our mentality has to change to demand from politicians that which they have a duty to give us: a responsible way of living, a direction on the sustainable and life-giving way of using our resources and, finally, the way to truly develop the gift of human life both on the material and the spiritual levels.

Anthony Mifsud is active in youth ministry.