Healthy blood owners should be blood donors. This slogan must have reached millions of people on Thursday, May 23 - World Blood Donors Day.
Donating blood is not just a noble gesture, but something absolutely necessary for people with a severe blood disorder. For those who need to be transfused, life simply depends on the generosity of blood donors.
These concepts were reiterated effectively in a speech delivered by President Guido de Marco at a ceremony held at the Blood Transfusion Centre, close to St Luke's Hospital, on May 23. He was accompanied by Health Minister Dr Louis Deguara and 'shadow minister' Dr Michael Farrugia, as well as representatives of the local trade unions. They toured the centre and spoke to that day's donors, who included members of the police.
A similar ceremony took place at the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) blood bank in Floriana, where Archbishop Joseph Mercieca and political party secretaries Joe Saliba and Jimmy Magro were in attendance donated blood.
These blood banks are doing sterling work. There is also a transfusion unit at the Gozo Hospital, which is open for donations on weekdays. The Guardamangia transfusion centre (tel. 2123-8756, 2123-4767) is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m, Saturdays and Sundays included.
The response from Gozo, I am told, is proportionally higher than in Malta, which means that Gozitans are more generous or more conscious of the need for blood donation than their fellow countrymen on the main island. But the situation has improved in both islands since the Malta Blood Donors Association (tel. 2145-4116, info@maltablooddonors.com) was founded six years ago. Donors then amounted to 13,000 yearly. Now they are 17,000. "Our aim is to push that up to 17,000," Dr Alex Aquilina, who runs the Guardamangia centre, told me.
The situation has improved also in St Luke's, with the arrival a few months ago of a consultant haematologist who holds an MSc and MRCPath from the UK. The pathology laboratory is kept extremely active. It's the place where hundreds of blood counts are performed every day.
Malta and Gozo are on a par with southern European areas, but below northern European standards, as far as blood donations are concerned. In foreign hospitals, if blood is not available on a given day, it is obtained by helicopter from the nearest town. This is not possible in Malta's case. Sicily is worse off than Malta as regards blood availability. To be at par with advanced countries, Malta's main hospital would need a fully-fledged haematology department. We know that Malta has the highest level of lead in blood in Europe, though we still do not know why.
So if you are aged between 18 and 60 and enjoy good health, make it a point to donate blood at least once a year. You will not only be doing a good deed, but also investing in your own future. Until a few decades ago, whoever needed blood transfusion had to find a donor among his relatives or friends. This is no longer the case. We have blood banks. But the need for blood donors has increased.
French writer Jacques Attali has written a book to prove that only solidarity can save the world. His message is: Be altruistic, help those in need whenever the occasion arises. Don't think it's merely a drop in the ocean. Just do it, and you will feel worthy of the humane values on which you were brought up.
Euro-Mediterranean region
I have just read the first chapter of Challenge and Change in the Euro-Mediterranean region - case studies in educational innovation, a 470-page book published by Peter Lang in New York and edited by Ronald G. Sultana, who studied educational sociology in New Zealand and now lectures at the Malta University.
In this chapter Dr Sultana analyses the concept of educational reform and attempts a definition of the Euro-Mediterranean region.
We all know what Europe and the Mediterranean are, though they are both difficult to define. Europe consists of 48 countries, including mini-states like Andorra, San Marino and Malta. The Mediterranean includes 24 countries bordering on its coastline or (as Portugal or Jordan) on its hinterland. This Middle Sea has been, and is, extremely important, as it 'connects' two continents and the so-called Middle East.
The latest good news as regards Europe is that Russia has signed a partnership agreement with NATO. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who contributed to this historic event, is now pressing for Russia to join the EU. President Vladimir Putin said in Rome last week that Europe without Russia and Russia out of Europe are both inconceivable. But a close relationship, or partnership, with the EU on the lines of the one just struck with Nato, seems to be more feasible.
Malta is a typically Euro-Mediterraneam country. It was more Mediterranean than European in antiquity. It is arguably more European than Mediterranean today. But it shares a number of environmental and other traits with countries as far-flung as Spain and Israel.
Dr Sultana's successful effort to promote Euro-Mediterranean educational innovation and development should be backed by the Maltese authorities and actively supported by institutions like the Council of Europe, UNESCO and the EU.
The present book confirms Dr Sultana as a bright intellectual and a first-class expert on educational issues in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Social security and migrant workers
In a letter to this paper last Sunday, Mr H.V. Agius bluntly favoured Jean-Marie Le Pen's promises to the French electorate to reintroduce the death penalty and rid France of its numerous immigrants. The 44-nation Council of Europe has just opened for signature a new protocol abolishing capital punishment even in times of war or imminent threat of war.
At the 8th conference of European Social Security Ministers held in Bratislava on May 22, CoE leader Walter Schwimmer said: "We need to compensate for the reduction in the working-age population and labour shortages in certain sectors of the economy by attracting foreign workers. I am convinced of the positive contribution of migrants to the welfare and economic development of the host countries".
It was ageed at the ministerial conference that social security levels - in such areas as medical care, sickness and unemployment benefits, old-age pensions, family and maternity benefits, invalidity benefits, etc. - would drop if migrant workers did not pay contributions at par with local citizens (for further information, e-mail pressunit@coe.int).
Inflated telephone tariffs
Maltacom chairman Maurice Zarb Adami let the cat out of the bag when he told The Sunday Times two weeks ago: "I am here to protect the interest of the shareholders and I am sure that lowering the international tariffs on its own will be detrimental to the company".
I thought Maltacom, which enjoys a monopoly on fixed line telephony, was bound to protect Maltese citizens in the first place, and that the government would see to it that it did. Maltacom earns Lm18 million a year from overseas calls. To reduce such calls by 50 per cent, bringing them in line with European practice, the company would lose Lm9 million, Mr Zarb Adami informed us. So what, as long as the Maltese are fairly treated?
Malta being an island, with more Maltese residing abroad than in Malta itself, one would expect international tariffs to be cheaper than abroad. Instead they are much more expensive.
As a Maltese citizen I felt offended by Maltacom's decision to disobey the Malta Communications Authority's order to provide subscribers with itemised telephone bills. I am also surprised that the media and trade unions have not reacted strongly to Maltacom's attitude.