The importance of the Maltese family unit is engraved in our DNA. There used to be no limit to the extent mothers and fathers would sacrifice from their own well-being and lifestyle in the interest of the family.
I remember my own father hustling for every conceivable job in a climate of debilitating high rate of unemployment to fund the family’s needs and necessities of life.
Conversely the same could be said in those days of children striving to find early low-paid employment to help out the family.
Given the very significant changing dynamics in Malta’s economic circumstances and consequent changes to the material status of the Maltese people, it might be time to reflect on the effects these changed circumstances are having on the family unit in Malta.
Given the relatively short time these changes in Malta have occurred we might reflect on changes in other countries in similar circumstances.
Australia for example, is a cauldron of many diverse ethnic diasporas comprised within the population and is a good gauge of the subtle changes in cultural values and attitudes driven by substantial growth in material gain, which may sometimes evolve through an environment not always sympathetic to time-honoured ethnic ways of life.
This makes for interesting reflections.
Almost the entire population of non-indigenous Australians have eitheroriginated from Europe or are derived from European stock, bringing with them, particularly the southern Europeans, strong cultural values and customs some of which remain ingrained in their psyche.
Growing up in Europe, particularly post-war Europe, with a legacy of deprivations and social upheavals the war had bestowed upon the entire continent, was all about being a useful and a contributing member of a strong family unit.
The family unit was considered a point of reference for all decisions of significance, a datum point, the genesis of life led normally by a disciplinarian patriarch.
But powerful social changes are taking place subtly but with the inexorability of tectonic plates material and selfish self-interest considerations are creeping in.
The strong blood ties connections are being diluted by marriage and relationships from cultures with different priorities.
Cultural values now severely tested by creeping rapaciousness and a lust for control over incrementally and hard-earned assets by hard-working parents. The younger generations yielding to material and hubristic pressures are all too willing to trade family ties for quick access to easy wealth.
Family trust structures, which were designed to secure the financialsecurity of living and future related generations are being severely tested
Family trust structures, which were designed to secure the financialsecurity of living and future related generations are being severely testedand challenged by those who are either too impatient for time to deliverthrough the natural attrition of their so-called loved ones or too inept tostamp their own achievements on the chalice of their family history.
In the worst cases control of family structures is usurped and the same resources which had been created by the family head over a lifetime are sequestrated and used to persecute, prosecute, weaken and humiliate their benefactor with a pagan abandon not seen since the Roman Empire.
All is not in favour of the usurpers however. They are a weaker breed defined by their actions as men and women of straw motivated by lack of personal fulfilment to expropriate the achievements ofothers and hijack accumulated value rather than create new value.
They choose the process of conspiracy, duplicitous and malevolent actions funded by resources created by that very same person who has become their target and prey.
The motivation for premature plunder of accumulated assets is personal andfavours those who do the plundering, but the catastrophic results produced byactions which irrevocably nuke a family unit, inflict unimaginable damage notjust on the victim mostly affected by those actions but also on relatedparties who may and almost always are removed from these heinous actions.
Grandchildren become estranged from grandparents, family weddings,graduation days, new arrivals; none of these important family events remainimportant family milestones.
In fact, such occasions become just poignant reminders of the damage inflicted upon the family by those responsible.
I am told by those who love with no hidden agenda that no revenge is morehonourable than the one not taken, but then also reminded that revenge is aconfession of pain and there is no denying my pain is palpable.
Catharsis is, I think, a spiritual extraction of the excruciating emotions, particularly those we refer to as hate, fear, grief, and certainly love.
I have lived a precarious and interesting life and faced many challenges over the years but my biggest challenge arrived in the autumn of my life. Those I once loved with all my heart, those who carry my DNA decided it was time for a change at the top.
The lure of family wealth, control and social recognition was clearly much stronger than any biological connections.
Out came the sharpened knives of flawed family trusts doubly sharpened by clever lawyers and the bloodied remains of a misunderstood but benevolent patriarch shuffled out of his office and on to the street.
I fought catharsis and I didn’t need it. I relied instead on the engine room of hate and retribution, such is the beast within me.
Thus total destruction of my life was concluded by my own hand. The toxicity created by the anger within lost me the one being I should have valued more than material assets.
That which was my rock, my stabiliser, my greatest love, my wife.
Anthony Trevisan is a businessman passionate about environmental issues particularly as they affect Malta.
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece