Maltese charity
Look at this brilliant example of Maltese care and compassion.
The Times, Saturday, 28 February
Stubborn beggar jailed
A Romanian was yesterday jailed for a week after being found guilty of begging outside churches in Valletta.Alexandru Luca, 31, would wait in Republic Street for people leaving church after Mass and beg for money, annoying people so much that they filed a report with the police, Police Sergeant Raymond Vella testified yesterday. The man had “even begged from a priest”, he added. After a week of receiving reports about the Romanian, PS Vella asked him to stop begging as the practice was illegal. Mr Luca disregarded several police orders and carried on asking for alms. He was arraigned looking somewhat the worse for wear and admitted to disobeying police orders and begging. In handing down judgment, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli took into consideration the fact that the man had been regularly warned to leave church-goers alone for a whole week. Police Inspector James Grech prosecuted. Legal aid lawyer Martin Fenech appeared for Mr Luca.
Notice that the immediate emotional reaction of these people emerging from church after hearing mass was not one of compassion (“Poor man, he doesn’t have enough food, and he probably doesn’t have shelter in this cold weather; here’s a euro to get a coffee”) but one of extreme annoyance, enough to drive them to the police station to lodge a report against him.
I am sure the God they had just been worshipping was mightily amused. “He even begged from a priest” – well, what a scandalous thing to do. But surely the priest should have been the first to take him in and ask how he could help. Or is he there only to do the comfortable thing and say mass?
A policeman ordered the man to stop begging, without asking him why he was begging or whether he had any other means to sustain himself. He continued begging, prompting at least one newspaper to describe him as ‘stubborn’ where the word ‘desperate’ might be more accurate. The destitute man was then hauled before a magistrate and jailed, which at least gave him food and shelter for a week.
So spoiled have we become over the last 30 years that we no longer understand the nature of destitution. If somebody is begging, then it must be his choice, we think, and not because he has no alternative. But why would a Romanian be begging in Malta? My assumption is because he has no alternative until he can get work, if he can get work. People without money for food can’t buy a flight back home, even if they wanted to do so.
And look at the nature of the hard-hearted comments beneath the news report on timesofmalta.com. Some of them were written by people who don’t even know that EU citizens cannot be deported from Malta, because they have freedom of movement – just as we have in their countries. Romania is part of the European Union, but the wise owls on timesofmalta.com don’t know this, or don’t understand how freedom of movement works.
Dr. John Damai
John Bates, the person in question is not Maltese just like your self so we have a right to deport him. Thats the law.john bates
what is wrong with this country we are in the EU now we are free to live in any EU member country you cannot deport someone back to Rommania they are part of the EU and free to live hereapgrech
If the guy is broke, he should have been deported to Romania for not being able to support himself but put him him in jail????Joanne Micallef
The authorities did well to nip this in the bud, although Romania is in the EU, from Italy’s experience we must make sure that anyone who does not have the means to support oneself should be sent back to his country of orgin.Anthony Briffa
Well done for the police and the court. Next step is to deport him back to Romania since he hasn’t got a sustainable income. We don’t need the same situation which is prevalent in Italy, especially in Rome, where these people spend all there time begging on the streets on behalf of Romanian gangsters.
38 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Daphne, Begging is a crime in Malta and It should stay that way. I wondered why children begging in Europe always seemed to have a leg or finger or hand missing, until I saw Slum dog Millionaire. Aren’t there soup kitchens and places for the homeless to sleep in Malta, such as the YMCA? Anyway, he can always busk and give a little entertainment for money. If he has no talent, he can always have a kartolina saying ” Pay to make me stop”.
—But why would a Romanian be begging in Malta? My assumption is because he has no alternative until he can get work, if he can get work.–
Can’t wait to read more of those well known comments on timesofmalta.com: ‘It’s a conspiracy!’, ‘They are all brought over from Libya’, ‘They are equipped with satellite phones to call their friends at home to come over for some BEGGING’,’Maltese, WAKE UP! The ‘EU’ promised something different’.
We’ll soon have someone come up with the idea of introducing stocks and pillories. Could attract a few votes that.
RE Graham C.
Someone, if not the priest, should have showed Mr. Luca the way to next soup kitchen instead of locking him up.
Andrea, agreed.
Anyone in that situation is, one would hope, in a rather unfortunate situation. I remember watching a BBC documentary about beggars in London and they documented how a shameless young girl would baby-sit a couple’s baby by taking it with her to the streets of the city to further tug at passers-by heartstrings. I’m sure not all beggars are like this, but I always do wonder if I’m being had when accosted in the street (I live abroad)
I prefer to donate money to places where the money will certainly help – a soup kitchen, shelter, charities – as giving spare change to a beggar may either be a good thing or, possibly, a bad one (like fuelling a drug habit or worse)
I do think that the Maltese should have shown a little more understanding and was as taken aback as Daphne was when I read this article. I also think that if they did not wish to help this Romanian out, they should have just ignored him.
I’m not sure if begging really is a crime (Graham claims it is) because that sounds odd to me – if I really am destitute, all I need to do is make a huge show of begging in full view of the local boys in blue and enjoy a night in a cell rather than on a pavement. Surely it can’t be that easy?
Aren’t our prisons full enough, or do we now also jail people for begging? Seems we’re back to the days of Charles Dickens. And this man had the gall to beg from a priest. Shock! Horror!
A few months back one of these beggars called at my home. This one was Maltese. He had a white dress on and had a black collar and a cross on a chain. This beggar was accompanied two young boys, also Maltese, and also dressed in white. He offered to splash some water around the house in return for some money. I ran into the house to call the police, but by the time I returned they were gone next door. Next time round I will be ready for these beggars and will chain them to the door until I get back-up help from the police.
As a Romanian citizen, I do not justify the Romanian beggar’s presence in Malta. I really think that the Maltese authorities have taken the right decision of putting him in jail. If he had all the money to reach Malta, he surely has the money for food and shelter.
Imma kif dejjem trid titfa t-tajn lejn il-knisja
The trouble is that after seeing the problem the Italians have with the Roms many people have become paranoid. So many serious crimes have been attributed to them. I know I have the right to go to the UK and work there, but if I arrive there with no money would the state support me until I find a job? It could lead to rather a dangerous situation. I read an article about how there are some homeless people in England who deliberately commit some petty crime in order to be imprisoned over Christmas – sad.
Most of you are all selfish racist bigots! Shame, shame, shame to all of you. His immigration status has nothing to do with his need for help. If he has been arrested for breaking the immigration act, so be it- fair enough. But arrested for begging? I wonder how many Maltese have been arrested for begging? And you dare call yourself Christians. What a total joke – perfect story for a John Cleese script. If the foreign press picked up on this they would have field day.
@ Lino Cert: you could have given him an empty envelope, or just sent them away politely, like the rest. In Italy on Sunday you see perfectly healthy men (Romanians) begging. If you don’t give them money they spit on the floor. Why should one give money to beggars? In no time we would be invaded with these also.
[Daphne – Consult your bible, John. Oh, I forgot. You weren’t encouraged to read it at tal-Muzew. You only had it explained to you.]
@ Daphne: about such matters I will surely not consult you. Begging is the last resort one should consider when one is in a difficult situation. One should give alms to people in real need not to plain lazy persons . Valletta is not Cairo, Ho Chi Min City or Mexico City where social assistance is nonexistent.
[Daphne – Are you able to tell at a glance whether somebody is in real need or just plain lazy? Social assistance in Malta is not given to Romanians.]
I learned this at Muzew: “be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves.” In the 1910s Dun Gorg was stopped from his work, i.e. spreading the Bible and its teachings to the common people. And now Daphne is trying to change the ‘raison d’etre’ of tal-Muzew. You really shoot from the hip, Daph.
[Daphne – You can get away with a hell of a lot preaching to common people who are illiterate and can’t think. A woman called Astrid Vella seems to have taken a leaf out of Dun Gorg’s book.]
Astonishing that the most ‘Roman’ of ‘Roman’ Catholic countries won’t help a ‘Romanian’. A ‘Roman’ Catholic priest won’t even ask if he can help the ‘Romanian’, or at least ask what is the problem. Utterly embarassing and I will ask my Maltese grandchildren, obedient attendees of ‘Roman’ Catholic ‘church school’, if they’re being prepared to emulate such behavior.
@ Harry Purdie: you are saying that church-goers should give alms to a healthy-looking 31-year-old man whom the magistrate sent to prison? Now do you think that there are heartless people who wouldn’t give some eurocents to a beggar, or that the priest didn’t know who the guy was, or that the police wouldn’t try to avoid a court case?
Only yesterday, I heard on the news that 40% of prisoners in Italy are Romanian. The chances are that the guy is a Roma (gypsy) from Romania. Next time he will put up a table at Strada Rjali posing as a palm-reader or fortune-teller. If your grandchildren are not streetwise, then they will end up being ‘too good’. Being naive is not a virtue. If one wants to be charitable one can donate money to the Community Chest Fund, the Eden Foundation/ir-Razzett, the YMCA or Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl, at least there is some officialdom in these organisations.
[Daphne – What was it exactly that they taught you at Il-Muzew?]
So the next time the festa committee come round or send me a mailshot, asking for money for the festa, can I report them to the cops and have them picked up and carted off to Kordin for a week?
@ Lino Cert
Did the priest REALLY ask for money in return for blessing your house? My house is blessed regularly at Easter-time, and no priest has ever asked me for money, though I and most others gladly donate. I think you made that one up.
@ DCG
Dun Gorg was looked askance at by the church authorities BECAUSE he insisted that the MUSEUM members should learn the Bible, and because he tried – and succeeded – to turn ordinary individuals into lay theologians. Perhaps you should care to check facts before slagging people off?
[Daphne – Lay theologians or amateur theologians?]
A week’s imprisonment for that sort of misdemeanour is too harsh, given that much more serious crimes attract more lenient sentences.
@ Daphne: I can tell you what my parents taught me, “don’t be naive” (Tkunx cuc). If you ever happened to be in Italy you know how life is unbearable with this kind of people. They offer you a flower or an AIDS badge and then expect to get paid for it. If you don’t, they start hurling insults at you. And the same thing goes for street-beggars: when you don’t give them money they spit on the floor and murmur some foul words at you. Their behaviour is like that of most of the ‘car park attendants’ we have round the island, who basically demand protection money.
Mr Schembri,
You ‘heard’ that 40% of all prisoners in Italy are Roma? I’m more interested in substantiated facts than hearsay. As to my grandchildren, I will ensure that their church-inspired ‘too goodness’ and naiveness are counter-balanced by a solid grounding in the facts of life, including the ability treat all individuals as equals. Your xenophobic thoughts are all too obvious and exemplify the major problem that our island is about to confront. I wish us well.
@Harry Purdie: I heard it on RAI news yesterday and it wasn’t hearsay. Call me what you like, but I can assure you that the Roma are not people you would want in your backyard. So you are one of those ‘holier than thou people’ who labels people ‘xenophobic’ when the obvious is stated. I hope you’re not accusing the magistrate of being a racist. Read what I wrote before you point an accusing finger at me. I wouldn’t give money to a healthy-looking person especially if he is a foreigner coming from Europe. I would be encouraging others to follow suit when I do so. This is not a poor Somali emigrant who is asking for work; this is a guy who came on purpose to earn easy money by begging and being a nuisance to others. [Daphne – Since when is begging ‘earning easy money?’]
As for your grand children: that’s exactly what tal-Muzew taught us from the Holy Bible: “Kunu ghaqlin b’has-sriep u safjijn bhal hamiem”. [Daphne – Harry is not Maltese. So ‘Be cunning like snakes and as pure as doves.’ Just the sort of thing you would expect a tal-Muzew person to drum into the heads of children, of course. And some choose to concentrate on the ‘cunning like snakes.’]
I have to say that it is like walking a tight-rope and people like you make it more difficult. I tend to agree with Manuel as to the sentence meted out, but the guy persisted even though he was admonished several times by the police. The magistrate was constrained to apply the law, he left her with no other option. [Daphne – Maybe he had no other choice, John, given that it’s hard to find money lying around in the streets.]
The problem with the Roma is that with them begging is a way of life. I feel uncomfortable writing this – it sounds very prejudiced – but it is an an incontrovertible fact. I remember one edition of Porta a Porta on Rai Uno a few months back, when a flabbergasted Bruno Vespa said that he had visited a Roma camp outside Rome and children as young as two had held out their hand immediately they saw him approach. There are undoubtedly historical and cultural reasons why this way of life should have taken root, but it is hardly justified today, at time when in countries like Italy (at least in certain parts) strenuous efforts are being made to help the Roma move closer towards the mainstream of social life…with little success.
[Daphne – Why is everyone here jumping to the conclusion that because this man is Romanian and begging, then he must obviously be a gypsy? “Children as young as two held out their hand” – well, I’m not exactly of pensionable age, but I spent rather a lot of time in Valletta as a child and children pestering adults for money were the norm there. I can only imagine how many more children there were pestering sailors for money down in Bormla. How quickly we forget. My husband, who is nine years older, remembers something different: gangs of boys in Valletta following ‘puliti’ boys who had gone in to the city to visit the cinema, and taking money off them with flick-knives.]
@John Schembri
You shouldn’t believe RAI news. The numbers they spread about ‘Romanians in their prisons’ are overstated.
To be fair: Italian prisons are quite crowded with Romanian people, they are not necessarily ‘Roma’ though.
@Manuel
When I was growing up in Bavaria, quite close to Italy, we used to be told not to trust the Italians since they ‘steal like magpies’.
Funny how prejudice works.
@ Daphne: I forgot to tell you that Jesus told his apostles to be clever as serpents and pure as doves. Begging is always ‘money for nothing’; it’s not earned. And as Manuel stated here it’s sort of their culture. [Daphne – Please distinguish between gypsies and Romanians.]
@ Andrea: I put RAI in the same category as the BBC.To be fair, they reported what the minister of the interior said.
Mr. John Schembri,
When growing up in Canada, I was taught that ‘faith’ and ‘compassion’ were somewhat related. The tone of your remarks appears to indicate that you have been taught ‘fear’ and ‘hatred’. Truly unfortunate.
Daphne, thank you for the translation; I now understand how some can become so unbalanced. I shall warn my grandchildren to carefully filter what they are taught in ‘church school’.
Mr. Schembri, it appears you stopped to think and forgot to start again. My condolences.
Up till the mid 20th century practically all visitors to Malta had to negotiate the “NIX MANGIARE” steps in the Customs House vicinity. Almost invariably these visitors’ accounts relate the dreadful pestilence of the Maltese beggars there – and elsewhere in Valletta.
[Daphne – How quickly we forget, John.]
Mr Purdie,
I think you probably misunderstand me. Give charity or alms, call it what you like, but when you give see to it that you are not encouraging people to be lazy. More than anything try to give a ‘fishing-rod’ rather than a ‘fish’. You were taught that faith and compassion are related. I was taught this also at il-Muzew: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
The ‘unbalanced’ quotation, translated by Daphne, is taken from the Bible Matthew 10:16; naturally you have the unbiased and learned interpretation by Daphne. [Daphne – Nope. I translated it perfectly.] We should not let unscrupulous persons take advantage of good benevolent people. I take your final comment with a pinch of salt.
At least the man was begging, not stealing – plus we’ve had people here getting off with less for much worse.
Does (Maltese) “cat man” beggar who is a regular sight around the Ferries/Joinwell areas not bother anyone? Is what he does (asking for money to buy cat food for strays) not begging too?
He’s been doing it for a good ten years at the very least, at various times of day, meaning that he presumably does not have a regular job and is living off our taxes … or off the “cat food” money.
Mr. Schembri,
We appear to be approaching the same ‘wave length’. I understand the ‘fishing rod’ vs the ‘fish’ concept. However, many are not allowed the ‘rod’ and therefore, resort to begging. Reminds me of a parable that I am sure with which you are familiar. I do consider Daphne a principled, unbiased and learned interpreter and commentator and am relieved that you agree. Unscrupulous people are everywhere, many appearing to be benevolent. I have lived (off and on) this island for 17 years and have met most of them.
Keep the pinch of salt. You never know when you may wish to salt your fish.
@ Daphne: you didn’t need to translate it , I had already put the quotation in English on 1st March. Your interpretation was biased as usual, when it has anything to do with Muzew.
@ Mr Purdie: “I have lived off and on this Island (mostly on) for 17 years”.
And you THINK you know them all?
[Daphne – I’m sorry, John, but you’re not going to give me lessons in how to translate from Maltese into English. From English into Maltese, perhaps – but not the other way round.]
1. There was nothing wrong with Daphne’s translation, but it was placed in the wrong context. Tal-Mużew do not make it a point to teach that particular verse – and when they do teach it is definitely not taken out of context.
2. I have no proof that Mr. Alexandru is Roma, but the only begging incident I have witnessed these past 10 years occurred a few months ago in Valletta and concerned a Roma couple. The man was begging, with a placard, in the vicinity of the HSBC ATM in Republic Street, while his wife – child in arms – was asking for many on board buses about to leave Valletta. People (including me) gave her money, and I heard no one complain she should be arrested. Did we do the right thing by her in enabling that sort of behaviour? I’m still uncertain.
2. Like everywhere else, Malta had its beggars, up to the 1970s, when proper social services put an end to the practice. The problem with the Roma is that this is their centuries-old lifestyle and they seem unwilling to change. It is a great pity because, as many Italian welfare workers maintain, Roma children are condemned to a childhood of misery and deprivation when a much better life is available to them.
John Schembri,
Are you familiar with the parable of the rich man, who wouldn’t help poor Lazarus?
It was the rich man, who found himself in a torment at the end. When poor Lazarus died, he was “carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.”
Mr. Schembri,
Firstly, let me say I admire you for rising so early in the morning in a futile attempt to rebut and retort. Secondly, I ‘think’ I have just met another one over the last few days. I greatly appreciate your contribution to my list. You have a nice day now.
@Manuel
-The problem with the Roma is that this is their centuries-old lifestyle and they seem unwilling to change.-
That kind of unwillingness you’ll find in human beings all over the world. Seems to be a ‘human flaw’.