Muscat's flame of feminism burns hotter still
On timesofmalta.com now:
“Mrs Muscat spoke on her personal challenges in raising three-year old twins while her husband’s work kept him away for long periods and said it was only her love for her husband which kept her going.”
Give me strength. “It is only my love for my husband which keeps me going.” Well, Michelle, at least it’s better than hitting the time-honoured sherry bottle or packet of Valium if you really can’t cope with two children and a husband who doesn’t come home at 5pm on the dot.
But with most women I know, whatever their situation or their relationship with their husband, it’s their love for their children which keeps them going, not their love for their husband.
I’m beginning to think that Mrs Muscat, if faced with a drowning child and husband and the chance to rescue only one of them, will actually stop to think. And that she might actually choose the husband, perhaps even – oh dear – without stopping to think.
And then, to make a sorry situation even worse, we have this:
“Mrs Gonzi focused on the the role of women in society, particularly as mothers. The main role of women should always be to protect the stability of the family, she said, because there was no greater treasure than the stability offered by a lasting marriage. Divorce, she feared, could undermine the stability of marriage.”
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Unfortunately, women like these provide enough fuel to those who argue that women should stay at home and not meddle in public life.
They are in the most unusual situation of having a very prominent role in public life while projecting the image of a stay-at-home-out-of-sight stereotype.
We have a perfect Maltese word for these mutterings by Mrs Muscat: “ksuhat”
This echoes the church’s view of women – there to do men’s bidding.
Or as my grandad said, “Keep ’em well stuffed and poorly shod”.
The posh version is: pregnant, barefoot and in the kitchen.
wara l-mina nghidu ‘Sidirha mal-kuker’
Fuq il-mina nghidu sidirha fil-borma.
Xi trid tparla Mrs. Muscat? Ghandha lil ommha u lil kunjata maghha bhala baby-sitters.
What if she was my neighbour who lost her husband and brought up three sons by herself without any help? She wasn’t well off but the three of them graduated – and in Rome, university is not free and you don’t get a stipend or a grant.
Not to mention all the women whose husbands work on oil-rigs or in the desert, or in the military, going off for months at a time, widows and other single mothers who are bringing up a family all by themselves.
Not everybody has got the “luxury” of having the grandparents around to help, or of not working for their living.
Mrs Muscat has her mother-in-law at the same address and also her mother on hand to help. She also has a babysitter or nanny.
Corlummy! My mother brought up two sets of twins, in between two other singles, with about four changes of residence (including living abroad for a couple of years) . . .
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110509/local/kmb-visits-libya-says-maltese-workers-should-return.364492
You are assuming Muscat thinks!
She was having difficulty reading and breathing at the same time!