In Malta, children are showing strong signs of obesity.

I’ve been to the south of Italy. Poverty there is more or less for the same reason here – lack of education and life skills and wrong priorities.

The key difference is one. Here in Malta we have education handed to us on a silver platter for free. Yet we choose to ignore it.

I clearly remember one day at the university, while boarding the bus home. There was a group of men who were working there as cleaners, and one of them, in his 40s said: “Kemm hawn zwiemel u fidili hawn”, referring to the university students.

Imagine what this guy’s kids grew up with and how much they ‘loved’ school if that was the attitude they were taught.

Qeghdin sew. Other countries are on their knees, including the Netherlands now, and Malta’s parliament is deep in heated debate about drugs in prisons and an old Wikileaks cable.

Ouch. IMF ‘s Christine Lagarde telling it straight.

In Greece, children are showing signs of malnourishment.

Time to bring in some sort of national service: forced expatriation for six months in a big city at least a full country further north of Catania’s market.