I am not using academics at the University of Malta as a yardstick.

You mentioned in a previous comment, or rather made a sweeping statement, that you could never see a successful fat person, an academic, a surgeon etc… and that is where we do not agree.

A person may be overweight for various reasons not simply overeating. Overweight people have brains too.

Weight has never stopped me from achieving whatever I wanted. I am an intelligent, witty and efficient person.

I have a strong personality and I am very confident. I succeed in life because I am very eager to learn and determined to give good results.

I am also very respected and appreciated. Maybe I am an exception. :)

Not at job interviews in Malta, when the interviewers are almost certainly shorter and feel threatened.

And that’s just the men.

Your lengthy comment epitomizes all that is so wrong under this Presidency.

HPB, hyperbole is not going to help the discussion. Obesity, does not bar you from jobs, but it does make things harder when competition is fierce especially in countries outside the UK and the USA. Nevertheless, if someone has the right profile, skills, experience and tons of charisma, one ‘will’ get the job regardless of weight.

The problem one come across frequently in Malta, is that many people are obese (because of their lifestyle not health issues or other) and not very clever, so one does not tend to see beyond their physique.

If those overweight/obese academics were to face an interview panel in the private sector anywhere in the free world, they’d be shown the door.

Obesity is a bar to success in the world outside tiny Malta and even tinier University of Malta. The few exceptions just prove the rule. Most ultra-succesful CEOs are not just within normal BMI, but taller than average. For women CEOs, it’s that, plus they’re attractive.

The days when people sat up and took notice when a ‘frustiera’ spoke are long, long gone.

I love the way Facebook has brought out these massive low-IQ problems.

‘Know your enemy’.

Clearly, my enemies are mainly morons.

Genetics give you a tendency to put on weight, but it’s not genetics that make you obese; it’s food intake and lack of exercise.

There was only one fat girl at our school back in the 1970s, and when you’re talking about a school population of hundreds, that’s something. Our diet was completely different back then.

Now schools are full of fat children.