Il-karita naghmilha bil-mohbi meta rrid, fi x’hin irrid u lill minn irrid. Is-shows ta’ dan it-tip iddejjaqni hafna.

Madame President ahjar ghenet lill dawk l-anzjani li bilkemm saru jghaddu 18/20 gurnata mill penzjoni li ma jibqalhom xejn.

Wegghat hafna anzjani meta ghazlet li tkun President ta’ Malta.

Raised? What is this, a cake sale by the Women’s Institute?

And who gets to use that money? Malta’s GDP is around 8.6 billion Euros, so the money ‘raised’ by selling passport is one eighth the entire gross domestic product. A colossal sum. Who gets to use it?

We keep getting told, by both government and Opposition, that the economy is rock-solid and doing brilliantly. Every day on the 8 o’clock news, we hear declarations by the powerful and the brainy telling us that we’ve never had it this good, and that the outlook is better still.

So why are we still collecting money for the poor and needy?

I wish someone had the balls to make themselves the most hated person in Malta, and call out l-Istrina and the Community Chest Fund. We have the equivalent of workhouses in the greatest economy the world has ever seen. And we’re not even aware of the glaring contradiction. In fact, we show them off and make a great big spectacle out of collecting money for the poor and needy.

In any economy as good as ours, there should be no poor, and there should be no needy.

Or perhaps we’re being lied to.

I thought that that The Community Chest Fund donates money through our contributions to those really in need,that is to the poor and the poor sick.

An explanation should be given to us contributors.

Well done the Malta Chamber of Pharmacists.

As they rightly say, the obese must be targeted as a national disability, and only a pharmacist driven approach can rid us of this scourge.

Help them secure our future. And theirs.

Qtiltni Baxxter !

Exactly, one should give directly and discreetly to ones charity of choice. Forget the intermediary.

Former PL Deputy Leader candidate Clyde Joe Cassar, employed at the Human Resources department of the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers (AWAS) under the Home Affairs Ministry, is also a fan of St Lazarus.

So, what’s going on? Why is the head of state, like her immediate predecessor, using her position to only ‘do charity’ for free?

And I say ‘for free’ because it is not they who are forking out the money to travel to this place and that place to do missionary work, or holding fund-raising events which will put them out of pocket.

Real charity comes not only from the heart, but from your own time away from work, family and other duties. And most importantly from your own pocket.