One Radio and TV will of course keep on feeding them damned lies and banal excuses so as to raise their hopes substantially until election time.

What is your point here, exactly – that we might as well not bother with education?

Education does not make people intelligent when they weren’t born intelligent, but an educated person of little intelligence is a damn sight better and more useful than an uneducated person of little intelligence. Malta is full of uneducated people of little intelligence, and that is a very serious problem.

Also, intelligence without education is pretty much useless, and intelligence which is not nurtured through education does not produce results and does not help the person grow and develop.

Lots of housewives were intelligent through history and well into the present – but how does that help them? In their position, they would actually be better off stupid, though of course it’s a damn sight better for their children, genetically and otherwise, if they’re not.

It’s the sort of education children get in Malta, at home and at school and most certainly at Catholic doctrine classes, that’s the problem. It’s designed to close the mind rather than open it, and the results are all around us.

Being awarded a degree does not automatically infer intelligence upon the bearer; likewise, not having one does not imply ignorance. I know doctors who are utter morons, lawyers who would be ruined were it not for spellcheck.

I also know ex-drydocks workers who understand electronics and metallurgy to the point where warranted engineers refer to them constantly.

Education = intelligence, just like having a Ferrari does not give you Schumaker’s driving skills.