One capuccino a month, and students are supposed to celebrate
The government has raised students’ stipends by the equivalent of one capuccino a month (at a cheap bar) and students are supposed to celebrate.
Sixteen euros a year? That’s not a raise. That’s an insult. It would have been less offensive if they hadn’t raised the stipend at all, rather than raise it by that offensive amount.
In any case, it’s ruddy obvious that the government has done this not for students, but for itself, for the headline. It raised stipends by a miserable, tiny amount but it got itself the headline ‘se nzidu l-istipendji’ and that’s all that matters as far as it’s concerned. Now people will repeat it and it will become ‘fact’.
This is the worst kind of budget measure, because it costs a fortune and benefits nobody. Students won’t even notice an increase of 16 euros in a whole year, but it will cost the country a bomb.
It recalls for me the manner in which American Airlines, some years ago, calculated that by removing just one olive from every standard on-board salad, it would save $100,000 a year. Nobody would notice the absence of one olive, but the airline would certainly notice the absence of $100,000, which could be spent in better ways.
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I was just having a discussion, at home, about what you wrote above.
The government is expertly making and managing the news with its propaganda statements rather than with its political substance.
This is very clear on PBS/TVM news, but you can also see it in the ‘independent’ print media, which have either voluntarily or through sheer laziness been repeating its propaganda messages unquestioningly.
The Super One government knows perfectly well that the media in Malta simply repeats – literally parrots – what the politicians say, without adding a comma, a thought, a question. The fact that the politician said X is the news, rather the news being the content itself, examined by journalists.
The government is literally feeding carefully-studied short propaganda catch-phrases (“making work pay”) in carefully orchestrated media events, and then watching the media repeat its message.
This is exactly what won Labour the election after all.
George Osborne said it first recently, and of course our so called genius copied him.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/02/george-osborne-work-welfare-tax
Guess the chocolate powder mark on the cap will be a ‘Malta Taghna Ukoll’.
Whereas for most of them, the mark on their nose is not chocolate powder. Who was it that chanted “Taghna lkoll”?
The minister announced the measure with much pomp saying that this measure will cost close to a quarter of a million euros.
A quarter of a million euros split among so many thousands of students is next to nothing.
Compare that to the salary of Eur 13000 a month paid to Mrs Sai Mizzi. That alone costs more than Eur150,000 a year for one person. But hey, our finance minister felt proud to announce a measure for students costing a quarter of a million euro.
A capuccino costs around €1.80 and that was too much for the government. I am a student, and as you said, I won’t notice the €16 a year.
The thing is he did not have the decency to raise stipends by at least a miserable €1.50 a month – imqar one-day bus ticket once a month. Yes this was an insult and very offensive!
Kemm taghlaq halqek taparsi messek xi haga! Ara mmurx incapcaplu l-Joseph!
Imma tghidx kemm capcplu shabu x’hin habbar ‘il-mizura’. Donnhom impressjonaw ruhom bil-generozita tal-gvern. Heqq se tiswa, vicin il-kwart ta miljun Ewro, m’intix grat?
I’m a student as well, and while I’m grateful that it was a raise, and not the opposite, as one would’ve expected, €16 a year divided by 12 months gives roughly €1.34; a real pittance that’s going to cost the country a small fortune. I guess they didn’t find a hofra in the country’s finances this time around.
A bit more than €1.34 in actual fact, since stipends aren’t issued during the months of October and November, and two are issued at the end of December. €1.60 a month, a pittance nonetheless, but I could’ve turned out far worse I suppose.
They would have been better spent with Appogg who are in dire need of more funds for real problems.
This measure was meant to put egg in the face of those who say that Muscat will lower stipends. Now he will boast that he increased the stipends.
The budget like the government is a fraud.
I never expected anything better.
Il-qahba milli jkollha ttik.
There’s also another insult – to parents of dependent children, this time: they’ll be making a grand tax saving of €75 a year. Wow.
I feel that having benefitted from stipends myself, it is not really my place to comment negatively.
I really do see the point of stipends for a country that seeks to develop its only resource i.e. human resources. However, even when, as a student, I needed more cash, I made the time to find a part-time job and I flipped burgers or waited tables.
My first car was a third-hand one and I paid for it myself.
As a student, I did not live a life of luxury or constant partying, but made sure that every cent counted. My studies progressed, and remained unaffected by a few hours of part-time work per week. And, in summer, I made sure to find a summer job or two that would help me into the next year.
My point is that being a hardworking so and so, I could have just about survived without a stipend in the very same way that other students, across Europe do, even though these are sometimes faced by the odds of financing their own university education.
So whereas Malta still has free university for all, and students are still in receipt of a stipend, I feel that complaints about any increase, no matter how insignificant or politically charged this may be, are unjustified.
Whereas I do not advocate the removal of the stipend system, because for Malta, it is a means that justifies the end, I remind students that they still have it easy compared to foreign students who need to pay for their tuition and who certainly don’t get paid unless they apply for and receive a grant. This cappuccino is just complimentary with the otherwise free tertiary education.
What he said.
Though I do appreciate that DCG’s point is the fact that the raise is a gimmick.
The stipend increase is equivalent to a “dust in their eyes” solution. It’s something. The fact that that something is nothing will be enough to stop protests, and help the “feel-good-positivity factor” along.
What are the students going to say? Make it €x? Who is there suggesting the tangible figure, why it’s necessary or not necessary and making sounds about it?
I would suggest proposing €x for “x” reasons or stuff it. It’s a joke. It’s humiliating. Just don’t sit there and take it because the loud-mouthed, brash, no value Socialists amongst you for some illogical reason think it’s great and wouldn’t dare insult their great leader by thinking or stating otherwise.
Osservatore,please do not even think of comparing our university to foreign ones.our students make the most of what they can.and the little stipend which they have is just a little help for their studies.i m not going into foreign universities and what they can offer.students pay for their studies ,but they get more than what our students get.sports research music arts drama !!!perhaps I better stop here. Any hope that our politicians improve our university from all aspects proved futile!in fact our students do not even think of making a protest for their right.i remember the old days when students used to make themselves heard!
Student organizations should make a grand gesture and ask students to donate the increase to a selected charity.
Individual students will not miss the €16 a year but the sum total of their donations will make a difference to the charity concerned. Government would also get the message it deserves.
Whatever has been given to me with this preposterous scheme will be again taken away with the rise in cost of my car licence which I absolutely need to get to university.
I feel insulted with this gesture.