It’s time to join the real world
This is poverty: an American family living in their car
Many years ago I was in Paris and rang a woman I had known in Malta when she worked at the French embassy here. We went to a street music festival, walked around and stopped for a drink.
An hour later, all walked out, I suggested we stop for another one. “I’d better not,” she said. “If I buy another drink I’ll mess up my budget and have to eat into my rent money.”
I was taken aback.
I was far from rolling in it myself, what with three small children and bills pouring in from all directions. But you know how it is in Malta: when you’re out for a drink and somebody suggests a second round, and a third, perhaps even a fourth, nobody says “I’d better not. My rent money/loan repayment/electricity bill is due and I don’t want to mess up my budget.” Not when you’re past those early years of scrabbling around when everyone you know is in the same boat and admitting to it isn’t tantamount to public mortification.
I thought about this a couple of days ago, when the finance minister released the figures for amounts due to Enemalta (€200 million) and the number of households and businesses where the electricity supply had been cut off because bills had not been paid (2,438). The Water Services Corporation, he said, is owed €55.1 million.
Meanwhile, the director of Caritas Malta has called for a redefinition of poverty and an increase in the mandatory minimum wage. He said that utilities bills, medicines, gas and rent are pushing people into poverty.
Monsignor Victor Grech sees poverty-related problems every day of his working life, but I cannot agree with him here. The present government cannot possibly be more socialist and left-wing in its approach to social services and the welfare state.
Other Nationalist governments since 1987 have been even more extreme – more socialist than the socialists, who in our experience of them between 1971 and 1987 proved to be anything but, their solution being to bring down the rich rather than to better the lot of the poor.
We have free education all the way up to tertiary level. Anyone who stays in education beyond the state-mandated age of 16 is paid a stipend.
We have free medical care and a spanking new general hospital that beats private treatment and rivals the conditions in private hospitals. There is no means testing. Those with chronic conditions get their medicines free.
There are welfare payments for just about any reason under the sun that renders a person unable to work and support himself, herself and dependent children – a system so lax that it is abused and subject to countless cases of fraud.
There are so many jobs going at the level where those at risk of poverty are most likely to seek work that employers are resorting to refugee workers to fill them. The poor Maltese are just not interested.
What more do people want?
Those who get the most in terms of welfare payments, free schooling, medical care and the rest are the very ones who contribute nothing towards the system at all, because they fall below the tax threshold.
If I read the situation correctly, they want to be paid to live without working, without cutting down, and without making do. They’ll go about their daily business while those who work pay tax so that the rest can get a cheque through the post as a reward for not making an effort.
Nobody in the real world expects to run a car, heat a home, consume electricity, and feed and clothe a family of five off the pay-cheque of one man in a low-level job, however high the minimum wage might be. They don’t expect to do this even off the decent salary of somebody in a mid-level job.
Nobody in the real world would even think of starting a family on the minimum wage, still less one minimum wage. Nobody in the real world would pop out two, three or four children as though contraception doesn’t exist and God will provide when the parents can’t, when they cannot even afford to support one child.
And now here’s the big one.
Women in the real world go to work and help pay the household bills. They do not live in a parallel universe called Malta, where the wife of a middle manager, still less the wife of a labourer on the minimum wage or just above it, expects to stay at home raising children – or worse still, not raising them because they’re in their teens – while taxes are creamed off others to pay for the electricity, water, rent, gas, medical care and children’s schooling that these women demand.
It’s the expectation and the sense of entitlement that shocks me.
There’s no budgeting, then the electricity bill plops through the letterbox and oh-my-god we don’t have the money to pay it. Husband earns the minimum wage and we can’t get by? What do you mean, stop having babies? How dare you suggest that I get a job? You have a nerve to say that we shouldn’t have married and started a family on €250 a week. Why shouldn’t five people be able to live on €250 a week? The state should help us.
If you think this reasoning is fictitious, you’re wrong. This is exactly how people think. Some of them actually expect to raise a family of five in comfort on €150 a week. They’re already getting practically everything for free and still they want more. The solution – living off two wages or salaries instead of just one; not having children they can’t support financially; paying their rent and utilities bills before they even think of paying for anything else – just doesn’t seem to occur to them.
And while good-hearts like Monsignor Victor Grech are genuinely concerned, they are concerned about entirely the wrong problem.
That problem is the fact that Maltese people do not live in the real world. Accustomed to getting almost everything free, to electricity and water bills that don’t reflect the costs involved, to paying peanuts for rent as protected tenants, to a bubble in which women don’t work and men are the sole breadwinners, we have parted company with reality.
This article is published today in The Malta Independent.
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I’m off to Uni to vote for Mark Camilleri (that’s right, the guy that the PN SDM stooges on the KSU want to send to jail for publishing a story in Ir-Realtà).
[Daphne – Hi Twanny, aren’t you too old to vote in a KSU election? Oh, I’m forgetting, you’re a student of the third age. That must be why you’ve forgotten you’re talking here to somebody who a Labour magistrate is trying to have imprisoned for writing about what she gets up to in her ‘spare’ time.]
Yes, this is definitely Victor Laiviera. He exhibits the same infantile ‘yah boo sucks’ attitude.
Votes aren’t graded by age.
And you haven’t provided one shred of proof – not one – that CSH is “labour” in any sense of the word.
[Daphne – Oh do join the real world, Twanny. If she were something to be proud of, you’d be rushing to claim her as one of your own. Is this your perverse way of saying that you’re ashamed of her?]
She hasn’t denied it, so it must be true. Isn’t that what your bible Maltastar says?
I agree with most, if not all, of your analysis here. I’m just back from a very interesting conference that set the ball rolling for a few months of blogging about the UN Millenium goals – aimed, among other things, at fighting poverty.
There is no doubt that the politicisation of the “poverty” issue can damage and hide any real poverty which exists within our social fabric.
Shifting the goalposts as to what constitutes “poverty” has always benefited rabble rousing politicians – Roman politics at the turn of the first century centred around the patrician/plebeian divide just to mention one instance. (see the Gracchi brothers’ efforts)
I think that society does need to take stock of both assertions you allude to here. Firstly and very importantly there is a crying need of responsibilisation of the citizen (and education) in order to shift out of the breastfeeding off the state mentality (ironically nourished by our excellent welfare state over the past 50 years).
This will be difficult when we must bear in mind that the power struggle every five years is based on making promises contrary to this very necessary step in social education. (yes, PLPN talk).
Secondly we must be careful not to bulldozer over realities such as the poverty that does exist among us – irrespective of whether it is a result of irresponsibility or not. Will we test the needy by their responsibility for finding themselves in that situation?
Do we test treatment for lung cancer on the basis of smoker/non-smoker? What society do we want? The US society that throws the poor on the street because they do not qualify for the American Dream? The overburdned welfare state that is set to burst thanks to decades of vote-grabbing electoral promises?
In the end it is important that we recognise both issues as “problems” or rather crisis points in our society. By crisis I mean a moment of decision making that takes on the problem, defines it and decides where society wants to go with it.
Thanks for that piece of gold (Gracchi brothers) – would you recommend any further reading? Apart from what’s on the internet…
You’ll find nothing better than good old fashioned Gibbons but for a lighter, easier read I suggest Tom Holland’s Rubicon.
@ Jacques: thanks, have downloaded Gibbons but cannot bring myself to read it on the computer. Will check Rubicon however. The only book I read on Rome was Climax of Rome by Grant. It was a very interesting read.
“We have free medical care and a spanking new general hospital that beats private treatment and rivals the conditions in private hospitals. “
I can confirm that from personal experience. I recently woke up at night with a (very) sharp pain in my side and was taken there at 5am by my wife. I waited less then 10 minutes before being seen to first by a doctor, and twenty minutes later by a surgeon.
The morning was spent running tests, ranging from x-rays to an ultrasound. The care was beyond superb. I had to stay there for a few days. I can honestly say that I was incredibly surprised.
After all the moaning I had read about Mater Dei, and because I have private medical insurance, I was ready to move to a private hospital, but my wife who rightly or wrongly doesn’t ‘trust’ them so much, asked me to stay put for at least a night.
All I can say is, WOW. The staff are amazing, always cheerful, with the patients at least, and you really feel looked after. The cleanliness is incredible too. All surfaces are cleaned every single day – even the television. I had internet and television to myself. The bed linen is changed every day, and hot drinks offered practically every hour.
The food is not 5-star cuisine, but it was fine. I was on a ward with other people, but that means you can have a chat.
Visiting hours are restricted, but even though I may sound like an ungrateful bastard, I was glad of that. That way I didn’t have to feel guilty about preferring to be alone and not chatting all the time, and my wife did not have to feel guilty about not being there with me all the time either.
I know I mentioned them before but I have to do so again – the staff, from the consultant to the cleaner, are amazing. The level of care FAR exceeds that of private hospitals. Needless to say, thoughts of transferring to a private hospital were quickly discarded.
A month later came the follow up, TWO appointments at outpatients starting at 09:45. This time, I thought I will be there for hours. I walked in at 09:30, at 10:30 I walked out, book unread. I invariably wait much longer for any private appointment with a doctor.
Maybe mine was a unique experience. I don’t know, but I am seriously considering stopping my private health insurance. Quite frankly, I don’t see the use of it.
Yes, Mr Buttigieg, I think it was a unique experience. Although I totally agree on the superb staff attitude, the waiting is atrocious to say the least. I think you really should ask around for other experienced Mater Dei patrons. And, by the way, I would not consider stopping any health insurance, if I were you.
[
Well, like I said I can only judge from my experience and it was 100% positive.
“And, by the way, I would not consider stopping any health insurance, if I were you.”
Well, you’re not!
Mr Buttigieg……I know!
No, Mr. Buttigieg, your experience at Mater Dei Hospital was not unique. I can vouch that what you said was the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have been to many hospitals as a patient in Malta, Italy and the UK and I can say our hospital is tops. My wife brags about this hospital with her Italian relatives and friends.
Spot on as usual. One thing I can never digest or understand: why does the government hand out, yes literally hand out, social benefits and other pay cheques to the unemployed WITHOUT getting anything in return?
Before Twanny or someone else accuses me of asking for social benefits to be abolished, I am not. I am simply suggesting that all the unemployed and those receiving state aid should do some form of community work in return. even if all the 12,000 or so unemployed were to sweep a road each. Volserv is doing an excellent job at Mater Dei Hospital. Similar groups could be created in various other places – help with the elderly, visiting lonely patients, supervise children at schools and so on.
A cursory look at minimum wages around the EU seems to show that we have the same Euro amount, yet the gap between minimum wage and average wage is smallest in Malta.
That must mean that wages in Malta are depressed compared to other countries. Many in the skilled and service industry seem to complain about this, including doctors. This would imply that the middle class here is not treated well. I’m more interested in the gap between average wage and top-earners.
On a related note: the number of doctors per capita here is much higher than in the UK, whilst nurses are way below UK levels. Those who study here take an extra effort to graduate as top-dog of a profession, the underdog only gets the sawdust and the aggravation with no financial incentives or much respect… if it’s a perception problem that isn’t grounded in reality, then the government should make a PR effort to correct it.
Re: minimum wage – increasing it simply puts more money in the hands of people who will be easy prey to unscrupulous marketeers, speculators and lenders. I personally think that targeted benefits will always be a safer option: there will be less free-floating money to be spent irresponsibly, so less incentive for predators to evolve and fester. If you want to earn more, climb the social ladder through skills and labour.
Living in a car is not so much different from living in a dilipated garage with no basic facilities Daphne. Your attitude of denial really gets under my skin. Even the party (Pn) now seem to admit that we DO have a poverty problem.
[Daphne – There is poverty and poverty, Mark. God help us if we all rushed out to produce various children by different (but all irresponsible) men without money and with nowhere to live. That’s a damn sight different from the integral family in this photograph, living in their car because both lost their jobs and their home was repossessed.]
I’m not justifying those who gambled away their house but every situation must be examined properly. I for one could never afford to make a family therefore I was always careful not to get any of my girlfriends pregnant without having any financial backing.
[Daphne – I have news for you, Mark. Girls were probably avoiding getting pregnant by you. We can do it, you know. There’s a magic pill and all sorts of other things.]
Yes you are right in some cases, I agree as the saying goes – if you can’t feed don’t breed. Being fertile is no excuse, buy a condom. We see this mostly with africans who can’t feed themselves yet make up to 5 babies and then would turn on charities for help, the same should be applied to the maltese. But we need to tackle userers, they are the ones making money and taking advantage of people’s misery and gambling addictions.
Just this morning I was hearing a story about a guy making 200 euros a day from usury, surprisingly these people opt to register for social benefits. Same goes for drug dealers most register for benefits, this is were the police and government needs to push their efforts. They register for :-
1. Greed for more money.
2. So that they can show something for their earnings.
“We see this mostly with africans who can’t feed themselves yet make up to 5 babies ”
That’s very condescending: if they had the knowledge and funds to buy contraceptives they would gladly use it. The church and other fundamentalist religions do their part to obstruct govt handouts of condoms and other contraceptives in all poor countries.
The church also tells them not to fornicate, so there.
I just love Mark C’s “any of my girlfriends”. What a stud!
Mark C,
As sorry as I am for this person’s situation, and much more for her children, she certainly brought it upon herself and her children didn’t she? Tell me, what should be done according to you? Seriously, tell me! She said she’s getting her tubes tied?
Well, a condom in time saves nine .. (kids that is)!
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100325/local/living-in-abject-poverty
She sometimes doesn’t send her children to school to save petrol, or so she said. Why doesn’t she walk them there instead? More importantly, how did she afford a car in the first place, and how does she afford the maintenance and running costs now?
Most important of all, she had her first child at around eighteen when she was, perhaps, naive. But why, oh why, keep on producing children and forcing them to live in such dire conditions? If she loves her children enough, she’d want them to have a better life, even if it means giving them up.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100325/local/living-in-abject-poverty
All her problems would have been avoided with a packet of little pills from the pharmacy, marked with the days of the week.Five children by as many men and she expects help from the state? Yes, for the children’s sake – but really.
“There are so many jobs going at the level where those at risk of poverty are most likely to seek work that employers are resorting to refugee workers to fill them. The poor Maltese are just not interested.”
You see everything backwards don’t you. Let me fix your sentence.
The employers now have a new advantage, they can take advantage of the illegal immigrants with cheap labour perhaps 5 euros a day therefore the Maltese has no choice, either accept the modernised form of slavery or uphold his dignity.
I congratulate them for upholding their dignity and refuse those measly jobs. The africans can take it until we send them packing back to Africa that is. The employers will get their lesson on greed soon enough.
@Mark C
Well well well, so the illegal immigration problem is now solved. May I ask? HOW? Has Joseph Muscat told you that Malta has agreements and obligations out there, in the real world? I wish it would be solved. Then the government will not have to spend all that taxpayers’ money.
Ah, and we get back the building that houses them in Marsa. A bird has told me that there are plans already for it. No, it is not going to be a club run by a minister’s son but a brothel. And guess what it will be called? Chez Charlo’.
With regards to the employers getting their lesson – some of them have been dining out with Muscat in Madliena. Will they get the lesson as well or will they get a free period? I wonder.
This is a good joke. I’d like to see you find an illegal immigrant ready to work for € 5 a day.
Mark C – what you are implying is that these immigrants that we see working out in the roads (not hidden in some mine), carrying mobile phones, driving decent cars and wearing decent clothes, are all working illegally for 5 euros per day?
A disturbing photo which serves to highlight how lucky we are – the Maltese should pull up their socks as they are far better off than they themselves can imagine.
Nothing is free! Everything is paid from our taxes.
I agree with Daphne. We whinge and moan about everything. I used to myself until I left the island and realized how good we have it at home.
If I’m not mistaken last week in The Times there was an article that mentioned some department that carries out DIY works for free for pensioners.
Yes, the handyman service.
Evarist Bartolo once said “Malta qeghda ttella’ studenti tat-tajjar”. He was 100% right. People are detached from real world, before they start working.
Many, many, many Maltese do not have the slightest idea how IMFISSDIN we are! And to add insult to injury some, or most, are ARROGANT in their FSIED!
Are there statistics to show how many Maltese went on a cruise last summer?
[Daphne – It depends what sort of cruise. For the other sort, you might have to ask Miss Micallef and Ronnie.]
Excellent article and spot on (as usual). Keeping me chuckling in Saudi! IT department have been around blocking sites, thank heaven this one is still okay.
@ daphne
I agree completely with your assessment that Maltese seem to be living in a parallel universe and expect the government to pay for their needs but I would add at least another aspect.
In the last 10 years or so, Malta was inundated with every type of advertising which has generated fictitious needs and ‘pushing’ people, especially the most vulnerable, to live beyond their means. I know, nobody is actually pushing anyone to consume, but it is generally agreed that the media is powerful enough to influence people’s choices and priorities. So, there needs to be some form of education here.
Erm, well I’m not too sure I agree with you on this one, Daphne. While you may be right on priorities, and that some form of sanction needs to be put in place to force people to pay their bills, I also believe that wages need to be raised.
The cost of living in Malta has increased immensely. I actually think that in many respects Malta is more expensive than Italy and our minimum and average wages, here are definitely higher.
As an example, water and electricity both cost much much less than Malta. Actually water costs are practically negligible here, just think that when I get a 30 euro bill for two months, it appears to me to be on the high side, we’re three people and given the low cost we don’t economise at all.
[Daphne – That’s because Italy doesn’t have to use electricity to make its water before it sells it. Everywhere that fresh water is made from sea water, water is expensive.]
Not only are hospitals also free here, so are doctors and specialist, you chose your own GP and he’s paid by the state. Prescription medicine is nearly free – a box of antibiotics costs about 2 euros, as opposed to 28 for the same stuff In Malta.
In Malta clothing is also very expensive, restaurant bills are out of proportion, of course for inferior quality. So I can imagine that people have problems making ends meet, and not necessarily because they have five children and because they are spendthrifts.
I believe that even with two average incomes its becoming harder and harder to get by. I can assure you that I would rather live here with mine and my husband’s combined income than in Malta.
Daphne, I know that water is expensive because electricity is used in the reverse osmosis process, but whatever the reason for its high cost is, the wage earner still has to pay for it, of course with a reduction of his disposable income.
What sort of tax rates do people pay in Italy?
Yes, and their financial situation is worse than ours with a real poverty issue.
It is not only about pay cheques and social benefits. Is it true that some people have every medicine available for free (not chronic cases, but medicines such as paracetmol and painkillers)?
Any medicine that is prescribed by a doctor – I do not think that paracetamol is included, but pain killers yes, if you have a doctor’s prescription for it.
I completely agree with you.
The real problem with Malta is the poverty of the mind.
Sorry to come across as judgmental, but it’s too hard not to when there is a single mother with three children from different fathers who lives in a garage and then whines because she can’t afford anything even though she has benefits that American single mothers would go crazy for.
I honestly really pity her children who have to live in those conditions and who probably end up as ignorant as she is seeing as she can’t even send them to school.
I’m all for solidarity, but this is ridiculous. These people don’t know what the word consequence means and for that reason alone, they should not have children.
The ‘refugees’ and illegal immigrants are taking low paid jobs from the Maltese, the jobs illegal immigrants do now, used to be done by the Maltese 30 years ago – dustmen, road sweepers, landscaping, road repair etc.
I always make a point of chatting to blacks on the bus when I am in Malta, I am not racist, in my opinion most of the guys don’t qualify for refugee status and should be deported. They stay in Malta because they lie, they are coached by human traffickers for a fee.
Of course employers employ immigrants rather than Maltese, they can exploit but they cannot do this to the Maltese.
I have been to Africa and the poverty is unimaginable, I don’t blame Africans for coming to Malta, I would do the same thing.
Direct hit, Daphne!
I used to call Malta ‘The Island of Delusion’ when I lived and worked there.
@Tony Pace, just to make sure: my dear Maltese friends and their support made all the difference–especially when I got lost in the maze.
“Nothing is free! Everything is paid from our taxes”
I am quoting somebody else who wrote this before me. Yes, you are right, but at least I can see the results tangibly in front of me.
1) My father was horribly injured at work last summer. Result? 100% care and commitment at hospital.
2) I send my son to a state primary school – free books (new, not the horrible Denfil any more, or dog eared Basic Maths), 13 students in a classroom (tell me where you get that in a private school) a brilliant teacher who does not have to worry if parents complain about her to the head and have her sacked. And remember- a new school is being built every year. Go to Pembroke Primary and see what schools are being built.
3) Our roads are still far from perfect but hey: Have you seen the difference? Someone like Twanny might say, yeah, but that’s thanks to CHOGM or the pope; well keep them coming. And EU funds?
4) A brilliant telecommunications network second to none. Internet, online governemnt services, more mobiles than people.
5) A general feeling of great upkeep all over the island. I remember Eddie Fenech Adami telling some Super One quack how all our roundabouts are blossoming with roses. a far cry from the prickly pear and lunar landscape monument at Cospicua, built by Labour.
And the list goes on and on and on and on…..
Dear Loredana,
My friend is married to an Italian and is now pregnant. All her doctors including her Italian ones told her not to give birth in Italy because Mater Dei is so much better and safer.
Daphne, I agree with you 100%. I hear people complaining that they cannot make it through by the end of the month, and yet, I see the same people going to the bingo every week. I think that they don’t know what the priorities in life are. For sure there are some who really have problems, and I don’t mind paying taxes for those, but I’m sure that there is a lot of abuse!
Prosit Daphne – what a soul-searching article.
Well done for this article, Daphne
What a factual piece of serious journalism!
I have often pointed out that many locals are a bunch of spoiled brats, expecting the world to owe them a living and refusing to look beyond the shores of the small rock thereby realizing that there is a much larger and crueler world just over the horizon.
I have been often accused of not knowing what is going on in Malta since I live ‘across the pond’. What they do not realize that at my finger tips are daily news, papers like The Times, Malta Independent and many others some of which I wouldn’t use to even scoop up dogs’ poop with.
They forget that what nonsense they write affects a prospective visitor’s choice of a vacation destination because why would someone prefer to surround himself with some very nasty, unhappy people when they can, at a much cheaper price, visit the Caribbean so frequently advertising their magical seas and sunsets with smiling faces splashed all over the paper ads and television screens?
The political strife is enormous like nowhere else in the world. Some act as if they are living under the oppression of a Communist regime, forgetting that it’s been over thirty years since we tasted the likes of one.
Daphne and her readers have a grave responsibility to ensure that Malta does not go back and elect an incompetent team composed of elements who disgraced Malta and made it a laughing stock of the rest of the world. It was insulting enough when asked where I came from, their reply invariably was, “ah, yes little Mintoff’s island, right?” No it was never Mintoff’s island although his ego is big enough to accommodate a few Maltas.
We cannot keep giving them hope of governing by drawing foregone conclusions. By now they should know where they belong and it will be a long time, preferably when I am no more, that they may reach an adequate level of competency, moderation and sanity which the electorate may look favourably upon.
Keep up the good work Daphne.
You are so right! The welfare state is eating us up and we continue to pay unmarried mothers with unknown fathers rather than enforce regulation that mothers who do not know whose child they have born, should not be entitled to benefits.
We continue to pump money into unemployment benefits and employers are having the impossible task to balance their labour demand with registered workers as a huge number of people insist on working irregularly. While this, in itself is a crime employers are left with little choice but to risk employing unofficial workers to satisfy their requirements and are duly prosecuted for this infringement.
The Housing authority has been receiving suggestions to implement means tests for those countless tenants who enjoy housing subsidies whilst simultaneously making commercial use of their residential apartment and are being unjustly enriched by the system at the expense of their landlord. Tenants, particularly those who are protected by the pre-1995 laws, should only be granted a subsidy once the landlord has consented and signed for it. While this may allow an element of bargaining power to the landlord, the overall benefits will outweigh the costs and any tenant who is, in any way abusing the system will desist from doing so or renounce his subsidy altogether
This overburdened welfare state is being subsidised by an unfair tax regime and endless fiscal persecution on employers, entrepreneurs who invest hard-earned capital and take commercial risk as well as those employees who have no possibility iof avoiding tax. While a good proportion of our taxes are being squandered on the lazy or those who prefer to abuse the system to paying their due share of tax, the state continues to bury its head in the sand.
This article has echoed my thoughts completely. Well done!
Malta needs to attract more inward investment. That is the only solution to poverty.
The best ‘solution’ to poverty is a stable childhood in a nurturing environment and a good education.
Pointing our fingers to the horizon doesn’t a solution make…