How poor is poor?
We can't afford a dishwasher on what my husband earns, so I've got to stay home and wash the dishes myself. It's called a woman's right to choose.
Right across the European Union, people have been surveyed by Eurobarometer to find out about poverty and whether people are finding it difficult to pay their bills on time. It turns out that 61 per cent of the Maltese who were questioned said that they are struggling to make ends meet and to pay their bills and monthly loan repayments on time.
What struck me about the report is that there is no definition of those ‘ends’ which have to be made to meet. Your ends might not be my ends.
And his or her ends might be something else altogether. If I lived on bread and cheese and walked everywhere or took the bus, and if I paid nobody else’s bills except my own, I would have no trouble making ends meet. But would I then consider that poverty, or a blessed relief from effort?
I have no doubt that the man up the road would say that he is having trouble making ends meet. He probably complains about it all the time, and in a very bad-tempered way.
But then his list of demands from life is rather longer than normal, and it is not the sort of list you’d burn in the fireplace in the hope that Fr Christmas might read it in the North Pole on 24th December.
There was something else wrong with that survey – at least going on the newspaper reports about it. There was no indication of whether those surveyed lived in a single-income household, a two-income household, or a multiple income household.
It is quite obvious that the Maltese are going to come top of any European list of people who find it hard to make ends meet and to pay their bills on time. This is because Malta is also bottom of the list of European countries when it comes to participation of women in the workforce.
Malta is the last remaining place in Europe where households routinely struggle to survive on one income, even when this income is that of a labourer. The situation is beyond ridiculous.
When women are asked whether they are struggling to pay the bills, and they say ‘Yes’, they don’t add – because it never occurs to them – ‘But I don’t work’. And when men are asked a similar question and they say ‘Yes’, they don’t add ‘But my wife doesn’t work and we all live on what I earn.’
The interviewer and the interviewee come from different cultural standpoints. The interviewer assumes that all wives work bar those of the rich (and even the wives of rich men work outside Malta, as a matter of pride and autonomy, and for personal fulfilment), while the interviewees fully expect to maintain a household of five on one net salary of a thousand euros a month.
Of course you can’t pay your bills on that, lady. Try bringing in some money yourself. It’s the 21st century.
The root cause of poverty in Malta – real or perceived – is not the water and electricity bills, but women who don’t work. When a household has at least two incomes, however small, life might be a bit tough but there’s generally enough to go round. Nobody starves. The bills get paid unless somebody is particularly profligate or spending money on scratch-cards and a chain-smoking habit.
The survey also failed to factor in that people in Malta usually live at home until they get married. This means that even if mother doesn’t work, Kevin, Sharon and Susan do. So there are often four incomes in a single household and yet that household still struggles to pay the bills.
A Eurobarometer survey will not pick up on the clash of cultures which dictates that grown-up children are permitted to hang on to every cent of their salary while father pays all the bills, so that those children can save up for the deposit on their own home. And meanwhile, because five adults consume far more in terms of food, water and electricity than two adults and three children, the noose of household expenses tightens further when it should be reduced through having more earners in the household.
Dismay is expressed in some quarters because women now have to go out to work to help pay the bills. Why is this so shocking? It has been the norm in the rest of Europe since the 1970s at least. The days of stay-at-home mothers in pinnies survive only in that awful book called Id-Denfil and in Malta.
This rubbish about surviving on one income is not helped by the well-meaning but politically correct ‘spokespersons’ who say that it should be a woman’s choice whether to go out to work or not. Excuse me, but why should it be a woman’s choice? We either want equality or we do not.
If we want equality, then men should have a similar choice and nobody should look at the man who lives off his wife and call him a lazy, good-for-nothing bum.
But if we expect to stay at home and live off a man, then this is a tacit admission that we don’t want equality, or rather than we want to pick and choose the issues on which we are equal.
There are exceptions: when children are tiny and need constant attention, the mother has every right to expect to be cared for financially. But when they are older, she should wake up to the fact that her responsibilities are now no longer purely domestic. They are also financial.
If a woman refuses to contemplate going out to work because it is too tough and difficult, and by so doing she circumscribes her children’s present and future by reducing their chances and opportunities through lack of disposable income, then she is selfish and irresponsible.
No, I do not subscribe to the theory that women who do not attempt to earn money in this day and age, when it is entirely possible and acceptable for them to do so, are unselfishly giving up their lives to the care of the home and family. I think that, on the contrary, they are selfish and have sacrificed the better being of that home and family because not working is the easier option.
They have looked at the opportunity cost for themselves personally, rather than for the entire household unit, and have decided that they would rather live on less than work for more.
The only thing that brings choice is money, and women (like men, for that matter) only have a choice not to work when they can get their money elsewhere. If there is no other source of money, then they should work instead of complaining that their husband’s earnings are not enough to pay the bills.
Right now, we have a situation in which people are complaining of poverty because they expect to pay the household consumption of four or five people on a single small salary.
My regular readers know that I champion women’s rights and have never had any truck with discrimination. But I do not champion laziness. I am completely taken aback that the so-called socialist party is championing laziness and stay-at-home women because that is not the way of socialism at all. It is the way of right-wing conservatism.
But then it is quite obvious – to me, at least – that our Labour Party is right-wing conservative, and as far from liberal or left-wing as it is possible to be.
Take this dreadful situation, for instance: a family in which the father works at three jobs, seven days a week, to put two children through independent schools, and while they are at school until 4pm every day, their mother does nothing bar a bit of dusting and cooking, which so many of us do after work anyway. What sort of behaviour is that? It’s disgraceful.
The General Workers’ Union has now thought fit to chastise the government because the Eurobarometer survey shows that we are swimming in poverty. I think not. I think we are swimming in a backward bubble jammed full of people who are totally divorced from reality.
Instead of going on about poverty, the obviously well fed Tony Zarb should start a campaign to get his members’ wives out to work and earning something to help pay those bills. Crazily enough, the further down the socio-economic scale you go, the less likely married women are to work. Not only do they have husbands who earn less than others, but they don’t work either.
The further up the socio-economic scale you go, the more likely women are to work: they tend to be educated and when you’ve spent years in training and study, you don’t spend your days polishing the door-knockers. Not only do they have husbands who earn more, but they bring home the bacon too. And the disparity grows.
Let’s put it this way. We would all be poor if we didn’t work, and yet Malta is full of women who whine about poverty while sharing somebody else’s wage-cheque.
This article was published in The Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday.
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You have really hit the nail on the head. They do not have money to pay the bills but they do have enough to play Bingo, Superfive, Lotto Scratch Cards, for ciggies and a whole lot of other stuff.
These woman should get off their backsides and start earning some money. And this also goes to all those that receive social benefits. If they really want to work, it should not be too difficult to find some kind of work. But it is easier to stay at home and receive a monthly cheque.
Studies show poor people tend to gamble more. There could be many reasons for it:
1. they don’t know of a good strategy to get out of their situation;
2. they cannot save enough to get out of their situation;
3. when you’re in a desperate situation, you take desperate measures.
When you don’t have the opportunities, means or skills to move forward you take pot shots. And that also happens with management at big businesses that suddenly find themselves in dire straits.
Very well put! I find it so shocking that people in their 20s and 30s still live with their parents and do not contribute to the household bills. I thought that was necessary when I started a summer job at 16!
And to say that we are poor? Come on – try going to a restaurant on a Saturday night without making a reservation! It’s almost impossible. Not to mention everywhere was packed on Father’s Day, and that was only a month after everywhere was packed on Mother’s Day.
I think Maltese families have long forgotten what poverty means. Many extras in life are actually considered to be standard (eating out during the weekends, buying 40+ inch LCDs…).
Many women still expect to clean their house every single day and iron the bed sheets and underwear – just because their mothers used to. What about getting an education, a job and a LIFE!
Spot on! I hope though that government and private enterprise offer better childcare facilities as it’s not fair to burden grandparents with children every day.
It’s not healthy for the kids as well. The system has to be efficient and localised otherwise people will end up spending their free time going from one errand to an other.
On a slightly different matter: I’m still baffled who our glorious kuntratturi haven’t started building affordable ‘hostels’ for relatively independent old people who want to stay in the community.
This would clear a lot of property back to market and makes it easier, especially for widows to gain quality of life. These kuntratturi only think of building blocks of flats suitable for desperate first-time buyers whilst ignoring the lifestyle requirements of old people…
“Take this dreadful situation, for instance: a family in which the father works at three jobs, seven days a week, to put two children through independent schools, and while they are at school until 4pm every day, their mother does nothing bar a bit of dusting and cooking, which so many of us do after work anyway. What sort of behaviour is that? It’s disgraceful.”
Jekk ma tmurx it-tombla jew xi coffee morning jew ghand tal-lottu tilghab il-kino u tgerger li ma tistax tlahhaq mal-hajja…
U xi nghidu li jigi is-Sibt u il-hwienet kollha jkunu ippakjati bin nies ghall- ikel………dan hu il faqar?
I could live with it if the only negative outcome was Malta’s position on a Eurobarometer survey, but the knocker-polishers and their keepers are bringing/keeping the rest of the country down in the pits with them.
Don’t just castigate the women though. For many (Maltese men), it is still a source of pride and boastfulness that they can ‘support’ their families on their wages, even if in reality they can’t and moan about it and deprive their children and themselves of better lives in doing so.
For them, having a working wife would be a form of defeat, a stripping away of their manly abilities and time-honoured duties.
[Daphne – Yes, this is truly a serious problem. I know one woman who keeps her morning job secret from her husband and another woman whose husband keeps the fact that she works a secret from his colleagues – and she only got to go out to work after fighting him tooth and claw because their children were going without.]
They’d rather work that extra Sunday shift at that second job than suggest that the bread-winning burden could be shared. It’s not just the women that don’t really want equality, you know.
Can we have a survey of attendance at bingo halls every morning?
Hi, I am an avid reader of this page and usually agree with your point of view, Daphne. This was posted on my friend’s Facebook wall – yes, I do have one, it’s good for keeping in touch with my friends abroad.
If you substitute Nationalist for Republican and Labour for Democrat, I feel it applies wonderfully for the situation we have here in Malta.
If a Republican doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a Democrat doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a Republican is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.
If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A Democrat wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a Republican doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Democrats demand that those they don’t like be shut down.
If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.
If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A Democrat demands that the rest of us pay for his.
If a Republican reads this, he’ll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
A Democrat will delete it because he’s “offended”.
As things stand it seems like the PN is equivalent to the Democrats.
The Republican Party lost its way with clueless Reagan and drove itself into the ground with incompetent Bush II tying his fortunes with fundie Christians.
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/11/saint-sarah.html
Bush worst president in modern era:
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0701/nations-leading-presidential-scholars-bush-worst-president-modern-era-5th-worst-history/
Now you have Sarah Palin. Enjoy…
@ J.Borg
Truer words were never spoken.
@T. Saliba
I reckon you aren’t a big follower of American politics or a big big follower of Maltese politics for that matter because if you were you would definitely know that if there is one Maltese party that is similar, in essence, to the Republican party, it’s by all means the PN.
“The survey also failed to factor in that people in Malta usually live at home until they get married. This means that even if mother doesn’t work, Kevin, Sharon and Susan do. So there are often four incomes in a single household and yet that household still struggles to pay the bills. “
I find that so striking here. So often you find a family where they – as stated in the survey – don’t make ends meet. The father would drive a rust-bucket hardly worthy of scrap metal and wearing shirts picked up from the Birkirkara market. Yet every Sunday there is a roast of top-class meat, the children’s wardrobe is made up of the most exclusive brands and each of the kids drive a new car.
I can’t understand why a 19-20 year old can’t pitch in to the household, once they are out of school and earn their own money. “But it’s the only time in their life they’ll manage to live well and not pay bills” is the usual lament by the parent, who then go on whining about the high cost of living.
Brilliant article, Daphne, and right to the point, although I think these selfish brats do deserve a bit more paragraph space.
Another problem with this is that they are not prepared for the real world!
After living at home while earning a salary but not paying any bills, other then perhaps their car loan, they get married, move out and suddenly realise that besides the car loan they have to pay the mortgage, utilities, food, etc. And that’s before children arrive.
I suspect that ‘shock’ is also a big cause of failed marriages.
A true case I know of is that of a couple who got married and agreed to split all bills 50-50. It worked fine until baby came along.
The mother had to take some unpaid leave for a while after the child was born. Mr. Hero just could not see why his salary was now also his wife’s (and child’s) income. They split up. This was six years ago.
Daphne, I couldn’t agree with you more about the Labour Party. Have you ever noticed that the dynamics of our political system are more similar to those in America right now, as opposed to those in our European counterparts?
We have one party which is corrupt to the core, marginally forward looking, and which no one really likes, opposed by a mob of pathological liars, illiterates and raving lunatics who are pandering to the worst elements in our society, while still recovering from the brain-drain they suffered decades ago.
Honestly, is it too much to ask that we have two political parties, rather than a political party and the tilqiet someone left at the bottom of the pot?
How poor is poor? Most of those sounding the alarm bells have giant vested interests in convincing us that there is a problem. I’m referring to the assorted legions of sociologists, “youth workers”, social workers, commission for this and that, the works.
I’ve just been helping someone fill in a pensions application form. He will become eligible for a retirement pension in November. He has been working uninterruptedly in an unskilled position since 1970. His gross salary is €890. As from November he and his wife will be one of thousands of couples is Malta who subsist on a pension of just under €600 every four weeks.
Poverty is, of course, largely an invention of the assorted legions of sociologists, youth workers, social workers sundry commissions, the works.
[Daphne – You are right about that pension, but the poverty of old-age pensioners is considered separately from the poverty of the working population. That is standard practice.]
“But then it is quite obvious – to me, at least – that our Labour Party is right-wing conservative, and as far from liberal or left-wing as it is possible to be.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La_Destra_logo.jpg
Well done Daphne
Another true précis on the situation here (in Malta) …. and how it works in the real world!
Hey, thought you would also write something to air your views about the necrophilia incident too, today. Ilni nistenna ha nara kif tahsibha int. Probably you never believed a word of it, like me, and disregarded it completely.
However, I must admit, that I just could not sleep well after reading about it. And I am of a certain age, so imagine much younger people. Whoever got this going must be truly sick in the mind. Nauseating, to say the least. Thanks and goodnight.
[Daphne – It’s an urban legend that’s done the rounds in several other parts of the world already. At the outset, I thought it was the usual gossipy rubbish – bored people giving themselves a much-needed thrill. The major clue? That the woman whose man cheated on her with a corpse in the morgue had contracted a……disease that caused her flesh to decay, with the presence of maggots. Obviously, there are some people out there who think you can catch putrefaction and pass it on. Nor do they seem to know that the morgue is covered by CCTV – so unless we speaking porn videos involving corpses, with the entire Mater Dei security staff in on the act, I just don’t know how people can swallow – oh dear – these things.]
I think the main problem with this survey is the utter ridiculousness of it all – as if asking someone whether he finds it difficult to pay his bills on time is in any way scientific?
First of all, there is always a political bias involved – such is life in Malta.
Secondly, we have a knack for complaining. This does not mean we are ‘poor’. People on average (or above average) incomes may complain about paying bills…who doesn’t? This is no indication of poverty.
Likewise, someone who can afford much less than the average person may in the survey not complain about struggling to pay his bills – maybe despite not being well-off, he just pays them and gives up other things and gets on with it. According to this survey, he is not ‘poor’. The above-average income earner is, just because he happens to complain more.
Unfortunately the argument over poverty always ends up becoming emotional, when it is simply an economic argument and requires logic, numbers and rationality.
Poverty levels should not be checked on such absurdly biased and emotional grounds.
Checking the mean income would be a good start. Then the median to check the skewness, i.e. is most of the money coming from the richer segments or is it more evenly spread out? Then check the price of electricity consumption (how much a kilowatt per hour costs or whatever they use to measure it), then the price of other basic goods for survival.
Then you have a much better idea of the level of poverty across countries.
My thoughts and feelings precisely. When are Maltese women going to wake up to the fact that they can never achieve equality if they have to rely on their husbands for the food on their plates and the clothes on their back. Money is power after all.
Single-income families will not survive in any economy, and not just in Malta. In fact it is amazing that there are still so many single-income families in Malta and somehow they still get by.
Can we have a survey on how many went on Mediterranean cruises in 2009?
Once again another article that does honour to your logical thinking and outspokenness. Some people, amongst them members of the clergy, are using the poverty issue to hit at the government.
Of course, poor families do exist and I would say all of them are getting help in the form of allowances and other benefits (enough?). But they need to help themselves as well.
Again some people because of many circumstances are not able to budget properly and so find themselves in the red most of the time. On the other hand, some so-called poor are self-made poor in that they have withdrawn their money from the bank to be able to claim existing government subsidies.
During one election campaign one woman claimed that under the PN government she was so badly off that she could only afford to visit Sicily once a year. How’s that for poor?
Maybe all the Jesmars and Claytons of this world have all the money – you know, family-size 10,000 euro hatchback with 2,000 euro technicolour puke spray job, 2,000 euro worth of ‘rimmijiet’ and tyres plus obligatory in-your-face 1,000 euro sound system with accompanying crap music. Too fast, too furious wannabees? Maybe, but closer to farce and too spurious.
Does anyone else receive email newsletters from Labour communications ([email protected]) without having ever subscribed to this service? What can I do to make them stop sending me emails?
The latest one is: “Lawrence Gonzi jghid li l-faqar huwa fl-immaginazzjoni tan-nies”.
They have to have an opt-out clause, either via an automated link, or by reply. If they don’t they are sending it illegally.
Just have a look on the posts on timesofmalta.com regarding screening of World Cup games; this is my comment:
Anthony Farrugia(9 minutes ago)
Yea, the “jew b’xejn jew xejn” attitude is still alive and kicking in Malta 2010. It seems that many people think that watching World Cup, Premier League, Serie A, Champions League, or what have you for free is a God given right enshrined in the constitution. Wake up all, the era of free lunches is dead and buried.
Please let me tell you how most of the non-working women spend the day in Qormi. I remember this very clearly. I hope that the situation has changed.
Flirting with the grocery guy or the vegetable vendor. You could see women glued to the counter or the truck.
After taking the children to school they spend an hour or so by the school chatting and gossiping.
Waiting for the hairdresser to open the salon (appointments didn’t exist) and for the grocer-shop to open so they could be the first ones to find milk. Grocers used to get a very limited number of milk bottles/cartons so if you wanted milk by 6.30 you had to be waiting.
There were those who spent every minute of the day at their parents’ house. They might as well not have married.
The ones who had a booked chair in certain shops. It happens that these ladies keep company to the shop owners.
After taking children to the Muzew, they don’t go back home, but hang about outside the building discussing the Junior Lyceum exams.
Collecting money door-to-door for the festa and the street decorations.
While writing this message I could also think of the frustration these women lived through. All they needed was company and attention, something their husbands couldn’t offer them because they were either working part-time as bakers, waiters etc. or working overtime till dawn.
Doing “nothing bar a bit of dusting and cooking” would not be disgusting but meeting inside the corner shop/on the pavement outdoors to gossip and to interfere in other people’s private lives is low and degrading making those women, poor they, miss so much on life.
Even worse are those who enter bingo stations/lotto booths and stay there wasting their little money on tombola/the relatively new gambling games on the booths’ monitors.
Very often this kind of woman tries to get away with the excuse that there are no jobs. If only they were to accept the fact that the only thing they can do is housework, and that this is nothing to be ashamed of, it would be easy for them to be employed by other women who in their turn are in employment.
I understand your point but there is value in taking care of the kids and the home and especially when the kids are young the work load is substantial. We are a young family with young children and we both work, but we have made work arrangements to be with the children as we feel that they need us around.
This year my wife and I were trying to juggle jobs, education and the family and we were going nuts. We noticed that the kids started feeling that we had little time for them and you immediately see the difference. I think that up to a certain age the children take priority over your job and therefore one of the parents needs to give up at least some of his work hours to take care of the kids.
Another point I would like to make is about the issue of money giving you choice. I agree that it does but choice is not the most important thing in life.
[Daphne – Yes, it definitely is, and you have illustrated this point yourself. If you and your wife had lots of money that came through a source other than work, then you would have the choice of staying at home and there wouldn’t be all those worries about the children. It’s because you don’t have choices that things are stressful.]
Having a life is important, having a healthy relationship between the family members is also very important, having time for the kids is important etc. My point is that whilst having more money and hence choice is positive, having less money and more time for each other is also positive – obviously if you grumble about it then you are obviously not happy with that arrangement but I think we all grumble much more than we should.
Last point. I saw the previous post about same-sex marriages and it is jam packed with comments whilst this is empty – maybe people are posting comments but they are not being moderated at the moment but if this is the case then I think something is wrong!
[Daphne – They weren’t uploaded because I haven’t had the time. ]
While driving and flipping through radio stations I heard a presenter asking a woman caller a simple question about the World Cup. She blurted out the often-heard phrase: “Ha nsaqsi r-ragel ta!”. And that reminded me of this article.
If she knew the questions were about the World Cup and she didn’t know anything about it, then why did she call? But other than that, this is an example of those many ‘old fashioned’ housewives who cannot think for themselves. They depend on the husband’s pay cheque as much as they depend on his brains.
Here are some of the rich moments I’ve had today that had nothing to do with money:
x Listening to music I love which brings back happy memories.
x Spending time with my friends, just having fun.
x Taking a walk along the sea from Spinola Bay to the Strand and back at 6 a.m.
The Old Proverb says, ”if you want to feel rich, just count the things you have that money can’t buy”
What about those women who, when they get through to a radio station, say “Ejja Joey”. They would have spent ages dialling and holding on just so that their husband can give his pearls of wisdom to the nation.
She would never have thought of telling him to get through to the radio station himself if he wants to speak.
Daph, well said. We’re on the same page on this. On a similar note, allow me to extend my indignation towards those university students who selfishly expect to receive a monthly pay cheque simply and only because they are students.
As if being a university student is in itself worthy of some kind of veneration from the community or something. In advanced countries, students are expected to dish out top dollar for their own education.
In advanced countries receiving a service for free is already unthinkable never mind getting paid for it. I put our university students on the same level of the voluntarily unemployed who complain and expect to get paid (by the government or their spouses) for providing no or little service in return. Go out and find yourselves a job, you leeches!
Mal-hazin jehel it-tajjeb, lejborist
@Il-lejborist – why must we always try to make it seem like things in Malta simply because they are not like that abroad are bad or wrong? The stipend was a great incentive to motivate young people to continue their studies and a great ploy by the government to ensure that the earnings (and eventually taxes paid) of the workforce are higher. IT was a great idea which was a win-win situation.
@All others mocking poverty. Shame on you all – Daphne made a few valid points yes, but restaurants full up does not indicate that there is not any poverty here, Plasma TV etc do not indicate that there is no poverty!
Many people working in the financial sector, banks, civil service,gaming industry are well paid and are not poor, but there are many, and I know many myself, who really and truly are finding it hard to cope.
There exist conditions such as ADD, ADHD, panic attacks, anxiety attacks, bi polar etc which wreck peoples’ lives and which make it next to impossible to hold onto any decent jobs.
If one had to try to look into the numbers above, you would be alarmed to notice how widespread these conditions are.
One point you missed out on Daphne is that there is a vast difference today between when we were on our parents’ payroll and today’s generation.
At least I find that in my time most kids at age 16 left school and became employed full time – this immediately released a huge burden from the parents’ shoulders as most of us had a decent income to get by with, buy our first car, pay for fuel, insurance, clothes, outings etc
TODAY MANY KIDS REMAIN BROKE (EXCEPT FOR THE ODD JOBS THEY GET HERE AND THERE) UP UNTIL THEY ARE 23ISH – THIS IS A MASSIVE 45% LONGER DEPENDENCE THAN OUR PARENTS HAD WITH US – NOW CONVERT THAT X 3 OR 4 KIDS AND YOU HAVE A LIFETIME!
Modern lifestyle basic needs to exist have quadrupled. When we were kids such expenses as internet, mobile phones, private lessons, etc etc were not a basic expense – today they are and without you can possibly not expect any kids to lead a normal life – now whether I agree with this lifestyle or not is another matter – but that is reality.
So whilst one may possibly not call us parents poor – WE ARE STRUGGLING and at a time in our lives that we would rather be slowing down rather than having to increase our workload. It’s called being a responsible citizen and giving your kids a normal start in life.
Please do not write that in other countries kids leave home at 16 – 18 to go live on their own bla bla bla.. why should we take other countries’ garbage ways and change our good ways.
I would like to see a survey and see which model old traditional Maltese family-style love, care and bonding vs the new modern let them leave, live on their own, do their own laundry etc style and see from which branch the stronger families are born. Always remember we reap what we sow.
Povety exists in Malta like it does in other EU countries. Surveys point out that around 15 percent of EU citizens in Europe are “under the line.” Interestingly the same figure is found in Malta.
Poverty is a serious issue and the term itself is controversial as it is mainly seen relatively rather than absloutely. Of course in the 21st century we think of many goods and services which most people take for granted as being essential. Computers, phones of all types, TVs, fridges were not considered essential in even the most advanced countries 60 years ago. This was either because some things hadn’t been invented or that they were too expensive for all except the very richest. Now we all think we have a right to it, just like education and health. And this is no bad thing, by the way. But for various reasons (and that is a major essay on to itself) not everyone is in a position to acquire all this.
Culturally, Malta has yet to become a modern state, but economically, give or take some bits and pieces the country has arrived in the 21st century. So many want the things that a modern economy provides but are unable to solve the problem of how (legally) to go about in getting these goods and services which a modern economy can provide.
Tradition is stll very strong in these islands. EU membership has served to make Malta stick out like a sore outpost. No divorce, senseless censorship, gross xenophobia and general limits on civil rights sleep easily with the macho culture (blessed by the Church) which doesn’t want women involved outside the home, Many women sadly accept this limit but at the end of the day its men who have the power to dictate, so we must be very careful in simply blaming all women for “not working.”
What is telling is back in the 1960s when so many men and women left Malta to seek better lives in countries like Australia and Canada – rich countries where the average wage and standard of living was much higher than Malta’s – most Maltese women joined their husbands and went out to work! Ironic isn’t it.
Emigrate to a country where wages were much higher and both get a job, stay in poor Malta and only the man works!