Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1509678
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 OCTOBER 2023 COMMENT The Skinny Malta, shrunk down EDITORIAL The Left's Hamas dilemma PAGE 2 JULIA FARRUGIA-PORTELLI Reforming the personal assistance scheme for persons with a disability PAGE 6 A series of caves in Xaghra, where human remains that may date back to prehistoric times were discovered, face the threat of destruction DAWN ADRIENNE SALIBA | PAGE 12 What are we skinning? The new bill - announced by Minister Owen Bonnici ear- lier this week - that would allow 16-year-olds to run as mayor in Malta and Gozo. Why are we skinning it? Be- cause it's one of those polit- ical proposals that just lends itself so beautifully to satire that it barely requires any effort on our part to justify or bring to its comedic fore. So this edition of The Skinny should roll off the tongue, then? Nothing is rolling off my tongue anymore these days. It's just become too rough... As a result of our acerbic satirical appointments, no doubt. Yes, those can make one quite jaded, given the chance. Hence why a young mayor could be a tonic for such cynicism. On the face of it, yes. That's an argument one can make. That fresh faces make for fresh voices? Considering that acne is an issue plagu- ing plenty of teenagers, I'm not too sure about 'fresh faces'. You get the idea, though. Sadly yes. It's the cliche no- tion that younger automati- cally means untainted. But tainting is kind of what we do in Maltese politics, don't we? With local coun- cils being hotbeds of can- vassing and sloganeering yes, one would imagine that any sense of political inno- cence would soon be blot- ted by one form of impurity or another. Isn't your line of thinking kinda... reverse-ageist though? I don't want to im- ply that 16-year-olds are fundamentally incapable of performing challenging tasks or taking on leader- ship roles in the correct and appropriate context... Really? 'Cos it kinda sounds that you are. But there are reasons why we don't let them consume alcohol, or drive, before they reach a certain age... Well, some adults do both of those things at the same time, to fatal effect. You're right, and I'm sure that there are youths out there who are far more sensitive than their elders. But there's a polit- ical dimension to all this which we can't ignore. And what would that be? Relaxing the barriers to en- try for mayors means that the role is considered nei- ther sensitive nor complex enough. Also, my sixteen-year-old self would recoil at all the work and responsibility in- volved. Right? And imagine what it's like with social me- dia nowadays. Though to be fair, doxxing would be pretty ineffective. That's right. When your of- fice is known to the entire village, online vitriol loses some of its edge. Do say: "While youths should certainly be en- couraged to participate in the political process in different ways, a 16-year- old effectively becoming a figurehead for an entire town and taking ownership of the necessary political, legal and social elements that come into running it, doesn't quite bode well for any of the parties con- cerned." Don't say: "The contem- porary language of youths already sounds like alien speech to me... much in the same way that most tech- nical policy discussions in parliament already do, to be fair." No. 213 - Sweet Sixteen Sindku RAPHAEL VASSALLO It's not 'whataboutism', to recognise that there are two sides to any conflict PAGES 10 - 11 MICHAEL FALZON A case of mid- term blues? PAGE 7