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MALTATODAY 7 January 2024

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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 JANUARY 2024 OPINION 5 People beg for donations while public money is squandered Josanne Cassar THERE could not have been two more contrasting stories this week. On the one hand, it was re- ported that the Marigold Foundation, headed by Mi- chelle Muscat, spent €365,114 in undisclosed "expenses" over a period of four years. The last audited accounts submitted by the foundation showed that al- most half of all donations were spent on "campaigns, events and other operating expens- es". When a charity spends so much on expenses, rather than to actually help those in need, then something is drastically off. Even the word 'donations' is not quite correct because most of it seems to have come from government entities, in other words, our taxes. The very raison d'etre of this foundation is also rather airy fairy. According to the web- site: "Our objective is to posi- tively empower people and to work with them to raise stand- ards, support initiatives and strengthen voices." I'm not sure what that means in real terms, but further down it becomes slightly more ex- planatory: "We also address specific aspects of it, such as social behaviour, health issues, special needs and education." Again, that is still too opaque to justify what this foundation stands for. There is a whole section dedicated to social me- dia downloads of material re- lated to rare diseases (another of Michelle Muscat's pet pro- jects), including posters carry- ing vague slogans, videos and even Instagram filters. One visual claims "Rare is Strong! Proud! Many!". How this is supposed to ac- tually help someone with a ra- re disease is anybody's guess. There are school kits and in- fo packs and it goes on and on. All this costs money - so forgive me for pointing out the obvious but shouldn't the money spent on all this fancy, glitzy promotion be going to someone suffering from a rare disease instead? In complete and utter con- trast, there was the heart break- ing story of Shawn Mifsud, a father of two who was struck by tragedy in the prime of his life. Last August he caught a vi- ral infection which put his en- tire body into septic shock. As a result, at the age of 37, both his hands and both his legs had to be amputated. His shocking story quickly went viral as the family went public with a fund- raiser in order to raise enough money for Shawn to be fitted with bionic hands which cost around €200,000 (the simple prosthetics provided by the government do not allow him to have a wide range of move- ment). The public responded with a flood of donations but at the same time the question on everyone's lips was, why do people have to resort to asking for donations themselves in such cases? As the outcry grew louder, the Malta Community Chest Fund on Friday finally issued a statement that "contrary to the impression given on social media", it had already been in touch with the Mifsud fami- ly "to identify the kind of help that can be provided." While this is a positive step forward, it is still not quite clear how much they will be given and whether it will be enough. The issue here is that those who are genuinely in need of financial aid due to health is- sues often resort to raising the funds themselves because the money is often needed imme- diately. I understand that char- ities have a waiting list, and that there needs to be some kind of vetting system and that cases are treated according to their priority… but this is where the government needs to step in. And this is where the squandering of public money (as seems to be the case above with the Marigold Foundation) not only rankles, but is deeply unethical and scandalous. There are other aspects to charity fundraising which mer- it discussion. When we see the day long fundraiser for the MCCF known as L-Istrina which is held annually and tel- evised on all the major stations, the issue of who is donating so generously with big fat cheques also comes up. As rightly pointed out by Franco Debono on social media: "Today, our country celebrates the Nation- al Day of Hypocrisy. We spend our time convincing ourselves that we are a more generous people than others, or that we are more united than oth- ers when in reality we are just like any other people, with our good and bad qualities. Worse still, we think that by showing up with a cheque, our sins are forgiven... Going out and pos- ing with big cheques for the whole world to see, while evad- ing taxes, is not charity. Even those who genuinely want to do charity are undermined by this spectacular and theatrical format." He added that rather than this "fake charity", it is the state which should provide for seri- ous illnesses and make them a priority and not humiliate the sick by making them depend on charity. I can see his point, which was so starkly underlined by the case of Shawn Mifsud and others like him. When one is hit like a bolt of lightning out of the blue by a health issue which completely turns your life upside down, the financial blow can often exacerbate the anxiety caused by the illness itself. There should not be any need for begging or grovelling, but a proper system where cas- es are assessed accordingly and help is provided as soon as pos- sible. No red tape, no senseless bureaucracy or making peo- ple wait for agonisingly long months for a reply. There's no need to set up another fancy quango either, just a govern- ment department which uses staff from its already bloated list of civil servants. These are the type of worthy causes that most of us wish to see our taxes go towards - I doubt anyone would be- grudge $200,000 being given to Mr Mifsud (just to use his example). It is certainly more palpable than to learn of our money being thrown away to self-styled consultants (usually disgraced MPs who were forced to resign) who manage to wan- gle their back onto the public payroll through some fancy ti- tle and creative accounting. It really gets my goat to see these people still leeching off the public coffers just so that they are kept happy (and so they won't rock the boat with criticism of the current gov- ernment). Why don't they go get a job on their own merits like the rest of us? The tens of thousands they are earning each year (for what exactly?) which can easily run into mil- lions when taken as a whole, would be more than enough to help those in dire straits. It is high time this admin- istration understands that by keeping a few of its inner circle happy with such shameless- ly lucrative contracts, it has completely alienated a sizeable chunk of the population which is no longer impressed by its empty rhetoric.

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