Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/329964
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 JUNE 2014 Opinion 19 very dramatically indicated. Those same statistics, by the way, are available to everyone else in Europe. So of course, the entire European Union can instantly see that which seems to be invisible to Brincat and nearly all the rest of the Maltese population: i.e., the utter absurdity and gross hypocrisy of his government's cherished 'values'. And yet, a representative of the state with the most woefully inadequate female reproductive rights situation anywhere in the world has just boasted about how he lectured the rest of Europe on how to properly protect women's rights. And not only did he insist that our system is superior to everyone else's, in spite of its many manifest flaws… but he even threatened to obstruct the sustainable development goals project, unless the rest of the EU bows its head to Malta's higher wisdom. If that were not enough, the EU is also perfectly positioned to compare Brincat's posturing on abortion with all the other demands his government has made in recent years. For instance, the same member state which loudly proclaims its own pro-life credentials and 'moral values', is as we speak also fighting tooth and nail to retain its ill-gotten right to fleece gambling addicts of their cash through locally based international betting companies. Many of these companies were deliberately attracted to set up in Malta precisely because their own countries – notably France, that quintessentially European 'den of vice' – changed their legislations to clamp down on the uncontrolled theft that takes the legally acceptable form of online gaming. But morally upright Malta, of course, simultaneously relaxed its own gambling laws (which were once very strict, under a former Labour government) and amended its tax regime with the stated aim of cashing in on the resulting mad scramble for gaming money. The rest of Europe could also see (if it bothered to look) how our morally superior and unimpeachable little country has turned into a Las Vegas in the Mediterranean in other ways too. The same country which in Europe fights against women's rights on 'moral grounds', also permitted itself to be overrun with 'gentlemen's clubs' over the past few years… turning a blind eye to a glaringly conspicuous human trafficking racket which sees hundreds of young women, mostly economic refugees from eastern Europe, enslaved to the sex industry. Does moral Malta care? Oh no. Not as long as the sound of cash pouring into coffers can be heard in the background… Still, despite this apparent overdose of laughably misplaced and hypocritical moral piety, I for one don't think Leo Brincat fell into that magic cauldron when he was a baby after all. I think he must have polished it off in a single swig, before hurrying off to Brussels to make a grand clown of himself with the Council of Ministers… and I don't think we need to look far to discover exactly why, either. It was after all only a few weeks earlier that that other indefatigable and self-deluded Gaul in this comic book – Simon Busuttilix – accused Labour of not being 'absolutist' enough in opposing abortion in Europe. Politically, then, Brincat's fiery display of ultra-Catholic values had less to do with convincing Europe to change its sustainable development goals, than to make the purely political point that his party is every bit as extremist and inflexible on this issue as the ultra-Catholic PN: thus robbing the PN of what its leader evidently still thinks is an electoral asset in his favour. And this is at least consistent with Malta's attitude to abortion in general in one respect. Just as Brincat's posturing in Brussels ultimately had nothing to with female reproductive rights anyway – he was merely playing to the usual script that is expected of little Maltese politicians in the big EU – so, too, does Malta's abortion legislation have nothing to do with actually protecting foetuses. Every year, statistics indicate that a number of Maltese women abort overseas anyway… so as we can all see with our own eyes, abortion is absolutely fine so long as it does not take place here in Malta: you know, our special little island that has shielded itself from the realities of the wider world so successfully, and for so long. Meanwhile, those of you who remember the real Asterix comics will also remember how they always ended: with a giant banquet, in which the village bard Cacophonix is invariably tied up and gagged to prevent him from spoiling the illusion of a happy ending with a discordant song. No different here, either. This article does not stick to the usual formula when it comes to abortion, because its author is part of the tiny minority of pro-choice Maltese citizens who are sick and tired of the never-ending hypocrisy surrounding this topic. So if you carry on reading below, you can expect to find the usual plethora of comments, by the usual coterie of moral crusaders, that will defend this illusion of 'national unity' by simply gagging the bard who sings out of key. These Europeans are crazy… Malta lags behind in rights for the elderly Of course, the entire European Union can instantly see that which seems to be the invisible to Leo Brincat and nearly all the rest of the Maltese population: the hypocrisy of his government's 'values' M alta Business Bureau's Chief Executive Officer, Joe Tanti, unequivocally declared a year ago that, unfortunately, Malta lags behind its European counterparts in some categories, particularly in the employment of females and the elderly. This fact has become all the more evident from a United Na- tions backed study released seven months ago which examines the quality of life of the elderly in 91 countries, using different indica- tors to rank these countries by how well their ageing populations are faring. In this study Malta ranked a lowly 77th regarding the rights that older people have to employ- ment and education. This ranking was determined, among others, by the access of older workers to the labour market and their economic empowerment, and should serve as a warning to the government to eliminate discrimination against older people without undue delay in these specific fields. The study found that the em- ployment rate of the population aged 55 to 64 years in Malta is a mere 30.1%. This is considerably lower than the employment rate for people of the same age group in the 28 European Union (EU) states, which stood at 49.5% in June 2013 (Eurostat, 2013). Malta fares much worse against the United States and Japan where the employment rate for such an age group was 60.9% and 67.1% respectively in the third quarter of 2013 (OECD, 2014). Moreover, on average Europeans work 10% fewer hours than their US or Japanese counterparts. The existing high unemployment situation of older citizens in Malta is negatively affecting their sense of dignity and self-worth, apart from reducing their purchasing power and, consequently, standard of living. Besides, it is impacting nega- tively on the country's productivity and economic growth. Old-age dependency ratios in Europe are high when compared to other parts of the world. This ratio for the 28 EU states was 27.5 in 2013, with that for Malta standing at 25.1 in the same year (Eurostat, 2014). One must adapt to the reality that this high, old-age dependency ratio is creating a demographic deficit whereby the population of working age is insufficient to sup- port the pensions of the increasing proportion of older dependents. Conscious of the situation, as Minister for the Family and Social Solidarity, President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca declared that the main challenge in economic terms faced by the Maltese government for the future of ageing policy remains that of how to pay for people's retirement in view of the smaller working population that Malta is experiencing, which im- plies lower outturns. Given the potential impact of demographic change on the EU's capacity, as long as 15 years ago the European Commission had already outlined a broad European policy agenda for active ageing and pointed to the need for reforms of labour market practices to promote lifelong learning and training and ways of maximising labour market participation across all age cohorts. It had also expressed its support for the introduction of pension systems designed to allow flexible retirement options to curb early retirement. It is projected that by 2060 there will be only two people of working age (15 to 64 years old) in the EU for every person aged 65 and over, compared to a ratio of four to one today. The strongest push in this direction is expected to occur dur- ing the period 2015 to 2035 when the baby boomers, who were born in the two decades after World War II, start to retire (Eurostat, 2012). If the baby-boom generation were to adopt the present patterns of early retirement, with their sheer size they would greatly accentu- ate the old age dependency rate. Social security schemes could be overburdened and labour scarcities would be likely to arise in many areas and sectors. Way back in 1999 the European Commission had opined that it would be very wasteful to squander the contribu- tion of the baby-boomers through the continuation of current labour market practices, when these are probably the most resourceful, best-educated and healthiest gen- eration to date, and are thus ideally positioned to make the best use of the opportunities offered by gains in longevity. In 2002, the World Health Or- ganisation launched the concept of active ageing through a policy framework resting on three pillars: health, participation and security. A key goal of this framework was that of maintaining autonomy and independence for the older people by encouraging them to become more active and participate in society. This was followed by the launch- ing of the EU growth strategy in 2010, intended to be reached by 2020, that envisages the need for a major effort to meet the chal- lenge of promoting a healthy and active ageing population to allow for social cohesion and higher pro- ductivity. The Maltese government apparently adopted the same frame of mind by launching the national strategy policy for active ageing 2014-2020. An apt comment worth noting that was made at the launching of this policy by Franco Mercieca, the former Parliamentary Secretary for the Rights of Persons with Dis- ability and Active Ageing, was that, considering the projected steady decrease of the Maltese workforce, it is both absurd and immoral to alienate and exclude one quarter of the population aged 60 years and over on the basis of chronological birthdays. What is needed now is to move from words to action. Denis Tanti