Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/424604
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2014 22 T hree things happened recently, that – when placed together – seem to answer the eternal question of why certain issues seem destined to just never evolve at all in this country. Let's start with incident number one, which also involved the fastest U-turn in Malta's political history. Some of you may recall how, a few weeks ago, the PN's Convention of Ideas raised the issues of 'abortion and euthanasia' as possible topics to be discussed in future. Or maybe not: after all, the gestation period of this particular idea didn't exactly last very long. Within seconds of the announcement being made in the media, the Gift of Life Foundation – remember? the same NGO that had dictated government policy on women's rights under Lawrence Gonzi – issued a media release demanding to know whether the PN, under new leadership, was now reconsidering its position as a party sworn to "protect life from conception to natural death". 'Oh no', the PN hurriedly replied… and you could almost feel the panic in its response. 'We're still against abortion and euthanasia in all circumstances, everywhere. We just thought it might be a good idea to, you know, discuss about how anti we actually are. We could all take turns to express our absolute condemnation of abortion in the most absolute terms imaginable. It would be fun. But now that you mention it, it was a pretty silly idea. So tell you what: let's just pretend it never happened, drop the subject and never, ever talk about it again…' And there you have it. Discussion aborted, after around a day of pregnancy. So everything goes back to how it was before: no discussion, no reassessment of policy… just a blanket, fundamentalist absolutism of the kind you'd associate with radical, aggressive Islam. Oh, and also confirmation that the PN, even under its new leadership, still takes its orders directly from Gift of Life. But onto incident number two: Over on the other side of the House now, where the Labour government has just presented its budget for 2015… loudly boasting about its 'courageous decision' to tackle the 'scourge' of benefit fraud. And which category gets singled out as an example of shameful abuse? Single mothers, of course. Raising children on one's own, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna told us, was now a 'profession' in its own right. Not a very high earning one, it must be said: single mothers receive little more than €100 a month in benefits. But hey, that's a hundred euros coming out of our taxes! And it's being spent on a category of women who sponge off the welfare state by deliberating having children from 'unknown fathers'… thus robbing the Maltese state of a few million squids here and there. Well, I think we can all agree that 'courage' is needed to clamp down on a tiny minority whom everyone despises anyway… because they are mostly women, and we live in a country where women are valued just slightly higher than mosquitoes. But as I have had occasion to point out elsewhere, Scicluna's claims do not exactly stand up to scrutiny. Just this week, Family Minister Michael Farrugia gave us an indication of how much benefit fraud actually costs the country: "The Government," he said, "was set to save €3 million in social benefits abuse after 724 beneficiaries were stopped. He said that 1,281 inspections yielded 724 cases of abuse while other cases were being investigated…" We were not told how much of this fraud actually consisted in abuse of the single parent scheme… which accounts for a tiny fraction of the total €870 million expenditure on social welfare. What we do know, however, is that the number of single parents on this scheme in 2013 (nearly all women) was only around 3,400. And earlier statistics indicate that only around 20% of these claims were actually fraudulent. This puts things into a little perspective. Single mothers who fit Scicluna's description cannot realistically cost the country more than €1 million a year. Personally, I find it hard to believe that a country that can contemplate spending €1 billion to build a bridge between Malta and Gozo, can't afford to close an eye at the fact that one-thousandth that amount might be hived off the system by a tiny segment of the population. Especially when the same 'courageous' government not only ignores, but actually encourages much more costly wastage across the country's entire public expenditure landscape. In any case: put these two together – the opposition's aborted discussion on abortion, and the government's singling out of single mothers to be exposed to public opprobrium – and already a pattern begins to emerge. One side is determined to cut back on benefits to the category of woman most likely to experience an unwanted pregnancy; the other sticks religiously to a policy which criminalises the same women for taking matters into their own hands, and aborting the pregnancy themselves. And the rest of the country? Opinion Raphael Vassallo Let's discuss abortion. Oh no, Conrad.com.mt - Ordering Online is Easy sales@conrad.com | Tel. 0043 50 90 70 2000 facebook.com/conradcom twitter.com/conrad_com gplus.to/conradcom youtube.com/conradint A Technological Mission Our Technology. Your Celebration! Conrad Electronic is not responsible for any pricing, typographical, or other errors in any offer by Conrad Electronic or any of its subsidiaries. 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