Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/519957
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 31 MAY 2015 Opinion 25 hinges on a glaring injustice (as all good Western plots should). It has already been observed that this single incident alone exposes the sheer nakedness of the double standards in Maltese law enforcement. The immediate neighbourhood is littered with often highly obstructive 'extensions' to local cafes and restaurants… yet when it came to clamping down on this sort of offence, they only removed a lone cowboy who never got in anybody's way. Now take a step back and look at the picture from the national perspective, and other classic Western motifs swim into view. Elsewhere, we have allowed entire towns to mushroom without any form of 'permit' whatsoever. The Armier boathouse village, for instance. Like Tombstone, Arizona, it is an entire town that exists entirely beyond the reach of the law (in this case, the Malta Planning Act). Did we send out posses of police and MTA officials to evict the outlaws? Heck, no. We actually connected the entire village to the grid… thus indirectly acknowledging another reality that underpins nearly all those old movies: it is perfectly possible to be on both the wrong side and the right side of the law at the same time. But as we can all see, some outlaws are tolerated and even encouraged, while others are stalked and eventually shot at high noon. Yet another classic Western motif: all can see the injustice, yet everyone looks the other way. They know they are powerless against the combined strength of the true outlaws and the Sheriff 's office... And what better way to get the plot moving, than to make an already blatant injustice even more glaringly visible… by arresting the 'good guy'? Lonesome Cowboy Bill: the guy we all liked, the one who just smiled idiotically by the roadside without troubling a soul… in brief, the one subliminal embodiment of self-mandated justice, in a world where there is no other kind… Forget 'Dances With Wolves'. This, I promise you, will be the blockbuster that'll bring the Western genre back into fashion. And I'll be there to see it happen… Ah, but how would the movie continue? If it were directed by John Ford, let's say? Well: we have a cowboy we all know to be a 'good guy' already in jail over a minor offence… the town is overrun by deputies and marshals who are characteristically tough with the weak and weak with the tough... everyone can see through this naked travesty of justice yet no one actually ever refers to it in any way… Hmm. Clearly, a shoot-out at the OK Corral would create more problems than it would solve. Just ask Manuel Mallia. So I guess that rules out Ken Russell. A young idealistic lawyer-type might be of use, however… Jimmy Stewart would be able to turn Lonesome Cowboy Bill into a cause-célèbre that would defeat the baddies on legal turf. Yes, that'd work… But if you ask me personally, I'd say this is a job for none other than John Wayne. Yep, that's right. Just ride in there out of nowhere, and knock a little sense back into a few heads the old fashioned way. Whack, whack, whack! That'll learn 'em. Oh, and it has to end with an explosion, too. A great big explosion that startles all the buffalo… I can see it now: 'The Ballad of Lonesome Cowboy Bill'. Trust me, this will sweep all the Oscars… T he Employment and Training Corporation will operate the concept of 'Open Data' by introducing proven technology which enables automatic matching of CVs (including skills and competences) with job vacancies; a career platform where each citizen can manage his/her own career. Moreover the ETC will also provide free screening of CVs by professionals promptly for greater employability. The new system being adopted by the ETC will allow both jobseekers and employers to have online, direct but confidentiality- secured access to all that on a 24/7 basis. In these past 25 years the ETC has worked successfully on EU Funded Schemes such as the Employment Aid Programmes (EAP) and the Training Aid Framework (TAF); indeed job retention rates after a period of three years still averaged the very satisfactory rate of 82%. But this was not enough and we have to implement several changes to rectify what does not seem to be working. For example, we seem to have a problem on Job placements – out of around 17,000 vacancies notified to it annually, the ETC only manages to place directly some 3,000 workers (18%). We have to enforce compliance as the public does not believe that the ETC effectively deters both locals and foreigners from working illegally. We must work on inclusion of persons with disability, ex-convicted persons and reformed abusers into Malta's workforce. On these issues we are at the bottom of the European league. I am confident that a sizeable majority of the less partisan among us will admit that the employment sector is generically 'headed the right way', with all segments of full- time employment other than agriculture and fishing showing satisfactory increases. Part-time employment has also increased consistently, almost exclusively within the female cohort. Unemployment is at record lows compared with European countries. But we cannot be complacent. We still need to get persons with disability into jobs, and former inmates of the Corradino Correctional Facility and those who have been substance abusers. We also need to ensure that the ETC moves with the times and becomes relevant for those seeking a job in the middle to high segment of the labour market. We must work hand in hand with the private sector and civil society: both for job placement and for training. Malta's labour market would further benefit from a re- birth of a fresh, client-friendly national employment specialist service agency remodelled from the ashes of the second- rate bureaucracy that the Employment and Training Corporation became over a period of 25 years. This is a ground breaking and comprehensive reform. We now have a young team coupled with the input of mature and experienced personnel. It is very much 'work-in-progress' at ETC and I am convinced that we will continue to register progress on the tangible service improvements that the corporation's users have already begun to talk about. Evarist Bartolo is Minister of Education and Employment owboy Bill Evarist Bartolo Ground-breaking reform at the ETC We need to ensure that the ETC moves with the times and becomes relevant for those seeking a job in the middle to high segment of the labour market The ETC must move with the times and become relevant for those seeking a job in the middle to high segment of the labour market