Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/798939
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 15 MARCH 2017 4 News Maltese fourth most generous in the world JURGEN BALZAN MALTA sees more people do- nate more money for good causes than any other European nation, with 73% of those ques- tioned having given financially to charity in the last year. However, no European coun- tries appear in the top 10 for helping a stranger and Malta comes in at 86th from 140 countries. Once again, the 2016 study published by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) con- firms that while the Maltese are among the most generous when it comes to parting with their money, they are more fru- gal when it comes to giving up their time for voluntary work and helping strangers. In the overall rankings Malta comes in 16th in the World Giv- ing Index 2016, which includes data from 140 countries col- lected throughout 2015. Since its inception in 2010, the CAF World Giving Index has been based on three measures: Have you given money to a good cause; have you helped a stran- ger; or have you volunteered your time. Despite Malta being the fourth most generous in terms of donating money (down one place from 2015), the country ranked 86th when it comes to helping a stranger, and 36th when it comes to giving up time for voluntary work. While Malta dropped 13 places in helping foreigners, it gained 10 places in terms of voluntary work. For the first time on the CAF World Giving Index, more than half of people globally helped a stranger in the month prior to being interviewed, demonstrat- ing a positive movement in this measure of generosity. Encouragingly, participation levels for helping a stranger have increased across all lev- els of economic development, including transitional nations which, although still the least likely to help a stranger, have seen an upwards movement after a decline last year. In Europe, helping a stran- ger is the most common giving behaviour, with 44% of those questioned having done so in the past year, while 36% had do- nated money, and 19% had vol- unteered time. Overall, Myanmar was the most generous country for the third year running. The United States was second, making it the most generous nation in the western world, followed by Australia. Across all continents, except Oceania, helping a stranger is the most common way of giv- ing, and all except Oceania see one-year scores higher than their five-year averages – nota- bly Africa, Asia and the Ameri- cas. Last year all continents re- ported a positive differential between the current year and long term average for giving money, with the most notable differences being in Europe and Asia, which both increased by 5 percentage points. This year however there is no such pat- tern. For the second year in a row, Iraq ranks in first place for helping a stranger with a score of 81%. This is a two percentage point improvement on its 2015 score. The ongoing Iraqi civil war does not appear to have damp- ened the strong heritage of informal giving within Iraq's communities. Similarly, Libya, which was last surveyed in 2012, the year following the Ar- ab Spring, has also seen an up- shift of seven percentage points in that time, against the back- drop of an ongoing and bloody civil war. Whilst improvement in Iraq and Libya on the measure of helping a stranger seems ex- traordinary given each coun- try's security situation, it may be that their increasingly frag- ile civil societies coupled with greater need amongst the popu- lation is encouraging more peo- ple to be responsive out of sheer necessity. Barbara does not deny filing report against Bonnici CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 MaltaToday has learned that Bonnici and Barbara had a very heated argument during a meeting last week, which included a lot of shouting, name-calling, cussing and posturing. Barbara felt so threatened by Bonnici's actions and ver- bal abuse that he even filed a police report against the union's senior vice-president at the Hamrun police station at the end of the week, union sources have revealed. The animosity between the two candidates seems to have been further accentu- ated by the outgoing presi- dent's apparent endorsement of Bonnici. When he launched his can- didature last week, Bonnici held a press conference in Floriana, during which he was f lanked by a number of MUT council members who were openly supporting him. MaltaToday has also learned that union officials are trying to sidetrack the candidature, and that he has already received a formal letter of protest claiming his running in the election conf licts with the MUT's statute. The eligibility issue, in- cluding the altercation be- tween the two candidates, the police report and the perceived interference by Bonello were supposed to be discussed at a council meet- ing on Monday. When contacted, Barbara would not comment on what had happened, saying he was "neither confirming nor de- nying" the information ob- tained by this newspaper. Attempts to contact Bonn- ici and Bonello proved futile by the time we went to print. The result of the election is not expected to be known before the end of May be- cause of the complex elec- toral system which also al- lows members to cast their vote by mail. Martin Bonnici (L) and Franklin Barbara