Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/814533
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 APRIL 2017 26 Letters A report by European development and relief NGOs is expected to reveal the decrease in official development aid from EU member states, including Malta. Concord, the European confederation of development and relief NGOs, has stated that most EU member states are boosting projections of commitments to poor countries by "massaging" their aid figures. The NGOs say a total of EUR12.5 billion, nearly a third of EU aid in 2005, was spent on debt cancellation, housing refugees in Europe and educating foreign students in European universities, in- stead of giving new aid to fight poverty. Malta's official figure for aid to de- veloping nations was said to have been "over-inflated" by as much as 44 per cent in 2005, betraying claims that the island tops its Millennium Development Goals target to contribute as much as 0.17 per cent of its gross national income to poorer countries. Malta is expected to fall short of a target which the European Commission touted would have placed as the top ODA donor from the new member states in 2006 with 0.2 per cent of GNI in aid. Last year, Concord said Malta's aid had been "deceptively dou- bled" by the inclusion of its spending on refugees. But current aid rules set by the OECD allow European governments to include spending on refugees and foreign students in their own countries as ODA. In 2004 Malta contrib- uted Lm3,208,456 in aid to poorer countries, top- ping its 2005 target with 0.18 per cent of its GNI, ranking it first among new member states. But the figure included contributions to mul- tilateral organisations, countries, administration costs, but also exemption of tuition fees for students from countries eligible for ODA, and costs related to refugees and illegal im- migrants. It is expected that Malta's figure will include a cancellation of Lm2.8 million in Iraqi debt, part of its Paris Club commit- ments. Concord had stated that debt cancella- tion is just a matter of "cleaning up the balance sheets" and that the money is not moving "5,000 kilometres to Africa, but 500 metres from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Treasury." Following the release of aid figures for 2006 at a meeting of the world's richest countries at the OECD in Paris, NGOs from across Europe warned European governments over inflating their aid figures and failing to live up to their promises. Over 1,600 European NGOs united under Con- cord, criticised European governments for seriously inflating their aid figures for a second year in a row. They revealed that close to one third of EU development assistance in 2006 did not deliver any fresh resources for poor countries. "European governments are relying on large one- off debt cancellations to Iraq and Nigeria to fatten up their figures. This is short-sighted and it gives the impression that they are making more money available for poverty reduction than is really the case. Although some European countries are moving in the right direction, most will not reach the targets they set themselves unless major improvements are made," said Lucy Hayes from Eurodad, the European Net- work on Debt and Development. News – 25 April 2007 Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. NGOs warn against over-inflation of aid figures Banks lend depositors' money, not their own We refer to the interview with ReMax's CEO, Kevin Buttigieg, by Raphael Vassallo and published in your newspaper on 9 April. In his comments, Mr Butti- gieg made sweeping statements regarding banks' services to property buyers who approach them for a loan. We are surprised at such comments from a leading participant in a market which has grown throughout the years with the active and consistent backing of the banking industry, and we would have wished Mr Buttigieg to engage constructively with the industry to raise any relevant issues which may warrant discus- sion. The extent to which banks have been supportive of the mortgage market is clearly evidenced by the increase in lending for house pur- chases to no less than €4.3 billion as at February 2017 – up by al- most 50% over the past five years from €2.9 billion in February 2012. This has been achieved in a cautious and responsible manner, which Mr Buttigieg may view as being unduly bureaucratic. It bears reiterating, however, that banks are lending depositors' money, not their own funds, and must ensure that the risks they take when lending are reasonable and acceptable. Moreover, banks have a legal obligation to ensure, before approving a loan facility, that the customer has the means to repay such loan. Banks take this responsibility very seriously, and their prudent approach ensures that customers only borrow sums of money which they can afford to repay. James Bonello Secretary General, Malta Bankers' Association Good Friday processions Politicians must reflect Catholic faith A young Maltese priest wrote in a local newspaper that Good Friday processions "have gradually been transformed into exhibitions of power, vanity and self-affirma- tion". He could have gone one step further and said that these sup- posedly religious processions have been transformed into spectacles and shows, featuring Roman soldiers dressed to the hilt in their "Sunday best", including gold breastplates and flamboyant red plumes – on their way to a grim crucifixion. The rear of the pro- cession is brought up by barefoot "penitents", dragging heavy chains and wearing hoods. The priest wrote that there is an "exodus of hundreds of Maltese" to Protestant faith groups because they are angered and scandalised by these so-called "manifestations of faith". In fact, Protestant Chris- tians discarded these idolatrous displays centuries ago. The last time I attended a Good Friday procession was at Rabat in 1969. Some friends urged me to go with them. The procession was slow and tedious. Every 15 min- utes or so, a kitschy statue, with contorted limbs and a lachrymose face, came into view. The aesthetic horrors of Maltese devotional "art" were gradually revealed. I was so bored that I prayed to God: "Please, take me out of this backward country!" And God heard my prayer. A few months later I was on my way to a four- year stay in the United States, where so-called "Good Friday" is just another working day. John Guillaumier St Julian's Fr. J. Bernard S.J. used to tell his seminarian students that God will not punish us for our trespasses but for the things we should have done and did not. English novelist Anna Sewell also wrote that "My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt." This is the yardstick with which we should evaluate and select our future parliamentar- ians. We do not need political leaders who regard our Catholic religion as no longer central to cultural activity and do not instil more appreciation of the local Church's role. Maltese Catholic electorate please wake up and smell the coffee. John Azzopardi Zabbar