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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2017 Opinion 24 Paediatricians say child abuse cases in Malta are revealing a worrying trend, despite the number of recorded cases having slightly decreased last year. Writing in the Malta Medical Journal, paediatricians Simon Attard Montalto and Mariella Mangion say child abuse has become an "ever-increasing prob- lem" in Malta, and that eradicating it remains "extremely difficult" – almost as difficult as changing human nature itself. According to statistics from the non- accidental injury register (NAI), child abuse cases increased steadily in ten years between 1993 and 2003, reaching close to 1,800 cases in 2003. But an increasing realisation of the problem, and following a period of under-diagnosis of non-accidental inju- ries, child abuse reports and services for child abuse have increased. And although child abuse cases have gone down to 1,200 last year, the doctors say the increase "remains real and is the result of many predisposing phenom- ena", including family break-up, increase in unwanted pregnancies, parenting pressures, daily 'stress' and crime, espe- cially where drugs come in. There were 6,442 reports of child abuse recorded by the national welfare agency Appogg between 1993 and 2006, affecting boy and girls mainly aged 6-15. These only represent 30 per cent of all cases, the rest being reported by rela- tives, other agencies, schools and police. Preschool children however make up 12 per cent of all cases. Attard Montalto and Mangion said children suffered all sorts of injuries, such as pinch marks in the breast area, lacerations, and bruises on the limbs. Other injuries include multiple cigarette burns, immersion burns, broken robs, and even cerebral and eye haemorrhag- es. In one of the more horrible examples, the doctors write, some injuries "virtu- ally advertise NAI… the infant present- ing with a large, triangular-shaped burn on the buttocks with the name Rowenta embossed within," with reference to burns suffered by an iron. The doctors said prosecution of abus- ers was dependent on a thorough exami- nation of all injuries. "This will prove invaluable in a court of law… Ultimately, a conviction is highly dependent on the accuracy and reliability of the medical testimony." National statistics show physical abuse comprises one-third of all cases, with a lower incident of neglect and abandon- ment cases (24%). Sexual abuse comprises 17 per cent of all cases. In Malta, girls are five times more likely to be sexually abused than boys although many cases involve young school or preschool children who may delay, or even not report the event at all. According to Attard Montalto and Mangion, penetration of the genitals is unusual and external physical signs rare. "Victims may present with inap- propriate sexualised or precocious be- haviour, mannerisms of speech, general emotional liability and regression in schoolwork, whilst physical signs are often absent." Children placed in foster care, gener- ally preferably to residential care, have also gradually increased, from just 27 children in 1997, to 185 in 2005. But the figure remains low compared to those placed in residences, which totalled 425 in 2004, and 282 in 2005. "The small size of the country makes anonymity of potential foster carers dif- ficult to uphold, accessibility by (often) violent parents is far too easy, and lack of appropriate support and more impor- tantly protection, including police over, further discourages potential foster carers." Doctors say child abuse becoming 'ever-increasing problem' 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. News – 22 September, 2007 Changes to Maltese SBS service It is of course encouraging to see that Australia's public service SBS has introduced seven new languages, including Rohingya, Tibetan and Telugu to its pro- grammes. The upshot is that oth- ers are being discontinued after a review of the services. I speak for friends of mine who as migrants to Australia have already protested at the recent decisions to cease funding of Maltese language programming on SBS radio. As has been said before, this parsing of community program- ming fails to see the very needs of the Maltese community, for it incorrectly gives more weight to its size – as if the bigger the community the larger its radio audience. The Maltese Community Councils of NSW and Victoria have already said before that the management of SBS Radio and their criteria for distribution of language programme time on SBS should include specific com- munity needs and not merely the size of the non-English speaking date from the census. Today, we are seeing changes aimed at reflecting the evolving needs of communities in Aus- tralia today, where almost five million speak a language other than English at home. The SBS Radio Services Review takes into consideration the population of a language group, English-language proficiency, recentness of arrival, age and household resources where all factors are involved. It is interesting, to say the least, that SBS is now introducing Telugu, Karen, Tibetan, Hakha Chin, Rohingya, Mongolian and Kirundi. Telugu is spoken by 74 million people in India, which has however a very young com- munity in Australia, almost 75% of whom are not older than 54. It seems here that older Maltese migrants are given short shrift. Consider that, under this lat- est review, 12 languages will be discontinued, namely Kannada, Tongan, Norwegian, Cook Island Maori, Fijian, Swedish and the African programme, an English- language programme. Lithu- anian, Malay, Latvian, Danish and Maori have been in recess for the last 12 to 18 months and will also be discontinued. Turk- ish and Croatian languages will reduce from five to four hours of programming per week, while German will reduce from seven to five hours a week. Hungarian, Bosnian and Albanian will also reduce to one programme per week. I understand that trimming has to be made, but maybe this should come from a reduction of the overgenerous allowance to the larger ethnic groups. Martin Cuschieri Paola God's design is not always clear to us They say nothing in life is certain except for death and taxes; but if you are John Guillaumier that's not strictly true. His letters inevitably crop up periodically in all English language papers. This same shuddering disaster was also mentioned in your paper on Immaculate Conception day 2013. Everyone knows that along with heresy, we can expect calami- ties any moment. The popula- tion of the world will never see peace this side of heaven. When an earthquake flattens a region in India, or a drought hits an African country or a tornado rips through a state in America, this is more than barometric or climatic change. The universe is passing through the final hours before delivery because nature is a pregnant creation. Painful con- tractions are in the forecast. For this reason and through faith this catastrophic disaster of Lisbon does not impress me because we have been warned in the Bible about 14 times "to watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord is to come" (Matt. 24:42) and "watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour (of death or of judgement or of the coming of the Son of man" (Matt. 25:13) Jesus's advice in such circum- stances can also be found in Matt. 24:6-8. The existence of pain, suffering and death (sudden or prolonged) are indeed powerful accusations against a loving God but the marvellous power of the Cross has worked wonders with those who follow him throughout the centuries and helped them go for- ward through the Jordan of our mortality to the Promised Land of the Living. There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win. The greatest tragedy in history, the death of Christ on the cross, resulted in the best thing that could happen, the opening of heaven to human beings. But that is too difficult for cyn- ics to understand because they are myopic and their diehard reluctance to embrace faith in Christ and his words prevents them from seeing the deep sense of things and events. I reiterate my heartfelt advice to Guillaumier to start reading books of Christian inspiration, written for the intellectual, the doubter and the inquisitive, all these qualities he certainly pos- sesses, and may be the first sparks of faith are ignited in him. If he finds it, "In the end, com- ing to faith remains for all a sense of homecoming, of picking up the threads of a lost life, of respond- ing to a bell that had long been ringing, of taking a place at a table that had long been vacant". (Malcolm Muggeridge) John Azzopardi Zabbar