100th anniversary of Dun Mikiel’s birth

http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=100419

“Dun Mikiel, il-habib ta’ kulhadd” (Dun Mikiel, friend to all) is the theme chosen by the Dar tal-Providenza for the programme of events marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Mgr Mikiel Azzopardi, founder of the Siggiewi residential homes for the handicapped.

Mgr Azzopardi was born in Valletta on 10 February, 1910. He founded the Dar tal-Providenza in 1965, fulfilling his dream to offer a home with a warm and family-like environment for persons with disability, who for some reason or other could no longer live with their own natural family.

The present homes director, Fr Martin Micallef, said that Mgr Azzopardi, together with other Maltese pioneers in this field, worked hard to dismantle the barriers that existed within Maltese society to enable persons with disability to enjoy equal opportunities. Notwithstanding the progress made, persons with disability are still experiencing obstacles that impede them from having total access to and full participation at all levels of society as well as in the Church.

Fr Martin expressed the wish that the sense of values, respect and dignity towards all persons whatever their abilities and disabilities, so much championed by Mgr Azzopardi in his time, would continue to inspire each and every one of us to create a more equal and inclusive society.

The programme of activities includes: The Inauguration and blessing of the Bitha Dun Mikiel (Dun Mikiel’s Courtyard) by Archbishop Mgr Pawl Cremona OP, at the Dar tal-Providenza on 26 January; the planting of 100 olive trees in the gardens of the Dar tal-Providenza by a group of volunteers from the Unita` Protezione Civile of Savona in Italy who will be in Malta for the occasion; a reception hosted by the Prime Minister marking Mgr Azzopardi’s contribution to Maltese society; an exhibition in the courtyard of the Ministry for Social Policy in Valletta, to be opened on Monday 8 February and later to be mounted also in Gozo; an edition of Bijografiji, to be broadcast on TVM on Tuesday, 9 February; the opening by Maltapost on 10 February of an office at the Dar tal-Providenza specifically to sell a commemorative card to mark the 100th anniversary of Mgr Azzopardi’s birth; a courtesy visit to the President of Malta at the Palace in Valletta, by residents, staff and volunteers of Dar tal-Providenza led by Fr Martin and the presentation of the ‘Dun Mikiel Award’.






The Independent

Wednesday, 20th January 2010

Pushing Power courses for mothers and babies
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=100422
by Annaliza Borg


Two hours of moderate physical activity or an hour of vigorous physical activity every week will reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by about 30 per cent.

With this in mind, Health Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar in collaboration with Cynergi Gym, yesterday launched ‘Pushing Power’ – exercise courses provided free of charge and intended for mothers and babies. The campaign underlines the importance of exercising after pregnancy.

It is also an opportunity for mothers to participate in activities with their babies and bond with them.

The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department is highlighting the importance of physical activity to decrease life threatening conditions including cancer. Exercise also improves mental health.

Physical activity, at any age, can increase the life span, regardless of any adverse inherited factors. It protects against a multitude of chronic health problems, including all forms of cardiovascular disease; helps regulate weight and improve the body’s use of insulin. Being active is beneficial for various risk factors including blood pressure, blood lipid levels, blood glucose levels and blood clotting factors.

The World Health Organisation recommends 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity five days per week, 20 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity three times a week, or an equivalent combination of moderate and vigorous intensity physical activity, for people in the 18- to 65-age group. This must take place in combination with eight to 10 muscular strengthening exercises at least twice-a-week.

Dr Cassar pointed out that exercise does not necessarily take place at fitness centres. Simple exercises help as well.

It is important for people to start exercising at a very young age and continue until old age even if they have mobility problems as this still improves their general well-being.

Charmaine Gauci, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department director said the more active you are; the more one can reduce health risk.

She explained that the department was working with a number of private entities to create exercise and fitness courses for the benefit of society at large.

Although not everyone would be able to attend fitness classes away from home, participants may empower others to exercise.

Dr Gauci also spoke on the importance of having qualified trainers.

A limited number of places are available for Pushing Power and those interested may contact the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department on 23 26-6000 23 26-6000 .



Times of Malta
Wednesday, 20th January 2010
61 persons repeatedly arraigned on prostitution charges
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100120/local/61-persons-repeatedly-arraigned-on-prostitution-charges
61 persons were arraigned for a total of 335 times last year on charges of loitering for purposes of prostitution. The cases took place in Ta' Xbiex Gzira and Marsa, Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said in Parliament.


Times of Malta
Wednesday, 20th January 2010
Further job losses forecast
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100120/local/further-job-losses-forecast
Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
The number of people without a job has risen dramatically over the past year and could grow further this year before stabilising in 2011, according to a report released in Brussels yesterday.
Still, Malta's unemployment rate of seven per cent remains one of the lowest in the EU.
According to the EU Employment Situation And Social Outlook, there were 7,588 registered unemployed last November. Of them, 6,801 were in Malta - a year-on-year increase of 15.9 per cent - and 787 in Gozo, an increase of 7.7 per cent over November 2008. This is a rise of 988 unemployed in one year.
"Like other EU countries, Malta is being hit by the global recession and one of the sectors where this is being mostly felt is the employment area," a European Commission official said.
"However, despite this increase, Malta is still faring well when compared to the other member states. The island still enjoys the sixth lowest unemployment rate in the EU, 2.5 percentage points lower than the EU average," he said.
Worryingly, however, the economic recession is expected to continue putting more workers on the dole this year.
According to the Commission's autumn economic forecasts, "Malta's unemployment rate could rise further in 2010, to 7.4 per cent, before stabilising in 2011 at 7.3 per cent".
During the 12 months to November 2009, the unemployment rate in Malta rose by 0.8 percentage points to seven per cent. However, the youth unemployment rate was almost double at 13.8 per cent in the same month, up 1.6 per cent on November 2008.
According to the Commission's report, the picture with regard to older workers is bleaker and Malta has the lowest employment rate for those aged 50 and over in the EU. In the second quarter of 2009, just 24.2 per cent in this age group were working.
"Even so, this age category seems to have been less affected by the crisis than the overall population as the rise in unemployment was only 0.5 per cent on the same period in 2008," the report said.
The employment gender gap was unaffected by the recession.





Times of Malta

Wednesday, 20th January 2010
Domestic violence reports up 25 per cent
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100120/local/domestic-violence-reports-up-25-per-cent
Reports of domestic violence increased by 25 per cent last year, reaching 602 cases compared to 477 in 2008.
This did not necessarily mean an increase in domestic violence but greater awareness by the public that such cases should be reported, a Home Affairs Ministry spokesman said.
The spokesman explained that 576 of the cases last year allegedly took place in Malta and the rest were reported in Gozo. The majority of the victims, 467, were women and 59 cases involved children.
In 2007, the Domestic Violence Services of Appoġġ Agency received 524 referrals and 479 cases were opened.
The incidence of domestic violence cases remains a cause of great concern for various organisations.
Last year, women's organisations joined forces to call for preventative action to stop domestic violence by offering help to victims and addressing the behaviour of perpetrators before it was too late.
The Social Policy Ministry's Commission on Domestic Violence also called on the public's help to expose abuse that went on behind closed doors. In its recent 2009 annual report, commission chairman Marceline Naudi announced that a fund to pay for private police protection was set up between Appoġġ and the commission.
The fund was aimed at offering protection to battered women and social workers accompanying them to court.
Violence against women is a universal phenomenon that persists and the perpetrators are often well known to their victims, according to the World Health Organisation.
The issue was highlighted last month when actor Charlie Sheen spent the better part of Christmas Day in a jail cell after being arrested over domestic violence claims.
Victims who feel at risk or in danger must tell someone - a trusted member of the family or a close friend - and seek immediate help and file a police report. They can ask for someone from Appoġġ's Domestic Violence Service.
Perpetrators, who want to seek help, can start by talking to their doctor or going to see a psychologist or psychiatrist who may refer them to the Perpetrators' Services of Appoġġ.
Appoġġ can be contacted on 2295 9000 or by dialling the freephone 179.
Police reports can be filed by the people involved or by third parties.


Times of Malta
Wednesday, 20th January 2010
Editorial
Standing up to bullying behaviour in school
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100120/opinion/editorialullying
Bullying is a fact of life in schools. But a recent, unusually serious incident in a Gozo secondary school, over which two girls are being charged with defiling a fellow student, put an uncomfortable spotlight on the phenomenon. The case was being probed by the education authorities and the victim has received counselling.
Bullying may have major effects on its victims, from a devastating lack of self-confidence that can last a lifetime to, in extreme cases, even suicide. Meanwhile, the worst perpetrators may go on to develop criminal tendencies.
A study involving thousands of students carried out about 15 years ago in state schools found that up to one in three children had experienced bullying, on the receiving end or as the aggressors. That statistic and its implications meant the issue needed to be taken seriously.
As indeed it was. Not too long after that study was published, the Ministry of Education issued a national policy and plan of action, outlining a set of procedures and measures that were to be followed by the Education Division and by schools. One of the fruits of that document was the setting up of a unit providing anti-bullying services, which has, hopefully, managed to bring down what can be considered as quite a high incidence.
One can't be sure of that, however. Not unless follow-up research using similar methodology to the 15-year-old study is undertaken. Given the number of young lives bullying can damage or ruin, it warrants no less. It would indicate whether the phenomenon is still as widespread, if the measures taken have been successful and if more resources need to be dedicated to the problem. Another question such a study should explore, given the technological advances of the last decade, is whether cyber-bullying - verbal and other forms of harassment via mobile phones or the internet - has become significant enough to require specific action. No doubt, its effects can be just as insidious as traditional forms of bullying.
Certainly, an important focus of any anti-bullying efforts should be the early years. Any work in primary classrooms and playgrounds probably goes much further than a similar amount expended in secondary schools because of the elements of prevention and "nipping it in the bud". One young child with bullying tendencies picked out and helped to change his/her ways early on would save misery for countless potential victims in the future. More effective by far than trying to deal with big bullies already set in their ways. One little picked-upon pupil taught to stand up to his tormentor by reporting him to a teacher is a small victory in the bid to instil a culture of no tolerance towards the phenomenon. For this is the only approach to take towards this abhorrent behaviour.
Parents have a vital role to play if they are educated to spot signs that their child is being subjected to constant humiliation in the school grounds. Parents of bullies are perhaps more difficult to bring aboard as denial, indifference or even, perversely, pride may prevent them from seeing what their child is doing as a problem and dealing with it.
And that's the nub. Bullying by other names is almost taken for granted in society, whether it's at the wheel of a car, inside the home, in sports, at the workplace or places of entertainment. Tackling it in school is a way to eventually reduce it among grown-ups.

Di- Ve
Wednesday, 20th January 2010
Prostitution on the rise
http://www.di-ve.com/Default.aspx?ID=72&Action=1&NewsId=68682&newscategory=31
There are either more prostitutes - or more reports on prostitutes, with a fourfold since 2006, according to figures released in Parliament.
In 2006, there were only 16 reports, compared with 61 in 2009, according to Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.

The same prostitutes get arraigned over and over again but even this trend seems to be changing. While a prostitute was arraigned an average of 15 times in 2004, the figure fell to 5 in 2009, possibly indicating that the Court is acting as more of a deterrent.

Di - Ve
Wednesday, 20th January 2010
3 times more domestic violence on women
http://www.di-ve.com/Default.aspx?ID=72&Action=1&NewsId=68681&newscategory=36

3 times as many women are the victims of domestic violence as men, according to statistics issued on Tuesday.
There were 602 incidences of domestic violence in 2009, according to Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, of which 430 were on adult women and 37 on female children, 113 on adult males and 22 on male children.

In replies to separate Parliamentary Questions posed by MP Noel Farrugia, Dr Mifsud Bonnici also said that there had been 185 reports of violence aimed at people aged over 60, and 108 cases of animal cruelty.

20 people were arraigned in Court on charges of cruelty to animals. The same information was not asked for in the case of domestic violence or violence on elderly people.