Mark Anthony Sammut

Today is the 25th anniversary since that dark day in 1986. I consider it as Malta's darkest day in history because it was the day in which our country witnessed Maltese arising against Maltese. While the riots against Monroy, the Great Siege, the uprising against the French, the Sette Giugno, the General Strikes of 1958, were all parts of a nation's struggle against oppressors, foreign rulers, and invaders, this was a fight between Maltese and Maltese, between a "tribe" and a "tribe". It was the day the police sided with criminals to try to stop a rightful mass meeting. Our country was on the brink of a civil war. We have progressed much since then. A lesson was learned. Thankfully, we have seen an end to the hate-incitement which prominent Cabinet members of the time used to spice up their speeches with, the continuous references to "us and them", and the "they-hate-you" brainwashing. Fundamental human rights, freedom of speech and ass

Months of training: - through early alarm rings; - through cold morning runs and sweaty summer sessions; - through injury, therapy, back to injury, and again therapy. But the moment of glory as you cross the finish-line, makes it all worth it. Especially since in one year, I managed to improve my total Malta Marathon Challenge time by 16 minutes. Ended last year at 3 hours 31 minutes, this year clocked 3 hours 15 minutes 20 seconds , moving from the 66th place obtained last year to 39th (and thus making it on the first page of the results sheet)! Just 20 seconds short of going sub 3:15...something to work for in 2012. There are some things no amount of money can ever buy. The feeling at the end of the Malta Marathon Challenge is one of them. P.S. A special word of thanks goes to my girlfriend Diane and my parents, not only for their constant support during the Challenge, but for their patience and understanding throughout the year. Thanks to Graham and Trevor for

The honoraria issue has been stretched and debated so much that no one is clear as who's getting what, what was retracted, how much is the increase. Figures are being thrown at random, the €500 being the one which has stuck. Now Joseph Muscat has promised that if elected, he and his Cabinet will do away with the "€500 weekly increase". So let's get the facts straight before the people start to clap. There were two decisions taken by the Cabinet at the beginning of the legislature. One was to increase the Parliamentary Honorarium (paid to all MPs) from €19,122 to €26,700, and the other was that Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries would start retaining their Parliamentary Honorarium on top of their Ministerial salary. Since then, the Honorarium increase has been retracted, and all MPs are still on the €19,122 annual pay. As the AG's report says, these decisions were neither taken transparently nor are they an example of good practice. And that's a big mi

Yesterday was the day when my friends and I finally received our Gold Award. After two years of dedicated commitment and challenges, but most of all fun, we had managed to fulfil all the Award requirements, and yesterday we could bask in glory as HRH Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and His Excellency President George Abela handed us our well-deserved Award certificates and the traditional GAH lapel pin. So today I just want to share a bit of information about what this Award is, and how it affected me. The President's Award is a self-development programme available for all 14 to 25 year olds. It is part of The International Award for Young People (a.k.a. The Duke of Edinburgh Award). In Malta, our National Authority falls under the aegis of The Ministry of Education and the Patron of the award is The President of Malta. The authority is there just to monitor and ensure that the standards of the award are being reached. The Award per se is not an organization, it is a programm

Personally, I tend to agree with many of the measures mentioned in the Budget speech, mainly the maternity leave extension, the new 'parent' income-tax computation, increase in children's allowance, more students' scholarships, the €300 grant to people over-80 years old, and the new schemes and measures to promote culture and sports (though one still needs to see how things like the help for music-learning at Band Clubs and the new secondary sports school are actually going to be implemented). I also support the continuous shift of taxation to pollutants, like the increase in registration tax for cars with emission standards below Euro IV and V, increase in excise duty on cigarettes and cement, and continuing the grant scheme for solar heaters, insulation and double-glazing rather than subsidizing electricity usage. Also welcome is the removal of the Television Licence anomaly, another electoral promise, which in reality was still being paid only by those who boug

I usually hate comparisons, but some very different reactions from the 'great unthinking' rabble do merit some analysis. In May this year, the notorious dog Star was found buried alive . A prima facie , this looked liked the most horrific case of animal cruelty, and is still considered so by some. The perpetrator was described by the sensitive and caring animal-lovers as a villain, a heartless monster, deserving of death, stoning, or even to be 'buried alive in the same manner'. But what did Mr. Vella actually do, according to the testimony heard in Court? Star was sick. It was shedding fur, and quite old already, and its owner did not afford the treatment. In trying to save some money from paying for the dog to be put to sleep and killed properly by vets, she gave it to Mr. Vella to have it killed himself. Nothing much to make people angry till now. Mercy-killing of very sick and suffering animals is widely done and usually acceptable. You may