That public funded nursing aides, health assistants and care workers have decided to strike at the old people’s home of St Vincenz de Paule and all other hospitals, including Boffa, is one way of appreciating the wondrous ways of the General Workers’ Union.
I do not know what a nursing aide is supposed to do, but I do know that they are not qualified nurses, do not have the formal education of nurses, and in reality are simply glorified helpers and cleaners.
Cleaners and helpers in hospitals have obligations that go beyond the normal obligations of a chambermaid in a five star hotel. I have every respect for their work, but no respect for their strike action.
To leave an ageing person wallowing in excrement, urine and bedsores in their hot and dirty beds is criminal. And if the GWU or any other union expects us to understand it as a case of upholding the interests of their members, they should think again.
If you want to imagine a typical nursing aide or health assistant, you just have to imagine someone like Silvio Parnis, the Labour MP renowned for his intellectual contribution to the advancement of social democratic principles. I guess you have to look like Richard Gere with a tuft of gelled hair and a sleeveless vest to be a health assistant.
The strike got Louis Deguara got out of his long Snow White sleep and forgot for a minute his gargantuan effort to migrate to Mater Dei from St Luke’s and led him to hold a press conference to express his concern.
He then came out with a reasonable, simplistic proposition that my two–year-old budgerigar could have easily been prompted to suggest. Families, he said should help their bed-ridden relatives. How very interesting!
Deguara could have perhaps offered the services of his whole family to help out the hospital. After all when it comes to Naxxar, he and wife always offer their time to inoculate constituents for free. Yes, you heard right: for free!
I am sure if St Vincenz de Paule and its 1,000 patients were part of his constituency, he would be rushing to the hospital with a bucket and mop.
But of course, it is not Deguara’s fault that the GWU are calling a strike. I wonder if Tony Zarb, Gejtu Mercieca or Salvu Sammut have any relatives at St Vincenz de Paule or any other hospital. If keeping patients in squalor and dirt is not enough to prove that the union is irresponsible, the GWU goes one further and orders its members not to process medical files and X-rays and not to take appointments at health centres.
If I were the government I would bring in a new army of employees and replace the striking staff. That, in my view, is the only way to bring new work practices if they wish to run Mater Dei as it should be run.
If I were the Nationalist Party, I would take full political advantage of this GWU strike. Yet as things stand, the spin-doctors at the Stamperija prefer to send their minions on a wild TV camera chase looking out for militant peaceful labourites at a Gzira gathering of ageing Labourites.
If we really want to never see the GWU or the UHM or the MUMN or the MAM abuse their position in hospitals, then the government should include healthcare and hospitals in those public services which cannot be the subject of an directive of a union’s order.
It is about time they do this.

In last week’s Sunday Times, Joe Brincat, the Labour party’s former deputy leader responded to a story that appeared in MaltaToday’s midweek edition. The story talked about a presidential pardon Brincat had requested for the late Lorry Sant.
Brincat said what we had reported in MaltaToday midweek was an outright lie.
He said that he was not Lorry Sant’s lawyer, but it was John Vassallo, and that the magistrate was Magistrate Peralta, the former freemason.
He also said that the letter Joe Brincat had written to the cabinet requesting a presidential pardon for Lorry Sant should not have ever reached MaltaToday.
He asks Commissioner of Police John Rizzo to take note of what he describes as an infringement of the criminal code.
Well, just for history’s sake, it would be helpful to point out a few facts to Joe Brincat.
First of all, he was Lorry Sant’s lawyer as confirmed by Lorry Sant himself in il-Gens on 22 May, 1992. The magistrate was Apap Bologna not Peralta and the letter we referred to was distributed to the press on the 13 May, 1992: to be precise, by DOI press release number 620.
Next time Brincat wants to accuse anyone of being a liar, he should get his facts right and if he needs any reminding of his political life history I would be very happy to fill in on quite a few of them.

The recent book launch by Alfred Sant outlining the party’s vision for the future was interesting for it’s acrobatic display of somersaults.
For a minute I thought it was a sequel of the book ‘La Bidu u Lanqas Tmiem.’ But I was wrong, this is hardcore stuff about how Malta will change under a new Labour administration.
I am really looking forward to hear to what Labour’s bete noir Lou Bondi had to say about the lunch appointment with Alfred Sant.
Wonder of wonders, Mr Bondi was seated just right next to Dr Sant, even though Super One strangely made it very obvious that they were clipping him out of the picture.
I guess you have to have volumes of regurgitated abuse against Alfred Sant to get invited and sit shoulder-to-shoulder by the same politician.
Before you know it, expect to see Joe (Peppi) Azzopardi on Alfred Sant’s lap and Jason Micallef weaning him. Nothing is impossible in politics, and like the wind, it can be cool and fresh from the north and all of sudden hot and humid from the south.

I am intrigued by the absolute silence to the announcement that France will be selling nuclear technology to Libya’s dictator Colonel Gaddafi.
The country that does not even understand how to run a sewage system is now being asked to play around with the atom. I am sure the Israelis are taking note.
France as usual is making sure that it is a key player in the world of dictators and rogue states.
Remember Bokassa!
The former “mad dog” of the Middle-east is now the prime target for arms companies from Europe. The British and the French are the first to take advantage.
At least, British High Commissioner Nick Archer will feel vindicated that British companies are not the only ones selling arms and delicate goods to Libya, the cradle of bizarre politics and so-called “people’s rule.”
Gaddafi, an eccentric and at times a buffoon, and who was once considered to be a patron of terrorism is now being pampered and feted by politicians who are continuously egged on by the multinationals.
Next time you meet a European diplomat or politician who decided to lecture Malta on European values, politely tell him or her to stuff it.
And next time you have a spokesman or spokeswoman or one of those handsomely paid EU civil servants sermonising about a vibrant Libya, just simply remind them about the Bulgarian nurses and the torture and rape they endured from their cruel Libyan gaolers.
Finally, please do not expect any of our Maltese politicians to raise a finger to object to either France or Libya. Today’s politicians are either beyond it or simply too interested in not shaking the delicate balance with Libya.