L-Istrina organisers lament of ‘consumerist obscenity’
Karl Schembri
This year’s organisers behind charity telethon L-Istrina have distanced themselves from the way the event was broadcast on 27 December, accusing PBS of stressing exclusively on the prizes in a bid to raise donations.
Siblings Abigail and Jon Mallia, who were entrusted by PBS to organise the event at Charles Polidano’s Monte Kristo Estates last Saturday, have complained publicly on the internet about “the consumerist obscenity” that ensued against their wishes.
They also complained that the features by personalities that had been promised over the last months were all scrapped.
“The experience on the day of l-Istrina was extremely disappointing,” Abigail Mallia wrote on www.il-pjazza.com. “All the material we prepared, as you may have noticed, was left unused… because the emphasis was solely on the prizes.
“If you ask me what happened, I don’t know how to explain it, and I don’t know if things could have gone otherwise. We saw with our own eyes the telephones ringing every time new prizes were put out, and stop abruptly whenever they showed some of the clips… this lack of social conscience is very disappointing. Probably, if we had to broadcast all the clips we had prepared, the amount collected would have been much less. … My dream was to have people donate to a just cause, not for prizes.”
When reminded that the amount of prizes have always provided fuel to the critics of L-Istrina, Mallia told MaltaToday that it was never “as bad as this year’s”.
Her brother, Jon Mallia, was even more vociferous: “We had a full running order… which had been in preparation for three full months, and which PBS and the Office of the President decided to scrap after two hours because they felt that telephone sets were not ringing enough,” he wrote on the same internet forum.
“So they hijacked the programme completely and transformed it into the consumerist obscenity that you saw… I dissociate myself completely from what happened at Monte Kristo… I’m a thousand times more disillusioned than all of you out there”.
L-Istrina’s organising committee chairman Andrew Psaila however defended the broadcast, saying the idea behind the event is always to raise money.
“The moment you see not enough donations are pouring in, you have to act on it and take on-the-minute decisions,” Psaila said. “It could have been the best variety show on earth, but if it does not lead to donations then it would have been a flop.”
Insisting this was strictly her personal opinion and not of the whole L-Istrina team, Abigail Mallia said: “We promised a L-Istrina with a difference, but we didn’t deliver. When you see donations coming in whenever they put up an Iphone as a prize and going flat soon after, it is all very disappointing.”
Just over €1.2 million were collected in the 12-hour charity marathon.
The beneficiaries this year are the Malta Community Chest Fund, the Malta Hospice Movement, Ejjew Ghandi, Dar Sagra Familja, Don Bosco House, the Salesians of Don Bosco/SOS Malta, the OASI Centre, Casa Leone XIII - Home for the Elderly, Holy Family - Home for the Elderly, Parr. Jesus Crucificado S.M. Chaparron, SOS Malta, Special Olympics Malta, Dar il-Kaptan, LAND Group, Richmond Foundation and Fondazzjoni Suret il-Bniedem
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