The article ‘No supporters… never fear, just invent a few’ (MaltaToday Midweek, 15 August 2007) by Raphael Vassallo was very unfair to the Malta Movement for the Rights, Protection and Development of the Unborn Child.
The Movement, which has been alive and active for a couple of years, consists of 43 organisations, including the Nationalist Party, the Malta Labour Party, Alternattiva Demokratika, the main trade unions, the Association of Local Councils, the Colleges of Parish Priests of Malta and of Gozo, the National Council of Women, a good number of government departments, commissions and agencies and a very good number of civil society and church organisations.
The Social Assistance Secretariat – SAS – a social work agency of the Malta Catholic Action, is the founder of the Movement… not “Tony Mifsud” as stated by Mr Vassallo. I am a social worker, work in the SAS and coordinate the activities of the Malta Unborn Child Movement from the HQ of the SAS at the Catholic Institute, Floriana. The SAS website of the SAS www.socialassistance.org contains articles on the activities of the Movement and information on the unborn child. The website of the Gift of Life Foundation also gives such information.
The core group of the Movement is made up of the SAS, the Health Promotion Dept. and the Malta Midwives Association.
The “Alexia Manduca” fictitious letter referred to by Mr Vassallo has absolutely nothing to do with the Pro-Life Movement’s campaign, as alleged by Mr Vassallo, to persuade the government, and parliament, to entrench provisions in the Malta Constitution against the introduction of law permitting abortion. This campaign, which is one of the activities of the Movement, is being led very efficiently at the moment by the Gift of Life Foundation, one of the organisations in the Movement.
I gave the information asked for by Mr Vassallo three days after he asked for it.
The main aim of the Malta Pro-Life Movement is quality life for the unborn child in the Maltese Islands, and beyond.
During the last couple of years the Movement organised five national conferences on the unborn child with the Commissioner for Children, the Malta Union of Psychologists, the Malta Midwives Association, Agenzija Sedqa-Against Drugs and Alcohol, and all organisations in the movement.
The Movement has a very collaborative relationship also with the Ministry for Home Affairs, the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity, the Ministry of Education and Youth, the Ministry of Health and the Commissioner for Children.
This year the Pro-Life Movement published its first Malta Charter on the Rights, Protection and Development of the Unborn Child in the Maltese Islands and beyond. The main aim of the Charter is for the organisations in the movement, and others outside of it, to promote, in their own way, and by their own means, the rights, protection and development of all unborn children in the Maltese Islands and beyond.
Other aims are to increase awareness in the Maltese Islands: of the unique privilege, enjoyed by both parents as equal partners, in the conception of the unborn child; of the special opportunity for both parents to help the unborn child develop, from the moment of conception, its full potential and its personality; of the big responsibility of both parents, and of the political, medical, industrial, legal, social, educational and other agents, to protect the unborn child from all physical, mental and emotional harm until it is born.
This, as befits the respect and dignity due to all human beings, always and everywhere, from the moment of their conception, until born, and after.
The Movement believes that this initiative deserves to be, and can be, diffused beyond Maltese shores, amongst other societies, cultures, religions and civilisations. The unborn child has no frontiers and its dignity is respected everywhere and at all times.
In May 2006 a digital copy of the Charter was sent to Dr Franco Frattini, the European Union Commissioner for Justice and Security as a contribution from Malta towards the building of the first Charter on the Rights of the Child by the EU. The Movement has a document from the Office of the EU Commissioner acknowledging the Movement’s contribution to the EU.
The Malta Pro-Life Movement Movement spread a digital copy of the charter amongst many sectors of Maltese society, including all members of parliament. After a very generous financial donation by two anonymous persons the Movement also published the Charter in printed form during a special conference held in May of this year with the collaboration of the Ministry of Education and Youth. The President of the National Council of Women, an organisation in the Movement, gave the keynote speech on this occasion. The printed Charter is now being distributed in Maltese and Gozitan society.
This year the Charter was formally presented to the President of the Republic, the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Malta Labour Party, the Archbishop, the Bishop of Gozo and the Commissioner for Children. Some of these occasions were covered by the press. The Movement is still waiting for the opportunity to present the Charter also to the Prime Minister.
Two proposals by the Malta Pro-Life Movement to include the unborn child in the new laws on the Commissioner for Children in 2003, and on Domestic Violence in 2005, were unanimously accepted by the Maltese Parliament.
For the last three years the Movement was instrumental in holding Pro-Life Day in Malta on the first Sunday in February. This year the Movement commemorated Pro-Life Day by a concelebrated Mass at the Mosta Parish Church and by a march from the Mosta Church to the Monument of the Unborn Child, erected last year by the Gift of Life Foundation in Mosta. The Association of Local Councils and the Malta College of Parish Priests, two organisations in the Movement, led the celebrations in the church and near the monument. About six hundred people participated in this event.
At the moment the Movement is working very closely with the personal and social development sections of the Education Division and the Church Schools to raise more awareness amongst school children on the rights, protection and development of unborn children. For this purpose the Movement is making available to all schools the DVD, in English and also in Maltese – When Your Unborn Child is on Drugs, Alcohol or Tobacco – paid for and brought to Malta from the USA by the Social Assistance Secretariat, the Founder of the Movement.
Digital copies of the Charter can be obtained by sending an email to sas@socialassistance.org or by phoning 21-220286 (SAS) or Mob 7920 4840.

Tony Mifsud
Movement for the Rights, Protection and Development of the Unborn Child

In an excellent article in your newspaper (“Christians or barbarians?”, 22 August), Pamela Hansen raised the issue of pyromania and its cursed result, namely, unendurable noise. However, she limits herself to dealing with only one ailment/condition that only one immoderate noise produces in the physical/mental body, ie. stress.
First of all, the origins of deliberately making loud noise are so very old that they are unknown and long predate the discovery of gunpowder. In the time before, banging sticks against each other, or beating on drums or such-like was practiced in unison by the members of tribes, communities, etc. The louder the noise created, the better the result! What was the reason for it? Simple! It kept the evil spirits away from their locality. Chase those evil spirits away and you then get the second reason for it, namely good luck and contentment within your group!
Of course, the discovery of gunpowder and therefore louder bangs made the fight much more effective against the evil spirits that lurked in the woods, in dark corners and wherever else these incurably superstitious people believed/imagined they could be lying in wait for the luckless unwary.
Is this a Christian, or a barbaric practice? Or is it merely an unconscious leftover from those dark corners of Man’s minds, aided and abetted by a supposedly enlightened spiritual (?) system that still promotes superstition and magic in our times under the guise of a religious belief that the patron saint and protector will safeguard the whole area from the evil spirits that to this very day must still inhabit the shadows in the dark corners of man’s minds?
What of the deleterious effect of noise (all sources of noise) on not just people, but also animals? Noise pollution, which is what it is, causes both health and behavioural problems (physiological and psychological traumas) even when moderately high. To name some of them, and you may ask any competent doctor of your acquaintance: annoyance, high stress levels, aggressive behaviour and heightened illogical anger, sleep disturbance and resulting circadian imbalance, hypertension (high blood pressure), impaired hearing leading to loss of hearing (it is worth knowing that when sound has passed the outer ear, which is the visible part, then gets to the middle ear, its level when it reaches the most delicate and crucial part, the inner ear, has been amplified by about 20 times what it had been when entering); tinnitus, lack of concentration, an inability to follow through logically to completion any thought or conversation, and in some cases depression, forgetfulness and panic attacks.
On animals and wildlife (and no doubt on some humans too!) even moderately high noise levels (above 70dBA) can interfere with their natural cycles; their feeding and breeding cycles; can cause miscarriages in pregnant females; lactating ruminants’ milk could sour and/or decrease in quantity and quality; can cause confusion in birds’ migration paths; scare them off their natural habitat and their breeding grounds leading to a possible extinction of some already endangered species. There has been ample coverage of certain species of beached whales as a result of loud military sonar (above 200 decibels)!
So, is it Christian or barbaric? Or is it just a power-loving and power-seeking dictatorial attitude that these few people can inflict such extreme discomfort and even physical and mental disturbance on the many, in the mistaken belief that it is oh so holy and of course honours their beloved saint and ultimately God? It has been completely forgotten by them that God created silence, whereas Man in his misguided and destructive attitude has created noise, and the louder and longer the better, or so they believe, it seems!

Alexander Cortis
Zabbar