During his interview with Mr Saviour Balzan on TVM, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi illustrated in a clear manner that he is not a strong leader; he lacks character and neglects very important issues. If he cannot handle fairly straightforward questions like these, I’d hate to see him come up against harder ones! All I saw was posturing; adopting an elusive tactic in steering clear of queries entailing uncomfortable answers. Dr Gonzi was extremely on the defence of the record of his administration of these last four years, acknowledging that much more should have been done. He has definitely persuaded me that we need a fast change in the government. He has certainly convinced me that we need a Labour government. He has inspired me to go and cast my vote for Labour at the next general election. Antonia Mangion Mosta

As usual in this country, no one seems to take responsibility for anything, and everyone always passes the buck to someone else. Having read the article about the local council and the police unwilling or unable to do anything, may I suggest that our courts can do something. Every time one of these students is brought to court and charged with any offence the sentence is always a suspended one. Now that is a joke and sends the wrong message. Would it not be better to fine them heavily with a custodial sentence for a week – a much more effective deterrent? Just make sure also that the schools that these students attend are encouraged to tell the students the consequences of bad behaviour. Anthony Borg Mellieha

Mr Tony Mifsud wrote an article in your newspaper (29 August) on the above subject. I agree with much of it and if any woman were to ask my advice I would strongly advise her against aborting. However, there are some other matters that come to mind which, I feel, were not dealt with in the article, or in the criticism of Amnesty International. First, I believe that it should ultimately be the person concerned who should be given the personal choice to abort or not to, if such freedom does exist in the particular case. Life is about making choices, using one’s own sense of discrimination, then reaching a decision, good or bad, according to the individual case and the innate knowledge of the person herself. If outside help is available, all the better as a more balanced decision can be reached. However, whatever she does, the outcome will be there for the rest of her life. If the mother opts to have the child and keep it or give it up for adoption, she would always be thinking in one way or another of this other human being to whom she gave birth. If she opts for abortion, the aftermath can be very traumatic, not just physically but also emotionally and mentally. Most people seem to think that abortion is an easy way out. It may erroneously appear to be so even to the woman concerned and usually to others too, but it is not. It comes packaged with so many other problems, sometimes of a physical nature due to complications, but even when the physical body appears to heal, in actuality it only heals superficially, as the physical trauma has still been registered and will be remembered within the body itself. It is very facile to think that the physical body has no feelings of its own, not even subtle ones, quite independently from the mind, and that when it is healed after the abortion (or any surgical intervention, for that matter) everything is simply shelved and that’s the end of it. People seem to ignore the fact that they do not live only in their mind, but also in their body quite independently from the mind. If one could somehow remove the mind completely, the body could and would go on living, given sufficient sustenance. It is not the mind that animates the body. In fact, the body and mind are quite often at war with each other. The emotional and mental bodies are dramatically affected and traumatised too and the knowledge, the memory, the sense of loss and the sense of guilt that are the result also last a lifetime. If the rape had been committed by a violent member or members within a family, or by one stranger or more, the resulting pregnancy, if it occurs, will intensify the agony of these thoughts, feelings and emotions that will live with her for the rest of her life, whatever her choice may be. These are not straightforward pregnancies that can occur between boyfriend and girlfriend, or some sad one-night-stand that could be said to have had some initial normalcy of two consenting beings thoughtlessly just having “fun”. Amnesty International took a decision and a stand for abortion in Sudan and other countries in similar turmoil of war for women who become pregnant as a result of single or group rape. Let us look at the battered and bruised woman who has endured such an outrage. What are her feelings, thoughts and emotions about the ordeal? No answer is really needed as it is obvious. What will her feelings, thoughts and emotions be some weeks later, maybe when the visible bruises have gone, if she finds she has become pregnant? She may have been raped on more than one occasion by one person or several each time, as getting raped once does not preclude any woman from being raped again and again on subsequent occasions. Depending on the circumstances, she may not know who the father is as there could have been a dozen or more men involved, but even assuming she knew the father of her unborn child, what could she do? Would she be able to go to him and force him to marry her? Remember the war scenario in the background. This is not a country at peace, with an infrastructural organization to which she could turn to get help and counselling. She is on her own with perhaps even members of her own family, if they are still alive, wanting to have nothing to do with her. She lives with the dread of the child being born to remind her daily of her ordeal, that is if she is not stoned to death before the birth! What real alternatives does she have? The country is collapsing under the strain of war. Everything is in turmoil. She risks getting stoned to death because of the bizarre laws of the land. What should she do? Having an abortion would at least rid her of the evidence of pregnancy and avoid being lapidated. If a choice is open to her, she would no doubt opt against the latter. Who would not? Is it self-defence or murder? If she chooses to continue with the pregnancy and gets stoned to death, would she not also have chosen, albeit indirectly, to kill the child by someone else’s hand? Who would possibly save her from that fate? Would a benign Western country be willing to fly her in so she could have her child in our kind of comfortable and secure living environment? Would that particular government help her have the child adopted or allow her to remain to live there with her baby? Or would they then just pack her, or both of them, back to the country of origin? Then what? I personally think that AI decided to commit themselves only up to a point as each case of unwanted pregnancy is an individual story unfolding, and it is far too complicated for the organization to attempt to define each one in advance of the event. AI’s concern is mainly with people in dire need and unless one has experienced the horror of life under these atrocious conditions, one should refrain from being too critical of an organization that has its hands full already; especially when those criticisms come from people who are far removed from the scene and possibly comfortably ensconced in an air-conditioned office staffed with their helpers. AI does an excellent job, most times under very difficult conditions. Alexander Cortis Zabbar

Reading Claire Bonello’s piece (MaltaToday Midweek 12 September 2007) makes one think that what is good must be called bad. Take the first example when she mentioned that the Cabinet remained with ministerial 1980 relics such as Ninu Zammit and Louis Galea. Having said that, Ms Bonello declined to mention that these two ministers have not lived up to their portfolios. Ninu Zammit’s embellishments of public and heritage sites throughout Malta is well known, Louis Galea’s drive is well known in the educational sector. Incidentally the survey in Sunday’s MaltaToday of 9 September has shown that the PN has the best persons to govern the country. Maybe Ms Bonello does not read MaltaToday. Even the PN’s achievements got the blows from Ms Bonello. Yes, achievements must not be forgotten and this in spite of Ms Bonello’s calling of “litany of achievements”. Ms Bonello must remember that a ‘litany’ is a long list of achievements and on the strength on these achievements the people must decide on election day. Then came party financing and corruption. I would like Ms Bonello to quote one country where people poor or rich do not finance political parties. Ms Bonello also touched upon corruption and failed to mention that people were brought before the Courts, including people in high places. She conveniently forgot the Judges’ case. Keep on writing Ms Bonello, but please be more open minded and diverse and tell us something about the political party of your choice. But then she might see the MaltaToday survey in which Alternattiva Demokratika got 0 per cent of persons best to govern, and she will change her mind and write again in a pathetic way. J Busuttil Zabbar

I am really surprised that the management of The Times accepted to speak and apologise to Mr Jason Micallef who complained on a technicality about a report that did not carry the advert notice on it – the same management who had their printing press gutted down by Mr Jason Micallef’s party’s thugs some years ago.
Edgar Gatt Swieqi