Samuel Vella

As the holiday season has ended and the routine for many of us is back, this is a time for a deeper kind of reflection. As we celebrated Christmas with our families, many overlooked the hypocrisy of policy throughout the season.

Let us not forget that Christmas is the celebration of a poor, displaced refugee fleeing from persecution by an oppressive state. Does the message of Christmas and its tradition of generosity reflect reality?

There is no need to look further than the actions of our own government. During the Christmas season, our government also persecuted the poor and the needy.

A few days before Christmas, a 43-year-old man was arrested and handed a probationary sentence. In court, it was clear the man was caught stealing basic necessities − food for his family and for his children.

Is this the economic success our government flaunts continuously? Is this truly how we spend our police and judicial funds? How is the welfare state working for these people?

Let’s not forget about the war on the homeless our government has been waging. The authorities have made a show of people sleeping on benches, who were subsequently charged with homelessness.

Was this the spirit of Christmas being celebrated? Is this so-called Christian nation following the teachings of Jesus Christ that were passed on through the Christmas season?

Survival is being criminalised. Instead of caring for the needy, the state is persecuting them with all its might. This is both illogical and cruel.

Global research shows that institutionally, social support, housing initiatives and mental health services are far more effective and cost-efficient than a policing-led approach.

A welfare-centred approach should replace our current unlimited growth model

Let’s run a thought experiment: How would we react to a modern-day Mary and Joseph?

Instead of on a donkey, they are travelling by a small boat.

They are immediately hurled with threats and death wishes, many hoping for their boat to sink and leave them to drown.

How many of us would have helped a homeless refugee mother if we saw one outside?

Instead of being placed in a stable, they are facing detention and subject to human rights violations, or stuffed in an overcrowded and overpriced apartment.

While travelling, you might have seen them spending the night on a bench or the side of the road. Would our society help them, or phone the police and have them taken away in handcuffs?

Today, 21 centuries later, there is still no room at the inn.

Charity doesn’t start and end with the traditional L-Istrina marathon on Boxing Day. As a society, we need to take care of the vulnerable continuously,

ensuring everyone has food on their table or a roof over their heads. And, while good deeds and charitable donations help ease suffering, the underlying problem is policy.

We cannot carry on with the mindset instilled through propaganda that there is no poverty or homelessness in Malta. We need to vote for and enact policies that strengthen the welfare state.

For all of this to happen, our country needs a rapid policy change. A welfare-centred approach should replace our current unlimited growth model.

While our GDP climbs and high-rise buildings dominate, how much of this has ended up trickling down to the rest of society, such as through our minimum wage?

Unlimited growth does not and cannot exist; all this model does is cause suffering and propagate a contemporary slave-like system for many workers.

This is not the time for division; it is time to unite for a common good that leaves no one hungry, adrift at sea, or sleeping on a cold bench.

Samuel Vella is the chairperson of Kollettiv Żgħażagħ EkoXellugin – the youth wing of ADPD – The Green Party.