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195 COVID-19 cases registered with 5 recoveries

195 COVID-19 cases registered with 5 recoveries
Jul 18 2021 Share

Malta has registered 195 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours from 3,548 swab tests, while 5 patients have recovered. No deaths were registered in the past 24 hours. This information was announced by the official Facebook page of Malta’s Ministry for Health.

As of Saturday 17th July 2021, 723,299 vaccine doses were administered of which 383,158 were 1st doses. 357,236 people are currently fully vaccinated. 

To date, Malta has registered 32,470 COVID-19 cases in total, of which: 30,218 have recovered, 420 died and 1,832 are still active.

Mater Dei Hospital is currently treating a total of 18 COVID-19 positive patients, one of which is in the ITU. Of yesterday’s 206 reported cases, 151 were between ages of 10 to 39. The average age of yesterday’s cases was 27.

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Racial microaggressions and the role of guilt in our conversations | by Għajjejt u Xbajt

Racial microaggressions and the role of guilt in our conversations
Jul 18 2021 Share

The past year has brought a lot of changes in how we interact with one another especially when we talk about race. This means that one is likely to have been involved in one or more conversations about race in their personal life over the past year.

When a person of colour initiates a conversation about race or racist actions they are often put in a position where they have to deal with the feelings of (white) friends or acquaintances who do not understand why this conversation is happening in the first place. There’s shock and incomprehension because the person sees themselves as ‘not racist’ and this in turn elicits other emotions such as guilt, shame and/or embarrassment, which are understandable emotions in this situation but which shift the focus away from the feelings and concerns of POC who experience the racism from said person.

At times those emotions (guilt, shame, embarrassment) even shift away from the conversation altogether to focus solely on this person’s emotions. This often stalls or stops the conversation. What could have been a teachable moment is now focused on managing this person’s emotions and this happens for two main reasons;

  1. A misunderstanding of racism and racist actions.
  2. Guilt or to be more precise white guilt.

white guilt

We view racism like we view a tree.

We only see and focus on the fruits and the leaves of the tree but we do not see the roots. One’s vision of racism tends to focus on violence or extreme actions of racism yet racism is more than just that. Racism is more often than not implicit, hidden and insidious. If we go back to the tree analogy, they are the branches of the tree or one could call them microaggressions that hold up the fruits of the more visible and thought of part of the tree.

We view racism like we view a tree.

What are microaggressions? ‘A form of covert racism – they’re actions that look small when looked at individually but actually they reinforce racist stereotypes. The beliefs and ideas at the root of these are the same as the one that lie behind a more overt type of racism’1. The key here in knowing if what we are doing can be considered a microaggression is to ask oneself if one’s actions or words reinforce racist stereotypes, racist assumptions or uphold racist ways of seeing things. When we start examining our actions it helps us dismantle elements of racism that we have been accustomed to or that we have deemed normal because we were looking at this through lens of someone who hasn’t experienced racism. Because of how small or seemingly covert microaggressions are it reinforces white racial framing. ‘White racial framing often denies inequalities or that actions are due to racism and in turn rejects individual or even collective responsibility’2.

microaggression

It’s as if they believe it’s possible to live in a world in which racism exists without any racist people, and you as an individual are surely not one of the ‘racists’.

When /if one is called out for racist actions there is this sort of cognitive dissonance that happens because one can’t see how they can be racist or how they reinforce racism as they can’t possibly be racist. This is also when shame, guilt kicks in and the conversation is suddenly recentered around one’s feelings about how they see themselves as ‘non racist’ despite having said or done something racist. DiAngelo in her book on white fragility explains that white guilt/fragility is white people’s affective strategies to hijack, defect or co- opt difficult conversation around race and racism3.

Guilt and/or shame are normal feelings to have when we realise we have done something wrong, however how you process your feelings of guilt/shame in a conversation are important. The point of conversations one may have on race is not to guilt trip a person but a moment to tell them there is still some racism they have to tackle in their life. This framing and mindset should help one focus or re-focus the conversation one is having. Instead of thinking about how you can make this conversation stop or go away, your thoughts are about what you can do to cover the blindspots in your life that were highlighted in the conversation. The focus is not on your feelings but the feelings of others you have hurt through your actions even if sometimes you weren’t aware of it. This is also a time for people to actively listen so they can spot the racism in what they have done or said. This can only happen if you shed or put aside your own feelings and see the conversation as a teaching moment and not a ‘shaming’ moment or solely an apologising exercise.

I think it is important to realise that we carry with us racist views or attitudes because racism is part of the fabric of our societies.This means that there is always going to be blindspots and racism that one has to tackle and dismantle in one’s life. Therefore one has to be open to have those difficult conversations, and be open to feel uncomfortable so that the conversation can happen. This is the real work of being an antiracist.

 

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  1. Abbi-Gaël , Néhémie. “Home: The Unreticent Thinker.” The Unreticent Think, February 11, 1970. https://abbigaelb.wixsite.com/theunreticentthink-1.
  2. Grzanka, Patrick R., Keri A. Frantell, and Ruth E. Fassinger. “The White Racial Affect Scale (WRAS): A Measure of White Guilt, Shame, and Negation.” The Counseling Psychologist 48, no. 1 (2019): 47–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000019878808.
  3. DiAngelo, Robin J. White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism. Boston: Beacon Press, 2020.

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Repatriation flights for 250 quarantined Italians in the plans

Repatriation flights for 250 quarantined Italians in the plans
Jul 18 2021 Share

Malta is currently planning repatriation flights for 250 Italians who are being held in quarantine following their testing positive for COVID-19 or for having been in touch with infected persons. Italian news agency Ansa reported that apart the news, stating that the flights are expected in the coming days. Despite this, it is not known if anyone who is still COVID-19 positive will be allowed to leave. 

Italian students quarantined in Malta racked up to 70, but the number has now reached 250. The closure of the schools was described by Ansa as having transformed an English learning stay in Malta into an uncontrolled holiday for thousands of European youths. This is because apart from Italian nationals, a number of German, Spanish and French students are also quarantined and expecting to be repatriated soon. The report states that students not in quarantine are free to do as they please. 

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Photo Source: Air Malta

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Unused area of Garden of Serenity to get a €500,000 regeneration project

Unused area of Garden of Serenity to get a €500,000 regeneration project
Jul 18 2021 Share

Energy, Enterprise and Sustainable Development Minister Miriam Dalli unveiled the €500,000 regeneration project for Santa Lucija’s Garden of Serenity. The regeneration is set to include a Greek theatre and a pond which incorporates the Chinese principles of Feng Shui. The locality, which has been hard-hit by recent road works and controversies surrounding tree-cutting, will be seeing the unused part of this garden regenerated by Parks Malta. 

Dalli stated that with the investment of half a million euro, the abandoned site will ‘offer families, children, youths and the elderly a space to unwind.’ The top and bottom pathways will be joined together to showcase the life cycle, with architectural structures designed to create connection between humans and nature. Santa Lucija Mayor Charmaine St John thanked Parks Malta and the Minister for the investment. She stated that she considers Santa Lucija as one of the green lungs for the south of Malta. 

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Photo Source: Parks Malta FB, Miriam Dalli FB