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Abela rises & Grech drops slightly in trust ratings despite PN gaining momentum

Aug 29 2021 Share

A survey commissioned by the Times of Malta has revealed that Robert Abela’s trust rating has risen over the past month while Opposition Leader Bernard Grech’s rating has dropped by 1.1 percent.

This comes in light of the fact that the Nationalist Party as a whole increased its trust rating by 3.1 per cent between July and August 2021, with the PN managing to attract a new amount of voters.

With regards to leadership, PM Robert Abela managed to lock in 48.5 per cent of respondents with Bernard Grech trailing with 15.83 per cent, 19 per cent voting for neither of the two and 16.67 per cent refusing to participate in the survey.

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November election being advised, sources reveal

November election being advised, sources reveal
Aug 29 2021 Share

While an official decision is yet to be taken, Prime Minister Robert Abela is being advised to call for a general election in November, sources close to the government have revealed.

A mid-to-late November election would follow the October budget, which Prime Minister Robert Abela had stated will be tax-less, a strong move going into a general election. October will also welcome the completion of Malta’s €55 million Central Link project, one of the largest infrastructural projects in recent history.

The Prime Minister had shut down the idea of an early election in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and while some have welcomed the idea of an election riding on the ‘feel-good factor’ of the October budget, others remain sceptical on such an event in the midst of Malta’s situation following the FATF grey-listing.

Despite recent polls not being as favourable, the Nationalist Party’s administrative shake-up may also be an indication of a predicted election, with former Lovin Malta CEO Christian Peregin being appointed as chief strategist and 26-year-old Michael R. Piccinino succeeding Francis Zammit Dimech as the party’s general secretary.

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30-year-old woman grievously injured in Mgarr traffic incident

Aug 29 2021 Share

On Saturday evening at around 6:30pm, the Malta Police Froce was informed of a traffic incident in Triq Sir Temi Zammit, Imgarr. Preliminary investigations found that a 30-year-old woman residing in Imsida, lost control of her Volkswagen Polo and hit a boat and a Renault Captur which where parked in front of a private residence.

Due to the impact, the boat was thrusted into a garage drive in while the Renault vehicle ended up in the middle of the road.

The victim was assisted by a medical team and taken to Mater Dei hospital with grievous injuries while members of Civil Protection were called on site.

Investigations by the Malta Police Department are currently under way.

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Where did the stork baby delivery system idea come from?

Where did the stork baby delivery system idea come from?
Aug 28 2021 Share

It’s been a running gag or cultural myth for ages that babies are delivered by storks. The large birds are depicted grasping a white piece of cloth in their mouth, carrying the infant to the expecting parents’ homes. But where did this idea come from? And why, of all animals, are storks the baby deliverers?

Like most myths of its kind, the origin is immensely elusive to us today. Just like the multiple elements which form the concepts of Santa Claus or the build up of variables that make up a world religion, the stork-baby idea is immensely old. It has traces which date back to folklore from Europe, the Americas, North Africa and the Middle East. 

The first indication could be the bird itself and the associations we make with colour. White is often, for better or for worse, associated with purity. It isn’t difficult to imagine why this would translate well to the dawning of new life – a baby being pure and untouched from all the world’s troubles.

Another possible link might go back to Greek mythology. Some stories say that a goddess turned a woman into a stork. She then attempted to retrieve her stolen child from the deity. However, cultural researchers point out that the woman might have been turned into a crane, not a stork. Herons, a type of large bird, are also associated with creation in Egyptian culture. 

The confusion of birds might have had something to do with this popular folkloric tale. Even pelicans might have a role to play as all these birds are portrayed as loving, maternal creatures who care for their newly hatched offspring. Another interesting connection could date to the stork’s migration.

Stork migration happens to coincide with the annual summer solstice which, in many cultures, represent a sort of rebirth of the world. As people are celebrating this time of year through various rituals, storks would be commencing their migration. The birds would return the following springs – nine months after they migrated. 

This return from migration also brought new life as storks would create nests and give birth themselves. So the symbolism layers itself – the birds bring new life in terms of the seasons and in terms of actual life. The birds were later popularised as bringing babies in Hans Christian Andersen’s fable ‘The Storks’ in the 19th century.

In this, storks pluck dreaming babies from ponds and lakes and delivered them to deserving families. The dark side however would be that parents with bad children would receive bad babies… The story eventually became a good way to obscure the reality of sex and birth by Victorians. 

Despite these last few versions of the story seemingly more familiar to what we know today, its origins are as obscure as any other popular tale. Tracing it back to one fixed point is impossible – simply have the change of cultures to go about trying to understand it. 

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