Majority of Maltese citizens struggling with loneliness, study finds

Aug 27 2022

A recent study by the University of Malta suggests that most Maltese citizens have felt a sense of loneliness in 2022, seeing an increase by 11% over a period of three years.

The study found that 54.6 percent of Maltese citizens experience loneliness, a sharp increase to the 43.5% of three years ago – the results of which had emerged from a study held by the Faculty for Social Wellbeing.

The study was carried out by faculty dean Andrew Azzopardi, Professor Marilyn Clark and research support officers Jamie Bonnici and Annabel Cuff, who also suggest that while the COVID-19 pandemic marked a significant shift, it is not the whole story.

Azzopardi suggests that while the pandemic did expose society to such realities, factors such as shifts in family dynamics, lack of community services, unsupported family models, over-dedication to work, growing poverty and others contributed to the aforementioned findings in a major way.

This year’s study aims to measure loneliness in Malta based on the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale developed by sociologist Jenny Gierveld through a set of binary questions. The survey sample include only Maltese citizens and not foreign nationals, which now comprise over 20% of Malta’s population. Of the sample, the 54.6% amounts to around 200,000 people with 4.6% – or around 17,000 people – expressing feelings of severe loneliness.

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Valletta player rushes from pitch to hospital to welcome newborn baby with wife

Aug 27 2022

Valletta midfielder Triston Caruana was just about to head down for his pre-match warm-up when he received a call that his baby boy is on the way, with the player rushing from the pitch to Mater Dei to welcome his son in the world alongside his wife.

“I was just about to go down for warm-up but you had other plans”, Caruana wrote before welcoming newborn Santiago into the world together with his wife Dorianne.

Caruana was not only set to play in Valletta’s match against Pieta Hostpurs’, but was also included in the starting 11 before he received the great news that his child was on the way.

Hundreds took to the comments section to congratulate the happy couple on the new addition to their family on Caruana’s most recent post.

Congratulations!

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Newly-elected Gzira councillor misses swearing in because council building lift was not working

Aug 27 2022

Investigations are currently under way by the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability after newly-elected PN Gzira councillor Mario Azzopardi was forced to miss a council meeting and his swearing in because the council building’s lift was not working.

The CRPD has since requested the council to provide detailed feedback on the incident and the actions which are going to be taken to address it, including plan of action and set of time frames.

The PN has also called discrimination against councillor Mario Azzopardi, with PN councillors revealing that the lift had been out of order for a while with no efforts made to fix it.

In light of this, commissioner Samantha Pace Gasan stated: “All Local Council premises and online platforms should be rendered accessible. This ensures that persons with disability can both participate on a political level in their localities, but also access services provided by the Local Councils.”

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Hamrun council in talks with Syrian community to decrease incidents following mass brawl

Aug 27 2022

Following the recent mass brawl in Hamrun and the social media coverage that followed, the village’s local council has agreed to collaborate with members of the Syrian community and work towards reach an agreement that will hopefully decrease the amount of such incidents.

Hamrun mayor Christian Sammut and Syrian Solidarity NGO president Taleb Zaidan met on Friday to discuss potential ways of collaboration, with Zaidan reporting that the NGO called in those involved in the mass brawl to let them know that their behaviour reflected badly on Malta’s entire Syrian community.

Following the incident, multiple members of the community volunteered to aid in regeneration works such as plastering, painting and planting trees across Hamrun in a show of solidarity.

Sammut stated that Syrians are good people and respect must be granted across the board while Zaidan highlighted how not all Syrians are bad and the behaviour of some should not reflect on the entire community.

Syria has been engaged in civil conflict since 2011, causing the forced displacement of millions, with the number of Syrians in Malta increasing from a few hundreds to around 6,500 since it first broke out.

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