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Plans to get Malta off grey-list in just 18 months

Plans to get Malta off grey-list in just 18 months
Jul 20 2021 Share

Malta is planning to get off the grey-list within 18 months. Permanent secretary at the Finance Ministry Alfred Camilleri stated that Malta had a very ambitious plan to get off the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list. Stating that his team are working on an action plan which is almost in its ‘final draft’, Camilleri stated that he and his team are very well advanced. Also the chairman of the National Coordination Committee on Combatting Money Laundering, Camilleri’s team is responsible for getting Malta back on the white list. 

The news of the plan being in advanced stages was supported by Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit head Kenneth Farrugia. He pointed out how there had been jurisdictions that managed to get off the grey list in 18 months, giving hope for Malta to pull off a similar manoeuvre. The comments however contradict those of a leading global expert, who claimed earlier this month that it would take far longer for Malta to get off the list. 

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Photo Source: Abardeen Research

Over 2400 vaccines administered in mobile unit on Monday

Over 2400 vaccines administered in mobile unit on Monday
Jul 20 2021 Share

Following the launch of the new COVID-19 vaccine mobile unit on Monday, it was reported that over 2400 people received their jab on the first day the service was being provided. With a spike in daily and active cases currently being registered, the alarming rate with which cases are shooting up could be attributed to the rush to get vaccinated. Malta thus has 81% of the population vaccinated, along with the highest per capita rate in the world. 

No appointments are necessary for the mobile unit, with the first one being set up yesterday at the Mosta Technopark between 9 am and noon. Health Minister Chris Fearne revealed that the exact number of people who received the jab was 2,461. The mobile unit will continue to administer vaccines next Wednesday in Zejtun and Friday near St Julians Police Station. It will also be set up on the 27th, 28th and 29th July in front of Parliament, Valletta. 

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Photo Source: Chris Fearne FB, Department of Information (Malta)

UK will not vaccinate under-18s against COVID-19

UK will not vaccinate under-18s against COVID-19
Jul 20 2021 Share

The British government has decided against inoculating most children and teenagers against the COVID-19 pandemic. This is until more safety data on the vaccines becomes available, with the decision to hold off giving shots to under 18-year-olds based on the recommendation of an expert advisory panel. Still, children as young as 12 with sever neurodisabilities, Down syndrome, immunosuppression and other disabilities will be eligible for vaccination.

 It was decided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation that the health benefits of universal vaccination do not outweigh the risks for most young people. A precautionary approach is being opted for by the JCVI, with Health Secretary Sajid Javid stated that despite this latest advice, the JCVI will continue to review new data and consider whether or not to recommend vaccinating under-18s without underlying health conditions in the future. This goes contrary to decisions made by many other countries who decided to vaccinate children as young as 12. 

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Photo Source: Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials

The Madonna/Whore Complex | by Għajjejt u Xbajt

Jul 20 2021 Share

Have you ever given advice to a woman who is about to go on a first date with a man, and in doing so encouraged her not to sleep with him and to “hold off” on sex, with the aim of being more likely to gain his respect? Alternatively, have you ever felt nervous about having sex with a man “too quickly”, especially as a woman, for fear of that man getting put off and bored because there was no “chase”? If you have, or know someone who has, then you have experienced The Wifey Complex – the psychological dichotomy that was identified over 100 years ago by Freud. We say woman for the sake of the argument, and it is a phenomenon that particularly exists surrounding the male gaze towards femme humans, although we are not restricting its possible occurrence by gender.

In simple terms, the Madonna/Whore Complex is the reduction of all women to the point of being able to be contextualised within two categories.

The first category is the Madonna – she is the woman any man would want to take home to their parents, she is the wife a mother has always dreamed of for her son. The Madonna is nurturing and sweet and meek, and most certainly holds off on sex whenever she meets someone new. She does not “give it up” too easily and respects her body and herself, she knows her worth and is, for all intents and purposes, in her partner’s mind, a virgin.

The second category is the Whore – she is everything that the Madonna is not, she is liberal with her body and does not hold back on having sex on the first date. She is “easy”, and fun, and she is most certainly not a virgin – in fact she is hypersexed, and always horny. All she exists as is a sex partner. In being so she is definitely not the woman any man would ever want to take home to his mother. Her use is sex and sex alone and she is the person you meet in the dark and have a good time with before you go home to your Madonna.

Two kinds of women, fit for two stages of life. One is ever so fun and the other is necessary for settling down. How convenient!

Alas.

There is an odd notion that is taught to us, in some cultures, that women have to always be put in a box and reduced to their ability or willingness to have sex. One may see it in popular culture often, from comedy films to insinuations in catchy songs – the woman who is “wifey” material is always the motherly prude who the man has to settle for in order to have well-adjusted children, and who practically replaces his mother, whilst his eyes are always cast towards The Sex – all the women he could be having sex with who are Not Wifey Material, if only he didn’t have to put up with his boring partner. After all, a good mother is not a woman who ever even remotely thinks of sex – her job is to outwardly be a ‘respectable woman’.

We love a lady in the streets and a freak in the sheets.

People demand and praise an open minded sexually liberated woman in pop culture, until they don’t. The entire Wifey Complex notion is fuelled by slut-shaming and the perpetuation of rape culture – from encouraging men to share their sexual encounters, and ‘body count’, as if they are trophies that allow them social glory within their friend group – to gaining bragging rights whenever a particular girl has been coaxed into the bedroom. At the same time, women who have casual sex and enjoy it are shamed about their encounters, being forced to frequently lie about who they have slept with, having their whole sex lives cloaked with so much negative energy and a few snarky side glances.

A woman is a prude until she is a whore.

But why does she have to be either? There are as many different women as there are people who identify as women. Just as there are as many different men as people who identify as men. These boxes that we are fixated on placing people into only restrict and harm everyone. Believe it or not, sex is just that – sex. It is a consensual experience that some people choose to engage in sometimes and other times do not feel like engaging in. People are neither defined by how much sex they have nor are they defined by their choice to not have sex at all – and a person’s sexual life or history is definitely nobody’s business but the person themselves.

Why are we, therefore, as a society, obsessed with the sex lives of women? Why is it that we cannot seem to process that women enjoy sex as little and as much as men do, because humans are varied and emotional and ever-changing, and consensual sex is simply part of the human experience, for some, and simply not part of it for others. In reality, the binary lens of the Madonna/ Whore is a false oversimplification of women, and truly being able to let go of this notion will only improve all forms of relationships, for all people, no matter who they are.

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