http://www.queermalta.com en-gb queermalta.com 2009-9-21T00:00:00Z queermalta.com http://www.queermalta.com/page11.htm#49211 Normal 0 false false false ENAU ZHCN XNONE Style Definitions table.MsoNormalTable msostylenameTable Normal msotstylerowbandsize0 msotstylecolbandsize0 msostylenoshowyes msostylepriority99 msostyleqformatyes msostyleparent... 2009-9-21T00:00:00Z http://www.queermalta.com/page11.htm#43773 Normal 0 false false false ENAU ZHCN XNONE Style Definitions table.MsoNormalTable msostylenameTable Normal msotstylerowbandsize0 msotstylecolbandsize0 msostylenoshowyes msostylepriority99 msostyleqformatyes msostyleparent msopaddingalt... 2009-6-24T00:00:00Z http://www.queermalta.com/page11.htm#42529 POLITICS OF COMPROMISE OR POLITICS OF COWARDICE These days politics is all about dialogue and dialogue is all about compromise at least in current liberal democratic countries. Societies everywhere are increasingly pluralist and complex with competing values divided loyalties conflicting commitments and differing moral codes. Government by consensus that is government by general agreement is easier said than done especially in countries like Malta with marked political allegiances. So I was quite astonished to hear David Casa say in an interview with Herman Grech that membership of the European Parliament has taught him that politics is all about compromise. I am surprised that it took Casa membership of the European Parliament to finally realize the bleeding obvious In the interview Grech asked Casa how he would vote if the issues of divorce and civil unions for homosexuals came before the European Parliament. On the subject of divorce Casa declared that he will decide ... 2009-6-1T00:00:00Z http://www.queermalta.com/page11.htm#40804 IF NEED BE TO HELL WITH MALTAS CONSTITUTION I ndependent Online recently 22 April 2009 published an article Bioethics and the Family by Professor Pierre Mallia. Mallia is described as an Associate Professor in Family Medicine Patients Rights and Bioethics at the University of Malta. He is also Ethics Advisor to the Medical Council of Malta. ROMAN CATHOLIC CONCERNS ABOUT REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES In the article we read of an intervention by a Reverend Professor Emanuel Agius. Armed with church documents Donum Vita and Dignitas Personae which are apparently important to Roman Catholics the Reverend Professor reportedly outlined the Churchs position on reproductive technologies to a parliamentary commitee. As a citizen of Malta the good Professor has every right to make a submission to any committee. I would go further and say that the Roman Catholic Church also has a right to make its own submission in the same way that other groups in society are entitled to make sub... 2009-4-30T00:00:00Z http://www.queermalta.com/page11.htm#39228 OLD WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW E my Bezzina briefly introduced me to George Abela now Maltas eighth president some six years ago at a restaurant at the corner of Strada Forni and Manoel Theatre. Abela struck me as a man with not too many airs and graces. He came over as a genuinely affable man. Lawrence Gonzi appears to be of similar disposition. So welcome to Maltas mutual admiration society Where does Abela stand on human rights for gay men and lesbians In 2008 Abela came out of a selfimposed political wilderness in an attempt to take over the leadership of the Malta Labour Party as it was then styled. He also called for the greater democratization of the party in the election of the partys leadership team. Abela may have lost the crown to the younger and less experienced Joseph Muscat but he managed to secure the second largest number of votes and the position of deputy leader. Not a small feat for someone who was out of the party for 10 years In an i... 2009-4-5T00:00:00Z http://www.queermalta.com/page11.htm#39227 GOODBYE MR PRESIDENT E DDIE FENECH ADAMI the seventh President of Malta assumed the office of President on 4 April 2004. He left that office five years later on the same day His supporters are inclined to depict him as a politician who changed Malta for the better a giant of Maltese politics. But giants are usually men of extraordinary size and strength and Maltas giants are somewhat puny when compared to your foreign variety. On the other hand Fenech Adamis detractors portray him as the man who again polarised Malta and who traded Maltas independence for subservience to the European Union. They point to photographs of Fenech Adami being carried on the shoulders of a man whose qualities the future President was reported to have once described as good and less good.1 So how would gay men and lesbians remember him Better still how should we begin to view his legacy Days before leaving his office the President made the point of emphasizing that a f... 2009-4-5T00:00:00Z