Stand up and speak out! by Clayton Mercieca, secretariat - National Platform of Maltese NGDOs, Msida. (Times of Malta, October 12, 2007)

The National Platform of Maltese NGDOs (the Platform) is making an appeal to all organisations/ institutions and social groups including families to perform a one-minute stand-up on October 16 and 17 as a sign of urgency to eliminate further violation of human rights and extreme poverty around the world.

Ever since 1992, the United Nations officially recognised October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. One of the main aims of this commemoration is to make the voice of those who live in poverty and those who are oppressed heard.

History taught us a valuable lesson. When single individuals stood up and made themselves heard, they were able to change the course of mankind. Jesus Christ, Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa were amongst those people who spoke on behalf of the oppressed. Nowadays we are able to witness large movements following the example of the aforementioned individuals.

As a sign of solidarity towards those who live in poverty and oppression and cannot speak, a world wide initiative is taking place on October 16 and 17. "Stand Up and Speak Out" is the growing movement of people no longer prepared to stay seated or silent in the face of poverty and inequality.

The Platform is asking the collaboration of schools, governmental and non-governmental organisations and firms in the private sector to spare one minute and literally stand-up as a group. Following this, they are asked to text the number of people who performed the stand-up and the name of the organisation/group to 7984 2015 on the mentioned dates or e-mail their message and details including a photo or video (if possible) to standupmalta@gmail.com.

The texts and e-mails of stand-ups will be exhibited during the first Maltese Millennium Development Goal Conference which will be held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta on Wednesday, October 17 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., for which the public is free to attend and participate against no admission/participation fees. These correspondences will then be forwarded to the international movement www.standagainstpoverty.org and will be added with all other correspondence around the world to break the Guinness World Record of stand-ups.

Help us break the world record so we can break the record of broken promises!

It is not only about marriage...by Mario Gerada (Times of Malta, October 7, 2007)

The debate on God, gay marriage, secular state versus the Roman Catholic religion goes on. Various important issues are raised, about our way of living on this island, the way we organise our society, issues mainly about discrimination and exclusion.

The argument that the secular state needs to be separate from religious authority is not a novel notion but rather a way of life that has proved to be a relatively peaceful solution for most western countries, a notion which seems to be also accepted by the Catholic Church herself at the end of the day.

Having said that, to ask the Roman Catholic Church to simply remain somewhat hidden behind closed doors and not to participate in "political matters" is really a non-understanding of the Roman Catholic Church and not very democratic either.

I do hope that we do move beyond the "either or" solution. I believe that our European history shows us that an "either or" solution proves to be disastrous in both extreme cases.
However, we can either engage each other through fundamentalism, mere preaching and patronising arguments or choose to discuss and debate in a rational manner, allowing each party to express his or her own views. All parties may have valid arguments and important issues that need to be addressed, like for instance the gay community in Malta.

What is of concern is that much of the debate has shifted to marriage and it all just sounds like terrible news to the gay community. What is life giving to the gay community? Who is going to proclaim the good news to the gay community? Who is going to speak about this? Why is it that correspondents like Jacqueline Calleja feel very compelled to remind us the official teaching with regards to sex between same-sex persons while almost completely ignoring all other issues concerning the LGBT community and their families?

Gay issues are also about discrimination, about bullying in schools and at the workplace, about people who still live in fear to be who they are in a country which is both democratic and full member of the European Union. Gay issues are about people who up to this day consider suicide or have committed suicide as a way out to what seems to be an irresolvable conflict. Gay issues are about people who more often than not feel they have to choose between their faith and who they are, as if one excludes the other automatically.

This whole debate is about inclusion and not further exclusion. This whole debate is about families, gay families or families of gay people who also happen to be sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. This whole debate does not only affect the gay person but also those who are related to one and those who genuinely love the LGBT person and desire his or her well-being. For those who are Catholic and/or Christian it is important to remember that Christianity applies to the above mentioned situations too and not only to sex matters - and it needs to be applied more and more where it comes to the LGBT person.

As much as the gay issue may sound like an irresolvable controversial issue, the ultimate factor to determine if we are a Catholic country or not, I believe, is an issue which calls for serious and healthy rational dialogue from all parties, those who have the secular state at heart, those who have religion at heart, those who have both at heart and above all, those who have LGBT people at heart. At the end of the day, after much dialogue and meeting the "other", we may find that solutions are possible. Finally it is up to politicians to decide if they would like to take up this issue seriously or not, and up to Maltese citizens to vote accordingly.