Someone I know sent this to the prime minister earlier today:
Prime Minister:
I refer to the article Lovin’ Malta just published regarding the use of vouchers in strip clubs.
I already had my reservations as to whether this blanket approach of giving vouchers to people, regardless of their income, was an effective way of spending public funds.
However, this is the absolute pits. Are you now encouraging pimps? Are you endorsing the trafficking of women? Are you now supporting slavery?
If these women need financial assistance, and I am convinced that they do, then monetary help should be given directly to them, to make sure that they can pay for their rent and daily needs. I trust that you realise that practically nobody sells their bodies as a matter of choice, but rather out of desperation.
In a nutshell, giving men the green light to use state money to abuse women in a vulnerable position is nothing short of legitimising human trafficking.
This is nothing but another glaring example of how, in Malta, women are devalued, dehumanised and objectified. This is the same misogynist ‘culture’ that demonised another woman – Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Your predecessor allowed this to happen, encouraged it,even, which is why he is indirectly, or perhaps even directly, responsible for her murder, since the culture in which she was to be assassinated was created under his watch
I trust that you will address this immediately, as well as clarify that somewhere, someone made a very grave error of judgement.