Tuesday, January 1, 2019
Cold snap to hit Malta this week
The rain forecast for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day did not materialise, but if predictions for this week will be correct, Malta is set for a cold snap, typical of January wintry days.
New Year's Day will possibly be the last day without rain for the first week of 2019, as the Meteorological Office at Malta International Airport is forecasting rain every day between tomorrow and Sunday.
But what will certainly be a change – if the forecast is correct – is that the next few days will be very cold by Malta's standards (see graphic below)
The highest temperature on Thursday is predicted to be 12 degrees, but it will feel like 9 degrees, the Met Office says. The lowest on the day will 5 degrees.
It will get even colder on Friday, with a high of 9 degrees but it will feel like 5 degrees, and a low of 4 degrees overnight.
On Saturday, the temperature will go slightly up – a high of 10 degrees (feels like 7) and a low of 9 degrees.
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The Malta Independent notice
The Malta Independent wishes a splendid 2019 to all its readers and followers.
We would like to inform you that The Malta Independent printed version will not be published tomorrow, 2 January. It will be back on news stands on 3 January.
The Malta Independent portal will continue to be updated as usual.
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TMID Editorial: 2019 - The cloudy skies of the New Year
As today's dawn breaks and begins to sweep away the cobwebs of sleep/last night's hangover, the realisation grows that this is really a new year and the old one has passed away, never to return.
In this morning's clear light, we begin to decipher, dimly, what lies ahead.
No New Year's Day is like another and this year's is particularly ominous, at least seen from today's point of view.
The first issue we see ahead is Brexit. In two weeks' time, the British parliament is called to pass judgement on the deal
Theresa May struck with the European Commission.
The common opinion is that this deal will be thrown out, even if there is a vast effort afoot to scare MPs with a no-deal scenario and make them scurry to vote May's deal.
If the deal gets thrown out, the search will then be on for alternatives. Again, the received opinion is that no possible alternative seems to command a majority in the House. Which is why many are coming round to the idea, a constitutional no-no, of going back to the people with another referendum.
The whole issue is shrouded in the unknown, what can happen. As for us in Malta, the outcome is similarly unknown but we can be very negatively affected both as regards our tourism and our commercial relationships. There is very little we can do so we are at the mercy of events. Nor have we been successful in attracting British business to relocate here.
The next cloud in our sky is what happens to the European economy of which we are a tiny fraction. Twenty years after its birth, the euro has survived the 2008 crisis but it is not yet strong enough to become one of the world's great currencies. Changes have been made but it is commonly accepted not enough changes have been made.
Meanwhile, the economies of the great countries are faltering, beginning with the German economy. As for France, the repeated Saturday protests by the Yellow Jackets have destabilised the country, leading President Macron to break the laws of Europe in a vain attempt to satisfy the Yellow Jackets.
We have all seen what has been happening in Italy where the new government had to bow down to European pressures and postpone the majority of the social measures it was elected to implement. Yet we do not know whether the new measures will kick-start a dormant economy or not. As regards our country, we seem destined to carry on with our bickering and continual polemics and with the deep dose of hatred that has one again come to the fore in the past days. People seem to prefer their political bias to reasoned arguments, the rule of law and ethical principles.
As from today, people resume their normal lives and from tomorrow resume their work, the outcome of the new year will start to unravel. Mainly, we have to remember, the new year will be what we fashion it to be, for us and for those around us.
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A year in review: Amid 2018's tragedies were moments of compassion and duty
Deadliest shooting at an American high school: Parkland, Florida.
Deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century: Paradise, California.
Deadliest attack on Jews in American history: Pittsburgh.
The cities of Parkland, Paradise and Pittsburgh became synonymous with tragedy in 2018, a year when the nation seemed to careen from one deadly horror to another. Yet in every calamity, there were people who showed their humanity, their selfless strength and their sense of duty amid the suffering.
As the year draws to a close, Associated Press reporters on the front lines of some of the year's heartbreaking stories offer up accounts of compassion and decency.
'I CHOSE TO ACT'
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said no class in any seminary could have prepared anyone for the role he was thrust into.
Myers was leading Shabbat services when gunfire erupted inside his Pittsburgh synagogue on Oct. 27. After helping others to safety, Myers turned back and raced up the stairs to a choir loft, where he called 911. Seven members of his Tree of Life congregation and four others in the building were killed.
As the Jewish community grieved, Myers took a leading role during public memorials and presided over seven funerals in the space of less than a week.
"I really had two choices when it came down to how to respond," Myers said. "One of them was ... curl up with a bottle of scotch. The second choice was to act upon it. I chose to act upon it."
His response inspired Tree of Life congregants, including retired psychiatrist Joe Charny, 90.
"There's no question that he's been super, and it's hard to imagine that anybody could have done a better job," Charny said. "He has the right touch. He has maintained through all this a sense of humor. I don't know how he's done that."
Myers has vowed to no longer use the word "hate."
"To me, that's the mission that has come out of this, that for 11 beautiful people to have not died in vain," the rabbi said. "The conversation about hate speech in America must be elevated and it must gain attention, because that type of speech leads to action such as what happened at my synagogue."
— AP writer Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
A MORBID BUT CRITICAL TASK
It was the week before Thanksgiving when Craig Covey got the call for what would be his most difficult mission as a search-and-rescue team leader: picking through the ashes of Paradise for human remains.
It was a morbid but critical task.
A wildfire that swept through on Nov. 8 all but obliterated Paradise, once home to 27,000 people. To find and identify the 86 dead, authorities had to call on searchers like Covey to gather up what amounted in some cases to little more than teeth, bone fragments or artificial hips. Then they had to rely on the expertise of rapid-testing DNA labs, forensic anthropologists and other specialists.
"It was apocalyptic up there," Covey said several weeks after returning home to Costa Mesa, California.
Covey's team is deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to disasters across the country and beyond. Earlier this year, his team helped rescue an exhausted 82-year-old man who had been flushed out of his car by floodwaters and pinned in some trees amid Hurricane Florence in North Carolina.
Paradise was different, but brought rewards of its own.
"We weren't shaking hands with people," Covey said. "But we were making a difference for folks, for closure, who are missing their families."
— AP writer Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California
DOGS IN TUNE WITH HUMANS
When classes resumed in late February following the massacre of 17 students and staff at Parkland's Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, a therapy dog by the name of Fergie was brought in.
Fergie, an 8-year-old cross between a golden retriever and a poodle, zeroed in on one young man and sat on his feet the entire class, barely moving, said Aneysi Fernandez, volunteer coordinator of the nonprofit group Canine Assisted Therapy.
"It turned out that was one of the students who lost most of his friends in the shooting," said Fernandez. "Some of our dogs like Fergie are very in tune with human emotions."
Several therapy animal groups helped out in those dark days after the Feb. 14 mass shooting. The dogs — and in some cases, donkeys and horses — went into the cafeteria and classrooms. They were also at vigils and marches.
Fernandez's organization sent 35 therapy dogs and their handlers into the school. All of the animals were trained and selected for their calm, happy demeanor.
Some Parkland students specifically asked for a dog to shadow them during classes, saying that the animals' presence eased the stress of returning to a place where such a horrible thing happened.
"It's nice not to be asked any questions, to not have to relive the event," Fernandez said. "Everyone grieves differently. Students who didn't want to talk could pet a dog."
Ten months after the tragedy, a dozen dogs still show up at the school every day, mostly to sit by the side of those teens who need a calming presence.
— AP writer Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Florida
'IT'S IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD'
It was known as the Wall of Forgotten Natives, a sprawling homeless encampment that sprouted along a Minneapolis freeway sound barrier over the summer.
Most of those living there were American Indians, who make up an outsized portion of the homeless population in the city, and the tents stood on what was once Dakota land.
University of Minnesota medical and law student Kristina Tester grew up nearby and began helping at the camp as part of an elective rotation for her degree. She began doing clean-needle exchanges and continued on as a volunteer for months after her assignment ended.
"There's really not much of a difference between myself and any of the residents who are here at the homeless camp, other than sort of luck of the draw and geographic-political lottery," she said.
The 26-year-old Tester said she organized groups of university students to do laundry for camp residents. She also served meals about once a week with neighbors. Recently she delivered cookies and blankets made by high school students.
Tester, who is non-Indian, said she did it because "it's in my neighborhood."
At its peak, the encampment had 300 people, but they began moving into a temporary shelter across the highway as winter approached.
Maggie Thunder Hawk, 56, an Oglala Lakota from Wanblee, South Dakota, picked up two blankets that Tester delivered.
"If it wasn't for her, we'd be cold, because she brings us warm blankets," Thunder Hawk said.
"I love her."
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Three drunk drivers caught during police roadblocks last night
Over 500 drivers stopped at police checkpoints Monday night, a number of whom were found to be violating road rules
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