ALS activist Bjorn Formosa apologises for reaction to Andrew Azzopardi’s post
ALS activist Bjorn Formosa has apologised for his reaction to Andrew Azzopardi’s opinion piece published in The Malta Independent.
In his weekly article, Azzopardi wrote that Formosa was going against spirit of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Malta signed in 2007.
Formosa, who suffers from ALS and who has worked for years to raise both funds and awareness, said that Azzopardi, the dean of the University of Malta’s Faculty for Social Wellbeing, had got it wrong.
The story, which saw strong arguments made by both men, as well as others, revolves around the proposed eightstorey development Dar Bjorn, and whether this would be institutionalisation or not.
On Facebook late on Wednesday, however, Formosa apologised for his reaction.
“I would like to apologise for today’s earlier reaction to Dr Azzopardi’s article, but I am dedicating my life and energy to this project and that was the reason for my immediate reaction.
“However I still respect everyone’s opinion and I’m open to critique, but this has to be based on actual facts and not done for personal propaganda. If Dr Azzopardi wanted to pass on his feedback, he could have done it over a meeting not in the press.”
“As reported in the Xarabank feature, the patients’ and relatives’ feedback speaks for itself about the improvement in their quality of lives. The newer and bigger Dar Bjorn project is still in its planning and development phase, and a fixed number of rooms has not been decided yet, but surely doesn’t go even near to numbers mentioned previously by Dr Azzopardi.”
“As we did with past projects we will be consulting with all stakeholders so that ALS patients will be offered the best service and possible support. We are not building an institution for disabled persons but a nursing home to treat patients with neuro-degenerative conditions for whom it would not be possible to otherwise live at home by themselves without any specialised care,” Formosa said.
Andrew Azzopardi, in a post yesterday morning, said that he accepted the apology. “Now let’s focus on doing the right thing within the parameters of the UN convention and the quality standards that we have gotten used to in this country for this sector.”
“I am glad that Bjorn has reverted from this position by stating that ‘...a fixed number of rooms has not been decided yet but surely doesn’t go even near to numbers mentioned previously...’ and also says, ‘... we will be consulting with all stakeholders so that als patients will be offered the best service and possible support.’”