My "Personal" Library (39)

A fortnight ago I cheated by quoting a movie when this part is devoted to books.

I am writing this piece in my father’s study and today I will cheat again. I refer to a publication I found in my father’s, not in my own, private collection of books. While rummaging through his library, I chanced on the very first issue of an AŻAD publication, Perspektiv, published in October 1977.

There is a beautiful article by the late Dr Joseph (Peppinu) Cassar (who passed away in 2017), called “The Catholic Left in Malta”. This four-page article (pages 22-26) is a little gem. Let me quote one snippet:

“Many of those who still organise crusades against Communism are not aware how disgusting is a system which considers profit as the essential factor of progress, competition as the supreme law in the economic sphere, private ownership of the means of production as an absolute right without corresponding limits and social obligations. Yet all this is what is meant by Capitalism... The Christian has the duty to work for peace and for the destruction of barriers which keep the human race apart. Instead of spending billions of dollars to build their armouries to be able to destroy each other, nations should work hand in hand to destroy the misery which afflicts a large part of the world. This is not utopian fantasy. It is an ideal for which every Christian must strive... against hunger, injustice and oppression. Solidarity and fraternity should be the ideals to go by.”

Last Sunday, while Joseph Muscat was delivering his sermon about the urban planning madness that has seized this nation and its leaders, and about his theory that we need foreign workers to sustain our present pension system, Nationalist Leader Adrian Delia was delivering a powerful speech in the AŻAD headquarters in Valletta. He spoke about many subjects, but I particularly liked that he reiterated his party’s commitment to defend unborn life.