Public Relations

Celebrating youth in Malta

Various activities such as discussions, workshops, sports, visual art, music and drama will be organised to celebrate youth. This week will give young people the opportunity to take part in a number of activities being organised.

Each day of the week will focus on a particular theme regarding youth. The themes will centre on health & well being, leisure, employment, environment and national youth policy.

The main activities will be held in Freedom Square, Valletta, the capital city. Here the discussions and workshops will be held by the Malta Association of Youth Workers (MAY). A number of sport activities will be held in collaboration with sports associations under the Malta Sports Council. Local bands, garage bands, singers and also drama groups will be given the opportunity to show their talent in the evening. Young artist will also have the opportunity to show their works. Hastings Garden and Merchants Street will be hosting youth NGO's and organisations working with young people to show their work.

A bus with the activities logo will travel around the island to promote the event. It will also travel to various youth locations such as the University of Malta, MCAST and Gozo.

The Maltese Youth Policy (2004) recommends the recognition of “young people's competent influence [which] should be assessed and achieved through dialogue, equitable representation and the 'open method of co-ordination’''. This is also outlined in proposed in 'A New Impetus for European Youth' (European Commission White Paper, 2001) and the Lisbon Agenda (2000).

The discussions and workshop projects aim at giving an opportunity to young people and policy makers to dialogue. The EUPA is working so that the activities in relation to the Youth Week should be orientated around an evaluative study from which the effectiveness of the Youth policy can be measured. Moreover, young people are to be consulted prior to policy making or revamping of the already existing policy. The policy makers' job is to involve young people in their area of interest to make them the sole protagonists in youth policy. This would guarantee that the necessary amendments address the needs of contemporary young people since. This collaboration will lead to widen the spectrum of young people who are involved, ensuring a democratic representation.

The Youth Week is being organised by the European Union Programmes Agency (EUPA) and the Parliamentary Secretary for Youth and Sports.

The President of Malta pays a visit to Mr.Smith

After Mr. Smith has one the competition of “Cultures on my street” his winning image has been dispersed locally and even internationally.

On the 26th October the President of Malta paid an official visit to Dingli where Mr. Joe Smith presented him with a framed photo of the winning image.

His winning entry was selected by a professional jury and were judged for their activity and originality in portraying the concept of Intercultural Dialogue, as well as technical merit, wide appeal and eye-catching quality. Mr. Smith`s image “Village cobbler” consisted of a jumble of shoes, tools, religious ornaments and Elvis posters that provided the crowded setting for a tradesman and the locals who often meet in his workshop.

The initiative was part of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008, which aims to foster and explore diversity and common values in the increasingly open and complex cultural environment of the European Union. The competition ran until 30th June and was open to all the EU residents, regardless of age or origin, whether amateur or professional photographers. By the deadline, more than 2000 entries had been submitted from all across the EU-particularly from Portugal, Romania and France.

For more information please check out www.street-cultures.eu

European Week aims at cutting workplace accidents and diseases

Reducing the number of work-related accidents and illnesses is the target for the European Week for Safety and Health at Work from 20-24 October 2008. Organised by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), the week's campaign activities will highlight the importance of assessing health and safety risks. EU-OSHA has also produced a new report on 'Risk Assessment' to showcase practical ways in which workplace risks can be managed and reduced.

The European Week is part of the Healthy Workplaces campaign on risk assessment. During this week hundreds of campaign events and activities will take place all over Europe. These include conferences and exhibitions, training sessions and activities where both large and small companies work together. The common theme linking all these events is promoting the importance of carrying out risk assessment in every workplace.

Jukka Takala, Director of EU-OSHA, says: “Every three-and-a-half minutes somebody in the EU dies from work-related causes and every four-and-a-half seconds an EU worker is involved in an accident that forces them to stay at home for at least three working days*. This is unacceptable! We need a change, and this change starts with assessing workplace risks. We have to make employers, workers, safety representatives and policy makers aware that proper risk assessment is the key to good workplace safety and health management.”

The success of the Healthy Workplaces campaign and its European Week is largely due to the support of the EU-OSHA network of focal points in the 27 EU Member States and accession countries. The contribution of many local and regional initiatives carried out by trade unions, enterprises, NGOs and government administrations also play an important role. All these activities show that workplace accident and illness prevention is a top priority in Europe.

The newly published Risk Assessment Magazine is one of many initiatives to increase awareness about the importance of proper risk management. It shows examples of good practice by government ministries, employers’ organisations and trade unionists from across Europe to improve workplace risk management.

Intercultural Dialogue within supermarkets

The idea of “Intercultural Dialogue” takes as its starting point the recognition of difference and multiplicity of the world in which we live. These differences of opinions, viewpoints, cultures and values exist not only within each individual culture but also between cultures.

Taste and Shares Culture is part of the Five sense project that invites everyone to visit a few supermarkets in Malta ,Arkadia Foodstore (Portomaso, St Julians), GS Superstore (Naxxar), and Carters Supermarket (Paola) and Gozo, Arkadia (Victoria) to collect their information cards and a number of interesting recipes. This project is gaining popularity with customers from around the world who have been visiting the supermarkets and who shall eventually pay a visit before the year end.

Now that Autumn has began, we encourage every household to prepare for winter by preserving the Summer`s harvest. It is therefore the right time for some wine and maybe lampuki.

The Autumn season will look at the feast of Halloween and San Martin. Some cooking delights will be presented in our collection of recipes, including a typical Arab sweet.

“Dialogue” really seeks to approach multiple viewpoints with a desire to understand and learn from those that do not see the world in the same way as ourselves.

An effective “dialogue”, therefore, is an enriching and opening interaction which encourages the sharing of ideas, even in cooking and an exploration of the different though-processes through which the world is perceived and understood.

We encourage customers to visit any of the participating supermarkets to discover more exciting intercultural facts about the Tastes of Autumn and the whole idea is to really understand the meaning of Intercultural Dialogue, that is encountered anywhere, even with the local supermarket.

The 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue is an initiative of the European Union with co-funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture. St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity is the National Coordinating Body for the year with Atelier Culture Projects acting as project Coordinators and Media Consulta as the Media Partners.

For further information visit www.dialogue2008.eu

Where are you from?

All eyes were on Freedom Square, Valletta, yesterday evening as 50 portraits hanging beneath the arcades surrounding the square were lit up during the official launch of an artistic installation celebrating the European Year for Intercultural Dialogue 2008.

Bright colours making up a vivid background brought out the different features of the photographed individuals looking onto one of Valletta's most visited sites to drive home the message of diversity.

Dubbed "Where are you from?", the photographic ensemble by Norbert Francis Attard is an initiative of the European Parliament Valletta Office in collaboration with the St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, and is meant to make lookers-on pose questions on the diverse physiological make-up of the Maltese people.

The installation is a collection of portraits from Maltese society taken by Mr Attard himself. According to the artist, the piece is intended to engage the viewer with the question of identity, and the complex relationship between physiognomy and culture: "The installation celebrates the diversity of physiognomy in all its forms, challenging stereotypes and acknowledging the fact that despite our different looks, we share a complex history."

Addressing members of the press and guests yesterday, Julian Vassallo, Head of the European Parliament Valletta Office, explained that the Mr Attard's idea of drawing attention to the notion of identity through art fitted into the philosophy of the European Year for Intercultural Dialogue.

"The European Year for Intercultural Dialogue has resonated differently across the European Union depending on the realities of the different regions of the Union. In Malta, it is the issue of irregular migration that has dominated the discourse and provoked an animated debate on what it is to be Maltese," Dr Vassallo said.

The Head of the EP Valletta Office said that since EU membership, statistics, polls and surveys have often thrown light on which areas of human activity the Maltese excel and where they lag behind.

"Today the European Parliament Office is lifting another mirror to our faces that begs questions about where we are from. Our answers might challenge some of the distinctions we claim from our close and not-so-close neighbours, Dr Vassallo said.

He added that behind the concept of Maltese national identity lies a complex ethnic mix which the photographic installation is celebrating.

The artistic installation is intended to further liven up the city in the evening. It makes Freedom Square a backdrop for several cultural events including Notte Bianca.

Thanking business outlets for their co-operation, Dr Vassallo said that while the photographs were being hung inside the arches, tens of metres of dead wire which have scarred Freedom Square for years have been removed. The same goes for a number of signs and bills which had been stuck illegally over the years.

The launch was also addressed by Fr Peter Serracino Inglott, Minister for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Dolores Cristina and Valletta mayor Alexiei Dingli.

Besides the European Parliament Office in Valletta, the installation received the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Vodafone Malta Ltd, HSBC and the Valletta Local Council.