FIRST April 2021

ISSUE 323 APRIL 2021

A CAPSULE OF THE WORLD

THE POWER OF GREEN “If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.”

Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect.

EDITORIAL “If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.”

Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect.

At his home in Giverny, Claude Monet obtained authorisation to divert a branch of the River Epte, the Rû, and create ponds. This act gave rise to his masterpieces which are the heart of Western culture and its association with idyllic beauty today. After diverting the waterway into dug-out ponds, Monet designed his garden and flower beds with the willows trailing their green tresses, bamboos springing out of the ground and rhododendron flower beds lining the paths. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny. All rights reserved.

THE POWER OF GREEN

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“At a very early period she had apprehended the instinctively the dual life – that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions.”

The Awakening Kate Chopin

onet's flowered paradise gives us an idea of what can be achieved or regained in the natural world. His garden is a construct. With a slew of gardeners, he perfectly manicured a fabricated space that we associate with a wild yet palatable natural beauty. We all have to do this, both in our lives and in the world at large. It will take a generational change to realise that we have what it takes to re-beautify our surroundings after years of exploitation.

Hand in hand with this is the empowerment of every individual

regardless of gender and ethnicity. Women are not just at the forefront of technological advancement, but equally grassroots ecological change in the way we function as a community. This is happening both in the first world as well as in less developed countries.

Maybe Kate Chopin's quote is equally apt in reverse. We should be questioning our outward existence, and how it has serious consequences to the way the world functions, and conform inwardly to higher values that may seem all but forgotten.

ON THE COVER. Giverny, Claude Monet's flowered paradise. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny. All rights reserved.

EDITORIAL CONTENT AND SALES MANAGER SEAN ELLUL SELLUL@INDEPENDENT.COM.MT DESIGNER CONRAD BONDIN CBONDIN@INDEPENDENT.COM.MT PRODUCTION MANAGER ANDRE CAMILLERI ACAMILLERI@INDEPENDENT.COM.MT PUBLISHER STANDARD PUBLICATIONS, STANDARD HOUSE, BIRKIKARA HILL, ST JULIAN’S. TEL: 00356 2134 5888, WEB: WWW.INDEPENDENT.COM.MT FACEBOOK FIRSTMAGAZINE PRINTER PRINT-IT. FIRST IS PUBLISHED AS A COMPLIMENTARY MAGAZINE WITH THE MALTA INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY AND IS NOT TO BE SOLD SEPARATELY. NO PART OF THE PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE PRIOR AGREEMENT OF THE PUBLISHER. FIRST MAGAZINE SINCE 1993. ISSUE NUMBER 323.

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CONTENTS

Ushering Out of an Era.Prince Philip. Princess Elizabeth and Lt. Philip Mountbatten in 1947.

Photograph AP File Photo.

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Giverny, Claude Monet’s flowered paradise.

Photograph © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny.

All rights reserved.

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Inside Villa Guardamangia.

Photograph Steven Psaila.

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54 Celebrating 100 Years of Chanel N°5. Gabrielle Chanel in a campaign for CHANEL N°5, François Kollar (1904– 1979), Harper’s Bazaar, USA, 1937.

Patrimoine de CHANEL collection, Paris. Courtesy Chanel.

Robert Stilin: Interiors.

Photograph Stephen Kent Johnson, courtesy of Vendome Press.

Mediterranean Culinary Academy prepare sensational strawberry treats..

Photograph Jessica Zammit.

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Masterpiece by Vincent van Gogh reaches 13.1 million at auction.

Photograph courtesy of Sotheby’s.

CONTENTS [ISSUE 323. APRIL 2021] 6

WOMEN IN SCIENCE

Pure Colour.

Giverny, Claude Monet’s flowered paradise.

The 4 Women Scientists that were key in the 1969 NASA Apollo Mission.

GARDEN ESCAPE

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PERFUME

Celebrating 100 Years.

Iconic Chanel N°5.

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HISTORY IN THE MAKING Ushering Out of an Era. Prince Philip.

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STORIED JEWELS

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Flying High at Malta International Airport.

Daniela Borg, Sandy Vella, Justine Baldacchino and Kimberly Vella.

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MCA – The Appeal of Communications.

Jean Marie Mifsud, Isabel Fereday and Deborah Pisani.

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ACCESSING THE EU

Tiaras By Night.

Mandy Falzon discusses Servizzi Ewropej f ’Malta.

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HEALTH & FITNESS

HERITAGE

Villa Guardamangia.

Royal Treatment for No.49 Guardamangia Hill.

RETIREMENT PLANNING

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How well do you know the State Pension System?

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Top up Your Pension.

GOING GREEN

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Greening Economy.

Greening Maltese Industry.

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Going Green and Sustainable.

Dr Miriam Dalli on the Green Path.

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Environment Online.

The Environment at your Fingertips.

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Environment-Friendly Vehicle Grants.

49 Richard Geres on Obesity and Covid-19.

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Richard Geres on Obesity and Covid-19.

Photograph Engin Akyurt.

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Fruit and Vegetables vs Type 2 Diabetes?

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COFFEE TABLE

AD100, Elle Decor A List designer Robert Stilin.

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PROPERTY PROMOTION Capital Residences.

New Gozo Homes.

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FRESH DESSERTS

Mediterranean Culinary Academy.

Sensational Strawberry Treats.

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AUCTION

Masterpiece by Vincent van Gogh.

Fruit and Vegetables vs Type 2 Diabetes?

Photograph Helena Yankovska.

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GARDEN ESCAPE

The presence of water, the special atmosphere of the rural landscapes in the Seine valley, the seasonal pace of life and the proximity to Paris were motivating factors in his decision to move to this village. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny. All rights reserved.

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GARDEN ESCAPE ‘The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.’

Claude Monet

PURE COLOUR

GIVERNY, CLAUDE MONET’S FLOWERED PARADISE

It is a haven of peace that attracts visitors from all over the world, curious to discover the place where Claude Monet painted his famous Water Lilies. Welcome to the world of the painter – and gardener – Claude Monet. For over 40 years, until his death in 1926, Giverny was his home, a world of senses, of colours; his escape, and the place where he created some of his best-known masterpieces. Photography courtesy of Fondation Claude Monet Giverny.

The Japanese-style bridge, which features in so many of Monet’s paintings, adorned with wisteria. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny.

All rights reserved.

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n 1883 the French impressionist painter Claude Monet moved to Giverny, northwest of Paris, accompanied by his two children, Jean and Michel (their mother, his first wife Camille died in 1879), as well as his future wife Alice Hoschedé and her six children. He had rented a house and property and began a vast landscaping project which included lily ponds that would become the subjects of his best-known works.

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GARDEN ESCAPE

Monet obtained authorisation to divert a branch of the River Epte, the Rû, and create ponds. This act gave rise to his masterpieces.

After diverting the waterway into dug-out ponds, Monet designed his garden and flower beds with the willows trailing their green tresses, bamboos springing out of the ground and rhododendron flower beds lining the paths. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny.

All rights reserved.

On 3 May 1883, Claude Monet signed the lease for the Pressoir, the house he had discovered in Giverny and the place where he would pass away on 5 December 1926. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny. All rights reserved.

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Monet focused in particular on the lily pond, collecting rare hybrids that had been grown in the south of France. Water Lilies (Nymphe as) © F.Didillan, courtesy Fondation Claude Monet Giverny. All rights reserved.

GARDEN ESCAPE

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rnest Hoschedé, a wealthy department store owner, was Monet’s patron. In 1878 the Monet family had moved to Vétheuil and shared a house with Hoschedé’s family. Shortly thereafter Hoschedé became bankrupt and left for Belgium. After the death of Camille in September 1879, and while Monet continued to live in the house in Vétheuil, Alice Hoschedé (Ernest’s wife) helped Monet to raise his two sons. They all moved into the house at Giverny and following the death of her estranged husband, Alice married Monet in 1892.

The house had a barn that doubled as a painting studio, orchards, and a small garden, and the surrounding landscape offered many suitable scenes for Monet’s work. As Monet’s fortunes improved, in 1890 he was able to buy the house, the surrounding buildings, and the land for his gardens, creating a lavish flower garden and a water garden that would become the dominant subjects of his final years. He built a greenhouse and a second studio, and also wrote daily instructions for his gardeners, with precise designs and layouts for plantings.

The little Japanese bridge covered in wisteria, the weeping willows, the generous leaves of the floating petasites topped with the bamboo’s wood, the azaleas and the irises all formed an ideal backdrop for the water lilies for Monet. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny. All rights reserved.

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GARDEN ESCAPE

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Top: In any season you feel as if you have stepped into paradise. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny. All rights reserved. Left: Monet’s closest friends including artists, art dealers, as well as his Japanese friends and collectors, happily took the train or drove from Paris to spend the day in Giverny. At 11.30am precisely, everyone gathered in the dining room where the walls, ceiling and furniture were painted in two shades of yellow, light and medium chrome, with the adjacent rooms’ blue hues visible through the doorways. Ceramics and a host of prints illustrated the enthusiasm that Claude Monet shared with his impressionist artist friends for Japan. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny.

All rights reserved. Above: The large dining room. The home was large enough to house Monet’s large blended family which was ahead of its time, with his partner (and in 1892 his wife) Alice Hoschedé’s six children and his own two sons, Jean and Michel. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny. All rights reserved.

GARDEN ESCAPE

Above: The kitchen was the second most sacred place in the home, after the studios. Entirely covered in Rouen blue tiles, it was equipped to a modern standard for that time. © ARTLYS, courtesy Fondation Claude Monet Giverny. All rights reserved.

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e focused in particular on the lily pond, collecting rare hybrids that had been grown in the south of France. These were planted alongside imported cultivars from South America and Egypt, resulting in a range

Right: Monet’s salon atelier. © Fondation Claude Monet Giverny.

All rights reserved.

of colours including yellow, blue and white lilies that turned pink with age. One of Monet’s gardeners was solely responsible to ensure that the lily pond was kept as clear as glass, enabling Monet to produce his ‘upside-down’ reflected paintings.

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PERFUME

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PERFUME

In 1937, at the height of her notoriety, Gabrielle Chanel became the first woman to be the face of her own fragrance, N°5. Leaning up against a fireplace in a suite at the Ritz, she posed in front of François Kollar’s camera for an advertisement that appeared in Harper’s Bazaar. Courtesy of Chanel.

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS ICONIC CHANEL N°5 In 1921, N°5 came into the world. It was the first fragrance created by visionary fashion designer Gabrielle Chanel, who was also the first designer to launch a fragrance under her own name. Her intention was to liberate femininity from its olfactory constraints in the same way that she used her creations to free minds and assert a new style.

During this era, the fragrances on the market generally limited women to the scent of a single flower, such as lily of the valley, violet, or jasmine, packaged in over-decorated bottles. Breaking with the traditions of its time, the abstract scent trail of N°5 was a reflection of Gabrielle Chanel’s personality. Her mirror image, in fragrance form.

Photography courtesy of Chanel.

In 1952, Marilyn Monroe revealed that she wore nothing but “a few drops of N°5” to bed. Marilyn Monroe, Bob Beerman, 1953, Los Angeles, USA. Courtesy of Chanel.

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PERFUME

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n the summer of 1920 Gabrielle Chanel went on holiday to the Cote d'Azur with her lover the Grand Duke Dimtri Pavlovich on a trip that would change perfume history. While in Cannes she met with the Russian-born French perfumer Ernest Beaux, who had worked for the Russian Royal family. Beaux lived close by in Grasse, the centre of the perfume industry.

Gabrielle Chanel had decided to commission a perfume for her best clients and was looking for a new fresh scent, that lasted. At the time fresh fragrances used citrus such as lemon, bergamot and orange which don't last on the skin. She wanted something more complex, ‘un parfum de femme, à odeur de femme’. Beaux took up her challenge and several months later presented her with 10 samples, numbered 1 to 5 and 20 to 24. She picked N°5.

Top: Lauren Hutton photographed

by Richard Avedon for CHANEL N°5 advertising campaign in 1968.

Courtesy The Richard Avedon Foundation. Courtesy of Chanel.

Far left: Gabrielle Chanel or the Marquise de la Flaconnerie by the cartoonist Sem in 1923. Courtesy of Chanel. Left: CHANEL N°5 seen by the draftsman Sem, lithograph, between 1921 and 1924. Courtesy of Chanel.

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PERFUME

Above: Marion Cotillard photographed by Steven Meisel for the advertising campaign N°5 of CHANEL, 2020. Courtesy of Chanel. Right: Nicole Kidman photographed by Patrick Demarchelier for the advertising campaign N°5 of CHANEL, 2006. Courtesy of Chanel. Below: Catherine Deneuve photographed by Richard Avedon for the advertising campaign N°5 of CHANEL in 1972, USA. Courtesy of Chanel.

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ith N°5, Beaux had designed an avantgarde composition, combining the finest natural ingredients with synthetic molecules called aldehydes, which were still new at the time, in unprecedented proportions to exalt the notes of the fragrance. It contained flowers, lots of flowers, most significantly jasmine and rose, but didn’t immediately relate to any single flower in particular.

The fragrance would officially debut, along with her new collection, on the fifth day of the fifth month of 1921.

The scent was an instant success.

Thanks to its radical character, it became the tipping point that ushered in a modern era of perfume and changed its history, and in doing so became perhaps the world's most famous perfume.

In 1937, at the height of her notoriety, Gabrielle Chanel became the first woman to be the face of her own fragrance, N°5. Leaning up against a fireplace in a suite at the Ritz, she posed in front of François Kollar’s camera for an advertisement that appeared in Harper’s Bazaar. N°5 was already an icon of femininity when in the 1960s, Jacques Helleu, Artistic Director for CHANEL Fragrances, initiated the era of brand

ambassadors, choosing some of the most beautiful women in the world paired with the biggest names in photography and film to capture their beauty for advertising campaigns that would go down in history.

Throughout the decades, N°5 has been represented by some of the greatest actresses of their time, including Ali MacGraw, Lauren Hutton, Catherine Deneuve, Carole Bouquet, Nicole Kidman and Marion Cotillard.

Meanwhile the three perfumers who succeeded Beaux all inherited a common duty: to protect the House’s iconic fragrance. The secret formula has been passed down to Henri Robert, Jacques Polge and Olivier Polge, Chanel's In-House Perfumer-Creator since 2015. It is his responsibility to oversee the sourcing of the raw materials that go into the iconic fragrance and ensure that their quality is maintained. His year is organized around the harvest calendar of the ingredients used to compose N°5, among which include jasmine and May rose from Grasse. From the harvest to the extraction methods, Polge carries out each step of this painstaking process, which forms an integral part of his daily work. This ensures that the production of N°5 remains exceptional year after year.

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HISTORY IN THE MAKING

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Top left: 1945. A rugged 24-year-old Prince Philip of Greece, during a naval visit to Melbourne, Australia. Photograph AP File Photo. Left: 1953. Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the Queen's coronation at Westminster Abbey, 2nd June. Photograph Leslie Priest, AP File Photo. Above top: 1947. Britain's Princess Elizabeth, heir presumptive to the British throne and her fiance, Lieut. Philip Mountbatten, shortly after announcing their engagement at Buckingham Palace in London. Photograph AP File Photo. Above centre: 1966. Prince Philip and Prince Charles are seen here playing polo – both were top polo players. Photograph Clarence House via AP. Above: 1959 Prince Philip mans the tiller of the star class sailboat Gem IV, with Durward Knowles, right, as crew.

After following the race Prince Philip made the cup presentation of the King's cup at the Nassau Yacht Club in Md. Photograph Harold Valentine, AP File Photo.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

USHERING OUT OF AN ERA

Like his future wife, Prince Philip was born into royalty and like Queen Elizabeth II was a great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria. He spent most of his life in the spotlight after his marriage to the queen.

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rince Philip was allegedly born on the dining room table of Vila Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu in June 1921, the only son of Prince Andrew, younger brother of the king of Greece. His mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg. In 1922 the family relocated to France after Philip’s father was forced into exile, and his uncle, the king, was forced to abdicate during general unrest. Six years later he moved to England to live with his Mountbatten relatives - his grandfather had changed the family name from Battenberg to Mountbatten amid antiGerman sentiment during World War I. In 1939 Philip joined the Royal Navy as a cadet and later served in the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and the Pacific and was promoted several times, rising

to commander. His mother and his maternal grandfather were both at some point based in Malta and he himself was to live here happily married to Princess Elizabeth at Villa Guardamangia.

He gave up his naval career when his wife suddenly became Queen Elizabeth II, and set about forging a place for himself as royal consort. He was a patron of charities and a supporter of projects for young people.

He was married for more than 73 years and was still carrying out royal engagements into his late 90s. On April 9th the royal family announced that Philip had died peacefully at Windsor Castle on Friday morning.

He was 99.

Prince Philip, the irascible and tough-minded husband of Queen Elizabeth II spent more than seven decades supporting his wife in a role that mostly defined his life. These images celebrate his life and an era in which Malta was intricately linked.

Top left: 1972. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip pose at Balmoral, Scotland, to celebrate their Silver Wedding anniversary. Photograph AP File Photo. Top right: 1951 Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, with their children Prince Charles and Princess Anne at Clarence House, the royal couple's London residence.

Photograph Eddie Worth, AP File Photo. Above left: 1965.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip surrounded their family on the grounds of Windsor Castle. From left, Princess Anne, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew. In the pram is Prince Edward. Photograph AP File Photo. Above right: 1928.

Romania's King Michael, second left, with his mother, Princess Helene, enjoy a holiday at Mamaia, Romania. From left, Princess Fedora of Greece, King Michael, Princess Helene, Princess Irene of Greece, Princess Marguerite of Greece, Prince Philip of Greece and Prince Paul of Greece.

Photograph AP File Photo.

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STORIED JEWELS

‘Tutti Frutti’ style Jewels. A gem-set and diamond necklace of carved rubies, emeralds and sapphires (main, sold for 107,100 GBP) together with other Tutti Frutti style pieces including: a pair of sapphire, emerald, ruby and diamond clip brooches (centre of necklace, sold for 32,760 GBP); a 1930s Sapphire, emerald, ruby and diamond jabot pin (bottom left, sold for 32,760 GBP); a 1930s gem-set and diamond ring (bottom centre, sold for 12,600 GBP); a pair of 1930s gem set and diamond ear clips (bottom right, sold for 17,640 GBP).

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atricia’s mother Edwina Mountbatten was one of the best dressed women in the world, revered for her style, and owned a renowned collection of jewels, decorations and tiaras. She was known to always travel with her jewels, stating that she never knew when she might be called upon to wear them.

Edwina had a particular penchant for Art Deco “Tutti Frutti” jewels, which took inspiration from Indian cut-coloured gems, and so held a special resonance for the Countess. In 1928, she purchased a Tutti Frutti tiara from Cartier, which until recently was on loan to the Victoria and Albert museum. These exquisite pieces from Patricia’s collection, some of which were inherited from her mother, are the perfect pairing to the famous tiara.

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dwina's flair is best encapsulated by this unique emerald and diamond bracelet, designed as a series of octagonal rock crystal links, crafted by Hennell in 1929. Hennell ranked among of the great British jewellers in the Art Deco period, producing pieces that were equal to all the grand jewellery houses such as Cartier and Boucheron (sold for 27,720 GBP).

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STORIED JEWELS

Tiaras

By Night Storied Jewels from the Collection of Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, featuring gifts from her father, Louis Mountbatten, and historic pieces from the jewellery box of Queen Victoria were offered at Sotheby's London this March. Photography courtesy Sotheby's.

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he 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, great-niece of Russia’s last Tsarina, first cousin to Prince Philip and the daughter of Britain’s last Viceroy of India, the late Patricia Edwina Victoria Mountbatten was born in 1924 into a dazzling dynasty of royal and political relations.

The eldest daughter of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900-1979), and glamorous heiress turned philanthropist Edwina Ashley (1900-1960), Patricia had an unconventional upbringing, from weekend parties with King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson at her parents’ estate in Hampshire to evacuation on the eve of the Blitz to stay with Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III in her palatial Fifth Avenue apartment in New York.

This March, over 350 lots from her collection were offered in an auction by Sotheby's London, including a selection of jewels from well-loved pieces belonging to Patricia herself to treasures passed down over centuries from the likes of her great-great-grandmother of Queen Victoria and her mother Edwina Ashley’s jewellery box. With over 1,400 bidders from 55 countries who participated in the auction, here are some highlights from the sale.

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alta was the home to the Mountbatten's both in the 1930s and after the second world war. It was here that Mountbatten was stationed as a serving naval officer, latterly as Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet.

Diamond brooch, circa 1800, in the form of a Maltese Cross, set with cushion-shaped diamonds in a closed setting (sold for 27,720 GBP).

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ueen Victoria’s Mourning Jewellery. The tradition of wearing mourning jewellery dates to the 16th century, where macabre pieces would serve as a tangible reminder of death – a physical embodiment of the concept of memento mori. However, by the 19th century, mourning had taken on a different tone, as the emphasis shifted to the individual and the celebration of love, sentimentality and remembrance. This new mood was inspired by the monarch herself, whose name has become synonymous with the act of mourning after she famously wore black every day for forty years after the death of her beloved husband Albert. Over the course of her long reign, Queen Victoria suffered many losses, spending decades mourning not only Albert, but also her mother and three of her children. During this time, she adorned herself in black crepe and wearable mementos of her loved ones. The auction offers four mourning brooches that had brought solace to Queen Victoria, all appearing at auction for the first time, having been passed down in the family for generations. Pictured is a hardstone, enamel and diamond cross centring on an onyx heart commemorating Princess Alice, Queen Victoria’s third child, who died of diphtheria at the age of 35 (sold for 25,200 GBP).

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STORIED JEWELS

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unique enamel Girl Guide bracelet, gifted by Louis Mountbatten to his daughter Patricia on the occasion of her 21st birthday. The bracelet is personal memento of the 1st Buckingham Palace Company, formed in 1937 so that the then Princess Elizabeth, now HM Queen Elizabeth II, could become a Girl Guide. It was composed of around 20 members, made up of children from the Royal household as well as Palace employees, and during the first meeting Princess Elizabeth was elected second of the Kingfisher Patrol, with Patricia Mountbatten acting as her Patrol Leader (sold for 15,120 GBP).

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he Banks Diamond. A historic jewel which commemorates Sir Joseph Banks. A scientist, explorer and botanist, Sir Joseph Banks joined Captain James Cook on his voyage to the Pacific as part of the Royal Society’s expedition, collecting thousands of plant specimens previously unknown in Europe. This late 18th century brooch incorporates a cushion-shaped yellow diamond given to Joseph Banks by his sister Sarah around the time of his marriage in 1779, the reverse of the stone featuring a glazed locket with woven hair and their initials JSB. Originally gifted to Sir Joseph Banks’ wife Dorothea, it passed to her sister Mary, Lady Knatchbull and thence by descent, until finally to Lord Brabourne and its last wearer, Patricia (sold for 138,600 GBP).

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n 1880s Diamond necklace.

Designed as a garland of ivy leaves, set with cushionshaped and rose-cut diamonds, the reverse with screw fittings enables it to be worn as a tiara (sold for 44,100 GBP).

HERITAGE

VILLA GUARDAMANGIA ROYAL TREATMENT FOR NO.49 GUARDAMANGIA HILL Since being entrusted to Heritage Malta last June, Villa Guardamangia has been receiving some much needed tender loving care, at the start of a long and laborious process which will see the former temporary residence of Princess Elizabeth – shortly before being crowned Queen of England – restored to its former glory, explains Dr Jose' A Herrera, Malta’s Minister for The National Heritage, The Arts and Local Government. Villa Guardamangia photography Steven Psaila.

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he aptly named villa, perched on Guardamangia Hill in Pietà, represents the close relationship between Great Britain and Malta in the past 200 years or so and is therefore steeped in cultural and historic value. Upon taking the villa under its wing after the Government of Malta purchased the property for €5 million, the national agency for cultural heritage declared its intentions to restore the villa and eventually, make it accessible to the public.

Once restored, the villa’s display will focus on the relations between Malta and Great Britain through the ages while creating a historic house approach on the first floor, reconstructing it as it was during Princess Elizabeth’s residence in the mid-20th century.

Prior to the actual conservation works, Heritage Malta is currently documenting the villa’s condition, both indoors and outdoors, by means of 3D mapping. This will help conservators restore dilapidated areas and eventually assist researchers in carrying out comparative studies. The detailed digital mapping structure of the building will also be made accessible to the public on the agency’s online platforms, thus enabling anyone who cannot visit the villa physically to at least view it virtually.

Spread on some 1,500 square metres and boasting 18 rooms, a large garden and stables, Villa Guardamangia is a classic example of an 18th-century summer house.

It is one of several similar buildings which may be considered as marking a slow shift in Maltese culture – an increase in confidence to venture out of Valletta’s fortified walls following the siege of 1565 and the non-materialisation of a second siege. It is scheduled Grade 2 by the Planning Authority.

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ntil 1810, the building and the surrounding land was owned by Fra Vincenzo Carbone, Maestro Cappellano Conventuale of the Order of St John, who then sold it to Saverio Micallef, Vincenzo Zammit and Felice Sant, who in turn divided the property amongst themselves in 1814. The development of the property before 1810 and after 1814 is still being researched, however, it is clear from 1814 plans that the building increased its footprint and also underwent significant changes during the 19th century.

HERITAGE In the early 20th century, the property was owned by the Sant Fournier family. It then passed on to the Bartolo family, on a date that is still unknown. The head of the Bartolo household was Augustus Bartolo, the strongly proBritish owner of the Daily Malta Chronicle who had strong connections with the British government.

The villa was let to Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle, in the 1920s during his stay on the island as an officer of the British Navy. It was probably Lord Mountbatten who, years later, ‘introduced’ the villa to the royal couple.

In 1949 the villa changed hands to Joseph Schembri, one of the foremost businessmen on the island at the time and a member of parliament with the Malta Labour Party. Schembri was also strongly pro-British, to the extent that he named his vessel Lord Strickland after the man who founded the Anglo-Maltese Party in 1921 and soon after the Constitutional Party together with Augustus Bartolo. The villa remained the property of the Schembri descendants until 2018, when it was put on the market.

D

espite the fact that Villa Guardamangia was home to so many people over the years, its most famous residents remain Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, who were married in 1947 and lived at the villa intermittently between 1949 and 1951. While in Malta, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was an officer of the Royal Navy and Princess Elizabeth was known to frequently wave him goodbye from the Harbour Fire Command station at Fort St Elmo.

Villa Guardamangia is the only known place outside Great Britain where an heir to the throne of the United Kingdom has resided, and the only place which Queen Elizabeth II has described as ‘home’. While in Malta, the princess was able to lead a ‘normal’ life unburdened by official duties, as amply testified by Mountbatten’s daughter, Pamela Hicks, in her memoir Daughter of Empire. Life as a Mountbatten (London, 2013).

Villa Guardamangia was acquired by the Government of Malta in a gloomy state of disrepair. However, Heritage Malta will surely do justice to this gem of a dwelling reviving it to its former splendour not only to enrich Malta’s cultural heritage but also in remembrance of all those who had the privilege of declaring it as their address down the passage of time.

Top: Referred to fondly by Queen Elizabeth as ‘home’, Villa Guardamangia is the only property outside Great Britain in which the royal family has resided. Photograph Frank Attard, courtesy Heritage Malta. Above: Once restored, Villa Guardamangia’s display will focus on the relations between Malta and Great Britain through the ages while creating a historic house approach on the first floor, reconstructing it as it was during Princess Elizabeth’s residence in the mid-20th century. Pictured here, over the garden, the missing piece of the terrace is where the above photo was taken over half a century ago.

Below: Recently Minister Herrera was interviewed at Villa Guardamangia by BBC's Europe Correspondent Nick Beake as part of a feature Malta remembers Prince Philip.

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RETIREMENT PLANNING HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE STATE PENSION SYSTEM?

Retirement and the State Pension For most people pensions are not something that are thought about on a daily basis. Pensions tend to hit the radar screen when people get close to 50 years old after children have just about left home, and the house mortgage has been nearly paid off. The two major expenditures that a household experiences in its lifetime are done. At 50 years of age, retirement now starts to seem very much in touching distance. By the age of 50, however, most of us have already made many of our financial decisions for our retirement writes the team at ĠEMMA. The question, however, is: did we make the right decisions based on the right information? Photography Matthew Waring.

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RETIREMENT PLANNING

H

ow well do you know the State Pension System?

Seriously. Take 5 minutes. What do you know about it? How does it work? Are you confident that what you know is correct? Give it a try: On what aspects of your compensation package do you pay your contribution? What is your Maximum Pensionable Income?

Does this increase and if so how?

How many contributions do you need to accumulate for you to receive the full pension? Do you qualify for any credits?

The chances are that very few people are able to answer these questions correctly. Yet - on average, assuming that we retire at 65 years of age, your expected retirement will last 15 years if male or 20 years if female… and continues to increase from year to year. Yet far too many of us leave it far too late in planning our retirement nest egg - risking facing unwelcome surprises when receiving the first pension cheque and suddenly having to take stock of how we are to finance our retirement lifestyle.

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alta’s pension system is known as Pay As you Go (PAYG). It works as follows: the contribution you pay does not go into your pension account but into a general account that finances the pension of current pensioners today. The system assumes that by the time you retire there will be the same ratio of persons paying your pension. The contribution you pay is not only for your retirement pension but also provides you with a package of benefits such as an invalidity pension or unemployment benefits.

PAYG is based on demographics and active employment. When the system was introduced in 1979 unisex longevity was lower than 70 years of age and the fertility rate higher than 2.1. By 2004, unisex longevity surpassed 75 years of age and the fertility rate was around 1.5.

A 2004 World Bank report commissioned by the Government showed that these two underpinning cornerstones of the PAYG system changed so dramatically while the

system itself remained unchanged during the intervening 30 years, that the adequacy of the pension of persons retiring in 2050 would collapse to less than 20% of the average wage. Simply put, the World Bank showed that Malta’s pension system, unless, significantly reformed, would collapse.

A journey of pension reform has been embarked upon since 2004, and nearly 20 years later pension reform remains in the public limelight.

Why? One important measure implemented in 2007 was that the pension system is reviewed every 5 years - to avoid a repeat of what happened between 1979 and 2005, where nearly 30 years of no change to the system, as its internal dynamics changed radically, brought the system to the brink of collapse.

This 5-year Pension Strategic Review was carried out in 2010 and 2015, and we are now undergoing the 3rd Pension Strategic Review. An independent team set by the Government presented its thinking in December 2020. A comprehensive consultation process has just been completed, and the independent group will present its final report to the Government following a study of the feedback by mid-summer this year.

Since 2004 significant changes have been introduced to the pension system to render it both sustainable and adequate. Pension system review is a continuous process as the health of the pension system depends on many inputs such as female, elderly and migrant labour participation, gender equality, supporting systems such as informal care and child care, changes in societal norms, etc. These changes included increases in the retirement age, the number of years of pension contributions to qualify for a full pension, the manner in which pension income is calculated, the way the Maximum Pensionable Income increases is adjusted, credits for child-rearing, gender equalisation measures, etc.

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hich brings us back to the title of this article: how well do you know the pension system? Probably not too well. This is not surprising.

People’s financial decision-making is impacted by what is known as behavioural heuristics. With regards

to long-term financial planning which is what pensions are to most people - two behavioural heuristics stand out: myopia and inertia.

Retirement planning is key to your continued well-being. Retirement constitutes 37.5% of your working life - and growing. Poor decisions taken today vis-à-vis planning for your retirement may affect your quality of life during retirement.

While the pension system provides you with an adequate pension in retirement, it does not provide a middle-income earner with a pension income that nears income earned whilst in employment.

To bridge the gap between the guaranteed State pension income and income in employment a person must take active action to build their retirement nest egg. The earlier one starts in life - ideally before the age of 30 - the larger will the retirement nest egg be.

The mathematics behind building a good-sized retirement nest egg is simple: it is a matter of compound and time - and a small monthly retirement investment if initiated early enough will accumulate a healthy retirement nest egg.

The Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family, and Children’s Rights manages the government financial education platform ĠEMMA which can be found at www.gemma.gov.mt. The website is a source of education on retirement income and financial capability, and full of information, tools, videos, etc. on the pension system. ĠEMMA recently launched a 19 part video series explaining the pension system and how it affects you. ĠEMMA encourages you to take some time to go through this video series and guarantees that by the end of the series you will definitely know much more about the Pension System and will be better equipped to plan for your future.

Visit the ĠEMMA pension video series at www.gemma.gov.mt/videos/ and ĠEMMA at www.gemma.gov.mt to learn and know more about retirement and money management.

Left: Most people dream of traveling when they retire. Major expenses in life like a house mortgage have been taken care of, and people look forward to enjoying a new more carefree chapter in their lives. Making the right financial decisions today will have a big impact on how you can enjoy your future. Image: Santorini, Greece.

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RETIREMENT PLANNING DO YOU EVER THINK ABOUT WHAT YOUR LIFE WILL LOOK LIKE TOMORROW?

TOP UP YOUR PENSION

You may hope that your retirement is full of lavish holidays, fun-filled times with family, or projects that make you happy - but are you going to save enough to make that happen? A personal pension plan could help you achieve your financial goals in retirement, explains APS Bank’s Head of Investments Distribution Kenneth Genovese. Photography courtesy APS Bank.

Realistically, just like a plain slice of bread, you may need to top up your pension to make it more 'appetising', to go from adequate to comfortable. By supplementing your State pension with your own personal pension plan, you’re taking control of your future and the life you want to lead after you retire.

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RETIREMENT PLANNING

LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING. WHAT EXACTLY IS A PERSONAL PENSION? personal pension helps you save money for your retirement. It tops up your state pension, which may not be enough to enjoy those coveted retirement years in the manner you’ve been dreaming about. Every time you make a contribution to your pension plan, your investment grows, and this helps you establish a consistent, regular income for when you retire. The amount of the payout received will depend on the amount invested and the performance of the investments over the long term. The APS Personal Pension Plan has different investment options and our Pension Specialists can guide you on the best choices according to your individual circumstances.

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TRADITIONALLY, VERY FEW PEOPLE IN MALTA HAVE PRIORITISED GETTING A PERSONAL PENSION. WHY SHOULD THEY START NOW? There are a number of very good reasons. The first is that a private pension makes good tax sense, and currently rewards you with a rebate of 25% per year up to a maximum of €750.

Secondly, it effectively tops up your state pension, which, on its own, may not afford you the lifestyle you’re looking forward to in retirement. Finally, getting a private pension will help to compound your savings over time, and to grow them so you can look forward to them being worth a lot more than they are now.

As a result, the sooner you start, the healthier your pension pot will look by the time you reach retirement age.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING EVERYONE SHOULD DO. WHAT STOPS PEOPLE FROM GETTING A PERSONAL PENSION? In a nutshell, no one wants to think about getting older – so they just put it off. We tend to focus on what we want to do today and would rather spend our money now than invest it in something that will help us to live better in the future. We also think the state will take care of us when we’re older and, while there may be a

state pension in the future, it probably won’t be enough to help you live the way you want to.

For instance, the maximum state pension today gives you less than €1,000 per month. But if you earn more money with your current job, you will definitely feel the difference in your way of living when you start relying on your lower pension income. An APS Personal Pension Plan will allow you to plan for that and enable you to have the retirement you’ve dreamed of – and worked for! – your whole life.

AS AN INDIVIDUAL, WHERE SHOULD I START BUILDING UP MY PERSONAL PENSION? ou can start with as little as €50 per month to begin to grow your pension pot for the future. It doesn’t have to be huge amounts monthon-month. We also offer flexibility to increase or decrease your premiums in-line with one’s circumstances, while also offering the option to stop for a period if necessary. In fact, at the moment, €3,000 per year is ideal because it enables you to take maximum advantage of the tax benefits currently being offered. As you start to pay in, you’ll have a range of investment strategies to choose from, and will always have online access to your pension plan portal.

Then, when your retirement does roll around, you can choose between receiving your pension as a tax-free lump sum with a monthly income, or simply as a monthly income. If you want to take that once-in-a-life holiday that you’ve saved long and hard for, this is the time!

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BESIDES PERSONAL PENSION PLANS, IS THERE SOMETHING AN EMPLOYER CAN DO TO HELP TAKE CARE OF THEIR EMPLOYEES ONCE THEY RETIRE? Yes, and there are a number of noteworthy benefits. By offering the APS Occupational Pension Scheme, you’ll introduce a system that is beneficial to both you and your team. It also highlights your commitment to your employees by investing in their future, which helps position you as an Employer of Choice. In short, companies offering staff pension schemes have a real advantage over those who don’t.

WHY SHOULD I CHOOSE APS BANK AS MY PENSION PROVIDER? Pensions are a long-term business and when choosing your pension provider, the most important thing is the reliability and reputation of the provider. APS Bank has been in existence for over 100 years, having started as a savings bank in 1910 and from that time has grown to one of the main banking institutions in Malta. The Bank is fully owned by Maltese shareholders and we pride ourselves as being the leading community bank in Malta. If you set up your pension with us, you’ll receive expert advice from the get-go and know that our goal is the best possible outcome for you.

WHAT MAKES APS’ PENSION PRODUCTS STAND OUT? e believe it is the combination of our trusted reputation and the complete flexibility of our pensions product that really set it apart. You can start saving as soon as you like, stop your premiums if money gets tight for a while, and then start them again when suits.

Plus, you’ll have a range of investment options to choose from, depending on whether you want your portfolio to be high, medium or low risk, or possibly opt for an ethical option.

It’s a product that fits your lifestyle today while helping you prepare for good times tomorrow.

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HOW DO I GET STARTED ON AN APS PENSION PLAN FOR MYSELF OR MY EMPLOYEES? Get in touch. Our expert team, specialised in pensions, looks forward to talking you through your options and identifying the right investments to grow your pension pot for a future you can look forward to. It all starts today!

To learn more about the APS Pensions visit apsbank.com.mt/personal-pension and apsbank.com.mt/occupational-pension or call 2122 66644.

The information in this article is general background information and should not be interpreted as financial, legal or tax advice. Prospective members should strongly consider obtaining independent financial, legal and tax advice before making any decision which could affect his/her investment and pension. The value of investments may rise as well as fall and currency fluctuations may affect the value of the investment. For further information relating to membership in the APS Personal Pension Plan / APS Occupational Pension Scheme, please refer to the respective Scheme Document or alternatively contact info@apsbank.com.mt.

Future changes in law and taxation could affect the treatment of the scheme and the amount of tax payable and all references to taxation are based on our understanding of current taxation law and practice as of October 2020. In order to establish their own tax status, prospective participants should seek professional tax advice.

Approved and issued by APS Bank plc, APS Centre, Tower Street, B’Kara BKR 4012. APS Bank plc is regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority as a Credit Institution under the Banking Act 1994 and to carry out Investment Services activities under the Investment Services Act 1994. The APS Personal Pension Plan is licensed and regulated as a personal retirement scheme by the Malta Financial Services Authority in terms of the Retirement Pensions Act (Chapter 514 of the Laws of Malta). This article has been prepared and approved by Trireme Pension Services (Malta) Limited (as the retirement scheme administrator) and APS Bank plc (as distributor of the scheme).

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GREENING ECONOMY The latest trends of the Maltese workforce in the transition to a Greener Economy

GREENING MALTESE INDUSTRY

It goes without saying that the coronavirus crisis has, and still is, proving to be a challenging period for global industries and governments. Together we are striving to do our utmost to save livelihoods, jobs, and businesses. Notwithstanding, the unprecedented complexities being presented through this pandemic are obliging us to seek out opportunities for economic recovery. Together with our EU counterparts, we have found ourselves strategically positioned to make such recovery a sustainable one. It is clearer than ever, that the linear economic model is no longer sustainable. The EU Commission’s ‘European Green Deal’ and the ‘Circular Economy Action Plan’, both focus on the cornerstones to make the revival of our economy just, and inclusive of all persons and places, even during the current pandemic period, writes the team at the Ministry for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning. Photography Chronis Yan.

Results of the Green Jobs Survey in Malta, and similar surveys on a national as well as European and global level, continue to emphasise the urgency of taking necessary measures to ensure that, whilst the world economy recovers, equal attention is given to the state of the environment.

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GREENING ECONOMY

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n line with the plans included in the European Green Deal, Malta has recently launched the Economic Vision for 20202025. The overarching principle on which Malta’s Economic Vision is built is ‘the attainment of a better quality of life’. The ambitious target of becoming carbon neutral dovetails perfectly with this principle. Working towards carbon neutrality, in turn, means, better air quality for all, especially through incentivising low emission transport modes.

This vision is an ambitious one, however also attainable, where it has intermediate goals for 2030, and 2040. Through this vision, the Government is committed to ensure that the principle of sustainability is at the heart of the economic revival plan it will adopt, whilst focusing its energies on green and blue growth.

Analysis of the green economy in Malta has been ongoing. One way of understanding the way in which our economy is fairing in this respect is through an analysis of the trends and evolution of the Green Jobs in Malta.

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he latest Green Jobs Survey in Malta was carried out during 2019 and 2020. The aim of the survey was to compare the current growth trends that Malta’s economy has been undergoing in certain sectors, and which contributed to the strengthening of this niche market. The survey also seeks to understand whether there are any stumbling blocks, which could be identified from data-driven assessments.

The survey targeted enterprises that employ over five employees.

From the survey it transpired that 7,235 of 131,881 employees were engaged in environmental activities. One in every 5 enterprises were found to be engaged in green jobs. From a gender perspective, those engaged in environmental activities were predominantly male, amounting to 76%, who also occupy 84% of managerial positions, when compared to their female counterparts. The majority of the workers engaged in green jobs were between 25-49 years of age.

71% of workers had wages ranging from €10,000 to nearly €25,000.

The top green-job employers were the manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and construction

sectors. The three most common environmental activities that emerged for characterising green jobs were renewable energy, with 22.2% of total environmental activity, solid waste management at 20%, and recycled materials at 19%. On the other hand, the incidence of finding green jobs was least common in air pollution control at 3.1%, nature protection at 1%, and remediation and cleanup of soil and ground-water, attracting a 0.2% activity rate when comparing green job incidence in the sector. It is also worthy to note that the larger the companies, the larger the percentage of green jobs.

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esults of this and other such surveys and observances, both at a national as well as European and global level, continue to emphasise the urgency of taking necessary measures to ensure that, whilst the world economy recovers, equal attention is given to the state of the environment.

The economy and the environment must be maintained together, as one cannot flourish without the input of the other.

The state of the global economy and the condition of the environment affect the livelihoods of all global citizens. This has been evident with the hardships brought about suddenly and unexpectedly by the Covid-19 pandemic. Economic and environmental objectives are often perceived as being contradictory, with the misconception that both cannot be achieved concurrently.

Results and analysis of such studies, serve as a solid basis upon which the transition from the traditional economy to a circular economy, can continue happening. The recovery plan from the current pandemic, also takes into account the need of rebuilding an economy that is sustainable, and which not only allows us a good quality of life but also protects the quality of life of future generations in line with the concepts of sustainability. The Government is committed to continue working towards a greener and Circular Economy, which will create better and more sustainable green jobs.

Follow the Ministry for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning on Facebook and Instagram through the Ambjent and Environment Malta pages, to find out more.

Above: The latest Green Jobs Survey in Malta, compiled by the National Statistics Office, was carried out in 2019 and 2020. The survey targeted enterprises that employ over five employees; sole traders were not included in the sample.

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GOING GREEN AND SUSTAINABLE

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GOING GREEN AND SUSTAINABLE Going green is a transition. A journey that government, policymakers, stakeholders, and citizens need to carry out together. Sustainability is the frame of mind that will get us there. In my work I have come across companies trying to become more sustainable, entrepreneurs coming up with innovative ideas and children and youths expressing their wish to see greener initiatives across Malta and Gozo.

THE GREEN PATH

Making conscious decisions of what and how we consume

Ever thought of how you could contribute to sustainability in your everyday life? I can imagine that right now, you must be thinking about how you have switched to reusable grocery bags, opted out of plastic straws, considered buying bamboo cutlery, and how you are separating your waste daily. That is all well and good. If we take single-use plastic as an example, the world produces roughly 300 million tons of plastic each year, and half of it is disposable. Worldwide, only 10-13% of plastic items are recycled. So, if you are doing your part and reducing plastic consumption as much as possible, well done! However, being green and sustainable goes beyond just reducing plastic writes Dr Miriam Dalli, Malta's Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Sustainable Development. Photography Bernard Polidano.

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t’s about conscious daily decisions of what and how we consume. Technological advancements today allow us to be more efficient in what we consume. This means that our daily habits don’t change. But in carrying out these actions, we can consume less.

A clear example of this can be found in the watersaving kits distributed to households. The EU-funded ‘Water Be The Change’ campaign run by the Energy & Water Agency is distributing water-saving kits to households, to be installed in bathrooms and kitchens.

The efficiency of the equipment results in the user consuming less water.

The government also recently launched the new PV scheme for households, in an effort to encourage more homes to make use of renewable energy. This will translate into a €9 million investment for families – the largest investment in renewable energy for housing we have had to date.

The tariffs announced make it attractive for households

to invest long-term. By addressing previous anomalies, today we have a feed-in tariff valid for 20 years, which practically cover the lifetime of a panel.

In all, four different schemes are being offered, aimed at addressing people’s different needs whilst ensuring that those who have already invested will continue reaping the benefit of their investment. Technology is changing fast and storing energy is the next thing we are investing in. Hence, why we are now pushing the idea that energy generated from a renewable source – such as solar – is stored for use by households at any time. This is the sustainable concept we truly believe in: a domestic energy generation system, storage and usage which sees households at the center of the transition we are making.

We are also looking at concrete possibilities of tackling the issue of solar access and we are doing this jointly with other Ministries.

Households can become more sustainable with further technology, such as solar water heaters, heat pumps and air to water heat pumps. In this regard, we are planning to rollout new schemes in the coming weeks.

The private sector remains the public sector’s main partner.

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GOING GREEN AND SUSTAINABLE

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ithin my portfolio, I am responsible for energy, enterprise and sustainable development.

Throughout my work I have come across companies trying to become more sustainable, entrepreneurs coming up with innovative ideas and children and youths expressing their wish to see greener initiatives across Malta and Gozo.

Together with my team, we have been working hard on establishing policies that go in this direction. Our actions are guided by how these policies can be adapted in our dayto-day lives. Sustaining our workforce, our communities, and the environment are on top of my agenda and I will keep on working to prioritise these three aspects collectively.

Small business owners have only a limited amount of time and budget they can commit to supporting the local community. That’s where we

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come in, with schemes and incentives that can help the hard-working businessman be part of the change that supports the wellbeing of our citizens. By investing in energyefficient equipment and buildings, we are reducing emissions, thus helping have cleaner air. In return, improved air quality is beneficial for all, ensuring healthier lives.

Going green is a transition. A journey that government, policymakers, stakeholders, and citizens need to carry out together.

Sustainability is the frame of mind that will get us there.

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nother key tool in this chain is an investment in research and innovation. As a firm believer in the importance of research and innovation, I am glad that this month, the Energy and Water Agency is launching the second call for Research and Innovation projects. This call follows other similar calls, including the

recently-announced shortlisted four projects which seek to research solutions for infectious diseases. This COVID-19 R&I Fund was comanaged by Malta Enterprise and the Malta Council for Science Technology.

Sustainability is the underpinning concept in all of these different investments in different sectors. This is why a mind-shift is needed to reflect sustainability in our day-today lives, and why the government will keep on working with the aim to support and educate the general public in this regard.

Change does not happen overnight but it has to be planned strategically and holistically through a staggered approach. In these challenging times, this holds greater weight.

Sustainability is a way of life and should be an intrinsic part of our actions, our behaviour, our investments, how we build, and how we dispose. Think of it as a vision, where you are part of the solution to a greener planet.

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ENVIRONMENT ONLINE

Going Digital

The Environment at Your Fingertips As the national regulator on the environment, ERA’s philosophy is to maintain consultation with stakeholders for sound environmental management. A challenging job in a normal fast-paced world - an even tougher task when bringing people from different walks of life together to discuss and shape an environmental policy during a pandemic. To keep abreast with current needs and services, ERA had to go digital and over the past year launched several platforms intended to digitize services such as a new Customer Care interface, an Air Monitoring widget, digital forms empowering citizen science, the Environment Resources Information System (ERIS), and the Malta Environment Platform & Services (MEPS) geoportal to access geospatial information. The team at ERA explain these new online platforms that give you the power of information from home.

Above: The Malta Environment Platform & Services (MEPS) geoportal gives access to geospatial information, with categories including air quality, enforcement, protected areas on both an international and national level, etc. Top: The MEPS geoportal can give detailed information, such as different protected species.

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ENVIRONMENT ONLINE

The Environment Resources Information System (ERIS), an online client interface, enables the public to apply, follow and review their applications.

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midst all the challenges that have been thrown at us this year, ERA managed to rise to the occasion thanks to the hard work and determination of its employees, the active participation of stakeholders and above all, its continuous investments in new resources enabled it to remain agile as a new normal unfolded.

Being a young authority with foresight, ERA invested in the right infrastructure to enable mobile working with priority, with laptops for the team and remote connectivity as needed from day one. On the other side of the coin were ERA’s customers, and this is where ERA’s new digital services come in.

To keep abreast with current needs and services, ERA had to go digital. This not only helped in reducing contact during the pandemic but also contributed to greater ease of access to environmental data and services, while also making the process friendlier to the environment with less paper and less travel needs.

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ver the past year, ERA have launched several platforms intended to digitize services such as a new Customer Care interface, an Air Monitoring widget, digital forms empowering citizen science, the Environment Resources Information System (ERIS) - an online client interface that enables the public to apply, follow and review their applications in a transparent and efficient manner, and the Malta Environment Platform & Services (MEPS) geoportal that allows for the visualisation of an unlimited amount of environmental

Over the past year ERA have launched several digital services which can easily be accessed on the e-tools section of their web era.org.mt

geospatial information.

To go into a bit more detail, the Environment Resources Information System (ERIS) makes it easier for the public to view new permits that have been submitted through this system using the search function embedded within the portal.

Moreover, the platform uses the applicant’s e-ID to login thus providing a safer login feature. The interface is available in both Maltese and English and also features an online payment system.

The MEPS Geoportal on the other hand is an evolving and powerful resource for developing evidence-based policy and for research. This geoportal contains a map of the Maltese islands with all the necessary environmental data on-demand superimposed on the map.

This geoportal was developed to provide a single reference point for environmental information for anyone interested in obtaining further information. This service makes it easier for citizens, businesses,

academia, policymakers, and NGOs to make conscious decisions and instigate changes when equipped with credible, regular and timely information about the state of our environment. It includes several functionalities that aim to facilitate the experience of users, including search functions, measurement tools and drawing tools.

The hi-tech journey that ERA is taking will see it further embrace additional and more innovative solutions in the near future, while increasing ERA’s outreach on various social media platforms with the end goal of protecting the environment we all live in for our own wellbeing.

For more information about the works undertaken by ERA, visit: era.org.mt

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PROMOTION Grants including Scrappage Schemes in line with the 2021 BUDGET

ENVIRONMENTFRIENDLY VEHICLE GRANTS This April, Dr. Ian Borg, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects, announced the largest package of transport financial grants ever awarded through Transport Malta. These schemes are a demonstration of the strategy and commitment of the Authority for Transport in Malta (Transport Malta) to continue making a difference in order to achieve our main goal as well as to maintain our European commitment. The grants incentivise the registering of new environment-friendly vehicles, writes the team at Transport Malta.

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PROMOTION The five grants are based on schemes as follows:

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GAS CONVERSION SCHEME TO CONVERT VEHICLES TO AUTOGAS/LPG.

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GOVERNMENT GRANT INCLUDING SCRAPPAGE SCHEME ON THE PURCHASE OF PEDELECS AND CATEGORY L VEHICLES. GRANT A:

Grant amounts to €400 which will be given upon the conversion to Autogas/LPG of a Category M1 vehicle (passenger car) or a Category N1 vehicle (goods carrying). A grant of €800 will be paid when a heavyduty motor vehicle is retrofitted with HDDF system resulting in a reduction of smoke emissions of at least 25%.

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GRANT SCHEME ON THE PURCHASE OF NEW ENVIRONMENTFRIENDLY M1 VEHICLES (PASSENGER CARS).

This consists of an equivalent amount of registration tax paid on that vehicle, which is capped by a maximum monetary amount and an emission level requirement. The grant shall be given upon the purchase of a new M1 or a M1 Hybrid vehicle that qualifies for the grant scheme whilst at the same time de-registering a M1 or N1 vehicle. Eligible persons shall be entitled to only one grant under this scheme whereas NGOs may apply under this scheme provided that they carry out an economic activity. They are also to make sure that they do not exceed the State Aid thresholds established in the De Minimis Regulation.

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GRANT SCHEME ON THE PURCHASE OF NEW ENVIRONMENTFRIENDLY M1 VEHICLES.

This consists of grants on the purchase of electric vehicles to promote electromobility for Individuals, Local Councils, registered NGOs, and private companies.

Registered businesses and registered Private Companies, and the amount of grant as stipulated in the De Minimis Regulations, (i.e., a maximum of €200,000 in de minimis aid per single undertaking over a period of three consecutive fiscal years or €100,000 in the case of undertaking performing road freight transport for hire or reward) and grant can be availed with a mix and match of vehicles as follows.

GRANT B: €1000 when a person who registers a new pedelec or Category L vehicle eligible for Grant A de-registers a Category M1 or N1 vehicle which is older than 10 years from its year of manufacture or €500 when a person who registers a new pedelec or Category L vehicle eligible for Grant A de-registers a Category L vehicle which is older than 10 years from its year of manufacture.

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PURCHASE OF NEW WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE VEHICLES TO BE USED AS TAXIS OR AS A PASSENGER TRANSPORT VEHICLE.

Persons who own a Taxi licence, Light Passenger Transport Operator Licence, or Carriage of Passenger Operator Licence, may receive a grant amounting to €10,000 when licensing a new M1, M2, or M3 vehicle which is wheelchair accessible and used under any of these licences, and at the same time de-register another M1, N1, M2, or M3 which is at least 10 years old from its year of manufacture which had a valid circulation licence issued in Malta for the past five years and is registered and licensed in their name.

This grant only applies when another vehicle with an internal combustion engine having at least 10 years from the year of its manufacture and which had a valid licence for the past 5 years is de-registered and scrapped at an authorised destruction facility.

All related information, grant amounts, technical requirements, application forms, eligibility criteria, together with all related full publications, can be found on Transport Malta’s website www.transport.gov.mt or obtained by contacting the Authority on info.tm@transport.gov.mt.

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WOMEN IN SCIENCE

At the start of her career Katherine Johnson worked in a pool of women performing math calculations. Their main job was to read the data from the black boxes of planes and carry out other precise mathematical tasks. One day Johnson and a colleague were temporarily assigned to help the allmale flight research team. Johnson’s knowledge of analytic geometry helped make quick allies of male bosses and colleagues to the extent that, “they forgot to return me to the pool”. While the racial and gender barriers were always there, Johnson ignored them.

She was assertive, asking to be included in editorial meetings – where no women had gone before. She simply told people she had done the work and that she belonged. Katherine Johnson At Her Desk at NASA Langley Research Center.

Photograph NASA, Bob Nye.

THE 4 WOMEN SCIENTISTS THAT WERE KEY TO NASA’S 1969 APOLLO MISSION

“WHAT IF” AND “WHY NOT”

Without them, man would not have walked on the moon. Katherine Johnson – NASA space scientist and mathematician whose trajectory analysis was crucial for the lunar landing; Margaret Hamilton – the lead programmer on Apollo’s groundbreaking guidance computer; Frances Northcutt – the first female engineer to be part of mission control at NASA; and JoAnn Morgan – as instrumentation controller, she was the solitary woman visible inside NASA’s firing room for the Apollo launch. Here are their stories.

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welve people have walked on the Moon between July 1969 and December 1972 as part of NASA’s Apollo program and all were men. Most astronauts at that time came from the military services and were considered to be on active duty during their NASA service. Behind the scenes, thousands of people worked on the science and technology needed for the landings. Among these, many were women – computer engineers, mathematicians, secretaries and seamstresses. Four key women involved included Katherine Johnson, Margaret Hamilton, Frances Northcutt and JoAnn Morgan. Each one has a unique story.

WOMEN IN SCIENCE

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atherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights.

During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks. The space agency noted her “historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist”.

Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in 1918, in the era of segregation. At a young age she demonstrated a rare talent for maths.

Her mother was a teacher and her father was a lumberman, farmer, and handyman who encouraged her in her studies to go further, saying she would go to college. He was right and she graduated in 1937. Johnson decided on a career as a research mathematician, a difficult field for African Americans and women to enter. In 1953, already married and with children, she joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA) Langley laboratory. She spent four years as a computer analyzing flight test data, joining the massive effort to compete with the Soviet Union in the cold war rivalry of the time.

In keeping with state racial segregation laws, Johnson and the other African-American women in the computing pool were required to work, eat, and use bathrooms that were separate from their white peers.

Their office was labeled as “Colored Computers”. NACA disbanded the colored computing pool in 1958 when the agency was superseded by NASA, which adopted digital computers. Although the installation was desegregated, forms of discrimination were still pervasive.

From 1958 until her retirement in 1986, Johnson worked as an aerospace technologist. She calculated the trajectory for the 1961 space flight of Alan Shepard, the first American in space. She also calculated the launch window for his 1961 Mercury mission. She plotted backup navigation charts for astronauts in case of electronic failures. When NASA used electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn’s orbit around Earth, officials called on Johnson to verify the computer’s numbers; Glenn had asked for her specifically and had refused to fly unless Johnson verified the calculations. Her trajectory

analysis was also crucial to the Apollo program, in particular the synching of the lunar lander with the command and service module. Her calculations were also essential for the beginning of the space shuttle program. Johnson spent her later years encouraging students to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

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argaret Hamilton grew up in the midwest with her father teaching her to ask “what if ” and “why not”, and started her career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1959. She was director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed onboard flight software for NASA’s Apollo program for the command and lunar modules and is credited with popularizing the concept of

‘software engineering’.

In an article for MIT News Hamilton, now an independent computer scientist and business owner, described her contributions to the Apollo software: “From my own perspective, the software experience itself (designing it, developing it, evolving it, watching it perform and learning from it for future systems) was at least as exciting as the events surrounding the mission. … There was no second chance. We knew that.

We took our work seriously, many of us beginning this journey while still in our 20s. Coming up with solutions and new ideas was an adventure.

Dedication and commitment were a given. Mutual respect was across the board. Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust. We had to find a way and we did. Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers.”

Margaret Hamilton standing next to the navigation software that she and her MIT team produced for the Apollo Project.

Her father taught her to ask “what if ” and “why not”.

Photograph Wikipedia Commons.

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WOMEN IN SCIENCE

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orn in Louisiana, Frances “Poppy” Northcutt studied maths at the University of Texas because she thought it would help her get “a man’s job”. After graduating she was hired in 1965 by TRW, an aerospace contractor with NASA in Houston, as a computress for the new Apollo program. After six months, she had her first performance evaluation, and the head of Houston operations wanted to promote her to technical staff, the term they used for staff doing engineering work.

Northcutt was the first woman to work as technical staff, but the pay difference was so large that the company did not have mechanisms in place to approve her promotion. The operations manager had to schedule pay raises as frequently as possible so that Northcutt’s salary was equitable compared to her male colleagues. This experience with the gender pay gap inspired her later activism for women’s rights.

Northcutt was stationed in the Mission Control’s Mission Planning and Analysis room. She and her team designed the return-to-Earth trajectory that the Apollo 8 crew took from the Moon back to Earth. She was able to identify mistakes in the plan, including making calculations that lowered the amount of fuel used to swing around the Moon. Apollo 8 was the second crewed Apollo spacecraft and became the first crewed mission to ever leave Earth orbit, successfully reaching the Moon, orbiting it and returning to earth safely.

Northcutt continued working with TRW and NASA for several more years, working on NASA missions such as Apollo 13. After learning about the exploded oxygen tank on the Apollo 13 mission, Northcutt and the other engineers who developed the computer program for Apollo 13 all came in to find a way to get the astronauts home safely. The program that she worked on was used to compute the maneuvers used to return the spacecraft.

Right: JoAnn Morgan watches from the launch firing room during the launch of Apollo 11 in Cape Canaveral.

Morgan, who worked on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, went on to become the Kennedy Space Center’s first female senior executive. Photograph NASA. Below: Launch controllers in the firing room at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. In a sea of male colleagues, in the third row from the foreground at the centre is JoAnn Morgan, the first female launch controller. Photograph NASA.

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oAnn Morgan is an American aerospace engineer who was the first female engineer at the NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center and the first woman to serve as a senior executive at Kennedy Space Center. As the Apollo 11 mission lifted off on the Saturn V rocket, propelling humanity to the surface of the Moon for the very first time in 1969, members of the launch firing team inside Launch Control Center watched through a window. The room was crowded with men in white shirts and dark ties, watching attentively as the rocket thrust into the sky. But among them sat one woman – the only woman in the launch firing room for the Apollo 11 liftoff – Morgan, the instrumentation controller for Apollo 11. Today, this is what Morgan is most known for. But her career at NASA spanned over 45 years, and she continued to break ceiling after ceiling for women involved with the space program.

As a child, Morgan loved math, science and

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WOMEN IN SCIENCE

music, and was convinced she would grow up to become a piano teacher. But that quickly changed after her father uprooted the entire family from their close-knit community in Alabama to Titusville, Florida.

An opportunity would come when Morgan spotted an advertisement for two open positions with the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. The ad listed two Engineer’s Aide positions available for two students over the summer. “Thank God it said ‘students’ and not ‘boys’” says Morgan, “otherwise I wouldn’t have applied.” With her strengths in math and science, she got the internship. At age 17, Morgan began work during the summers as a University of Florida trainee for the Army at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This program was quickly rolled into a brand-new space exploration agency that had just been forged in response to early Soviet achievements: a little agency called the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration, also known as NASA. Morgan was a talented mathematician, a fantastic communicator and a bona fide engineer – but that didn’t stop prejudice, especially in the sixties. The NASA article Rocket Fuel in Her Blood: The Story of JoAnn Morgan writes that Morgan later heard from colleagues that when she was hired to join the team, her immediate supervisor, Jim White, called everyone for a meeting – except her. As the room filled with men, White explained to the crew: “This is a young lady who wants to be an engineer. You’re to treat her like an engineer. But she’s not your buddy. You call her Ms. Hardin. You’re not to be familiar.” “Well, can we ask her to make coffee?” someone asked. “No,” White said. “You don’t ask an engineer to make coffee.” White wanted to make it perfectly clear to the team: Morgan was a serious engineer, and her being a woman did nothing to affect that. By speaking candidly with the team, White intended to establish an

environment of respect for Morgan. However, this was not always how it worked.

Morgan was forced to overcome obstacles ranging from obscene phone calls at her station to needing a security guard to clear out the men’s only restroom. In spite of working for several programs, and being promoted to a senior engineer, Morgan was still not permitted in the firing room at liftoff – until Apollo 11.

Karl Sendler, the man who had developed the launch processing systems for the Apollo program told her: “You are our best communicator. You’re going to be on the console for Apollo 11!”

The added bonus was the fact that Morgan wouldn’t have to work the night shift, 3pm to 3am. For the first time, she would get off work at 3 in the afternoon and spend time with her husband who, as a schoolteacher and bandmaster, she rarely got to see. As soon as the launch was over, he would whisk her off to Captiva Island on a boat trip to celebrate.

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WOMEN LEADERS

Sustainability Manager Justine Baldacchino is proud that Malta Airport's emissions were 46% lower than the average for EU airports in 2019. Her ultimate aim is to continue building on such milestones as the airport eyes the achievement of carbon neutrality by 2050.

As the Traffic Development Manager, Sandy Vella is a main point of contact between the airport and airlines already operating to Malta; and also responsible for identifying and analysing feasible opportunities for better connectivity for our islands.

Health and Safety Manager Daniela Borg manages all Occupational Health and Safety systems at Malta Airport which protect both employees and stakeholders, while also overseeing the design and planning of construction projects on the airport campus.

Teamwork

FLYING HIGH AT MALTA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT The COVID-19 pandemic may have brought the aviation industry to an almost complete standstill, but for these four women occupying unique and important roles within the Malta International Airport team, time has certainly not stood still.

Daniela Borg, Sandy Vella, Justine Baldacchino and Kimberly Vella discuss their very different roles. Photography courtesy Malta International Airport.

HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGER DANIELA BORG

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n becoming the airport’s Health and Safety Manager, Daniela Borg broke through the concrete ceiling of a traditionally very maledominated field. Geared with a strong background in engineering, quality management, and occupational health and safety, Daniela manages all Occupational Health and Safety systems at Malta Airport which protect both employees and stakeholders, while also overseeing the design and planning of construction projects on the airport campus.

Daniela was instrumental in the safe and successful completion of the airport’s multi-storey car park, Park East; a multi-million-euro project which coincided with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Facing the challenge head-on, she was active in the preparations of a robust response plan and the introduction of effective infection control precautions inside the terminal.

It has been a hectic year, but problem-solving and multitasking have become second nature to Daniela 42

WOMEN LEADERS

since becoming a mother of twins a few years ago. Determination, coupled with the support she received from the company, empowered her to return to work once she was ready, and also encouraged her to further her studies.

Since then, she has obtained an MBA and has continued to specialise in Occupational Health and Safety management, and looks forward to new challenges and broadening her experience in the industry.

TRAFFIC DEVELOPMENT MANAGER SANDY VELLA

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s many of us long to take to the skies again, Sandy Vella is working on ensuring that, once COVID-19 restrictions are eased, a good selection of direct flights are available from our airport to scratch our year-long travel itch.

Having joined the Malta International Airport team as a fresh graduate after obtaining an MBA from the London School of Business and Finance, Sandy has worked her way up in an industry she feels still lacks good female representation at top positions.

The role of Traffic Development Manager does not only entail being the main point of contact between the airport and airlines already operating to Malta. Within a wider team of industry professionals, she is also responsible for identifying and analysing feasible opportunities for better connectivity for our islands.

Launching a new route and welcoming a new airline are always cause for celebration at the airport, and being an integral part of the team that sees such important developments through from initial discussions to materialisation, these moments are particularly rewarding for Sandy on a personal level.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have clipped the wings of a once-soaring industry, but her confidence in the resilience of aviation has not been dented. She is now counting the days to start filling the connectivity gaps left by the pandemic and seeing the airport bustle with life again.

SUSTAINABILITY MANAGER JUSTINE BALDACCHINO

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ocally, Malta Airport has been at the forefront of sustainability reporting, becoming the first Maltese company to report on its environmental, social, and economic impacts in line with the GRI standards. In June 2020, the company took yet another important step in ensuring that its sustainability commitments are met, with the official appointment of its first Sustainability Manager. Justine Baldacchino took on this role

after having served on the airport’s Corporate Responsibility Committee since 2017.

Barely a year has passed since Justine’s appointment, but with the support of her team, she has already been instrumental in the submission of Malta Airport’s application to proceed to Level 2 of the industry-acclaimed Carbon Accreditation Programme.

For some, the word ‘sustainability’ may still conjure up images of tree planting initiatives.

However, the role of Sustainability Manager at the airport is much more complex and farreaching.

Justine’s solid background in economics and analytics is helping her make sense of available data as she explores initiatives which balance community interests, the environment, and the airport’s economic performance over the long term.

One of the airport’s most noteworthy achievements is certainly the fact that its emissions were 46% lower than the average for EU airports in 2019. Her ultimate aim is to continue building on such milestones as the airport eyes the achievement of carbon neutrality by 2050.

her studies on the weather and climate of the Maltese Islands as she read for a BSc in Earth Systems.

Following a year-long internship at the MET Office, Kimberly embarked on another training programme in the United Kingdom to become a fully certified meteorological observer before returning to Malta to complete on-the-job training with senior members of the team before taking on her new role.

As fascinating as the job may sound, it also comes with great responsibility. After manually observing weather conditions, ranging from cloud height and visibility to dust suspension and rain, Kimberly then codes the information into detailed meteorological aerodrome reports which are regularly sent to pilots and Air Traffic Control to ensure the safety of operations within Malta’s airspace.

“While observing inclement weather and reporting on complex phenomena make my workdays more interesting, I must admit that nothing can beat a fine, sunny day!”

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVER KIMBERLY VELLA

Meteorological Observer Kimberly Vella manually observes weather conditions and codes the information into detailed meteorological aerodrome reports which are regularly sent to pilots and Air Traffic Control to ensure the safety of operations within Malta’s airspace.

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hile having your head in the clouds is a quality that usually has negative connotations associated with it, this is certainly not the case for Meteorological Observer Kimberly Vella, who aspired to work in meteorology from a very young age. A school visit to the MET Office fuelled her interest in pursuing a weather-related career, pushing her to focus

These are only four of the women who are achieving great things at Malta International Airport. Follow the airport on its socials to get to know more members of the team.

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WOMEN IN SCIENCE

Behind the scenes at the Malta Communications Authority

THE APPEAL OF COMM The Malta Communications Authority (MCA) is the National Regulatory Authority that works with various international bodies to harmonise the implementation of postal and electronic communication rules. Since its set up in 2001, MCA experts have taken part in international fora and in turn built further expertise to create a conducive environment for the sector to flourish in Malta. This sector predominantly attracts professionals who choose to specialize in the regulation of communications. The appeal is clear – being part of this dynamic field is exciting to people who enjoy the challenging work that comes with the prospect of innovation. In 2021, the MCA is proud to have three of its female staff members acting as co-Chairs of European bodies, including BEREC and CEPT. Their roles strategically contribute to the regulation of the communications sector, forging the way towards Europe’s digital future. Jean Marie Mifsud, Isabel Fereday and Deborah Pisani write about their work. Photography Rene Rossignaud.

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hat is BEREC? BEREC is the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications that contributes to the development and better functioning of the digital single market throughout the European Union. ”BEREC aims at fostering the independent, consistent and high-quality regulation of digital markets for the benefit of Europe and its citizens.” (BEREC strategy 2021-2025) It does so by working to ensure a consistent application of the EU regulatory framework, and through this it helps to bring even greater benefits to consumers and businesses alike.

BEREC sets the scene for the future of the European telecoms landscape and addresses the

sector’s future challenges. The new European Electronic Communications Code is a revision of the entire EU regulatory framework for the telecommunications sectors, it includes measures to stimulate investment in very high capacity networks, mobile connectivity, 5G, and also covers new rules for over-the-top services. BEREC is fully committed to assist in the implementation of these new rules and to working to accomplish the tasks assigned in the new Regulatory Framework. It will continue to provide its expertise in roaming, intra-EU calls and SMS, the open internet, and other crucial areas of the EU digital single market. It also advises the European Institutions and National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) via the publication of opinions, guidelines, recommendations, and regulatory best practice.

Jean Marie Mifsud (PhD), co-Chair working group Planning and Future Trends, BEREC.

JEAN MARIE MIFSUD (PHD), CO-CHAIR WORKING GROUP PLANNING AND FUTURE TRENDS, BEREC

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BEREC is the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications that contributes to the development and better functioning of the digital single market throughout the European Union. It does so by working to ensure a consistent application of the EU regulatory framework, and through this it helps to bring even greater benefits to consumers and businesses alike.

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number of Working Groups (WGs) are formed to assist in the completion of BEREC’s annual work programme. Each WG has two appointed co-Chairs from different NRAs. I have been appointed as the co-Chair of the WG Planning and Future Trends (PFT) for 2021 and 2022. This WG has a strategic role to keep abreast with new developments that may impact BEREC’s future work. In line with this objective, this WG will organise a workshop inviting experts to discuss the envisioned impact of 5G on regulation.

BEREC maintains a collaborative relationship with a number of institutions and international bodies. The PFT WG will be publishing two mid-term strategies to increase the effectiveness of these collaborative relationships.

The PFT WG is also tasked with developing the BEREC Work Programme for the following year.

As an NRA of the Electronic Communications Networks and Services of a Member State, and therefore a member of the internal market, the MCA is committed to actively participate in BEREC’s work. This role, therefore, provides an opportunity for the Authority to increase its level of engagement and contribution within BEREC.

WOMEN IN SCIENCE

MUNICATIONS ISABEL FEREDAY, CO-CHAIR EXPERT NETWORKING GROUP COMMUNICATIONS, BEREC

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have been appointed for a second term as co-Chair of the Expert Networking Group for Communications. In this role, it is with great pleasure that I contribute and share best practices with the group members in the niche area of telecoms communication.

The group is tasked with communicating with stakeholders by developing content on topical issues based on BEREC’s strategic priorities and objectives.

As co-Chair, I steer and prepare the communications strategy and theannual communications plan, including presentations, brochures,videos, campaigns, etc., which are then produced with support from theBEREC office and in collaboration with the members of the group, todeliver informative material on behalf of BEREC. As a networking group, the interplay and discussions between the members is pivotal. This year the group is made up of communication experts from 21 countries.

This role increases the MCA’s profile both within the BEREC community and with international stakeholders, thus helping to continue to build on the Authority’s reputation as an active and expert participant in BEREC.

Deborah Pisani, vice-Chair WG NaN Electronic Communication Committee, CEPT.

DEBORAH PISANI, VICE-CHAIR WG NAN ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION COMMITTEE, CEPT

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Isabel Fereday, co-Chair Expert Networking Group Communications, BEREC.

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hat is CEPT? The Conférence Européenne des Administrations des Postes et des Télécommunications (CEPT) was established in 1959 as a cooperative and voluntary organisation acting as a coordinating body where policymakers and regulators from 48 countries across Europe collaborate to harmonise telecommunication, radio spectrum, and postal regulations to improve efficiency and coordination for the benefit of European society. The CEPT conducts its work through three autonomous business committees: ECC, ComITU and CERP. The EEC – the Electronic Communications Committee, considers and develops policies on electronic communications activities in Europe, taking account of European and international legislation and regulations. The ECC itself is supported by Working Groups and Project Teams, including the Working Group Numbering and Networks (WG NaN).

n my role as Vice-Chair of the Working Group Numbering and Networks (WG NaN), I support the Chairperson with delivering our programme of work, always being sure to align our work with the Electronic Communications Committee’s (ECC) strategic objectives.

The Working Group has the job of developing policies in Numbering, Naming and Addressing to promote and support telecom innovation and competition in Europe in order to address market and technological developments while also taking into account European and international legislation and regulations. It also has a number of branch project teams focusing on the following matters, which in turn are required to revert any findings to WG NaN. These teams focus on key matters including Future of Numbering Issues, Number Portability, Switching and Trust in Numbering, Emergency Communications, and Networks and Services Technical Regulatory Issues.

The group looks after many projects and I coordinate with the individual project teams to keep track of all the developments, while offering any direction and support that the teams may need.

This role presents the MCA with an excellent opportunity for networking. It also provides more opportunities to communicate the Maltese dimension on the subjects under discussion and to put forward current numbering-related issues which may be of particular relevance to Malta on the WG NaN’s agenda.

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ACCESSING THE EU

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hat was MEUSAC is now Servizzi Ewropej f ’Malta. Our mission is to be of service to citizens in Malta and Gozo by informing them, keeping them updated, and engaging them in the EU’s initiatives rights and opportunities deriving from EU membership, including EU funding. In fact, the new agency's mandate and services may be summed up in these three key words: inform, engage, and support.

Servizzi Ewropej f ’Malta will inform about the latest developments in the EU’s strategies, policies, legislation and initiatives, including related rights, obligations, benefits and opportunities, including EU-funding, to different sections of the population. The agency will engage organisations and interested stakeholders in the EU’s decision-making process by facilitating their feedback on EU initiatives, policies and legislative proposals. It will also support organisations in tapping into EU-funding opportunities by informing them of such opportunities, helping those who are interested in applying for available funds.

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YOUR GATEWAY TO EU SERVICES IN MALTA

SERVIZZI EWROPEJ F’MALTA The government agency Servizzi Ewropej f’Malta - SEM, was launched this year on 25 March, taking over the functions previously carried out by MEUSAC while introducing new services. The new name has been chosen to better reflect the mission and functions of the agency, namely to make the European Union more accessible to citizens in Malta and Gozo. The services of the new agency will also make it easier for citizens to reap the benefits of EU membership. The new agency is meant to serve as the main point of contact for citizens and organisations on EU-related matters. Mandy Falzon, Chief Executive Officer of Servizzi Ewropej f’Malta, writes about the new agency's mandate and services. Photography Rene Rossignaud.

he new agency is also offering a new service whereby organisations who acquire EU funds for their projects, will be guided in successfully implementing their projects according to the terms and conditions of the funding allocation and to successfully reach the intended project results.

My vision for Servizzi Ewropej f ’Malta is for it to be the leading agency in Malta that engages citizens in anything related to the EU. Personally I believe in commitment, constant communication and personalised service. These are values which I hold at heart in my work, and which I am instilling into the agency's ethos. All of Servizzi Ewropej f ’Malta's services are free of charge and delivered by a team of dedicated personnel, committed to give an efficient and personalised service.

SEM can be reached on 2200 3300, info.sem@gov.mt, facebook.com/servizziewropej, or www.sem.gov.mt 47

HEALTH & FITNESS

The effect of obesity on COVID-19 severity

OBESITY AND COVID-19 During the current COVID-19 pandemic, obesity has been identified as a major risk factor for developing severe symptoms of the disease that result in hospitalisation, intensive care and mortality, even in younger adults. The link between obesity and severe COVID-19 infection has been highlighted in a number of recent studies, writes Richard Geres, Fitness Consultant & Registered Nutritionist.

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New York study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported that people with obesity (BMI of >30), and severe obesity (BMI >40), were 4, and 6 times respectively, more likely to be admitted to hospital with COVID infection, than those with a BMI under 30. A systematic review and meta-analysis by Yang, published in the Journal of Virology, concluded that obesity increased the risk of severe COVID infection by a factor of 2.5, and the risk of a poor outcome by a factor of 2.3.

A meta-analysis published in the journal Obesity, Research and Clinical Practice including results from 14 studies of over 400,000 patients concluded that compared to those with a normal BMI, obesity (BMI >25) doubled the risk of being critically ill, almost quadrupled the risk of death, and the risk of needing respiratory support was increased almost 7 times.

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HEALTH & FITNESS reserve and a propensity to respiratory failure, in the case of infection. Taken together, the already burdened respiratory system of obese subjects can be severely compromised from any respiratory infection, meaning that these patients will struggle to recover if they have developed any severe illnesses that can negatively affect the respiratory function, like COVID-19.

Obesity is associated with chronic inflammation. Those with higher BMI levels often have metabolic syndrome – a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors that include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high blood lipid levels, and high cholesterol, which further increase the risk of atherosclerosis and wholebody inflammation. This puts additional stress on a patient’s body when infected with COVID19 and further increases inflammation, burdening the immune system.

This phenomenon, referred to as a cytokine storm, causes a patient’s lungs to become overwhelmed with these cytokines, whose job it is to kill infected cells. The huge number of cytokines is so great, that instead of helping defend the patient’s body from infection, they destroy lung tissue. The air sacs in the lungs become filled with fluid, resulting in impaired oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange.

This means people who are overweight or obese, have a higher risk of severe lung disease, requiring hospital admission, critical care, and mechanical ventilation. Patients with obesity are more likely to need an intensive care unit for acute lung injury and to have prolonged mechanical ventilation and hospital stay when compared with normal-weight patients. In the US, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) reports that the risk of death is ten times higher from COVID-19 infection in people with metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes.

OVERCOMING THE COVID-19 LIFESTYLE SLUMP

Obesity is associated with chronic inflammation. Those with higher BMI levels often have metabolic syndrome – a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors that include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high blood lipid levels, and high cholesterol, which further increase the risk of atherosclerosis and whole-body inflammation. This puts additional stress on a patient’s body when infected with COVID-19 and further increases inflammation, burdening the immune system. Photograph Engin Akyurt. Weary Herakles, Antalya Archeological Museum, Turkey.

WHY DOES OBESITY INCREASE THE RISK OF COVID-19?

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tudies have shown that the COVID-19 virus enters human cells through the ACE2 receptor. ACE2 is highly expressed in the heart and lungs. In adipose tissue, the expression of ACE2 is higher than in lung tissue, the main target tissue affected by COVID-19. Therefore, adipose tissue might also be a target site for COVID-19 infection.

Obese subjects, who have an increased amount of adipose tissue, have an increased number of ACE2-expressing cells and therefore a larger amount of ACE2. These findings might contribute to the hypothesis that obese

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populations are at increased risk for COVID-19 infection.

Being obese results in impaired lung function.

There is increased fat deposition in the chest wall, the chest cavity, and the abdominal cavity, meaning that in those who are obese, the chest is relatively compressed. Even without COVID-19 infection, obese individuals are working harder to maintain normal breathing. They spend considerable energy to overcome the reduction in chest wall compliance (the elastic work).

In addition, considerable energy must also be spent to overcome the air flow limitation and the airway resistance (the non-elastic work).

The obese must also dedicate a disproportionately high percentage of total oxygen consumption (VO2) to respiratory work, even during quiet breathing. This relative inefficiency indicates a decreased ventilatory

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he lifestyle restrictions imposed by governments to contain the spread of COVID-19 have led to weight gain in many individuals. Reasons for this include decreased physical activity due to lockdowns, the limitation of social outdoor gatherings and activities, and the closure of organised sports and health clubs. The increased time spent at home has resulted in many people increasing their food and drink intake as a result of boredom, loneliness, or comfort-seeking.

At a challenging time like this, some forward planning can help prevent weight gain and help maintain health and fitness.

Here are some tips to help maintain weight, keep you physically active and mentally sane: 1. Go out and walk in the sunlight, either alone or with a friend. Outdoor walking helps burn calories, exercise heart and lungs, and improve your mental state and mood.

2. Shop more for fresh foods and cook with fresh ingredients, rather than using processed, packaged foods.

3. Eat more fruit as snacks and try to add vegetables to each meal.

4. Minimise the amount of take-out food you order.

5. Keep yourself busy at home by finding a new hobby or following an online course of your interest.

OPENING SOON BOOKINGS OPEN

A WARM AND FRIENDLY COMMUNITY WHERE YOU’LL FEEL COMPLETELY AT HOME The Imperial is an exclusive and professionally managed nursing and residential home located at the heart of Sliema where we adopt the Casa Antonia values and principles established over the past 20 years. We provide personalized care to residents, encouraging independence, dignity and respect, and enabling residents to lead a full and active lifestyle.

Although we are extremely proud of the facilities we offer, we know the most important thing we do, is to provide the care our residents require and deserve.

We aim to ensure that every residents’ physical and emotional wellbeing is met whilst providing their families with the comfort and peace of mind knowing that they are safe, happy and well looked after.

Our dedicated and compassionate carers and nurses provide 24-hour on-site care. Whether you require

round-the-clock care or the comfort of just knowing someone is on hand, there will always be a team member available to offer the support you need.

So why not arrange a visit to find out more about what we offer? Our experienced team will help you identify the accommodation options, care and services packages to best suit your requirements.

GETTING THE CARE YOU DESERVE

For more information: info@theimperial.com.mt The Imperial, Rudolph Street, Sliema, SLM 1279 | 2145 6440 | www.theimperialmalta.com.mt A member of St George’s Care Limited – LIVE LIFE WITH US

HEALTH & FITNESS

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Our research highlights that reduced risk isn’t just because of certain nutrients or vitamins.

Rather, the benefits we observed are because of the combination of multiple beneficial components found in fruits and vegetables. And a diverse variety of fruit and vegetables has the greatest health benefits, as you consume more of these beneficial components.

STUDY SHOWS EATING A DIET RICH IN FRUIT AND VEGETABLES DAILY LOWERS RISK

TYPE 2 DIABETES

Eating about five servings of fruit and vegetables a day is widely promoted as a key part of a healthy diet. This is because consuming fruit and vegetables is linked to lowering the risk of health problems such as coronary heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer. But there’s still confusion about the role that fruit and vegetables have in preventing type 2 diabetes.

Evidence from research has been inconsistent, partly because most studies have relied on participants remembering what they ate – which can be inaccurate. But our latest research found that people who regularly ate more fruit and vegetables in their diet had half the risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those who ate less, write researchers Nita Forouhi and Nick Wareham, University of Cambridge, and Ju-Sheng Zheng, Westlake University.

Photography Helena Yankovska.

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ince research shows that type 2 diabetes can be prevented through a healthy diet, we wanted to know just how important eating fruit and vegetables is as part of that. We conducted the world’s largest study that measured blood levels of vitamins linked to fruit and vegetable consumption in a population. This method of using objective nutritional biomarkers – indicators of dietary intake, metabolism or nutritional status that are present in our blood – cuts out the errors and inaccuracies that affected previous studies. We also asked people to report what specific foods they ate to compare with the biomarker data.

We followed a group of 340,234 people from eight European countries. We specifically studied biomarkers in 10,000 people who developed type 2 diabetes during follow-up and compared them with 13,500 people who didn’t.

The biomarkers we measured were levels of vitamin C and six different carotenoids or plant pigments in the blood. These biomarkers tell us about the fruit and vegetables a person gets in their diet. We then calculated the total sum of these seven nutrient biomarkers as a composite score, then split scores into five categories ranging from lowest consumption to highest.

We found that the higher the biomarker score level, the lower the risk of future type 2 diabetes. People whose biomarker score was in the top 20% of the population had a 50% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those with lower scores. We also found that eating around 66 grams of fruit and vegetables daily could potentially cut risk of type 2 diabetes by a quarter.

Our findings build upon the results of a smaller study of 21,831 people living in England, 735 of whom developed type 2 diabetes. This study showed a strong link between higher blood vitamin C level and lower risk of diabetes. But the link was weaker when examining fruit and vegetable intake as reported by the participants.

By repeating this work on a larger scale and in several countries, our results further strengthen evidence that these results are likely to be repeated in other populations, too.

F

ive a day. Since dietary guidelines consider each portion of fruit or vegetable to be 80 grams, our study shows eating even one portion per day could have health benefits. For instance, seven cherry tomatoes, two broccoli spears, or one banana would all roughly equal one portion.

Although “five a day” has been around for decades, fruit and vegetable consumption remains low.

Only one in seven people over 15 eat

at least five portions everyday – and one in three people don’t eat any daily. Encouragingly, our results show there are large potential benefits from making small changes to our diets.

Our research highlights that reduced risk isn’t just because of certain nutrients or vitamins. Rather, the benefits we observed are because of the combination of multiple beneficial components found in fruits and vegetables. Alongside vitamin C and carotenoids, other components including fibre, potassium and polyphenols, which have beneficial effects on weight, body inflammation, blood sugar levels, and keep gut bacteria healthy. And a diverse variety of fruit and vegetables has the greatest health benefits, as you consume more of these beneficial components.

W

e also took into account how several factors – including age, gender, body mass index, education level, occupation, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity and use of vitamin supplements – all affected the risk of type 2 diabetes. We found that the biomarker results linked to fruit and vegetables were independent of these other factors – so regardless of whether a person smoked or was physically active, eating a diet rich in more fruit and vegetables is relevant for lowering the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Our research doesn’t establish cause and effect, because we did not intervene with dietary change – rather we observed what happened over time to participants with different blood biomarker levels. But, by using these objective measures and a large sample size in different countries with varying diets, our confidence in these findings is increased. We still don’t yet know whether our findings would be different among different ethnic groups, which should be a focus of future research.

It’s well known that fruit and vegetables are an important part of maintaining good health throughout life, but we also know that in reality the majority of people do not eat enough of them. Our study shows that even just a small increase in the amount of fruits or vegetables you get in your diet can significantly reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Originally published on The Conversation. Nita Forouhi is a Programme Leader, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge. Ju-Sheng Zheng is a Principal Investigator, Human Nutrition and Epidemiology, Westlake University. Nick Wareham is a Director of the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge

COFFEE TABLE

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ROBERT STILIN INTERIORS

“There’s never a shortage of style – delightful, intoxicating, exquisite style, in a Robert Stilin project,” writes Mayer Rus, in the introduction to the book Robert Stilin: Interiors. “One need only look to the designer’s own homes,” he continues, “to garner a sense of his particular élan. The residences are love letters to the art, furniture, books, and objects that inspire him, all of which he displays in sophisticated ensembles that manage to feel celebratory and organic rather than studied.” Step into Robert Stilin’s lived-in, lovingly crafted, artfilled interiors in this lavishly illustrated portfolio of work. Photography Stephen Kent Johnson, courtesy of Vendome Press.

Top: The cover features Stilin’s own SoHo loft. Left: A living room designed for a Decorator Show House in New York features a Franco Albini chair, Charlotte Periand stool, and Mattia Bonetti floor lamp. The artworks include a photograph by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, a Helmut Lang black wall relief, and a Danh Vo gold-leaf painting.

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Above: In an apartment in a new building in SoHo, the living room furnishings include a Campana Brothers Bolotas chair, coffee tables by Patricia Urquiola for Moroso, and a David Shrigley sculpture. Left: This corner in a Decorator Show House includes a vintage Ignazio Gardella chair and artworks by Julian Schnabel and Richard Misrach. Below: In a corner of this living room, a photograph by Doug Aitken hangs above a 1950s Peter Hvidt daybed for Horsneas Mobel upholstered in a Holly Hunt wool. The floor lamp is by Ignazio Gardella for Azucena from 1stdibs Gallery.

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R

obert Stilin writes that his “home in New York City is a profoundly personal amalgamation of the things I’m most passionate about great art, furniture, and books - all strategically layered in dynamic compositions that keep my inspirations close at hand.

Everything has a personal connection to my life, the places I’ve been... and the people who’ve influenced my taste as a designer. In short, everything is meaningful.”

According to Mayer Rus this “insistence on connection and meaning is what distinguishes Stilin’s work.” The interiors of New York and Hamptons based designer Robert Stilin are renowned for their strong, clean lines, warm, rich palette, custom upholstery and mix of fine antiques with signature furniture by the outstanding postwar European and American designers, as well as one-of-a-kind artisanal pieces, all frequently combined with the designer’s discerning selection of modern and contemporary painting and photography.

Above: In the dining room of Stilin’s SoHo Apartment, a cluster of artworks hangs behind a Pierre Chapo chair and a 1950s IBM rolling computer table.

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Above: For this beach house, the open dining room and kitchen feature vintage George Nakashima chairs around a custom table of fumed oak; the copper pendant lights are by Poul Henningsen. Below: Moroccan tiles create a luminous backdrop for this kitchen. The artwork is by Raymond Debieve. Bottom right: In a late-19th-century farmhouse, English and American antiques mix with midcentury designs of various nationalities, traditional fabrics, and eccentric items from far-flung locales. The dining room ensemble includes Charles Dudouyt chairs, an Audoux-Minet rope chandelier, and Børge Mogensen–style wingback chairs.

M

ore than a dozen of his finest projects are featured in this lushly illustrated volume.

They range from city townhouses, apartments, and lofts to beach and country houses.

Whether the architecture is traditional or ultramodern, Stilin’s interiors exude a casual, comfortable vernacular that he expertly tailors to the specific needs and taste of each client.

As Mayer Rus writes in his Introduction, “The through line that unifies his diverse oeuvre is the sense that every residence, regardless of style or size, has not only been lived in but lived in graciously, lovingly crafted, and finely attuned to the special character of the homeowners.”

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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS Robert Stilin has run his own design firm for some twenty-five years. His projects have been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, House Beautiful, W, and Hamptons Cottages, as well as in design books, including Design in the Hamptons and The Big Book of the Hamptons. He has been named to Elle Decor’s top 25 A-list Designers every year since 2010 and to the AD100 list in 2016 and 2018. An avid art collector, he is a member of the Director’s Council at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He divides his time between New York and East Hampton.

Mayer Rus is the West Coast editor of AD. He has been the design and culture editor of the Los Angeles Times, the design editor of House & Garden, and editor of Interior Design. He lives in Los Angeles.

Stephen Kent Johnson is an interiors, travel, and still life photographer. He lives in New York.

Robert Stilin: Interiors. Edited by Mayer Rus, Photography Stephen Kent Johnson. Published by Vendome Press. Hardcover, 288 pages, over 200 colour illustrations, 26.5 x 31.5 cm.

Top left: A 1960s Karl Springer Jackie O chair in lacquered goatskin joins a vintage Jacques Adnet leather desk in the bedroom of a Greenwich Village apartment.

Top right: A Garouste & Bonetti Concerto armchair is joined by a Maria Pergay bracelet pouf under the gaze of Richard Prince’s Very Private Nurse #1 (2007). Left: Stilin’s work draws on a mix of 20th and 21-century Continental and American designers.

The photograph is by Massimo Vitali.

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PROMOTION

An exclusive new project on the market, of large, properly planned, residential units, situated right at the centre of Victoria, just a stone throw away from all the attractions, businesses and lifestyle Victoria has to offer.

T

he exterior of the building for Capital Residences will be in a traditional style, showcasing typical Maltese architecture to fit in perfectly with the rest of Republic Street.

The impressive three-bedroom homes will enjoy beautiful enclosed gardens and unobstructed views towards the Citadel and are situated just a stone's throw away from all the attractions, businesses and lifestyle Victoria has to offer.

The vast majority of the 13 apartments making up the exclusive project have already been snapped up with only a few left for grabs. The properties have been designed to a high standard throughout and will offer particularly versatile living with two bathrooms, one ensuite, and many pleasing features and eyecatching finishing touches. They will include spacious living rooms with large open plan kitchen and dining areas, utility rooms and traditional Maltese balconies.

Externally, a private driveway will allow access to ground-floor lock-up

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Capital Residences

New Gozo homes marry tradition with modern living

The centre of Victoria is the true heart of Gozo in more ways than one.

Bustling with shops, independent stores, and great restaurants and bars, it is easy to understand why so many people want to live near the island’s historic Citadel. And now a new development of luxury apartments, under the name of Capital Residences, is to be constructed near Independence Square, explains Nathon Abela, managing director of Abelands. garages with parking for more than a dozen vehicles while the beautiful private rear gardens will be fully enclosed and include a patio area.

It always fills us with pride to showcase great new properties that blend in perfectly with their surroundings, and this beautiful new project in Victoria certainly falls into that category.

You don’t need to be a property expert to see why it has already attracted so much attention from the public. It will be a fantastic example of how innovative architecture blended with a traditional Maltese style can really re-energise an entire street.

For more information on Capital Residences, including more visuals and plans, and units and garages available, visit abelands.com

C APITAL RE S I D EN CES VIC TORIA , GOZO

Luxury living in the heart of Gozo's capital With over 20 years experience, Abelands have built dozens of high-quality properties and family homes across Malta and Gozo.

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FRESH DESSERTS

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SENSATIONAL STRAWBERRIES

FRESH DESSERTS

Bright red, sweet juicy strawberries. Who can resist ask the team of chefs at The Mediterranean Culinary Academy. Available in most fruit and vegetable shops and vans across Malta and Gozo, strawberries are currently in season and should be available until June. As delicious as the fruit is to eat on its own, it also makes for some amazing recipes, both sweet and savoury.

Photography and styling Robert Pace and Jessica Zammit.

STRAWBERRY GALETTE This versatile pastry can be made with any combination of sweet or savoury ingredients for an incredibly simple yet delicious way to enjoy the best in seasonal produce.

MAKES 1 LARGE PIE FOR PASTRY 225g flour 15g sugar 4g salt 225g butter, cut into 2cm cubes 115g cold water FOR FILLING 250g strawberries, cut into 2cm slices 40g sugar salt to taste corn flour as needed 1. In a mixing bowl, add cubed butter to flour, sugar and salt. Squeeze butter between your fingers to flatten and break down lightly. For better layers, leave large chunks of butter in dough.

2. Add cold water, combine. Knead mixture until dough just comes together. Roll out with enough flour to prevent sticking to form a large rectangle. Fold in half and in half again. Wrap tightly with cling film. Chill for 2 hours and roll out as needed.

3. Season strawberries with sugar and a pinch of salt.

Arrange onto a lined tray. This step releases moisture from the strawberries to keep pastry base crispier later.

Allow strawberries to sit, about 30 minutes, and liberally with paper towel to dry.

4. Preheat oven to 205C. 5. Roll pastry into a disk about half a centimetre thick.

Make slits around edge, roughly 4cm long, to form folds.

Dust centre with a light layer of corn flour and lay the strawberries over top.

6. Fold pastry edges over edge of filling, crimp shut to prevent juice from running out. Egg wash exposed pastry and place on a lined baking tray.

7. Bake until pastry is golden brown and crisp (about 25 minutes). Remove and either serve immediately or allow to cool to room temperature.

STRAWBERRY JAM This recipe is a simple way of preserving strawberries to enjoy the whole year round. We cook our strawberries whole leaving the beautiful texture of large pieces of fruit in the finished product.

Strawberries do not contain enough natural pectin to give us the texture we want in our jam so we add the flesh and juice of an orange and lemon for their abundance of pectin, sugar and inherent acidity.

MAKES 750ML OF JAM 1kg strawberries 750g sugar 1 lemon 1 orange

1. Rinse strawberries well. Carefully remove any green leaves and stems.

2. Peel and chop lemon and orange into small pieces, removing seeds 3. Add strawberries, citrus and sugar to a large saucepan capable of holding everything with at least 3 inches between mixture and rim of pan.

4. Simmer over medium heat and stir until sugar is completely dissolved.

5. Increase heat to high and cook until liquid reaches 105C on a thermometer, about 20 minutes. Make sure to stir the contents of the pan regularly to prevent thickening syrup catching against bottom of pan.

Once mixture has reached 105C remove from heat and pour into sterilised jars. Seal lids while still hot and store indefinitely.

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FRESH DESSERTS

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE WITH PINK PEPPER SHORT BREAD AND STRAWBERRIES This decadent chocolate mousse, paired with pink pepper shortbread and a classical combination of strawberries marinated in aged balsamic, is delicious served with a glass of Moscato D’Asti.

SERVES 2 FOR GANACHE 150g chocolate 53% 150g cream 5 sprigs mint FOR MOUSSE 150g cream 100g ganache FOR MARINATED STRAWBERRIES 150g strawberries, cut in half mint leaves, 10 each 15g demerara sugar 15g balsamic vinegar 1. For the ganache, heat cream and mint in a pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a gentle simmer. Leave mint to infuse for 3 minutes.

2. In a bowl, pour warm cream over chocolate. Mix slowly until chocolate has fully melted and cool ganache to room temperature 3. For the mousse, whisk cream until soft peaks form.

Slowly incorporate 100g room temperature ganache and fold in.

4. Into 2 ring moulds lined with cling film, split mousse evenly.

5. Split remaining ganache evenly on surface of each mould. Chill in fridge to set, about 10 10 minutes.

6. Place halved strawberries in a bowl with sugar and balsamic. Macerate for about 10 minutes.

7. Serve mousse, with strawberries and pink peppercorn shortbread, garnished with mint leaves.

FOR PINK PEPPERCORN SHORTBREAD 75g flour 50g butter 25g sugar 3g pink pepper 3g finishing salt 1. Rub flour and butter with your fingers together to obtain a sandy texture, with all butter incorporated.

2. Add sugar and mix well, the dough should start forming large clumps.

3. Add pink pepper and finishing salt. Mix again trying to keep peppercorns whole.

4. Roll out the dough on a baking sheet to an even 2cm thickness. Place on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes at 190C. 5. Remove from oven. While shortbread is still, transfer baking sheet to a chopping board and cut into desired shapes. Cool to room temperature and store until needed.

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FRESH DESSERTS

SPONGE CAKE WITH WHIPPED RICOTTA AND STRAWBERRIES Absolutely delicious and perfect for tea time or dessert, this whipped ricotta sponge cake with strawberries is easy and simple.

FOR SPONGE 4 large eggs 200g caster sugar 200g self raising flour, sifted 200g butter 2tsp baking powder 1tsp vanilla extract 1 lemon, zested FOR FILLING AND DECORATION 500g ricotta 500g strawberries (chopped for filling and decoration) juice of 1 orange 1 lemon, zested 2 tbsp honey 1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease sides of two 15cm/6inch round tins with butter, line bottom of both with baking paper.

2. Add sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract, lemon zest, sifted flour and baking powder to a large mixing bowl. Mix until well combined with an electric hand mixer.

3. Divide mixture evenly between the tins and gently smooth surface.

4. Bake on middle shelf until goldenbrown, about 25 minutes. Press down gently to check, cakes should be springy to the touch.

5. Allow cakes to cool in tins for 5 minutes, then running a knife around inside edge, carefully turn cakes out onto a cooling rack.

6. Combine orange juice and chopped strawberries.

7. For the whipped ricotta, whip ricotta, lemon zest, and honey on high speed until light and airy, about 2-3 minutes.

Optionally, pass through a sieve.

8 To assemble cake, place one cake upside down onto a plate and spread top with whipped ricotta and chopped strawberries, setting some whipped ricotta aside. Place second cake on top.

9. Decorate as you wish, we used some whipped ricotta, strawberries, lemon zest, and edible Nasturtium flowers which are currently at the moment.

These recipes are taken from The Mediterranean Culinary Academy's collection developed by their chef instructors from their workshops and courses available throughout the year. For more recipes, or to book a cooking class visit www.mcamalta.com or email contact@mcamalta.com.

MCA would love to see your work. You can share your creations by tagging @mca_malta or sending MCA a photo on their socials.

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Gio. Batta Delia ESTABLISHED 1901

MOB: 9989 6286 FACEBOOK GIO. BATTA DELIA 1901

AUCTION AUCTION RESULTS

MASTERPIECE BY VINCENT VAN GOGH

Van Gogh's painting brilliantly captures the distinct atmosphere of Montmartre at the end of the 19th century when the mills, no longer in operation, had become tourist attractions and places of leisure where Parisians came to mingle, drink, dance and relax. Scène de rue à Montmartre (Impasse des Deux Frères et le Moulin à Poivre), 1887.

Photograph Christophe Ena/AP.

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I

n 1887, Van Gogh was living with his brother Theo in Paris on the Rue Lepic and was fascinated by the peculiar pastoral yet urban atmosphere of Montmartre where the mills blended with cabarets. Scène de rue à Montmartre reveals Van Gogh’s exploration of a new city - the capital of the nineteenth century – but also the artist’s first encounter with the Impressionists and the pioneers of the avant-garde, which was to spark the transformation of his palette. Gone were the dark tones of his early works, replaced with colour in all its brilliance. It was in Montmartre, during these formative years, that the foundations of his inimitable style were established. Van Gogh would leave the French capital in 1888 for southern France, where he lived until his death in 1890.

Scène de rue à Montmartre is a not only a major work by the artist but also from his very rare series of paintings depicting the legendary Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre. The work remained in the same family collection for over 100 years and was never exhibited. This spring Sotheby's exhibited the painting for the first time, ahead of their March Paris auction. The sale was highly anticipated as it was one of the few paintings by the Dutch Impressionist master to still have been in private hands.

The painting was expected to sell between 5 to 8 million euro, and reached 13.1 million.

THE NEW

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