That was the value given by the Maltese Civil Court last Friday, as reported by the Malta Independent. This is calculated, according to the court judgment, on the missed earnings of the man, and will be paid to his family as compensation for his death by asbestos poisoning at the Malta Drydocks.
I must say I feel deeply shocked at how cheaply the Maltese courts value human life, which to them works out at just what the person would be able to earn for the remainder of his working life. The profound loss and untold sorrow of his grieving family apparently count for absolutely nothing.
By the same logic of missed earnings, if the deceased had been an invalid, his family would have had to pay up a sum of money equivalent to their savings on the cost of caring for him...
Now let's make an odious comparison. Ex prime minister Dom Mintoff was awarded about €700 000 for damages suffered when a power station was built in front of his villa. The villa is still there. It was totally untouched, it's still habitable, but looking out the window the view is now dominated by a huge phallic symbol, which is visible from the other extremity of the Maltese archipelago. The moral, physical, material, psychological and emotional damage suffered by il-Perit due to this outrage is, according to the Maltese courts, worth seven times that suffered by the family of a worker killed by asbestos poisoning at the Malta Drydocks.
Life is really, really fair.
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