Maggie Borg

From M3P
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Maggie Borg

Greenpeace activist Maggie Borg

was a pioneering Maltese activist for environmental and social rights.

She was born in Cospicua on 14 January 1952 to Karmenu and Ċettina nee' Camilleri. She was the second of their ten children, the eldest daughter.

She grew up in Bormla attending the local government school, and later worked as a tourist guide while being very supportive of her close friends and younger members of the family.

After living in Naxxar and Mosta, drifting between jobs with various companies, including a health food company, she settled down in Santu Rokku neighbourhood of Żebbuġ and started studying once more after a gap of more than 25 years away from school.

In 1993 she graduated with a degree in Sociology & Environmental Studies from the University of Malta. Subsequently she started teaching senior classes in her area of expertise at San Anton School. She was best known to her students as a kind, different and serene teacher who taught through her experience, especially in their ‘live-ins’.

She used to share all she had whether materialistic items or her incredibly vast knowledge on anything, from weaving wool and making her own little cottage industry, however this did not last long, as she used to give away most of her woven items, instead of selling them for a profit.

Borg was one of the first Maltese Greenpeace activists, and was directly involved in campaigns in the Mediterranean, including Haifa in Israel, Greece, Turkey and the Akamas peninsula in Cyprus, that were all threatened with industrial pollution or natural environment degradation.

An avid traveler, who visited distant countries such as Madagascar and Afghanistan, Borg was very proud of her Bormla roots. Her younger guitarist sister Jenny Borg spent a spell singing in English, and had a single track released on vinyl, and had two environmental songs in Maltese in her repertoire.

Greenpeace activist Maggie Borg on board M.V. Sirius

Borg lost her ten-year battle against cancer at the age of fifty-two and passed away on 3 August 2004. She remains a beacon of inspiration to those who champion environmental justice and is probably the most uncelebrated Maltese who deserves more national merit for her lifetime achievements.

See also

Category:Maggie Borg Photos