I was away from the island for three weeks, partly on an Opus Dei annual sabbatical workshop dealing with Christology (the essence and being of Christ – one substance but two natures) and partly on holiday. Together with my wife and two daughters, I spent several days enjoying the delights of Lake Como in Italy which is easily accessible from Milan by train (30 minutes). There is however a big change in scenery from that in Milan, when walking out of the main station in Como San Giovanni! It's really breathtaking to see the majestic lake itself surrounded by rising high mountains whose peaks were often ringed with puffy clouds. The stately villas with their beautiful flower and tree gardens are something to behold in themselves, several of them being just summer residences for those who want to get away from Milan’s summer heat. We stayed in self-accommodation quarters in a beautiful valley called the Val D’Intesa, just on the border with Switzerland, with our very own private deer. This part of Italy often interweaves with the neighbouring Swiss border. We spent our days visiting the quaint villages around the large lake such as Menaggio, Bellagio, Varenna, Tremezzo, Lenno, Cernobbio and Como itself for shopping. We also visited Lugano just over the border. All in all a very relaxing holiday. When the sun shone it was fantastic but when it rained it really came down in buckets accompanied by lightning and thunder and the temperature varied from the hot high twenties to occasionally in the fifteens! All in all a place I would highly recommend for a break!
When I got back to reality last week, it took us some time to wind down. Some odd bits of news however hit me in the eye. I really was surprised by Minister George Vella’s report in The Malta Independent on Sunday where he stated that more or less, given the present circumstances our neutrality may not protect our security! I am glad that he made that statement and pointed it out; I strongly believe that both parties should knock some heads together and come up with alternative arrangements for our security which are realistic and acceptable to both sides. The way the landscape is changing in the Middle East and closer home in North Africa, I strongly believe that new arrangements for our security are in order and pretty fast too. Our neutrality clauses in the Constitution have a sui generis character emanating from the times of the Cold War seeking non-alignment between the two superpowers, a position now highly anachronistic too! They were also construed at a time (in a pork-barrel way) with an eye on not irritating Colonel Gaddafi to our South! Something I never quite liked, being a European and democratic country but there it is! I doubt however that today, someone the likes of the fundamentalist and militant ISIS in North Africa, would really lose any sleep or give a damn about our self-declared neutrality. I think it's time to wake up unless we want to seem like a solitary ripe plum standing on a tree just ready for the taking.
Two years ago I wrote an article from Rome after having several discussions with a Spanish colleague of mine during a similar Opus Dei workshop retreat then dealing with marriage. He was a supernumerary like me, married with children and a navy captain at the Nato command in Naples. In between lectures in theology and prayers, we often talked in our free time about security in the Mediterranean. He asked me pointed questions about Malta’s future security which I then realised underlined the deficiencies we potentially faced then and which are increasingly crystallizing now. I subsequently wrote a piece published by this newspaper and asked whether Malta should start seeking membership of Nato since we are already a member of PfP. Not surprisingly, even though my article then was in the form of a question, I was taken to task and openly ridiculed by the leftist press and politicians who were then in Opposition. Today, with Labour in government, we suddenly have the Minister of Foreign Affairs asking the same questions I asked two years ago. Nobody on the left is laughing now it seems! Dr Vella went on to express his wish that security arrangements similar to those in other European neutral countries should be sought. He dismissed Nato membership for I suppose political reasons of a (past) ideological nature. I have news for him however! Switzerland, Austria, Finland and Ireland do not have the same types of geo-political threats we potentially face today! I do not think that the Irish Republic is ever in danger of being invaded by the UK or the USA across the waters!
The reality is that all our northern Mediterranean European neighbours are Nato members themselves. Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Greece and Turkey are all Nato members. Most of them EU members or applicant states! Any bilateral security agreements with any of these countries, such as the one we have with Italy, would still be bilateral agreements with Nato countries which would naturally always put Nato interests first, so really it would be just pie in the sky! So my logical question is why not become Nato members ourselves with a seat at the table? After all, after the recent crises in Libya two years ago when Col. Gaddafi was deposed, it was Nato member countries like Germany, France and Britain who got all the commercial contracts, not dear neutral us! I believe it is time to establish some real politick as far as our country’s security is concerned. A real politick which is not based on political ideology but on rock hard practicalities and present realities!
The other piece of news that tantalised me was a surprising article by Frank Psaila, in another newspaper, calling for a declaration asking for marriage, by the PN, in the case of same-sex unions, as there was now no actual difference between them and encouraging the party leadership to dispose of “the conservative elements” in the party. For Frank, who is an intelligent person, I have a couple of questions. First does he think that the PN will become a stronger party by emarginating the “conservative elements” (I always hated labels) or liberal ones for that matter? Does he not think that the PN should stop disposing of people past their “use by” date and aim at a consensus of those valid and interested human beings wishing to contribute to political action and thought? Does he not believe in consensus building and allowing for conscientious objection? Does he really believe that gender (like slavery was) is only a social construct? Does he know that the European Court of Human Rights has recently declared that civil union was good enough for homosexuals and that same-sex marriage is not a human right? Does he really believe that that issue alone will ever win us the elections? Food for thought!
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