2015 is all but gone.

All this year's experiences,  good thoughts,  bad thoughts, emotions, worries , fears,  ambitions,  struggles, are  consumed and snuffed out, just like the year that is dying.

None of these abstract feelings, sensations, passions, compassions,   psychological storms survive beyond their moments. They all go as quickly as they come. And no matter how strong they were at the time, none will come anywhere near the new year.

It is the tangible results of transforming those feelings into action that survive, that provide proof that we actually and actively lived through 2015. 

If we just feel, or think ,  and then do nothing but simply relinquish our brain power to go with the flow in spite of  loathing the flow, then there will be results of a different sort. Results that  in the short term are  very often more conducive to embracing a particular kind of peaceful existence with an exterior,  while remaining snug with a stunted interior, but which in the long term destroy who we are and what we are  by homogenising us into a faceless, unthinking  human statistic.

Think of it just like  you're  enjoying an intricate dream during a long deep sleep, until you wake up of course and you realise that nothing has changed, or things have changed diametrically opposite to what you were dreaming  them to go, because in actual fact you hadn’t done anything , simply because it had just been temporarily busy grey matter sending countless signals that however, stopped short of transformation into action . 

It is that priceless action that makes things  come into existence, happen and change. That’s how civilisations rose and fell, how social change came about, and how science revolutionised our way of life.

But why am I saying this on the eve of 2016?

If 2015 was an important year for our country, I anticipate 2016 to be even more challenging, and to reap a good harvest out of the toil those challenges are going to engender. It’s not going to be enough for us to just think, though thinking would be a good starting point.

We are going to have five crucial national battles which we need to face and win as a nation.

The first will be the battle for life, human life. We will be called to pronounce ourselves whether we are in favour of human rights and dignity from the moment a new DNA blueprint of a unique human being is created, through to the development of that human at all the subsequent stages till the end of life, or whether we believe that we should acquire the right to decide who lives or dies, and when.

Our second challenge is not to reform our expired Constitution, but to write a constitution of our own, that reflects the actual needs of our nation  half  a century after that constitution was tailormade for us by the British, spiced up by Mintoff in 1974 and seasoned with a couple of goodies by Fenech Adami in the 198os.

The Faculty of Law at the University of Malta, ex -Presidents and  ex prime ministers, current PM and Leader of the Opposition together with the relevant experts and thinkers, should be entrusted with the drafting of the new Constitution under the chairmanship of the current President of the Republic. Public discussion should seal the draft for  us politicians to endorse before this legislature is over.

Thirdly we need to redefine what constitutes national Interest.  So far it is becoming more and more obvious that national interest is being solely equated with projected short term  economic gains.  Health and environment, Identity considerations as well as third party rights  seem to have vanished from consciousness, which is very dangerous unless we want to be devoured by unbridled capitalism and its unsavoury claws.

The fourth challenge is to bear down on the government with all the force we could harness to deliver on its promise of good governance, standards of public life and transparency. We cannot remain indifferent to the systematic disposal of the country's silver without an informed consent by the people's representatives. So far any consent has been coerced since not enough info was made available for parliamentarians to make informed decisions.

The fifth and greatest challenge is to protect what little is left of our natural environment and  what remains of our urban and rural character. Unless we stop the carnage immediately, there will not be much left to fight for by the end of this legislature. 

These five challenges constitute what will obviously need our active and solid contribution in 2016 as seen from 2015. However, in the turbulent and volatile global scenario  that is unfolding, goodness knows what other challenges will  call out for a strong and united national voice  in the coming months .

What is most important at this point in time is  for all of us to  rise above the outdated culture of tribal partisan  politics, and think on our feet as a  proud Maltese nation.

I wish you all a great year!