Projects designed to create deliverable energy from the sun of the Saharan desert seem to be gaining momentum. Technologies in this area have developed sufficiently to make such delivery possible and economic, including the carriage of electricity from Africa to Europe at a competitive cost.

In Algeria, a major enterprise has already launched such an initiative and new projects are being prospected in other areas of North Africa.

Projects do have to takeinto full account the challenge of how to deliver the electricity generated in the desert furnace to the centre of Europe. Given its position, Malta could offer facilities of a half-waystationleadingto the final destination of the energy that is being transferred. On theother hand, one could take the view that if the electricity is landed not so far away from where we are situated, directly to Italian territory, the technical services of a half-waystationcouldbe rendered from there.

I know that there are Maltese interests looking into these possibilities. However it seems to me that there has been little to no public debate about the possibilities that this issue offers for African energy to be exported via Malta.

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Unbalanced zone

The crises that erupted in the euro zone some years back appear to have become a thing of the past, as most of its economies are registering a sustained growth rate, even if it is relatively on the low side. However doubts about the future of the euro persist. This week, I was impressed by an interview given to the Corriere della Sera by a well known German economic consultant, Roland Berger. He accepted the argument that within the zone and outside it, based on how the system is run, Germany enjoys a strong and permanent competitive advantage, to the detriment of the other euro members.

Yet Berger goes on to turn this argument on its head. He describes how the best characteristic of German firms always was their propensity to invest and invest, in order to enhance their competitiveness. Today, because of the euro, theydonotfeelthesame urge to invest as in the past. This will lead to a decline in their competitive power.

In his view, if and as soon as a new euro crisis emerges, the best approach for Germany as well as for her partners would be for the country to exit the euro zone and go back to the deutschmark.

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In a green house

From another print media source: there is much to note in the reaction of the Orlando Sentinel to the “news” – if news it is – that the Russians had infiltrated the computers of the Democratic Party and the Hilary Clinton campaign, copiedconfidential messages that were being circulated, and published them to give a leg up to Trump’s election campaign.

The “news” shocked many people in the US and beyond. To them it seemed as if a massive and unacceptableinterference had occurred in the processes of American democracy.

But the Sentinel recalled the instances when the US itself had interfered in the democratic processes of other countries, by deploying economic and social pressures, by assisting internal organizations that wantedtosubvertthegovernment, byencouraging sabotage...

It went on to mention countries like Iran (in the days of Mossadegh), Chili (when Allende was President), other Latin American countries, the Phillipines...

It made for interesting reading.