Even after the Maltese attained political independence, after they phased out the British military base and after they entered the EU as a full member, the ties between the island and the UK remained strong. Indeed, in certain areas, they became deeper. This did not happen simply because the English language maintained its predominance locally.
The fact that the UK was also a member of the EU might have made for such an outcome. Within the Union, we needed to be close to others with interests resembling ours and having too a stronger voice than we had. The UK could offer a very useful leg up in diverse sectors.
This will be lost post Brexit. It is not unlikely that as a result, links with Great Britain will weaken. Should that be considered a good thing or a bad?
Geograhical considerations would point to Italy and North Africa as the best foci for our relations with the outside world. As for North Africa, the links that one would have expected to discover, have been disrupted for centuries and there is little reason to believe they could undergo a spectacular recovery in short order. With Italy, relations were maintained over the years, concentrated at times, diffuse at others.
To be sure, in a digitalised world, geographical facts of life do not necessarily determine who is close to whom.
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From North Korea
In his nuclear confrontation with the world community, is Kim Jong Un an irrational leader or is he following a strategy based on a “transparent” logic?
When following the media and the analyses coming out of credible sources in the “West”, the conclusion one remains with is that he is subject to an overriding authoritarian paranoia. From some Italian and Russian sources though, one could arrive at an alternative explanation with different undertones.
It recalls what happened to Saddam Hussein and Ghaddafi. Both sought to have tools by which to fortify their dictatorship against “Western” efforts to destroy it. Ghaddafi, it is said, tried to build up a nuclear capability, accepted to run it down, and then was subsequently liquidated. Saddam played the game of following the same track, when this was just a pretence, and he was also taken out.
Kim Jong Un is really determined to acquire a nuclear capability and will carry the project forward to the end, in order to ensure nobody will be in a position to eliminate him and his regime.
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Local councils
In the sectors of cleansing and refuse collection, building permits, traffic management and security among others, administrative requirements are multiplying.
Frequently, local councils give the impression that they do not have the means by which to manage these sectors properly. It is hardly their fault for the solution of arising problems requires decision tools that are outside their terms of reference, such as in large scale infrastructural projects of the central government; environmental deterioration coming from outside the local area; similarly for traffic congestion.
A consensus exists nowadays around the belief that the institution of local councils was useful for the country. But perhaps it needs to be reconsidered in line with the changes in the ways by which the island has been developing? If so, how should this updating be carried out? Say by widening the remit of local councils so that they can operate on a wider “regional” basis?