The way by which work on the Kappara project has continued to progress remains impressive. The hallmarks have been a concentrated focus plus good planning, target dates achieved up to the end, and all costs maintained within the brackets set at the outset.

We should seek to learn the lessons not just from mistakes made, but from successes as well. While the Kappara project has been successful, there were fiascoes developing in parallel to it. It makes sense to investigate why the latter occurred and just as much sense to check how the works at Kappara have been run so effectively.

What made it so different from other projects? What inputs contributed to its success? How can they be carried over to other projects?

Given the Maltese culture, both government and the private sector are used to considering that delays in building schedules are normal and necessary. They allow for staggering of financial payments. They enable access to ongoing opportunities regarding new contracts. And anyway, good planning was never among the best achievements of our society.

Perhaps the Kappara model could help guide us towards a different mentality.That really would be quite a change.

***

CATALONIA

The struggle that has developed in Catalonia between the central Spanish government and the regional authorities is ugly and bitter. That a wide swathe of the Mediterranean region finds itself drawn into such a confrontation, without any solution that seemingly could emerge to prod both sides towards a compromise, is liable to trigger extremely painful consequences.

One understands the commitment of Spain's central government to safeguard the country's integrity by sticking to the letter of the constitution. This prohibits all endeavours in favour of  regional separatism. Any proposal in this direction is automatically illegal.

Yet, it is dubious whether such a rule can be considered legitimate over the long term. The exercise of democracy would imply that all those who want to make a proposal for change, should be allowed to do so.

Personally, I cannot see that the proposal for Catalan independence can hold in today's world. If it is carried forward to the point where people are left to decide, probably there would be a repetition of the Scottish independence referendum.

***

COMPUTER UPDATES

Perhaps I'm just too simple minded to be able to get it. I wonder whether there are people like me who all too often feel frustrated by the eagerness with which their computer insists to download "updates". I fail to see how these prompts originate, and why they have become so imperious.

They take over the machine, which has become indispensable for all desk work. They keep you for minutes on end watching a spiral revolve at the centre of the screen alongside a note that kindly informs you how the latest inputs are being slotted inside your computer.

But who actually demanded this service? With what right do they take control over your machine for such a long time? If one is doing quite well, thank you very much, with what the computer already provides, why enforce a stop on all activities till the unnecessary, unrequested improvements are injected into the system you're using? Actually how necessary, really necessaery, are these "updates" to keep one going?

This is what unnerves me whenever - all too frequently - I'm asked to allow for another update. Or worse, when the update proceeds without any go ahead having been requested or given.

Is it possible that nobody else is experiencing the same bother?

 

21 September 2017