Terrorism. A white male opened fire into a festival crowd, killing at least 50 on Sunday. Somehow, this horrible incident was not classified as terrorism by the mainstream media. Instead, the Las Vegas massacre, which is being considered as one of the worst shootings in the US in recent history, was referred to as a ‘mass shooting.’ This would not have been the case had the shooter been named Mohamed instead of Stephen. Still, this incident has once again shown that nowhere is safe, and that a single person can create havoc and ruin countless lives.

Rule of law. Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri yesterday said that the courts are powerless if the police and the Attorney General fail to act, and that the rule of law must be enforced without distinction.  This is an all too familiar warning that has, unfortunately, not yet led to a change in our systems.

Over the past months many accusations have been levelled against the police and the AG over their apparent failure to act before very serious accusations, many times backed with proof, about wrongdoing by people occupying high posts in politics. The country simply cannot retain a system where the top police brass is appointed by a minister, meaning that their loyalty would be first and foremost to the party in government. Similarly, we cannot have a situation where the AG’s office loses the public’s trust in such a spectacular way yet pretends that everything is business as usual. Also, people in this country can never have full trust in the judicial system if judges and magistrates are appointed by the government, especially if most of them have some past connection to the party in government.

Environmental Crime Police. Nature Trust – FEE Malta has come up with the best budget proposal we have heard so far: that of creating an Environmental Crime Police to be able to take action on illegal dumping, littering, illegal development, environmental degradation, illegal hunting and biodiversity protection. It is high time that this country takes concrete steps to truly safeguard the environment, with action not words, and bring to justice those inconsiderate souls who think that our valleys are their personal dumping grounds.

Traffic. Mondays mornings are anything but happy in Malta, at least during the winter months. A little rain and the entire road system gets jammed. To make matters worse many major roadworks are being carried out at this delicate time when school, and hence school transport, starts again. While the government is to be commended on finally tackling several nightmare traffic hotspots in Malta, with projects underway to increase lanes and ease traffic flow, the works should not have been undertaken at this time of the year. Maybe it would have been wiser to wait until next summer. But this is Malta, where logic and common sense are not so common.

Fixing injustices. Finance Minister Edward Scicluna yesterday announced that the government would be allocating €11 million from next year’s budget to be given to sections of public workers who in the past did not receive money owed to them. The government, he said, felt morally obliged to do so.  While this decision is to be lauded one must also point out that governments, while trying to fix injustices carried out by previous administrations, tend to create injustices of their own. There were several reports of vindictive work transfers just days into this new legislature and the government would do well to fix those as well.