The government is doing very well in launching this year the new “cable” project for a better internet connectivity in Gozo. It has been in the pipeline for a long while, too long. Now that the decision has been taken, it would be wise to ensure that the implementation of the project is not hampered in any way, and that it is undertaken with diligence according to the established timeline.

I am sure that’s how it will be run. For the communications infrastructure being developed should allow new economic and financial opportunities to emerge. They will not all do so at once. Some will occur in ways that cannot be foreseen as of now, in areas that will be of interest to young students and new entrepreneurs.

This might give rise to concern among vested interests who fear that their dominance could come under some threat. I understand that there have been comments in the sense whtat even without the new infrastructure that is being set up, the same goals that are set for it could have been reached with the existing facilties. Surprisingly, this argument never surfaced during the years when the project remained in limbo.

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FARSONS PROJECT

A forgotten and curious incident from last year concerned the new buildings that the Farsons group will be developing in Imrieħel to replace the old structures that they have there. As in all Farsons projects, the development was underpinned by meticulous planning. Even so, the expectation was that before being approved, the project would arouse controversy for environmental and other reasons.

But strangely, controversy arose because at the stage close to the final approval, strong indications emerged that the project would be turned down. So this time round, the contrary to what is usual happened: how is it possible, it was claimed, that such a project would be negatived?

Then we were told that clearer plans had been submitted and any difficulties that had been raised were now cleared.

I hope that a total transparency was maintained during the two stages: the one where the project came close to a refusal, and the second when it got approved.

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VACHSS

I didn’t know about him till I found some of his novels in a second hand bookshop. He seemed like a writer in the Mickey Spillane tradition of the violent American thrillers that were hugely popular in the middle of the previous century.

“Shella”, the Andrew Vachss novel that I did read, presents a brutal and barbaric picture of the social reality in the US as experienced by those who find themselves down and outside the civil space that the rule of law supposedly provides by way of personal security for the people. We encounter male and female criminals who whether inside or outside prison, must remain ever vigilant as they struggle through complicated and dangerous situations. The novel is drenched with violence and is totally amoral.

But it does not follow Spillane’s perspective, where violence is projected in terms that make it feel like a cruel adventure. Vachss pursues his own theories about what turns a person into a criminal. For many years he specialised as a lawyer in cases dealing with the sexual abuse of children. He seems to believe that this kind of abuse, undergone by children without a family or coming from difficult social backgrounds, strongly prods them towards a  criminal future.