What meaning does it still have – to be in the public service?

Put a bracket around politics, which in its best mode, also forms part of the public service. But there are those who without wanting to enter politics in any way and who do not want to work for the private sector, would still want to provide work that contributes to the common good and is not intent on personal profit.

We are not giving sufficient space to people with such aspirations. (Which does not mean that they do not care at all to end up wellpaid for their efforts.)

Over the years, there has been a decline in the ethos of the public service as a career option that provides the opportunity for serious work, with aims that distinguish it totally from the search for more money and profits.

Without theatrics and empty sermons, we must strive to again  promote the urge for public service as a commitment that deserves full recognition.

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Compared to...

The EU’s statistical agency Eurostat, has published information about the proportion of their economic resources (measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product) that member states dedicate to the different sectors of public policy. The same information is then aggregated for the EU as a whole.

The comparisons afforded by the exercise are of interest. For instance, when considering social protection, it is seen that Malta earmarks 12 per cent of its outturn to this objective, while the EU as a whole, earmarks 19.1 per cent.

For Malta, there is also an undershoot in health. We attach 5.6 per cent of GDP to health while in the EU as a whole, this measure reaches 7.1 per cent.

What conclusions should be drawn from such numbers?

In education by contrast, we “outperform” the rest of Europe, since 5.4 per cent of Maltese GDP is taken up by educational allocations, compared to 4.7 per cent in Europe. Here the question that arises is: why then are our outcomes in the educational sphere not so encouraging? 

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Birds

Last week, the French media emphasized a dismal story that described how during the last fifteen years, the number of birds in the French countryside has dropped by a third. Hunters and trappers were not responsible; the decline was caused by measures meant to enhance agricultural output.

The pesticides that were used – chiefly neonicotinoids, so it is claimed – have destroyed many of the insects which birds feast  upon at certain stages of their life cycle. Which means that the decline in the bird population went step by step alongside the destruction of insects they needed for their nourishment.

Then, blame is also attached to the ever spreading usage of land for the cultivation of grains needed for human consumption. This is greatly reducing the prevalence of “wild” plants with seeds that are consumed by birds in zones which formerly were not brought under cultivation.

The prospect has become one of a countryside in France that remains completely silent even in spring. The song of birds will become something that is mentioned in the text of ancient poems which nobody understands any more. In Malta, we too are close to this state of affairs – perhaps, even though this is not usually highlighted, for the same reason as in France?