Unless we watch out, the square that fronts the church of St Mary (“the old church”) in B’kara could end up as an image, a model, for the island as a whole. This is not the first time I’m referring to the state it is in.

It should have been a beautiful square laid out before one of the oldest churches in Malta, which is actually trying to establish itself as a separate parish. The church edifice, as has recently become public knowledge, is itself in danger. Its ancient foundations are collapsing.

I remember the area as fertile agricultural land. Today, the square is bounded on all sides by garages.  In Malta and abroad, squares that lie in front of prestigious churches are still highlighted by old and/or new constructions that give them character. Not here.

Possibly as a remedy for this, under the Gonzi administration, with much fanfare, the square was paved with black stones. Soon after the first rains came, the stones broke loose. Repairs were undertaken once, twice... They got loose again and again.

As I write this, they are in a disastrous state. Paving stones are buckling all over the square. There’s no point in blaming the flooding for this. When a square is being planned, inbult mechanisms to contain floods should be part of its design. 

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Euro tools

I must admit that I remain less than impressed by much of the enthusiastic talk that one hears in Brussels (even when it comes from people who act in good faith) about the measures that should be taken to strengthen the euro. Too often they take their arguments too far, though fundamentally they are correct in the proposals they make.

Except on the one point that I consider as the most fundamental. It has been simply forgotten in the saga that we have followed to develop the euro recipe.

It just is not enough to specify the “technical” tools required to manage the euro in the belief that once those tools are there, they will be used for ends that are politically and socially acceptable.

Of course, it is important to have such management tools at hand. But before they are put inplace, there should be a political agreement as to how they will be utilised. If not, it is best not to have them at all. My view on this is however a minority one...

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Rachel Carson

In the blog previous to the present one, I mentioned the dismal story about the silent spring that is threatening to hang over the French countryside due to the elimination there of the bird population. In the last fifiteen years it has dropped by a third.

A friend phoned to accuse me of plagiarism. It was good to learn he was reading what I write but I had to contest his claim.

So he reminded me of Rachel Carson’s classic book, published in 1962 “The Silent Spring”. In it Carson made the same arguments now being put forward in France about how pesticides are destroying the environment that birds and other animals need to survive.

Many believed that Carson was successful in raising a proactive awareness about the deleterious  effect of pesticides on the environment. It seems like they were wrong. The problem is still with us.  And obviously, it has worsened.