We grasp that Malta is actually part of the Mediterranean when some dispute arises with one of our neighbours. Our economy and society seem to have remained insulated from the geographical context where they exist. And it is as if the digital means of communication... tourism as well... have served to deepen this divide, not level it out.
True, football and pop music have helped to bring part of our population closer to Italy, which in the past was a point of reference for the bourgeois strata of the island. However, from a deeper perspective, there does not exist a conscious knowledge of who and how our neighbours really are: we know them little if at all, care minimally about them, and the same applies in our regard from their side. It is a pity that some confrontation has to arise, like with immigration, for us to face up to the reality that indeed, we are part of the Med.
During the nineteen seventies, a Labour government made great efforts to promote such a consciousness – in my view, without success.
Since then, that aim has been abandoned, in practice if not in terms of what gets proclaimed.
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Trade wars
Europeans need to make some drastic calculations as they decide how to respond to the US decision to increase tariffs on steel and aluminium exported to America. The risk is that if counter measures are too stiff, President Trump will embark on a massive retaliation, as he has already promised to do. And they would then have to respond in kind.
On the other hand, if their response is non-existent or weak, they would have given Trump the signal to expand further the measures he has taken, from metals to other items.
Their big problem is an inability to predict how the US President will react, especially since he frequently contradicts himself. One point though is quite clear: the people who voted for him have deeply appreciated what he is doing. They may not be the majority of the American people, but they have already delivered a majority in the convention that elects the US President.
A trade war now can destroy the economic growth that has been running worldwide for the last two to three years. It could also create the momentum for Trump to be twice elected to the White House.
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Maturity
I understand how moves to give new rights to “very” youngpeople by way of voting and other openings, should be considered as progressive moves forward.
Still, I believe more thought should be given to the... almost biological... consideration that any individual needs time till with training, by example and through discipline, he/she can acquire civilpatterns of behaviour while discarding anti-social attitudes. All organisms need time to achieve the best use of their faculties. This applies to physical, as well as intellectual and moral qualities.
The term “rites of passage” was indeed used to denote the steps that needed to be taken between one phase and a later one when undergoing professional, tribal, social development... as a member of the community reaches the level where he/she becomes a full one. In other words, when he/she would have attained maturity.