Year in year out, at budget time and beyond, we can only confirm how our economy is increasing the volume of services it provides. The aims that used to be set in long past years for industry to be given full backing in order to expand have long disappeared, almost completely.
As of now, industry's relative and absolute share in the economic pie have continued to shrink.
This is another consequence - which rarely gets a mention - of Malta's joining the EU. Small countries like ours find that their best competitive advantages lie in services, especially if they are situated in the European periphery.
Is this good or bad? We all have our own opinion. It will be the generations following ours which will be in a position to decide the matter: on the basis of experience.
What is curious - indeed disquieting as of today, is the fact that strong political currents in the EU consider that services like the ones we provide are most suspicious. They want to rein them in, not to say eliminate them altogether.
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THE WAR DEAD
Commemorations of the two World wars continue to be held but the general public's interest in them is muted. People hit the nail on the head who say that in this country, crowds mostly congregate for popular festas - where one finds plenty of bands and fireworks and noisy fun, beer and hot dogs...
This is no reason to phase out War commemorations, even less so those which honour the war dead. True, many of their comrades who managed to survive have left as time went on. It was they who rightly emphasized the need to keep alive the memory of their friends killed duting the wars.
Even when the survivors have all disappeared, the need will remain to commemorate in sadness and to honour the dead and the maimed, all victims of the Wars.
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GEORGE GATT
I will remember him as one who gave valid and genuine advice. Prudent and cautious in his behaviour though his voice could be quite loud, I saw how prone he was to worry excessively. When I would tell him so, he would agree and explain that his character was like that.
I enjoyed listening to his stories about the childhood he spent in a big farm lost in the fertile fields close tothe Burmarrad valley; or about how he started his business on coming back from Canada. Politically he was quite clear in the positions he took and one knew exactly where he stood - something that I got to increasingly appreciate over the years.
I admired too his love of family. Most of his worries were triggered by the feeling that he could have worked yet more strenuously than he actually did for his family.
With his death, we have lost another of that generation of Labour politicians who greatly contributed to the objective of making this country not just independent but also free. It is a contribution that in recent years has been allowed to fade in people's memory, but no one will be able to erase it from the island's history.
My profound condolences to all George Gatt's family.