We report, in today's front page, two contrasting stories.

The European Commission has praised the Maltese economy by stating that Malta, along with nine other Member States, is compliant with the Stability and Growth Pact.

Then we highlight the continuing plight of those unfortunate enough to have banked with Satabank whose operations have been blocked by the MFSA and who now face real hardship as a result of the impasse.

Looking outside the box, we can notice two other contrasting stories. On the one hand we hear so much about the growth of the Maltese economy while at ground level the number of people who cannot match the rents for apartments and who have elected to live in garages is on the increase.

Not that it makes any difference, obviously, but this last category includes not only foreigners or migrants but also Maltese.

The axiom we have chosen for the title of this leader is very true: a chain is as strong as its weakest link.

There was a time when the Maltese concertina was quite narrow - the difference between the top salary and the bottom one was quite narrow, but this concertina has now widened.

We will surely see this in the coming weeks once the Black Friday and the Christmas shopping spree get going. While luxury goods proliferate, the needy (and the Satabank clients) go hungry.

We normally say there is a lot of solidarity going around, as we will surely see when l-Istrina comes along, and as we also glimpse on a personal level when cases such as the Satabank crisis or some other crisis comes along. But then we cannot always rely on personal expressions of solidarity when structural problems raise their heads.

There are also pockets of poverty around us, especially among pensioners who have traditionally had to rely on successive governments handing out nuggets each year and make sure everybody hears about it. As prices rise and pensions inch along, more and more pensioners find they are entering a time of poverty they were not prepared for.

Any country, not even our small island, cannot go for a longish period of time with an increased disparity among citizens. Malta, then, has always prided itself on an enhanced solidarity where people helped each other out. A country where the concertina has been allowed to widen is bad news not just for those at the bottom but for the community as a whole.

Growth cannot be attained at the cost of the suffering of those at the bottom. The debate on what are the drivers behind Malta's astounding growth these past years is an ongoing debate and the government has rebutted, with some reason, claims that the growth that has been registered has come about as a result of keeping wages low and importing as many low-earning foreigners as possible, pointing out to such growth areas as e-gaming and financial services.

Still not enough is being done. Far too many of our young people are leaving school without having obtained the skills they need to get on in the world. Far too many of our people keep refusing jobs that are then taken up by foreigners who on the strength of the wages they earn, keep their families going in their original countries.

And far too many of our processes - those who read us know this is a constant complaint we make - are still technologically backward in an era of rapid technological advances.