I was told these last weeks: Young people are no longer interested in politics.

But there was another voice which said: Not only are young people still very interested in politics. They are inventing new ways to participate in it.

As I see it, so long as young people participate in politics, how they do it is immaterial. The important thing is that they are on board. And that they come from all points of the political compass and are not simply those who on one side or the other, are just rebelling against something or other.

Is this possible?

Independently of whether young people can vote or not, I think it is. Ironically perhaps, if they still could not vote, they would have been more interested in politics. The problem for many people is that all sense of idealism seems to have been drained out of political practice – along with any intention to try and create a different, better world. So when mobilisation takes place, it coalesces around wide but limited areas of public life – such as environmental protection – or around protest.

To be sure, even organized religion is facing the same problem.

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Public lands

Despite the number of projects, big and small, which since the 1960s to date, have been undertaken by the private sector on public land, the practices and methods by which land is parcelled out and allocated for commercial and other uses have not been made subject to some common rules.

Since when the process began of making land grants for the building of factories or hotels like the first Hilton and the Sheraton, and up to today, practically the only rule introduced was that land allocations needed to have Parliamentary approval. For the rest, all projects were to be considered on their own “merits”.

When foreign parties come to know about this practice they must surely find it curious, to say the least. For us Maltese however, it all seems to be a very natural way of proceeding. Now, one wonders, why should it be like so?

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At San Gwann

Government housing estates are not always well kept. This is not the case for the one at San Ġwann which has retained a nice, clean appearance around open spaces that are well cared for. I visited not so long ago.

Naturally, many of the residents who came to live there when the estate was first opened or shortly afterwards, are elderly now. In some blocks, a lift has been installed, but others still do not have one, even if in all buildings, installing it is technically feasible. In fact, where a lift is still not in place, residents have been promised that it will come. They were even shown the plans for how this would hapen.

Yet, the project is still pending and the frustration felt by residents is understandable. If you have the health problems that come with old age, the exercise of going down three flights of stairs and back up them in order to leave your home and return, becomes increasingly burdensome by the day. The same holds even if one is still in good health but has to carry up the stairs all one’s daily shopping.