The government has rightly decided to not simply provide more buildings to serve as social housing. Beyond this, it plans to monitor how the buildings are run and to ensure that the new residents continue to improve their economic situation till they can find accomodation on their own, without having to rely on state support.

It will not be an easy task. As of now, the results obtained by government’s social housing policies have had their ups and down. Over the years these policies had at most two objectives.

One was to create a supply of accomodation units that could be bought or rented by cohorts of new families having an average or low income – this at times when the commercial supply of housing was either on the low side or too pricey. The second objective was  to provide accomodation for individuals and families with very low incomes (the poor?).

Though nowadays living standards have improved greatly, it seems like an updated housing policy must be deployed to again satisfy both objectives simultaneously.

***

To retain or to drop?

Perhaps I lost some part of the storyline... but exactly what does the family of Mrs Caruana Galizia want? To have the libel suits against her dropped by those who filed them? Or that they be retained?

In the very beginning, I remember they had insisted to have the libel cases retained till the very end, so that the allegations that led to them would be shown to be justified.

Then the word was that those who did not drop their libel suits did so to victimize the family and intimidate Maltese journalists. At least, that was the story circulated among MEPs.

Now, attacks have materialised against those who did drop the libels they had triggered, like Minister Chris Cardona. He did this, so it was claimed, in order to prevent the publication of information that would have confirmed the allegations that led to the libel case he instituted.

It is difficult to conclude that this incoherence is unintentional... unless that is, I have missed some part of the ongoing plot.

***

A pity

It’s a pity it took me so long to discover a very beautiful book published in 2007 which I was offered recently: “Carmelo Mangion – His Life and Works”. Apart from giving detailed information about the life of this exceptional painter, the book contains superb reproductions of much of his artistic output.

It is a fine homage to Mangion who in his lifetime (1905 -1997) was much less wellknown than say Emvin Cremona or Esprit Barthet. After having studied in Rome and Paris, then lived for some time in New York, he returned to Malta and spent  the rest of his life here, teaching art while following his own particular artistic itinerary. He rarely took part in exhibitions or bothered to sell his works though his output was very wideranging.

When in 1995, with my friend from Mellieħa Joe Vassallo, I visited his home at Mrabat Street, Sliema, I was totally impressed by the variety of the many works he showed us, as well as by the profound artistic vision that he explained to us.

The book written and presented with great skill by Joseph Paul Cassar in a  high quality Midsea Books production took me back in memory to the evening of that visit.