That Julia Farrugia Portelli as a minister and other MPs have been caught in the quarantine net made necessary by the Coronavirus pandemic, is unsurprising. The work of politicians is precisely that of meeting people to listen, talk, explain, learn.

The same holds for priests and doctors, and often for police and I think journalists as well.

If a politician stops meeting people, how will he/she know how matters stand? By consulting the research studies about public opinion carried out by academics and specialists in marketing agencies?

All similar professions entail duties and burdens for their members that by definition will eventually have an impact on their personal lives.

One can only wish that for Julia and other MPs in her position, the period of precautionary “quarantine” (which is what it is) will also provide some rest as well as the opportunity to tool up better for their reappearance, at a time when hopefully, the Coronavirus challenge is being rolled back.

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GOVERNMENT DOING WELL

There’s nothing wrong in these strange times for one to repeat this conclusion:

The government is proceeding well as it seeks to control the disease that has landed in Malta, like it has done in all of Europe and the US.

The challenge is a tough one. It is not easy to balance the impact on citizens’ health triggered by a new disease which still carries many unknown features, with the economic effects that measures to control it are bound to have.

Clearly, one has to decide. And this is being done, with care, with a clear understanding of what the options – all tough – amount to, and with lucidity.

I believe the measures being taken run a very good chance of success. They require the cooperation of the whole mass of citzens. It seems as if this is forthcoming. May it continue to be so.

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MAHLER

As with others, one keeps home as much as possible, especially if one is classified among the elederly.

So, what does one do to stay on the ball?

I thought this was an opportunity to listen once again to Mahler’s symphonies from beginning to end. After all, according to Thomas Mann and Visconti in “Death in Venice”, Mahler had given up on life when he went to that city to spend some time by himself. He died there when a cholera epidemic reached the place during his stay.

After all, a period of time spent far from the madding crowd of our daily routine has the benefit of allowing one to revisit what one used to like in the past, but had then allowed to fade in one’s memory.

In this case: Mahler’s symphony number nine, with its cathedral like structure. Over the years, I got to prefer number 6, the “tragic”. But now that I’ve been through the three of them more than once, as well as the rest of their “fellows” – in the version I had always known, that recorded many years ago by Rafael Kubelik and the Berlin Philharmonic – I would vote for number eight, “of the thousand”.

If this Coronavirus epidemic were not so troublesome, I could find consolation in the opportunity it has given me to once again consult Mahler’s symphonies.