The status of neutrality written into the Maltese constitution is a national achievement that the majority of people in Malta and Gozo believe in and agree with. Neutrality corresponds to the best interests of the nation as a whole while also serving to safeguard the best interests of countries situated to our north and south.
However neutrality is defined and laid out according to a country’s circumstances, among which feature historical, geographical and social factors. And it needs to be adapted according to how these circumstances are changing.
In the next five years, the tests and challenges over Malta’s neutrality are bound to multiply. The EU, of which we are full members, will be embarking on a militarisation programme. We cannot and we should not ignore this issue by pretending it is not happening or that it will not affect us.
The response should be national in scope and not partisan. It has to be established following an extensive discussion within the whole of society about the situation as a whole.
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FACE TO FACE OR ELECTRONICALLY
With the excuse that they are modernising and improving the services they have on offer, many banks have been progressively abandoning all direct personal contacts with their clients. By hook or by crook, they are prodding them to make use of the electronic services they “provide” for them, while drastically curtailing the arrangements formerly available for their clients to go to a bank branch and deal directly with a cashier.
The banks claim that the changes that are being introduced have been rendering a superior service, in the best interests of citizens. But for this to have happened, they needed to have left in place the existing facilities while simultaneously providing the new ones.
This is going to be the problem: banks are missing out on all worthwhile understanding of their own clients. Face to face contact with the latter is getting totally lost -- which from a long run perspective, is hardly wise. When they really need it, banks could find that the information they carry about their depositors and others, in no way shows who these people truly are and what they truly are looking for.
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SPRING
The Maltese spring was always a weak season that departed fast, if it ever arrived. With climate warming, there are big chances that it will become an increasingly marginal item in the weather calendar.
The same is happening in the rest of Europe, north and west included. It is being forecasted that while the Mediterranean is to become drier and warmer, the same will happen in other European zones whch are now known for their cool climate and the soft greenery of their countysides. They too are running the risk of losing a substantial portion of their springtime.
If these changes continue to the end (as I believe they will), with them they will bring fundamental economic, social and cultural transformations. If we do not manage to put them into reverse, as I think will be the case, it would be best to prepare measures to help us adapt to them.