In the end, the prevalent feeling in the country on this eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is that of any household preparing itself for an important event with guests expected any minute. But with a few differences.

The country – well, parts of it – has been given a thorough clean-up, some roads rebuilt and all repainted, the signs hung up, and broken things repaired at long last. The country – well, parts of it – looks spic and span, just as we would always like it to be. The road from the airport to Golden Bay is just beautiful. One is proud to be Maltese.

At the same time, however, one is also angry. Why is it that only those parts which will be seen and used by heads of government have been done up? Why are the other parts still sinking in neglect and dirt? Why is this attitude so reminiscent of Third World countries, which create wonderful set pieces for international events while the rest of the country struggles against poverty?

And, where has this army of men working over the past days on the roads been all along? Why is it that we only seem to have noticed them now? And will the work stop as soon as the foreign visitors depart and the government recoups some of the cost over-runs all this has involved?

There is also a frisson of fear around, especially after last Sunday’s reports of threats against the Queen. Maybe it was a rash, impetuous decision by the previous Prime Minister to offer Malta as the venue for the meeting, even if he could not have been expected, two years ago, to foretell the Clash of Civilisations. Still, considering the usual outlay of funds to host such a meeting, it was very ambitious, too ambitious perhaps, for Malta to offer to host the meeting.

There is a strange dissonance in the whole thing. Over the past years Malta debated and finally approved joining the EU. The EU is now our place in the world. But just as we have been settling in, here is Malta apparently reverting back to the Commonwealth and the Queen. No one came forward with an explanation, thereby confirming that the government lacks a communications strategy and that for many people CHOGM is just another excuse for State banquets, receptions, shiny new cars and rubbing shoulders with the big boys of the world. And possibly too for various lucrative contracts.

Lower down, however, there can no doubt of the Maltese people’s enduring loving relationship with the British Crown and the British in general. As a British colony for 200 or so years, it may not all have been wonderful but those years marked our national identity in an undeniable manner. We may drive on the left, but we also gained entry into the modern world through the English language. And then, of course, there is the shared experience of suffering and fighting for freedom in World War Two.

The Commonwealth, however, is not just the club of former British colonies, brought together by nostalgia and history. It is nothing like the EU in all its structures and can never become a substitute for it, whatever the British Eurosceptics may fantasise. It is also a loose relationship of peoples who in a way enjoy a common past, but also a special relationship with each other.

In this particular meeting, coming as it does just before the global trade talks in Hong Kong next month, and also considering its specific themes of IT and development just a day before the Euro-Med conference in Barcelona, and before the EU summit in December, following the G8 meeting at Gleneagles in July, the Commonwealth leaders are faced with a very urgent and important task: that of coming up with a common front urging not just a successful trade round, but also a trade round that benefits developing countries, as the Commonwealth Secretary General pointed out a few days ago when he visited Malaysia in preparation for the CHOGM meeting. (See page 13)

Many of the leaders represent the rich and industrial world, but many others represent poor peoples and countries. This meeting, far more than any EU meeting, can be induced to hear the cries of the poor, brought to their knees by protective policies that favour the rich countries, in a globalised world where industry and manufacturing are busy relocating to cheaper locations and where the pressures of globalisation are already creating their own victims, as experienced in so many countries. In a way, Malta, one of the three Commonwealth nations, which is in the EU, which is a rich man’s club alright, should be made to carry over to the EU meetings the concerns as expressed by the poor nations at the CHOGM. It would be a pity if the Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson, just visits Malta to give a talk at the Commonwealth Business Forum but not listen to the concerns expressed by so many representatives of poor countries.

All this, the subject matter of the CHOGM, goes beyond the concerns of the Maltese, because they have not been sensitised to it. All that seemed to have mattered is to have a top-down strategy with the same people doing everything and reducing the rest to frustration and to the sidelines. Even up to and including yesterday’s almost final briefing, it was all a matter of organisational details and nothing about the subject matter of the conference.

It is for precisely this reason that this newspaper does not share the concern, alarm and panic which has gripped some of Malta’s sectors at the news that the General Workers Union is bringing the people out to protest on Thursday, on the eve of CHOGM and right in the middle of the Queen’s visit.

First of all, it is a very European right to protest. Repression of protests during high level meetings only takes place in repressive regimes, unless the protests turn violent. But the GWU protests have always been very well-mannered and orderly protests.

It would, however, be a better idea if the GWU, rather than just protest against the government and the economic situation in a rather insular manner, opens up its protest to sound the voice of the so many poor peoples of the earth to tell the Commonwealth leaders not to forget their concerns when they are being wined and dined in luxury in Malta.

The sad saga of the Denim workers and the high electricity prices we have to pay are both effects of globalisation. They should teach us that small countries, and poor countries, are far more at the mercy of globalisation than big ones. It is only if the small and the poor get together and act together (that is, do far more than just protest) that they can help alleviate the awesome burden.