In 2004 Malta joined the European Union; it was a house divided over the issue. One half of Malta believed that joining a wealthy club of opportunity would be all gain and no pain; the other half believed that it would be mostly doom and gloom.

Naturally, it was neither one nor the other, although the divisions still persist – as opinion polls show. And it would be difficult for it to be otherwise. It would take PN supporters as great an effort to admit it was a wrong choice, as it would take PL supporters to admit that Malta had made the right choice at the time. When the EU is riding high, its supporters cheer; when it is in the doldrums, as it is now, with some forecasts predicting that the euro will be dead in five years’ time, then the sceptics start feeling vindicated.

History is never predictable and hindsight, as they say, is 20-20 vision. Therefore, individuals as well as nations must always be ready to grasp opportunities when they come and to be flexible enough to avoid the pitfalls created by the inevitable tremors, earthquakes and hurricanes of life.

Creative destruction

Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of business cycles is based precisely on this fact. His theory of creative destruction is based on the ebb and flow of a free market where companies and industries rise and dominate only to fall again as their competitors come up with revolutionary and innovative methods. Schumpeter called this the evolutionary process of the free market. It brings with it gain born out of pain, an endless cycle of rise and fall, boom and bust as inevitable as the tides. It is, or should be, the job of governments to cushion against the bust and the fall, and that is best done by always being ahead of the game.

In our time we can actually see this evolutionary process taking place in front of our very eyes in the current wave of innovation in the fields of renewable energy, clean technology, genomic development in biotechnology and new

materials emerging from nanotechnology. 

As we discuss and debate job creation, we must perforce plan ahead to be able to compete in a globalised world that is becoming smaller and more competitive as knowledge grows exponentially. Our only hope of achieving sustainability will depend on how nimble we can be. We need to look reality in the face and challenge it, or we are doomed to moan and groan, vainly believing that others will provide us with the food and water of life.

As I have said so many times before, the foundation of everything lies in offering our people the new education they need, one not built on numbers (although we need to prepare every person on this island to be able to grasp the market) but on quality, on research, on innovation that leads to rewards.  The recent EU survey, which showed that most Maltese would simply salt away any money that the gods might throw into their laps, rather then think of how to use it with profit, in my view demonstrates the sad absence of a culture of entrepreneurship, risk-taking and a vision that stretches beyond our narrow limits. 

Need of a new vision of education

We need a completely new vision for our education. Smart buildings are a must, but schools need to go beyond bookish exercises and the regurgitation of notes. I will risk saying that the whole pyramid needs replacing. For far too long the Ministry of Education has been seen as a rather dull posting, delivering more pain then gain to any ambitious, forward-looking politician. That is why the vision and the management need to be renewed. I will risk the ire of the teaching profession when I say that perhaps we need a business vision for our education system. Those brought up in the profession rarely have such a quality or they wouldn’t be there. In fact, hardly anybody employed in whatever capacity by government possesses this very necessary trait.

Additionally, as the teaching profession becomes more and more the province of the working housewife, because the hours and the long holidays enable her to cope with the needs of her family, the chances of the system being able to provide young minds with the challenging, entrepreneur-driven, creative stimulus they need will become less and less. If this culture has failed to take root up to now, it is hardly likely to do so in the evolving circumstances. You cannot give what you do not have. 

Many forward-looking countries recognise that innovation is the spur for GDP growth. Unless we recognise this and pro-actively take measures to create the right infrastructure to facilitate innovation, we will fall behind by missing sustainable high revenue growth and strong financial returns. To what extent are the university and MCAST gearing up to produce the scientists and engineers that will bring about success at a time of constant innovation?

The lure of green pastures

The politicians, the educational visionaries and the successful leaders of business must put their heads together and plan for the new era that is already with us. The offices on the top floor of the ministry and the department of education should be awash with think tanks containing this mix. Countries like India and China, and the emerging developing countries, are grasping this reality. If we don’t teach and encourage innovation, we are going to suffer. After all, the EU has made it easier for the gifted to seek fresh pastures and leave behind barren territories, even if most of our people in Europe are generally employees of the state or members of the Union’s bureaucratic structures.

While we laboriously strive to weather all the turbulence, we must also carefully nurture the values of service, quality and thought in all that we do. Difficult though it may be, this country must really strive to get rid of the traditional culture of “imxi u mexxi” and of “ejja ħa mmorru”. There is no place for that attitude in a country whose highest income is generated by tourism. And there will be no place for tourism if we destroy that which attracts tourists to our shores.

Go out and earn it

We need a new culture in the way we think, in the way we behave, in the way we measure reward. The culture of the quick buck needs to be eliminated. The choice is between efficient and inefficient, profitable and unprofitable, the now and the future. Above all else, we need to make a choice between clinging like the iguanas of the Galapagos islands to our diminutive space, or going out to get business.