I would like to tie two items which appeared recently in the press. The report ‘Tsunami debris floating across Pacific towards US’ (TMID, 1 March) brought to mind the thought that the American continent for sure might have been discovered much earlier by Asians rather than either Genoese Columbus or the Scandinavian Vikings but could not be colonised as there was insufficient investment, or technological capabilities, seeing that the Pacific is the largest ocean on our world.

Another item which might tie with these musings is that on climate change. I remember a discussion held months back at a civil club in Victoria, Gozo and chaired by a Gozitan lawyer/columnist. There I had suggested that climate change is cyclical, which might explain why a rich continent such as the North American one was for long centuries without a civilisation at par with those elsewhere in antiquity such as in China, Japan, India, the Middle East and Europe. A continent regularly ravished by tornados and savage inclement weather which would have devastated any new colony without a parent with deep pockets in man, materials and the logistical capability of taking these across the ocean.

Might not people who think that they can influence the climate be in the same position as those building the Tower of Babel who had the idea of climbing up to heaven from a staircase! And while from Babel at least we derived our distinctive languages of which we are proud, might not shackling technology with muzzling limitations not only throw the economy in further recession but also add to the misery index?

Joseph G. Bonett

St Julian’s