These are the weeks when our collective unconscious makes a beeline for Gozo.

This time, this year, there is a very welcome new air in the sister island, a feeling that things are looking up and that new developments are round the corner.

The new administration has taken the bull by the horns and has begun to deliver what it promised and what made the Gozo electorate end years of supporting the Nationalist Party and vote for Labour.

There is palpable excitement about the plans for a new yacht marina, considering that the yacht marina at Mgarr Harbour has become heavily congested and also tends to interfere with the running of the Gozo Channel schedules, as can be seen on most mornings and heard at many times with the ships having to sound their foghorns to warn boats off.

There is widespread interest in the plans to try and attract cruise liners to Gozo. The previous administration spent years pondering this and then could only come up with a buoy at Xlendi, which at the end did not function at all or almost.

Obviously, one problem with Gozo is the relative scarcity of harbours and ports, with the few there are being at the mercy of the winter storms.

Gozo’s peculiar geography plays havoc also with the problems of accessibility, with the island cut off from Malta on very stormy days and with people having to endure rough crossings because they do not have the luxury, as their Maltese counterparts have, of driving comfortably to work. With more and more Gozitans having to cross over to Malta on a daily basis for study or work, this has become a huge problem, as witnessed by the crowds that every morning cross over, having had to wake up at an unholy hour to go to work.

It was only late in the previous legislature that pressure led to a very preliminary study on the feasibility of a tunnel linking Malta to Gozo.

All through the previous legislature, at various meetings organised by the constituted bodies, they kept coming up with complaints about a logjam in government responsiveness and getting naught in reply except the usual platitudes. Time and again, these constituted bodies made their feelings well known and yet they were not given heed at all. Anyone who was surprised with the outcome of the elections, especially in Gozo, need not have. The writing had long been on the wall.

The new administration has taken its commitments to Gozo seriously and has begun to implement and put in practice what it promised. It has even commissioned a study on the feasibility of a bridge between the two islands. More importantly, the logjam of government responsiveness has been broken and the government is reacting to the concerns expressed by the population. More commitments await implementation, especially that which seeks to cut down on the need of so many residents of Gozo to work or study in Malta.

But more fundamentally, what has changed was the curbing of authorities in Malta telling people in Gozo what to do. Instead, the motor for change is now led by Gozitans for Gozitans. And that explains the new air of optimism one finds in Gozo.