I have absolutely nothing against priests, nuns and members of the lay MUSEUM society; in fact some of my best friends over the years have been members of the local clergy. I also acknowledge that the vast majority of them are an asset to our society, as they continue to contribute to the varied fields of education, social welfare and, of course, religious instruction to those who want it.

But I object to Labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis’ suggestion in Parliament last week that they should be included with the ‘public service’ concept. This is not because they do not render a precious public service, voluntary or not. It is because in a secular (well, almost, given the reference to religion in the Constitution) state such as ours, we need to make sure there is no in-breeding or mixing of the two. What is of the state has to remain of the state, and what is not has to remain so.

The concept of separation of state and Church has to be continuously guarded and, where necessary, updated rather than turned into convenient marshmallow fodder. There are other ways to recognise the sterling work of the clergy and lay people in Maltese society, the foremost gesture being the State’s financial assistance to Church schools and institutions: a full-blooded reality that is funded from the taxes believers and non-believers pay during the year. It shows we live in a mature society where compromise and mutual respect happily do predominate, notwithstanding sporadic hiccups.

A certain divide has to remain. It is not a fence, nor a barrier, but a delineation that outlines territories and helps avoid the mistakes of the past by both sides of society.

Opposition MP Censu Galea then went a step further by suggesting that even politicians should be packed and pampered into the “public service” concept and so protected, because they are sometimes intimidated. Again, there is no arguing with the reality of things, but a lot of people do feel anxious when politicians start playing the victim. After all, when workers were being denied a second pension, miserable though it might have been, politicians were giving themselves a hefty extra pension on the easiest of conditions.

The question of protection is a thorny one. To whom do you give it and why should one person receive it and not the other one? There are some civilians getting 24-hour police protection (from whom?), for example, but there are hundreds of others who probably also need it but don’t have it. Understandably, a line has to be drawn somewhere. But while the average citizen often finds that not only is the village police station closed every day, but a police constable hardly ever bothers to show up anywhere near, there are animals that are more equal than other animals, as George Orwell once put it.

Sometimes, when the philosophising in Parliament comes to a head, it often gets complicated and cumbersome – even amusing. With the best of intentions, MPs try to outshine one another by making suggestions that tend to be frivolous and/or superfluous.

Public officers certainly need to be protected at a time when respect for authority seems to be on the wane, but making a melodrama out of it is overdoing things a little bit.

***

Mdina and Cottonera

It is with pleasure that one greets the announcement that Mdina has been chosen as the locality to benefit from the EU-financed HELAND project that aims to further improve the old city’s tourist product while at the same time protecting its small minority of residents. The required balance is not easy to achieve, but I am sure that my Mdina counterpart, Mdina Rehabilitation Committee chairman Marchesino Daniel de Petri Testaferrata, will be more than happy to assist in the process.

One hopes the same focus is eventually put on the Cottonera, where infrastructural and tourist development have to be taken in consideration with the needs of the people of Cospicua, Vittoriosa, Senglea and Kalkara. For too many years abandoned and ignored, the region is hopefully set for a major rejuvenation. Vittoriosa was practically the only Cottonera locality to benefit from any real change, but while it will still deserve to be seen to and further moulded into the fortified jewel that it is, some urgent attention has to be given to the other three places.

Cospicua has suffered and continues to suffer the most. It is plagued by a social stigma that only time and sheer education can erase, while Senglea and Kalkara have had their 20 minutes of fame and been soon forgotten. EU-funded or not, Cottonera has to have its embellishment projects but also the involvement of its big-hearted people who are rightly proud of a heritage they have for too long seen decaying while other places, electorally notable in the eyes of previous administrations, kept receiving one costly facelift after the other.

Mdina and Cottonera are two of the major pillars on which rests Malta’s tourist industry. Fascinating as it certainly is, Mdina already gives its fair share and may it long continue to do so. Cottonera has only just started. Many visitors, but not enough of them, are actually now venturing into Vittoriosa, Cospicua, Senglea and Kalkara, and it is always good to see them walking in the narrow, semi-dark streets where, unlike ghostly Mdina, there are real children playing football, real women talking, real men decorating the façades of their homes and, inevitably, real drivers arguing with real fellow drivers over contested parking places.

Habitat is fun too.

***

Do we ever get such surveys done?

When you read what watchdog agencies in places such as the UK and the rest of Europe do on a regular basis, you begin to wonder why we very rarely ever get something like it in defence of our consuming society.

For example, car insurance premiums are too high, according to the UK competition watchdog, which is to look at ways of reducing them. The Competition Commission even said there could be caps on the cost of accident repairs and providing replacement vehicles for drivers, and that too many accident repairs were not carried out to the required standard.

In our case, you can say that again. But have we ever had someone talking about it, let alone complaining?

The same goes for insurance. The UK watchdog found the way add-on insurance products were sold made it difficult for customers to find the best-value products and that the overall £11bn market was not working well for drivers. It also believed that many people were footing the bill for unnecessary costs incurred during the claims process after an accident.

Doesn’t it all sound so familiar to Maltese ears – or is no one listening?

***

And on and on it goes...

The British Metropolitan Police said last week there is “no credible evidence” that the country’s own SAS was involved in the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Another goal for the Establishment, I guess, against the conspiracy theorists.

It reminds you of the Kennedy assassination in the US. The FBI was not involved!

And so it will go on and on...