Do we believe in a caring society?

But what does a caring society stand for today, when so many people contribute to L-Istrina and the rest while falling in with the slogan that the market decides best?

So do we believe in a competitive society, run according to free market rules?

But what do we understand by this at a time when it is becoming clearer that those who have market power, find themselves at an advantage when they get taxed, when they need to win, and when they need to ensure their views prevail?

Do we believe in a quiet society or in one where protest is rife?

But what is there to protest about when in all of Europe, a big majority of those who are burdened and weighed down by decisions that were taken yesterday and today, still agree that all is for the better?

At times, one has to conclude that the best approach is set out in the dictum: If you cannot beat them, join them

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Regarding Europe

For this country, it has become a leading priority that citizens in Malta and Gozo be well informed about what is happening in the European Union and the euro zone.

Too many have limited awareness regarding what is succeeding and what is failing away from our shores. They hardly take any notice. I understand why this is happening and why such a state of affairs is becoming increasingly well established. Yet one would have thought that the island’s membership of the EU would have reinforced a change in the opposite direction.

Decisions taken or avoided in Europe strongly affect our own situation. This reality may be masked for the present by the good economic results being achieved by the country, but it is still there and cannot be ignored.

It may seem to us as if we’re taking our own decisions, when in fact, they follow from decisions that the European Union has already taken for us.

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Credibility

Political activism on the part of volunteers and militants of this party or that, rarely stops but goes on regardless.

Sometimes it’s on a roll. Sometimes it ebbs.

It gets done and it’s needed.

A problem for traditional parties is that they seem to have become less able than in the past, to mobilise volunteers or that they seem not to know how to do it. We get told that times and people have changed. Activism on behalf of a political organisation has become less interesting and generates less commitment than does for instance, internet activity.

Yet so-called “populist” parties on the left and the right are managing to mobilise activists, getting them to conduct face to face interventions with citizens and voters.

I greatly fear that in all this, the problem does not relate to who has or has not the best political action model. When mobilizing one’s activists, the problem has become one of credibility. Activists will not surge forward to give a helping hand, if the people they meet no longer believe that what they have to offer is genuine or effective.

The problem is undermining badly traditional political parties in the rest of Europe. Eventually it could affect us too.