Of course, the on going controversy about traffic congestion has arisen because with the end of summer, roads are being used with a higher intensity than ever before and at specific times during the day, mainly when schools, offices and factories are opening or closing.
Two problems account for the ever increasing congestion:lack of faith by most people in public transport; the unending growth in the number of cars on the road, so that now they are double the population. It is difficult to say which problem follows from the other or whether indeed the two are driving (?) each other forward.
The truth is that public transport still suffers from a bad reputation. Probably it was a mistake not to have attempted to modernise the model we had previously for this sector, by which small scale private operators pooled their contribution to run theservice. Instead we went for a model by which one private company is in charge.
I remember the arguments on this topic within the Labour government of the seventies of the previous century, with the then Prime Minister arguing that we already had a privately run system, which was providing a public service on a cooperative basis. The aim, he would claim, should be that of modernising the service to make it more efficient and flexible. I think he was right.
By contrast, proposals presently being made for tram systems, tunnels and what have you, do seem to be pie in the sky.
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Mental health
The mental health situation in Malta was profiled this week with reference to how measures are still lacking that place it within an active policy framework.
The criticism is a valid one.
Over the last fifty years or so, we lagged in three major social policy areas: the welfare of people with disabilities, or special needs, as I still prefer to describe them; sexual health issues; and mental health.
There has been great progress in the first two areas – which does not mean that nothing remains to be done. On the third area, we are still far behind.
An urgent need exists to give mental health a high policy priority.
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TTIP
TTIP -- the agreement being negotiated between the EU and the US on “freer” trade and greater convergence in the management of markets and investment on both sides –will not be wrapped up by end year as originally planned. That was what President Obama as well as the European Commission wished for.
A strong propaganda exercise was launched to help achieve this aim. Even leaders of goodwill, like President Obama himself, seem to have been won over by the so-called benefits of an ever widening globalisation.
It was a mistake to allow contrary arguments to be monopolised by extreme nationalist and populist forces.Good arguments could equally have been raised by socialists and democratic conservatives... as is finally being done. They are not directed against further contacts between individuals and greater trade between nations. But they go against the belief that such contacts and trade should be carried out by applying neo-liberalrules of thejungle.
The model for similar agreements needs to change. Under the gloss of beautifully expressed ideals, it cannot remain simply designed to effectively improve the operating conditions of big capitalist firms as they grow and spread.