During a meeting held at Marsalforn about Gozitan expectations regarding Europe, many interesting points were raised. Among these were jobs for young people in Gozo and the consideration of Gozo as a region.

For a number of reasons, this last subject is no longer fashionable. So I was surprised when a young man in his twenties stood up to discuss it with enthusiasm. He even asked whether he could see a copy, say on facebook, of the White Paper about Gozo as a region that we had published when he was four years old, or probably less! I’ll try to find a copy.

Even if in recent years, there has been substantial progress in Gozo’s economic and social situation, Gozitans still feel they are at a disadvantage. While we need to be realistic in this regard, I also believe that the major objective should be that of creating productive and well paid jobs on the island for Gozitan young people.

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Political murder

Some people came to tell me: the assassination of Mrs Daphne Caurana Galizia was a political murder.

I asked: What meaning do you want that to have: a political murder?

From a subset of those who delivered this opinion, the reply was: the murder was carried out for political reasons.

Personally I find this kind of judgement vapid, like other judgements that are plucked out of the sky, to underline this or that motive to “explain” such a horrendous crime. But if one “accepts” the political version, one would then have to ask who could have benefitted from the crime.

Let’s exclude foreign political actors; such a scenario hardly sounds probable.

The government or the Labour Party certainly could not have benefitted from what happened; actually they lost a ton. Caruana Galizia was greatly instrumental in helping to engineer one of Labour’s biggest electoral victories ever.

The same applies to the current Opposition Leader. He came to the post by winning among others, over a campaign that Caruana Galizia launched against him. He surely had no interest to let a shadow darken this victory.

So by elimination, the political beneficiary would be that section of the PN which led the party during the last twenty five years or so, has become totally discredited but would still like to remain in charge.  

Naturally those who label as a political murder what has happened, do not want at all to pursue the logic implied by their approach.

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Glyphosate

For a while, I had a conflict about whether in the European Parliament I should vote for the prohibition of glyphosate, the chemical used in a fertilizer which has been identified as detrimental to public health. Apart from the huge US corporation which produces the chemical, and which has run an enormous campaign worldwide against prohibition, practically all the European farm sector has been against, including Malta’s, as representated by cooperatives.

Farmers fear that without this fertilizer, their yields will decline and they will lose income.

However, one just cannot put aside studies about the adverse effects on people’s health that have been published, despite the other studies published as part of the propaganda organised by the US company.

So I followed the line of the socialist and democratic group and voted for the withdrawal of glyphosate. Still I believe that programmes should be launched to compensate European farmers for this and to provide alternatives that could counter the adverse effects to them of this change. But in the protection of citizens’ health, no compromises can be made.