It is disquieting that while in the economic and “classical” social welfare sectors, progress has been strong, the same cannot be said with regard to the environment.

Other countries are performing much better and we are losing out on Europe-wide targets in what have become priority areas; such as the battle against climate warming, the use of clean energy, the protection of natural resources and similar aims.

The progress that has been recorded overall is itself contributing to this negative outcome.

A problem has been that those who are perturbed about this development are perceived as a minority in the country as a whole, or even as emarginated voices.

If we are to stop losing out, environmental policy should politically and economically, be set in black and white as a leading national priority.

***

Google

It’s difficult not to have ambiguous feelings about Google.

On the one hand, the company has clearly become too big. It appears ready whenever it can get away with it, to abuse its overriding stature in order to dominate today’s markets and tomorrow’s, while avoiding taxes on ever growing profits. The dominance Google aspires to,especially in areas which have become increasingly of strategic importance in country management, has led to the company acquiring a political power that remains hidden but is vital. For these reasons, one cannot but agree that Google needs to be reined in.

On the other hand, some information services provided by Google are priceless. They help to improve immensely the quality of life. I mention just one area that is of interest to me: the way by which Google allows you to download in pdf or other formats, thousands of books from the great libraries of the world. Thanks to Google, you can store say, a whole collection of “old” Melitensia, like for instance the books that used to feature in the library of Sir Hannibal Scicluna.

***

Sexuality and the church

I was told how it is accepted that certain professions attract among others, people who even unconsciously, have certain sexual tendencies. For instance in education, individuals who are attracted by paedophilia.

I thought about this when, once again and perhaps because it is summer and sensational news tends to dry up, new stories were being released about naughty cardinals, bishops and I do not know who else within the clerical ranks of the Catholic Church. Over the years, they availed themselves of the power they had obtained, to carry out “prohibited” sex acts, either abusively or with the consent of the other party. Or they would seek to hide them when such acts were committed by others.

One would think that a neat way by which in future, this problem could be minimised if not completely eradicated, would be for the Catholic Church to dispense with the condition of celibacy it imposes on its priests. In the Orthodox Church there exists no such condition. So surely, the instinctive bonding felt by some people towards the corps of clerics bound by celibacy would decline. That bonding emerges precisely because members of the corps have committed themselves to a way of live, whichin and of itself, could be one both of sacrifice and of attraction.

To be honest, I do not know whether abuses happen or not in the ecclesial ranks of the Orthodox Church, because we hear very little about this.