In the same way that Malta has always had her Joes and her Charleses, and Italy her Francescos and Giuseppes, so Sweden has her Gretas: names that were more popular at one time or another but still permeate various generations.
But trust the Swedes to bridge the generations. While our grandparents and parents were regaled with Greta Garbo in the cinema world of the 1920s and 30s, today’s young men and women – including schoolchildren – rightly find inspiration in Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist and a role model for international student climate activism.
So much has happened – and been allowed to happen – to the world between the two Gretas in the name of big business and multi-national pollutants to lead to the present sorry state of the global climate, that governments all over the globe do not even know how to react to this new movement for action against climate change. It all started with the Greta of the 21st century in November last year, when she is known to have initiated the ‘school strike for climate movement’, a movement that quickly surged globally after the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) a month later.
When teenagers deliver a message, it is difficult for politicians and administrators to confront them – or to appear to be patronising them – particularly over issues that focus on the very future of the world and future generations: our own grandchildren and their children. So while it is good to watch many of them greeting and taking pictures with Greta Thunberg, one somehow cannot hide one’s distrust of those same political figures who could have done so much more – and still could do so much more – to tackle climate change by taking action rather than paying the usual lip service.
I happened to be in London during the recent climate protests that almost brought the English capital to a standstill. They blocked roads, access to underground stations, disrupted traffic flows and camped on major thoroughfares, including parts of Oxford Street on Easter Sunday – where the shops still opened. It was frustrating to have to replan one’s journey because of the protests, and several commuters, prompted by some of the morning’s tabloid newspaper headlines, actually gave voice to their anger, but the majority took it in their stride and openly acknowledged the need for action on climate change before it is too late.
Brexit Britain is, at this moment in time, in no sane state, alas. Trust Prime Minister Theresa May to illustrate this by actually refusing to meet Greta Thunberg, who wants to save the planet, but welcoming to No.10 the Saudi Arabian prince heir apparent who had just had 37 people executed at the stroke of one golden pen – his, of course. While the world continued to rave over Greta’s promising young army for action against climate change, Prince Mohammed bin Salman was drawing outrage from human rights advocates everywhere after the 37 Saudi citizens were beheaded in one of the ultra-conservative kingdom’s largest mass executions in three years. Like a terrifying scene from a mediaeval horror movie, one mutilated body was also displayed on a pole.
Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg would have asked Theresa May and her government to tell the truth about climate change, to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2025, and to create a citizens’ assembly to oversee progress. She wasn’t given the chance. But the Saudi prince had all the time to explain why he needed more British arms for his military campaign in impoverished Yemen. Suffice it to say that, while the United States is Riyadh’s primary vendor of weapons that continue to kill innocent Yemeni civilians, the UK alone – unlike Germany, which has cancelled arms sales to Riyadh – has already licensed $6 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since its senseless bombardment of neighbouring Yemen began four years ago.
I wonder how British parents are able to explain all this to their children, and grandparents to their grandchildren, as they watch the climate oscillate. And it all started from a name. A girl called Greta.
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What the mouth couldn’t say, the body did
We all love the term ‘body language’. It really says what the mouth often cannot. And nowhere was this more evident than during the recent visit of Manfred Weber, the German leader of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, for the PN congress.
Weber has been no friend of Malta since Labour took over the running of the country and has been consistently misinformed about events, decisions and reforms that have taken place since. This sad reality is, actually, the crux of all that will continue to feature in the current EP election campaign until 25th of this month. So much drivel has been sold by Opposition MEPs to condescending figureheads at various European institutions, that it is now high time for the perpetrators to face the wrath of the people from both sides of the political fence.
I suspect that Weber has an inkling of it all. His speech to the PN congress was quite impressive, showing that the man has a vision and very clear proposals, should he win the post of President of the Commission. While completely ignoring the Nationalist scenario, he projected an objective line of thought that seemed to show he is highly aware of the realities that his petty-politics-minded, ideological friends in Malta prefer to filter from him.
The irony of it all is that they were enthusiastically applauding his every word. He did not say it, but Weber was delivering the not-so-subliminal message that some people around him needed to review their stagnating way of doing politics. What the mouth couldn’t say, however, the body did, as Weber sat stone-faced during the PN leader’s speech, clapping only when he was mentioned and, like every polite German, at the very end.
Of course, Weber only came to Malta to canvas for his own bid to take over from Jean-Claude Juncker, as he did in Spain where – probably to his discomfort – the Socialists won the general elections soon after. I doubt that he is expecting a different electoral fare from our forthcoming European day at the polls.
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Cash for Cash
One hopes that our banks, financial service-providers and their regulators do not toe the line where the provision of free-to-use cash machines is concerned. It has just been revealed that such machines in the UK are disappearing at an alarming rate, a trend catching on fast elsewhere in Europe. According to a British consumer group, in March alone more than a thousand ATMs were converted to start charging fees. The total number so far has reached 1,700 machines now charging 95p and more, with the rate of change accelerating.
In the UK there are still 2.2 million people entirely reliant on cash in their daily lives as we drift into a ‘no-cash’ society. I am sure that a larger percentage of the Maltese people is still cash-reliant when it comes to paying for local goods and services.