In the coming weeks, the options for the 2020 budget will be finalised. What remains unclear to me is how the long term perspectives for the Maltese economy are being evaluated. It is true though that one does not need to go too far down the road towards the long term, especially in the case of an economy as small and as “open” as ours.

Still, today’s financial decisions will affect greatly what could happen within three to five years, in fields as important as education, health and public services, among others. The speed with which the Maltese economy has been moving in past years has ushered us into a situation where it is not easy to predict what developments will be in vital sectors of public management... especially in social policy but not only. For what has been happening was and still is without precedent.

So it is crucial that in the carve out of capital and recurrent expenditures, a sufficient percentage of funds gets allocated to initiatives that sustain and improve the potential of the economy and of the people to face out successfully the changes that will continue to occur.

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Interview

 The interview given last Sunday in a Maltese language paper by the director of the Peace Laboratory at Ħal Far, the reverend Dijunisju Mintoff, was one of the best and most rewarding write-ups that I ever read in the Maltese print media since I started to follow them.

In the interview, the reverend Mintoff discusses with a sincere commitment but also on the basis of strong practical experience, the situation in this country of “irregular” immigrants. He gives evidence of a sense of humanity as well as wisdom in what he says, plus a realistic assessment regarding how what is happening today could eventually affect the island’s future. He explains that the savage exploitation of immigrants which is taking place today could become a timebomb within Maltese society.

Mintoff is also giving a direct and personal witness of his beliefs with what he is carrying out at the Peace Laboratory. It would be a good thing were the interview to be made available all over the island. 

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Messages

“The Go-Between” was one of the excellent films produced many years ago by director Joseph Losey and playwright Harold Pinter. I always intended to read the novel by LP Hartley on which they based the film – the story covers what happens as a well to do family and the guests it invites to its opulent country seat enjoy their summer holidays.

It was written with attention to the social details that at the time when it happens – late nineteenth century – defined people and relations between them. Leo, aged thirteen years, has been invited along to provide companionship for his school chum. He is recruited by Marian, the daughter of the owner of the country estate where guests and family have assembled, to carry hidden messages to a farmer in the neighbourhood with whom she has a secret relationship.

Hartley shows great skill in describing the moments that lead to the final crisis. What I found difficult to accept... while reading the novel with today’s set of assumptions ... was how the thirteen year old Leo seems to have an awareness about “some” matters that is that of a much younger child.