A problem that arises when so many building projects which make little sense – at least from the viewpoint of the national interest – are being launched is that one risks considering with suspicion all proposals for new projects.

It cannot be the case that all that’s new is bad. So how is it possible to understand which of the emerging proposals are acceptable... or more than that, quite good?

For to complicate matters, we can hardly maintain trust in those who supposedly have been appointed to come to decisions that respect established regulations. We have witnessed too many occasions when what was decided contradicted the rules in force.

Additionally regulations themselves appear to be clogged with ambiguities that confuse issues. Instead of barring the way to irregularities, they actually open it.

***

FOREIGN WORKERS

Like many others, I used to believe that foreign workers in Malta happen to be either specialists, say internet and finance professionals, or people who carry out jobs that the Maltese seem less inclined to accept, such as in construction or in hotels and restaurants. The first earn very good money, the rest are not so well paid.

Well such a picture is quite distant from the reality. Effectively one finds foreign workers in practically all jobs right across the economy: factories, the posts, government corporations, schools, buses...

To be sure, I was greatly astonished some months back on learning that even Gozo factories employ foreign workers. Meanwhile the number of foreign workers employed even in the bigger factories like ST Microelectronics is on the increase.

It is I believe, of the utmost importance now to have a detailed study that relates how foreign workers are involved in the economic activity of the island. It should not just be a simple statistical exercise, as in the excellent studies carried out by Jobs Plus. Rather it should qualitatively explain in an analysis that covers social aspects too, how foreign workers are becoming an essential element in the way by which this country earns its living.  

***      

THE RIGHT IN SPAIN

Not so long ago, there was widespread surprise at how in Spain (as well as in Portugal) the extreme right had remained extremely weak. During the last year or perhaps a bit more, the scene has changed. Suddenly an extreme right party Vox starting from zero, has become the third largest political party in the Spanish Parliament.

It has been said that the Catalan struggle to achieve independence provided the fuel that fed the fires which the extremists lighted. However nationalist forces had been building up in Spain for quite a while, and not just in Catalunya. What made Vox achieve its breakthrough right now?

A more potent rationale could conceivably be found in the stagnation that the Spanish political system has apparently sunk into. Spain went through four elections in four years and has been unable to form a stable govenrment. Without a coalition such a government cannot be formed. And Spanish political parties apparently do not know how to reach agreement about a coalition.

Situations where uncertaitnies and stagnation prevail offer the best opportunities for extremist political forces.