In the detailed and useful discussions  being carried out about the problems that will be arising for the Maltese economy, not enough analysis is being done in my view, concerning how the Gozitan economy as a separate entity is being affected by the corona virus pandemic.

Frequently we get told that the crisis is a symmetric one – it hits all countries and regions with the same force, which is an incorrect view as the effects of crisis are not felt everywhere in the same manner. This applies for the European continent and its regions, as well as for Malta.

The Gozitan economy is much more dependent than Malta’s on services and agriculture. Internal and external tourism have become the pivot around which cash flows through Gozo. They have been badly hit.

The need is to set out a strategy for Gozitan recovery that is designed according to the island’s characteristics, different from those of Malta.

It would need to go much farther than the establishment of aid interventions according to this or that kind of business.  

***

MAN AND BEAST

A very valid point being made is that following the hit which the corona virus pandemic has dealt humankind, people need to question again the kind of relationship we have built up with animals. We consider that the earth belongs to “us” as a matter of course. We have sought to take over every inch of it. We relentlessly decreased the space available to other species.

So, the viri and microbes that the other beasts carried and had succeeded to tame began to leave the restricted spaces where we had crammed their carriers and are coming to visit us.

Since we’ve been in the new space that we took over, our organism has not developed the right mechanisms by which to neutralise them, as had done the species whose home forests we destroyed.

To allow the maintenance of enough forests and jungle to hold the habitat of “wild” animals is in the best interests of man, not just animals. 

***

CURIOUS

The influential French newspaper “Le Monde” published a sensational story about Malta. Our embassy to the EU in the heart of Brussels, which was purchased and renovated by the Gonzi administration, has served since those days as a hideout from where the Chinese were spying on the headquarters of the European Commission across the street.

It so happened that at the time, in order to cover the expense, the PN government relied on Chinese finance. From the Chinese side then, a window was opened for spying on the EU from the building. The article provides concrete data on the matter. It should not be too difficult to check on that.

I am curious, but for this reason: How will the report be considered and covered by certain sectors of the Maltese media and NGOs? Will they rush to be scandalised by what they’ve lerant and work hard to press forward with the story, like it was gospel truth, to see what’s what, the how and the why? After all they were continually doing so during the years of the Muscat administration.

Or will they be keeping their mouth, eyes and ears shut? Will they pretend not to have said, seen or heard anything?