It is at the risk of being found dumb, that one concludes racism does not exist in Malta or that it does not have, like in other countries, deep roots. From where they emerged, it is difficult to say. But among all peoples one finds the impulse to consider with repugnance all those others who look dissimilar.

Even among people who believe they have eliminated all inner racist feelings – so they think – one finds modes of expression, plus beliefs, that under close scrutiny get revealed as racist. Again, what is unlike what they’re used to, especially when it’s a question of skin colour, is deemed inferior and must be accorded low status or worse.

We could spend lots of time denying this problem, or ignoring it. It will not go away, no matter how often we piously declare that racism in our midst has been conquered.

Meanwhile, the out and out racists hardly keep back from proclaiming their views – with words well chosen to mobilise all those who feel forgotten or abused, and feel they should blame everybody else for their misfortunes.

***

A GAME OF CORONA?

A fellow I met told me: I believe that all we’ve been through about the corona virus pandemic was just a plot to frighten the world and make it introduce new rules about how to run things.

“Like what?”

“Well, you know, like about the environment and climate change, migrants...”

“The Chinese were in the plot as well?”

“Yes, why not? Aren’t they part of a plot to weaken and undermine the Western race?”

“But all those people who died... from China to Lombardy to New York? Were they all fake?”

“No, of course not. But they would have died anyway, even if there were no corona problems.”

“It seems that the deaths recorded wherever the pandemic struck were greater by the scores of thousands than the number of deaths recorded in previous years.”

“That might well have been. The incidence of influenza this year has simply been much stronger than usual.”

***

LONG WAIT

As I see it, the way by which EU member states are delaying taking forceful decisions to activate economic relief and recovery is quite worrisome. There persists a disagreement among member states regarding what should be done and how, despite the intelligent proposals put forward by Ursula von der Leyens’ European Commission.

However, all countries have the right to stick to their reservations according to their national interests – and God forbid it should be otherwise. The problem is that as time passes, I wonder how sensible it is for Europe to stay disputing over this or that while economic problems continue to pile up.

Yet in a virtual meeting fo economic expeerts I attended this week, there were those who argued differently: We are still not in a position to understand well enough the economic effects of the crisis, it was claimed. It is still too early to lay out a comprehensive programme of measures to compensate for the crisis. Let us discuss as of now what the needed measures could be... but let us wait a bit more before we decide. Those who argued on these lines seemed to be well on the wavelength of the European governments which still cannot agree on what should be done!