The times we live in are driven by change, by happenings that are unprecedented in the nation's life. Above all, there has been the Covid-19 pandemic - even if it has affected this country in the same way and with the same power as other countries. Still we cannot pretend it will leave us - when it does - like it found us when it started to visit.
However other experiences too generated change from the bottom up - the radical improvement in economic and social conditions triggered by the Labour administration as of 2013, and the resulting transformations that Malta underwent; the upheavals generated by adventurous projects, the perspectives of corruption and above all, the murder of Mrs Caruana Galizia... as well as other outcomes...
Having given rise to such changes, these are times which should bring in their wake creative reactions among the people, first and foremost young people, but certainly others as well.
I would expect that in coming years, newly inspired art works will flourish in literature and the theatre, in the visual arts, and in how artists express themselves on film and television and the social media... They will be creative times.
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SHADOWS ON THE EU
The shadows have lengthened over the EU. The project which it managed to get anti-Covid 19 vaccines as quickly as possible to European citizens has been a big flop. Instead of confirming how essential an institution it is to protect the interests of its citizens, Europe has demonstrated how ineffectual it can be in such a role.
Quarrels did not fail to arise and still do about what happened, plus misunderstandings and a loss of confidence between member states and the European Commission.
Meanwhile the Union seems to have offered an opportunity for the UK from which it has just divorced, to boast across the board about how it did well to leave the Union when it did - vaccination of British citizens went on at a much faster rate than in the rest of Europe.
Yet all things considered, these could be shadows that will soon pass, even sooner than one might believe. The outreach of the EU is a consequence of its economic power - in terms of people and its market uplift. The only continental block that has a greater potential to beat it in this is China
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AGAIN REGARDING THE COURTS OF LAW
We are still very far off from a solution to the problem posed for society by how Maltese law courts are run. A fundamental dilemma is as follows: how can it be ensured that judges and magistrates are being personally effective in what they do?
As of now, you can still be told of judges who are most efficient and active, and of others who are exactly the opposite. Clearly, it is very difficult to control such a situation. For the principle that the judiciary should be independent must remain supreme.
On the other hand, it is difficult to agree that self regulation by the judiciary has itself has given satisfactory results. Meanwhile, the number of judicial agents has continued to increase, the payments and side benefits accorded to members of the judicial bench also continued to increase in order for them to become "competitive" in turnover of earnings. And meanwhile too, the number of pending court cases just went on climbing.
Few complaints are made about the situation. And still the "friends of friends" mindset finds in this country people to deny that it has remained paramount.
25 March 2021