Much still needs to be done for this country to really modernise. By this, one means a country where public and private affairs are run with transparency according to the rule of law. With an efficiency that benefits from the latest technological developments. With the best use of available talents. And with a full competitive urge in relation to what is being done elsewhere outside.

There was a time when – as I think those who were driving Malta towards full membership of the EU intended – the belief was that once Malta became a full member of the Union, modernisation would happen almost automatically, easily. And where we failed in this, the EU would make arrangements to help us make it.

These were empty or vain hopes and expectations. All things considered, we have remained close to where we started from.

The real point is that no one can modernise a country, a society, a tribe... from the outside. If this change does not happen from the inside, based on a strong mobilisation effort that involves a substantial number of members of the society, it cannot succeed.

***

GAMING

Among the ceaseless lamentation raised by certain quarters (whose bona fides I doubt) the following stands out: The values of this country have been hollowed out. The economy is based on profits that are too easily made, driven by projects whose worth is less than clear. The subtext of this kind of communication is: the Labour government is responsible for this situation.

Now the present government has been in office since 2013.

And if there is one sector of the economy which has really become salient fast, it is the internet gaming sector, where we used to boast about how we have been the pioneers in the business of attracting its investments and of regulating them. There is hardly any need here to mention the problems of all kind that the sector has brought with it, is bringing with and could bring in the future.

It is a sector which took off and progressed under a Nationalist administration. Nobody then raised cries of lamentation...

***

WILL BOOKS SURVIVE?

For long years, I have been collecting books, generally editions from the past which would be out of print as of now. But as I did this, I noticed how the number of people also doing the same would continue to decline. The same had been happening with stamp collectors.

Books won’t survive – as I was told by a fellow collector. Between us, we rarely discuss this matter as we don’t trust each other much – more than once, he has managed to secure before I did a book which I was aiming for... and to be honest, there were similar successful manoeuvres from my side as well. Anyway, with time we had to understand how much we are united by this concern... about the likely extinction of books.

There will be some to claim: Your concern is far-fetched. At present, many more books are getting published than in the past.

Perhaps this is true. Still the supicion remains... perhaps the fact... that many of the new books that are being published are not actually meant to be read, as much as to be used by way of promotional material or as items of furniture.