Public works were the first government function to get privatised. The Public Works Department as it was then known, was dismantled. The operations it ran were farmed out by public tender to the private sector. In this way, we were told, work would be done more quickly, with greater efficiency and less waste of resources, while being “freed” (!) from the danger of corruption.

Is it anyhow possible to argue that these aims have been reached?

Just take a look at the delays on the current public works at a main artery like the one at B’Kara valley to understand how public works done by private contractors can run swiftly and with incredible efficiency!

And in so far as less waste of resources is concerned, it is difficult to comprehend where and how this target has been hit. In general, the contrary is the case. Previously the government at least had to pay for its own delays only in terms of the wage costs of its labour force. Now, we can rest assured that the mark-up that gets inbuilt into works contracts with the private sector, also cover at a nice percentage, the periods of time during which projects are at a standstill.

And in so far as abuses in how public works contracts with the private sector are being run, I would like to meet somebody prepared to put his/her neck on the block over the claim there can be no whiff of corruption in the waste of resources that  privatisation brought in its wake.

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PALESTINE

For Israel, Palestinians have to resign themselves to living in a tiny territory that needs to be run like a Bantustan, the territories effectively run by the “whites” while given fake autonomy by the former South Africa under apartheid rules.

Israeli explanations are not being accepted the way they were in the past ... certainly nowadays, much less... These would have us believe that the Paestinians who contest Israeli rule are simply “terrorists”. In actual fact, the feeling has grown that Israel is leaving no other option to Palestinians except that of having mass recourse to violence.

I am one of those people who have come to the conclusion that unfortunately, the Israeli government  decided long ago, that it did not need to act in good faith.

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INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC

The Chamber of Commerce issued a media statement about spreading international trade logistic problems. It is right to fret about the developing situation.

As a result of Covid-19, the distribution chains by which consignments of merchandise travel from where they are produced to where they are utilised have been disrupted. Over the years, with globalisation, sophisticated and complex operating procedures came into force all across the oceans of the planet by which huge vessels onloaded, carried and unloaded containers from end to end. Everything was made to run with a rhythm that got goods to their destiantion with greatest precision, and as scheduled. This happened for billions of tonnes of goods.

This system was upended by Covid-19... at all its phases. Everything slowed down. To make matters worse, an accidental blockage of the Suez Canal occurred – it helped to disrupt further the logistics of the global transport network.

There is growing concern worldwide... not just in Malta...about what is going on. One fear is that factory production lines will be paralysed, that products will arrive increasingly late on their markets and because as a result of all this, a price explosion wll follow.    

However, the forecast also is that though prices will rise, they will not necessarily stay so high for so long.