It is amazing to see and appreciate the ingenuity of people even and especially in this Covid emergency. And also in this never-ending heat wave.

Looking back, we can remember the many alarms we faced over the past year and a half, from the time we had to close the airport to the time when we entered a quasi-total lockdown, the time when Covid stalked our streets and squares, when the number of infected people grew by leaps and bounds, when people were dying before their time.

Somehow we have come through all that and here we are now. Through it, we have become inventive and creative. People, I speak in general, have grown closer to their families, and, even without much that we had grown accustomed to in the previous life, managed not just to survive but also to thrive.

People adapted to explore the little that remains of our countryside and also our rocky foreshore. Children were encouraged to learn new sports and new skills.

It is true that the elderly found themselves isolated, especially when the institutions were closed to visitors but people could still communicate by phone especially by smartphone.

Somehow, I am writing without knowing what will happen next, we have come through.

There are still hiccups. As I write, women are loudly complaining about lack of changing rooms at clothes shops and walking out in reaction.

We probably have no idea what goes on in other parts of the country. It has to be, for instance YouTube which shows us what is going on at Paceville as seen through the eyes and lenses of some uninhibited visitors. Drink makes people careless and controls are very lax.

We have no idea what people thinking of coming to Malta as visitors and even more as residents are being told. There are specific channels where people are being told how to handle the Identity Malta procedures.

There was an Indian guy who went to the trouble of showing a shopping list from a Maltese supermarket and translating the prices to Rupees. When people come here they know us better than we know ourselves.

Whatever happens to our economy, people will still come, though perhaps not from the same countries they used to come from. Malta will still be an attractive proposition especially to people coming from less rich countries. I am not speaking here about people coming from very poor, third world countries. (By the way, expect an influx of people from Afghanistan now). But people from countries such as India, Ukraine and the Balkans.

Our neighbour, Libya, is getting normalised with elections coming up in December but I am not aware that people who many years back came to Malta to escape from the civil war are now flocking to go back. They have probably grown accustomed to life in Malta, together with all the inconveniences we grumble about such as roadworks and power cuts.

Now all this sounds very much like the usual Sunday morning interview with Robert Abela, possibly broadcast from a yacht in Sicily. Only, it is not like that at all. On the contrary, it is precisely the opposite.

For in praising the resilience of the Maltese (or rather, the people who live in Malta) I am praising the resilience despite Robert Abela and his government, rather than because of him.

We will need this resilience and creativity in the coming months even if Abela wins the fast-approaching election. Only last Sunday, he was driven to outright lies about Moody’s downgrade of the Maltese economy.

The Maltese economy stands to have the biggest proportional deficit in the entire EU. The deficit has exploded in recent months, surpassing in half a year that earmarked for the entire year.

And yet the government promises there will be no tax increases in the coming Budget. The Minister of Finance does not seem troubled and remains his unperturbed self.

Whatever happens, the burden of solving this huge problem will not be shouldered by the majority that will vote Abela in, but will have to be borne by us all. Like the cost to buy back our hospitals. Like the cost of buying electricity generation from its present stranglehold. Or the cost of bringing up to scratch an electricity generation long neglected by this government (as if we don’t know why).

Nevertheless I repeat against all evidence that the resilience of the people in Malta will win out in the end.

 

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