I see that once again Malta has been called the most successful economy in the EU and, more significantly, the one with the least inflation.
I have no means to contest this. Most probably these analyses come from reputable sources and more probably too they are based on big numbers.
But what I know, as I said last week, is that the man in the street is now facing a tsunami of rising prices across the board. As I reported too, some or many outlets have been updating the prices on the shelves including those of products that had been for sale even before the beginning of the rise in prices.
This is going on unchecked, and this is my first point. The pro-business government would not dream of doing what its predecessor in the 1970s, the bad old government of Dom Mintoff, did – introduce price controls, especially on basic foodstuffs.
Apart from giving the government of that time a bad image, the price controls never worked properly so the government was then led on to its crazy next step – bulk buying, which not just did not produce the expected results but has remained notorious for the corruption it bred and the sheer inefficiency it engendered.
We must understand one basic fact: inflation is worse for the poor than for the rich. Buying food items occupies a far greater portion of the poor’s meagre resources than it does for the rich. That’s why when something happens and an extra expense must be made, it is far harder on the poor and why they many times find they cannot afford it or fall backwards in payments.
For all our welfare state and the important protective net, still people fall through the net or through the chinks. The fact that we have so many people living in unsuitable garages and so many people going to food giveaways like kitchens run by philanthropic NGOs is just one example.
But even beyond these extreme cases (which extreme they are not), there is still a substantial margin of pensioners and their dependents who many times find they cannot manage to reach the end of the month without dipping into their meagre savings.
What is one to do when faced with government ideological inaction and a rising wave of price increases? Giving up or allowing the price tsunami is the worst choice to make. And so is accepting the government’s handout of pre-election cheques and doing nothing else.
Fortunately, other avenues are open. First in order of priority is to cut down on wasteful expenditures which the poor are many times found to be indulging in.
Then find alternatives. The presence of so many low-cost supermarkets is roughly enough given our size. Maybe compared to abroad we do not have enough warehouse sales. Nor do we have too many second hand dress shops as you will find everywhere.
We are also finding that shopping online is many times advantageous, cheap and easily available. This obviously requires skill with a smartphone (which many do not have, at least as yet). And, obviously, a credit card. You can get practically anything online and as I see from our overworked post person, more and more people are going that way.
Last week I mentioned savings and this seems is being forgotten today in this age of low returns. But savings give you, if nothing else, a self-discipline not taught elsewhere. Even the poor need to learn to save.
There is nothing cast in stone in life that it can’t be turned into an opportunity.
Contemporary saint in message to the Maltese
While sorting my papers I came across a letter sent to us Maltese by a person who was later brutally killed. This person, Archbishop Oscar Romero, is today a saint of the Catholic Church.
In 1979, Archbishop Romero was in the forefront of his battle on behalf of the poor of his country against the oppression by a government backed by the US.
Romero was accused of being a Communist according to the well-known theory that those speaking on behalf of the poor must be Communist subversives. Romero was definitely not a Communist.
On 16 February 1979 the Christus Rex society of Maltese priests wrote to Romero expressing solidarity and support.
On 26 April Romero wrote back: “Dear brethren, I would like to express to you my profound gratitude for your kind support, which was manifested in your document of the 16th February.
“The encouragement which this solidarity signifies for the Church in our country has a special character in that it comes from brethren in the priesthood from whom our human frailty may consider itself to be nourished in the strength of the faith every day and in “the celebration” in which every member of this Maltese society invokes to the King of history of whom we intensely desire to be witnesses.
“May Jesus Christ protect you and make us one heart in the loving dialogue of our prayers to Him.”
Archbishop Romero was assassinated as he celebrated Mass on 24 March 1980, that is, a year after this exchange of greetings. He was made saint by Pope Francis on 14 October 2018.
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