Is this just a personal impression or is it the case that work accidents are mostly taking their toll on foreign workers? It is true that the cruel death of Ajay Shrestha, the Nepali motorcyclist who was crushed by metal that fell from an overturned lorry was not the “usual” tragedy. But I do not think I’m the only one to have wondered whether the motorcyclists who deliver meals to  homes are not seriously at risk of road accidents. We all know most of them are foreigners.

Meanwhile the majority of workers involved in accidents on construction sites happen to be Arab or African.

Many of the difficult or unpleasant jobs in this country have been taken up by foreigners. Could this lead to a relaxation of the security controls that need to be maintained in order to safeguard the health and lives of workers? Or to an understanding that this issue should not be considered of such importance?

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THE UK REFERENCE

In my youth, any comparison between Malta’s lifestyle and that of other countries would focus mainly on the UK. London was considered as the city to visit and to live in, if you had decided to leave these islands. Italy which in former times was considered the main destination for Maltese abroad had by then been relegated to a distant second place, behind the UK. This started to change somewhat when Italian TV reached us.

So we had the British way of life as the major reference point for what we would like to copy or import from elsewhere.

I doubt whether this is still the position. Comparisons made today hinge mostly on “Europe”, which the UK seems no longer to be part of. The difference however is that the concept of “Europe” remains vague for many. It does not have the same weight that a reference to the UK would have in the past. Actually, Maltese people select on an individual basis what they prefer to cherry pick from “Europe”, naturally by way of what appears to them as most attractive. There is not the same concrete feel that would characterise how “in the past”, we used to go for the fashion, the food, the entertainment, the culture and the job opportunities that reached us from Britain.

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EUROPEAN FEDERALISTS

Federalism is still going strong among many Europeans though it is not in the majority as a movement. Indeed when proposals arise to move towards a greater federalism, a roll in the opposite direction also emerges among governments and peoples which soon damps everything down.

A mistake that federalists fall for is to insist on institutional changes that would strengthen the executive powers of the EU central organs at the “expense” of governments and national parliaments. This provokes the oppositon of those who understand what is being intended, as well as of those who don’t.

By contrast, developments which are occurring in the governance of today’s communities increasingly cannot be managed satisfactorily by any one country, acting for itself. Issues like environmental protection, the running of digital services, public health, management of the euro... This is where the real opportunities lie for federalists.