New buildings are being allowed to climb high so they can throw their shadow everywhere. This reminds me of a play written long ago by my friend Lino Farrugia, titled “Rocks without Shadow” (“Blat bla Dell”). When it was in production, we fabricated for it shapes in jablo that hung suspended from the ceiling of the stage. I do not remember what they stood for exactly but they looked nice.

By contrast with the play’s title, we will apparently soon see the rocks that keep the sea away covered by the shadow of the high buildings being constructed close by. The complaints and protests against this that continue seem to have limited effect in practice. New constructions advance, not just towards the sea and the valleys, but in urban centres as well, destroying most of their traditional character.

A friend of mine believes that the only thing that could stop this process would be a strong economic recession, which certainly no one wants. Anyway he says, the halt in construction that it would bring cannot be very useful since it would only be temporary. As soon as the economic climate improves, the show will go on again.

So deep is the spirit of fatalism, even as shadows continue to creep across the rocks towards the sea.

***

WAR

The world is getting accustomed to the war in Ukraine. Quite frequently it does not feature in the main news and the sense of shock that it initially caused has dampened. Many find comfort in the knowledge that lots of Ukrainian refugees are returning to their country.

But people are still being killed and the destruction keeps reaching out. Nor does there seem to be much prospect of any serious negotiations towards an agreement.

The danger that lies in a prolonged war which people become used to is that the decay it brings with it spreads without getting noticed too much... till it explodes in social and diplomatic crises with global negative consequences. That’s what happened in the 1960’s during the Vietnam war.

*** 

MIGRATION

The Commission on behalf of the European Union is drafting a wideranging update of what could become a common policy for legal migration to Europe. At a time when “irregular” migration is referenced most, because of the controversies it gives rise to, such an initiative makes sense. Even more so because in the EU, there is a shortage of workers in certain categories, while the proportion of old to young people in the European population as a whole is increasingly going out of skew.

What worries me in the proposals that are being drafted is that immigrants are being largely considered from an economic perspective, simply as people who will be required to fill the emerging job vacancies.

But individuals are not just work agents. They have their own aspirations for the good life, which are not only economic in nature.

I was impressed by the fact that in no way does the draft document mention the immigration of families. Now I remember how in the “old” schemes by which immigration to Australia or Canada used to be run, a substantial portion of the system provided not for single migrants but for families. There is indeed something that does sound strange in what is being proposed.