Comments made recently by Henry Kissinger (he is still among the living and lucid!) about the war in Ukraine were really interesting.

Without in any way endorsing the invasion of the Ukraine, Kissinger noted how the European side still displays a fundamental ambiguity in its attitude towards Russia. It seems as if the Europeans find it difficult to consider Russia as part of the European sphere, although when Russia adopts a position that is different to theirs, they are less than pleased. Indeed with such an approach, they seem to be prodding Russia to define herself as an extra-European power tied to Asia. Sometime or other, this ambiguity must be cleared out.

Both General de Gaulle and French President Mitterrand had referred in the past to the same problem: the former when he called for a Europe united from the Atlantic to the Urals; the latter when he spoke in favour of an opening of Europe towards the East, including Russia.

A German line of thought also seems to beckon that same way.  It was launched with Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik, which sought to expand cooperation with Russia, then the USSR. Not least with the construction of natural gas pipelines to Russia which today has sparked the energy crisis on the back of the Ukraine war.

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HOW ONE PAYS

The pressure is increasing for people to stop paying with coins and paper money and go electronic. In Malta too, this pressure has been spreading though not to the same extent as in Belgium or France. Clearly, the aim seems to be the total elimination of “traditional” money.

With this I disagree. Apart from the fact that the elderly and people with a relatively low educational level of attainment will be finding themselves at a disadvantage, electronic payments imply that information is being recorded about every transaction that an individual is carrying out, no matter how big or small, and where it has been effected. We boast about how we are committed as a society to the protection of the privacy of citizens. With a “universal” system of electronic payments, all citizens will be leaving a track that provides detailed information about how they are living their lives.

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BICYCLES

In our community, cyclists complain they are not being given appropriate recognition, and they are right. On our roads, they are not allocated the space they need to go through. In certain areas, the ground they need to cross is rough and unsafe. Drivers ignore them. All this is true and cyclists deserve a better deal.

Even so, I have little faith that when they are given the recognition they need, they will not – just like drivers do – begin to generate new forms of abuse. I say so because I see what is happening in cities where cyclists have been given full leeway and where measures have been introduced for them to get full access to thoroughfares.

So, one sees them cycling at full speed on pavements in the middle of pedestrians. They can just ride through a zebra crossing when pedestrians are on it, and sometimes even when there’s a red light showing... They expect on every occasion to be given the right of way.

To make matters worse, with their cohort there has now been added that of e scooter drivers, who very frequently are much more dangerous than some cyclists have become.