Malta’s membership of the UN Security Council should be beneficial both to our country as well, I would like to think, to the Council itself.

For Malta it should be a boost since it will provide the Maltese foreign policy establishment with an opportunity to evaluate in an informed and realistic manner, developments in the most restricted and influential circles of the global diplomatic game. We will not be able to affect in any way how this game could evolve. Even so, being able to understand from the inside how it is panning out will be a very useful experience. If we do not fall for the temptation of indulging in loose talk, and I believe we will not, we could even make worthwhile contributions.

For there are policy areas about which a small neutral country like Malta has valid things to say, by remaining clear in the choices it makes and while recognizing the limitations defined by its size. This would apply even more if it at the same time, it fully observes the neutrality that it professes; and speaks out and votes in favour of proposals that lead to discussion, and to just and reasonable compromises in dangerous disputes such as the war in the Ukraine.

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BELIEF AND WAR

I still remember well the challenge that a person who shall remain nameless once laid down: Tell me, tell me, he/she said, when did it happen that a war was declared in the name of atheism by atheists? On the other hand how many wars were declared in the name of religion?

Moreover, he/she went on,  don’t you see that it is a bit strange when in so many conflicts, two sides that are at war with each other claim that they have the backing of the Divine Being they believe in? ... especially when both are referring to the same Divinity? Don’t you find this bizarre? Even if this Divine Being is omnipotent, how will it manage to satisfy both sides?

By contrast, another friend who is quite well informed about theological disputes  warned me: Don’t you understand that these questions have nothing to do with the reality or otherwise of a Divine presence, but rather more about how it is considered within human reality?

Possibly, both perspectives are valid.

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CARNIVAL

It’s good news that the Malta Carnival has this year again been a success. Too many traditions are ending up either forgoetten or “modernised”. Perhaps it’s best that they are forgotten rather than modernised because on the latter basis, they end up sidelined and denatured, sometimes totally.

This is not happening to the Malta Carnival. Those who run it are working intelligently and with no partisan motivations. They have kept it in good health and well established, even following the setback it experienced (as all other Carnivals did) with the Covid pandemic. They have shown that enthusiasm and the will to get things done still prevail. The recovery has happened, with the government’s assistance.

Though I am not an enthusiast, I still consider that these efforts are important and deserve full backing. Let’s hope that this year’s success will provide a good platform for the Carnival enterprise of coming years.