In the organization and implementation of any project that involves many people and resources, even when aims are precise and have been fully agreed, the possibility remains of unplanned and unintendended consequences arising. Which is why before a project is launched, its viability needs to be considered as well as the impacts its implementation will likely have.
True this is easier said than done. It is difficult to foresee all consequences, including some which turn out to be quite major. What is important is that one is conscious of the possibility that unexpected ones could result and prepared to flexibily adjust operations in order to take them into account while keeping the overall project in forward movement.
Naturally in Malta too, unintended consequences do become evident when major projects are being carried out. What I find disturbing is not that this happens, but that instead of tackling and clearing them immediately or as soon as possible, it seems as if whoever is in charge must remain immobile.
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CONCERNING RUSSIA
Despite all that the Europeans may be proclaiming, the suspicion is that on their side, they do not really know what kind of relations they would like to have with Russia. And this is not just because different countries have radically different attitudes towards the Russians: some love them or at least are not turned off by them; others are simply terrified of them.
Even if Russia were being run by a government that resembles totally a government of one of the Western European states, and if it operates according to the political and economic rules of Western Europe, would they still consider Russia as a threat?
The answer is probably yes for Europeans will still consider Russia as a territorial colossus and therefore naturally interested in dominion over them.
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HOW TO MEASURE CHANGE
Change is what gets mentioned most frequently in everyday discourse, though not always upfront. In matters pertaining to work, private life, sport, the economy... it is not just the direction of change (for the better, for the worse) that gets referenced but also the rate at which it is happening.
This then introduces the concern of how change is going to be measured and with what. The issue mostly arises about the estimates made to measure how the political sentiment in a given country is changing. Here the sciences by which opinion polls are organised have been prioritised. The investments made in them seem to have been successful for today we rarely hear about opinion polls that get their predictions on pending election outcomes so very wrong.
The same could almost be said about economic change, where much interest is focussed on predictions about how a present state of affairs could change. In this case it occasionally still happens that predictions on this front go awry, even in the short term.
Some say that it’s better to have an incorrect measure of ongoing change than nothing at all. In the adjustments one needs to make to the way by which changes have been envisaged, even with an incorrect measure, one could learn more about things changing and where they’re heading.