It is frequently claimed that in life, one should not sound too negative, and should avoid making out that everything’s too bad and saying no to everything.

This is quite sensible. Reading through certain newspapers these days entails ploughing across the contributions of columnists repeating arguments that explain how we are living in total hell and how everything is getting from bad to worse. They end up becoming a pain in the neck and are just as boring as the litanies in other media outlets which only publish sermons proclaiming how everything’s splendid.

Even so, the truth is that negative thinking is something we need. If a change for the better is to happen, first there must be someone able to say: No, this is being done badly. Perhaps it would be better to say or have said instead: This could have been done differently, or done better. In any case, all such statements amount to a negation of what already is in place. From such a position, an alternative to the present can be shaped.

If the alternative musters enough support, it can eventually be implemented – hopefully in the direction of a worthwhile reform (for one must also hope that the alternative is not worse than what it is meant to replace – as has sometimes happened).

No change is feasible if it is not grounded in negative thinking.

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LANGUAGES

In an exercise meant to get more students with passes through the exams that used to be called “O Level”, now students will be able to choose to sit their examinations in Maltese (unless I have misunderstood what is being proposed). I guess the expectation is that students will be able to understand, express themselves and write “better” in Maltese than in English.

I have always been with those who give a leading importance to the usage of the Maltese language in all areas of how we live. It would be a mistake to weaken such a commitment. However I must admit being puzzled by this decision for examinations to be taken in Maltese. Will all examinations proceed in this way, including let’s say in maths, physics and chemistry? I doubt whether the terminology deployed for these subjects has Maltese expressions that students can easily understand.

Or perhaps given the wish to have more students “succeed” in their exams, would these no longer cover mathematics and the sciences?

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COST OF LIVING

Recently, Malta was registering inflation rates that were lower... and by quite a margin... than those of the rest of the EU. This happened because the government (quite rightly) subsidised energy to keep prices in the sector stable for consumers. Other governments elsewhere did not apply the same policy which meant that there, price rises were much sharper.

With time, international energy markets seemed to have adapted to the impact of the Ukraine war. Gas and oil prices have slipped back to where they stood just before the war started. In the energy sector, Malta and the rest of the EU are now at the same level by way of prices.

But these have continued to heat up in other sectors. The inflation rate in this country is head to head with that of the Union. The tendency in Malta is for the rate to be rather higher due to the small size of the island, which firms up the cost of imports. However a question that also needs to be addressed is whether firms for their part are not targeting excess profits by charging higher prices.