The guarantee government has given to preserve Ħondoq ir-Rummien in its natural state amounts to a big victory for the Qala local council, especially its mayor Paul Buttigieg. Truly the valley and all its contiguous zone constitute a priceless natural heritage. Once the decision has been taken not to allow in that area any project for a hotel or a marina, it makes sense to follow on with the decision to disallow all other forms of development.
The question arises: Could the same be done for other areas?
It seems like a popular consciousness is spreading about how this country’s natural space has been over-exploited and to excess. Little remains to protect or safeguard. One gets told about how the ODZ process was just a game and how it has stayed that way.
Still, there are those who believe that all is not yet lost. There still is leeway for a new effort to identify once and for all locations in the Maltese islands that could benefit from the approach adopted at Ħondoq ir-Rummien.
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DIPLOMATIC INSTABILITY
The war between Israel and Hamas has made clearer the widening rift between the ways by which the Western powers and their allies view international affairs, and how countries belonging to the so-called global South see them. The problem came out in the open since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. The Western powers could not “fathom” how their position was not being endorsed by countries from the south.
The same is happening, even to a larger extent, with the war in the Middle East. What has gained traction is the belief that in the West, different criteria get applied to what can and cannot be done – depending on who is doing what. The lack of confidence and of credibility that this generates has become a source of diplomatic instability in international relations. It will not fade out shortly.
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THE BUDGET SPEECH
Does the finance minister need to spend long hours reading as fast as he can the budget speech? Given his speed of delivery it does sound as if he too feels that the speech is just too long and covers matters that though worthwhile and of importance, had better be said somewhere else. And this goes beyond the fact that he must repeat a litany of measures that were already announced quite a while back.
The point is taken that the budget speech should be considered as a statement meant to describe in detail the governmental programme for the coming year. However there could be other ways by which to achieve the same result. Given the detail and duration of the speech, the risk is that the budget strategy gets fudged in the public perceptions as to what the budget has been all about.
I remember how – many moons ago – in one of the first meetings as leader of the opposition that I had with then Prime Minister Fenech Adami, we discussed what could be done about the budget speeches. We agreed in double quick time that both his and my inputs on the subject should be cut to two hours from the three hours which were then the practice! That agreement is still in force I believe. We should have also agreed to cut down the time for the budget speech itself, and indeed to curtail the duration of all three speeches to a maximum of one hour each.