The more one hears about the need to introduce substantial changes in the economic strategy of this county, the more one expects to hear about concrete proposals regarding how this can be done. Yet,we’re seeing and hearing very few of them, if at all. Almost everybody prefers to keep the debate focussed on general considerations while keeping back from showing how we should proceed towards the particular measures that would need to be implemented. Moreover, contradictions in what is being said soon emerge.
For instance, the government is claiming that change should happen but while maintaining current rates of economic growth. Thus we’ll ensure that nobody loses out. I do not see how this could happen even if the aim to safeguard the well being of one and all is admirable.
The Opposition displays enthusiasm for the introduction of reforms in economic management but takes care not to explain in any detail (or close to detail) what exactly it has in mind.
While the private sector for its part expresses agreement with the need for reform but expects the government to take responsibility by determining and deciding what needs to be done.
A clear picture emerges from all this: no one wants to look bad, no one wants to step on other people’s toes.
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TRUMP WOUNDED
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump is likely to change radically the course of American political events in the months prior to the US presidential elections. The position that Trump himself and his campaign might adopt could end up as crucial if they manage to condition the political narrative around the theme that his political adversaries have been demonising him to excess. Trump as victim could end up as much stronger politically than Trump the demagogue.
And the story about whether Biden could be able to defeat Trump, and whether having done so, he could run the Presidency, might develop a new twist. What responsibility does Biden carry for the “demonisation” of Trump?
The two adversary camps must surely be considering the pros and cons of these and other aspects of the situation overall.
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BORN IN MALTA
An article which appeared in a section of the local media, based on what was discussed during a seminar organised about the subject, focussed on the problems that children of refugees/irregular migrants born in Malta have to face. They have spent all their life in Malta, they speak Maltese like we “all” do, they know no other life except what they have lived in Malta, and yet they have no national identity. Through no fault of their own, these children found themselves living in Malta, and effectively, they are Maltese. However, they have no right to an identity card or a Maltese passport. That is not allowed by Maltese citizenship laws. In reality they are citizens of no country.
This state of affairs is totally shocking. We have a citizenship law that allows foreign tycoons who never stepped on these islands to buy citizenship and become as “Maltese” as we all are. Yet the same citizenship cannot be granted to people who have lived in our midst since they were born and have no other home outside Malta. The state needs to urgently find a remedy for a situation that as a people and as a country shows how distant we remain from the beliefs of compassion and social justice.