It's all very well and good to have a vision about the future of the country and also worthwhile to position it in contrast and by comparison with how other countries are moving to formulate and reach their vision.
Still I continue to believe as well in the need for some kind of estimate regarding the human and financial resources that will be necessary in such a forward looking exercise. What facilities will be required to accomplish the set objectives? How and from where are they to be brought?
This acquires a greater relevance in the context of what was recently said about the introduction of the metro as a mass transportation system for Malta. To build it would require enormous financing. The EU does not provide funds for such projects and so it will be difficult to get it going - the reason being that it does not qualify as a project having a European character, only a national one. The same would apply to initiatives covering many of the sectors about which, as a country, we can and should "dream" in our vision for the future.
***
CREDIBILITY
A foreign diplomat in Malta once confided a personal conclusion of his that I found rather disturbing. The ways by which the world's big powers - the Superpowers - operate to secure their best interests are necessarily different to those which smaller states must follow. If they show the slightest sign of weakness, Superpowers would have to pay a disproportionate price for it. Other "lesser" states have to be conscious of this aspect when reacting to what Superpowers do.
At first, I found this perspective repellent. Still when one does think about it, one realises it has a certain logic to it. A Superpower must show it is a Superpower in all it does to confirm its own interests and credibility.
However, there must be limits to everything. Whatever happens, some rules of behaviour between states are there to be observed. At this point, the Trump administration in the US is reaching such limits. In how it's dealing with other states and in how it's implementing policies by threatening rather than by negotiating, it is moving towards a position in which it is neither respected nor judged credible, even while retaining all its aura of a Superpower.
***
MANOEL ISLAND
The campaign being conducted for Manoel Island at Gżira to not be given over to the construction of luxury apartments but for it to be transformed into a public park deserves support. It doesn't make sense any more for the island to become an extension of the Tigne project.
Despite all that's said, the Tigne complex has been a monumental disaster, even if commercially, it has made money. One only needs to go below the Anglican cathedral in Valletta and take a look at the other side of the bay to understand why.
Having been involved in some early phases of the negotiations to get the project moving (at that time I was for it), I know how many of the expectations that were pinned to it turned out to be misguided. As I remember, many of the public commitments that should have been implemented with the project (like a total overhaul of the sewage systems coming out of Sliema) were not carried out. It would be a mistake to let Manoel Island become another Tigne.