From generation to generation, the customs of citizens in a country get carried over and repeated. One generation follows the practices of its predecessor and copies them till it practises them like they are its own. The mechanism is one of social "reproduction". So we find that even after the passage of centuries, a holiday continues to be celebrated with the same rhythm and enthusiasm by a community. Our parish festas are a case in point..
However such continuity doesn't happen as a process that in and of itself is subject to no change. Quite naturally it is impacted by the changes which happen in how people live, work, communicate and enjoy themselves, not least because of the technological progress that is being achieved by society and because of the living standards that will have been reached.
These affect as well the popularity of a custom, as one can see by staying with the example of traditional Maltese festas. But it could be that the greatest changes in how we celebrate festas will not come from improvements we see happening in technology, as much as from the significant decline that has occurred in the appetite that was prevalent decades ago for unpaid voluntary work.
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ISRAELI OPERATIONS
As far as I can see at the time I'm writing this, the comparison made in the media about the recent Israeli attack on the ship that was carrying humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza related to the murder of the Palestinian leader Shqaqi in Sliema towards the end of the 1990's. It was another ugly episode which showed that Israel does not recognize any diplomatic restraint when it is running its "security" operations.
What surprised me a bit was how another past incident that reflected the same reality was overlooked. It happened towards the end of 1973 when two Israeli warships entered Maltese teritorial waters without permission. The then Labour government protested strongly and relations with Israel came under great strain. Maltese Prime Minister Mintoff and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir ended up trading less than complimentary barbs. The time had begun when Israeli leaders became less and less interested in whether their actions would make them lose friends.
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THE WELFARE STATE
As an expression, "welfare state" is no longer used so much, perhaps beacause social solidarity has come to be seen as an essential pillar of modern governance, even on the political right. By contrast, "welfare state" seems to indicate a governance system that with the measures it implements, seeks to ensure adequate financing for the administration of state charity.
No matter how one envisages the social commitment of the state, the truth is that it has come under serious attack. For sure in the US, where the Trump administration is looking at how best to dismantle social solidarity programmes in the fields of health, education and the fight against poverty. But the same is happening in Europe although not with the same brutality. Here, it's being said that state interventions to sustain welfare programmes must be curtailed in order to allow for the financing of military defence projects from the funds that will have been saved.