Thirty years have passed since the inauguration of the Labour Party headquarters, the National Labour Centre in Hamrun. For the planning, construction, financing and finishing of the building much effort and hard work were needed on the part of people who were convinced by the project and committed to it. A number of them are no longer with us but all deserve to be given recognition. I was among them and know that without their participation and inputs, all of them, the project would not have succeeded.
All things considered, it achieved its aim to provide - as its name indicates - a centre from where on a national basis, the Labour Party could reach and be reached by citizens from all over the islands. Beyond that, it was also meant to provide the space and facilities from where the Party could organise and plan its activities in a modern format.
Today, the objections that were raised as the project was being set up sound curious: it won't be appreciated; it's too big; not enough resources will be found for it to be completed or run; it's too close to the Nationalist Party headquarters, which is going to provoke violent clashes... Nothing of all this happened.
***
AMERICAN POPE
As of the first moment of his election, Pope Leo XIV was set up as a contrast to US President Donald Trump by way of character and of the values and opinions which he professes. The Pope has been expected to portray the "gentle", "humanitarian" aspects of the US reality compared to the "ugly" attitudes Trump espouses.
There is a certain validity in this presentation. However one shouldn't build the Pope as personally, a champion of liberal values like they're understood in Europe. Actually, both he and Trump are giving witness with their behaviour to the wide range of values and beliefs which exist in the US. Among which one finds: isolationism; out-and-out friendship towards foreigners and/or the fear and suspicions they evoke; economic and social liberalism - and its anti-thesis, even carried as far as Marxism; the reverence in which money and profits are held; instincts that favour social justice and family ties; sexual libertinism and strict puritanism...
On the basis of no single American personality is it possible to project some full overview of the American reality.
***
ECONOMIC BRAKES
Many seem to concur with the view that the economic growth which the country has been experiencing needs to continue but it would be wise to rein in its rate of growth in coming years. This has become necessary in order not to rely too hard, as is happening at present, on unsustainable factors, like the importation of human resources; a physical infrastructure and the environment which are being subjected to acute strains; and incentives which are creating social imbalances...
What one doesn't hear so often are clear ideas regarding how best to manage a deceleration of economic growth. It is obvious that if it does get implemented, multiple forces, some vested, others of the popular sort, would dislike it. Politicians will surely understand how this would disrupt the feelgood factor. And businessmen with their associations will also understand how the margins within which easy profits can be reached will narrow.