So long as an unexpected huge crisis does not arise, this summer should deliver record results for Malta's tourism, both by way of arrivals and the money that gets spent here. Naturally one cannot but be glad at such an outcome and hope it will be maintained.
Even so, questions do arise regarding the aims of the current tourism strategy for the country. The claim is that we have to curb the growth of tourism and guide it better in order to ensure that it leaves a greater economic value added, which makes sense. If these islands end up choked with tourists, their attractiveness will diminish.
Meanwhile plans to build new hotels continue to pile up. Published statistics show that in this mass of arriving tourists, a substantial percentage is opting not to stay at hotels but at short let apartments (as indeed is happening right across Europe). RyanAir announce sensationally increasing targets for the number of tourists they want to bring over.
In the tourism sector, there's a lack of coherence between what is happening or allowed to happen, and the targets set for it.
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THREE REIGNS
A friend of mine who's into literature asked, "Why have we let novels written in the first half of the twentieth century be forgotten?" I don't know whether he was right to make this claim. I referred him to "Leli ta' Ħaż-Żgħir", "Ulied in-nanna Venut" and novels written during the 1940s which were republished recently.
But then he provided reasons and examples to justify his argument. Above all, he mentioned "Taħt Tliet Saltniet" by Ġuże Aquilina. According to him, despite the flaws he acknowledges that the novel does have, it still deserves to be noticed and read, not least because of the ambitious objectives for it set by the author himself. Indeed it's true that although when people my age were still young and later, the novel served as a point of literary reference, it no longer is today. Maybe this happened because "romantic" historical novels are no longer in fashion. However "Taħt Tliet Saltniet" was presented by the author himself as a "social historical" narrative.
"Perhaps it's being forgotten because nobody has tried to translate it into some foreign language." So my friend continued to complain. Again I do not know how right he was in this.
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SECURITY
European member countries of NATO, have for many years grounded their security on very close ties with the US. The latter guaranteed European security so they could pursue their global "imperial" goals. Following the collapse of the USSR, the Organization for European Security and Cooperation established the diplomatic framework within which security relations between European countries could be organized.
When Eastern European countries began to view Russia as a threat to their existence, they were admitted to NATO. No real consideration was given as to whether Russia might view this development as a threat.
Today, the automatic agreement of the US to support NATO without any reservations is no longer there. And repeatedly, as a state of fact, Russia no longer recognizes the "actual" OSCE framework.
Europe's security architecture is like a building whose foundations have dissolved.