It is always puzzling how people who promote a belief in absolute values prefer to go on speaking about them in abstract terms on two levels. They claim that such values always were there because they are an essential part of the human being, granted to them by a deity. And they persist in projecting them in a general and theroretical manner: one way or another, they avoid giving a response to dilemmas that arise from concrete cases.
We saw this happen in the case of divorce, IVF, same sex marriage, and now assisted dying and abortion. A long long time ago it also happened in a much more dogmatic manner (but they were different times) regarding issues like civil marriage and the removal of criminal offence attached to homosexual acts - the last two when capital punishment was still considered acceptable!
Absolute values do exist but they cannot be safeguared by a dogmatic and abstract propaganda. They have to be envisaged according to the measure of how people live in a society that consists of flesh and blood human beings, where the living truth of each and every one is given the weighting that it merits.
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TAXING THE RICH
In France, a proposal to increase taxes on the rich was abruptly kicked aside. In Germany, the governing coalition led by christian democrats backed by socialists is pledged not to increase taxes (on the rich...) Similarly, the Labour government in the UK. In the US, the Trump federal government not only refuses to increase taxes on the rich but is actively pushing to reduce them further. In Malta taxes have been decreased for everyone, with the further promise they won't be raised, not even on the rich.
In all these countries, the national debt resulting from the government's budget deficit has continued to rise in absolute terms (even if as in the case of Malta, not as a proportion of gross domestic product). In France, it was clearly stated that if taxation on the rich is increased, the rate of investment would be damped down, for it is the rich who invest. Meanwhile, as solutions by which to curtail the government deficit, what gets mentioned most are reductions in social benefits for people who are not at all wealthy (like in the UK and the US).
Whence comes this resistance against making the rich, while they become richer, pay more taxes?
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CLIMATE
The global commitment in favour of the fight against against the effects of climate warming is weakening, especially since the arrival of President Trump to the White House. Even in the EU, the thrust to strengthen measures that counter climate warming effects has been losing power.
The Maltese government is doing well to sustain its commitment in this direction. After all, the Mediterranean region to which we belong will be experiencing dire effects - desertification, increasingly frequent heat waves, huge tempests that come out of season, varying sea levels.
Citizens need to be given clearer, more direct information about how in reality, the climate is changing and thereby impacting on our urban areas, sea and country side (where this still exists).