At 8pm on Friday night last week Prime Minister Robert Abela inaugurated the huge and costly 2050 vision, drawn up by a select group without any public consultation at all.

But just 12 hours later US and Israeli planes bombarded Iran: that 2050 vision became dust and wind, and outdated.

Anyone could have told Abela a war was coming and everything would be up in the air. It seems however they have run out of common sense up in Castile's rooms, stoked up as they are on hubris, and still believing the world owes them.

Then on Monday in Parliament the sorry sight of what passes for officialdom (that is, both government and Opposition) was there for all to see.

People were thankful that for once government and Opposition were in agreement that the national interest must prevail. And thankful too that the much reviled constitutional neutrality had saved Malta from being bombarded like current president of the European Union, Cyprus, and like most countries in the rich Gulf.

But otherwise there was a pitiful lack of real knowledge of the issues at stake. It would seem as if this constitutional neutrality has deadened our sense of who's right and who's wrong. As long as we were out of danger and not about to be attacked, we are ok.

Then on Tuesday a tanker that had been stationed on the Hurd's Bank, within sight but outside the national waters was bombed as soon as it left its position and was trying to reach the Libyan shore. 

Then followed a painful sitting in which both sides gave each other as many blows as they could, but all in the national interest of course. 

Just a short time later news came that a ship flying the Maltese flag had been attacked also in the Middle East.

We are not completely safe and out of danger, it seems, neutral or not.

People in Parliament spoke almost exclusively of one danger - that the price of oil would go up. And indeed at that point it did go up on the international market. But I have news for the doomsayers: if both Iran and Venezuela will be liberated and opened up to the international market, the probability is that the price of oil will remain within manageable limits.

In these last hours the war has continued to expand with Azerbaijan too now being bombarded. Does Trump, does indeed anyone, know how to bring this war they began to an 

end?

The wise guys already declaiming that America lost all its recent wars would do better to go back to their books - Iraq was not lost, nor Syria  nor Kuwait. And Nazism would not have been defeated were it not for America and the Soviet Union.

But the continuation of the war will continue to weaken the already weak state of the international economy. Already the prices of transport of practically anything have gone up.

The current offensive with regards to Iran stems from the 42,000 or more victims killed in cold blood just because they dared protest in public.

It stems from 47 years of brutal repression that was insanely cruel mainly on women and minority groups.

It stems from constant threats against world peace through the bankrolling of any extremist and revolutionary group out to subjugate the rest of the world up to the point of developing nuclear weapons in the very near future.

Yet to hear our political leaders on Monday it is just a war between two sides and our compatriots caught out there want the government to get them out soonest.

It's a weak-kneed Parliament that refuses to acknowledge who is right and who is wrong. That does not express one word of sympathy for the victims or one word of condemnation of such a terrible regime. Though in the recent past it was full of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Like so many countries in today's sorry world, Malta should be thankful that at least there's America and at least there's Israel who fight instead of the pusillanimous rest of the world. It's not thankful at all.

The outcome is still not certain - it can lead to more anti-American and anti Semitic sentiment spreading around the world.

But before the army of the desktop warriors reaches out to spill bile (what's new?) this is no plea to join a warring group of nations and start rearming our Armed Forces from their peacetime round of, parades. (Meanwhile much of the equipment for transport let alone for defence has been left to rust. We don't have a real defence.)

It's one thing to express your opinion and another to join in combat. Our constitutional neutrality does not forbid us from having opinions and expressing them.

There is one area where the current war will definitely affect us - business confidence and trade. We are a small nation with completely open borders, dependent on incoming tourism flows, easily scared by wars in the region. In the circumstances as they are after Saturday any optimism is just not justified. We must all work harder.

All we get from the government is the mantra that our economy is so strong it can withstand any earthquake including this war. We have a whole department of economics at the university and yet we don't get an objective, non-partisan analysis of the economy.

But we look around us and see TCIs working for a pittance, traffic jams snarling the roads, an exploding public debt and a whole army of persons of trust that has reduced the number of unemployed to nil and so many cases of corruption, real or alleged.

Government-sponsored adverts clog up the internet and TV media like there's no future. 

The minister who with another hat  brought in all these TCIs now says the situation is under control.

The ad broadcast repeatedly about the new inner harbour restoration shows fair-skinned people moving around. What happened to the dark-skinned people one sees roaming around the same area even today?

It is clear this is all electoral propaganda and nothing else. A CGI paradise and little else.

Will it sway the voters who only believe the cheque in their pockets? 

And finally to round off the week i commented on the Leader of the Opposition being among the guests at the glitzy inauguration of Vision 2050. It must be the first time that a party leader gets invited to the launch of the rival party's electoral platform. In reply to my criticism I was submerged with criticism from many Opposition hard -liners. They still think the country belongs to them.

In Roman times Cato the Elder took to end any speech on whatever subject with the words that have become famous: "Ceterum censeo delenda esse Carthago" (As for the rest I hold that Carthage must be destroyed). I pledge that from now to the election I will end my articles here with the words: The Royal Opera House must be rebuilt exactly as it was.

Professor Mario Buhagiar

The country has already expressed its appreciation of Professor Mario Buhagiar who died this week but no praise is sufficient for this humble, hard-working, scholar who uncovered so many mysteries buried in Malta's medieval past.

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