When religion and politics get mixed up together such that they end up part of each other, society becomes reactionary, repressive and no doubt corrupt as well. This happens even when religious forces would have been instrumental in the past to provide a popular leadership against foreign rule (as in Greece under the Turks) or against a feudal dictatorship (as in Iran under the Shah).
Almost automatically, when a religion is in control of society, it expects civil governance to remain subservient to values which maintain the status quo, as part of truths that according to religion, will never change. In this respect, Europe has brought about the really progressive advances. With secularisation, it dislodged the religious stranglehold on the state, without destroying religious practice among citizens who choose to obey and follow the rules of their religion.
In Malta too, the gains registered by this change have been enormous. In our context, as people of my generation can attest, we did not have mullahs running the country, but we did have a powerful stratum of clerics who exerted a strong, almost mandatory control over the rest of the population.
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NEW INFLATION
Economic and commercial analysts are unanimous in their conclusion that the Iran war will be having a significant impact on prices. They mention increases in the price of oil, but other effects also get factored in - like the uncertainties in the shipping of goods between Europe and Asia; the delays that will be happening in the delivery of raw materials and finished goods; the lengthy detours that intercontinental and other flights will have to undertake...
If inflation really perks up, the danger will be that the stagnation which has persisted in Europe during past years will deepen. Following the efforts and speeches that have been going on in the EU emphasising the need to trigger improvements in productivity, the emerging scenario is anything but pleasant. Not least because it could quickly lead to a substantial arise in unemployment.
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APPROACHING ELECTION
Wherever one goes, people put the question: So, are elections being held in June? To be sure, whenever an election is getting close, such a question seems to arise spontaneously. Prior to the last election, it was being frontloaded as of nine months before the election actually happened... or perhaps a year.
It has always been and will always remain like this. Everybody wants to play at being a shrewder electoral strategist than the current Prime Minister... The expectations that this gives rise to generate their specific impacts, some of which can be extremely bizarre.
Electoral candidates begin to stir and increase their public presence. MPs finally are visited by the Muses and strive to get their articles published by the media, while multiplying their online commentaries. The seekers of favours, which they deserve but have not as yet been granted, mobilise. Ministers press to secure greater TV exposure for themselves. Active officials of the party... or what remains of them: not the parties but the really committed activists!... consider how best to tool up their party's probably ramshackle organisation to ensure that an adequate get out the vote system will be in place. Organisers of opinion polls lobby hard to secure contracts for surveys. Businessmen assess cautiously where, how and whom they will back with their financial donations.