There was a time when people expected a price to be one price. Wherever you went to buy a product, if it were for sale, then you had to find the same price for it everywhere. I remember how in the 1900's, as the Labour Opposition, we won a significant propaganda advantage when then Prime Minister Fenech Adami advised housewives to go find the shops where goods were being sold cheapest.
Today, product prices vary according to the area where one finds oneself, even in the same town or village. Prices vary even between the branches of the same chain of supermarkets, where one would have expected that distributors and market directors have agreed on a uniform price to be set for consumers.
In the past, we used to consider it a waste of time to call from shop to shop and discover the best price deal. Today this does not seem like it's a problem. In those days, a higher percentage of women were housewives, working at home to raise a family. One could assume that they likely had enough time available to do the rounds of the shops. Today, an increasing number of women (and men) need to balance the demands of a job (sometimes two) with the demands of housework. Yet, no complaints at all are heard about the variations in price...
***
ANIMAL CARE
More and more families (as well as singles) are deciding to adopt one or more animals to live with them as day-to-day partners. (Meanwhile, family sizes are declining and babies becoming scarcer).
Such a development brings in its wake new requirements. Animals kept as pets must be treated humanely. The services that owners rely on for the care of their pets have to be fit for purpose. When animals are "released", it will be possible to find carers for them... In the end, the state must ensure that there is an adequate response to these challenges. Public awareness is still not strong enough about the growing importance of making sure that appropriate care is available for the animals that live in our company as our friends.
***
THE COURTS AND BUSINESS
A study published this month by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) focuses on the problem of court delays in Malta, in this case from the perspective of how problems arise when a business enterprise becomes insolvent and needs to be reorganised or wound down. Court delays over such issues create big commercial uncertainties and serve to inject a lack of confidence in a country's economic situation.
The report recognizes that reforms have been adopted in Malta to improve the running of the commercial courts, by way of tightening their operations, an increase in staff trained to provide backing to judges and magistrates, and an increase in budgeting for the courts. Even so, the study concludes that more needs to be done. It emphasizes how court procedures are still too antiquated and rigid and emphasizes the need to modernise them.
Naturally, a doubt arises: If questions still remain about how the courts deal with the dissolution of bankrupt companies, what is happening when companies are in dispute with other companies and/or with the government, and turn to the courts to get redress?