Likely, Trump's war in Iran will be of long duration. What impact will it have on international tourism in the medium term? What has been obvious right from the start was that the countries of the Arab Gulf were going to be hit badly as they got caught in the zone's warfare and tensions. The people they had been attracting to their shores would be trying to discover other areas where best to relax and enjoy themselves.

Meanwhile, given the uncertainties about supplies of kerosene for airplanes, tourist flights worldwide have all become unsure. Probably people's wish to travel will damp down if there's the risk that the flight they have booked is going to be cancelled, or if they end up caught in a foreign airport where kerosene is unavailable. All this independently of whether the inflation that war brings in its wake will diminish the appetite for travel, and/or the resources to pay for it.

Definitely, war and tourism do not mix well.

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STREET-WISE

Streets have come to play a steadily diminishing role in Maltese election campaigns. True, billboards have multiplied but while they do fill up the vista, they leave streets empty of people occupied with the game of politics. In the past, when it was permissible to glue the portraits of candidates all over walls and open areas (where they were left to rot and uglify streetscapes), public spaces would be frequented by activists, usually at night, occasionally sparking brawls.

But there used to be as well corner meetings, regional public gatherings, and candidates would make prominent appearances accompanied by their canvassers as they roamed to carry out last-minute house visits... Today mass meetings still get held to mobilise the rank and file. More than ever before, they have morphed into a political sermon, attached to a programme of musical entertainment, in which few political points get made. Meanwhile candidates and the parties rely increasingly on social media to contact the electorate, which does bring them close to the voter... without however being close enough to really get to know how people are actually living, beyond what they decide to reveal.

Perhaps it's a good thing that streets are no longer the central factor they used to be in election campaigns of the past. With the ever increasing traffic, the risks of accidents, not always involuntary, would have increased significantly.

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ALL IN A TRADE UNION

Some people argue that the island's high growth rate has happened because cheap labour is being imported. Maltese workers rightly refuse to work for the wages that foreign workers find acceptable. Development should have been more balanced by being braked away from relying so strongly on what, in the final analysis, can only be termed as social injustice.

Others disagree completely with this explanation of the economic progress achieved in recent years. They argue that growth has indeed brought in its wake an improvement in social conditions that "everybody" shares.

The problem, such as it is, could be easily resolved once and for all, with the introduction of a measure that promotes social justice. This would require all workers, no matter where and with whom they work, to be automatically unionised (unless on an individual basis they refuse). In this manner they'd have protection against employers who try to set wages at levels that are below what they should be in Malta and Gozo.