Reports carried about the damage to houses and private establishments by fires, explosions and floods confirm how the insurance of homes and other edifices is not a widespread practice in Malta. When disaster strikes, its absence is sorely felt. We are not alone in this situation.
I remember a meeting of financial consultants and bankers I attended over two years ago in Brussels that focused on fintech. A speaker or two emphasized how this could offer competitive opportunities in the sale of home insurance, which could become a whole new field for fintech to develop. But it soon became clear that not everyone in the audience was getting the point or agreeing it made sense. Then it was realised that for those present who came from Germany, where home insurance is a well-established practice, the point was fully comprehensible.
Not so for attendees from Italy where apparently, as in Malta, homes are not usually insured. Many seemed to agree that where this does not happen, it should be done... Again, not everybody agreed however - possibly, it was not totally clear who would gain most from such a development - whether it would be banks and insurers, or home owners.
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JURORS
As day after day, the "big" trial slogged forward in the Valletta court room, one could hardly not wonder about the jurors. There they were, caught in the court room, listening to the evidence and the verbal exchanges, living away from their families, "protected" from all outside contacts. It seemed like they'd still have weeks to live in this way.
Obviously, one cannot generalise but it is possible to imagine how under such conditions, life is less than agreeable. Even cardinals as they assemble to elect a Pope do not expect to be cut off from the rest of the world for so long. The time might have come for the judicial machine to adopt operating methods that do not depend on the jury system to administer justice.
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THE MED AND CLIMATE CHANGE
All the countries bordering the Mediterranean surely have one common interest - not to let climate change create overwhelming problems for their communities. They canot allow changes to reach the point where there can be no response to the crises that arise. No matter what their choice of governance is, all the countries concerned face the same challenge: of a region where hot desert conditions are bound to deepen. Hurricanes and other natural disasters that to date have not been normal in the Middle Sea space, will recur.
The vital interest of Mediterranean peoples is to ensure that their governments are in close contact about climate developments and increasingly cooperate to share information, research and tools that enable them to deal more effectively with the extreme conditions that will emerge. A start has been given to efforts on this basis but how well-advanced are they? how many common programmes have been established between neighbouring countries that would allow them to take joint action when dealing with emergencies? what information is being supplied to citizens about ongoing action programmes? Much still needs to be done.