Nation wide, a wideranging schizophrenia prevails regarding the place of foreign workers resident here. We all know how fast their number has grown. And that they didn't come here by themselves: someone invited them over and arranged for their reception. This happened because there was a profit to be made from their arrival and because it was known that they were needed to carry out tasks in Malta.
Maltese residents here are not doing any favours to foreign workers when we bring them over to stay. Nor are they doing us any favour by settling among us. Both sides are being of use to each other and both should not abuse of their position. However the clearest opportunities for abuse do not arise from the "camp" of foreign workers.
Crucially, the need is for the overall stiaution to be managed with fairness and regulated with realism plus a recognition of how people's existence is structured. We will remain closer to relatives, people we know and neighbours than to others. Which should not be allowed to mean that we will deal with others as if they were merely a source of profit, like they're machines which do not also possess their own human rights and aspirations.
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FOOD SECURITY
It's truly ironic to listen to some people, who made a career by singing the virtues and advantages for Malta of EU membership, when they now procalim the need for the Maltese islands to protect their food security by boosting Maltese agriculture. This touches upon one of the oldest issues in the controversies of old about Malta's entry in the EU.
In those days, the enthusiasts for membership would with one loud voice, and against all the evidence, proclaim that Maltese agriculture would greatly prosper if Malta joined the EU. So, Malta joined and adopted the Union's rules.
At first, with the arrival of the stream of initial grants-in-aid, Maltese farming seemed to be coping. When the aid tapered off and EU rules came fully into force, the record became one of consistent regress. Across a wide range of farm products, essential deliveries of farm products to the Maltese market were taken over by imported items. And now, the same people who prodded us towards this situation, come forward to preach about how we must guarantee food security by safeguarding Maltese agriculture!!
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PLAYS
The literary theatre, at least as I used to know it many years ago, is dead... although not everybody agrees. Formerly, one of the popular approaches to stagecraft was via a script carrying a narrative associated with particular themes that a director and actors would then put on for an audience. Over the years, this mode of theatrical performance got sidelined. From among other forms of theatre that were also in existence, shows that were based on improvisation methods between actors, dancers and other artists working proactively together to create sequences of scenes began to dominate. They rely on various techniques of lighting and sound to create dramatic effects. All the resulting approaches have great merits.
Only they have swamped the literary theatre. True, one can still find and read plays in books. But nobody reads them any more.