Distancing - Alfred Sant

With the relaxation of controls on people staying at home and on where they go, the need still remains for full precautions to be in force against the spread of corona virus.

The major tool for the containment of the pandemic will become the social distancing in all areas where people live and stay.

However, observance of this precaution will depend mostly on the prudence shown by individuals in streets, shops and offices. Can one be sure that this will be done? I think it’s yes for many – and no for many others.

Thus, the question becomes: How should the imprudence of those who do not give a damn be reined in? Some say that police bookings and fines are not a solution for they create much extra bureaucratic work while it would be difficult to monitor effectively what’s going on everywhere.

So, should one encourage citizens to confront those who indulge in abuse, at the risk of seeing communal fights develop?

Or rather should one promote fullscale programmes of health education, at the risk of there still being those who continue to ignore all precautions?

*** Natural

Obviously, when governments come to decide whether to call for a lockdown of all public establishments, and when later they begin to reopen them, there will arise a strong debate within the administration. This has been happening everywhere.

The tension is between those whose function in a government is to promote public health – and those who are charged with ensuring that the country’s economy is doing as well as can be.

The two sides will have different perspectives – which again, is both natural and desirable. Indeed when there is no internal debate, one can only begin to imagine the worst. Such as: Could the top decision makers have become so dictatorial that they now decide blindly, according to their momentary whims?

It is just as natural at some stage, for somebody – the head of the government – to come to a conclusion regarding the way forward.

Pathetic efforts have been made – still are – by some to portray this normal and healthy debate as a narrative of infighting and confusion.

*** Separate aims

As Europe faces up to the priority of launching a wideranging economic recovery, there are many who while agreeing this should be done (for can they say otherwise?) are worried. What’s going to happen regarding aims about which there had already been a European agreement – will they be allowed to drop?

The disquiet is being felt by those who had lobbied for the EU to be a protagonist in the global efforts to reverse climate warming. They had succeeded in this and the priority for the coming years was meant to be a “green deal” that would be a central factor in determining all the Union’s activities.

Also wary are those who in the past years have successfully managed to dilute the European commitment to financial austerity, in favour of a renewed emphasis on the need to attain social goals.

Both the environmental and the social objectives require lots of money. In the same way and by far, so do efforts to achieve an economic recovery. Will the latter end up gobbling up the funds that would have been earmarked for the other two aims?

Obama speech

Ex-US President Barack Obama still possesses this huge skill by which in a few minutes, he can present the panorama for a political strategy that carries the thrust of a an adventurous, vibrant and courageous project.

His address of hardly more than seven minutes to new graduands at American universities which largely service “black” students, excelled on all levels – the emotional, as well as by way of a closely cut and clear analysis, combined with a political realism that pulsated with vision. All delivered calmly, yet with a tone that built on optimism.

He congratulated the graduands while commiserating with them for having had to finish their studies in such exceptionally difficult circumstances. He reminded them that their generation is in the best position to reduce the inequalities with which the black community in the US is still burdened. He advised them as to how this could be done. He emphasized that blacks could not succeed in their aims for reform if they remained on their own. They need to participate in a wide alliance of all the oppressed.

In a sentence or two, he demonstrated how poor an opinion he has of the actual US administration. That too was well done.

*** Long negotiations

Clearly, the EU had, and still faces, big difficulties as it seeks to take major radical measures that as a Union, are needed for Europe to recover economically from the enormous downturn created by corona virus.

We still have to see whether it can succeed in this effort even after the agreement reached earlier this week between Merkel and Macron. European Commission President von der Leyen has promised that by end May she will present concrete proposals that should have a significant impact.

Of one thing we can be sure: von der Leyen will be to the last minute, in contact with the different governments to nail down a programme that ensures close to a consensus. As a German, she was best placed to convince the Merkel government to alter the stand it has taken, by which up to now, the far reaching intiaitives that the French and the Spanish (not to mention the Italians) wanted to trigger, had gotten stalled.

The question remains: will von der Leyen reach agreement with other governments... or will there be more weeks of waiting and waiting till Europeans agree about how to launch economic recovery for all?

*** No sport?!

Thinking about this, I am surprised by the people I get on the phone or speak to otherwise, as they make contact to describe what has most afflicted them in the past weeks.

No, it is not the confinement to their home, preventing them from seeing family and friends. Nor is it that they cannot go for a meal outside their home. Or that they are putting on weight as they fail to do the exercise they were used to doing previously and eat more than they should, as they try to find ways by which to ease off.

What troubles them most is that they cannot see football on TV any more... or whatever else is their preferred sport. Among the latter, boxing and car racing get mentioned the most. However the supreme draw is football.

One can understand therefore how in Roman times, the adage went that to sustain civil peace and contentment in the community, the state needed to ensure that bread and circuses remained available.