How we bought - Alfred Sant

Data about retail sales in eurozone countries for the months of March and April make for interesting comparisons. During those two months dominated by the corona virus pandemic, as a eurozone average, retail sales decreased in volume terms by 11.1 per cent in March and again by 11.7 per cent in April.

What is curious is that while in the rest of the eurozone, overall the decreases happened in practically equal steps successively, in Malta most of the decline took place in a big way during the month of April, with a decrease of 25.1 percent. It was the biggest drop among all euro countries – but in March, the decline in Malta had been of only 1.1 per cent.

Considering what occurred during those two months as a whole, retail sales in the eurozone declined by 21.5 percent and in Malta by 25.9 percent. It seems as if Maltese consumers started out less worried than European citizens, on average, concerning their purchases and whether they should be spending – and ended up among the more cautious on the subject.

*** Floyd

The shocking murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis provoked a wave of condemnations from all across the US and the rest of the world. This was as it should be.

It is however useless to keep up any pretence that racism exists mostly in America, for the reality is that it is to be found wherever we are. Thet it needs to be reversed and destroyed is clear. Less clear is how to do this.

It is not enough to amend laws – the US has carried this out since the 1960’s. As a day to day reality, in the way coloured people are dealt with, inequality and discrimination are still rife.

That all anti-racism laws need to be strictly enforced is again clear. But even this would not suffice.

Before the sentiment is drilled into the minds and hearts of everybody, that we all are people with the same dignity and rights, there will be no final settlement. Floyd’s murder has shown again the need to have anti-racist laws and that they are enforced without fail, but also that education about the dignity and rights of every person needs to be effective.

*** Should we take it easy?

Naturally people experienced the release from the “quarantine” that we went through in past weeks as a moment of freedom. It is true that at the beginning, there was some confusion about what could be done and what not.

Whenever a management and behavioural system in any country is changed in a radical way that affects all aspect of life in general, some confusion is bound to ensue.

I do not see that this was the problem in the change that took place. More problematic was going to be the balance that needed to be kept between the resumption of a “normal” way of life, and the vigilance that needs to be maintained in order to contain any big resurgence of the virus. Before a vaccine is found to eradicate the virus and before it has been administered to all, such vigilance will remain necessary.

Maybe it was a slogan that the UK adopted preamturely, but it is one that had best be adopted here, across the island: Stay alert...

*** Fake news

What actually happened during the alleged attack by an AFM patrol boat on irregular immigrants at sea once again raises serious queries about the role being played by NGOs in the political life of democratic countries.

I was one of those who kept my mouth shut about the allegations advanced by the Republika NGO, among others... even if the exagerration they indulged in to blame the Prime Minister for what had allegedly happened seemed right from the start to be downright stupid. I thought there could have been somebody perhaps who might have mistakenly, in some moment of excitement, made an imprudent gesture which had been interpeted the wrong way.

I never expected that all the allegations would be certified, as a matter of fact, totally false and mistaken. This is shameful.

It reinforces the well grounded belief that certain NGOs serve as nothing better than a screen behind which partisan political activity is organised locally. Meanwhile other NGOs are also servicing the operations of human traffickers targeting Europe.

*** Feel-good

In modern politics all over, not just in Malta, leaders have become focussed on promoting an essential message – the socalled feel-good factor. As much as possible, the aim of all political activity should be that of putting together enough good news to then pass on to people; so that more and more of them, will be wanting to smile.

Looking back, one finds that in Malta, the Fenech Adami administrations were pioneers in adopting this tactic. Slogans lie “Money no problem” in those days projected the sentiment that all that needed to be done if things were to improve, was for the government to spend and spend. Since then, the ways by which politicians trigger feelgood have contunally been updated.

One must worry as to whether it will be possible in future for any politician to deliver a speech like that of Winston Churchill who on becoming Prime Minister at the start of the Second World War came out with the promise of “blood, toil, tears, sweat”.

*** Epidemiology

If I got it right, the strategy utilised all over the world against the corona virus pandemic operated on two fronts: the medical one, based on the limited information available at the time about the disease and about how to medically control its arising infections; and the mathematical tools by which the epidemic’s progress across communities was noted and fed into a model which predicted how it would develop.

Regarding the latter, I was told how the models being deployed all over the world still need to be upgraded since they use a mathematical technique that is being replaced by another one in advanced statistical research.

One hopes that as soon as the current pandemic is over, the mathematical models by which its effects have been tracked will be revaluated and improved as necessary.