Keep trying

My interest in the Eurovision Song Festival is minimal. But naturally, others like it and hugely – as an audience, and from the perspective of artists in the musical, dance and performance categories. However, I also heard many people recently exclaim: “

You sometimes hear the same thing being said about participation in sports competitions, such as football – though less than in the past. These activities just do not suit us, it is said. We can never be good enough for them.

I disagree totally. I am one of those who time after time, insisted that given our small size, we should be careful not to assume obligations that make sense for larger entities. I still believe this.

On the other hand, this does not mean that we had to, or should, cut ourselves off from all international competitions, especially in sports and culture. While participating, we surely should always stay realistic about our potential to achieve good results. And we should also always do our best to learn new approaches from every experience that would thereby improve the Maltese performance.

Why so late?

A project is launched, plus another and then another one, all tagged with their date of completion. Everybody knows the latter will not be respected. But that causes little to no concern, even if time after time, as if we are being supplied with breaking and sensational news, we get told how the project is progressing very fast but that its termination is being simply postponed for another few months.

On this matter, I find no consolation in the fact that the same happens elsewhere, as in Belgium, where by my estimates, projects trail as much as they do in Malta, perhaps more. What is certain is that citizens are not being well served. The funding for many projects is sourced from the taxes citizens pay.

Nothing or too little is said about the reasons that actually cause the recurrent postponements. Was work done badly? Was there a shortfall in the available labour, the funding, the input materials (did these arrive late?)? Was it a question of incompetence, of corruption, of accidents, of erroneous site maps??? Who knows!

European elections

Next year’s European elections will be done with almost a month’s delay over those of 2019. I do not know whether the resulting outgo will be different from that of last time. Then, the fear was about the impact of “extreme” populists, which served to somehow mobilise the left and right centre. I would doubt whether the same will happen again.

On the other hand, if the populists have not themselves been totally tranquillised, they have allowed themselves to snooze here and there. They were always liable to be penalised by a big abstention rate in European voting since their core support tends to vote largely in national elections. This time round, their abstentionists are likely to be more numerous than in 2019.

Anyway, parties will be doing their best to bolster the support of their hard core.

Personally, I will not be affected by such calculations as I will not be contesting this coming election. It is time to make way for someone else. I will still be interested in the outcome of the elections though.

Post Brexit

Since leaving the EU, the UK has remained in a state of flux. Meanwhile, the disaster that some Europeans were evisaging would follow on Brexit did not happen and likewise the revival that some in the UK were predicting. Although in the fields of defence and security the British showed themselves more ready than the Europeans to launch major initiatives (as in Putin’s war against the Ukraine), in economic terms prospects are still unclear.

For too long a period disagreements and uncertainties prevailed regarding how Northern Ireland should be treated as both part of the UK and part of Ireland. Supposedly that problem has now been resolved. Also the two sides seem to have realized that an antagonistic competition between them would do nobody any good. They have every interest to remain close to each other by using ways and means that are different from those which were previously in force.

That would be of benefit to all, Malta included.

Turkey

It is difficult not to interpret the results of the Turkish elections last Sunday as a victory for President Erdogan. In Parliament his party and its ally secured an absolute majority of seats.

Public opinion surveys of the past months had shown Erdogan as well behind the candidate of the united opposition. The European media in the main latched on to this and focussed largely on Turkish politicians who were anti-Erdogan militants.

It seems that here we have another example of the Western (European) mentality understanding “others” from the perspective of how it understands its own way of life and state of affairs. It arrives at conclusions that draw too much on its own yardsticks. This is not the first time that analysts who relied too much on “European” criteria to assess what was going on elsewhere discovered they had made gross mistakes.

Political change

Announcing and launching political changes, true reforms, in a democracy is not an easy undertaking. Even more so in a parliamentary democracy.

In the case of a democracy structured around an executive presidency perhaps matters might be easier. The President is elected by a direct mandate based on clear lines of reform announced beforehand. Once elected, he/she can move forward strongly on the lines that were set out. Still, one had better say “perhaps”, since as happened in France with President Macron’s plan for a pensions reform, turmoil on a national scale could also ensue.

In an adversarial parliamentary system, if the need emerges to introduce change, there has to be a political party able to agree about it and carry it forward. Likely in the party itself, there will be those who do not understand the change and disagree with it. If this disagreement breaks out in the oopen, it undermines the efforts being carried out to convince all the people about the usefulness of the proposed change. If it is kept hidden, it will still act like a poison to damp down enthusiasm for the reform. And this before the party or parties which will oppose the reform start having their say.