Thank God it's Sunday

The admirable bird has gained a reputation for boasting. At least it has something to show for it. But this blessed country, believing that we can gloss over problems by boasting, has little to show. We are inventing new catch slogans, such as "a crisis can be turned into an opportunity", as if that solves the crisis. We are being made to believe that billboards can be the best wallpaper to create an atmosphere of well-being. The feeling is different from that rosy picture. Reality is even worse.

Do you remember Sea Malta? Well, it might not have been the best shipping line in the world, but it has served our purposes and created jobs for many families, who could earn their living while working in Malta. Already, some time back, some employees saw the writing on the wall and decided to move elsewhere. One of them, a close friend of mine, had no option but to take a job with a company that is based in Cyprus, in spite of the heavy burden that this situation has placed on his family. Now we seem to show that we are really intelligent by declaring the demise of Sea Malta. I would like to see whether there would be a new billboard proclaiming that this has been done so that you are better off.

Now we have to hope for the best. Any company has one principle - that of making a profit. If the operation is no longer profitable, then we may see what happened in the past, that what was promised as a permanent solution was only a temporary one.

Material aspect

I could not believe my eyes. As I was going up Glormu Cassar Avenue, which leads to the office of the Prime Minister, which as been resurfaced incidentally just before the Queen's visit, I noticed that there was debris at the lower end. I may have had good medical reasons not to trust my eyes, but then I decide to go again on a quiet sunny morning to have a closer look. That gave me some pleasure. My eyesight is well nigh perfect. At the same time, I was furious.

That part of an important road had been closed to traffic and created some havoc especially in the morning when there is some rushing to start work in Valletta. In the evening, the concrete blocks barring access to Castille were a potential death-trap. I remembered the billboard, peacock style. How can anyone accept that things are rushed to beat a deadline and waste money on the resurfacing which is already being washed away and showing the usual spots and holes?

Another peacock of the same sort is on the way from Luqa to the airport. The billboard is there, proclaiming that better roads make you better off. You are better off your seat! With the bumps and the holes, you are off your car seat most of the time. But the billboard is there.

As if...

Then we had Minister George Pullicino bragging that he clinched a compromise about environmental funds from the EU, despite the British insistence that there should be no allowance for population density. Between the two poles, no allowance and full allowance, Mr Pullicino was broad in putting forward a capping coefficient, that the allowance for population density should not exceed double the average of all other member states. In my book a compromise is that something has been ceded by either side. You do not proclaim a victory in a compromise, as all are winners. In football it would be a draw.

But Mr Pullicino proclaimed that he won an important principle. For me that means that he has won the principle to have something to show for smaller funds. This would be the same as seeking damages through a lawsuit, and the amount of damages awarded is "symbolic". The case would be considered as won in principle, but if the claim was for damages, the main attention should be focused on how much. Principles (which concern euros or pounds sterling) have value if they have a value in exchange.

A more modest, reasonable, and non-peacock approach would have been to state the facts and accept that that compromise was the best in the circumstances. That is understandable. To brag about a compromise as if it was a victory, means that the other side has an equal right to celebrate its own victory.

I happen to have the provisional report of the meeting in Brussels. There is no indication of a victory of principles either way. May I ask whether the victory in principle would go into the consolidated fund and appear as an item in the next budget?

For better eye protection I am wearing dark glasses. This does not make my vision gloomier or darker. Colours do not change into black and white. But my views are being confirmed that things are different from what the official propaganda wants to depict as being reality. People know the difference, and the peacock does not impress. It may impress those of its own genre, but not all.