It seems as if we have been dumped with a small fishing zone around us, with our fishermen hardly able to go far enough, where the bigger catches are. At the same time our search and rescue zone is enormous. Each time a boat with irregular immigrants passes by very far away, we receive a message telling us to go and pick them up. It seems as if we have been lumped with a case of two boats and two measures.

Transparency of interviewing boards

I have had the occasion of asking an Assistant Director of Education chairing an interviewing board about her meritocratic selection strategy. She only referred me to her superior who simply said he disagreed with my interpretation of the apparent strategy as I understood it.

It is time in this country that every person trusted with delicate responsibility is bound to explain his/her actions in the most transparent and accountable of manners. Since time immemorial the Education Division has promoted democracy in education - at least academically and in principle. In practical terms this would also be the full explanation, even in public, of any decision taken in a situation of competition between individuals.

This is already expected of teachers towards their students. Is it not even more expected of Education Division officials towards their employees as an example of emulation of transparent and democratic practices?

John's wisdom

I usually like to read John Dalli's articles as they make more sense than most Nationalist writers put together. In the last part of Mr Dalli's article of November 27 he concludes that we should aim for "a better life for a wider range of people" - in reality a socialist ideal. It is difficult to be in disagreement with this unless you are a conservative of the farthest right. At the same time, most people are of the opinion that this is neither happening in fact nor in will. For, wherever you go, you hear people talk of friends of friends and inner circles; of ravenous people eating with 10 mouths. I believe that as soon as this government starts thinking of widening the circle of social justice and merit, it will have just turned utopically restaurationist though not in the least socialist - the creed of the wider circle.

VAT on restauration

In Le Monde of November 18 we come across a news item that can be an eye opener everywhere. Hotel and restaurant associations in France are putting pressure on the government to reduce ("adjust downwards" in Nat jargon) the VAT on restaurants to under six per cent. This pressure is bound to succeed as it makes a lot of sense, especially if one looks at the profit and loss results of the irrational measure imposed on such an important economic and entertainment activity.

Low IQ capitalism often looks at taxation as the one and only solution to all the country's economic problems. High restaurant prices, due to sledgehammer VATting, can only bring about negative feeling - both in hard-working enterprising businessmen and common people who wish to enjoy their right of eating out without eating their heart out.

Governing by opposing

The government seems to have given up trying to convince people of its attempts at doing something good and avoiding gaffes of the unhedging type. It has thus turned to an endless repetition of "we are living better" in great fits of hysterical laughter, hoping that someone will eventually believe it after failing to understand what all the hilarious guffaws were all about.

The intelligent strategy group cannot be satisfied with this alone. It is thus promoting its alternative - a sort of plan B. This consists of imagining itself in opposition in two years' time and rehearsing opposition styles and attitudes as from now so it can do it better later. The confusion reaches its peak when the opposition is accused of not doing enough for the country. Well, the opposition may have majority support after the three latest elections and the government may have become a second division team under an exciting coach. But you can hardly accuse an opposition of not doing what a government should be doing.

Unsweet memories of Uganda

Victor Scerri, president of the Nationalist Party, is more than right in expecting an apology from the head of the British state regarding the Maltese who were interned in Uganda by the British. I do not necessarily agree with the rightist political sentiments of those who were interned but they had the right to express them.

I was at the same time more than surprised to learn that Lawrence Gonzi disagreed with Dr Scerri's request regarding the apology due. Also Dr Gonzi should have stopped there and not made things worse by stating that Dr Scerri was expressing his personal opinion, not the party's, when appealing for the Queen of England's apology. After all, if I put "president of this or that" after signing my name, am I not to be understood as speaking in the name of that structure? Dr Gonzi's attempted explanation of this would not even convince, let alone impress, primary school children.

To me, Dr Scerri came across as much more patriotic than Dr Gonzi.

Health and radio listeners

When you hear listeners' comments and complaints on Radio 101 this could not possibly be the result of bad anti-government propaganda by the opposition - which is responsible for tsunamis, earthquakes and failed government attempts at economic renaissance. These listeners often complain that the health situation in Malta is indeed not very rosy and they give practical examples of their lukewarm misadventures at St Luke's Hospital. One feels sorry for people trying to extract social democracy out of capitalism.

Objective media analysis

The EU has invested half a million euros in Malta trying to obtain objective media reports from a media organisation belonging to a political party. There are in Malta some uncommitted media structures which do not belong to political parties and the EU could have knocked at their door. But the EU is an entity made up of human beings. And all human beings make mistakes. Including investing promising seeds in organic farming.

Dr Licari teaches psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and geolinguistics at the Department of French, University of Malta.