US President-elect Barack Obama knows what poverty is all about, since he spent a few years working as an organiser in Chicago's South Side.

Unlike America, Malta does not have 37 million people below the poverty line, but many Maltese face the same prospect in the coming days thanks to the costlier water and electricity tariffs.

Between 1996 and 1998 when Labour, then led by Alfred Sant, was in power, all hell broke loose when the rates were increased. Yet now that they have gone up so sharply, why do I not hear more complaints, when it is obvious that Nationalist supporters too will have to carry this heavy burden?

In Dr Sant's case the media generally were critical − now they are muted in comparison.

Do those who are prepared to suffer in silence rather than admit their huge mistake in putting Lawrence Gonzi in power actually believe that Dr Muscat, the new Leader of the Opposition, son of working class people, would have allowed such a crisis to hit the Maltese had he been in power?

Can the Maltese actually say they are spending money on Christmas presents like they used to, with the thought of the bills to come?

Are shopowners doing good business or are they too feeling the pinch of Dr Gonzi's decision and twiddling their thumbs in the absence of customers?

Whoever says it is going to be a good Christmas for shopowners is grossly mistaken. It is going to be tight.