Every time the Prime Minister says something to the effect that we should be out of recession by the middle of this year, I cross fingers and toes and knock on any piece of wood in the vicinity. He is right to feel confident and preach confidence but I have read so much bad news, hopefully Cassandresque, about what might happen to the world economy if, to take but one example, the United States goes bang in the middle of the day any time this year, I find myself engaging in gestures superstitious.
Still, indications are that if the economy grows again in this quarter after the small growth registered for the first time in nine months during the last quarter, it will bear out Lawrence Gonzi's optimism. So far and on the export front, our January figures showed an increase of €24 million plus over January last year; and there was a drop in imports of just over €50 million for the same period. Against this, our bill for fuel and oil products doubled to €32 million.
The news on the tourism front is encouraging. Arrivals are up and will receive a boost from Ryanair's 19-destinations programme and from the permanent presence of one of its aircraft here to ply routes not covered by Air Malta. The estimate bandied about is one of hundreds of thousands of new arrivals. Long may this be so; if it does come about, 2010 may yet turn out to be a year to remember. Hotels, restaurants and retail outlets should be well pleased - even more so with substantial incentives for energy-saving investment by the sector and the government matching, euro for euro, any privately sourced advertising campaign. Fingers, toes, wood.
A friend in Brazil passed on an excellent idea, one that encourages all internet users to bat for Malta as a tourist destination. From time to time many of us receive e-mails with delightful pictures of this fair land. Each of us must have at least five friends, relatives, who live abroad. Suggestion: forward these pictures, include the Malta Tourist Authority's e-mail address, and ask recipients to pass them on to their friends and relatives, who in turn forward them to their friends - ad some sort of infinitum; painless, inexpensive and, if the idea takes root, an enticement to visitors who may otherwise never be reached by the MTA's advertising campaigns.
With foreign and local investment on the increase and capital projects coming on line - City entrance-sliding-roof-parliament and Grand Harbour regeneration, road infrastructure, Smart City - cautious optimism is in order.
Fingers, toes, wood.
Yet again - whom the gods destroy...
You may have read about the two 10-year-old boys who raped an eight-year old girl in a West London park, are probably aware that Britain leads Europe in the billion-dollar abortion industry and western Europe in teenage pregnancy, the last despite €280 million spent on contraception and sex education to achieve Tony Blair's abysmally failed target of halving the number of teen pregnancies. Labour's answer? Start sex education in primary schools.
Alack and alas, all the sex education in the world, all the emphasis on contraception to bring down the incidence of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, is in great part a myth. Sexual freedom, a disregard for sexual morality, and state-sponsored contraceptive policies have indisputably created new forms of slavery. As Bernard Levin remarked nearly four decades ago when the Great Sexual Revolution broke out and the Pill came into fashion, God is not mocked; which did not mean He would not continue to be mocked.
Government research in Switzerland showed that 12 to 14-year olds were not using sufficient protection when having sex; never mind, help is on the way. According to a recent report in The Daily Telegraph filed by its correspondent in Geneva, extra small condoms have gone on sale (£4.70 for a packet of six) in the land of the cuckoo clocks. The manufacturer is turning his eyes Britainwards to do for the Brits what he is doing with such altruism for the Hansels of his Alpine nation.
If we leave aside the moral bankruptcy of all this, there is something tragically hilarious about these regressions. Picture if you will, a 12-year old going to the pharmacy of his choice, armed with £4.70. How does our intrepid Willy get the money is the first question that comes to mind?
"'Ere mum! Can I 'ave a fiver then?"
"You're not smokin' again, are yer?"
"No, mum, just need a packet of rubbers".
"What for, luv? Usin' a pen now, ain't yer? Go ask yer dad".
Off to dad goes Willy, or Billy, or plain Johnny.
"Smokin' again, are we?"
"No dad. I'm taikin' Jane to the flics.".
"Not knockin' her up, are yer"?
"Nah".
"Orrite then."
When these condoms make it to market it will be a matter of time before some bright sparks demand a condom dispensing machine in their school playground, another human right. Two, please, sir; one with extra small and another with standard-size. That's what manhood is all about, innit? And should the headmaster or headmistress decide against, it will not be long before a government paper is drawn up to say that in the interest of the boys' sexual health the head needs to reconsider his decision - and position. Whom the gods destroy...
Crucifixes, courts and Malta
Just before Christmas last year, the Italian High Court ruled that where decisions taken by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) conflict with provisions of the Italian Constitution, such decrees "lack legitimacy". Activist rulings by the ECHR were an assault on national sovereignty. Eurosceptics were over the moon. Europhiles should be similarly embarked; it is simply not enough to point out, as some did at the time, that odd institutions like the ECHR (and the Council of Europe) have nothing to do with the EU.
Any ruling by the ECHR must be regarded as a kite being flown, watched by the European Parliament for future reference; for that Parliament is not only secular. It is capable of selective amnesia when topics like Lautsi v Italy - a lone atheist called for crucifixes to be banned from Italian classrooms and took the matter to the ECHR, which ruled in her favour - crop up. In this case, the Italian High Court once more asserted the supremacy of Italian law and custom over the orders of the ECHR. Italy's request to lodge an appeal against this decision has been accepted.
It is well to record that a number of representatives of the Council of Europe recently met in Interlaken, Switzerland, their purpose to discuss reform of the ECHR. Our Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, who was at that meeting, expressed the opinion that the court was "not sufficiently sensitive" to the "cultural characteristics" of the "national identities" of member States. Ask Ireland and Poland.
Ireland's Constitution, which incorporates a pro-life clause, and its sovereignty were also on trial a few months back in the ECHR at Strasbourg when A, B and C claimed they were "forced" to go abroad for their abortions, their health placed in danger.
In 2007 the court ruled in the Tysiac v Poland case that Poland must guarantee access to abortion. According to the Irish Catholic Family and Human Rights (CFHR) the court based its ruling on the testimony of one doctor who supported Tysiac's claim that she had lost her eyesight because she had been unable to terminate her pregnancy. The claim was countered by eight specialists: the "ongoing deterioration in eyesight was unrelated to pregnancy".
Against this background, the decision taken in Parliament by the Prime Minister and backed by the Leader of the Opposition to inform the ECHR that Malta would be lining up behind Italy in its appeal against the illegitimate and cretinous (my adjectives, not the Prime Minister's) ban, provided an admirable example of solidarity and a forceful declaration of Malta's convictions. There are sovereign areas in a nation's life that no alien court should dare to touch. Which is why, once both political parties are in total agreement on the matter of abortion, the protection of the unborn child should be entrenched without further ado in the Constitution. Prevarication ought not to be an option.
It is well to recall that last November a draft resolution was drawn up by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that attempted to make access to abortion a human right and to limit the freedom of doctors and healthcare providers who object to abortion. Did our representatives go along with this outrage?
Good news is that the European Centre for Law and Justice intervened and prepared a memorandum in support of 'conscientious objection'.
Point is, some of the assembly's works are often sounding boards and when it sneaks in that sort of resolution, MEPs minded to take it up are not difficult to find. Our Parliament and media should be vigilant on any score that touches our sovereignty.