The international economic recession has gripped the attention of the world's leading economies. A cursory look at the journals, magazines and newspapers, as well as listening to radio and watching television is proof enough of this.

Analysts seek to outdo each other with how deep and how long the recession is going to be or whether this recession could have been foreseen and avoided. There are then differing estimates of the level of negative growth that these economies will have. The minute the stock markets started to bounce back, there were those who argued that we could be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and those who thought that this was some dead cat's bounce.

However, all this appears to be very academic and apparently ignores the key element - the human touch. This recession is about people as much as it is about equities, commodity prices, short selling, speculation, currencies, interest rates, swap, toxic assets, etc. Human panic and human despair have been part of this recession and have even contributed to it. Mathematical modelling of the economy that excluded people and their reactions were definitely found to have been wanting. Getting out of the recession will require us to take account of the human dimension.

In the meantime, we also need to look at the human cost of the recession. Although we are being kept informed of all the economic news coming out in the major economies, we know very little about how the recession is affecting whole continents such as Africa and Latin America.

It may not be totally out of line if one were to believe that the impact of the international recession on the economies of Africa and Latin America is much, much worse than it is on the world's leading economies.

The world's poorer states have had to depend on foreign investment and foreign markets for their growth. These have both shrunk dramatically in the last year and do not have the resources to pick themselves up. Any solution to the international recession must take into account these countries as well.

At a national level, the issue of solidarity is also critical. Every company closure and every downsizing means job losses. The credit crunch is about banks making credit available to businesses, but less credit has a negative direct impact on jobs. Debates on the level of fiscal deficit and whether the deficit is excessive or not become theoretical issues, if one ignores the fact that reduced government spending could mean less jobs. Now is certainly not the time to indulge in ideological discussions on government's role in the economy, as the real ideological issue is whether we should or should not save jobs.

On the local front, we also need to look at the issue of solidarity. In past years we have had discussions among the social partners about a new social pact, which unfortunately did not lead to anything. We are now in dire need of this pact because the cost of the recession on our economy has to be fairly (not necessarily equally) shared between the taxpayer (as public funds are taxpayers' money), the business sector and the employees.

Any attempt by any segment to seek to wash one's hands from the problem is unacceptable. In Malta, we also need to consider the issue of immigration. The international recession is affecting immigrants as much as it is affecting us. The stand taken by some is making us look xenophobic and uncaring of this human suffering, which is very much not Maltese.

I believe that our government is taking the correct approach. It is certainly not ignoring the human element in the recession because all its efforts have been focused on safeguarding jobs. It is also seeking to achieve a balanced approach in the way it is handling the problem of immigration.

Economic debate can only make sense if it makes solidarity as part of the equation, and the social partners need to take an active stand on this matter as they do not have the option of abstaining.