Gas prices have gone up again. Same goes for fuel and oil prices. These have been fluctuating nearly on a monthly basis but, in general, they have increased.
A spiralling situation has therefore developed. Prices rise daily.
Once there were price control measures in place and this kept prices down, albeit backfiring otherwise!
Today, it’s a free market, with competition playing its best but prices are still high.
The unions nowadays are at their worst, considering the financial situation of the business environment today.
Poverty has been on the increase and we are now feeling the crunch (ironically, this year is World Poverty Awareness Year) and expenditure is eroding the family resources to poverty stage (not the poverty line, mind you), even though incomes seem fine.
The government remains cold and the media releases an “All’s well” situation.
In my opinion this is a sad situation.
No wonder that: gloom reigns all over this country; business is low; our children cannot plan their future; imports (and relatively exports) have drastically reduced; pensioners are grumbling that they cannot make ends meet; queues of people at ARMS Ltd, complaining of price hikes and settlements through instalments; banks are hesitant to allow credit; property is stagnant and the government is trying to boost business by encouraging use of EU grants.
Like all other EU countries, Malta arrived to this situation and we are feeling the same crunch. The government is not doing enough to improve the situation.
Due to inflation, families are facing an erosion of their income. Any increase in income cannot suffice to make up for increases in the cost of living.
This situation is only proving the Maltese nation to become less competitive when compared to other countries. The same happened in the period prior to the two world wars and then boom! All doors went wide open to something new (it was the war). I condemn war but, surely, there are people who can form “thinktanks” and come up with something to alleviate our present situation. Looking inside rather than out and refining our product/s based on successes of others are two ideas.
We have to: Find ways how to economise (not through sacking people, mind you) for efficiency’s sake; look towards retaining our competitive smile that lately seems to have vanished from our happy faces; resort to energy sources that are less expensive and look for more and more ingenious ways to alleviate our situation.
The important thing is to unite and think.
Our deteriorating situation can easily be addressed with some effort. Keeping our heads high, let’s formulate measures to really (and not cosmetically) better our situation. We have to be selfish here but selfishness to improve our position does no harm at all.
We have to educate everyone about the need to change the situation we are in to improve our lot. To do this we have to think, think hard and act fast.
I am sure Malta has a gold mine of thinkers, especially among the elderly generation, and I am sure that, with a little effort, we can regain a healthy position once again. Little is being done in this regard.
Research and development has been happening in industry sector, proving to be successful, but little has been done to look into the position of our people. This is a must and we therefore have to do something about it.