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This year my wife persuaded me to go to the Paceville Parish Church for the Christmas Midnight Mass. In recent years we have been going to the Mdina Cathedral but increasingly we found that the experience over there failed to touch us in any way. The Paceville Midnight Mass was a breath of fresh air. It tried to disturb the stagnant consciences of most of Malta’s Sunday Catholics. They go to Church as a kind of insurance policy for the afterlife. To book a place in heaven, just in case there is one.
I liked the way Fr Hilary Tagliaferro (one of the handful of local priests who delivers intelligent homilies that can win hearts and minds) referred to the double standards we live in our everyday life: all holy inside Church and then unchristian outside Church. He said how several people were shocked that the crib in the Millennium Chapel next to the Church had a tiny baby Jesus in it, much smaller than the military tanks, soldiers and ambulances that dominate the landscape of carnage in the Middle East inhabited by Jews, Moslems and Christians who should live as brothers and sisters as they are the children of the same Abraham and the same God. (But perhaps we should remember that Cain and Abel were also brothers and look what an example of fratricide the first brothers in the Bible gave us!).
I must admit that one of the highlights of the midnight religious function in Paceville was a young woman reading Pablo Neruda. Isn’t it lovely to have the verses of this Chilean Communist Poet, one of the best poets of all times (at least that is what I think!) read in a Catholic Church on Christmas Night?
I would like to share Neruda’s verses with you:
“He dies slowly who transforms himself into a slave of habit, repeating the same laps every day, who doesn't risk dressing in a new colour and doesn't talk to someone he doesn't know.
He dies slowly who suppresses a passion, who prefers black over white and full stops over exclamation points.
He dies slowly who doesn't risk the certain for the uncertain in going after a dream, who doesn't allow himself at least once in his life to disregard sound and prudent advice.
He dies slowly who doesn't travel, who doesn't read, who doesn't listen to music, who doesn't find grace in these same things.
He dies slowly who abandons a project before starting it, who doesn't inquire about a subject he's not familiar with or doesn't respond when asked about something he knows.
We avoid death in small quotas, remembering always that to be alive needs a much greater effort than the simple act of breathing…. ”
Poisonous illusions
Consider the answers given to me by a friend who is heavily involved in running public sector organisations that employ thousands of people
1. Where are our country’s economic growth and jobs going to come from in the years ahead?
Tourism will continue to be one of the main engines of our economy. If our economy is to continue to grow, the range of service industries based here has to be broadened. We are a maritime nation and yet do not exploit our natural resources fully. Besides financial services, we need to concentrate more on ship management services, support services to the North African offshore oil and gas industry, and ship chartering services. We can, for instance, also consider offering more advanced training services ranging from the teaching of English to foreign professionals (not just young students), to training in maritime skills in conjunction with recognised international institutes.
2. What is making it difficult for us to attract new foreign direct investment?
Our main weakness is our lack of competitiveness. We have simply become too expensive for the low skills industry entrepreneurs. The Baltic and the Balkan states, quite apart from China, are much more attractive to potential foreign investors.
In tourism our problems are more structural than we want to admit. We need to reinvent ourselves and discover what makes us different and better than other competing destinations. We must then exploit our natural and cultural resources much better than we are doing at present.
Our educational system is also letting us down. We still produce semi illiterate young persons who are unemployable in today’s economic environment. We also have one of the lowest records for science and mathematics graduates who are so much in demand in a modern economy.
Finally, our worst enemies are our own unrealistic expectations. After having poisoned the attitudes of a whole generation of Maltese citizens by creating an illusion that we could keep living beyond our means, we are now crashing back painfully to reality and realizing that we no longer have the natural ability to face the tough challenges of survival in an economic climate which does not tolerate mediocrity.
3. Many people are moving out of manufacturing and tourism and putting their money into property. Will the bubble burst, and when?
The future of manufacturing industry in Malta, as indeed in most of Europe, is bleak because of the competition coming from China and globalisation generally. But investment in property is no guarantee of risk free returns.
In the Maltese context we need to distinguish between the market for land, which is and will always remain scarce, and the market for residential and commercial property. The latter two markets are undoubtedly more subject to the economic laws of supply and demand because the supply is not fixed. The evidence is that the stock of residential property in Malta is growing at a much faster rate than demand both from local and foreign buyers.
It is a fallacy to believe that the property market in Malta is different from anywhere else, simply because there is a limit as to how much people are prepared to pay to acquire a residence or a commercial property. I do not believe that we will experience a sudden bust in the residential property market, but it only takes a price stagnation of three years to shave off 20% or more of the value of property belonging to developers who borrow heavily to finance such property. There are already signs that price stagnation has set in.”
evaristbartolo@hotmail.com
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