Il-Ħsieb: Thoughts and views for 2023

The editor had a special request for this week. He asked me to share my thoughts and views for 2023.

My reply was “Easy! We need to see what went wrong in the past year and do our best to reduce and eventually better the records.”

What I would like to see during the coming twelve months are fewer accidents related to the workplace, fewer accidents on the roads, and more respect for people.

Related to jobs we can’t leave out salaries. We can’t justify the rise in the cost of living and inadequate wages by quoting flashy tables reflecting the GDP’s positive trends. The alarm bells are ringing, and a considerable proportion of Maltese society is on the brink of poverty.

I hope to see more protection towards the environment, starting with less construction and further protection of open spaces.

I would like to see a decline in violence. A decline in abusive violence by individuals that deem that have a right over someone else. A decline in domestic violence, a decline in racial violence, and a decline in gender-based violence and any other form of violence.

A pinch of humanity would do no harm, starting by assisting people out at sea. Let’s not continue contributing to the transformation of the Mediterranean Sea into a cemetery.