Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1440009
I think that what we have seen since the rise of the pandemic is an increasing sense of detachment, isolation and in- troversion; there is an increasing sense of retirement from the public sphere towards a more closed, perhaps more intimate, private sphere of life. On the one hand, one can say that this can eventually have a positive ef- fect on immediate, personal relation- ships (for example, within the family sphere), but it will also further erode the wider sense of community and what we generally call 'the public'. One factor contributing to this, for example, is remote working, where people become more isolated work- ing away from the community at the workplace, losing any human inter- est in their colleagues, their interac- tion becoming merely transactional. Speaking of teamwork or the team ethos has suddenly become more dif- ficult. If the trend persists, what we will be seeing in the near future are more assortments of individual 'mon- ads' than organic structures that op- erate with a sense of 'togetherness'. I believe that this will also have a long-lasting impact on society in gen- eral. Speaking of 2022, one wonders what role the pandemic will play. Even dur- ing an inevitable electoral campaign. What scares me most is that because of the elections we will keep post- poning a serious discussion about the effects the pandemic has had on our communities. I do not think there is any sign anywhere that might lead us to expect anything beyond mediocrity in public debate during the electoral campaign (and beyond). The pathetic state of our politi- cal discourse (let alone their ethics!) might even accelerate the withdraw- al of certain sections from the public sphere; I guess there the pandemic further reinforced a conviction that had already been forming for some time. On a different note, yet still speak- ing of elections, in light of some in- teresting long due reforms he had the courage to implement, Robert Abela will have the opportunity to form a new government without certain el- ements that only brought shame to this government. Of course, he can- not expect that the electorate would do all the cleaning by itself, but must show his mettle by weeding out such elements even before they have a chance to stand before the electorate. With regards to the Nationalist Party, I am quite curious what an electoral defeat would bring, if the cold war of factions would persist or there would be some 'third current' that eventual- ly tried to reconstruct the party. 13 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 JANUARY 2022 16. US midterm elections On 8 November midterm elections will be held in the US that could give the Republicans control of the House of Representatives and possibly the senate. A swing to the Republicans will further shackle President Joe Biden, who is already suffering from poor approval ratings on the economy. 17. COVID fatigue The pandemic will not go away in 2022 but public health practitioners will increasingly have to fight a two- pronged war – one against the dis- ease and another against public fa- tigue. People will increasingly grow tired of restrictions, vaccine jabs and uncertainty, which will require government to wage a battle of con- viction as it straddles the tightrope between saving lives, preserving jobs and restricting freedom. 18. Greylisting Malta's government will be hoping for an early exit from the Financial Action Task Force greylist in 2022. The FATF plenary meets three times a year – February, June and Octo- ber. The most plausible exit date from the greylist is October 2022 but much will depend on the investi- gative authorities' will to prosecute cases of alleged corruption by pub- lic officials. ALEKS FARRUGIA Erosion of the public sphere National Book Prize winning author and teacher