Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1542822
NICOLE MEILAK nmeilak@mediatoday.com.mt 18 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 JANUARY 2026 NEWS JP Fabri Economist Davos and EVERY January, the world's most powerful people gather in a small Alpine town to discuss the world's biggest problems. And every January, we are invited to believe that something meaning- ful is happening. The speeches are polished. The panels are full. The lan- guage is lofty. The hashtags trend. And then everyone flies home. Davos has become less a fo- rum for global problem-solving and more a ritual of reassur- ance for an elite that senses, perhaps subconsciously, that the world is slipping beyond its control. It performs concern. It simulates urgency. It markets dialogue. But the gap between rhetoric and reality has become too wide to ignore. This year's edition made that contrast starker than usual. On one side stood the famil- iar spectacle: Grand claims, self-congratulation, competing narratives, performative out- rage, carefully crafted talking points for domestic audiences. On the other, buried beneath the noise, there was something rarer: Honesty. That honesty came most clearly from Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister. His speech cut through the pretence with unusual clarity. He did not speak of a "tran- sition" but of a "rupture". He did not pretend that the rules- based order still functions as advertised. He did not hide behind platitudes about co- operation while ignoring how power is actually exercised. He named what many leaders pri- vately understand but rarely admit publicly—the world has entered a phase where power, coercion, strategic dependency and economic weaponisation are the operating logic of geo- politics. An uncomfortable speech It was not a comfortable speech. It was not designed to generate applause lines. It did not pretend that multilateral institutions will magically re- cover their authority. Instead, it asked a deeper question: What does integrity look like in a world where many of the rit- uals we still perform, no longer correspond to reality? That alone made it stand out in a week dominated by perfor- mance. Contrast this with much of the surrounding theatre. Political leaders arrive at Davos not to speak to the world but to speak to their domestic audiences via an international stage. CEOs arrive not to rethink capitalism but to defend it in softer lan- guage. Institutions arrive not to admit failure but to repack- age it as evolution. The vocab- ulary remains sophisticated but increasingly hollow. Dialogue is celebrated, yet nobody listens. Urgency is de- clared, yet execution remains elusive. Crisis is acknowledged, yet incentives remain un- changed. The spectacle continues be- cause it is useful. It reassures markets. It flatters power. It sustains access. But it no longer convinces. The most uncomfortable truth about Davos is that it reflects the same dysfunction now evident across global gov- ernance—too much talk, too little delivery. Too much sig- nalling, too little structural change. Too many frameworks, too few outcomes. This is why the European contribution matters, but also why it feels incomplete. A problem of credibility The European Commission's message this year was intellec- tually coherent. It recognised that the old dependencies are untenable. It acknowledged that Europe must build genu- ine strategic autonomy across energy, capital, defence, tech- nology and industrial capacity. The narrative around EU Inc., deeper capital markets, an in- tegrated energy system, invest- ment mobilisation and defence capability is not wrong. In fact, it is overdue. The diagnosis is sound. The ambition is com- mendable. The direction is broadly correct. The problem is credibility. Europe has mastered the art of announcing frameworks. It has perfected the language of reform. It produces strategies at industrial scale. Yet delivery remains painfully slow, politi- cally fragmented, and institu- tionally constrained. The dis- tance between aspiration and implementation has become Europe's defining weakness. When leaders announce ur- gency year after year without visibly compressing timelines, urgency loses meaning. When structural reform is repeatedly declared but endlessly nego- tiated, reform becomes ritual. When autonomy is proclaimed but dependencies deepen, credibility erodes. This is not a communication problem. It is a governance problem. And this is where Carney's intervention matters. Because he did not merely diagnose the world's dysfunction. He placed responsibility where it be- longs—on leaders, institutions and societies that continue to perform rituals they know to be partially false. He drew ex- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressing Parliament's foreign affairs committee condemns repression and killings in Iran PARLIAMENT'S Permanent Committee on Foreign and European Affairs has con- demned "without reserva- tion" the repression and kill- ing of thousands of Iranian citizens. In a statement on Friday, the committee expressed sol- idarity with the Iranian peo- ple and their aspirations for democracy and fundamental rights. In its declaration, the com- mittee said it had been fol- lowing developments in Iran closely and resolved to denounce what it described as the oppression and vio- lence directed at civilians. It stressed that the Iranian people have the right to live in peace, democracy and freedom, with full respect for fundamental human rights. The committee also voiced concern that the current sit- uation could lead to further escalation of tensions in the region, warning that insta- bility in Iran may have wid- er geopolitical consequences beyond the country's bor- ders. Rights groups say the scale of the crackdown over recent weeks has been se- vere. Protests in several cit- ies erupted in December as a result of economic hardship but quickly developed into calls for regime change. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agen- cy (HRANA) said it has confirmed the deaths of at least 5,002 people since the protests began, including 4,714 protesters, 42 minors, 207 members of the securi- ty forces and 39 bystanders, while it is still investigating a further 9,787 possible fatali- ties. The group also reported that at least 26,852 people have been arrested. NGOs have warned that the true toll is likely to be much higher, with efforts to verify deaths and arrests hampered by a two-week internet shutdown across the country. Iranian authorities, however, have put the death toll at 3,117. International tensions have also risen amid fears that protesters could face capital punishment. While no exe- cutions linked directly to the current protests have been confirmed, rights groups warn that demonstrators risk being charged with offences that carry the death penalty. Iran's prosecutor gener- al has dismissed US claims that hundreds of executions were halted following pres- sure from Washington, call- ing the assertion "completely false". Protests over economic hardship have erupted in several Iranian cities (File photo)