Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/922844
maltatoday SUNDAY 7 JANUARY 2018 Opinion 24 Not a new year resolution but... A s a general rule of thumb, I tend to be sceptical of 'simple solutions' to complex problems. But then, you read something like this is the local paper: "[...] the assistant police commissioner has a serious drinking problem. [He] is responsible for coordinating traffic in the country..." Yikes! A bit like a car-crash, really: you hear a sudden squeal of brakes, then experience a moment of intense lucidity before everything blacks out with a smash and a tinkle. So THAT is why it now officially takes me less time to get to San Gwann on foot than by car. It's not because my walking speed has increased through all the extra exercise: no, I'm still the type of walker who stops to read all the street-graffiti, or take a closer look at a plant growing out of the pavement. (Mind you, with traffic the way it is, you'd probably be able to read Dante's Divine Comedy cover to cover, and do a PhD in Botany by correspondence over your mobile phone... all while driving up Rue D'Argens, through Mrabat Street, and up the hill to Tal-Balal.) And all it takes to explain this phenomenon is the random juxtaposition of two unrelated sentences. Whoever co- ordinates Malta's traffic must be drunk. Yes indeed, makes perfect sense to me. So maybe there is a simple solution to this country's traffic problem after all: maybe we could solve it by simply breathalysing all the people who run the Malta Transport Authority... instead of the ones who get caught up in all the traffic they've created. (Hey, you never know. Nothing else has worked, so we may as well give it a try...) Sadly, however, my original gut feeling still holds. Tempting as it is to identif y the ultimate scapegoat in that hapless assistant commissioner – I reckon he'll be blamed for global warming next – it is also patently absurd to blame Malta's chaotic traffic mess on the personal problems of a single man... whatever the responsibility of his office. That's why I blotted out the name, and didn't include any details about what is ultimately a case of domestic violence. If I mentioned it at all, it is only all because I found the subliminal inference rather amusing, in a mischievous sort of way. And 'amusing' is not normally a word you can associate with Malta's traffic problem at the moment. It just... isn't... funny... anymore. Truth be told, it's depressing. And I mean that in the broadest sense: it brings us down, in all sorts of ways. It certainly slows us down... and I'm told (by people who understand these things better than I) that the time lost in traffic jams translates into lower productivity, lower competitiveness, and - in a nutshell - more money f lushed down the drain. Now: normally I don't care much of a hoot for that sort of argument. I dislike this idea that we only ever view things as 'problematic' when they start affecting the national balance sheet. I'll make an exception in this case, however, because lurking somewhere in that observation is a colossal paradox. I'm clearly an exception to this other general rule, but... Malta has (or is supposed to have) a reputation for being 'canny' and 'sav v y' when it comes to things like money. You know: 'descendants of pirates', and all that. And it's true: money is almost a spoken language here. It is invariably invoked as the be-all and end- all argument in any discussion, on any topic: it is the factor by which all things are measured, and all things can be justified or disputed. Yet here we all are, on this money-minded little rock of ours... unable to alleviate a problem that is costing us the one thing we all supposedly care about (and understand) the most. It's like the traffic situation itself: you have to be drunk to even conceive of such a paradox in the first place. Meanwhile, I won't turn this into a list of all the other ways in which traffic lowers the quality of life: pollution, road-rage, the extinction of punctuality, etc... because these are all things you experience yourselves every day. What worries me more is our collective inability to ever hit on any innovative solutions. And I say 'collective', because it's something we're all guilty of. Myself included. Oh yes: if, for a moment, you thought I was unaware of my own hypocrisy in all of the above, you were molto sbalgliato. I have a car. And even if I drive it as infrequently as I possibly get away with – the few times I Maybe we could solve the traffic problem by breathalysing all the people who run the Malta Transport Authority.... instead of the ones who get caught up in all the traffic they've created Evarist Bartolo Raphael Vassallo T he holidays and the new year give us time to reflect and regroup our thoughts. They give us space and time to look at the map and the direction we're moving in. These are troubled times. All of the major European countries are experiencing some form of instability or difficulty. In the US, the stock market might be soaring to record highs following massive corporate tax cuts, but the number of people not in the job market has hit 75 million, which is 13 million more than ten years before. As any American knows, not having a good job, or indeed any job, often means a lack of basic necessities as well as no healthcare. Statistics published by the EU just before Christmas showed that on average 15% of EU citizens suffer material and social deprivation (Malta is well below the EU average) with the figure rising to nearly 50% in countries such as Romania and Bulgaria. Ireland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus and Portugal are all above the EU average in this category. Another EU study published in recent weeks showed that 8.7% of European citizens could not afford to heat their houses with countries such as Latvia, Hungary, Italy and Croatia, which do not have relatively mild winters like us, hitting above EU average figures in this area. In many ways the 2008 financial crisis has continued to be a factor in global political and economical factors around Europe and beyond. Many countries have still not recovered, and some have little hope of doing so. That is why the economic success of this country is so crucial. We are truly in a league of our own in terms of a fast growing economy and some of the political backlash we have faced is due to this success. Investment is choosing Malta and it doesn't take much to understand that that same investment could have gone elsewhere. This economic success places responsibilities on us politicians and the country. We must continue investing where it really counts: in our infrastructure, in our people, in healthcare and education and in modernising the country for the long-term. One day (hopefully far away) the growth rate of our country will be slower and we will draw a line and assess the net result of what was achieved when we were on a wave. If we manage to prepare our economy for tomorrow, equip our young men and women with the right skills for the future, minimise risk by bringing on new industries, so we're not dependent on a small number of sectors, build modern infrastructure and take better care of the environment we will have left a splendid legacy for our children and grandchildren. At the end of the day, it's the net result that counts. We hope to continue the great economic success of the past few years, but we must understand that cycles are not always dependent on us. As a new year begins it is our job to make sure we focus our energies on what really counts: delivering results. All the parliamentary squabbles for the cameras and the fluff of everyday politics will be overshadowed by something else: achievement. I don't do new year resolutions but if you are one to believe in such, I think it's good advice not just for politics but for life: cut the noise and focus on what really matters. I think it's good advice not just for politics but for life: cut the noise and focus on what really matters We hope to continue the great economic success of the past few years, but cycles are not always dependent on us I might think I might have just solved that national problem of ours...