One doubts whether the metro project will provide any traction to the political parties in coming weeks. The PN was the first to dream about a metro for the elections of 2017 and then forgot all about it mid-way through the election campaign. Labour promised something similar for the 2022 campaign and has again resurrected the project. Both parties are envisaging a long term process during which no doubt, the protagonists will be the consultants raking in millions for their “advice” – calls for tenders to cover works will be contested, drawn out and delayed – batches of law suits will be launched to protest awards of contracts – and accusations of corruption and incompetence will sway from corner to corner of the island, till project costs will double or more.
I do believe we have an urgent need for an underground metro project. The best approach to do it (or what could have been the best one) was to run it back-to-back with a land reclamation project. I suspect that then, the best and most efficient way to proceed is/would have been to establish a joint venture project with China, which has a huge and extensive experience carrying out this kind of work.
No doubt the EU would come out strongly against any such proposal.
***
WE’RE ALL WORKERS
Such a claim can frequently be heard when the First of May is around the corner. It’s not made with sarcasm or irony but with total seriousness. Those who say it, truly believe that “today, everyone has become/is a worker!”
The reality is that workers are still those who need their daily regular employment to live from month to month. For this they receive a regular income, their wage, which also varies according to how long they spend at work. You could add to their number the small self-employed who earn their living on the basis of the profit they clear from the sale of the products or services they provide directly.
The interests of such workers in no way resembles the interests of those who possess lands or other means of production and make money on the basis of the activity and sales they generate therefrom. Which does not mean that the interests of these two sectors are necessarily in conflict or that they contradict each other, in some zero sum game where what one side wins, must inevitably be to the detriment of what the other sude hopes to acquire.
***
AT THE CENTRE OF THE STORY
What was most striking in the immediate aftermath of the outrageous attempt on the life of US President Trump was how he himself reacted to what had occurred. If I understood correctly his behaviour, instead of deploying the bombastic language he usually revels in and going on a rampage to accuse people he disagrees with, of having committed a thousand sins, this time he was not afraid to speak in a deprecating tone about people placed in his position. He also spoke ironically about how he would have to change the speech he was due to give to journalists whom he detests.
Then I understood that for Trump, the most important aim is to continue to personally dominate the news by remaining at their centre. With what had happened and how he initially reacted, that was what he again succeeded to do.
