The Malta Independent
Some important anniversaries have been allowed to pass unsung and unremembered.
`As if the imposition of mortal sin on whoever voted Labour was not an offence big enough against democracy, the authorities allowed the elected representatives to be assaulted just as they were proceeding to take their vote of office`
Forty years have gone by since Parliament opened after the mortal sin election of February 1962 when members of the Opposition Labour Party were assaulted in full view of the civil authorities who stood looking idly without offering any protection.
As if the imposition of mortal sin on whoever voted Labour was not an offence big enough against democracy, the authorities allowed the elected representatives to be assaulted just as they were proceeding to take their vote of office.` Those who sat silently as democracy was dressed a perpetual carnival costume, those who showed disappointment when the mortal sin on Labour was lifted in 1969, these days` pose as the champions of democracy expecting others to oblige with apologies for much lesser offences. Little they care that they were the major cause to the unpleasant and condemnable effect.
On an international level the thirtieth anniversary of when America defaulted on its obligations with the rest of the world has been allowed to pass without anyone reminding the great economic power of its obligation to make amends. Few seem to remember that thirty years ago, as President Nixon announced the `temporary` suspension of the convertibility of the US Dollar into gold at the Bretton Woods fixed rate of $35 for one ounce of gold, America was make a financial default of colossal proportions. The temporary suspension has proved to be irreversibly permanent, so much so that the world economic system has moved away altogether from any linkages of the reserve currency to gold. Major currencies now trade freely on what is probably one of the most efficient and liquid markets, based on the whole strength of the economy that the respective currencies represent.
`Clearly 15 years fatigue is far too long to allow any residual creativity for devising new opportunities, forcing the government to seek its fortunes kneeling down on the alter of the EU`
Yet there is no denying that in defaulting America gained from a tremendous transfer of wealth from dollar holding countries that had acquired the currency on the prospect of its convertibility to gold at a pre-fixed rate. Wealth that was used to finance the Vietnam war. To make amends the US ought to be more generous with grant funding as it promotes its aid policies based on a new Washingtom Consensus, where the IMF gets more efficient in crisis prevention and crisis management, and the World Bank and IDA become more effective in administering grant aid rather than loans, ensuring that such aid reaches its intended recipients and does not get blocked by corruption in beneficiary countries.
Back to the local seen this week was the 15th anniversary since Dr Fenech Adami was first sworn in as Prime Minister, a position he has held uninterruptedly except for a brief 22 months interval which come in handy as an excuse to pin anything that goes wrong on Labour`s blink in office.
Fifteen years during which the country`s values in the ethics of work have been damagingly changed into the benign neglect of money no problem syndrome, turning this formerly debt-free country into one sunk with its economic nostrils beneath the debt water level.` Clearly 15 years fatigue is far too long to allow any residual creativity for devising new opportunities, forcing the government to seek its fortunes kneeling down on the alter of the EU.
Some important anniversaries have been allowed to pass unsung and unremembered.
`As if the imposition of mortal sin on whoever voted Labour was not an offence big enough against democracy, the authorities allowed the elected representatives to be assaulted just as they were proceeding to take their vote of office`
Forty years have gone by since Parliament opened after the mortal sin election of February 1962 when members of the Opposition Labour Party were assaulted in full view of the civil authorities who stood looking idly without offering any protection.
As if the imposition of mortal sin on whoever voted Labour was not an offence big enough against democracy, the authorities allowed the elected representatives to be assaulted just as they were proceeding to take their vote of office.` Those who sat silently as democracy was dressed a perpetual carnival costume, those who showed disappointment when the mortal sin on Labour was lifted in 1969, these days` pose as the champions of democracy expecting others to oblige with apologies for much lesser offences. Little they care that they were the major cause to the unpleasant and condemnable effect.
On an international level the thirtieth anniversary of when America defaulted on its obligations with the rest of the world has been allowed to pass without anyone reminding the great economic power of its obligation to make amends. Few seem to remember that thirty years ago, as President Nixon announced the `temporary` suspension of the convertibility of the US Dollar into gold at the Bretton Woods fixed rate of $35 for one ounce of gold, America was make a financial default of colossal proportions. The temporary suspension has proved to be irreversibly permanent, so much so that the world economic system has moved away altogether from any linkages of the reserve currency to gold. Major currencies now trade freely on what is probably one of the most efficient and liquid markets, based on the whole strength of the economy that the respective currencies represent.
`Clearly 15 years fatigue is far too long to allow any residual creativity for devising new opportunities, forcing the government to seek its fortunes kneeling down on the alter of the EU`
Yet there is no denying that in defaulting America gained from a tremendous transfer of wealth from dollar holding countries that had acquired the currency on the prospect of its convertibility to gold at a pre-fixed rate. Wealth that was used to finance the Vietnam war. To make amends the US ought to be more generous with grant funding as it promotes its aid policies based on a new Washingtom Consensus, where the IMF gets more efficient in crisis prevention and crisis management, and the World Bank and IDA become more effective in administering grant aid rather than loans, ensuring that such aid reaches its intended recipients and does not get blocked by corruption in beneficiary countries.
Back to the local seen this week was the 15th anniversary since Dr Fenech Adami was first sworn in as Prime Minister, a position he has held uninterruptedly except for a brief 22 months interval which come in handy as an excuse to pin anything that goes wrong on Labour`s blink in office.
Fifteen years during which the country`s values in the ethics of work have been damagingly changed into the benign neglect of money no problem syndrome, turning this formerly debt-free country into one sunk with its economic nostrils beneath the debt water level.` Clearly 15 years fatigue is far too long to allow any residual creativity for devising new opportunities, forcing the government to seek its fortunes kneeling down on the alter of the EU.
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