January 2009 has been and gone in a flurry of rain and disagreeable weather that is best soon forgotten. A dull anticlimactic month, as a rule, this particular January has been characterised by several ongoing debates between the government and the increasing number of people who have the temerity to think for themselves. Not a day passes without the government being criticised for this that or the other. Although some theorists say that this is healthy, I feel that carrying it to this, extreme is a rather hazardous gamble for a government who won the last election by a mere whisker despite promising the moon and several planets to boot!

Top on the agenda are those dreaded energy bills that have all but petrified an economy that has already felt the painful effects of a global recession to which there seems to be no end in sight. The ongoing squabbles between Minister Austin Gatt and the social partners and unions have not increased this minister's rating in the popularity charts. Trying to persuade Malta and his wife that they will be paying an inordinate amount of surcharge despite the dramatic fall in the price of oil to make up for the inherent deficiencies and gross inefficiencies of the service provider is more than even Mary Poppins and her spoon-full of sugar can handle.

Then we have the Valletta projects, which lately have become inextricably linked. Most people I know want the Renzo Piano project to happen but not at the price of having Parliament instead of the opera house. For the last seven decades, successive governments have messed around with the issue to the extent that, from being a symbol of the ravages of WWII, this site has come to be synonymous with governmental intransigence. This is why the government's proposal went down like a damp squib.

The St John's bunker has also met with a great deal of opposition. I will not dwell on this for fear of boring you, however, the upshot is that perfectly feasible and acceptable alternatives have been proposed by people far more competent and knowledgeable than I, therefore, I simply cannot understand why the government has to dig in its heels and lock horns on issues that can be compromised upon so easily.

Turning the MCC into a very grand Parliament with the tapestries in the longest unsupported hall in Europe is the first step in a game of musical chairs that has been proposed. This will be concurrent with the long-overdue rehabilitation of St Elmo, which, in turn, would bring about a long-overdue renaissance to the depressed lower end of our capital city.

The palace and its square would be liberated from the restrictive nuisance of Parliament and would function as a proper square and not a car park for parliamentarians.

The very successful restoration of St John's Co Cathedral would carry on without being disrupted by unnecessary diggings while the entrance to Valletta would become a truly cultural area by expanding what was started with the establishment of the St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity. We will, I am sure, be amazed by what Mr Piano will propose and, should it include a much-needed Museum of Modern Art and a functional concert hall for our national orchestra to play in, the transformation of our capital into a cultural capital when designated as such in a couple of years' time by the EU will be practically complete and perfect.

Then, of course, there are the social issues. I find it hard to understand how the PN government, after having played a pro-Europe hand for so long and with such tenacity, can be so reluctant to accept social changes like divorce and same-sex marriage, to mention but a few subjects that many people who voted yes in the referendum imagined would become a reality once we joined Europe. We are told that there is no need to have divorce as there is already something like it in our laws, which is its equivalent but is not called divorce. We are told that there is no need to have same-sex marriage as it will be taken care of in the eventual cohabitation laws.

Unable to call a spade a spade, this government hides under euphemisms and displays all the defects and shortcomings of 'Dorothy's Friends' in The Wizard Of Oz!

So indoctrinated are we by the all pervasive power of the Catholic Church that Xarabank chose to air a discussion programme about homosexuality without one government representative on the panel. While the Prime Minister and the Minister for Social Policy probably watched the programme from the safe comfort of their homes, it was left to the Archbishop and Fr Anton Gouder, especially the latter, to squirm under a literal bombardment of scornful criticism that, by rights, should have been aimed at Lawrence Gonzi and John Dalli. So unfair!

kzt@onvol.net