An opportunity to adapt to new realities and to do away with practices that shamed us

This is going to be one of the most difficult years to review. On balance, it will be a year that we would rather not have lived through. It was a year of social and economic disruptions. It was a year of pay cuts, lay-offs, business closures and uncertainty. On the social front, it was the year of social distancing, of not being able to be physically close with our loved ones. It was a year of solitude and tension for our elderly. For months, our schools closed their doors putting additional strain on parents who, on top of all other disruptions, had to cope with home schooling. It was a year of limited travel and movement.

But in the midst of all this upheaval, there are positives that we need and should take. 2020 brought immeasurable change to the way we live, work and interact. Some of those changes are going to become permanent and not all of them are negative changes. In fact, we should welcome some of the developments and use them to build a better society.

The drop in human activity gave a fresh impetus to nature, literally a spring cleaning. Pollution levels across the world dropped significantly. We saw nature regaining some lost ground. Surely that is something we should pursue. As many companies resorted to teleworking, our roads became less congested and we wasted less time commuting. Surely this better use of our time is a positive change that can and should be made permanent. As an island state, we should welcome the global reliance on virtual connectivity because it lessens rather than accentuates our geographical limitations. Of course, the advantages are not across the board.

Common good is not as Joseph Muscat or Keith Schembri would have us believe, limited to GDP growth

Our tourism industry took a massive hit. And contrary to what some are saying, the return to “normality” will not be easy or quick. The downfall in demand has brought airlines, the dominant factor in the tourism industry chain, to their knees. A number of airlines will have to restructure and rebuild. Routes will be dropped as airlines prioritise their operations. Our tourism industry depends on external tourism, particularly air travel so we feel the impact of these changes more than other destinations.

It is difficult at this stage to make predictions; however, the likelihood is that COVID-19 will have a lasting impact on tourism demand. Hotels and visitor attractions will need to adapt to new realities, and this will require investment. The trend for individual as against group holidays, will intensify. Malta has some much to offer to a discerning tourist, but we need to up our game. As things are going, the process of uglification is taking us further away from becoming a destination of choice for this type of tourism. This period of change, of upheaval, is an opportunity for us to stop and rethink our tourism industry.

As a country, we went through this process in the late 1980s and early 1990s and again post-September 11. Faced by huge drops in demand, we took a step back, reviewed, changed our model and succeeded in growing our industry exponentially after years of stagnation. This is what we must do now. Let us turn this challenge into an opportunity.

On the local political front, we continue to live through the most difficult period post-Independence. Our state institutions were tested and found to be inept to withstand the abuse of power by the few for the few. We are being scrutinised and our credentials put into question. It would be easy for me to put this blame all on the doorstep of the Labour Party. Surely the lion’s share of the fault for this predicament is theirs to shoulder. Government ministers failed collectively to stop those among them who sowed the rot. Now we must all reap what they sowed.

Our businesses are facing investigations simply because the state institutions failed and continue to fail to take action against Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. Changes are needed on many levels, changes to ensure that politics again becomes a means to serve the common good. Common good is not as Joseph Muscat or Keith Schembri would have us believe, limited to GDP growth. More so when the feel-good factor comes at the cost of a human life and the dismantling of state institutions.

These are the lessons we need to learn from 2020. This is the vision we need to take forward. The change forced upon us is in this sense also an opportunity not only to adapt to new realities but to do away with the practises that brought us into shame.

This is the year in which we had to face the fragility of mankind. In the epic science fiction novel, War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells wrote: “I felt the first inkling of a thing that presently grew quite clear in my mind, that oppressed me for many days, a sense of dethronement, a persuasion that I was no longer master.”

Mario de Marco, Nationalist Party spokesperson on finance