Fisheries: Two segments – Alfred Sant

Though comparatively small, the fisheries sector in Malta is divided into two segments. One consists of the big enterprises which catch and fatten big fish, mainly tuna. The other consists of traditional fishermen who operate mostly as a family concern and go out to sea in sizable boats, but not on trawlers as happens with “industrial” fishermen. They also service different markets – the big operators export practically all they catch and fatten; the “traditionals” sell their catches locally.

The two segments need to keep in step with increasingly complex regulations covering Mediterranean fishing. They originate from the EU or from wider international agreements. The Malta government, independently of its political colour, has every reason to give support to both segments, as both make a good contribution to the national economy.

I recently listened to an excellent briefing about the useful work being carried out for this sector, which is also subject to very strong competition from the fishermen of other countries. A problem is that for many reasons, it is easier to assist the “large” firms than the traditional sector. Still, the latter must not be sidelined in any way.

Exceptions

A number of times quite recently, I heard the following observation made by people who have been involved in European negotiations: When we discuss new European laws, (too) frequently we have to argue about how conditions that are being proposed will not fit Malta, due to its size and because it is an island. And so we try to secure exceptions or some other special arrangements.

I understand quite well what is being said, for the same thing happens at the European Parliament on similar occasions, when votes are being prepared. My colleagues and I are constantly obliged to invoke positions based on “proportionality,” or on the need to avoid one-size-fits-all approaches.

I also remember well how, prior to 2003, wise guys would emerge to ridicule the claims I would then be making that many of the EU regulations, no matter how appropriate for a continental market, do not fit well with the Maltese reality.

Quotas...

The news that in France, in the Marseille area as well as in other places, limits have been established on the number of people that can visit sites of natural beauty daily was extremely interesting. Apparently great damage is being caused to the narrow, extremely picturesque creeks known as calanques. They are being visited by too many people. The sea and the small, sandy beaches have become polluted. The natural surroundings, including the garrigue that borders the calanques, are being destroyed.

From the thousands that used to visit daily, only a few hundreds are now being allowed to descend to the bottom of the calanques.

The measure contrasts with what is happening here, not least in the context of the controversy that the situation of Comino has generated. Still, there can be no doubt that unless some quota system similar to the one adopted in France is introduced, all ideas about the development of quality tourism in Malta will remain hollow dreams.

The boy who ‘was left’ to die

The controversy in the UK about whether the boy who had been medically certified as brain dead should have been left on a life support machine which kept him “alive” or taken off it was heartbreaking. Both the parents, who would want to keep their son among the living at all costs, and the doctors, who knew that the “life” thus sustained was not a life, were in the right from their perspective.

Inevitably, too, “economic” considerations came into play. Does it make sense to allocate medical resources to such a case and deny them to other patients who would really be in a position to benefit from them while being brought back to a viable life?

Some believe in the existence of absolute values which allow us to judge what should be done in such cases. And one finds them primed with their condemnations against one or the other side. Perhaps this happens because situations where choices about life and death must be made place us face to face with a fundamental dilemma: What makes us, as humans, a different creature in the lives we live from other animals? There’s no easy reply.

A new Italian government

If the next government in Italy ends up being run by the rightright, the Orban front in the EU will be strengthened. This does not simply cover immigration concerns and rule of law issues in democratic governance, but has now extended to the question of what Europe’s attitude towards Russia should be.

As of today, Hungarian Prime Minister Orban appears to be isolated within the EU context, though to a lesser extent than it would seem from the outside. If Italy leans his way, he would gain more leverage. And this would happen when Germany seems quite confused and rather apprehensive about the future.

I do not like Orban’s authoritarian tendencies at all, though not all his statements are misguided, as is claimed by many Europeans. For instance, it seems quite clear to me that nationalism still has a role to play in European affairs, even if not of the kind that Orban proposes and defends.

Who sets the agenda?

As happens in all countries, the national agenda is greatly influenced by the government of the day. But normally, other social forces also have their say in how it gets shaped, forces like the Opposition, and often, the Church and the media. However, in this respect, the first two have recently lost much of their salience.

For the Church, this happened because on the one hand it opted for a lower profile than the one it traditionally asserted, and on the other hand because in the recent past, it incorrectly understood the Maltese reality (as with divorce).

But the worst decline in this sense was that of the Nationalist Opposition. Since the times of Gonzi-PN, which saw the start of widespread internal strife, and then when the themes it kept on the boil led to electoral defeats, the PN’s input to the agenda weakened considerably.

So, the so-called independent media – mostly The Times of Malta, but not exclusively – ended up being the most powerful unit in setting the national agenda after the government (and therefore effectively becoming the major force of opposition to the government).