We live in contradictory times. While Malta boasts an ‘exceptional’ GDP, soup kitchens are mushrooming around the island. Construction sites can be spotted almost on every corner, yet, homelessness has risen to unprecedented levels.
Quality of life has significantly improved thanks to the economic boom. But this has come at the expense of the value of life. The many victims of the construction industry and of thousands of third country nationals who are being exploited to serve the economy are witness to this.
The economic system is often blamed for this, as though one were saying that it is everybody’s and nobody’s fault. In brief, it is useless to hope. Motivated by this need to reinstil hope, a conversation was recently organised by a new local initiative called LOGOS.
The main theme of this dialogue was ‘It-Tama u kif nistgħu inxettluha fl-ekonomija’, held at the Theological Library at the Archbishop’s seminary. To keep the conversation going, I present here some myths about hope and the economy that need debunking. In a thought-provoking piece from the School of Life Sunday Sermons, which are part of the Atheism 2.
0 project, historian, activist and author of Hope in the Dark Rebecca Solnit argues that being optimistic that everything will turn out just fine, or to fume and fret that any effort is worthless anyway both stand in stark contrast to hope. It is not fashionable to be hopeful. To hope, Solnit insists, is to take responsibility for one’s actions.
