It is one year since Malta registered its first case of Covid-19. There was an eerie silence around the islands that Saturday morning and everyone knew we were looking directly into the unknown.
But today the coronavirus is history and, on the rare occasion that newspapers feature a related story, they have it buried down the inside pages.
There’s a newfound economic confidence nourishing a modest growth. Sectors and industries have largely moved on: tourism is still fragile, but operators are tapping new markets and proposing alternative value offerings. Property is slowly picking up, too, and developers are competing on quality and sustainability.
People and families take every excuse to get out of their homes. Commercial centres, cultural events, demonstrations, restaurants and bars, conferences, concerts, sport activities – the days of social distance are only a faint memory.
A mini-series based on the plight of the inhabitants of a remote Italian village during the outbreak was effusively received by critics, but audiences seem to be distracted by an absurdist production that has swept the globe.
Heads of state still make heavy use of photos capturing the moment they declared victory over the pandemic against a backdrop of national colours. But politics has returned to its customary state of fleeting issues criss-crossing outside the immediate awareness of citizens.
Anthropologists, economists, psychologists and scholars in general are consumed by the meaning and consequence of the coronavirus phenomenon, although they are primarily interested in the emerging post-outbreak scenario.
There is virtually no country in the world that has not inaugurated a monument, added a holiday or built a hospital to remember to the global crisis, but the collective bruises seem to have also found a cure in the now-famous vaccine.
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It is really only April 2020 and there is no indication that we are yet past the toughest patch of the emergency. But if we are going to move towards that reality, it is because visionary entrepreneurs and professionals are already there.
Risk-takers in the business community are, many times, the unacknowledged architects of the future. They drive the system forward even when the wheels of time feel stuck, they re-imagine success when everything else seems to be failing.
While the people on the frontlines in this crisis deserve the highest praise for their heroic and selfless efforts to help us cope with the present, gratitude is also due to our business leaders whose determination and agility will propel everyone into a better future.
