Spare a thought for Bradley Manning, the brave, bespectacled US soldier who, three years after his arrest, has finally gone on trial over his disclosures to WikiLeaks. He is the victim of that sickening American system where jingoistic patriotism, extreme militarism, sheer disrespect of human rights, and a perverse interpretation of treason are all thrown into one boiling cauldron in the name of the powerful State.

It seems that for many Americans there is no problem with the State being strict and intrusive in such cases. State omnipotence is derided and condemned only when it is shown by way of helping the poor, providing free education and healthcare, and guaranteeing workers’ rights and conditions. That is socialism, mamma mia, so quick, Annie get your gun.

American friends of mine often complain they cannot understand why so many people all over the world seem to hate American politics. Then you try discussing with them such issues as the glaringly unfair treatment of Manning and, in another current issue, the cruel and unjust goings-on at Guantanamo Bay where hunger strikers are being force-fed in what the UN has rightly labelled a form of torture, and they freeze. At least those of them with a conscience.

While it was a relief in the last few days to see many Americans publicly protesting against the inhumane way Bradley Manning has been dealt with, insisting his actions shone a light into the darkest corners of the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are a lot more of them who would not think twice in condemning him to a firing squad or lethal injection. It’s the cowboy syndrome, of course, that still, unfortunately, permeates American society. Death penalty apart, Bradley faces a possible 154-year jail sentence simply for showing the world the truth.

Rather than the dark and obscure future he faces, many of us in Europe believe Bradley Manning should be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. But then, the enigmatic Norwegians had inexplicably and prematurely chosen to award that to the US President who has not bothered to intervene on the poor soldier’s behalf while indefinitely shelving the long-promised closure of the shameful, internationally-condemned prison camp at Guantanamo Bay which, in the typical American way of simplifying things, is given its crisp and flamboyant term of “Gitmo”, as if it were only a Hershey’s candy bar, after all.

This is the same country that while it is wont to cry foul if some smaller nation decides to protect its commercial or national interests by denying access to an international (here read American-patented) product, it then forbids both its citizens and visitors from carrying, let alone smoking, Havana cigars! I will never forget how once, on our return to Miami from a Caribbean cruise, the most important announcement on board was not to welcome us back, but to warn us against entering the US carrying Cuban cigars we might have bought.

At least when Mars bars were prohibited here, one could at least stamp his feet at the airport and symbolically eat the stuff on the spot, rather than surrendering it to the unamused Customs men. Cuban cigars take a longer time to smoke...

 

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Political hogwash

I see that in a newspaper interview the new PN secretary general Chris Said, one ex-minister who people had genuinely considered worthy of being on the “papabili” list for the party leadership, has put his trust in new PN leader Simon Busuttil. No shock declaration there, of course. I guess he wouldn’t have started his new role on a good footing if he said otherwise.

But the predictable soft soap turned into utter mundane lip service when Said said that in the span of just a few days in office, his new leader had “already successfully implemented changes to the Nationalist Party while at the same time respecting the party’s 130-year history”

That’s fast. I wonder what these historic changes have been because we have not really heard anything about them, or was it all just political hogwash for the uninitiated?

 

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Public land for exclusive private use

I can see justified reasons for the leasing of limited stretches of public land to organisations and institutions that strive for a worthy cause, be it for charity, sports or some other civic-centred activity, but I cannot, for the life of me, understand why exclusive clubs such as the Marsa Sports Club should be granted a stretch of rocky beach at Tigné in Sliema!

It is not often that I have seen eye to eye with former parliamentary secretary for lands Jason Azzopardi, but his decision to pass on 60 per cent of the Tigné Beach concession to the student tourism group NSTS cannot be faulted. At least these people are attracting thousands of English-language students to the island every year, and employ a good number of people.

What makes the issue more confusing, however, is the revelation that that same stretch of Sliema public land in question, enjoyed for no less than 90 years by the Marsa Sports Club and its cohorts at the Malta Union Club, another exclusive club, had been sub-let by the MSC to, wait for it, NSTS, something the ex-parliamentary secretary described as “illegal”.

Funny how we have to have these exclusive clubs demanding, as if by noble or divine right, continued use of precious public land which they in turn restrict to their privileged members.

While the legalities go on between the warring factions, perhaps it is time the public had more say in what should be done with what is left of public land on these minuscule islands. Too much territory has already been lost to kiosk owners, hotels and other commercial enterprises.

 

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Just don’t tell Godfrey

It has been reported that patients who need routine surgery are more likely to die if they have their operations towards the end of the week, at least according to a new study undertaken by a London-based health analyst group.

In the confounding way that statistical researchers go about, the group said results from the first analysis of its kind in the UK shows that patients who have planned surgery on a Friday are 44 per cent more likely to die than those who have their operation on a Monday and the risk is higher still if the operation is carried out at the weekend. Lower standards of care in hospital over the weekend is blamed for the higher mortality rate.

With Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia devotedly going out of his way to solve the mountain of problems he has inherited from the previous administration and strongly committed to giving the health sector a much-needed overhaul, this new piece of statistical information could hardly be good news. The last thing he would want is having people refusing to have operations near or about the weekend...

 

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Never too late

It is good to know the authorities have set the ball rolling for possible regulation of gentlemen’s clubs in the aftermath of a recent court ruling which rightly acquitted a topless lap dancer of “immoral acts”.

In the short space of a few weeks of the new government, we have already seen Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici quickly taking action to help push Malta into the 21st century where the freedom of artistic expression is assured, and doing away with obsolete censorship methods that have often subjected Maltese society to ridicule.

The very fact that the ministry concerned is “looking into the possibility of drawing up a legislative framework for these clubs to operate without fear of criminal sanctions” shows there is hope we may no longer be the laughing stock of Europe.

It is never too late. Just don’t give them any public beach concessions!