I know bullying is the latest social catchphrase and I know it causes problems at whichever age one experiences it, but excessive use of, and exhaustive reference to the issue can often lead to a quick decline in the level of public attention. Remember the yawns when the umpteenth radio and TV discussion tackled divorce, hunting and homosexuality, all of them serious topics that still merit concern?

Over-exposure harms both subjects and their advocates. For example, over the decades, the Maltese language has had its many harmless, often funny catchphrases that had a life span of just months. Perhaps the most popular and longest-running was "ara l-wajer". There was also "biex ġej, boj" and the relatively more recent "tal-ġenn, man", harmless little catchphrases that did the whole de rigueur tour of schools, offices, clubs, factories, restaurants and so on, with family, friends, workmates, colleagues and fellow members before they just fizzled out.

Important issues like bullying must not be taken to that silly level because of over-use. Simon Busuttil's script-writers please note. Er, Charles, so why are you now bringing it up and giving it more mileage?

Bullying is not a new phenomenon and can be interpreted in manifold ways. Nations bullied and continue to bully other nations. As schoolboys, we have all seen it, felt it and done it. I vividly remember fists being raised as warning gestures during lessons, as one student let another student know what to expect after school hours. The retort was usually another raised fist. If you didn't have the heart for it, there was always your best friend eager to bully the initial fist-raiser. I don't know about girls, but for them it was easier, they would just throw lipsticks and pink diaries at each other.

At the time and I do not go back to the Victorian age, by the way, teaching staff also bullied children in their care. One particular member of the clergy teaching at a school I used to attend seemed to get a kick out of using the cane. That is not discipline. It is pure bullying.

For this unholy father, one minor misdemeanour was enough to earn students a feel of the dreaded cane, often carried out during break and in view of the rest of the school. It was known as the "touch your toes" procedure. I got it only once for not having had the time to copy from a classmate, as was my custom, the day's Maths homework in exchange for a quick essay in Maltese or English.

That was bullying, too. On another occasion, my English language teacher had caught me industriously writing my table-soccer and chess "newspapers" while he waxed lyrical about Shakespeare's lingo. He was not a bully, however, and he just took away my hand-written "papers" and got on with the lesson. When Parents' Day arrived, those same "papers" were handed to my mum who, of course, was not amused. It was explained to her, however, that while the writing of such things could help tremendously towards one's command of a language, actually writing them during class was unacceptable.

Other forms of bullying I have experienced in my journalistic career were those of ministers and politicians screaming down my telephone line, sometimes for justified reasons, often for such trivial things as non-coverage of unimportant events, film-clip timings, and running orders! One President of the Republic actually woke me and the rest of the family - wife and two pre-teenage daughters - at about midnight to scream obscenities over a TV news bulletin that had overlooked some incredibly innocuous activity. To my life-long satisfaction, I had had the temerity of just slamming down the receiver and nothing more was ever heard about it. Your Bully Excellency, I guess.

Simon Busuttil's recent rants about bullying just because he is reminded of the ugly practices and suspicious routines of a previous administration of just 18 months ago - for which he had authored a rejected electoral manifesto - can hardly be taken seriously. Politics is all about retort and counter retort. If you can't stand the heat, just bow out and don't bully the poor newsgirl.

 

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Kick them out?

While people often complain about the "threat" from immigrants rightly given shelter from the wars and famines in their countries, there seems to be little awareness of the ever-increasing number of foreign criminals in our jails. They come from all over the place, within and without the EU. This reality is to be expected in a cosmopolitan society we have gradually developed into. If we have a problem with mixed-nationalities in our schools, we are bound to have mixed-nationalities in our prisons.

It has just been revealed that foreign criminals in the UK are costing taxpayers about €900 million a year (working out at around €75,000 per offender), with thousands of offenders setting up home in the UK instead of being deported. Of the 4,200 foreign convicts living in the community, one in six - 760 - have absconded, according to a report by the UK's National Audit Office. Among those who have absconded are 58 "high harm" individuals who have been missing since 2010.

Is kicking them out a cheaper option? Deportation has its own expense, but at least prison space would be relieved.

 

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Francis on the ropes

While the rest of the world continues to be enamoured of Pope Francis and his liberal and positive approach to long-standing issues, the anti-progressive tide is rising within his own Catholic Church. Catholic conservatives have in fact reacted furiously to a Vatican document that advocates a possible shift towards more tolerance (ugh) of homosexuals. They want to "defend" traditional values such as marriage and family and not recognise same-sex marriages. These conservatives within the Catholic Church have accused liberals of trying to "railroad the assembly" and that their views do not reflect the general consensus within the Vatican.

The Vatican quickly said, however, that the document was still a "work in progress" that aims to try and integrate more homosexuals and divorcees into the Church fold. It said that a final version of the document is to be issued after the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, a meeting of around 200 bishops concluded last Sunday.

Is Francis' papacy on the ropes already? One hopes not. He has brought a breath of fresh into the Church, but then, as we have seen with the recent episode involving Malta's much-liked archbishop, there are always those on the wings ready to swoop down on the face of progress for their own personal and political ambitions.