Initially I thought I would be finding it awkward or possibly strange in my intent of voting for the opposite of what the two main political leaders on the Island, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, have publicly declared they would be doing in the 11 April referendum to decide once and for all what is to be done about spring hunting.

I am sure many people have been feeling the same given our national penchant for political direction in everything, from elections and referenda to Eurovision songs and the use and abuse of the Maltese Language. However, the fact that both parties, as distinct from their leaders in their personal capacity, have chosen to leave their followers free to vote whichever way they feel over the issue should cause no further seismic shock to one’s conscience.

I also initially felt awkward publicly declaring my “no” intentions because of the many friends I know who are enthusiastic but very responsible hunters. I was also, for some months several years ago, a contributor to the hunters’ own publication, Il-Passa-temp, with a regular supply of light-hearted stories about a fictional character I had come up with, Ġierku, the village hunter-cum environmentalist-cum social pacifier with a big heart, if not too many academic qualifications.

With just 12 days to go for Referendum Day, I can safely conclude it will not be an awkward or strange “no”, after all, mine and hopefully many others. This is because I am convinced that the end of spring hunting would, really, be a fair way for us to give birds a breather as they migrate back to an African autumn from the cooler temperatures of Europe where they would have nested and bred their different species.

However much I am against hunting on moral and environmental grounds, I would hate to think the end of spring hunting would immediately sound the death-knell to hunting itself, however desirable that eventuality would one day in the future be. It is because I believe in the democratic process of doing things that I say so. The guillotine does not make any sense when it comes to people’s traditions and customs and it is only through a long process of education that one can finally come to the stage where certain old and obsolete traditions and customs well and truly die a natural death.

Up-coming generations need to be educated, as they already are, into accepting that killing birds and animals (including foxes and bulls) just for the sake of the pleasure of killing them can no longer be taken for a credible pastime or an act of bravery. Living things are to be enjoyed and encouraged to proliferate as part of the natural process of regeneration and, yes, that includes the harsh reality of the survival of the fittest as nature has had it since pre-historic times.

With his intellectual advancement, Man has thankfully grown to appreciate that he does not need to hunt and threaten the very existence of other helpless species as a result of his great technological prowess. Hopefully he will one day, certainly not in our lifetime, get to refrain also from butchering livestock for his diets, but I know that is a long way off still for many of us who love and were nurtured on their well-done fillet and rib-eye steaks.

 

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Great going for Gozo

The news of the record foreign investment in the Barts medical school on Gozo has left many people breathless... and the Opposition leader seemingly gasping for air. Rather than expressing joy with the rest of us that Gozo is finally being given the attention it deserves as part of the whole Maltese archipelago, Simon Busuttil has chosen to, limply and unconvincingly, play at dampening spirits – in Gozo of all places.

One readily accepts that an Opposition’s role is to criticise, analyse and keep the government of the day on its toes, but this should not be done by chasing quixotic windmills on issues that require national unison, as with the case of the Barts agreement and the planned, much-needed upgrade of our health system, particularly in Gozo.

Gozitans deserve the attention they are being given by the Muscat government, not because in March 2013 they handed Labour a majority of votes for the first time since 1955, but because they have for far too long been kept to make do with economic left-overs. Not anymore, thank goodness, and the Barts and other investments show there is hope for a small island that had seen most of its young workforce either leaving for pastures new or staying put and whining about a lack of jobs.

Gozo is not a state within a state. It is a vibrant part of the Maltese tourism industry, as the Cottonera will hopefully become too, and should be allowed to grow gracefully without losing its unique environmental and cultural attributes.

It is not easy to prize it out of the huge, dark shadow of corruption and social helplessness that characterised the last few years of Nationalist rule, but the new investments and the new, optimistic approach being applied today will go a long way towards injecting the adrenalin needed at a time of pan-European uncertainty and stiff competition from other holiday hotspots in the region.

 

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A lions’ den

The proceedings in Court on the incredible network of personal and professional interests at EneMalta until the last general elections continue to fill the pages of our newspapers and the time on our radio and TV channels. Suspicious contacts and contracts, a regular supply of thank you gifts, contrasting interpretations of such events, power pawns and other details have made this episode with the people’s money a certain contender for the “faction” award.

The lesson to be learned, here and everywhere, is one – too much power, too much influence and too many vested interests will always provide these woeful stories which at the very end punish only the genuine tax-payer.

The world is full of them stories. For example, Coca-Cola has been recently courting controversy again after a new report found that the company pays fitness and nutrition experts to recommend  drinking its soda, believe it or not, as a healthy snack.

It has been revealed by Associated Press that several nutritionists and fitness experts suggested during American Heart Month last month that sipping on a mini can of Coke could be part of a healthy diet, and that Coca-Cola is working with health experts in an attempt to promote its sugary beverage – one that’s always been criticized for contributing to America’s and the rest of the world’s obesity problem.

And another − one of America’s most powerful opponents of climate change regulation, Senator Jim Inhofe, has also been receiving campaign money traced back to oil giant BP, including chief executive Bob Dudley. The Oklahoma Republican received $10,000 from the BP political action committee, according to a Guardian exclusive.

 

If EneMalta until a couple of years ago was “a lions’ den”, as claimed in our courts last week, then the world is a veritable jungle...