If we take time to watch from an objective distance, the main event of the past week was the fall of Kabul, the repeated fall of the city and of the country.

The free world had another 9/11 moment, American might was derided and portrayed as hollow. The confusion and mayhem at the airport and the futile deaths of those who clung to the tyres and fell to their deaths added to the 9/11 memories inscribed in the free world's collective memory.

The irony of it all is there was no justification at all for the Americans to be there at all. The US had helped get rid of the Russians, even arming Osama bin Laden in the process. But then 9/11 happened and President Bush and Tony Blair decided to retaliate and Afghanistan seemed a good enough target for regime change.

But years of fighting and thousands of deaths on all sides later did not manage to dislodge the Taliban from the countryside. When Biden pulled the plug, the Afghan army became inexistent and corruption had made it a blow-over.

The thousands who had worked with the Americans flocked to the airport and turned a retreat into a rout. Mothers lobbed their infants over the barbed wire and implored the departing Americans to take care of the babies.

A new wave of refugees was thus created and will keep pushing on the thousands of refugees from other wars, already knocking on Europe's doors. These Afghan refugees will be sort of privileged. This applies especially to girls who the Taliban banned from schools and to women in general especially those who have jobs outside the home.

In fact, if there is a very potent symbol that undermines the power of the Taliban, this is the free women of the world. The Taliban are rendered impotent by such women, which is why they react with beatings and killings.

Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to support the women and girls of Afghanistan but there is so much that can be done to spread education around the world and especially in underprivileged countries. And there is likewise so much to do to alleviate the situation of women in so many underprivileged countries of the world.

Entrapment stories

This week has also been note-worthy on the local scene for two developments in the ongoing Daphne saga.

When Judge Giovanni Grixti have himself a night of reflection before he decided on Yorgen Fenech 's plea for bail, he never imagined what the outcome would be.

Early the next morning the media was informed that many years ago Judge Grixti had bought a second-hand yacht from Yorgen Fenech's father.

Some argued this was taking matters to the extreme because the yacht had been purchased from Grixti's own savings but the damage was done - by mid-morning the judge had turned down Fenech's best bail bid.

Hard on its heels, came Joseph Muscat' first interview in years (at least since the Sweeney 'Artful Dodger' one on BBC).

This can be construed as Muscat doing a Mintoff on his successor - threatening to 'come back' if 'they continue to vex him'.

As many construed this, it is a not-so-veiled threat to Robert Abela not to proceed with any plan to let the wheels of justice do their work, if he had anything, that is.

This from the man who had been nominated as the most corrupt politician in the world, the man who lost his premiership on that long night at Castile and the man who had been booted out, like Ceasescu, by the angry crowds of protesters.

"I and my wife put you there - don't forget it " the message seemed to say. We have been speaking for a long time about the danger of the Opposition splitting up and now here is the government facing the same threat.

Maltese politics is fragmenting, it seems.

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