We are as visual a generation as perhaps earlier generations, that did not have to deal with reams and reams of written words. We have an over-abundance of information via the net and newspapers, journals, etcetera, and yet visual is what hits you most of all. Those newspapers, television stations and others that combine visuals and written never ask their readers how the visual impressed them, but you can be sure that in the reams and reams written about the CHOGM, most responded to the visual, and the visuals far more than the written.
The best visual image of CHOGM was undoubtedly Kate Gonzi, looking fantastic, actually. A beautiful woman who outshone all the others (men and women) present for the event. I mean, when you think of the Budget, and I use the capital deliberately, that goes into the Queen’s clothes (and, yes, she does look great for her age), Kate Gonzi, with a tiny budget, and, knowing her, very little help from outsiders and advisers, managed to totally outshine them all, including Cherie Blair, who is known to spend a fortune on her image and all the rest...
Kate Gonzi looked beautiful inside and out. Her smile radiates something that could help her husband win the next election, even though the Nationalists in general are not particularly liked right now, to put it nicely. It’s more a case of mid-term purple than mid-term blues at the moment. But, certainly, when you watch Kate happily smiling, radiating warmth, looking impeccable but not stiff, just warm, human and beautiful, it does stop you in your tracks.
The next best visual image was the fortifications of Malta. They just looked amazing when the HMS Illustrious came in, when the Queen and HRH went down to Cottonera. They just add a sense of beauty that almost looks better on film than they do in real life. A photogenic PM’s wife and photogenic bastions!
The next best image was the screaming with joy faces of our children while they waited to see the Queen, and after they had done so. Apparently, the noise they made was something else too. But their faces radiated anticipation, pleasure and sheer unadulterated joy, something you see so rarely on the faces of a people of a country like ours who have stopped knowing how life is there to be enjoyed in its daily moments. It is as much about the warmth you can feel from a good conversation, or from good friendship, as it is about the latest deal that allowed you to get the softest leather sofa, the latest petrol-guzzling showpiece, or helped you produce a whole generation of young Maltese girls who increasingly look at men as pay cheques and little else.
Love – love of the moment, love of each other and just loving whatever you are doing – really does make you look good and bring people onto your side. Kate Gonzi looked as if this was the thing she most loved doing in the whole wide world, while I’m sure in reality she would rather be quietly home with hubby, enjoying a peaceful weekend together without having to break into a smile as every a member of the public greets or approaches her. This is something all politicians, and some of their very unfriendly wives, should never forget. Their image matters more by the day, so when someone like Tony Blair looks confident and loving the challenge, he looks unbeatable. The minute he lets his harassers and detractors make him look worried and grumpy, he looks like a loser.
I was invited to a lunch with the wives of the heads of state. At my table were two star performers, both in terms of how they looked and how they behaved. It seems that those who bother with their image, bother with much more as well. The wife of the PM of Mauritius was grace, sweetness and intelligence personified, socially skilled, an aspiring writer and obviously a great boost to her husband, who has just won an election. And the wife of our Roads and Urban Development Minister, Karen Mugliett, brightened up the whole table intelligently and warmly, trying to bring everyone into her cocoon. Another first lady in the making.
Behind every great man there certainly is a bright, in every sense... woman.