Here are some of my hopes for the 2006 that has just started. First, that our men will start to appreciate their women a little more. Maltese men are very hot on their mothers, idealising them like every good Italian or Arab boy does, but are too often not sufficiently appreciative of a pretty unique group of women.

A 16th century writer on Malta commented that “the men are swarthy, the women beautiful.” In that respect, not a lot has changed. Our women do get more beautiful by the year, enhanced by the fantastic mix that occurs while we speak, while yet another young man falls in love with a high cheek-boned Slav beauty, or a Maltese girl for some lofty Swede or Arab with piercingly beautiful eyes. Our strength is in our mix: European and Arab, Maltese and English speaking, and all the other polarities that this island of polarities excels in…

Second, to give our children back their childhood. Just to read that one of the great findings of the Matsec review was to postpone the month of the exam to allow our kids more time to cram more never-to-be-used information made my stomach turn. What is the point of an education system that is based on repeating reams of information? What use is this for the rest of their lives? Is this the basis on which we are judging, branding and labelling our young ones as successes in the world of work and the adult world?

It is the job of politicians not to reflect the narrow-minded aspirations of Maltese parents, but to try, hard as it seems, to improve their vision, and to allow our children to play, to have a childhood, to love learning as so many have written and continue to write and say, but it all falls on deaf ears.

Third, that separating couples really will put their children first (hugely difficult though this is), even if their marriage-cum-relationship could not last for ever.

We also need to see an end to people putting down their partners in front of their children, to stop playing games with children’s minds, because we are bringing up some pretty screwed-up children who will surely imitate this nasty behaviour. Even if your partner is a prat and demeans you in front of your kids and doesn’t always pay the maintenance, as he or sometimes she should, take a deep breath and do better. What goes around does come around, so give your children a role model that will produce a more balanced child, not two role models in constant conflict.

Fourth, for all our political media to acknowledge some good in the other side.

Can it be that the reds are never right in their criticism? Can it be that the blues never get anything right? We are all, except the ignorant diehards who enjoy a scrap even at church festas, so sick and tired not of polarity and differences (vivre la difference), but this stubborn refusal to ever say anything good about others. This inability to praise or pay genuine compliments is a national malady anyway, but can our political media please try to give a more positive message than the lies, half-truths and twisted statistics we hear every day? Even the reduction in the electricity surcharge was presented in no less than three different ways on our main television stations...

Fifth, for us all to moan less and do more.

Less is more, and in the area of moaning we surely reign supreme. Our language is so rich in moaning terms, especially when it is mixed with a heavy dose of ghira, the second national pastime. Try and do something positive every day, instead of continually moping about what you don’t have or what someone else has.

Sixth, to look after our animals.

We don’t have the greatest of record in this area do we? And I think it is true that you can judge a nation by how it treats its animals. Our only moral code these days seems to be what we can buy. Looking after pets and nurturing them seems to be beyond many whose egotism in this area is appalling. Still, awareness of these problems in our society has started, which is a little something to be grateful for.

And last but not least, to stop and think before we speak.

We speak too much. We speak without thinking too much and devastate other people’s lives, hopes and aspirations with impunity. We are so very bad at putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes. Happily or apparently happily married couples give advice to those who are separating or separated which borders on the insane, knowing full well they would not appreciate this advice themselves. Generally, as a nation, we put our foot in it far too often, sometimes deliberately but often not. We have to talk continually about others. No gap or pause is permissible. Everyone’s reputation is decimated to the nth degree.

And sometimes, silence is OK too.

Then again, there is perhaps as much chance of any of the above happening as pigs flying.....

Happy New Year, anyway.