I have been watching TV 5 and following the fortunes of a certain Nicholas Sarkozy who did a wonderful job of getting Malta better known to the French public after his lightening visit here. He gives the impression of being Super Man, Speedy Gonzales and Spider-man all rolled into one. It must be the jogging that does it. You cannot help but like him. His warmth and his energy come rushing through the TV screen. Had I been in France I would not have voted. Ségolène did not convince me. Just too namby pamby so since I would never vote a conservative candidate I would have stayed at home. If I were in trouble I would like Sarko to be behind me and not La Royal. He comes across as meaning business. His choice of cabinet furthered endeared me to him. Imagine, 7 women as opposed to 8 men in his cabinet. Here, let it be known, that the Labour Party has in its Statute a rule for positive discrimination, and women always do well under Labour. Alright, I couldn’t resist adding that bit in.

At the Quai D’Orsay the children from the various liaisons came out – all five of them. The youngest, Louis, we already know about as he is the only one who came to Malta, from Sarko’s second marriage to Cécilia, a former model and wife to Jacques Martin of TV fame. The other four children, dressed in black and white, are from former marriages.

In spite of a moment of tenderness when he touched his wife’s face at the Quai d’Orsay, it is alleged that their seven year old marriage is in trouble. Paris Match published a photograph of Madame Sarkozy with events organizer Moroccan born Richard Attias in an unguarded moment. They were also spotted holidaying in Cannes and sightseeing in Manhattan and Paris. (I can hear the screech of brakes and see the dust clouds when Sarko got to know.)

She has expressed, before Sarko was elected president that she didn’t see herself as a First Lady. “That bores me. I’m not politically correct: I potter about in jeans, combats or cowboy boots,” she is reported to have said in the Daily Telegraph. But of course, all this could be just rumour and political spin. The two weights and two measures is a universal phenomenon. The French have always tolerated mistresses but a cuckolded President? It simply would never happen, no matter how many women he may have in his cabinet.

And onto the local scene. I don’t think the Nationalists will ever again be able to utter the word U turn after recent events. The EU and its directives has a hand in this and hence the sudden change of strategy.

The environment and an ecological park are also an escape route for the prime minister from the drudgery of everyday politics and Mater Dei. He is a hostage to bureaucractic inertia as could be seen from the shots we had on One TV of the reaction of Minister Censu Galea when he was at the ADT. (But of course you never look at the One News at 7.30pm, which is a pity.) But there is a huge gap between rhetoric and reality and too often this government is unaware of the limits imposed on it by reality. They don’t seem to think through the relationship between words and deeds. Their projected Garden of Earthly Delights is yet another expensive venture.

Life is neither Disneyland nor Peter Pan’s Never Never Land. The idea of a Nature and History Park is wonderful until you start to apply it in practice. Dr Gonzi’s gave us a bravura performance on site, looking relaxed and confident. But the most pertinent epithet which can be pinned to him and his cabinet is purely and simply ‘resilient.’ And of course they have good spinners and those who insist on calling themselves journalists but who do little else than do a PR job for government and others. I can’t understand why the Journalists’ Committee doesn’t complain about this sort of behaviour.

At my age there are few surprises left in life but nothing prepared me for last Sunday’s huge flyer, in technicolour, which came cascading out of every single newspaper that I bought. Stars of Bethlehem, daisies, snakes and crocuses stared me in the face, and then there were the beautiful orchids. And let me not forget to mention the ladybirds and butterflies. When did you last see a ladybird or a butterfly? Most have been destroyed by pesticides I am told so we’ll have to import some and leave them in captivity and let them get on with breeding for this virtual Park.

This mega project is to be done courtesy of the support – surprise surprise – of Nature Trust and Din l-Art Helwa. Maybe the Friends of the Globe will be recruited next to take part in this initiative.

But these sort of grandiose projects are losing their impetus with those of us who live with our feet firmly fixed in reality. Tra il dire e il fare…it is only today’s teeny boppers who may be able to take their children along to enjoy this virtual park, in some 40 years time. And they are the ones who will be paying for it through the nose (or is it teeth?) with ever higher taxes. If the park ever becomes a reality that is. I mean, we can barely manage to keep the national swimming pool clean and 3,000 trees from extinction. I am looking at the management plan of this national park which also includes; traffic management, health and safety precautions, management of swimming zones and beaches, heritage trails, ecological trails horse riding trails…I am perspiring profusely at the thought of the Authorities and Chairmen who will be paid belli liri to manage all this from their posh offices. As if. I shall sms the then prime minister from heaven if it becomes a reality, for that is where I shall be by then, always, if heaven there is.

But down to ordinary, boring, mundane reality. Sister Agnes Azzopardi writes: “The refugee women come to ask for nappies every day. It is useless to tell them that I cannot afford to buy them. They are too expensive. The money I have has to be used for gas which costs over Lm86 or more every month.”

Could you spare a couple of pounds each and send them to her at Good Shepherd Convent, Idmeja Street, Balzan.