As is the case in any relationship, amorous or political, there is always the dominant partner with his or her submissive partner. A British man charged by US authorities over the alleged hacking of government computer systems, including the US Army and Nasa networks, was arrested by his own government’s National Crime Agency and is now on bail awaiting trial.

Poodle Britain, of course, never says no to dominant partner USA. Some people may believe this is only fair since the man – with the ironically peaceful name of Lauri Love – is believed to have “stolen” information about military service members and other US government employees with the purpose of “disrupting the operations and infrastructure” of the US federal government and causing the resultant loss of millions of dollars.

Does anyone, however, think the American authorities would have reacted as docilely and done the same had the opposite occurred, i.e. had it been a US citizen facing similar charges from faraway Britain? Not very likely, as we have seen in the past when, for example, the Italians wanted to put on trial the pilot of a US warplane who had caused a terrible mid-air cablecar tragedy. Now we also know that it was probably a US missile gone haywire that caused the Ustica air disaster. But the Brits, and the Italians themselves it seems, cannot do anything other than accept their submissive poodle status.

In the meantime, during the past few days it has been revealed that even the Pope has been spied on by the US National Security Agency. Well-documented media reports said the US secret services monitored the telephone calls of Pope Benedict XVI as well as those of his successor, Francis I, and that NSA staff listened in on cardinals before the conclave to elect the Pope in March this year. The Vatican conversations were among an incredible 46 million phone calls intercepted by the NSA in Italy between December 2012 and January 2013.

There should be no doubt this is not the first time the Vatican has been spied on as a way of safeguarding American interests and American agendas. It is probably how the cardinals, and not the Holy Spirit, eventually gave Ronald Reagan’s administration the Polish Pope it so conveniently needed during the Solidarnosc episode in Poland!

Taking for granted the fact that the European government leaders illegally surveilled by the Americans are seriously offended by it all, should they – on a tit-for-tat basis – issue personal charges against the NSA perpetrators? It would be fun to watch the NSA director, another one with a very ironic name in the circumstances – John C. Inglis, being driven to court to face the justified wrath of top European lawyers rather than being left free to monkey around with hilariously funny displays of denial.

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God’s gift to Maltese broadcasting?

The amount of exposure given by a predictable section of the media to his post-election escapades gives one the impression that Norman Vella is – or at any rate was – God’s gift to Maltese broadcasting. But this is far from the truth.

It is not that Vella has set alight the Maltese broadcasting scene since he was bundled onto a rolling Xarabank bandwagon. The programme was certainly doing OK before his advent. I am sure there were many better current affairs presenters who were denied access to national broadcasting simply because they did not have the political patronage and the in-house privileges he enjoyed during his PBS sojourn. Today’s programme schedule confirms all that.

One might dare say that even his trainer, Peppi Azzopardi, cannot be described as a shining example for presenter wannabes. But Peppi had other things, such as recognised talents, in his favour – innovation, a creative mind, a determination to succeed against all odds (Xarabank was started during the 1996/98 Alfred Sant administration and both the programme and the presenter/producer were instantly subjected to a concentrated attack from that same predictable section of the local media) and a keen journalistic nose with a predilection for populist themes.

In contrast, Norman Vella quickly burned his bridges, particularly during the election campaign of just a few months ago when other presenters all across the PBS schedule rightly chose to go into more or less neutral mode.

It is unfortunate that, while Vella burned his bridges, the Police have since burned their fingers and turned the whole case into an unnecessarily ugly saga.

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Pand and present

Near the end of this month, it will have been 47 years since Raymond Mahoney and I walked, in heavy rain, all the way from the Valletta bus terminus to the Union Press editorial offices in South Street for the first working day of our lives. Ray soon left journalism for the more sober banking sector, but I somehow ploughed on through various media posts until it all came to an abrupt end at PBS. Hello again, Norman, I know how it feels.

During these three decades plus, I have worked with several colleagues who have now sadly passed away, among them Alfred Vassallo, Alfred Anastasi, Frederick Muscat, John A. Mizzi, Lino Cachia, Frank Ghio, Karmenu Farrugia, Reggie Portelli and Albert O’Neill, and under and with editors and mentors such as Lino Spiteri, Anton Cassar, Paul Carachi, Frans Camilleri, Charles Mizzi, Karmenu Micallef, Joe Vella, Tony Montanaro, Charles Arrigo, Charles Abela Mizzi, Roland Flamini and many others within our restricted community of journalists and broadcasters.

Only last Friday, it was already a year since Lino Cassar, another colleague and mentor, passed away – much to the genuine grief of many people. Lino had a gift for making the strongest of declarations, often in very colourful terms, about people and events while still sounding affable and warm. That is no easy task in the perennial Maltese political climate that permeates our journalism of the Left, Right and Centre. He did it and made it look so simple, and people loved him for it.

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Give Holmes a break

It was sad to see the Appeals Court confirming the 10-year prison sentence given to Daniel Holmes on cannabis cultivation charges. The case against him started in 2006 and, on advice from his legal counsel, he pleaded guilty in 2011.

The prosecution had called for eight years’ imprisonment, but the Court astonishingly went for 10 years plus a hefty fine of €23,000. One appreciates the need for tough measures against drug dealers, but those who cultivate cannabis for their own personal use must be treated differently in a world that is increasingly becoming aware of the distinction.

Rightly or wrongly sentenced, I think the man deserves a break. He has hardly had the chance to enjoy his daughter, Rainbow, who was born while he was out on bail. Justice is not merely a question of meting out punishment, but also an opportunity for convicted people to reform and return to society as better citizens.