Regardless of the number of signatures and snus the Nationalist ex-Sliema deputy mayor Silvio Zammit manages to obtain for his petition in the hope of making the authorities reconsider their ban on circus animals, I am sure there will be as many people ready and willing to sign another petition to make sure the official no remains a big no.

This petition business is fast turning into a boring exercise by people who think that life on earth and democracy are both a question of majorities and minorities. I would still be pro-divorce if the referendum had not resulted in a massive ‘yes’ vote, for it is absolutely true that some issues, especially where rights and social justice are concerned, should not be subject to a process of sheer, downright electioneering.

Animals have rights, too, and they need us to make sure they are protected. Training them to do unnatural things for the amusement of “the masses” is cruelty at very best, even if it is done by the subtle use of carrots and sweet little nothings, let alone the whip and enforced deprivation. Keeping them in confined places, shuttling them around from one city to another or shipping them from one country to another is a sure way of causing them mental and physical harm.

Yes, children love watching them. They love clowns too. But while the latter do their thing of their own free will, animals have no such choice. The same goes for zoos that have still not adopted the idea of open spaces with an environment that is as close as possible to the real thing for their animals and where people can actually enjoy them from a distance.

A lot of people sign petitions out of instant pressure or after being fed quick doses of well-selected information. I give another recent example. During the book festival last November, I was asked whether I was against spring hunting. I quickly said yes. Ooops, I then had this copybook quickly pushed up to my face to sign, which I did. Another one for the birdy boys! But then, while I am against spring hunting, I do not for a single moment believe it should be banned on the basis of how many signatures have been collected.

It is, of course, an educational process, not a guillotine that the system uses to decapitate a traditional pastime. That is how the rest of Europe has been dealing with its hunters and I don’t know why ours should be treated any differently. In any case, if you are in the seat of power, which petition do you give credit to: the anti-spring hunting one or the hunters’ own, insisting on their European rights? Both certainly have the ability to collect thousands of signatures.

The answer is that you try to do the right thing and then defend it on the political stage. That is how things are done in a democratic country where, as always, it is impossible to have unanimity on anything, thank goodness.11

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Animals and anecdotes

Talking of animals, an old friend of mine in journalism and fellow driver on other better-not-named avenues, Tony Barbaro Sant, and I have just had this little book of anecdotes published – a good percentage of the royalties from which we have pledged to the animal welfare cause.

Jinzlulek Ghasel (freely translated as A taste of honey) is a collection of amusing anecdotes by well over 100 personalities from all walks of life: from politicians and members of the clergy to journalists, broadcasters, writers, poets and actors. It will not claim any literary prize, but it is a book that should go down well with people who enjoy a good read before they go to bed or those with the funny habit of carrying a book into the bathroom. Honey always helps with the process!

Joking apart, our problem has been deciding what to do exactly with the amount earmarked for the animal welfare cause. There are so many sanctuaries and other voluntary groups doing sterling work, giving shelter to cats and dogs, offering homes to the poor animals and, of course, feeding them and quenching their thirst. Sadly, we have been told there are “typically Maltese rivalries” occurring in their midst, which automatically puts one in quandary. It did pose a dilemma for us and the publisher, who is happily matching our donation.

In the end we decided on Island Sanctuary for dogs, and Tomasino for cats, both of us determined that, should there be a second volume, other no less deserving organisations will benefit. Tony’s pet, Leila, is a dog; mine is a cat, Pippin, so that makes quite a compromise.

I will not abuse the editor’s patience with more on this one…

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What’s so shocking about love?

Many people were rightly surprised – to avoid using a cruder term – by Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna’s claim that Pope Francis was “shocked” when told that Malta is contemplating giving gay couples who pass a vigorous assessment process the right to adopt. There is absolutely nothing shocking in people of whichever sexual inclination genuinely wanting to offer love, hope and security to an unfortunate child probably coming from a disadvantaged environment.

Pope Francis has won the hearts and minds of thousands of people all over the world, believers or not. His frank and humble attitude to previously taboo subjects has given the Catholic Church a new lease of life and long may it continue. But will the dominating right-inclined within that same Church let him? There is, undoubtedly, already a growing inside movement to stop the steady shift to a gentle, more liberal Church that is at peace both with itself and with those who, for some reason or other, do not feel the need to belong to it.

Scicluna’s revelation (or was it a gaffe?) has already done the global rounds and been eagerly taken up by the international media. It is not exactly what this Pope stands for, given his recent public pronouncements.

Love can be interpreted in manifold ways. Church or State cannot dictate its form or appearance. As long as it’s true love – I know, I know, I’m sounding like a corny Bing Crosby song – there should be no objection to giving the less fortunate the chance to be adopted and given a life of happiness, where they feel classless and free. OK, now I’m John Lennon…

Either here or at the Vatican, it looks as if someone has made a Freudian slip.

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The last bottles

While we finish off the last bottles of the hard stuff to celebrate the New Year, spare a thought for the world’s 21st-century heroes: Julian Assange, under Western siege inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Chelsea Manning, rotting in a US jail for revealing the truth about America’s military and diplomatic deceit, Edward Snowden, the former NSA employee, who is in exile in Russia after having informed the world of America’s obsessive global surveillance and several others with perhaps a lesser public profile.

Now that is shocking.