Of course, few people in the world today take the international media seriously anymore. It is why most of us now prefer to watch/follow an array of news-providers rather than just one station that seeks to give you the picture it feels best serves its own master. That way, one can liberally analyse and compare notes.

The Ukraine crisis has brutally brought this reality to the fore. The American networks, especially, have been playing about with facts and emotions as if the Ukraine is merely a chessboard on which to play their ideological games. The other big channels – Sky, the BBC, France 24hr and RT – have also been involved in this extremely worrying process of disinformation, sheer manipulation of facts and figures, and incredible bias.

I am amazed there has been only one newsgirl, ironically from Putin’s RT, who got fed up with the comedy act and decided to quit there and then on the spot, i.e. the studio. There really should have been an impromptu mass exodus of journalists from all of these supposedly independent news sources, given the number of times they have been caught – by those of us who can honestly take a neutral stance on the issue – cheating their viewers with false pictures, inflated figures and misleading statistics that do not tally with the real situation on the ground.

One is rightly inclined to state this is nothing new. We all know how the international media, particularly that of the West, treats other nations like the Palestinians, the Iranians, the Indians, the Chinese, the South Americans, now even the Scots because of the forthcoming independence referendum. Although it has been doing it since the epoch of powerful empires when it was always the “natives” who caused all the problems, not the invaders, today’s electronic gadgetry and instant satellite access make it all the more repulsive.

It is indeed an embarrassing time for the big media. The political straightjacket that it has had to don for the privilege of its continued existence has become so obvious it is almost laughable, if it were not so tragic. The examples that queue up for recognition from the Ukraine crisis are manifold. While the Russians, who already had a base in the Crimea before the current flare-up, have been reported as have invaded Ukraine, the Israelis are OK to continue, to this day, building new and illegal settlements on established Palestinian territory.

Sadly, only a handful of commentators, most of them from the smaller, much poorer news-gathering businesses, have tried to grapple with the Ukraine problem from the point of view of identity. And that is the main issue at stake here, something the EU, the US and, to a lesser degree, Russian perpetrators, stirring the Ukraine social and political pot for their own ends, prefer to ignore. To reach this conclusion, one does not need to be a pro-Russian or Putin fanatic. It is there for all to see. Ukraine has an identity crisis which needs to be solved, full-stop, and a federal state could possibly be the solution before it is too late and the neo-fascists who have taken over in Kiev are put back to where they belong – behind bars.

Amin Maalouf, renowned Lebanese-French writer and himself an immigrant, wrote in his brilliant book “On Identity” that the notion of identity – personal, religious, ethnic or national – is one that has given rise to heated passions and crimes throughout the history of mankind. What is it that makes each one of us unique and dissimilar to any other individual, has been one of the fundamental questions of philosophy from Socrates to Freud.

Away from the scaremongering, the Cold War jargon, WWIII, the news manipulation and the political rhetoric, identity is the real problem with Ukraine. That the media somehow fails to amplify this is tantamount to shameful behaviour and dereliction of duty.

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The President

It is good to know that the much applauded nomination of Marie Louise Coleiro Preca for President of the Republic is expected to receive unanimous approval at the House of Representatives. After all, when Prime Minister Joseph Muscat officially announced the nomination, he pointed out the fact that his government thinks it could offer a welcome moment of national unity.

The Nationalist Opposition under an increasingly unconvincing leadership, first sent out signals it was about to persist with its obsolete no-to-everything strategy, making lame noises about the consultation process they had always ignored when in power, but then quickly changed sails to go in the direction of what promises to be a united yes vote for Marie Louise.

Politics aside, it is now certain that Malta’s ninth President (if we are to ignore the highly influential and respectful role played by Paul Xuereb before he was idiotically left to stay on as Acting President for the then new Nationalist government to appoint a Nationalist stalwart to the Office) is going to have a vastly different role to that of her predecessors.

National unity is not merely a timely piece of parliamentary subtlety. It has to be reflected in all manners and at all times. There should be no doubt that Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, as she has already made clear on national TV, is not one for empty ceremonies, though she can hardly avoid the humdrum ones. A dynamic government such as we’ve so far seen from the Joseph Muscat administration, needs a dynamic President of the Republic, and MLCP, as the media has been lately referring to her, will not only be up to it but also an instigator, an avid searcher and minder for people’s emotions and people’s needs.

That will be true excellence.

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Learning from the ‘primitives’

Only a few days before the recent “celebration” of Commonwealth Day in faraway New Zealand, a most welcome lesson was delivered to British royalty and its local sycophants by the indigenous Maoris when their ceremonial king refused to accept to meet the no-less ceremonial Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The “primitives” argued that not enough time (90 minutes) was allotted for the meeting as elaborate Maori protocol dictates that important welcoming ceremonies can often last several hours. If you don’t like it, you can always lump it. One Maori leader went even further when he said Maori royalty is “not some carnival act to be rolled out at the beck and call of anyone”.

Of course the refusal has been criticised by New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key, who is white as white can be and who said that 90 minutes seemed “generous” given the British royal couple's busy schedule. Yeah, that’s right, the couple’s plans include jet boating and sailing as well as several rounds of meetings, events and memorials. Phew.

Perhaps they should change the word Commonwealth to Commonwaste.

***

There they go again

Hollywood is, happily, always producing films that ignite controversy, more so when it deals with religious themes and characters. The latest to bite the bullet is Russell Crowe’s epic $125-million film “Noah”, also starring Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Hopkins, which has just been banned in some Arab countries.

Fictitious though he might as well be, Noah, who in the Bible’s Book of Genesis is said to have built an ark that saved his family and many pairs of animals from a great flood, is revered by Judaism, Christianity and Islam. An entire chapter is dedicated to him in the Koran.

The problem is many Muslims object to the depiction of any messengers and so-called prophets of Mohammed in art, hence the instant ban. They leave no space for interpretation let alone, mamma mia, a hint of scepticism. So what if, as has been claimed, “the film contradicts the teachings of Islam”? People should feel free to either watch it or ignore it. But no, the hideous hands of the censor embedded in his mediaeval time warp have to be put into practice again.