“Listen, Peaches, trickery is what humans are all about," said the voice of Maurice. "They're so keen on tricking one another all the time that they elect governments to do it for them." Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.

Last week I was 'je suis charlie'.

This week I will be a hungry, dishevelled, and unemployed Greek hasbeen who wants to stay in the Eurozone.

Next week I will be a Podemos activist with the' Podemos' in my heart, but in a good, moderate way, not in the hate-whoever-made-it-or-has-it way.

Right now, however, I will be myself.

This week a strange thing happened in the country.

From the way events unfolded during the last seven days, it transpires that the political leaders of our two main political parties found common ground, claimed it and camped on it.

They both want spring hunting to stay, notwithstanding the fact that they both know that it is not good for the  heroic birds, the best of the species, that make it through the hundreds of kilometres trip to reach our shores during that particular time of the year, not  good for the country's image, not good for the hunters themselves because they will be selectively harassed  mercilessly anyway, and certainly not good for the rest of the population who wish to enjoy the countryside and the spectacle of migrating birds in peace and serenity.

And yet, our political leaders, being excellent politicians, will stick together lovingly on this, turning out to be our own Maltese version of Romeo and Juliet, probably not because they love hunters or because they believe in spring hunting but because they both believe two (or more) wrongs will make it right, and that retaining power or grabbing it is more important than stating what is obviously right.

This genre of power hungry politicians who thrive on rhetoric tell people what they want to hear, promise the world and finally walk out leaving a mess for the people to handle, is not rare. It has become the norm in many of our immediate surrounding countries, particularly in the Mediterranean, and in the European Union.

The financial disaster that has been plaguing Greece  for years did not happen in a day. It was probably a disaster in the making prior to its joining the Eurozone and compounded by the successive Greek governments that reigned. The EU and International watchdog that has now fallen on the Greek population like a ton of bricks, was all but silent when its most powerful member countries were guzzling down and being overpaid for Greek projects part (but not wholly) financed by the EU itself. Government and administrative excesses continued, and were grossly overlooked, until most of the population was bled dry, and Greece was almost literally dubbed 'dispensable' by the same EU captains that were trusted to steer the Eurozone en bloc to port.

Spain and Portugal already had a taste of the same fate, while Italy is constantly flirting with the same scenario.

The truth is that if we take a realistic glimpse into Europe's political scenario, hardly any governments govern by what is right. Successive leaders of mainstream European political parties, so popular in the last 25 years, have promised and failed to deliver time and time again, simply because they have failed to keep up with the impact their own policies have made on their general populations. From European Commission to National governments, downwards, a top to bottom approach to problem solving has resulted in little effect or none at all on the needy families  at the bottom of the  social pyramid, the resuscitation of the livelihood of whom would revive Europe.

Any aid or funds from the top has been constrained to pass through a corrupt, power hungry sieve, that got blocked somewhere down the line.

Our country is but a little ongoing example. In the hands of our capable and honest finance minister, our economy is getting better and better, and Malta can boast of more revenue. Only this week we were informed that not less than 400 million euros will land into government coffers through the IIP scheme, yet our poor population is increasing (we are also having a 'victory/soup kitchen now'), our pensioners are still struggling and thousands subsist on very low paid precarious jobs, while our national debt is increasing too.

Our finance minister is doing a great job, we are all paying up, but what is the government doing with our money, if our neighbours are becoming poorer?

I have deviated to all this in the context that I believe that leaders should do what is right, and not what is popular with most, or what will secure power in the short term.

The biggest enemy that  our Europe has to cope with is not the inundation with immigrants, but the fact that its power hungry, morally corrupt leaders are turning the inhabitants of this amazing continent into enemies of the establishment that is the EU and its national Governments, pushing our youth and future into the hands of extremists of all political/ religious ideologies.

If the situation in Europe is not corrected soon by adequate leaders who have the guts to make the right decisions at the right time, Europe will be the hand that feeds its own destruction.