Like the passionate football festival that we watched from London’s Upton Park last Tuesday night, as West Ham bid farewell to their beloved old Boleyn with a much-deserved win over Manchester United, politics can be such fun too.

So many odd things are happening everywhere and strange characters coming out of the woodwork everywhere in the world that you start asking yourself whether some superbug has got into the human psyche all of a sudden. The more preposterous statements Donald Trump makes, the more states he wins. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the little Turkish dictator obsessed with Ottoman grandeur, criticises Europe’s laws about migration while he wallows in EU-gifted billions of euro. The Poles, great Christians that they always insist they are, simply do not want to accept their fair share of the swelling mass of migrants and refugees. John Paul II must be turning wildly in his grave.

The Greeks simply do not know where all this will take them – another bail-out pretty soon? Germany’s Merkel first opened the floodgates, then watched helplessly as her own people turned against her and is now aware that two out of every three Germans want her out – for being kind, for being an example. Then there are the wall-builders, including the usually savvy, open-minded Austrians who have turned a border point with Italy into Checkpoint Charlie.

Italy’s Renzi has shown he means business on the immigration issue, only to be thwarted by fellow Italian politicians who’d rather fly the Lombardia flag in the face of helpless, defenceless people escaping from terror, hunger and death than offering shelter and integration. The Czechs and the Slovaks, God bless their steel-cold Central European souls, similarly seem to prefer staying away from giving a helping hand. The Hungarians, well, no one really understands the Hungarians...

Back to the US presidential race, a confident Hillary Clinton is seeing her overblown bubble getting smaller and smaller as Bernie Sanders, the most unlikely candidate who is not afraid to call himself a Democratic Socialist among socialism-allergic citizens, continues to show he is not out yet. In the Philippines, they have a new foul-mouthed president to stoke the fires that always rage there. In North Korea, the great leader has given himself another promotion – what next, push the southbound nuclear missile button?

The Queen of England too has not been very nice about the Chinese, but then, at 90 years old one is bound to commit some gaffes and still be considered sweet for doing so. Not so her Prime Minister, though. He has said some nasty things about the Nigerians and the Afghans. Did you ever wonder who gives these very nations more foreign aid than most?

The Chinese play their cards well. Rather than ordering their billion-plus people to jump at once to cause worldwide earthquakes as they hit the ground, they have chosen to re-introduce the mediaeval barter system where they get all the natural resources their economy quickly gobbles up while they take over everything else, from Berlusconi’s Milan to huge industries everywhere. Remember the many shops, even here in Malta in recent years displaying huge yellow signs to buy any gold articles they could lay their hands on? Well, we all know where most of that gold has gone.

And this “anything you can do I can do better” condition has quickly changed into “anything you can do I can do bitter” on the local front as the Panama Papers saga continues to unfold. One truly gets perplexed as to how complicated things have become for the average person as politicians, businessmen and born-rich guys exchange judgements on one another. In their reckoning, what seems to be good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander. We all have had work done in our homes, for example, and I cannot for the life of me understand how a contractor would let anyone avoid paying his bills for years, then suddenly gets everything settled when the chips are down. At home, the last time we had the kitchen sink repaired, our plumber not only got paid on the spot, but he also eagerly downed a lager we offered in the process.

There is this feeling of bitterness that makes one squirm, particularly when one realises how bigoted and incredibly obnoxious some of the local media have been in their willingness to take part in the same double standards game that is taking place.

While everyone talks about trust funds, bank accounts, investments, tax havens, unpaid bills, freebies and what have you, the rest of course have to do with almost-zero interest rates in banks that charge you even if they get to know you’ve just been to the toilet, lest you contaminate their electronic ledgers.

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Stop the TTIP

It feels good to see more and more people becoming aware of the dangers the so-called TTIP poses to people in general if Europe and the United States eventually, and unfortunately, agree to sign it. The massive protests that took place in Hannover the previous week even stole the thunder from Obama and Merkel’s meeting on the issue.

TTIP negotiation documents leaked by Greenpeace simply confirmed people’s biggest fears about TTIP – the trade pact undermines democracy and puts consumer and environmental protection on the line. People from Europe and the United States are understandably concerned and now stand together against corporate power grabs. The controversial trade deal between the EU and the US could badly affect public health, people’s rights, internet privacy and the environment, Greenpeace said, citing leaked negotiation texts.

It added: “This treaty is threatening to have far-reaching implications for the environment and the lives of more than 800 million citizens in the EU and US.” The US is pressuring the EU over the deal, a report on the texts alleges. The US exerting pressure on anybody? Never!

One can’t help wondering what our minuscule contingent of six MEPs at the European Parliament has to say about all this.

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Instant karma

I simply could not resist sharing this wonderful idea from India showing how the authorities have recently rolled out ingenious new “3D” zebra crossings, in the fond hope that the same karma could be of use here. We certainly need it at a time when traffic accidents, including tragedies, alas, seem to have become a daily occurrence.

The new “3D” zebra crossings are actually optical illusions that can trick reckless drivers, of which we have many, into slowing down at intersections, of which we have too many.

I much prefer them to roundabouts...