Malta; Hakuna Matata idyll, or shady place where the smug get away with political murder?

With her untimely murder death in a gruesome car bombing in October this year, Maltese blogger and journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia one more time catapulted Malta into an even greater spotlight than she had done in life. And more than anything, Daphne's work focussed attention on the huge underbelly of corruption, cronyism, and criminality, all, unsavoury factors which underpin Malta's so called economic progress. And in the shrill world of Maltese politics, Daphne Caruana being a Maltese who was politically aware as far back as her teenage years, often found herself at odds with a Mediterranean culture that's traditionally been known to wink and nod at Mafiosi-like hijinks whilst blithely characterizing such unethically sinister goings on as being just part of the culture. And indeed so steeped is Malta in its favourite pastime of being a haven for dubious foreign money, that although Daphne's exposure of corruption at the highest level of the prime minister and his wife may have led to a snap election being called in June this year, ultimately, many Maltese chose to look the other way and returned to office a man who at the very least is tainted with enough conflicts of interest to make his moral legitimacy at the helm of Malta's politics tenuous at best. And even as the brazen nature of Daphne's murder prompted a veteran Italian judge who's prosecuted numerous Mafia cases to observe that Daphne's death bore all the hallmarks of a Mafia style killing, prime minister Muscat carried on with his prime ministering seemingly unperturbed by European Union concerns of a clear threat to the observance of the rule of law in Malta. And given that Malta's judiciary is fast earning itself a not altogether undeserved reputation of being unwilling to go after the corruption of the truly powerful, it is highly unlikely that the investigation into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia will ever surmount or go beyond the forensic and properly foray down a paper trail that could lead not just to the triggermen, but straight to those who masterminded Daphne Caruana's death.

He who has an ugly disease shuns the doctor - Chinese proverb.

And just to be clear, when two megachurch megalarge preachers carry on an illicit affair in full public view without a care in the world for who knows about it, that is not the moral equivalent of two average Joes knocking boots in some back alleyway somewhere, it is in fact a show of utter contempt for the God whom such wayward preachers pretend to know and serve. And it's interesting how that the paper which carried this story of a torrid love tryst between two big preachers wasn't sued by the accused parties. And certainly one would expect at the very least that any preachers who'd been accused of sexual misconduct, especially by a tabloid rag, would respond to such charges of sleaze with sufficient indignation if not with a raft of legal counter measures. But then again, knowing the inherent legal dangers attendant to publishing falsehoods, and knowing how litigious society in general has become these days, I'd hazard to say that even tabloids are rather careful about what they publish these days and are well aware that sometimes the truth, especially when it just so happens to be stranger than fiction, can sell far better than any amount of lies ever could. And in their total disregard for core biblical teachings, it's obvious that the doctor whom these rebellious preachers and their dewy-eyed simpleton congregants are so wilfully shunning, is indeed the very same Great Physician whom they purport to love and obey.

Words spoken in 1981 by an intelligent man who foresaw a bad moon rising.

- I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between fundamentalists and the political right.The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.

Billy Graham.

Trump talks code at event honouring code talkers.

Now, it's no secret that Donald Trump thinks that Elizabeth Warren has got a nasty mouth on her, which in itself is probably code for,"Wahala wahala! Elizabeth Warren refuses to suck my dick!" But that aside, a ceremony held to honour men whose contributions helped to turn the tide of the second world war can hardly be considered to be the appropriate forum for a gripester to bring up old gripes against his political foes. And since for Donald Trump every day is a good day to dog whistle at racists, then it was only fitting that a ceremony held to honour native Americans should be conducted under the watchful portrait of known persecutor of native Americans, Andrew Jackson. And that seeming deliberate faux pas and tactless breach in the protocols that govern human decency, was itself code for reassuring his base that whilst his duties as president bound him to recognize the contributions of native Americans to the nation called America, still, in a personal capacity and not as president of America, he, Donald J Trump, hadn't quite forgotten to bring along to a ceremony honouring native Americans the racist spirit of his very own personal hero and man whom he wishes to model himself (and his presidency) after. And since Donald Trump is absolutely certain that Elizabeth Warren is not part native American, the same way he's certain that Barack Obama is not part white due to the fact that Mr Obama doesn't sport a flowing mane of blonde hair, Donald Trump made sure to send out one of his agreeably pliable concubines and woman who doesn't have a nasty mouth anywhere on her, Huckabee Sanders, with an all important message of the hour, declaring that Elizabeth Warren has never missed a chance to dip into the numerous advantages which have historically accrued to native women living in a white man's world. And because Donald Trump learnt his history from the same place he learns everything else, from watching Fox News, he was quick to point out that in spite of the fact that he himself is years and years younger than Elizabeth Warren and is indeed a spring chicken compared to her really, still, he had heard reliably through the historically accurate Fox News grapevine, that Elizabeth Warren had been around since the days of Pocahontas and that Elizabeth was even present at Pocahontas's bedside when Pocahontas died at the ripe old age of twenty something. Needless to say, and although his hillbilly joke comparing Elizabeth Warren to Pocahontas had been so well received on the campaign trail amongst the heehawing masses, sadly, at this discerning forum held to recognize the contributions of native Americans to a nation called America, the same joke was received with an evident lack of enthusiasm. And finally, Donald Trump closed off this auspicious ceremony held to honour war veterans by showing to the room at large the doctor's note that had excused him from fighting in Iwo Jima, ostensibly due to a particularly bad case of the bone spurs.

The perfect storm; slavery in Libya.

Recently, there's been much furore over the unfortunate discovery that modern day slave auctions are being conducted not just in Libya's hinterland but also in Libya's urban centres. And even as Libyan ambassadors stationed in various African cities were being summoned by their hosts and subjected to verbal upbraiding of the kind that supposedly befits their nation's dastardly crime of slavery, and even as the African Union awoke from its perennial forty winks hibernation just in time for its brass to issue their belated but full throated protestations of outrage, and even as demonstrators in various European capitals massed in front of Libya's embassies and demanded a tarring and a feathering of Libya's slave dealers, Libya's weak government had only one question for the outraged and the affronted - where is the world in all this? And in point of fact, those who are so loudly demanding that Libya's government come down like a ton of bricks on any and all slave dealers who are to be found within Libya's borders, really ought to know that whilst they've been asleep and pretending that Libya wasn't actually in crisis, there are now finally fully three known governments within Libya's borders. Further, Libya's internationally backed government is itself struggling to restore the most basic of services such as water and electricity to its own citizens, and the GNA have repeatedly informed the international community that they lack the logistical capacity to deal with the constant stream of immigrants who pass through Libya's territory on any given day. And as for those African leaders for whom blame shifting and self aggrandisement is their ultimate raison d'être, and, who are now affecting to be so thoroughly traumatized at the misfortune that has befallen their African brethren who've been taken captive by rapacious Libyan warlords, well, aren't those the very same leaders who've failed rather dismally in the provision of economic security to those of their citizens who wind up feeling like they have little choice but to undertake the hazardous journey through Libya's deserts in vain attempt to get to Europe's eldorado of plenty? And the international community have been just as neglectful of Libya as the AU, what with their pseudo-solutions in dealing with Libya's problems seeing the kind of callousness that's been deployed by Italian authorities who've employed militia muscle to make sure that Libya's refugee problem stays dammed up within Libya's borders. And the contentious issue at hand is not simply one of the international community failing Libya, but worse, they have failed Libya in a season of that country's direst and most urgent need.

Som'n ain't right with that Trump boy, seriously.

I don't know how many times Ivana Trump must've dropped Donald Trump Junior on his head when he was a child, but in the interests of laying all such public speculation to rest, and with a view to deterring any other right-wing bounders out there who've still got their trousers bunched up in the crack of their butts like the Neanderthals that they are, and to enlighten Donald Trump Junior who for the life of him can't seem to be able to tell the difference between two black women, wouldn't know a stripper if the president of the United States supped with one everyday, and seems to have absolutely no idea what bedazzling actually means, well, here's a visual aid that even Junior's cat would be able to understand. Starting left and moving anticlockwise; Frederica Wilson; mentor, motivator, change maker, and career educationist. Next;a stripper, whom Junior may or may not recognise from somewhere, posing in the nude, quite naturally. And finally; Junior's dumbass tweet confusing a decked out but dauntless Frederica Wilson for a fiesty Maxine Waters and not Watters (sic).

Whether good man serving evil man or bad man serving evil man; asked, and not answered, General.

Recently, Miss Huckabee Sanders got a bit cross with a reporter who seemed to be labouring under the illusion that a mere reporter has got any right to question anything that a four star General says. Now, it matters precious little whether General Kelly is a good man who's inadvertently serving an evil man or a bad man who's knowingly serving an evil man, all that matters is the capacity in which General Kelly has now undertaken to serve America, and that's in a purely civilian capacity. For as White House Chief of Staff these days, it's become the General's sworn duty to articulate a civilian president's point of view, and in that civilian capacity, the General is perfectly at liberty to take a swipe at a Congresswoman and to label her as a loud empty gong, free to embellish facts and to impugn the character of that very same Congresswoman by accusing her of seeking unecessary kudos when she spoke at the dedication of an FBI building, and free to continue standing by his alternative facts even when video evidence shows clearly that the Congresswoman said none of the things which the General accuses her of having said. However, now more than ever before, it's urgently incumbent upon the likes of Huckabee Sanders, champion dispenser of quaint Southisms don't you know, to remember at all times that the press are not now and should never be General Kelly's cowering cadets. And just so long as he continues in his current docket of plodding through America's civilian affairs, General Kelly, or more precisely John Kelly, shall to his ease or to his chagrin continue to find that he is fully expected to field questions from uppity members of the press corps or from anyone else who raises questions that require answering for that matter.

Transition, Zimbabwe style; the games, the vultures, and the gawdawful antics that are performed in the name of hardworking public service.

Who, you might ask, would ever think that it's a good idea to make Robert Mugabe a goodwill ambassador for anything, anything at all? The answer, WHO, that's who, although I hasten to add that down at WHO they've already re-thought that woeful decision in a hurry. And say, how catastrophic would it be for the World Health Organisation to fête the man who has almost single handedly presided over the collapse of an entire country let alone its health care system, and, with an ambassadorial role that best befits a responsible statesman no less? Zimbabweans have suffered Robert Mugabe long, several decades in fact, and in that time they have had opportunity to watch as a once promising nation dwindled in its economic and social fortunes. A culture of wanton cronyism, hereditable entitlement, and political thuggery, has all but silenced any legitimate political dissent within Zimbabwe even whilst impoverishing the people of Zimbabwe, so much so, that many Zimbabweans have fled abroad just in order to escape the daily vagaries of eking out an inadequate hand to mouth living. And just when Zimbabweans thought that their long walk to freedom was looking like it might have a happy ending after all, what with the nonagenarian Mugabe now living out what must surely be his twilight years, well, here comes Grace Mugabe. And in keeping with the time honoured tradition of Africa's big men rewarding their eager groupies with perks and more perks, Grace Mugabe is not just a first lady, no, Grace Mugabe aspires to the highest political office in the land, which is to say the very same Grace Mugabe whose taste for the finer things in life is only contrastable to the poverty of the average Zimbabwean. And while the average rural Zimbabwean is forced to make do with less than a dollar a day, Grace Mugabe's idea of the perfect wedding anniversary gift is a 100 carat diamond ring, you'll recall of course that a while back Sotheby's auctioned off a similar ring at a cool US $22 million. But I suppose that if you're Mugabe's wife there's nothing wrong with squeezing Mugabe, is that squeezing the taxpayer, out of an expensive diamond ring when you've already squeezed out of him luxury mansions in various foreign capitals and a rolls royce to boot. And make no mistake about it, Grace Mugabe believes in being visible at all times, even when such public visibility includes physically assaulting a young Johannesburg woman whom she recently found cavorting with her dullard spendthrift sons. And now that Grace Mugabe is firmly in the driving seat of the Women's wing of ZANU-PF, it seems that her path to the throne is getting clearer by the day, and if ever Mrs Mugabe should manage to tear herself away from her luxurious shopping trips and her illicit love affairs just long enough to rally the dark forces that have so ably propped up her husband's regime all these years, particularly with a view to convincing such dark forces that she's the best chance for them to continue with their pillaging of Zimbabwe's diamonds and stuff, well then I'm afraid that chances are exceedingly good that Zimbabweans will soon trade in one horrid Mugabe for another equally horrid Mugabe.

Distinction without a difference; methinks the General doth protest too much.

When General Kelly recently told Americans that Donald Trump's tweets do not get in the way of him doing his job as much vaunted White House Chief of Staff, the only thought that crossed sane minds was, well, the General must not have read too many of Mr Trump's tweets, coz if he had, no way he'd be so blasé about a single one of Mr Trump's infamous verbal disptaches. And to"clarify" any inherent logical confusion in his disavowal of reality whilst also simultaneously debauching further from virtue, the General went on to state that he hadn't been brought into the White House to stem the unquenchable tide (tirade) of tweets emanating from the Oval Office, but rather that he'd been brought into the White House to minimise on systemic entropy by controlling the flow of information that's made available to the president, ostensibly so that the president could do an effective job. And so on the one hand, General Kelly seemed to be saying that Donald Trump's tweets were the kind of innocuous literature that should be liberally availed to first graders, and on the other hand, the General seemed to be tacitly admitting that a huge part of his job includes sifting through information that's destined for the president's desk with a view to shooing away such individuals as might be tempted to bend the president's ear for evil, perhaps because the president cannot be trusted to be left to his own devices especially when it comes to the hourly execution of simple tasks that have been performed before by other American presidents and with a minimum of daily drama.