Saturday, 11th October 2008
Let us all roll
Waking up on a weekday is hardly ever much fun when you know that you're dragging yourself out of bed to head towards whichever coal-face it is at which you toil. I'm lucky, I rather enjoy the ways I earn a living, as do the rest of my family, so it's not such a terrible chore. There have been times in days gone by when the thought of going to work filled me with dread, but that feeling is no longer.
Generally speaking, then, I'm pretty cheerful of a morning, much to the disgust of 'Er Indoors and the S&H, who have many fine qualities, being morning persons, however, being conspicuous in absence.
So getting up feeling moderately depressed is something of an unusual sensation for me, putting, as it does, a damper on the day. The reason for this phenomenon is not anything over which I have any control at the moment, since it relates to the fact that I usually have BBC Radio 4 or 5 on through the computer.
The news at the moment, surprise surprise, consists in nothing but tales of woe from the financial world, doom, gloom, more doom and yet more gloom, and the weather report, for all its interest to us here, seems to be about to include warnings not only against pouring rain but also against bankers and financial wizards plummeting from the windows of their penthouse offices.
The Masters of the Universe, we keep hearing every which way from Sunday, have dropped the ball and made a pig's banquet out of the whole thing and they're all about to lose their Lambos and their Ferraris.
Frankly, I hope some of them lose more than that, preferably their freedom and their goods and chattels to boot. Along with them, one trusts, when the dust settles, the so-called regulators in London and New York should sharpen their swords and take a few judicious steps in the direction of the pointy bits thereof.
In the grey hours around dawn, after 30 minutes or so of listening to better brains than mine telling us all how bad it is, I can't imagine that we're going to be immune from the fall-out here.
With a bit of luck, us being part of Europe an' all, and what with us being not exactly enormous players in the esoteric world of financial whiz-kiddery (for which read skulduggery) we might get away with it, but if the world goes to hell in a hand-basket, financially speaking, we're going to get our credit crunched and liquid assets squeezed along with the rest of them. This has already given rise to expressions of opinion that are stupefying in the depth of their shallowness. Yes, I know that this sounds like an oxymoronic phrase of the first order, but look at some of the comments on Wednesday's timesofmalta.com, under the report of the government's announcement of deposit protection measures and you'll see what I mean.
And it's not only the Lil' Elves and their ilk that are getting all hot under the collar, either. From them, one has come to expect consistent failure to grasp the point and equally consistent tendencies to blame the government (specifically, the Nationalist government, like we've had any other for the last 20 years or so, minor blips excepted) for everything, from the price of oil to the colour of the sunset.
They've had leadership in this, after all, so it's hardly their fault if they imitate Dr Pavlov's pooches all the time. Consider, for instance, Anġlu Farrugia, at the time Acting Leader of the Opposition, no less, deeming it appropriate to ask if Minister Tonio Fenech's statement (about the enhanced deposit protection measure) was a screen for other problems the government was having. The elephant rider went on to ask: "Would this be used as a reason for the government not to keep its electoral promises in the budget?"
Yes, of course, that's it: the world's financial woes had been cooked up by Tonio Fenech and his side-kicks in order to get Lawrence Gonzi out of the hole into which he'd planted himself before the elections. No matter that brains even larger than Alfred Sant's multiplied by Dr Farrugia's (mathematicians can work out for themselves if I'm being facetious) didn't see this one coming a couple of months ago, much less before March. Nope, this is just an excuse.
Contrast Dr Farrugia's paucity of argument with the remarks made by Charles Mangion and you'll see what I mean about the Lil' Elves having learnt their trade from a master of the art.
While I can still afford it, I'll carry on researching places of interest where you, assuming you can still afford it, can have a nosh. We went to a place in Xagħra, the Xagħra Lodge, which has acceptable Chinese food and a host who is welcoming and interesting almost to a fault and, on Saturday, we revisited D Bar, in Qala, and I'm very happy to report that the steaks are still most excellent, thank you very much.
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