Ever since I could use the few brain cells I was given, I have realised that, try as we do, we humans are never objective. Some might be better at it than others, but I think that, just as death and taxes are certainties in life, being subjected to remaining subjective is our human lot.

Preamble over I declare noncommittally that I am never very objective. Being a commentator of sorts makes me less willing to be blandly objective—I strive to be opinionated otherwise my readers will find me a tad more boring than I truly am.

I’ve tried—promise I have—to see all appointments and moves by Joseph and his clan as objectively as possible. I have even been ready to put them all down to inexperience and over-eagerness. But everything pales into insignificance in light of the appointment of Jason Micallef as chairman of V18. Less than a hundred days since election and the plot, alas, is lost, with no sane hope of it ever being found.

Even John Bencini, Franco Debono and Anġlu Farrugia sound like cherubs and play beautiful music to my ears when compared to Jason’s new position. I have nothing personal against the man—for all I know he might be the nicest person alive. But the position should have been apolitical and should have been given to someone, even subjectively labour-leaning, who is a mine of culture not a human minefield.

Please dear Prime Minister, do relent and change the chairman immediately. Malta definitely doesn’t need this. You promised to listen to the man and woman in the street—now prove it. But don’t just take my word for it: ask around in cultured, and even less cultured, circles and hear the general opinion about the post and the man who was anointed chairman. If you get a few who—in all honesty—say aye to the appointment, then Malta is really on the slippery slope to sloppiness.