Napoleon said that power is never given but taken. And so it is with freedom, while power itself is often misused as a tool to control and limit the freedom of others.

Reality has shown that freedom is not some laurel we place complacently upon our heads, wearing it without fear of loss, but, rather, a precious metal we must care for to ensure it does not lose its sparkle or properties.

Malta’s road to freedom has been a long one, starting centuries ago.

We regained freedom from fiefdom under the nobleman Antonio Cardona when we paid to the Spanish Crown what he had paid for our islands. We rose against the French besieged in our capital city.

We negotiated with the British to protect our islands during the Napoleonic wars, only to be denied protectorate status that was our moral, legal and historic right, one not recognised by the British Privy Council, which feared a precedent that would send shockwaves across the faltering British Empire.

The image of Prime Minister George Borg Olivier waving our hard-earned independence papers to the crowds assembled at the Independence Arena in Floriana 50 years ago remains an iconic historic document. Yet, no less important was the day our minuscule archipelago obtained the status of a republic, having divested itself of the last vestige of colonialism imposed on our Constitution in the form of the British monarch as Head of State.

Then came the enormous importance of economic freedom from a foreign military base and the ability to tell the world that we would not serve the military interests of a foreign power or bloc. The importance of these events should never be underestimated.

Yet, neither can we afford to underestimate the importance of the work needed to protect our freedoms in a fast-changing world.

Power is no longer confined to bases, tanks and planes but has surreptitiously slipped into society through the manipulation of the airwaves, satellites, drones and data, gold reserves, the flow of information, the revision and misinterpretation of history, the wayward journeys of financial institutions, the imposition of world reserve currencies and the manipulation, cornering and takeover of markets, masquerading as free trade.

Our freedoms have not been given to us but won by our predecessors, often through their blood and tears.It is therefore incumbent upon us, out of respect for them and responsibility to our successors, to ensure we keep the flames of freedom burning brightly in our ever-darkening skies, where crises loom and little is what it appears to be.

We must be vigilant to guard against the erosion of freedoms in the wake of creeping controls that, like the frog in hot water, are undetected until they reach tipping point.

This historic time for Malta, celebrating anniversaries of events in 1964, 1974 and 1979, is 100 years from the Great War that changed Europe’s geo-political landscape.

It comes at a time when other regions, with histories no less illustrious than ours, are crying for freedom, in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter and the landmark International Court of Justice decision in the Kosovo case.

It had all started with the last of US President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points, enunciating the inalienable right of people to self determination.

Yet, today, the noble principles that paved the way for the dismantling of empires are now under heavy siege by political and economic expediency that present us with a different vision, one of a new form of colonialism, of increasing control from Brussels, the IMF, Tel Aviv and Washington.

There is also the influence of transnational banking, cartels and lobbies, mega media moguls swallowing up smaller fish, big pharma squeezing out alternative health, agrobusiness buying out the organic movement and rating agencies misleading the public seeking sanctuary for its hard-earned savings and pensions.

Last but not least is a rising military movement seeking to justify its own existence while spying on its own people and its friends and planting the seeds of discord on an ever-complicated chessboard where principles of human rights, free trade and security become covers in a power game for economic expansion and increased hegemony in finance, oil, gas, raw materials and the weather, in an effort to reshape the economic landscape through trade wars, info wars and extended military presence.

To free our world we must free our minds. We must remain constantly alert, take nothing for granted, demand accountability and think for ourselves. We must never be afraid to question and insist upon satisfactory answers based on the rule of law, both on a national and international level.

Failure to do this would be failing not just past and future generations but ourselves and our loved ones.

Our hard-earned freedoms will then slip through our hand like grains of sand.