The Good Book tells us that the Almighty took seven days to fashion this world we know. Ever since, numbers and dates have fascinated. Authors have used numbers like Around the world in 80 days when the book was published in the 19th century.

I could go on digging for other numbers, and verifiable sources.

One should not overlook or forget the Book of Numbers cosily wedged between Leviticus and Deuteronomy signifying the Second Law. Numbers being the fourth book of Moses, getting its name because it begins with the numbering of the people.

Politicians also like to use numbers to their credit – or to debunk – depending on the recipient’s outlook and point of view.  A populist viewpoint or otherwise.

Then you have statistics or its more mundane description ‘numbers crunching’.  Very irreverently there are also those who like to elaborate as ‘lies, damned lies… and statistics’.

To each his/her own point of view.  This is like saying “the farther is from England the nearer is to France”. We have become accustomed to hear presidents, prime ministers, heads of government in waiting, and aspiring prime ministers, speaking of their first 100 days in office.

Some attribute these statements as akin to fake news, or a subtle doctoring of information. Political scientists may classify the exercise as obfuscation in their notes to be expanded or verified later.

The very important factor of the social media is not to be overlooked or underrated.

The islands of Malta in the current grip of election fever have not been foreign to such statements using numbers and conjuring them to their needs in the message they want to transmit.

Headlines in the print media give prominence to politicians’ statements in this regard. TV stations sometimes like to resort to breaking news during their advertised programmes.

The scroll at the bottom of the screen can distract and mislead. The mind’s eye sometimes seeks the perception that pleases and omits the true message it is meant to convey.

Emotional statements may carry weight with a crowd. A crowd feels. It hears. It does not listen or analyse

The not so distant election of a new president of the United States has seen the effect of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office at the end of April.

From what I read, Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, who are said to be increasingly influential on the President, worry about his negative headlines.

On our home front I am neither privy nor do I know from the public domain who worries most about the leader of the Opposition’s statements and assertions about his aspiring first 100 days in office.

The man himself is very woolly about his prospective achievements. Words can come cheap. Delivery and positive follow-up on what one says on the campaign trail and at the hustings can be very much akin to apocryphal. Like hidden writings in the biblical sense similar not so clear political statements convey a direct political assertion.

Clarity of purpose and achievements for the common good is very different from self-aggrandisement.

It is the emotional element that dominates here. Very much like the unthinking reaction of any crowd. Any gathering of people huddled together does not reflect. The emotive, electrifying effect rules and dominates. It is not the reflective individual assaying and paraphrasing the words that are bombarding him/her.

The greed for political power can chime in with the fictional queen created by Lewis Carroll who made her say: “Off with their heads.”

However, such or similar emotional statements may carry weight with a crowd. A crowd feels. It hears. It does not listen or analyse.

In the truly reflective silence within their own space in life the same gatherings will come to their own conclusions. And this is what really matters in the final belief and assessment who to really believe and trust.

Fiduciary for beneficiaries is born and bred with delivering. The future can only be built on a secure proven past.

The Bard very cleverly put the right words, the precise pause, the pregnant intonation by Antony in his appeal to the gathered crowd how best to praise Ceasar after his death, condemn the murderers for their brutal act and, even for a brief moment, turn the tables. The devils are suddenly transformed into angels; anger is banished and superimposed by pity.

Crude numbers, however camouflaged, unless backed by studied financial sources cannot convince. Neither will empty nationalistic rhetoric, however well trained.  Impressive professional language on its own is just not persuasive. These only darken the horizon.

Creating obfuscation.

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