The ancient Chinese had a curse: "May you live in interesting times". It's a curse because "interesting" implies such things as wars, natural disasters, social disorder and change - all of which go against the Confucian values of stability and constancy (my Wikipedia moment). I couldn't help but remember this curse when reading the news over the past week.
As I read about the strong gregale winds battering our island, Romano Prodi's government was breathing its last gasps during a tumultuous meeting in Italy's Senate, America's President was busy feigning impotence at the spiralling prices of the barrel of oil, prices of basic commodities kept rising everywhere (and not just where the euro had been freshly minted) and news about the world economy was such to give even the most amateur speculator the shakes.
Interesting indeed. Of course, it is all a matter of perspective. To a certain extent, the news might remain just that - interesting information gathered from the screen and relegated to the back of our mind while we ponder the earth-shattering question as to whether Jason Micallef and co were right to let the nation hold its breath until a Prime Minister-in-waiting thinks it is right to let the people know that he is out of danger. Apologies may be due for the sarcastic tone, but surely we might like to worry more about the quality of the potential governing rather than the health (may it always be good) of the potential governor?
My idea of interesting times is a discussion on a proper electoral reform that does not take the electorate for a ride by ensuring that the bipartisan system is here to stay. Now that's a change MLPN would be loath to discuss. Of course, what is interesting to me is marginally relevant for most others. How many trees will be felled in order to provide enough paper to discuss the voting methods of the Eurovision song festival? Whether Jo Zette is really the people's choice is a much more interesting debate than whether hundreds of votes are lost every election because the proportionality switch is only turned on when two parties are elected to Parliament.
It's interesting times for public figures too. Sant will need to take a leaf out of Nicolas Sarkozy's book to learn how to manage the trivial interest the general public seems to have in private affairs. Sarko has slyly come up with a pre-emptive doctrine. The way he handled the whole Bruni business was sheer marketing genius. Rather than let the speculation get to his image, the President beat the press by constantly releasing the right information at the right moment - before any gossip could build up to a harmful spin. In doing so he managed to kill two birds with one stone - nip speculation in the bud and determine what is said about him in the media. Not to mention the fact that he's bagged a beautiful bird in the process. How he did that is the kind of information I wouldn't mind receiving from Monsieur le President.
Now that we mention information released in the public interest, I am still nonplussed by the court decision barring publication of the name of a fraudster who also happens to be a singer. In certain trades, such as insurance, the termination of employment of an agent is accompanied by announcements in the paper that Mr So and So is no longer employed by the company and that he is no longer authorised to deal in their name. Such obligations form a glaring comparison to the fact that a court has withheld publication of the name of a fraudster once he has been caught red handed.
As we begin the slow crawl towards our second E-day of the year, it is possible that interesting times still lie ahead. Gradually there will be less space for Beck and Bondì to bicker about the quality of the English or Italian national teams while conveniently ignoring that the real home of football will always be Brazil. We will hear more about five- or 10-year plans being cooked up in this or that headquarters, and above all we will be bombarded with "interesting" information in the Sant vs Gonzi quasi-presidential confrontation. The sieves and colanders at PBS, Net and One TV will decide what the people should know while the Internet waves slowly supplant their authority as sources of information.
As the electoral boxes are polished, pigeon holes are cleaned and Perspex rubbed transparent, the hideous practice of nuisance suits will resume in order to deprive "interesting" voters of their right (incidentally a declaration on both sides of their intention to refrain from such practice would be most welcome), your mailbox will be bombarded with all sorts of shiny invitations to this or that candidates' dinner dance (practice your Micallef move), we will be showered with a multitude of interesting promises and all sorts of interesting spins will do the rounds on the grapevines, the inboxes and the papers of the island.
Please do not let all this dismay you. Every cloud has a silver lining. Orson Welles too had his own perspective to give on change: "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had 500 years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
You see? It's not that bad really. Under the MLPN we may have petty politics of spin, mud-slinging and name calling, and the delusion of representative democracy, but we are still in time to produce our very own Renaissance in the Mediterranean. It's either that or the Maltese Arloġġ tal-Lira, which ain't a bad deal either.
May we live in interesting times.