Ten years ago less a couple days, my I M Beck column wasn't published and a small box stated that I wasn't feeling particularly funny that week.

Today, ten years on, I would have liked to mark the anniversary of 9/11 but I find myself experiencing difficulties about what to write. Already, in the papers and on TV, acres of newsprint and hours of comment and documentary have been dedicated to the horror that the United States underwent and my contribution isn't likely to add much of value.

So all I'll do is suggest that you reflect, in the privacy of your heart, on the causes of the horror and, while you're about it, on the causes of the horrors being experienced daily by people around the world.

Reflect, too, how lucky we in Europe, and in Malta in particular, are compared to wide swathes of the world.