Just as here are 50 ways to leave your lover, there are several ways to hide an elephant.

My favourite two are to paint his toenails green and hide him in the pea-patch, or to assume that just as people don't see the wood for trees, they won't see the elephant if you just leave him standing there, in full view of everyone. If you try to hide an elephant in the fridge, people will see his footprints in the butter.

And that is exactly the line of reasoning both Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic and Lou Bondi took this week.

Rather than choosing the line of least resistance and shearing his hair off, this psychiatrist-poet ingeniously bound it into a topknot and pigtail combination, and combined it with copious facial hair.

Incredibly, rather than going into hiding like John Darwin, the British canooist who 'disappeared' in his red kayak, brazenly worked at a private clinic in Belgrade, under the umbrella brand 'Human Quantum Energy'.

His website www.psy-help-energy.com and e-mail contact address dddavid@psy-help-energy.com still stand - but the translation into English feature has been disabled.

Ironically, his gall has given him folk hero status amongst Bosnian Serbs, despite having been responsible for the genocide of thousands of Muslims at Srebrenica, and other crimes during the Bosnian war. Karadzic has been compared to Karadorde, who had led the first uprising against the Turks in 1804.

Meanwhile, in Germany, Barack Obama (whom the German media has dubbed "Black JFK") was also citing history to suit his purpose, before 10 of thousands of youth. It was by design, not accident, that he chose the 230-foot column built to celebrate 19th-century Prussian military victories over Denmark, France and Austria as his plinth area.

In what was as close to a rock concert as did not matter, he reminded Berliners of their ancestors' resilience "when the Soviet Union tried to extinguish the last flame of freedom" some 60-odd years ago. He also referred to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, which opened "doors of democracy" the world over.

I was, disappointed at the inane, superficial way in which the majority of local television and radio stations handled and reported these events; especially considering that Serbia is on the verge of EU membership, and that there could well be a connection between the two issues, and that whatever happens in America may have reverberations locally.

At this point it is pertinent to point out that with all the newspapers of the world literally at their fingertips, journalists and newspaper commentators could offer us a much better service than is currently being provided. Some of the latter appear to think we do not realise they are translating as they go along, and it is this which gives rise to funny turns of phrase and the use of terminology for which there is a much better equivalent in the vernacular.

This attitude arises in part from the conviction that even if they do not come up to scratch, nobody will usurp their position. This and a pathetic lack of research and reluctance to stick their necks out by offering an opinion, rather than a banal listing of the facts, makes for dull coverage.

Another story I have been following was the fishing boat tragedy that must have struck a chord with most of us.

I would say that this was one of the very few occasions that Bondi was - no pun intended - out of his depth, perhaps also because the story was yet unfolding behind the scenes as he spoke.

Indeed, every answer that was given begged a dozen more questions... and the people who could have answered them were not in the studio to do so.

Some time ago, a minister for fisheries had mooted an agreement with fishermen wherein insurance for fishing boats and National Insurance contributions, had been mentioned. As far as I know, nothing came of this. And this affects the aftermath of this tragedy. But nobody asked any questions about this.

Nobody was asked to verify whether or not it is true that fishing boats carry ordnance for the mercy-killing of tuna. And are not people out in the open sea supposed to be wearing life-saving buoyancy tabards at all times?

Lay people probably do not know the difference between GPS, EPIRB, and VHF-marine and satellite-telephone equipment; this was not adequately explained to us. We were not told, either, why a search-and-rescue operation was not mounted the very minute the blip indicating the Simshar disappeared from the radar screen.

I am also deeply concerned that the person who appeared for the AFM, albeit of a senior position, was not the person directly involved in the operations, and as such could only repeat "I was told..."several times.

Much has been said about the "time wasted" by employees at PBS who "had to" edit smoking scenes out of Thunderbirds. It would seem as though this action has been vindicated, big time, at least in Britain.

Films and features such as 101 Dalmatians, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Alice In Wonderland, Popeye, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, and many more could be slapped with an "18" certificate for the same reason, in a bid to prevent and protect children from watching Captain Hook, the Dodo, Cruella de Vil, Gandalf, and other characters from smoking assorted hookahs, cigars, pipes and cigarettes.

television@timesofmalta.com