I'm not entirely up to speed on the protocol when it comes to participating in the official line-up to meet the Pope at the Presidential Palace but I'm pretty sure it doesn't involve hoisting your twin daughters onto your hip and shuffling forward to kiss the Papal ring.

Nor does the fully comme il faut statesman seek to prod aforementioned twins into saying hi to His Holiness, to my mind, though, of course, the pros and cons of being able to have maltastar.com and/or Super One say that the Pope met your family, with all the electoral kudos that this brings into play in Malta Cattolicissima, possibly played some part in the decision taken by the spouses Muscat to chuck their offspring into the glare of political game playing.

The long and the short of it is that last Saturday's jolly at the Palace wasn't a village wedding, to which it seems a certain type of person turns up with the toddlers in tow, whether or not the toddlers were invited. Nor was it an "ikla mal-familja" (a family meal) at one of those restaurants that appear to think that advertising themselves as an obviously cheap and cheerful joint is the way to attract custom.

At the end of the day, it wasn't such a bad Papal visit after all, if only because His Holiness deftly diluted much of the bitterness surrounding the Catholic Church after the revelations of abuse that have been surfacing all over the place. I don't want to sound too cynical: meeting those young men was not (only) a good PR move, on the contrary, I think that the motive was righteous.

The Pope, in a low-key but completely unequivocal way, also told the revolting racists where they get off, once and for all. The sad thing is that many who have racism as part of their make-up probably received Communion last Sunday.

For my tastes, in other areas, there was a touch too much hard-line Christianity for what is a secular state but I suppose the occasion called for something on those lines, so, perhaps, one needn't get too worked up about it, as long as no one takes it into his head that expressions of personal conviction are not the way national policy is made.

While on the subject of people being told where to get off, isn't it about time the hunting fraternity was asked to remove itself from the scene once and for all? They have come over like pompous, overly-aggressive exponents of the machismo culture for too long and when, last week, they came up with the "change the decision about the spring season or else" crack, they really invited wags like me to ask: Or else what, precisely?

So, I'll oblige: Or else what, guys? Are you going to have a demonstration in Valletta and beat up the journalists reporting your public manifestation? Are you going to go out one evening and shoot at anything that flies? Are you going to ignore the law and fail to apply for a licence? Are you going to threaten or intimidate or worse people who oppose your outlook on life (for life, read death to birds)?

Well, folks, the answer to all those questions is yes, since, on the evidence supplied at various times in the not-too-distant past (like last week in some instances) certain hunters, I can only hope not with the blessing of their leaders (leaders, there's a laugh), behaved precisely like that.

So when the hunters' so-called leaders last Wednesday asked the government to stop taking the Maltese people for a ride, I think I can be forgiven for asking them (the hunters) to stop annoying the rest of us, the vast majority of Maltese who have come to the conclusion that it's now high time for it to be taken as a given that the irresponsible, arrogant and downright uncivilised hunters have messed it up completely and utterly for those of their comrades at arms who respect the law.

In words of one syllable, then, you take a ride, guys.

It's still on, this weekend, so if you can get your hands on a ticket, go to St James and watch The Seduction Of Almighty God, because it's a very fine effort at a very involving play and also because it will serve to dilute the slightly treacly atmosphere we've been breathing lately.

The Puttinu Cares initiative does a wonderful job and you should support it at every opportunity. But they really shouldn't use the tag-line they've been using during the ads running during the Champions' League coverage: it's the medical people who are instrumental in ensuring that as many children as possible pull through, not Puttinu Cares. They don't need to make the patently wrong claim that it's because of them that the majority of patients are cured.

To start with, they're not entitled to make it and, to be going on, what they do is valuable and important enough not to need exaggeration or misdirection.

That having been said, give them money, they need it and their hearts are very much in the right place.

imbocca@gmail.com
www.timesofmalta.com/blogs