Watching Andrew Azzopardi, some weeks ago, interviewing Adrian Delia on FM103 made me realise how ironic life is. The irony of watching radio in today’s world is rather baffling. Radio was just talk in the old days, wasn’t it? Now you can also see the mugs of the talking heads.

But, then, I guess we should start querying what reality is and what is make-believe. Suddenly, in this land of ours, black is white, wrong is right. Wrong is forgiven, forgotten and the perpetrator glorified.

Survival in Malta is beautifully poetic.

Azzopardi might have good stuff to say on radio even if he has faced accusations of plagiarism. Nothing too serious compared to the sins and horrors we hear about. His radio interventions, however, are not some silly pop songs played to lull us to sleep; his programmes delve into the vicissitudes and the wrongs of our society.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if he ever produced a programme about how bad it is to copy stuff and claim it is original?

This is Malta so there’s way more than radio fare.

Azzopardi is also a university professor and dean of his faculty. Therefore, he is in a position which influences the minds of the young, of the students embarking on tertiary education. His faculty is about social well-being. Quite a mouthful that but, surely, in any normal land, well-being should include the condemnation of cheating?

Let’s say, in Azzopardi’s defence, that the claimed misdemeanour was not a heinous one. But what do his students feel when they are tempted to cheat? Or when they are out of university and in the world of work? Could they be blamed if they find some rotten avenues to promotions, positions of dubious trust, or prosperity?

It was fitting that Azzopardi was interviewing Delia when these thoughts of duplicity entered my head. When a “biċċa blogger” (irrelevant blogger), Daphne Caruana Galizia, was still alive, Delia joined the worst Labour Party henchmen in hounding her, dehumanising her and in instituting libel actions against her. All so that she would stop uncovering more about his past and his unworthiness to be Nationalist Party leader.

Subsequently, all that Delia ever did, all his alleged wrongdoing, was conveniently forgotten. A quick apology and all was put right and, lo and behold, he’s now an MP, an interviewee and a man who spews on about life and how it should be regulated.

The example several people give to our youth is: keep away from politics- Victor Calleja

Malta, bless her, has so many of these stories, of people who regain public composure and regeneration that it is hard to even know the truly bad from the slightly bad, the totally corrupt from the slightly corrupt.

Here’s a collection of some of these people who should have disappeared from our media and, especially, from our political scene but keep popping up. It’s as if they want to prove that comebacks are not just for the fighters but for the bad lot too.

Cyrus Engerer: a great story of revenge porn and being busted and convicted. But because he crossed the divide from PN to Labour and gave plenty of fodder to Joseph Muscat’s team, all was forgiven. Now he is a true light as one of our MEPs. We don’t just forgive, we reward.

Michael Falzon: he was embroiled in some shady stuff – or, at least, people in his ministry were – while minister responsible for lands. But he was only sacrificed by Muscat when the latter was head of government. Easily forgiven and then reappointed to an innocuous ministry.

Michael Falzon: a man (namesake of the one above but this one belonged to the PN) so redeemed of his sins that he now pontificates about probity and other goodly stuff. He who, while a minister, siphoned off a good amount of money into a Swiss bank. No huge harm except that he was a minister while he did this. Wouldn’t it be better if he hides away or shuts up?

His Excellency Manuel Mallia: not a mistake. High commissioners are always referred to in that way. Nothing wrong with being pompously called, especially as the position merits reward for sterling service and doing everything according to the book. Excellent exemplar to be used as a yardstick for us mortals who do not excel at anything.

When His Excellency was just an honourable minister, he admitted, or, instead, it was revealed, that he was hiding half a million euros in cash at home. No explanation was ever given as to how this cash magicked itself into his home or whether any tax was duly paid on it.

Gianluca Caruana Curran: this leading lawyer only tried to pass on a bit of cash to a journalist. He never knew that you don’t offer a few €500 euro notes to get a journalist to write good stuff about his client. Despicable on its own but, add the context that the client was none other than Yorgen Fenech, allegedly the mastermind behind a leading journalist’s assassination. Caruana Curran must have apologised somewhere, to someone, as he is still a lawyer of distinction.

Anġlu Farrugia: it’s a sorry situation that goes on and on. Our Speaker of the House, the man who broke all records and has kept the chair of speaker for three consecutive legislatures, had said it all way back in 2013. That was when the Labour Party was still out of power and acting like it would be the most revolutionary and cleanest government ever to take over the running of a country.

Farrugia had said that the Labour Party is driven by strange forces which meet at party headquarters: that there were nefarious dealings and doings and arrangements. Then he was appointed speaker and he shut up. He was a wronged man but was rewarded so shut up about the stuff he knew.

The example all, or several, people give to our youth is: keep away from politics and anything connected to safeguarding our cherished liberties. Or join to be part of the gang of thieves, enablers and followers of the cult of omertà.

Malta: this is the country where crime pays. And even if it doesn’t pay you much in lucrative positions or lucre, the country and the institutions will still let you roam free to pontificate and tell us how to behave.

Victor Calleja is a former publisher.

vc@victorcalleja.com

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