Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1164600
11 THE recent photograph of the Prime Minister sporting an INV.... tattoo hit the head- lines and made the rounds. Today, nobody really cares or is astonished about people sporting tattoos. It has become so common to do so after David Beckham relaunched the fashion in the nineties. I would venture to suggest that the people sticking out as an exception today are the ones not having them… not the ones sporting tattoos. Whatever, the Prime Minis- terial INV tattoo was imme- diately interpreted to mean INVICTUS, the "invincible one". In reality, such word would be indicating a state of fact since, if one excludes his EU referendum debacle, Joseph Muscat actually won hands down all the other elec- toral competitions in which he actively took part. It would, however, also give us a measure of the extent of the Prime Minister's arro- gance and sense of superior- ity. This is really not a good sign at all of responsible political leadership. What if, however, the INV does not stand for the first part of the word "invictus" but stands instead for some other word? I would not at all exclude this possibility. For example, INV could be the first three letters of the word investiture. According to the Cambridge English Diction- ary, this word stands for "a ceremony in which someone is given an official rank, au- thority, power, etc". And, according to Wikipe- dia, "in its original meaning, an investiture was the cloth- ing of a new officeholder in garments that symbolized power. The Middle Ages saw much debate over the inves- titure of bishops by kings and emperors. ... The investi- ture struggle caused tension between popes and monarchs and even led to wars". Now, our Joseph Muscat has indeed been the protagonist of such ceremony, which in the modern era, has gone through certain transforma- tions. "Indeed, Investiture is the installation of individuals in institutions that usually have been extant from feudal times. For example, the instal- lation of heads of state, who are invested with office and various other state functions with ceremonial roles. Usu- ally, the investiture involves a ceremonial transfer of the symbols of the particular of- fice". Joseph's investiture hap- pened on 11 March 2013, when he was invested with full powers by the then Presi- dent George Abela. Unfortu- nately, our Prime Minister did not stick to the definition of "investiture" as applied today in modern pluralistic times. Instead, he went back in his warped time machine to the Middle Ages' meaning of "in- vestiture". This implied a sav- age takeover of most things public and the appointment of party faithful, poodles and lackeys to the posts of Chief Executives, or whatever, of most of Maltese institutions, such as the Planning Author- ity, Mount Carmel Hospital, Transport Malta, Infrastruc- ture Malta, EneMalta, Tech- nology Foundation, Malta Enterprise, etc. etc. You just name it and you have it! Little did our Joseph realize that in the Middle Ages, the investiture struggle caused tension between popes and monarchs and even led to wars. Luckily, in Malta today, the winning tribe, whether PN and PL, is no longer raping the women of the losing one. But, of course, INV could stand for something different: for example: Invest. It could be that immediately after the investiture ceremony was over on that fateful day, Joseph gave the following order to his faithful: "Go and invest". Of course, they did not all obey him. Minister Manwel Mallia certainly did not and instead of investing, as Joseph might have ordered, he stuck to good old nanna's habits and kept his half a million euros under the mattress. But others did not. In fact, two of Joseph's most faithful disciples, Disciple Keith and Disciple Kon- rad, instantly took up their master's command and ran off immediately to Panama to open up some investment there. Following this, they en- trusted their loyal Nexia BT accountants, Brian and Karl, to search the world for any other investment opportunity. Dubai seemed to be a con- venient place, also because Yorgen, of 17 Black fame, had decided to invest there too. Unfortunately for them, Daphne spilled the beans, and these investment plans were thwarted. Going back to the INV letters, these could actu- ally stand for another word, such as invisible. Invisible like, for example, raises in salaries, which are disguised as "improvements" + "better allowances" + "redeemable allowances". Or else, invisible, like the details of the Electrogas contract, the Vitals contract or the Egrant enquiry, all of which had been redacted to keep certain people invisible. Or like Neville Gafa's status and salary. Whatever INV stands for, one thing is certain, all things – including unlimited power- come to an end and everything is thus rendered INValid. A whole process from invictus to invalid, where the good things one does in life are totally forgotten, engulfed, as they are, by the sleaze they were surrounded with. It would certainly be much better if the adjectives rectus and honestus were the yard- stick by which one should measure oneself. maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 11 SEPTEMBER 2019 Arnold Cassola, academic and politician, is former secretary general of the European Green Party and former member of the Italian Parliament OPINION Arnold Cassola What does the INV tattoo stand for? www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way