Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1196490
THE English language can be very unfair at times. Take the word 'weasel', for instance. Literally, it refers to "any small carnivore of the genus Mus- tela, of the family Mustelidae, having a long, slender body and feeding chiefly on small rodents." Ah, but when's the last time any of us saw an actual speci- men of Mustela erminea, 'feed- ing chiefly on small rodents', here in Malta: where its par- ticular line of expertise is very much in demand? (Unsurpris- ingly, seeing as we've already wiped out all our rodents' other predators: kestrels, barn owls, etc.) Apart from the 'ballotra' once represented on the old 2c coin – and in a video clip I'm about to refer to, but more of that later – I think I can safely say I have never seen an actual wea- sel in the almost half a century I've been living here. So I sup- pose it's hardly surprising that I've never really heard the word used in the literal sense, either. Figuratively? That's a slightly different story. In colloquial English slang, a 'weasel' is a sly, conniving, and generally un- trustworthy individual: someone who cheats and lies for his own advancement (note: I've never heard it used for a woman), usu- ally at the expense of others. De- pending on the context, it could also mean a snitch, or someone with a knack of 'weaselling out' of any given situation… usually through clever but dishonest excuses… All in all, those are not exactly very flattering connotations. So when a video surfaced of a (real) weasel locked in (very real) mortal combat with a (just as real) rat on a country road… it was hard to resist drawing satirical analogies with the spontaneous political com- bustion the country is going through right now. 'Weasels turning on rats' was one of the most recurring of the online comments: and some- how, the image does seem to capture something of the pure zeitgeist of our times. We really are living through a fiercely primal, predatory scenario: a ruthless struggle for politi- cal survival, red in tooth and claw… My own reaction was slightly different, however (moulded in part by a childhood addiction to wildlife documentaries). To be honest, most of it consisted of sheer relief to discover that this magnificent predator was not, as I had feared, already extinct… though at the rate we are destroying its natural habi- tat, who knows? We might just have witnessed the last, heroic battle ever fought by a living Mustela erminea on Maltese soil… But I was also slightly taken aback by the sheer ferocity of the tiny animal's behaviour. 'Weasel-ish', my foot. Going only on its reputation, you'd expect a weasel to sneak up on its victim, innocently ask direc- tions, then whack it uncon- scious with a stone the moment its head was turned. But no: this ferocious little hunter emulated the exact same predatory patterns you'd associ- ate with lions on the Serengeti, or escaped Velociraptors in Jurassic Park: pouncing on its (much larger) prey, throt- tling it with its jaws, dragging it the ground and wrestling it immobile… only to eventu- ally drag the dead victim away, victorious. That's the clean opposite of 'subtlety', 'deceit', 'treachery' and all the other labels we so unfairly dump on this noble, savage beast. What we saw in that tiny clip was anything but disingenuous or false: it was un- told millions of years of evolu- tion – the most brutally honest of all Nature's manifestations - condensed into just over one minute of raw footage. Now let's see how this holds up with some of the human behaviour we have witnessed (or got to know about) in the past few weeks. It seems a long time ago now, but around seven years ago – a month before the 2013 elec- tion – then-Opposition leader Joseph Muscat gave a speech in Gozo, in which he declared that it was "time to clean up Maltese politics." It was against the backdrop of the oil procurement corrup- tion scandal; specifically, when Finance Minister Tonio Fenech was under pressure for having accepted a traditional Maltese clock as a gift from oil trader George Farrugia. In that speech, Muscat ac- cused Fenech of 'changing his story', in particular when it came to the question of wheth- er (or how often) the minister had met Farrugia in the past. "Despite initially denying ever meeting George Farrugia, finance minister Tonio Fenech today admitted to meeting Farrugia on two occasions," Muscat said. "The first meeting was about an Enemalta tender and the second meeting occurred when Farrugia went to his house to give him the clock. Fenech's only argument to the contrary was that the clock's value was less than €5,000. Fenech knows that the code of ethics binding all ministers expressly forbids the acceptance of any gifts, no matter their value…" Ouch. On almost every point (except one: the value of the timepiece, which has mean- while mysteriously quadrupled) the exact same charges can now be lain at Joseph Muscat's door. Like the former finance minister, he was at first vague about his own previous meet- ings with Yorgen Fenech; but we now know that Fenech was a guest at at least one of Muscat's parties last February, where he reportedly also gave him a number of wines worth over €5,000 in total: over and above the €20,000 wristwatch, 26 OPINION maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 DECEMBER 2019 Raphael Vassallo Pop goes the weasel… Position may be co-funded through European Union Funding/Bilateral Funds PROGRAMME OFFICER (EU FUNDS) Applications are invited for the positions of Programme Officer (EU Funds) in the Ministry for European Affairs and Equality. Applicants for the Programme Officer (EU Funds) position must be in possession of a recognized Bachelors qualification at MQF Level 6 in relevant areas plus one year relevant work experience Applications will be received at the Corporate Services Directorate, Ministry for European Affairs and Equality, 31B, Tal-Pilar, Marsamxett Road, Valletta, VLT 1850 by not later than noon of Tuesday 7 th January 2020. Further details may be obtained from the Government Gazette of 20 th December 2020. Application forms may be downloaded from: https://publicservice.gov.mt/en/people/Pages/PeopleResourcingandComplian ce/FormsandTemplates.aspx Further details may be obtained from the Government Gazette of 30 th Dinnertime battle royale