Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1508764
THE year is 1969. The place? Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. There on the launch-pad, NA- SA's Apollo 11 rocket towers 363 feet above the surrounding landscape... its three passengers (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins) awaiting nothing but a final order from Houston, to 'lift off' for their his- torical journey to the Moon. All around the world, an un- precedented half-a-billion peo- ple huddle around their TV sets, to witness this milestone human achievement in person. And at long last, the excited hubbub gives way to awed silence... as a crackly voice commences the count-down, through television speakers across the globe: '10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... and...' Nothing. There is no 'lift-off'; no sudden roar of ignition, as the rocket burns 8,248 kg of fuel (a combination of Aerozine-50, and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer), to break through the Earth's atmos- phere at escape velocity... ... and above all, no subsequent announcement that: 'The Eagle has landed!' (accompanied by those immortal images of Neil Armstrong, planting humanity's first-ever footprint in the soft Lu- nar dust...) Instead, all those half-a-billion viewers can see is that the Apol- lo 11 rocket is still standing in exactly the same spot, as it had been just a few moments before (with the difference that the as- tronauts are no longer on board; and NASA operatives have al- ready started to dismantle all the scaffolding.) But even as they turn to each other, in bewilderment – asking: 'What happened? Did something go wrong?' – the same crackly voice blares out from the speak- ers again: "SUCCESS! We did it, folks! The United States of America has won the Space Race, by becoming the first nation in history to offi- cially land a 'man on the Moon'! (Suck on THAT, Leonid!) Yee- hah! Hallelujah! God Bless Amer- ica! And remember, folks! You all saw it happen, WITH YOUR OWN EYES!!" And then, of course, the inev- itable interview with the 'man who made history' himself: Neil Armstrong, who – very far from being 'on the Moon' – is actually just lounging about in his Miami hotel room (having changed his space-suit for a dressing gown, and a comfortable pair of slip- pers.) "Well, what can I say?", he be- gins, as he takes a sip of coffee. "This was one small step for me... and ONE GIANT LEAP, FOR ALL MANKIND!!" Ok, by this time you will sure- ly have realised that this is NOT what really happened, on 20 July 1969. In fact: it's not even what con- spiracy theorists think really hap- pened on that day, either. For while they may genuinely believe that the entire Moon landing was a 'hoax'... they still argue that NASA 'faked the footage' (with a little help from Stanley Kubrick); and NOT that 'there wasn't even any footage, to fake'! But back to our own, purely hypothetical conspiracy theory. What do you reckon would have happened in 1969, under the cir- cumstances I just described? Do you think that messages of con- gratulations would have poured into NASA's headquarters, from all over the world? Or that the names of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins would go on to be etched into history books, as 'the first men on the Moon'? In a nutshell: would the entire planet have been so easily taken in, by a hoax of such massively self-evident proportions? Somehow, I suspect not. Some- how, I suspect that – under those circumstances – the Apollo 11 rocket scaffolding would not have been the only thing 'dismantled', that day. NASA itself (along with the credibility of the entire nation it represents) would also have in- stantaneously crumbled away to nothing, before our very eyes. But... that was 1969. This is 2023. And, oh look: the exact same scenario seems to be un- folding, all around us – only a REAL scenario this time; not a hypothetical one – and, well, we seem to be reacting to it, in exact- ly the same way that the rest of the world did NOT react, to our 'fake Moon landing', above. If you haven't guessed already: I'm referring to the European Commission's New Migration and Asylum Pact. Remember? The one that was 'launched' (the EC's word, not mine) with so much fanfare, way back in Sep- tember 2020 – that's more than three years ago, folks – but which we are somehow still 'discussing', to this very day (with, as always, no final no agreement in sight). But in case you've forgotten, by now – and who can blame you? Nothing ever came of it, in the end – this is how it was reported in the local press, at the time: "The old system to deal with [immigration] in Europe no longer works," European Com- mission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels. "She said the 'New Pact for Mi- gration and Asylum' offers Eu- rope 'a fresh start.' "'We want to live up to our val- ues and at the same time face the challenges of a globalized world,' she said. 'Europe has to move away from ad-hoc solutions and put in place a predictable and reliable migration management system.' "The proposals hinge on a sim- ple idea. Members of the EU could help ease the load on those countries that have seen the most migrant arrivals by sea, like Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain, by taking in some of the refugees or providing other material and logistical support." (The Mal- ta Independent, 23 September, 2020) Got that, folks? Three years ago, the European Commission some- how managed to launch a whole new migration... 'PACT', no less – a word which implies 'agree- ment' – even though no actual discussion, or negotiations, had even begun at that stage (still less, reached a successful conclusion.) But no matter: Ursula von der Leyen was so utterly confident that her 'simple' [!] idea would work (because, of course, we all know how very 'simple' it is, to get 27 different countries to agree on a 'voluntary responsibil- ity-sharing mechanism'), that she even set a deadline for the pro- ject's completion. Back then, she assured us that this 'pact' – or 'agreement' – would be in place, 'by February 2024' (i.e., in just four months' time). And for a while, things even seemed to be going according to plan. The first real cry of 'SUC- CESS!' came in April 2023: when the European Parliament ap- proved the Migration Pact's key maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 OCTOBER 2023 10 OPINION Can we stop pretending that this 'New Migration and Asylum Policy' actually exists? Raphael Vassallo Had the moon landing been a hoax,would the world have believed it?