From a new beginning to a missed one

On Wednesday, benefitting from my newly-acquired freedom, I binged on television for hours, watching the ignominious end of Donald Trump and the eerie appointment of Joe Biden in a Washington turned armed camp with none of the usual accompanying festive crowds

It was wall-to-wall coverage, mainly on CNN now churning out regime praise more than One TV gives the Labour government.

Through interviews and comments the station and indeed most respected media in the US discussed how fragile democracy is as more and more details emerge on the failed coup of 6 January. It was not the planned marshalling of protesters and the storming of the Capitol during an important session of the Senate that struck me but rather the capillary undermining of the structures of democracy going on unchecked over the past years built on the spreading of fake news and inflammatory statements.

The millions who still supported Trump despite his many faults and mistakes, even more than the rabble which assaulted the Capitol show once again how people can be misled, inflamed and even turned violent.

This was Kristallnacht without the burning of books and the annual celebration of the Holocaust Memorial Day in a few days' time once again reminds us how vigilant we must always be if we want to remain free.

While the presidential jumbo jet took Trump to his exile, the music blared that he did it ‘his way’. In contrast, Biden took the Congressional leaders to hear Mass.

Biden’s remarkable speech was much in this vein. It should be read and studied by all those who treasure freedom and who want to cut through the verbal snares of those who aim to undermine freedom.

In line with all that has been said so far is Biden’s new war against the Covid, which has now killed more Americans than World War II. Trump did all that a bad leader could do in such a dangerous phase – deny the virulence of the pandemic, undermine the health authorities, promote fake remedies, disregard to take the most elementary precautions.

After taking part in the first remembrance ceremony for the Covid dead, Biden has taken the first step – ordering the wearing of facemasks on federal property. That will not be enough, and Biden himself was the first to warn people but at least the Inauguration was the first mass event where so many masks were worn (though with all the signs this was a novel experience, with people uncovering their noses and, worse, forgetting distancing and hugging and kissing galore).

Apart from the vaccines and their still unproved efficacy, the only way to track the ebb and flow of the pandemic is to watch the figures of the spread of the infection. With the UK now in lockdown till summer, the rate of infections is now around 30,000 a day, down 10,000 on the preceding week.

The same may be said about Italy, but the absolute numbers there are far lower than in the UK and, more importantly, the trend-line is decreasing.

The same cannot be said about Malta where the trend-line is on the increase, where doctors are now warning we are running out of space and where the approaching Carnival raises fears of more spikes. The doctors have now suggested a 9pm weekend curfew but you can sense hackles rising all around.

In the past hours (on Friday) things have been made less clear with Charmaine Gauci claiming the January peak is decreasing and MAM warning the hospital is running out of space.

My fear, and that of many others, is that despite the vaccine, we still have a long way to go before we get rid of the pandemic and that unless a really concerted effort is made by all – government and people – lives will continue to be lost unnecessarily.

The country is then not helped by an alternative government daily showing evidence of splits, insubordination, holding on to positions and a leader who not only lost his authority but also goes to meet the hunters’ federation instead of the environment eco-groups as if this will make a hunter switch votes anyway.

There is now a basic split in the party with old-timers holding on grimly to their seats and the young new candidates being given more responsibilities.

Going back to Biden, he would not be in the Oval Office had he wobbled as much. Politics is indeed the art of the possible but it also requires leadership and proper communication.