The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Economist 's 1843 magazine's second most popular image of 2018: The world isn't stupid, as most of Malta would like to believe it is. When you're cut off from the situation and are seeing it from outside the boundaries of the Maltese shores, you are truly able to see how completely mad the situation in Malta is.  It is true that it is easy to fall into the trap of doubting ourselves back here, where we are submerged in the madness. But we mustn't ever do that, because that is exactly what will lead us ' to leap on the bandwagon with the cry that if you can’t beat them, then you might as well join them'. I quote here from the article that has supplied the most strength and kept everything in the sharpest focus: my aunt's ' Right and wrong are not a popularity contest '. I think I should write here some words she wrote in that article that I quote time and time again:  There is something else I should say before I go: when people...

In this article , The Shift News reports that female journalists and politicians are on the receiving end of an avalanche of abusive tweets, receiving such tweets ‘every 30 seconds on average’. This information came from a study released by Amnesty International. Twitter is a fast social network. Posts refresh rapidly and news, whether trivial or critical, can be followed live in a series of short and succinct pieces of text linked with relevant hashtags. This is advantageous when used well, but clearly greatly disadvantageous if utilised by the wrong hands.  With such rapidity of newsfeeds, such a swell of ‘abusive or otherwise hostile tweets’ is made possible, though it shouldn’t be. Often the ones behind such tweets will argue that it is free speech after all, and who are we, campaigning for our freedom of speech, to limit them from speaking their minds? Such an argument is one I hear or see online (for trolls generally prefer to hide behind the anonymity of their screens...