It touches upon every part of our lives. Society nurtures us from the cradle and deposits us in our grave. From start to finish there is the the involvement of religion, typically some variant of Christianity in the context of Europe and America.

When one thinks about it one realizes that the church often manifests within the structure provided by the existing state. When we are born we are registered at a church. Before we are able to walk we are already defined as being of this faith, made official through baptism. And so this continues throughout one’s early life, both within the structure of the family and that of education.

As many would know, the population of the Maltese Islands are bi-lingual, being relatively proficient in both the Maltese and English languages, with a significant part of the population also fluent in Italian.

It comes as little surprise that this rather multi-lingual culture was the fruit of significant disagreement, ironically stemming from the question as to whether English or Italian ought to become the national language. This was at a time when Malta was emerging from British colonial rule. The working classes were more fluent in English while the middle classes tended more towards Italian. From this background the Islands developed its multi-lingual stance.

Whether it be a cornerstone of modern civilization or the dream and goal of (some) developing countries, democracy is not merely a way of life but ‘the’ way of life to many millions world-wide.

Elections come and elections go, as do leaders and entire political parties and movements, and yet it seems that the entire process is becoming more and more frivolous as time goes by. Elections are won and lost over the price of tuna and bread. Presidents are impeached over being less than open about personal affairs while others remain after convincing the rest of the country to enter into a bloodbath war for reasons ever mutating and increasingly difficult to believe. Shouts for freedom by the strong intermingle with secret service agents silencing the weak.