Tales from the Land of Serenity Part 7

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‘Tales from the Land of Serenity’ came into being shortly after the horrific assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta on 16th October 2017. A well-known investigative journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia was blown up by a car bomb, minutes away from her home in Bidnija. The title of these stories derives from words spoken by the Maltese Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, a few days after her murder: ‘When the MEPs visit Malta, they will do so with a sense of serenity…’

All hell broke loose in the never-never land of somewhere else, a land which has no place on this terrain of tranquility, a land which dares cast doubt on this serenity. A land which cruelly and maliciously levies dangerous accusations and deigns to use the cherished concept of paradise as it does so, an ideal to which the Land of Serenity sued for copyright amidst its multitude of libel cases, the majority of these filed against a journalist, a woman blown up by a car bomb three weeks ago today.

 

The Land of Serenity does not take kindly to criticism, aware that such attacks are based on spite and jealousy. And who wouldn’t be envious of this Mediterranean jewel, described, so recently and eloquently, as ‘one of the world’s most secretive corporate havens’, a place where people can truly ‘live the dream, enjoying the benefits of society without being subject to any of its constraints’?

 

The festas and the fireworks ignite the evening sky and the humble beneficiaries of this paradise right here, right here on earth, are proud as they parade the streets in freshly laundered clothes. The Land of Serenity will always be a paradise. The Land of Serenity will always live up to its name.

 

Those who meddle in the affairs of this smoothly-running country, who stick their noses into places where they know they shouldn’t go, will be chased away by broomsticks in defiance of their insolence, their lack of decent loyalty to this utopian ideal.

 

Oh, in this haven of confidence, this haven of security, why, why, cried the white-clad servants, must people point at us in shame? Our economy is booming, our churches are brimming, our leaders are loving and our utility bills are low!

 

Why, why, oh why, cried the white-clad humble servants, must our paradise-in-the-making be unpicked by the hateful few?

 

Meanwhile, in the ominous never-never land of somewhere else, dark clouds were gathering yet the flashing lights of torches were forever shining through. The voices, from the self-same chambers vilified for disseminating lies, untruths, ‘fake news’, were rising in steady and persistent and unshakeable harmony. Pilatus Bank, Azerbaijan, Panama offshore vaults and untaxed treasure troves of pearls which might yet, in the Land of Serenity, be tossed in the way of swine.

 

The white-clad citizens wiped the muck from their hands once they had grovelled in the dirt and were grateful for the ending of another peaceful day. The far-off never-never land of somewhere else could never touch them as they counted each and every rosary bead and then knelt down to pray, absolved by their refusal to believe untruths around them, forgiven for their natural human hatred towards those who would undo them, towards all those evil wrongdoers whose only purpose was to harm.

 

The God of Serenity brought comfort in their hour of need, reassuring them that hating their perceived enemies was entirely justifiable under the circumstances. Lies would be obliterated just like the bearers of bad news.

 

Some of these stories have been made into podcasts. They are read and produced by Pia Zammit and are available on manueldelia.com