2025 - Lewis Carroll’s tale

The Mad Hatter and March Hare are fictional characters in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book “Alice Adventures in Wonderland” and its 1871 sequel “Through the Looking-Glass”.  The nonsensical antics of the characters in the Mad Hatter's tea party story serve as a vehicle for the author to explore deeper philosophical and existential themes in Victorian times. Here are some interpretations of the deeper meanings behind their nonsensical behaviour and how can it relate to our present-day scenario. 

The absurdity of the tea party can be interpreted as a reflection of the existential confusion experienced by Malta’s citizens when grappling with questions of climate change, power cuts, protection of environment and losing one own true identity as population of TCNs spirals out of proportion.  Let us revisit the story about “The Dormouse”, a perpetually asleep or groggy creature.  On the international scale, he could represent the plight of disenfranchised or displaced populations caught in the crossfire of the aforementioned deadly conflicts. Words of consolation from the West cannot heal the sufferings of displaced populations, the latter, bear the brunt of violence, displacement, and humanitarian crises resulting from the actions of aggressive dictators and militant groups.

Of late, locals are being made conscious of a barrage of financial scandals circulating in the controversial magisterial inquiry which involves inter alia, the Electrogas saga.  This inquiry revolves around the 17 Black scandal linked to Electrogas power plant.  It was held behind closed doors.  Publication of inquiry reports are the prerogative of the Attorney General, who, together with the police commissioner, takes decisions on whether to prosecute any individuals indicated by the magistrate.  MEP David Casa who is co-instigator of the inquiry way back in 2016, said he had been informed that he would not be handed a copy of the report due to "eventual prosecution of those accused."

Can the country ever forget the brutal assassination of a blogger and how the alleged master mind is waiting in police custody for the seventh year, as repeated requests for bail have been rejected.  Citizens are becoming immune to daily abuses in State procurement reported by NAO’s investigations including unauthorized public expenditure, multiple issue of direct orders, suspicious land deals, and appointment of party loyalists at the helm of state agencies with six figure salaries. The holy cow of construction and building development is an undisputed cause of environmental damage. In any case, we cannot remain oblivious of the negative impact of such activities on our quality of life and that of future generations.  Rather than engage in mellifluous rhetoric, political leaders must feel the pulse of people’s perceptions of how their action or inaction affect their lives. After all, for most people, political perceptions are equivalent to reality. 

Political communication strategists will do well to learn lessons from e-commerce experiences where consumer-powered content is the catalyst that ignites consumer confidence, inspiration and loyalty. This makes us conscious of our plight, when we witness the possibility that contents of some public inquiries are potentially withheld from public consumption. The imaginative story written by Carroll depicts Victorian age in its convoluted absurdity and in doing so, reminds us of a negligent attitude of our resolve to fight climate change, maintain ecological balances, hail sustainability, halt the rise of congested air caused by chaotic “bumper to bumper” traffic. 

It is a reality check, which shows the futility of trying to impose order and meaning onto an island which is attracting three million plus low-value tourists. These mostly rent AirBnB. The nonsensical antics underscore the absurdity of our human endeavours and the ultimately futile quest for rational thinking outside partisan politics.  Housing is too expensive for low-wage workers and hospitals are brimming with patients, who for lack of space, wait long hours in emergency halls on temporary stretchers in cold corridors.  

Observers explore the human quest for meaning and purpose in a seemingly meaningless world with a full-scale war in Ukraine and expanding hostilities in the Middle East.  This drama challenges our sanity, with endless repetition and lack of progress to end such wars, it symbolizes the existential ennui that arises from the search for meaning in a tiny island which boasts of superlative GDP growth.  How can we partake of the surreal setting of Carroll’s party scene when politicians assure us that we are living in a land of milk and honey with low unemployment, controlled energy prices due to state subsidies.  In a misogynistic fervour, we throw in for good measure lavish handouts to Sir Ridley Scott, trying to jump-start a nascent film industry (while officially not encouraging tourists to visit the island).  

Nobody, stops the party and questions how our existence can be interpreted as a critique of social non-conformity and the oppressive nature of societal norms. A well-oiled propaganda machine churns news from a party TV station hoodwinking islanders telling them that they are living in a bubble of perpetual bliss.  Regular issue of cheque payments whet the appetite of party loyalists who reminisce the golden years of “L’Aqwa Zmien” during the brief Joseph Muscat’s interregnum.  

Castille encourages the populace to embrace the whimsical and fantastical aspects of life, suggesting that adhering to party alliances offers a pathway to liberation from the world’s travails.  We cannot turn a blind eye that a paid piper (a young Economist paid by direct order) made us believe how the irrational funding of €145 million to international film crews is beneficial to enhance our GDP - returning a miraculous multiplier effect of three. This was fed to the party followers mocking a repeat of a miracle of biblical proportions when two fishes and five loaves fed the burgeoning crowd. The tourism minister (now resigned and excluded from the Labour party) barred the study from publication.

The absurd and nonsensical atmosphere of the tea party could represent the surreal and disconnected nature of geopolitical discourse surrounding conflicts in regions like the Middle East. Like the characters at the tea party, political actors and stakeholders may engage in negotiations that seem divorced from reality and lack meaningful progress. There are over 45,000 casualties reported in Gaza, where fundamental ideological tensions persist, perpetuating a sense of stagnation and frustration among the affected populations.

Overall, by drawing parallels between the dysfunctional parodies of the Mad Hatter and March Hare and the unprecedented invasion of Ukraine by Russia's warmongering president, we can gain insight into the absurd credo of an MEP’s toeing Castille’s mood, tarnishing Roberta Metsola of war mongering, as she strongly advised that Europe in the light of Putin’s aggression, should beef up its defence arsenal. In conclusion, Carroll’s ingenious story, reflects in a surreal way on how the re-election of Donald Trump and his transactional mind may steer the world’s politics for the next four years.