Don’t exaggerate, Matthew. Do you think most businessmen are idiots? Malta has a long history in commerce and I know a lot of honest folks out there.

No apologies necessary, but thanks for clarifying your point for me.

I would consider an entrepreneur a risk-taker, finding an opportunity, capitlizing on it, coupled with a hell of a lot of hard work, whether self-funded or by others. And the failure rate is relatively high.

So, Baxxter, I don’t mind being called an opportunist–ie, searching for opportunities. I’m confident Rolls, Leonardo, and Edison seized upon their own perceived opportunities to be successful. Don’t think I’m quite at their level, though.

Dear Daphne, when you were younger, we had a very funny case in Malta, when a businessman, going by the name of E. Cachia, reported a case of corruption (by a Labour minister) and was sent to jail for defaiming the minister.

I would really like you to cheek it out.

[Daphne – That was then and this is now, Silvio. There hasn’t been any such excuse for years.]

Maybe this could be the reason why we are not agreeing on this issue.

Maybe you are right, but some people must have gone through some bad experiences which will surely influence their way of seeing things.

[Daphne – Not ‘maybe’, Silvio. I am right. It’s the civilised norm, and against the law in civilised countries.]

I must repeat that I do not condone or approve of this way of doing business, but as I said before, sometimes one is put in a position where he can’t refuse.

[Daphne – Because what? He might be shot? Flogged in public?]

One last thing, bribing and corruption are not only resticted to contracts, but are found in all walks of life like, getting a job, you name it.

[Daphne – Yes, precisely because your attitude is prevalent.]

Some persons use their position to make money, that is why I said that it is these people who should be sent to prison and not those who are made to pay for something which is rightfully theirs.

[Daphne – If you bribed to get it, then it is not rightfully yours.]

My apologies. I should have included a translation. No, I wasn’t calling you an opportunist. The second sentence is a reference to 21st century Maltese rhetoric on the “world of opportunities out there”.

This is usually followed by a contemptuous remark which assumes that if you didn’t make it, it’s because you didn’t try.

This is conveniently forgetting that not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.

If Rolls hadn’t provided financial backing for Royce, we wouldn’t have Rolls-Royce. If Leonardo da Vinci hadn’t found a patron, he’d have been just another starving artist. Edison had a flair for both invention and business, so he flourished on his own.

But he was the rarer kind.

So yes, I was going out of point there. But I think I know why everyone is suddenly a “businessman”.

Coney Island baby

yes ‘baby things’ is the epitome of idiomatic english. Should someone ask to describe what idiomatic english is – ‘baby things’ would be anyone’s, who doesn’t find idioms ‘ambiguous’, first reply.

Baby aliens?

[Daphne – Richard, you have a problem.]

Every case has to be treated on its own merit.

Killing another person is a criminal act.

But is self defence criminal as well?

There is a difference between offering a bribe, and being put in a position to accept to pay a bribe, or else…

[Daphne- Or else what, Silvio? Or else you don’t get the contract? You pay a bribe because you want the contract. Otherwise you would do the decent thing and bring in the police.]

I am not saying that there aren’t some unscrupulous businessmen. You must have had the missfortune of coming across one of them.

That surely doesn’t make all businessman like that.