“Did the dragon like the diamond?”

You will recall how much attention Malta Today and the Labour Party paid to that particular line in an email from a Trafigura executive to George Farrugia.

There was a lot of heavy hinting about how this was code for a bribe paid to Austin Gatt.

But back then I realized immediately that it wasn’t code for any such thing, but was just a simple, obvious, straightforward question from one man to another about the present – a diamond – he had bought for his wife or other woman in his life.

‘Dragon’ is how men insultingly refer to women. It is a descriptor used exclusively for women. Men are never described as dragons. But if your English isn’t that great, or if you are seeking deliberately to mislead, then, well…

Yes, it was obvious to me from the get-go that ‘Did the dragon like the diamond?’ meant ‘Did your wife like that diamond you bought her on our trip, to stop her nagging and kvetching?’

And sure enough, from Times of Malta’s report on Cathy Farrugia’s testimony before the Public Accounts Committee this evening:

She confirmed that her husband had been invited by (oil company) Trafigura to the World Cup in South Africa. She assumed they paid for the trip, but she did not know for sure. Company representative Naim Ahmed was present. Her husband had bought her a precious stone.

Funny how none of the newspapers zoomed in on that bit of information and linked it to ‘Did the dragon like the diamond?’ and all the inferences to corruption that had been made at the start of this whole business. They just reported it as though it was something straightforward, as though there had never been any issue about it.