On my return from Hong Kong, I still picked up Xi Xu’s book “Dear Hong Kong: An Elegy to a City”, and before the turn of the last year, I read it on the way to Malta. It is a farewell letter to a city, which was also my home for five years. Did I not live on an outer island in the South China Sea, back then, I would have found the city itself unbearable. It struggles to build new capabilities, needed to be a significant part of China and staying relevant in a world which is moving on. Hong Kong was “frozen” for 50 years by British negotiators at the time occupation ended and the city returned to China. I really liked Xi Xu’s personal tone and her views on Hong Kong. A second book, which I read the first time in 2007, I reviewed by listing to the audiobook: Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, And Steel - The Fates of Human Societies. Just in the middle of many Western countries failing to manage a pandemic, and the US government globally mongering conflict and rattling swords, this was an interesting reminder, how societies rise and fall.

The Malta at War Museum timely features an exhibition on gas masks. This style fits into the necessity and fashion today, even our FFP2 standard is less spooky.

Gund and steel - The Saluting Battery in Valletta.

View into the HQ bunkers in Malta, in a room where the Mediterranian is monitored. It was last used in the Cuban missle crisis, to potentially block Sovjet ships passing through from the Black Sea.

Air defense coordination room in the Maltese HQ bunkers.

On my favorite walk from Kalkara to Marsaskala