Chickens, Lino Spiteri, diplomacy and the countryside

Deep in the heart of Europe, hidden in red brown chestnut forests a scene is re-enacted from that superb English film, Chicken Run.

Ugly, modern concentration camps for chickens, fattened up in artificial light, air-conditioned environments, automated processed feeding and cleaning and of course computerised alarm systems.

These are the modern day batteries for egg-laying chickens.

Chickens are tagged and when their egg laying drops to one every two days they are culled. No questions asked.

It takes 28 days for an egg to go bad I am told and according to EU regulations any abuse within this time limit is dealt with in an atrocious manner.

But those modern egg factories are under threat despite their ultra modern output. Egg farmers the world round are facing a global egg war.

I had no idea that India and China are major egg producers and export millions of eggs into Europe every day. Indeed Chinese and Indian eggs are invading the world markets.

Every week over a billion eggs from the other side of the world hit the roads in Europe.

German and French eggs will be extinct in the next five years.

Though levies for non-EU eggs are in force for all of the European Union, the poultry farmers cannot match the dirt cheap prices of Indian and Chinese eggs.

The end result is indirect help from the European Union, but not really that much.

The same story can be told for beef, lamb and other agricultural products that inundate the European market from far and beyond.

And this is the internal market of the European Union, where barriers are erected for imports from countries not part of the EU.

Is there a moral to this story?

You bet there is; the buzz word is globalisation and its long term effects.

No matter how high you build the walls, whether it is called protectionism or stubborn political agendas, the way of the market cannot be changed.

The sooner we realise this the better.

As expected Lino Spiteri came back regarding my declaration on Paul Muscat and my jibes re. his close friend Gorg Abela. I have no intention of exchanging blows with this clever man, but I refuse to be a revisionist.

And that is why I find it so difficult to keep my big fat mouth shut. For it is not in my nature to judge people on singular actions. Mr Lino Spiteri’s piece in The Sunday Times is as much ado about nothing.

The Nationalists swoon over Lino Spiteri because it suits them just right, but when he was a Labour minister and opposition personality they concocted media campaigns against the man and decimated him.

They did the same for Joe Grima.

Today Mr Joe Grima is used by the PN machinery to inject credibility into their media services. In truth Mr Grima has but little or no convincing powers with Labour folk. And less with those who suffered his ills when he served as a Government minister.

The same cannot be said for Mr Spiteri. He is a capable, intelligent and astute man. And he is respected by middle of the road Labourites.

But he is also disliked for keeping his cards close to his chest and is viewed by many as this chap with a big chip on his shoulder’s.

Today, though the former cannot in any way be compared to the latter, both are heroes for the Nationalist party. More still they have become political pawns utilised conveniently to channel opinions on their former colleagues.

A rather disagreeable pastime if you ask me.

I bumped into Guido Lanfranco, the naturalist, folklorist and a former biology tutor of mine, and asked him if he still roams the countryside.

"Not that frequently," he said.

"It hurts to see the state of the countryside today. Until the fifties and mid sixties, it was still rather pristine. But after the building boom, so much has changed. It saddens me to see it today."If there is one thing I am in agreement with Alfred Sant on, it is about Didier Destremau, the effervescent, gaseous ambassador to France.

It is perfectly correct to say that Malta deserves a more diplomatic and respectable ambassador representing France.

The man has gone too far and this government should stop tolerating his uncalled for comments. And finally I loved the Noel Grima piece about Destremau’s parting, which he said was the only thing that had changed in the Frenchman’s character.

Does changing a parting tell you anything about a man?

Who knows?

saviourbalzan@maltamag.com