Ignorance, gaffes and Ira Losco

Mayoral problems in Marsaskala, television mistakes and Louis Galea’s welcoming of Ira Losco fall under the critical eye of KURT SANSONE

Some two weeks ago the Marsaskala mayor made it a point to go public about the problems faced by the locality in relation to the mushrooming entertainment zone along the stretch of road adjacent to Il-Maghluq.

For some funny reason the press conference was only attended by councillors elected on behalf of the Labour Party, but I won’t be entering into the merits of this controversy.

Only this week the same problems highlighted by the mayor found prime time in Super One’s weekly news programme Team. So far so good. It is important for the mayor to air the problems of the locality he represents.

But the mayor’s actions baffle me when only a week earlier he was invited to attend a Xarabank programme that discussed the problems faced by Paceville and, surprise of all surprises, he turned down the invitation.

There is no deep mystery in all this. Being a Labourite the Marsaskala mayor decided to obey the party’s boycott of the most popular programme in Malta. And doing so he lost the chance of highlighting the Marsaskala problems to practically the whole of Malta.

But what really pissed me off, being a Marsaskala resident, is that my mayor used his public office to play a dirty partisan game. The Marsaskala mayor must realise that in his capacity as mayor he represents all the Marsaskala residents and on that particular Friday his duty was to be present in the Xarabank audience to debate the issues at stake. Instead the onus of responsibility was left on Nationalist Party councillor Michael Mercieca who did quite a good job I must say.

Smash the telly

Last Monday I was zapping from one station to another and I chanced upon the discussion programme presented by Jesmar Baldacchino on Smash TV. I wouldn’t even bother commenting about the amateurish style and set up of the programme but the few minutes I spent watching the programme really had me in fits.

At one point the programme host informed his guests that he was going to air a vox pop on the subject under discussion, which happened to be Paceville. But owing to some technical fault the vox pop never went on air and the home viewers were treated to a continuous shot of the studio with sound and all. Obviously, the people in the studio, including the presenter did not know of this technical hitch and were under the mistaken impression that they were not on air.

During these few minutes the host was prompting his guests to raise certain issues and at one point he addressed a guest and told him, "iftah id-diskussjoni int fuq tas-16 u nejk."

Nobody informed the poor presenter of the gaffe he had just done and when the vox-pop was supposedly over he informed us viewers that he was going to pick on the issue of under age drinking. I don’t know what happened after that because I just zapped on.

A star is born

Ira Losco’s grand welcoming by thousands of Maltese admirers was the incarnation of what in socio-psychology is known as the ‘Village Venus effect’. This term describes the phenomenon whereby in small villages and countries anybody who remotely excels in something is immediately promoted to stardom.

It is a reflection of this country’s character, but on a Sunday morning nobody is bothered to read about sociology. Ira Losco deserves every bit of the heartfelt welcome she received. At the start of the World Cup horn-blowing season, when Union Jacks and Tricolores will adorn Maltese streets, Ira gave us Maltese something to honk about.

And in the euphoria that greeted the young singer on her arrival a new star adorned our heavens. Education Minister Louis Galea shone brilliantly as an event organiser. He should consider changing jobs. During the brief press conference at the airport, the able minister determined how long people should speak, who should speak and when they should speak. The Nationalist Party should reconsider Louis Galea for the post of secretary general, with no offence to Joe Saliba.

By Kurt Sansone