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The French and Dutch have spoken and notwithstanding the extent of their NO vote, there are many who insist on describing the French and Dutch as numbskulls.
The bleak and miserable truth is that normal people are calling on their politicians to abort mission and jump off their ivory towers and return to basics.
The fact that the French and Dutch have the guts to say it should gain them respect not scorn. At the back of their mind, the Non and the Nee is about jobs, prosperity and a genuine hope for the future. When you look at Chirac, Blair and that Dutch man who looks like someone from Addam’s family, you can understand why people cannot forgive their politicians.
At least in France and Holland they avoid making the asinine call for the inclusion of Roquefort in the French constitution, or cows in the Dutch Constitution.
Here in Malta, the TV hosts who are paid lump sums by PBS make Chiara the news, and the rest, I am afraid, is secondary.
With the Maltese led to believe that Europe is all about money, any other European subject is seriously irrelevant. In reality for most Maltese, Europe means that all our politicians are most of the time abroad attending meetings and eating Belgian chocolate, or having interminable meetings with Richard.
Of course the costs are not theirs but ours.
As our economy continues to grind to a standstill the Maltese civil servant spends more time over directives, questionnaires and reports than over national issues.
Alfred Sant of course did not see it coming. Listening to Super One on Saturday morning with deputy leader Michael Falzon trying to make some sense, you want to start believing that the Labour party is led by a team. Pull the other one Michael. In reality it is one man, one gear box, one car and one brain. And Alfred Sant’s decision was as usual a strategic miscalculation.
Even the front-page news in l-orrizont talks of European cock-ups. Joseph Muscat, the Labour MEP who would not mind serving as leader of New Labour, did not deliver his three-minute speech in the European Parliament because there was no available translator for Maltese to French. As we all know, the former French translator Vicki Cremona ended up by some fluke as Malta’s ambassador to France. Before that she was teaching drama or something to that effect and before that she probably thought the European Union was the next best thing to sour yoghurt.
Joseph, who was once described as Sant’s poodle, never misses out on occasions that can draw some attention to himself. Next time round he should have asked Richard Cachia Caruana to help out with the Maltese to French translations.
But then Richard is, I am informed, rusty in both languages. The only time he was exceedingly fluent in Maltese was when he appeared in one of those ‘help-the-government-when-the-sh**-hits-the-fan’ programmes on TVM.
The other day it was pointed out to me in the most disagreeable way that this European Union thing cannot be applied to the island. The only people who stand to gain, I was led to believe, are the ones who led everyone to believe that Europe was Satan’s playground, like Sharon Ellul Bonici, or the ones who argued that Europe was a bed of roses, for example Simon Busuttil.
On this I have some reservations, but the general impression is that this Europe thing is becoming a little bit of an obsession. Just in the same way Eddie Fenech Adami got obsessed with this idea of making himself President of Malta.
The way forward is to forget Europe and to focus on Malta. To others the most important thing is that we stop everything and that by changing our Constitution and insert the clause ‘mind you have an abortion’ we would be solving the problems of this Island.
Many people sincerely believe that once you put aside the Maltese language, the unique art of blasphemy, MEPA, the Sonya Camilleris and Paul Vincentis of this world, the bizarre politics of Franco Galea, the hair gel of Silvio Parnis, the tantrums of Richard Cachia Caruana and the hunters/gorillas that shoot at anything that moves this Island State will be nothing more than a forlorn, middle-sized European city surrounded by the sea and immigrants in sinking boats.
Lawrence Gonzi will obviously disagree.
To prove his point he will illustrate that the very presence of so many authorities on wide-ranging subjects such as resources, communications, planning, maritime, health and safety, fair competition, gender equality and countless others is proof of our nationhood.
But seriously do you think that Malta would be very different without them? Take a look at Malta Enterprise, it has a staff complement that could lead you to believe that Malta has a dynamic economy buzzing with indescribable growth figures. The only thing that grows at Malta Enterprise is the staff complement and their salaries.
Indeed the Prime Minister boasts of economic growth. But I have yet to meet one human being who does not laugh or cry when he hears these daft words.
Alfred Sant has taken for granted that in three years’ time he will be installing plastic flowers once again at the Auberge de Castille – one of Dr Sant’s first measures when taking office was to replace all the natural bouquets and replace them with PVC copies of dahlias and zinnias. It was his way of cutting the deficit.
Like a sloop following a tail wind Sant now embraces the European Constitution as if it were auntie Maggie returning from Melbourne. So intent is he on replacing Gonzi who makes himself out as the harbinger of economic growth, that he has even allowed Super One to scorn Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, forgetting that he was once one of the most loved of Labour leaders.
Now some months ago, a retired judge by the name of Franco Depasquale was given the brief of investigating the beatings that took place at the Armed Forces of Malta Hal-Safi detention centre for asylum seekers.
Dr Depasquale is referred to in the courts as one of those judges that could do with some energy drink. There are many more unkind comments.
The printable ones suggest that any time the government wants an inquiry to be finalised in anno mai, they ask Depasquale.
During that AFM riot, the Armed Forces commander was present as his soldiers acted in the most unacceptable manner. He did not resign, and he was not asked to resign. Indeed he appears with a smile on his face at most receptions dressed not in his military uniform as I would expect protocol suggests, but in well cut suits.
Which takes me to another AFM subject – roadblocks.
The season of roadblocks is with us. Armed to their teeth, hiding behind cobbled walls, the AFM stop you and see if you are the type that could be carrying, taking or trading in drugs.
They point their lights, their heavy armour at you, and order you to drive to the side. Then they walk to you. You are not a terrorist. You are a young, adrenaline-driven yob wanting some fun.
In the meantime, on fast boats on the high seas, in containers at the airport and through the ports, the big guys carry their drug consignments and start counting their profits in their head. They are known to all, but the AFM never point their guns on them.
In the newsroom, a fax rolls off the UTAX fax machine and a police statement heralds a discovery. Two 20-year-olds are found in the possession of cannabis. Yippie! Another blow to the drug world.
I sit down and down a double whisky. At least the oral application of this chemical is still not a crime.
It is a working day and the Home Affairs Minister is telling the police commissioner that it has to be zero-tolerance for prostitutes. War is to be waged on the oldest profession. And believe it or not, both the commissioner and the politician will not be talked into accepting that this hormonally driven vice cannot be eradicated.
The stories about hunting of birds are as old as our tradition with fireworks. The press statements with pictures of decimated wild birds are nauseating. Not only ‘cause it confirms to what lengths the hunters will go to shoot at anything that flies but for the fact that no one can stop their cruelty.
I hope that BirdLife Malta, Nature Trust and all the others understand that the only way forward is by laying all the blame on two people. The Minister for Environment, George Pullicino and Stavros Dimas, the Greek EU Commissioner.
Politicians will only act if you prick them until they feel the pain. Can we halt these banal statements about irresponsible hunters and lack of enforcement? Most hunters are irresponsible and we know that it is impossible to have a policeman in every corner of the Maltese and Gozitan countryside.
Kick the ball into George’s feet and tell him that we got into Europe to have the right to enjoy the same wildlife a European enjoys. And let us stop imagining that politicians will do something when you are nice to them.
The Labour party is getting all excited about electoral reform. In 1996, when Joe Saliba was a Nationalist candidate and Wenzu Mintoff was the Alternattiva Demokratika chairman, the Labour Party were against this kind of reform.
They now see it as there only chance to get what they deserve. Such is politics.
Now Dr Sant is seeing the light and wants to revisit the things he opposed with a vengeance. So far so good.
What is not good, is the level of discussion is being dominated by the three parties. The rules of the games are being drawn up for their benefit and theirs alone. What they need to do is widen the debate and eradicate not only the antiquated single transferable vote and the district dilemma but the way candidates are chosen. And the thing we should avoid is leaving the public discussion in the hands of someone like Joe Azzopardi.
This chap who changed his name to something else just like Jean Spears did when she changed her name to Britney, is so incredulously superficial in his understanding of the Maltese electoral system that he misses the wood for the trees.
For example, he could not understand that the Electoral Commissioner constitutionally appointed by the Prime Minister cannot be criticised by the same person who appointed him.
But then unlike Mr Britney Spears, I have no obligation to defend the wisdom of Gonzi’s bad judgements. I am after all not a TV host on PBS until death do us part.
Listening to Mr Britney Spears on Super One last week, I appreciated how dangerous it becomes for people who do not know what they are talking about.
Irrespective of the Britney Spears’s of this world we need a major overhaul of the system with a special ripenismento in the way candidates are selected by their respective political party. Emphasis on brains in lieu of good looks, goatees, fundamentalism, and bootlicking, would be extremely helpful.
And how about a smaller House of Representatives?
Now I know why Sandro Schembri Adami, who was a Labour MP and should have never been accepted by the MLP as a candidate, would pay for everyone’s bill at a restaurant.
More about this notary next time.
saviourbalzan@newsworksltd.com
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