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I very well hope the Nationalist party will pass this text on to the technocrats in Brussels. I would not be surprised if they don’t. I am sure you have all choked on your cornflakes this morning as you read Matthew Vella’s news story about the PN winning a half-million euro contract to provide their own home-baked reviews of what the print and audio-visual media have to say about the European Union to the European Union.
Here is a party that runs a newspaper, radio and TV station which is not only economical with the news, but downright partisan and one-sided.
The Commission says it finds no conflict of interest in the choice of the PN but by now I hope you have all realised that our expectations that a fair and honest Europe will save us from our mediocrity is simply untrue. If we are expecting the EU to be our salvation I think there is more hope turning south-west to Tunis where the Ben Ali family runs yet another dictatorship and where the press is gagged.
I have absolutely no remorse in stating that if this is the Europe we are working for, then long live isolation, autarky and complete detachment from this technocracy of gravy train-driven bureaucrats motivated by the supreme virtue in defending their own turf.
If you raise the question of whether there is a conflict of interest, the standard reply is: please visit your psychiatrist.
And let us not be scandalised if George Pullicino finds absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that MEPA board members also have direct interests in businesses-related projects seeking development permission from the authority.
He says that he sees nothing wrong with a Louis F. Cassar serving applicants in the planning authority with his ‘expertise’. But then George in all his wisdom is the man who rang me some days before Julian Manduca passed away, informing me that we had burnt (hraqtu) a good man, that good man being Ronald Azzopardi, the other MEPA board member who in ‘our view’ had a possible conflict of interest!
After the shameful reply by the European Commission, that it does not find any problem that the Nationalist party offers a daily press review to Drake’s delegation, I should not be too surprised.
What is wrong if Johnny-come-lately Jesmond Bonello, a former times journalist who defended the party in government in the same way Lord Haw Haw defended Adolf, is given, after a careful scrutiny, one, two, three and hold on… four contracts?
So now when it comes to the news on the ground, we have two potential filters: the first is the Nationalist party, and then the delegation, run by whether you like it or not an ex-PN candidate for the European parliament, supported by some former PN activists.
Really and truly, if I could I would go back in time and erase from memory lane all the time I spent in the IVA movement. Now, I know that I was not only sharing quality time in IVA with an alleged paedophilia downloading freak, but with some folk who only had one vision: gravy and more gravy.
It has to be confirmed. Rome is burning and with the burning of Rome everything will crumble, including the ones who built Rome.
We are facing an unbelievable state of affairs where nothing is sacred and everything depends on whom you know and not what you know. It is not just the interpretation of facts that are no longer sacred, but the facts themselves.
A private company earns Lm294,000 for a nine-month schedule on public funded TV and they argue that what they receive are not taxpayers’ money. Then who the flying alligator is forking out this money if not the taxpayer? And then they have the gall to face the spotlight when they have had a monopoly against payment of state TV for eight or more solid years.
Back to Europe. I recall that in days of the former head of delegation, Ronald Gallimore, the only press invited for breakfast briefings were the EU friendly press – the others were excluded. I do not know if Joanna Drake is doing the same, but I would be surprised. Then again times have changed, and no one really knows what will happen next time round in the next election.
And even so, I will not be using up anymore of my time listening to ‘piecemeal’ information from an institution that finds no problems to allow a political party to channel the news it sees fit to the ‘wage earners’ in Brussels.
This is not a Maltese phenomenon. Indeed the Maltese institutions are far more transparent than the European ones. This newspaper asks the EU parliament to clarify how MEPs Simon Busuttil and Joseph Muscat spend their money and we get snubbed. Is this the transparency expected of Europe?
And let us also be very proud of our shaky judicial system. In the UK, under Labourite Tony Blair, if you happen to be considered a terrorist suspect you are either shot in a subway or else apprehended for three months without question.
In wonderful Malta, as long as you can pay your bail, Kordin remains the realm of the unfortunate Arabs or so-called drug barons. There is little doubt in my mind that if today we were to hold a referendum on Europe, the vast majority would vote against Europe.
Today in Malta, Europe has advantaged either those who have either campaigned for Europe or those who campaigned against. The delegation in Ta’ Xbiex is worried over public perception of the EU. Why are they so surprised? Just look at what has happened to all the activists who flew a flag for Europe: David Casa, Richard Cachia Caruana, Simon Busuttil, Joanna Drake, Jesmond Bonello and so many others. Poor them they are suffering for their sins.
The rest, the vast majority, are disgusted by what they are asked to make out of this army of Armani suits and Versace ties. If this was not enough, the whole apparatus linked with the brief to impart Europe to the citizen is controlled by an elite group of diehard party warriors who owe no allegiance to anyone other than to their careers.
And yet, despite all the issues raised about how people are being chosen instead of those who have the experience and the know-how, the standard reply is ‘go visit your doctor, you are very sick.’
Which is exactly what we are in no position to do – that is, if we are going to have to pay the medical fees that people like Louis Buhagiar reportedly bill patients who attend private hospitals.
If there is proof that mediocrity is not a Maltese trait, the news that Bertu Mizzi is to be awarded the OBE is confirmation that my chances for beatification are not as far-fetched as they appear.
I am told that individuals who get the OBE are traditionally role models. Now if Bertu Mizzi is your idea of a role model than God help me and all of us. If you ask me, the ones who did not accept an OBE are far closer to my idea of a role model, hence John Cleese, David Bowie, Aldous Huxley, Graham Greene and John Le Carré are fine fellows who had no problems in offering a middle finger to the queen.
Here is a man by the name of Bertu who cannot be accused of any wrongdoing but in all fairness is one of the biggest speculators Malta has ever known. And thanks to his amazing understanding of how stone can turn into gold he has transformed the landscape of Malta from pristine green to panzer grey, from the valley that we used to call Santa Maria to what is now the ugliest thing that greets you at Marsamxett harbour, Tigné point.
If we are to look for role models, I would think it would be someone like Dun Victor Grech. But then Victor Grech did not run away to Brussels to say what a jolly good idea Dar Malta was. But yes, Bertu Mizzi was Mintoff’s fondest industrialist and also once vilified by Eddie Fenech Adami during a mass meeting, and until another man moves into Castille, he is also Gonzi’s and Richard’s favourite property evaluator.
I will not pass further comment on Bertu Mizzi but yesterday as I strolled down Republic Street, I was approached by many a septuagenarian who crossed the street and begged me to question this OBE award. “Ara vera ma jafux x’qed jaghmlu!” (They know not what they are doing.) “Imma dawn jafu minn hu dan Mizzi?” (Do they know who this Mizzi is?)
I will not be writing about Bertu Mizzi but if my good heart is still pumping blood corpuscles in ten years’ time, I promise you a revealing tell-tale blockbuster.
I did, did I not, start off with a certain Louis F. Cassar and his apparent inability to see a conflict of interest as a MEPA board member, and then about the statement by his minister who stands by him.
George is one of a kind. His failure to read red when it is red, is a problem. But then you have to give it to him when he comes up with brave new ideas about the right of walkabouts in the countryside. As my younger sis always says: “everyone’s got a saving grace.”
He should start with Fort Bingemma, squatted by an arrogant panel beater, and the Olive grove in Zabbar, annexed by a bunch of hunters dressed up like big game hunters. Ridding of our countryside of Berlin walls and guns is a must for all those who stroll the countryside in search of some peace and quiet away from the projects, on which people like MEPA board member Louis F. Cassar depend to make an extra buck.
This is the paradox we live in. Similar to the illogic of Gonzi’s unknowingly constant doomsday talk about the economy. His Sant-like talk has catalysed a negative knee jerk reaction from the business community and consumer spending power.
He is just doing an Alfred Sant, discharging a bad feel aroma when in reality nothing can help the economy but itself and less state intervention. If only politicians, queens, kings, princes, general secretaries and asses would realise that things can move on without them being around. If only, just only!
sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt
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