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Who shall it be – Tony (Zarb) or Tony (Blair)?
I am waiting for that heartbreaking piece from the former head of the Malta-EU Information Centre, Simon Busuttil, and the once-upon-a-time IVA activist David Casa, to castigate UK Premier Tony Blair for his attempts to reduce the European Union’s regional development budget.
If this was not sufficient reason for us to lose faith in the privileged class who represent us in Brussels, we read with utter amazement that Lawrence Gonzi is in a ‘wait and see’ mode.
I could eat my knuckles, swallow a packet of aspirins and force myself to read The Times’ editorials without suffering from nausea.
Eastern European member states are kicking Tony Blair right there where it hurts, in the groin, accusing him of being a cold, calculating, insensitive western leader.
Our Prime Minister on the other hand, does not seem to realise the implications of Tony Blair’s proposals. All he can say is: ‘wejt and C’.
It’s like a scene from Fawlty Towers. The roof is caving in and the premier is more worried about stem cell research than the millions that good old Demarco had announced with such pomposity in our favourite English daily which would fall like manna from the European heavens.
A Hungarian friend explained how unfair Blair is: “Hungary and Poland sacrificed their agriculture and let it fall apart to fall in line with Europe and now Tony Blair wants us to accept his proposal for reduced regional funds.”
Surely, there are more interesting things to write about on a Sunday, but with reduced EU funds the likes of poverty-stricken Simon and partygoer David will not have anything to boast about.
Just in the same way the PM has stated in no uncertain terms ‘up yours’ to Tony Zarb for his Sea Malta fiasco, Lawrence should turn round to the other Tony (Blair) and say it as it as is: “Dear Tony, go fight your wars with France in another playing field.”
He should be forthright and rude in very much the same way the PN’s Victor Scerri was when he had the gall to defend his Nationalist forefathers who were ‘unfairly’ interned in Uganda by the British and demanded that the Queen apologise. At least Scerri has more respect with his party’s roots than his party leader Gonzi.
Just in case you have not heard, the delegation of the European Commission has a sort of office in Ta’ Xbiex guarded by one lonely and bored AFM soldier in camouflage – the Commission delegation is supposed to serve as a sounding board for something by the name of PLAN D.
PLAN D sounds like one of Josef Mengele’s terrible experiments.
In truth it is all about getting people to accept that the EU is a bloody good idea. When you listen to Blair and Barroso you start losing all your faith. With Tony (Blair) striving hard to reduce funds for regional development in the new accession countries, and Tony (Zarb) practically scuttling Sea Malta, who in his right mind could waste any time to listen to an ex-Nationalist candidate blabbering about Plan D?
Lawrence Gonzi, who gets a very special mention in this column, is obliged to do one thing for his country and that is to place his country’s interests before that of Greater Britain. If he wishes to emulate Tony (Blair) in anything it should be about his policies on pension reform and his stand on the euro.
In reality Alfred Sant is so petrified he will lose votes that he cannot even muster enough confidence to counter Gonzi’s intelligent ‘Wejt and C’ strategy. No wonder Blair found the time to waste more of his time by spending a longer time in Malta. He probably considered the Commonwealth holiday retreat at the Maltese taxpayers’ expense a wonderful opportunity to lobby the PM over his budget cuts. Let us face it: who cares about the tyrants in Africa, the madmen of south-east Asia, the sultans and the dictators, the HIV plague and eradicating debt in the former colonies? Instead of focussing on these hidden agendas, our pliable journalists were all taken up in interviews with Tony’s Cherie, princes who wash themselves in mineral water, and German cars that landed on our shores by evading the registration tax and then turning up for the yearly charitable lottery of sorts.
Dominated by the same company that portrays itself as an offshoot of a Padre Pio prayer group.
Maltese have always loved tough Prime Ministers, the ones who believe the Maltese are at the centre of the world and who can stand up for what we really are – insular, megalomaniac, Latin, Catholic and nationalist.
If we are going to be a sovereign state then let us act like one. If we are going to be a former colony or an appendage of Blairite economic blueprints let us forget about all this Maltese this and Maltese that, and just accept everything as it is.
If Tony Zarb had honourable advisors who wish him well, he would not have succumbed to such a humiliation. This is a calamity that has not only weakened the union and strengthened the administration’s hand but also left a private company with a golden opportunity. When Margaret Thatcher closed the mines, the miners lost the jobs and the militants lost the war. And Thatcher won.
Tony Zarb has to be told that his opposition to privatisation is as futile as the Church’s age-old diktat that the use of condoms are forbidden. No one can oppose privatisation. Zarb can find ways of a brokering a better deal, but he must know when that line of negotiation is crossed.
For Austin Gatt, it must have been bittersweet revenge and a reprieve for the bad publicity he inflicted on himself after the Marlene Mizzi fiasco. Yet, Gatt is in no position to face privatisation in this manner in the future. He owes it to his shareholders, the Maltese taxpayer. If he wishes to privatise another Maltese public-owned company and collect his dues, he must do this without losing the plot.
Gatt was appointed custodian of Sea Malta, he may have won his political battle but he has lost Sea Malta and returned to his shareholder, the Maltese taxpayer, empty handed.
The only one who should be smiling is Signor Grimaldi.
There will be many seminars and presentations to convince the worldwide Maltese public that the introduction of the euro is the next best thing to winning the Super Five – and by the way, why doesn’t anyone win the Super Five anymore?
This foregone conclusion is that the euro is the next best thing to Kama Sutra.
The government says it has an electoral mandate to introduce the euro and do away with the lira. Does it?
And if it does, how will it face the inflationary impact for the introduction of the euro?
Now, to this comment, there is little doubt in my mind that parliamentary secretary Tonio Fenech will parachute in and with his typical arrogant savoir-faire and telly good looks, rubbish any suggestion of ‘an inflationary’ effect.
The chairman of the committee that will see this changeover rammed down our throats and who has lived all his adult life as chairman of some government body or other, will also cry out and say ‘bollocks, bollocks!’ or something to that effect.
Which beckons me to ask the two learned gentlemen, Tonio and Joe FX: if euro introduction is meant primarily to facilitate export and import models, then why not convert the lira to dollar to accommodate our biggest export company, STMicroelectronics, or the pound sterling, to support our largest segment of incoming tourists, the Brits?
Tonio and Joe FX should know that in the present circumstances, euro introduction in January 2008 will take inflation to a level that will severely widen the cracks in our fragile economy. It is unsustainable.
When the Maltese language was entered in the book of EU languages by Malta’s most fluent and colourful Maltese linguist, the one and only Sur Cachia Caruana, we took one deep breath inside and then passed away laughing and crying out with bellyaches.
Well, let us just say that it was a political ploy to convince Labour critics that the EU really cared about us.
Now, EU technocrats are spreading the word round that all the Maltese nationals that matter speak English and most of them can hardly write Maltese and would rather speak in English in Brussels. Understandably, David Casa’s English is nothing to write home about but I am sure he can sing word for word Boy George’s pop songs in the cockney version.
The technocrats have suggested rather cruelly that it would have been a better idea if Malta had transferred the funds available to support translation services for Maltese to more useful needs. It is of course, far too late to take everything back.
Perhaps in the planned lunch meeting on the 6 December Sur Cachia Caruana has with all the MEPs he will be so kind to discuss the matter.
But when one continues to see that all the internal communications from the foreign office in Merchants Street, the permanent representation in Brussels, and the Maltese embassies, are in actual fact written in the English language, one can only say that Brussels is justified in arguing the EU shouldn’t continue with forking the expenses for the Maltese language.
The EU is justified but it is not right, considering the millions of euros it wastes for so many other useless administrative projects and the perks it offers its MEPs and thousands of Europeans and Maltese who regurgitate tonnes of futile documents in the form of ‘research projects’ and the like.
I am not quite sure if Media.Link will pass on this comment to the EU’s courier in Malta Joanna Drake, now that they have nabbed an EUR500,000 contract for a daily media review… and I am not too certain if Drake will send a précis of this commentary to the sleepy civil servants in Brussels.
Does it really matter?
sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt
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