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And so this is Christmas and for the Xmas period at least, it’s hugs, kisses and handshakes all the way. For a while we will be able to forget our political hatred towards each other. We drink together, laugh together and if we tend to get drunk enough, we might even be able to joke about our political tendencies. Once the Christmas season and the New Year is over, sadly enough it’s back to square one. Families do not speak to each other because of the political inclinations, some might even go so far as to tell their son/daughter that they are not to bring their boyfriend/girlfriend home if he or she do not have the same political beliefs. Oh what fools we are! Dear God, and then we call ourselves Christians.
Through the years we have seen much progress. Mobiles are in, computers are here to stay, the youths of today have many advantages in following their dream if he or she is to become a doctor, sculptor or on the stage but alas, it’s total regression where politics is concerned. It is not the Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, neither the leader of the opposition Dr Alfred Sant nor Harry Vassallo of Alternattiva Demokrattika who have instilled this abominable hatred. It’s the people themselves who do not accept different opinions, different beliefs and different ways of looking at things.
I wonder when the hell we are ever going to grow up as a nation? I wonder if we’ll ever learn that it’s all right to argue but not to hate. I wonder if it will dawn on us that on such a small island where everybody knows everyone else, everyone needs everyone else and where love, devotion, health, friendship are concerned… politics should be shoved aside like an umbrella in the hot days of August.
As a Labour councillor for Valletta, and a worker in the diabetics clinic at St Luke’s Hospital, I am proud to say that over the years I have gone out of my way to help a lot of people be they Nationalist or Labourite. Not once did I consider a person as a vote because whom I have helped live too far to vote number one for Valerie Borg in the local council elections. When the time came for me to seek help, I found it all around. Diehard Nationalists came to my aid because of my mother’s illness. People who looked at me as if I was something the cat dragged in just because I was a fervent Labourite practically were all over me to ask what they could do for me because they remembered, they finally remembered that even though my heart was all for a Labour government, it was in the right place.
Truth be told, I myself cannot stand Labourites whose hearts are set on revenge just because Tom, Dick or Harry was seen on television gazing at the Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi with adoration in his eyes while the latter was ranting and raving about the miracles his party performed in their years of governing! The bottom line is what do we stand to gain by hating each other because of our political beliefs? Does the emotion of hatred really bring about a feel-good factor? Where in the world do we see hatred towards each other in civilized countries be they conservatives, liberal, greens or any other parties? For heaven’s sake, why this grand show of wrath against each other because we are not all reds, blues or greens in “Catholic” Malta?
Many are those who cheer themselves up by buying themselves a Christmas present every year. I suggest they do something different this Christmas, something that won’t cost them one cent, something that won’t make them ram the shops, give them tension headaches about what to buy or make their feet sore but something that will leave their conscience as clean as a new pin and their hearts as merry as if they themselves discovered a cure for cancer. Speak to your neighbour, a member of your family, the grocer next door, the guy who works in the same office you do even if his political inclinations are different from yours. Do yourself a favour and get rid of that meddlesome emotion in your heart that finally destroys even your own self in the long run because there is nothing in the world that can wreck even your own health concerning your metabolism, as the merciless, all-consuming, detestable, destructible hate in your heart.
Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody and when I say everybody, I mean everybody.
Valerie Borg
MLP Councillor Valletta
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