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Farmer and fishmonger Indri Zammit is fast becoming a household name. Were it not for Henri Darmanin, the man who sees to all the electoral hang-ups for the Nationalist Party, we would have all forgotten and about forgiven this alleged drug trafficker.
That he is a former business partner of Parliamentary Secretary and Notary Tony Abela, is of no consequence to most of the press. No surprises here: listening the other day to Joe Pirotta on Campus FM, one gets the impression that nothing has really changed. Back in 1958 Labour could not get a word in the Strickland-dominated press which had no love lost for Mintoff and his integration policy. Plus ça change!
Back to 2006. Instead of joining the Brady Bunch at Kordin, Indri has been allowed to live in the comfort of his house, or farmhouse, under what is euphemistically called house arrest. As a consequence of his house arrest he is not in a position to pick up his vote, and unless he is awarded a special concession, he will not be able to vote.
But all votes are precious. Indeed, Jason Azzopardi on Radio 101 said that Indri Zammit is innocent until proven guilty. By Jove! I wish he was around when the press condemned other drug traffickers or better still, portrayed people like Zeppi l-Hafi as saints and Meinrad Calleja as the antichrist!
The comment of the year is found on the front page. It is from Joe Saliba. He told journalist Karl Schembri: “Indri Zammit needed our help, and whoever needs our help gets it.”
I am sorry Joe, this kind of reasoning is out of line. It cannot be that an alleged drug trafficker and former contabandist is helped to vote by a political party.
It is simply not on. Mr Darmanin, I would imagine with Joe Saliba’s blessing, issued an official letter calling on the Electoral Commissioner to deliver the voting document to Indri Zammit. He is after all, according to the same letter, either disabled, invalid or elderly: three things Indri Zammit is definitely not.
He could have perchance included ‘farmer and/or fishmonger under house arrest’ among the categories, but I guess farmers and fishmongers usually pick up their own votes.
So the above revelation by Labour leader Alfred Sant should have created a stir, but it did not. Sleaze, thuggery, corruption and misbehaviour have little impact on the electorate. When the Labour government had institutionalised all three, the Nationalists won the election in 1987 with a margin of only 4,000 votes.
Unfortunately for those who actually have values, the politicians are realising that the only thing the voter understands is the feelgood factor. Truly, I will not be surprised if the Nationalists do well in Rabat.
Nevertheless, the Nationalists, and the Prime Minister in persona, went to great lengths to insist that Tony Abela had no more connections with Indri Zammit.
Well we believed him, but we are now back to square one and we are back to the doubting game all over again. If Indri Zammit is past tense, why does Joe Saliba feel the need to help a man under house arrest to vote in the Rabat council?
And as a matter of interest, who would Indri vote for if he had a vote? Any guesses?
When some years back there was a man by the name of Meinrad Calleja, the Nationalist press and their posse of journalists would not rest until every fragment of Calleja’s character, relations, political inclination, contacts and encounters were scrutinised, dissected and blown out of proportion. It may have been pertinent to do such a thing, if the same measure of scrutiny had been used for every singular case.
Just imagine for a moment, and this did not and could not have happened, if the MLP had written to the Electoral Commissioner and asked for Meinrad Calleja’s voting document to be delivered to him - on the false premise that he was either sick, an invalid, aged, or say a good old friend who needed a hand in participating in a democratic society... only the gods know what would have happened.
It has been said before, but I will say it again. The PN still believes there is no likelihood of the Labour Party winning a national election.
The boys at Pietà will be in denial and will say that the result of these local council elections has no influence on what the voters will do in two years’ time. They will argue that the Alfred Sant formula will fail to elect Labour, so logically they fear that replacing Alfred Sant will guarantee their downfall.
I believe so to.
But the chances of Alfred Sant being replaced or deposed as leader of the Labour Party are as remote as seeing that sometime anti-war protester Joe alias Peppi Azzopardi, asking American Ambassador Molly Bordonaro for funds to organise a programme on immigrants and migrants in the United States.
The late Pope, as we all know, is an icon.
Anyone who has had the fortune of meeting the late Pope will definitely be very proud to frame the photo opportunity in a silver frame.
It will probably adorn the sotto specchio or serve as a screen saver, just in case one of those nasty websites pops up at the wrong time.
But it does not stop here. There are those who believe – and probably they are correct – that replicating an image of themselves with the Pope will not only bring them eternal life but a vote or two.
If I stood for election, I would have to search frantically for a picture to help me out in my campaign. It is not my hobby to pose with Monsignors.
Thankfully the world is made of different people with different outlooks and likes and dislikes.
So Rudolf Grima, the Nationalist candidate in Rabat, has sent pictures of himself with the late Pope, with the words
“With your Vote
Choose an honest Mayor
Choose an experienced Mayor
Choose Rudolf Grima”
Not even soulmate David Casa could have been so shallow.
The Church is a closed society, nothing new about that.
As a policy it insists that it should not divulge any information if a member of the clergy is facing an internal investigation.
No big deal. The police take the same stand when one queries over their own investigations.
Traditionally the Church decides to punish or reprimand wayward priests or monks by banning them for short periods. In the secular world, we would call it a suspended sentence.
In our world, the names of those having a suspended sentence are publicised and known to all and sundry, in the world of the Church, they are not.
Some moons ago, I wrote a piece about Ras il-Wardija, a 2,300-year-old punic temple which has been enclosed and serves Gozitan trappers and hunters. One of the owners of this site phoned me some months ago to complain that I had mentioned the place was out of bounds. What gall.
Well, here we go again. The owners, if there are any, should be ashamed of themselves for having allowed this temple site to disintegrate and disappear under the trapping hides of ‘illegally’ constructed trapping sites – in fact there is no such thing as a legal trapping site.
And Princess Giovanna should be commended once again for having done next to nothing to save this gem of a site.
A story in one of the daily newspapers led with the title Wirt Ghawdex, sees some good in Ta’ Cenc project. Gozo’s so called heritage organisation, Wirt Ghawdex, hosts a website with a Mid-Med bank account.
Just for the record Mid-Med was privatised some seven years ago.
Even an extinct Dodo has more life.
I thought Wirt Ghawdex was dead, fossilised and a forgotten organisation but now it has sort of returned like a Phoenix in favour of the proposed development of Ta’ Cenc.
Wirt Ghawdex stated it was fully conscious of the social and economic needs of Gozo and as such could not simply condemn outright any further development on the island.
The organisation did a Lazarus and is apparently led by Gozo Magistrate Coppini. The organisation is very extraordinary, since it has been next to mum over the rape, the pillage, the sodomy and the burning of their Island of Gozo. Now, out of the blue, the organisation issues a statement showing that it is diametrically opposed to all the other stands taken by all the other green organisations.
I am sure there must be another reason for this. And I am sure it has nothing to do with the arguments they articulate in their distressing statement.
Zeppi l-Hafi is complaining about the evil of drugs in Prison – yawn! And one of his blind admirers in the ‘independent’ press – yawn! – had the brainwave of asking Tonio Borg – yawn! – about Zeppi’s revelation – yawn!
I am not quite sure about all this yawning. My respectable grandmother would always insist a person yawns when he reads through someone or is infinitely bored. I think it is a combination of the two.
By the way, I hope Zeppi will continue with his sterling campaign… behind bars!
The biggest dilemma facing this country is the time we waste on politics and listening to politicians promising the world.
It has been election time for weeks on end and after this Sunday, we will only be talking about the campaign for the next election.
In the meantime, the economy tries to get its act together and middle class families review their savings and spending power.
No worries the banks are makings pots of money so we should not be worried.
My grandmother would have never uttered the F word in her long life; she probably did not even know what it stood for, but I can say it to you in no uncertain terms that this country is truly and spectacularly screwed!
sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt
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