Mediawatch

I.M. Black

imblack_akkuza

That’s karma for you isn’t it? Sometimes the reality of life in Malta has a way of bitch-slapping you in the face like no other. A diligent and upright resident of the island takes it upon himself to try to organise a mob that is assaulting a transport company kiosk in order to top up their transport cards. Said diligent and upright resident is not seen in a very good light by his fellow strugglers for a top up – particularly those who feel that they have some God-given right to be first to receive any service on the island and who frown upon “foreigners” who dare breathe in the same part of the eco-sphere.

Things get ugly and said upright resident gets hassled, harassed and ill-spoken to by a deviant of the fairer sex. He is told in a less than roundabout a way that he better pack his bags and return to his country of origin lest he will be told where he can take his weird foreign ideas of queueing up for a service. How did the dame know to politely address him towards the nearest exit border? How did she tell that he was not one of us? Why by way of the colour of his skin (and maybe because he was marketing a foreign philosophy that jarred heavily with the idea of pushing and shoving to get served).

The bagarre did not stop there. Transported by the heat and frustration of the moment, the local maiden decided to refresh the upright resident’s general being by despatching a few dollops of freshly brewed saliva in his general direction. For good measure said woman also let rip a handful of applauses straight onto the upright resident’s person.

Sticks, stones, saliva and slaps did not break the resident’s will and having spotted the strong arm of the law (Domine dirige nos) he appealed for their judicious intervention. Such intervention was sadly left lacking, especially since the aforementioned serjeants of justice had seen a colour. Black to be exact. Before you could say Fundamental Human Rights or even Simple Common Decency the blue coloured officers had used all the force that was necessary (and a bit) to immobilise and handcuff the upright resident.

Yep. In these days of Ferguson controversies that surely never reached our shores, members of the police force entrusted with out safety have gone and arrested a manifestly innocent person for the obvious reason that his skin colour was not to their liking and made him an automatic suspect for any crime – even when a madwoman of Maltese nationality had just been caught spitting and abusing the black person in question. Surprised are we? If this is the same corps that speaks of Madonna Tas-Suwed on radio despatches then not really.

There will be an Inquiry. Leave the capital I. They are so a-la-mode these days. We have a flurry of inquiries being called for by our smug PM that will hopefully uncover a web of fraud and deception that is to be found at the core and more sensible areas of the notorious corps. Are we wrong to arrogate political responsibility to the rotten state of the corps? Hardly. Two years into Labour government and the cowboys are out – more brazen, more audacious, and ever so effectively entwined with the underworld.

The black man in question is “lucky” enough to have a hungarian ID. Very lucky actually – and this is where Karma comes in big time. Only a few days ago – the 23rd June to be exact – Hungary suspended the application of the Dublin Regulation in full defiance of EU asylum rules. The Hungarian government is itself not going through a very democratic period what with illegal expropriations, rampant corruption and the rise of the ugly head of racism. Surely Mr. Jack (for that is the name of the upright resident of this island who has been wronged) might have thought that a year in Malta away from the dangers of the new Hungary would be a good thing.

Go figure. Domine dirige nos (God guides us) is the motto of the police corps. There is very little of God’s hand in what happened today. Mr. Jack, a devout christian would tell you that himself I am sure. Another infamous set of “defenders” also used to fight battles in God’s name. Gott Mit Uns they used to say…  fat lot of good it brought to them.

American Lie

laba.ws_USA_Independence_Day

Gullible. That is the only word I can find that describes the citizens of this nation. The question really is whether the immediate entourage surrounding Prime Minister Muscat are also equally prone to swallow his tales hook, line and sinker or whether they are in on the scam. The sparkle in their eyes when they declaim the latest “achievement” of Optimist Malta seems to favour the former theory of a bunch of gullible politicians. There is no hope other than to patiently wait for the travails of time to work their magic and uncover the cobweb of deceit that is being spun as we speak.

What’s the latest problem? Well. As soon as I heard of the agreement to set up an “American” University in Malta I smelt a fish. The general public’s reaction was thrown off track by the question of siting since the area earmarked for this new institution of partaking of tertiary knowledge was in an ODZ. So the chickens got cacking about the horror of the siting without really asking the most pertinent question of all: What the flying copulation is an American University? The heirs of socialist Malta and “jew b’xejn jew xejn” (and no there is no great distance between this lot and that lot – after all wasn’t Varist signing the agreement?) were proudly parading an agreement for a private fee-paying University to be built by foreign speculators on land not previously earmarked for development (far from it) and slapped with the label of “American” to boot. Mintoff is not just turning in his grave, he is spinning faster than Kurt Farrugia ever managed in a lifetime.

Instead of losing our heads on the ODZ development issue – which is a major distraction that would somehow still turn out to be the answer to the why of all this – our first question should have been “What do you mean American?”. This is not some internationally acknowledged guarantee of educational quality. This is not Oxford, Cambridge, MIT or College of Europe opening a campus in Malta. It turns out, thanks to the work of Antoine Vella, that the much vaunted DePaul University only lent a guiding hand to the prospectors and will have nothing to do with the University. The prospectors turn out to be Middle Eastern blokes who are in the business of construction – so much for education eh… So in the end a Trojan Horse of a University is what we have. The important thing is that they will build and ruin more of the South and its coastline.

As I said, the American bit made me sit up and check what was going on. In my student days I had met a couple of students during exchanges abroad who would come from Middle Eastern and Maghreb Universities. They would invariably state that they came from an American University – whether it was Cairo, Lebanon, Tel Aviv, there was always an “American” label somewhere. There is nothing really American about these universities. The label serves to sell the image as a Western style uni by giving an added agreeable ring to it. You can find “American” Universities in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and India. They tend to be reserved for higher paying classes of the local population – enclaves for figli di papà. We are not even sure whether the building contractors who will run the University that is to be built on virgin undeveloped land will be able to guarantee a proper quality of education.

Malta has already had its famous share of Made in America salesmanship. Nidal Binni has made a killing selling snail creams, Blue Pain Relief and all sorts of similar stuff (and has now ironically branched into Real Estate). For a very long time his catching marketing came under the title of “Made in America”. It’s the kind of quick marketing that appeals to a certain type of customer. Shall I say gullible?

I wish all the luck in the world to the hard working Nidal. It’s the snake oil merchants in government who cannot be trusted. Especially after this latest American Lie.

Quote

Cluedo

It’s a bit like cluedo. The postman shot the cuckoo in Manikata on day 1. The bus driver shot the lapwing in Bugibba on day 2. Odds are on for the panel beater shooting the flamingo in Bidnija on day 3. ‪#‎closetheseason‬ ‪#‎flagrant‬‪ #‎josephzommkelmtek‬

Aside

Hello 119

– Hello 119?
– Bongu. X’gara?
– Sparaw ghasfur iehor.
– X’inhu beccun?
– Le lapwing
– X’inhu?
– Lapwing. Illegali jisparawlu.
– Ijja imma miet?
– Le dan kemm laqtuh imma imwegga’.
– Allura ma hix flagranti.
– X’ma hix?
– Flagranti.
– Mela xinhu flagranti?
– Flagranti kieku zvojtah fuqu per ezempju.
– Xi zvojta?
– Is-senter hux. Jew qatel xi 400 ghasfur.
– Int qed tiggennen?
– Le qed insegwi li qalli Galdes.
– Ok . siehbi.

Or words to that effect

words_akkuza

Was it Michael Falzon who insisted that we do not call an amnesty an amnesty? You know that measure being touted by the Taghna Lkoll government whereby any environmental and planning injustices can be righted by the payment of a proportionally small fine? Well he wants us to call it a fine or something like that – but not an amnesty. Because words have effects – and Labour bloody well knows that.

Which is why Prime Minister Muscat, a master of obfuscation, has thrown this pile of peppered bull about hospitals, investments and Queens Mary (sic) into our face in a brilliant mish-mash that would make Lewis Carroll proud. It did not take an investigative genius to see through the intentional misdirections this time round. The moment I heard the news I googled Barts (and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry). There, on their web pages I came across the information that the school was moving to a magnificent new hospital after 40 years.

Located in London, the school had cost a stunning 100 million pounds sterling – and it had taken them forty years to raise that amount of cash and make that move. Why then would Barts (or QMUL) be suddenly spending close to 200 million euros to open a school in Gozo?

Well it isn’t. The two pieces of news are separate. The first, an agreement to set up a medical school in Malta, had been signed a year ago by Godfrey Farrugia before he was hounded out of his ministry to be replaced by Konrad of the Many Promises and of the Wife On Public Payroll. Yesterday was the moment that agreement came to fruition.

The second is an attempt to get the private sector to invest 200 million euros to upgrade the Gozo (Craig) Hospital and Saint Luke’s Hospital. Muscat’s government once again shows a non-socialist approach to the management of public assets. Nothing wrong there – attracting private investment while still guaranteeing free public services is laudable. Of course the private sector will want their moneys’ worth so expect the use of such extensions for private purposes (two-tier public/private services). Also expect possible abuses if left to their own devices.

Another suprising element about this move is that Labour is replicating a move suggested by the PN government a good while back – when Mater Dei was still in the pipeline as San Raffaele and there was a public-private proposal that was gunned down by heavy Labour opposition.

Back to the word games though. Muscat deliberately plays on confusion – and is hoping this stunt about “investment in Gozo” will return the right dividends come the local elections on April 11th. You can bet your last dollar that any criticism such as this one regarding the deliberate confusion will be shot down with “mhux xorta investiment?” which is definitely not the point.

Our Prime Minister continues to prove himself to be a master of deceit and manipulation. Will the public go along once again?

#maltaottimista #maltamazzuna

Politics, for example

debono_akkuza

Yes, Giovanna Debono should resign. Her position in parliament as a representative of the people is untenable so long as her husband is under investigation for abuse of office. The sad truth is that the moment a minister employs his or her spouse or close relatives within their own ministry their position should no longer be tenable. Robert Musumeci, still posing as some kind of visionary for the hypothetical “movement” (that is none other than an opportunistic collection of gravy train riders) believes that we should wait for a “fair hearing”. Musumeci sat for a law degree virtually by correspondence (he will tell you presence at a lecture does not a law student make – which could be true) and regularly suffers from literal reproduction of positivist garbage you would expect from the vast majority of what is regurgitated from university today.

Fair hearing is for the criminally accused. Sure. It has absolutely nothing to do with the recognition of administrative and political responsibility. The basic manual of political representation (let alone constitutional law principles) would tell you that in order to be above reproach a person in political power should not employ close relatives. The assumption being that the mere employment of such relatives is the beginning of the path to abuse of office. It would be hard for someone in Musumeci’s movement to grasp such a concept. Impossible even. The Gozo Minister employs his spouse within his ministry. Our energy minister’s wife was “employed” by this government without so much as a justification and with a contract of employment the terms of which are shrouded in secrecy. Even the Emperor’s (sorry, PM) wife is prone to carving out for herself a role that is nowhere mentioned in the constitution. It would be ok if such a role were not costing money to the electorate. Yet it does.

Back to DebonoGate. There is no doubt in my mind that Debono will join the blacklist of ex-PN ministers tainted with a whiff of corruption – even if Anthony Debono manages to survive the trials and tribulations of a court of justice. Ninu Zammit, Michael Falzon, Giovanna Debono. The “old way” of doing politics that was allegedly swept aside two years to this day is still waiting to be judged. Simon Busuttil’s party will still be answering for this kind of sins for quite some time yet. Incidentally, the PM should take note that he risks becoming an accomplice to covering up any crimes of corruption if he chooses to sit on reports and whistleblower information until when it pays him to cause a fracas and deviate attention from the troubles within his house. Today’s Debono news paid perfectly to help people forget that we should be inaugurating the promised Power Station.

The PLPN way is still very much alive. This blog, born in 2004, has long warned that the system is one that promotes a race to mediocrity and that will constantly produce stories of corruption, nepotism, cronyism and abuse of power. The former PN government’s sins are now being brought to light – and however erred must pay. Muscat’s government has proven only that it is a case of “same, same but different”. In many cases it is even worse because this government that was supposed to herald change is only good at justifying blatant abuses by claiming it is only repeating what was done before – u hallik mill-ottimista. Simon Busuttil is discovering that change is not only about words but also about deeds and that in order to make a difference actions must follow.

It sucks being bang in the middle between two behemoths that struggle to catch up with the twenty-first century. It sucks being so right about what is so wrong with this country. What sucks most is that we seem to never learn.

Today is a three-fold anniversary. Franco Debono turns 41, the labour government turns 2 and Internazionale FC turn 106. It never rains….

In un paese pieno di coglioni ci mancano le palle.