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A nation of tree buggers

Strong winds in Luxembourg last night uprooted several trees around the country. Bad weather can be a bummer. That’s bad weather though, in Malta some idiot sitting at a desk decided to kill a tree that had lived through a world war because “it was becoming dangerous for passers by”. The most dangerous naturally occurring thing in Malta is ignorance and it’s spreading out of control.

Il-ballata tal-balluta. – Antonio Tufigno

Jien twelidt qabel il-gwerra, ma kien fini kważi xejn
Kont ftit iqsar minn sitt piedi, u lin-nies ħarist fl-għajnejn

Meta l-ħbit tal-għadu twettaq, fost adrenalina enormi
Min ifittex biex jistaħba, min inemmel bl-uniformi

Imbagħad kollox waqaf f’daqqa, ma baqgħex theżżiż jinħass
Qisha bdiet dinj’oħra kalma, u l-inkwiet maqtugħ b’imqass

Minn quddiemi jgħaddi kollox, ħafna postcards kuluriti
Moviment grazzjuz u varju, rġiel għax-xogħol liebsin puliti

L-għajjat li jdawwallek qalbek, ta’ tfal żgħar qed jieħdu gost
Għax kważi waslu l-Barrakka, ġiri u logħob sfrenat fil-post

Rużar Briffa ħosbien jgħaddi biex fuq bank jikteb bil-qegħda
U l-għarajjes intreċċjati lesti biex jagħmlu kull wegħda

Umbagħad wara xi elezzjoni tkun maħnuqa poplu l-pjazza
Ġemgħa orgażmika għax rebħet, logħba sfida u ġlieda mqaddsa

Sadattant ġibt ruħi sewwa, fini kważi żewġ sulari
U kuntenta b’ħajjti u posti, allavolja minhix rari

Drajt iż-żwiemel u l-karozzi, pjaċir wisq li tkun fil-qalba
Ta’ Belt hekk movimentata, u għal tibdil żgur m’għandix talba

Pero’ llejla ġew ħaddiema, ma jidhrux li ħbieb tal-ġonna
Kienu mgħaġġla, kienu koroh, kienu ‘ed jidgħu bil-Madonna

Issa ma nistax nitkellem jew inħoss sħana jew bard
Issa jien m’għadnix neżisti, għaliex jien dal-lejl sirt l-art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Ritratt u poezija migjuba bil-permess tal-awtur.)

BONĠU MALTA – MEMORIAL CLEARED (AGAIN)

The situation is not desperate. Thousands flock to Spinola Bay to drink and revel. The memorial has been cleared (again) because someone somewhere has decided that we have a collective need to forget and it is his duty to help us do so. Political appointees and apparatchiks everywhere will once again deem it necessary to denigrate the acts of remembrance and will drum the following mantra into your head – this is the time to make hay, the sun is shining. All the while the law is made an ass and the safeguards of real freedom are broken down.

Remember, remember the 16th of October,
A car bomb, impunity and plot
We see no reason,
Why systemic treason,
Should ever be forgot.

#justice #daphnecrauanagalizia #impunity

 

On Memorials

What was cleared last night was not Daphne’s memorial. What was cleared was the reminder that justice is failing, it was the reminder of a rebellion against impunity, a reminder that not all of society is prepared to keep their eyes, ears and mouths shut.

There will eventually be a time and place to discuss an eventual memorial to Daphne but this is not that time.

This is the time to return the candles, the messages and the photos that spell out clearly that the present political system operating in an ever dwindling space of rule of law will just not do.

There are crooks everywhere.

Jan Kuciak

 

The following is a google translation of the article by  Peter Bardy, Chief Reporter on Aktuality.sk, the online investigative journal for which Jan Kuciak worked before being brutally murdered in his own home along with his girlfriend.  The translation is not perfect but the meaning comes across clearly. Sadly it is a familiar message for us Maltese. It drives home an additional truth: that the fight against corruption and the abuse of power is one that very evidently transcends borders and languages. It is a clear call for a European Civil Society that must rebuild this Europe and re-connect with notions of democracy. From the Atlantic to the Urals from the North Sea to the Mediterranean…. no one is exempt from this battle.

—

They murdered the man who wanted to make Slovakia a better place to live.

Today is one of the worst days in my life. They murdered our colleague Jan Kuciak – a good man, a friend, a guy who did his job to make us live better. In order to uncover the curse and injustice. Not to be famous or rich. Together we believed that we can help that place on the map where we live.

That the company will change for the better when we write about fraudsters, thieves, corrupt. We really believed it. Really very.

They murdered his girlfriend. A girl who was beside her partner at the wrong time: when they came to murder him.

You read these lines and you do not know how much sadness is today in our editorial office. Something has happened that no one has allowed. Press the trigger and murder a man you do not even know why, because he wants to write about you?

Still on Wednesday last week, we and Jan Kuciak laughed and are not here today.

Thank you to all those who are standing on this day with us and the family of murdered young people who did not do anything wrong. Our thoughts point to John, his friend Martine, to families and loved ones.

Today is one of the saddest days in my life. Recognizing why Janko Kuciak has done journalism, we know that it is our duty to continue with it. Continue to work and believe that the police will be able to remove the murderer or murderers, or the orders of the murder of people whom we will not forget to die.

Rest in Peace.

 

Aversus a Musis

 

Neque enim quisquam est tam aversus a Musis, qui non mandari versibus aeternum suorum laborum facile praeconium patiatur. Themistoclem illum, summum Athenis virum, dixisse aiunt, cum ex eo quaereretur, quod acroama aut cuius vocem libentissime audiret: “Eius, a quo sua virtus optime praedicaretur.” Itaque ille Marius item eximie L. Plotium dilexit, cuius ingenio putabat ea quae gesserat posse celebrari. (Cicero, Pro Archia 20)

—

(Translation)

“There is no one so averse to the Muses that he would not readily submit to having an eternal monument of his own labors made in verse. They say that Themistocles, the chief man in Athens, when he was asked what entertainment or whose voice he would most gladly listen to, responded that [he would most gladly hear] the voice of the one by whom his own glory was best celebrated. And so, in the same way, Marius esteemed Lucius Plotius, by whose talent he thought that those things which he had accomplished could be best celebrated.” (Cicero, Pro Archia 20)