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In your face book

Only last week I was following the uproar in the UK about “abusive tweets” with a measure of disbelief. We’d been there before – how seriously should twitter and social media statuses be taken? Should the tools who abuse the tools be punished? The UK government was pretty serious about regulating twitter especially to protect people from threats. I had mixed feelings about it all – how seriously should we consider status updates and tweets?

Then came Salamis. We’ve all heard how hordes of Maltese intelligentsia swarmed onto Cecilia Malstorm’s facebook page with all form of abuse. It was shock therapy as we had never seen it. You did have the suspicion during the past election that the importance given to the internet and its content by the general citizen collective had taken a weird and surreal twist. I am sure that there is a huge study to be made in marketing and advertising to the particular niche that we know as the Maltese crowd but still…

The PLPN moulded their supporters into an Orwellian vortex worthy of quite a study. There was a false sense of empowerment (say what you like and you will be heard) and there was an abuse of the propagandistic side of the medium. The majority of the citizens had not caught on to the emerald and noise and still believed that the Wizard behind the curtain was the most powerful thing in Oz. We all know how things proceeded since then: the nationalist party imploded choking on a nut while the labour party segued onto government by words and tweets.

The worst offender is the PM himself what with his non-sensical twitter account that is about as politically proper as Frankie Boyle on a trip. Then there are the abusers of the media – such as that DJ turned architect – who adds a new “blog” and shoot “aphorisms” without batting an eyelid. Which brings me to facebook. PLPN candidates bored us mental with their daily “tying my shoelaces” updates during the election. The impression was that they would “listen”. Sure. What they did do once the election is over is forget any semblance of institutional decorum, bury any notion of rule of law and murder any possibility of quiet government.

Do you blame the noisy bunches on Facebook now? Add to that the fact that they are the bunches who are most encouraged by this government’s ridiculous bandwagon grandstanding – oblivious to the hopelessness behind the moves and oblivious to the fact that they are just pawns in this power game.

So yes, we had a lot of noisy, uncouth energumens flooding to Malstorm’s page. First reaction: So what? As someone put it succinctly, the Greeks have been directing much verbal abuse in the direction of anything EU/German. Second reaction: So what? It’s not like we did not know that a huge chunk of our voting electorate was clueless about rights, politics and social interaction. Facebook is just throwing an ugly window open onto a part of our society.

It’s our society being thrown back in your face. In your face book actually.

Salamis

It has been described as one of the most significant battles in human history. Had the invading forces been victorious it would have signified the end of Western Civilisation as we know it. It all happened at Salamis, 480 years before the birth of Christ.

At Salamis almost 2500 years ago Xerxes’ Persian forces were once again trying to gain an inroad into the land occupied by a number of city states. Thanks to some wily moves, a bit of luck and some help from the elements (the Gods?), the Greek states managed to ward off the Persian danger yet again. Which is why Salamis is seen as quite an important turning point in our history.

Which brings me to the ship that goes by the name Salamis floating outside the shores of this island of ours. It fatefully picked up a hundred migrants who were stranded at sea and then was apparently ordered by both Italian and Maltese authorities to return its fare to Libya. All forms of legalisms are out in force at the moment. Mallia and Muscat are clinging to the rules of rescue at sea – basically the intent being to feign ignorance of the fact that the people who were saved would have been potential asylum seekers.

Those dreaded NGO’s have caught on to this farce and have immediately issued a call for the migrants to be allowed to disembark. “Not on my island” quoth Mallia. “It’s a point of principle”. Really? Both Italian and Maltese authorities seem to forget that they have been busy warning their own nationals to keep a wide berth of Libya – not exactly a safe haven for whomever to be obliged to disembark to. The class of idiots that swallow the daily pill from the authorities that be have taken to swarming onto the facebook page of EU Commissioner Malmstrom – spewing out all sort of invective chief among which is “Don’t mess with Malta” or “Keep out of our country”.

Early this afternoon the opposition did little to help the cause by standing fair and square behind the Labour government’s position. It was probably not aided by the fact that there are many a similar skeleton in its cupboard – PN governments did have the habit of using poor souls at sea as bartering tools for international diplomacy.

Yes, both the PL and the PN have opted to paint our country the picture of intolerance and non-hospitality. The irony is lost on all those idiot tweeters and facebookers threatening that the Knights of Malta will fight back for their identity. Has anyone heard of the Hospitallers? Do we really need to be reminded over and over of our role as nurse and missionary of the Mediterranean? Do our politicians not see that there is no dignity to be found in blowing the nationalistic trumpet?

It seems not. It seems that the hundred plus souls on board the Salamis are bound to suffer the heat, the danger and the uncertainty. Because Mallia thinks it’s a point of principle. Because Busuttil wants to stay consistent with previous PN positions. Because Muscat still gets a hard on every time he believes he can emulate Mintoff – that most Arab of post-colonial leaders.

This time the name Salamis will not be synonymous with the saving of civilisation as we know it. It will be a great monument marking the continuing slide to our mediocre end.

 

 

Intelligence Snowed In

The whole US system of spying and snooping that is supposed to protect the world from terrorists and terrorist attacks had fallen under an ugly cloud of bad publicity ever since the Snowden affair hit the news. Only this week Germany cancelled a spy pact that it had enjoyed with the US and UK ever since the Cold War years. Suddenly the allies were not being seen in such a good light after all. The outrage had followed revelations that the US had bugged its allies embassies and although there were reassurances that this was quite normal in the spying game it could be safely said that once again US Big Brother methodology was under scrutiny.

Which is when all of a sudden we get the US State Department issuing queer warnings.

“Our spies report suspicious activity that might lead to a terrorist attack”.

“Yeah? Where?”

“Uhm. Africa. All of it. And uhm the Middle East.”

“Who?”

“Al Qaeda of course”

“When and what?”

“Uhm. Transport stuff. And uhm Embassies”.

Really Uncle Sam? They are reporting “the biggest chatter since 9/11”. How abso-fuckin-lutely convenient. (That’s a Tmesis by the way). So just as your whole network of spying and intrusion in private lives comes into question you conveniently find a way to tell us that it is working. Sort of. After all the US reaction has been described as “an abundance of caution”  and not a reaction to a new threat.

It’s the US that came up with “Warning Hot Beverage” on coffee cups. Now we have a sophisticated “intelligence” network that has been shown to be used to spy on allies being justified by the apparent “smart reading” that al Qaeda operatives might be up to something generally in the Middle East/African region. Cry wolf?

 

Follement

The storm in a tea-drinking establishment captured most of the attention on the Sunday papers and media. You would be forgiven therefore (and for reasons I will explain later you would also be fortunate) had you missed the piece penned in the Sunday Times of Malta by Malta’s former ambassador to the Council of Europe Joseph Licari. The title makes no effort to hide Licari’s ultimate aim – “The case for refoulement“. He could have called it “Apologia for Joseph Muscat’s Madcap Idea of Pushing Back Migrants” but I guess it would have been too long and in your face. You would hope that the presence of the word “case” in the title to an article would mean that there would be a build up of cogent logic leading to a strong argument in favour of something: in this case that something being the not too kosher idea of “refoulement“.

Interestingly the actual principle in international law is that of “non-refoulement” – the principle itself being an enshrining of the accepted idea among international actors that refoulement is a no-no. Here’s good old Wikipedia explaining the origins of the idea:

The principle of non-refoulement arises out of an international collective memory of the failure of nations during World War II to provide a safe haven to refugees fleeing certain genocide at the hands of the Nazi regime. Today, the principle of non-refoulement ostensibly protects recognized refugees and asylum seekers from being expelled from countries that are signatories to the 1951 Convention or 1967 Protocol. This has however not prevented certain signatory countries from skirting the international law principle and repatriating or expelling bona fide refugees into the hands of potential persecutors.

In other words: “Non-refoulement is a principle of the international law, i.e. of customary and trucial Law of Nations which forbids the rendering of a true victim of persecution to their persecutor; persecutor generally referring to a state-actor (country/government).” Which is pretty much where Licari starts to deviate from the point in an attempt to find some justification for a form of refoulement that he can only imagine.

In primis, Licari goes to great pains throughout his piece to underline some form of trump-card that he variously defines as national interest or better still the international obligation to share heavy burdens. You see, a country may – according to Licari – allow itself to be bound by international obligations but these may be set aside should the country feel that its national interest be threatened or as he weakly deduces from a preamble of the 1951 Convention: “A country’s obligation to accept refugees is balanced by other countries’ obligation to help it carry an unduly heavy burden.” Sound familiar? Of course it does. Patriotism being the last refuge of …

In secundis, Licari segues off into some kind of justification by analogy about the issue of self-defence. A nation, states the wise former ambassador, is the best placed to assess when the tipping point has been reached and when to resort to declaring “self-defence”.Next step? Here goes:

In other words, a country must abide by the law but it has the right of self-defence. Killing is a crime but not if committed in self-defence, as no one has an obligation to suffer physical harm and everyone has the right to prevent it.

Drum roll please. Joseph Licari served 14 years as Malta’s ambassador to the Council of Europe. in this day and age when many a nationalist is pooh-poohing certain Taghna Lkoll appointments in the diplomatic corps (rightly so) they deserve to be reminded that this paragon of logical befuddlement was our man in Strasbourg during the nationalist watch. The race to mediocrity anyone?

It gets better. In tertiis, Licari’s article goes somewhat conspiracy theorist. In a mix between Dan Brown and Anders Breivikh he takes on the hidden powers that are supposedly influencing the mad decisions at the UNHCR and ECHR. NGO’s (unelected) get pride of baton followed by those dastardly religious leaders. The cherry on the cake comes towards the end. In an article obviously penned to justify the pushback of boatloads of sub-saharan people to their country the author suddenly turns his guns on the people to the north: you know them, the Nordics.

Together with religious leaders and NGOs, the Nordic countries form a triptych of preachers we have to suffer in today’s Europe.

Suffer eh. I just could not believe what I am reading. What began as a supposed researched case in favour of pushbacks of some form really turned out to be one hell of a joyride. Smoking. The question really is what.

And finally, just in case you were wondering about the existence of any legal import to anything Licari wrote, there is much more to the “exception” that can be found in article 33 of the 1951 Convention. First of all the exception itself requires very strict interpretation and application. Here is Cornelis Wouters in “International Legal Standards for the Protection from Refoulement“:

The danger to the national security or community of the country of refuge must be a present or future danger. Thus, the past conduct of the refugee may be relevant.As with any exception to human rights guarantees,the exceptions contained in Article 33(2) must be interpreted restrictively and applied with great caution. The exceptions apply to refugees, who in principle have a right to be protected from refoulement. The finding of dangerousness does not require strict proof, but must be based on reasonable grounds and therefore supported by credible and reliable evidence and not made arbitrarily. The burden of proof of establishing reasonable grounds is on the State and requires an individual assessment. A State cannot assume that a refugee poses a threat to its national security or community based on the fact that he belongs to a certain group and create a rebuttable presumption of danger.Article 33(2) must be applied in a manner proportionate to its objective.483 This means that (1) there must be a causal link between the refugee and the danger, (2) it must be shown that the danger posed by the refugee is sufficiently serious and likely to be realised, (3) refoulement is a proportionate response to the perceived danger, (4) refoulement alleviates or even eliminates the danger, and (5) refoulement is used as a last possible resort where no other possibilities of alleviating the danger exist.

Even more importantly than these strict conditions (that obviously cannot be applied by rounding up the healthy suspects and putting them on the next plane to Tripoli) is the concurrent application of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. A trifle detail to have missed for an ambassador of 14 years in Strasbourg. You see Article 3 of the ECFHR has been applied in such a way as to constitute an absolute prohibition on any action that could result in torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. More specifically, Article 3 of the Convention has been used to prohibit any possible refoulement: According to the Court Article 3 ECHR leaves no room whatsoever for a balancing act between the national security of a State and the need of the individual for protection. (That’s what ex-ambassador Licari does not seem to like about the Court and its supposed infiltrators).

Still from Wouters :

In all three cases mentioned above the applicant’s conduct in the country of asylum was no reason to allow exceptions under Article 3. The Court explicitly acknowledged in these cases that the protection afforded under Article 3 from refoulement is thus wider than that provided under Article 33 of the Refugee Convention which does allow exceptions.

States do have a right to be legitimately concerned about potential “wolves” – criminals hiding among a flock of refugees seeking asylum. To perform the illogical leap of justifying refoulement generally with this argument though requires not only a leap of faith but also a heavy dose of those taghna lkoll pills that risked transforming Malta into a pariah state last month.

With (ex-)ambassadors like these who needs meritocratic appointments?

The riot acts

It’s all happening in Rabat it seems. At is-Serkin to be exact. Rabat pastizzi and tea places have long been the rage for an after hours sobering up. There was a time when you would throw in the Tarxien doughnut guy – that was when the guy would go to the doughnut before the doughnut began to come… everywhere. Turns out that at 5 a.m. this morning there was some form of altercation between an employee of PN Dar Centrali and the two renegades Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Franco Debono. Depending on which news source you read there was some form of provocation from one side and the Taghna Lkoll appointees who had shot to stardom under a nationalist administration are on record to have directed a barrow load of invective against anything “nationalist”.

Five a.m. in Rabat eh. We’re not exactly back to the Raymond Caruana drive by scenarios (God rest his soul) but by the look of it this morning you get the feeling that the PN side of the equation are dying hard to portray this event as a prelude of such things to come. (I mean we DO have a monument to Mintoff in the making – and displayed at Labour HQ to boot – Ghax Taghna Lkoll means tal-Lejber). On the other hand my facebook wall is already witnessing mocking comments by Labourite “supporters” of the young nationalist stalwart whose description of the action makes him sound like some Harry Potter being attacked by Death Eaters.

The tableau remains the same. Two politicians long past their sell-by date have engaged in yet another public performance that should in normal non-Banana Republic countries spell the end of their public commitments and engagements. A reluctant opposition still insists on referring to JPO and Franco without reminding the public of their roles – you get the feeling that the PN is (1) painfully aware of its limitations at this current junction and is not too eager to rock the boat and (2) quite tellingly the PN remains even more painfully aware that it was the springboard for JPO’s and Franco’s claim to fame. It was after all PN votes that got JPO into parliament (spin and all). And Joseph? What will he do this time round? Surely not another quip about something that ‘also happened under the nationalists” (it didn’t by the way).

These are the politicians of this Banana republic of ours. Now it’s down to brawls in nightspots. Oh yes J’accuse will express sincere solidarity with any victim of senseless violence. If punches were thrown then the aggressor must not only be condemned verbally but must be brought to justice. Things might be about to go out of hand thanks to the persistence of our dichotomous way of thinking. I look at the scene as it was reported and I do not see Nicky Azzopardi, Franco Debono and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando brawling outside a pastizzi and newspaper joint.

I see the continuation of a race to mediocrity that is far from over.

Ghamilli te vojt u tlieta irkotta. Le… x’gazzetti? Ma tafx li ilni ghomor ma nixtri gazzetta?

Grabbing the iced buns

Iced buns are quite the talk of the town thanks to Muscat’s very unique interpretation of meritocracy. Norman Hamilton’s appointment as High Commissioner in Britain is the latest in a long line of appointments that have absolutely nothing to do with merit and much to do with “partitocracy”. Taghna Lkoll’s labour are not reinventing the wheel, we’ve been there before but never with such brazen partisanism. It’s as though the only reason Labour wanted to get elected was to dig its teeth in a huge cake and there seems to be a sense of urgency in all this – as though the cake might finish tomorrow.

It’s across the board. Across the boards actually. Nothing is spared. Justice, environment, diplomacy, culture… you name it the’ve got a board, directorship, charimanship or some other magic chair to fill. There is absolutely no direct correlation between the person nominated and the job in question – which is where Labour is actually going out on a limb. There is no attempt to colour the nominations with any semblance of competence or adequacy, the only justification spouting from the acolytes of the TaghnaLkoll creed is that “now it is our turn” or that “you can only trust our own”.

Such a parody of a political system defies comment through its very existence as a real life caricature. Everyone can see how naked the Emperor is it’s just that they still cannot get over how brazen he is about his nudity. Meanwhile the consequences of a more subtle iced bun distribution network gone wrong are being felt among the opposition. The horse-trading that went on behind the scenes in the nationalist party camp had already been partially exposed thanks to the Borg Olivier gaffes about his “barter” system. Businesses and commerce would have been quite happy with preferential treatment and a rather generous credit system “mal-partit” if their workings were facilitated by the party in power. Lose the power, lose the credit.

Before you know it l-istamperija is history. You know, the stamperija is the kind of place that allows the PLPN parties to conduct multimillion print and poster campaigns without batting an eyelid. Obviously right now the Labour side of credit must be basking in sunlight. No closing time for the Labour equivalent of stamperija yet because Labouris now in the driving seat of the iced bun business. Sure, Labour will bumble it much faster than any amount of PN sugary pastry scheme could – simply by way of the inability to moderate its hunger for power – but yes we are still very much in the field of same, same but different.

The biggest problem with Labour’s idea of managing the iced bun business is that Labour seems to have even less of an appreciation of the fragility of the whole power system. The Labour Horde of pretenders to iced buns have been unleashed on a Castille Palace that must seem to them what the witche’s Candy House seemed to Hansel and Gretel. The tentacles of the Labour orgy have spread into sensitive areas such as justice and diplomacy. That is very dangerous territory. Meanwhile a civil service that was very much constructed to work the EU machine is being slowly dismantled to allow inexperienced pretenders to take their places in various directorships… expect a ticking time bomb there – not because of any sabotage by nationalist civil servants but simply because the lock stock change being imposed by the iced bun brigade is simply unsustainable.

In short, the Iced Bun system is simply a progressive increase on what was already there in another form. That does not make the new Iced Bun system any more acceptable than the previous one. But it seems that in the world of PN vs PL all that it takes to be ahead is to be “same, same but different”.

Thank you very much PLPN.