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8 years of J’accuse

This year’s blogging anniversary for J’accuse was lost amidst the chaos and confusion of a General Election. On the 10th of March 2013, J’accuse turned eight. Eight years of constant blogging have not only been a gratifying experience (for myself of course) but also an enriching one. This blog has evolved over time as has its readership. The advent of social media has meant that the blog becomes a tool for more specific – longer – reflections than the immediacy of Facebook or Twitter. J’accuse survives all the same.

With the 8th anniversary comes an important announcement. For the last few months J’accuse has transformed into a purely political blog and become less of cyclopaedic blog that comments upon everything. Furthermore, this has been the first campaign in which J’accuse openly backed one of the running horses – AD – as I felt that this would be completely in line with the editorial policy and beliefs of this blog.

The political side of this blog will no longer be a predominant factor however. The main reason is that over the last few months those to whom I am answerable by way of employment have frequently voiced their worry that my political opinions be associated with themselves – something to which they do not take too kindly. I stress that this is an opinion of theirs which I do not share but which I cannot ignore both out of respect as well as out of exigencies at the workplace. There is no doubt that “guilt by association” is very much alive in Maltese politics (and in the observation thereof) and that my continuing to voice my political opinion would risk the very consequences of such an association being perpetrated much to the chagrin of my immediate work superiors.

It is therefore with a heavy heart that I have agreed not to continue blogging about Maltese politics in this space. I would like to stress that everything that has been written up until this very post – from the very first post on the 10th March 2005 – is my opinion and my opinion only (for which I assume full responsibility) unless otherwise stated explicitly. Nothing contained in this blog should ever have been, or be, construed as reflecting the opinion of any individual, organisation, institution or party other than myself.

J’accuse will continue existing as a blog upon everything – pointing out the idiosyncrasies of life as an expat and observing life in Malta from a distance. Blogging is a vice as much as it is a pleasure. I sincerely hope that you continue to enjoy the posts from this blog at least with a fraction of the pleasure that I derive writing them.

Thank you so much for being with this blog until this point. Till the next post…  comment and be damned.

Il-punt (Ħadd ieħor)

U il-baġit? Il-baġit ġa lest. Il-gvernijiet ewropej ftehmu fl-aħħar. Għandna baġit ewropew. Ovvjament f’żokrot id-dinja jgħodd biss il-biljun u ftit li twiegħdu lil Malta. Mhux li ta min jissottovaluta dan il-fatt. Anzi xieraq ngħidu li l-gvern preżenti ma setgħax jagħlaq ħidmietu b’akkiwst isbaħ u ikbar. La l-Laburisti ma jistgħu ixejnuh għax vera huwa akkwist enormi u wisq inqas ma għandhom in-nazzjonalisti jeqirdu li “issa se jgawdihom Muscat” għax jew mar jinnegozja fi Brussel għal Malta jew le (Gonzi).

Imma oltre in-numru fantaxjentifiku (għax immens) ta’ ewri li se jaslu b’xi mod jew ieħor għal tgawdija (sakemm ma jonfquhomx fuq proġetti imbażwra li jservu biss biex jinfurraw bwiet min ma ħaqqux – u f’dak il-każ nafu min igawdi), oltre dan kollu hemm l-imaġni ukoll ta’ Ewropa mhix daqstant magħquda li qed taqdef f’dgħajsa imbenġla fl-ibħra ta’ kriżi dejjiem li għad ma trdix taf tbatti. Din ir-realta tmur oltre il-kwalunkwiżmi elettorali frott ta’ diskors forzatament partiġġjan.

L-Ewropa qed tipprova tqum fuq saqajha. Hi ukoll (u hi tfisser aħna tafux) għandha programmi u proġetti – tixtieq tinvesti iktar f’impjiegi għax jekk forsi ma tafux il-qgħad u l-prekarju fl-Ewropa huwa ħafna ħafna agħar minn dak li taraw Malta. Tixtieq tagħti nifs ġdid lill-ekonomija. Tixtieq tħajjar iktar investiment. Tixtieq ħafna l-Ewropa. Imma għaddejja minn żmien fejn kullħadd jiġbed għal djul għajnu l-Ewropa ukoll. Hemm min qed jaħsibha jibqax ġewwa. Hemm min jixtieq jibqa ġewwa imma li jrid li tikkalma ftit mir-regoli sakemm jieħu nifs. Hemm min fehem li r-regoli huma bosta li issa jagħtuna drittijiet ġodda u li mingħajr dawn ir-regoli ma tibnix Ewropa.

It-tensjoni hija kbira. Is-sens ta’ camaraderie ilu li intefa’. F’dan id-dawl biss, il-ftehm li intlaħaq il-bieraħ huwa suċċess enormi għall-ikbar għaqda fil-kontinent il-qadim. Jaf, minkejja kollox jagħti tama. Jaf li – sakemm l-Ewropa issib l-illuminazzjoni ta’ mexxejja b’rieda vera li jagħtu missjoni dejjiema lill-proġett, sakemm in-nazzjonaliżmi tal-paniku u l-firda tal-biżgħa jittaffew – jaf li dan il-ftehim jagħti dik l-ispinta neċessarja biex il-proġett jibqa jaħdem minkejja kollox.

Raġuni li tiżboq il-biljun u mitejn miljun raġuni li għandna għal xiex nifirħu bihom bħalissa.

Għax l-Ewropa, issa iktar minn qatt qabel, tagħna lkoll.


 

They promise the earth

The short man from Milan is back. His political campaign has begun (as always) on the football field with the return of the prodigal son Mario Balotelli to the Milanese fold (sponda rossonera). Berlusconi hit the headlines in Italy today with his promises of major tax cuts and institutional reforms. It should all sound familiar by now – in Italy it is the restitution of an alphabet soup of taxes from the IRAP to the IMU – and of course given the lack of popularity of politicians Silvio is also banking on promises such as halving the size of parliament and the removal of public financing of parties.

His opponents (and former allies) did not waste time in replying. There’s a huge familiarity in that too: Berlusconi promises much but never delivers is the most prominent of them all. Even Casini who had shacked up with Berlusconi for quite some time pointed an accusing finger at Berlusconi’s track record. The Cavaliere is knee dip in the populistic approach and don’t forget he is the man who reinvented political marketing in Italy. His is also an attack on the caretaker Monti government. Guess what? He claims that Monti betrayed the people and did not fulfil its duties of democratic representation.

Outspoken Nichi Vendola best described Berlusoni’s latest sortie: “Sembra Wanna Marchi” – comparing the ex-premier to a notorious fraudster who had built an empire selling rubbish on the tv. In Malta we had Mike Briguglio describing the local scene as “An electoral supermarket”… not too far off the Wanna Marchi mark.

Berlusconi built his empire starting off from the property business. In his case HE is the contractor. Will his promises be enough to win the trust of enough voters? Will the fish bite?

Wanna Marchi was condemned for 9 years and 4 months in prison – her biggest mistake was not becoming a politician. With the kind of talents that she had you never know how far she could have got.

Mhux ilsien ħażin

Lil Facebook nistħajlu Paceville. Saru jitkellmu dwaru qisu kull ma ssib fih huwa ħażin u ta’ min jistmerru. Qatt ma nitgħallmu jaħasra. L-ingliżi jgħidu “a bad worker blames his tools”. Ma nafx jekk hemmx frażi ekwivalenti bil-Malti. Issa pero forsi sibt rokna tal-internet fejn insir naf. Dan l-aħħar skoprejt grupp ġdid fuq facebook. Jismu “kelma kelma” hu huwa vjaġġ ta’ tkixxif … fejn wieħed jista’ kuljum jiskopri perli ta’ għarfien ġodda dwar l-ilsien li tagħtna ommna. Ilsien pajjiżna biex niftehmu. U f’dawn il-jiem fejn qażżu il-kukuzzli bil-posts politiċi, dak li għandu x’joffri il-kittieb ta’ “kelma kelma” (qaluli min hu pero ma nafx jieħux gost li insemmih b’ismu allura jieħu prosit anonimu għalissa) huwa oasi ta’ wens.

Jekk trid tkun taf għalfejn nużaw l-espressjoni “qishom id-di u d-do” jew kemm hemm modi differenti biex tgħid “blu jew aħmar” fittex issieħeb fil-grupp. L-indirizz virtwali tiegħu huwa dan: http://www.facebook.com/kelmakelma.mt

Saħħiet.

Post Ranier – a zolabyte

A reader of this blog was inspired to write an essay-like comment after the post entitled “Your politics are ruining my country (and its future)“. I’ve decided to put it up as a Zolabyte in the hope that it provokes more conversation. Philip Serracino Inglott (currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Philosophy of Technology at Delft writes:

Thanks for pointing out Ranier’s article, which set my mind reeling. Here’s a brain dump of the thoughts I had after reading this and Ranier’s articles:

It’s nice to see Ranier put a wager upon PN’s technical ability. The implication of his argument is: if it should turn our that PL plan works, this would mean that Austin and Gonzi are either incompetent, or they intentionally deceived the population, or both. If the PL plan were to fail, Ranier would have to call for Muscat’s and Konrad’s heads, but equally, should it succeed he’d have to be the first to call for Austin and Gonzi’s heads.

Of course the corollary to that is that when the PL claim that they are certain that their plan will work, they are implying that they are equally certain that Austin and Gonzi are incompetent, or that they intentionally deceived the population, or both.

That much, I guess, they’d willingly do. But the implication is much more onerous than that for this case. The level of incompetence and/or deceit is variable. It finally depends on the magnitude of the project or importance of the decision in the context of which it was done, in comparison to how easy or trivial it would have been to see and/or avoid.

When PL’s plan is compressed to its raw basic essentials its basically this: borrow a bunch of money from private investors; spend that money switching from HFO to Gas; Gas can be bought cheaply enough that we can pay off the debt for the conversion, the past debts, and still have left over to pass on to the consumer as reduced tariffs. The private investor who lends us the money gets to keep on selling us the gas/electricity for a long time after we have sorted it all out. So, sure, he/she’ll get a tidy profit too, but that is why he/she’ll invest in the first place. It’s that simple really. Just that one basic idea — switch to gas — is going to solve of high tariff problem. The rest is details that require a lot of work to sort out, but should be run of the mill really.

But, if this is actually it, then Gonzi and Austin are not merely incompetent and/or deceitful. If the crux of it all is the choice between gas and HFO, then Gonzi and Austin must be stupid idiots and/or criminally fraudulent, if not both. And that would be very serious indeed. If the PL plan is to succeed on the basis of the documentation revealed up to now; if that is all a voter needs to know to be confident that PL’s plan will succeed; I can see no way that, once elected, PL is not also morally obliged to investigate the current cabinet for fraud and criminal negligence for their approval of the use of HFO.

Of course, the much more realistic scenario is that there are many more variables. The truth is that the analysis required to know if the plan is worth voting for is way more complex. Even if in the future the current government will, with hindsight, be shown to have made a humongous mistake by going for HFO, the matter is complex enough that one cannot draw a straight line from there to the claim that the level of incompetence would have been criminal.

But then, this means that the whole ‘energy solution campaign thing’ going on is just a charade. That there is no way that a deep enough analysis can be brought to voters until March, with sufficient detail, that they can make up their mind rationally. As Michal Falzon seems to have implied (from Ranier’s wording), voters with have to vote on an act of faith. And that is not democracy at all! That is merely herding behavior!

So PL and PN have put themselves in a rather sad position, unless they are willing to admit that the current trend in the campaign is undermining democracy, they have to up the ante, and imply that the other side is consciously and malevolently trying to deceive and de-fraud the citizen!

They have to imply that the others are not just “not as good as us” but that they are “evil!”. Since both sides play the game the election becomes a “final judgment” that determines who is on “the dark side” and who “has the force with them”. If any of the big 2 parties actually mean anything of what their garbled propaganda implies about their opponent, we would have to have a court marshal of the fresh opposition after every election.

Thank goodness, the only party that actually means all of the claims that it makes is the little green fellow with the good ideas but no clout or voice. After all, if AD had a bigger role to play in our political scene many of these silly charades would be quickly exposed, and we might have to actually think and evaluate substantial proposals before voting.

And who wants to do that?

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Zolabytes is a rubrique on J’accuse – the name is a nod to the original J’accuser (Emile Zola) and a building block of the digital age (byte). Zolabytes is intended to be a collection of guest contributions in the spirit of discussion that has been promoted by J’accuse on the online Maltese political scene for 7 years.
Opinions expressed in zolabyte contributions are those of the author in question. Opinions appearing on zolabytes do not necessarily reflect the editorial line of J’accuse the blog.
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Promises and plans (I)

In “the power incumbent” we saw how certain projects are best presented and put into effect once a party is elected to government and not before. The “best” in that sentence is of course referring to the advantage gained by the party in question and does not necessarily reflect any benefit for the electors. That is not to say that parties should be allowed to get away with superficial promises and sweeping statement. A case in point this week has been the declarations by the leaders of both the PN and the PL that (I parapharase here) they would not be averse to the idea that gay couples could adopt. The mainstream media took this to mean that both the PL and the PN have a clear position in favour of gay couples adopting.

They don’t. The only party to outrightly state that it is in favour of legislation for LGBT rights to include marriage, adoption and IVF is alternattiva demokratika. That is a fact. What Lawrence and Joseph stated was simply their personal opinion. We are far from an explicit promise to enact legislation in that sense by either of the PLPN duopoly. Having seen the dramatic protests and opposition to gay marriage in France I can only begin to imagine what would happen in Malta once the parties are finally forced to discuss possible legislation on any of the matters (gay marriage – not union or partnership, adoption by gay couples – on par with adoption by straight couples, and access to IVF for gay couples).

The electoral newspeak is switched on. You’ve been warned and remember – everybody lies.