Politics

Ugly Heads

ugly_akkuzaRacism. It’s a dirty word. In the past seven days there seems to have been some form of virus in the air spreading dirty thoughts across the globe. The latest manifestation came in sporting events. First there was the Diego Alves incident. Barcelona’s colourful (an unfortunate word in these circumstances but I mean spirited) winger was getting ready to hit a corner in their match against Villareal when a banana was thrown from the stands. It is a not too intelligent and unironic insult that is common among the less evolved quarters of football “supporters”. Along with the monkey calls, the banana is the unfunny provocation (are you provocating me?) that yells “You are black therefore you are monkey”.

To Alves’ credit he did not only brush the manifestation of crass stupidity aside, he proceeded to pick up the banana and eat it before contributing to Barcelona’s turnaround victory against a banana coloured Villareal team. Unfortunately the beautiful game is often tainted with this kind of racist inspired taunts (remember Boateng last summer?). Surprisingly this week we also had news of similar dirty thoughts coming from – of all places – the black dominated NBA. The sport of LeBron and Jordan  hit the headlines for the wrong reasons when a phone call by the owner of the LA Clippers was leaked by his girlfriend to the press. It turns out that he did not want her to come to games in the company of African-Americans.

Donald Sterling (for such is the intelligent beings’ name) provoked a huge backlash to the point of getting a comment straight from President Obama that is destined to become a classic: “When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk. That’s what happened here.”  Barack, you’re so right.

It is ignorance that is at the root of intolerance. It is intolerance that is at the root of racism. In these times when democracy and democratic rights are being savagely banalised by the onslaught of relativism and populism the ugly heads of racism and intolerance are easily raised. We read in Malta about immigrants having to ask Maltese to “hail buses” because otherwise the driver would not stop for them. Ignorance. At its ugliest and worst. Rosa Parks would have a hard time in Malta, trust me. She’d probably still be stuck in some village police station on her 200th hour of “police questioning”. “What do you mean you refused to sit in the black section? There is a law you know.”

There are warning signs everywhere. Intolerance does not stop at racism on the basis of colour. In the Russian-majority areas of the Ukraine we had calls for a register of Jews. Even if we ignored the maladroit comments by Berlusconi about the Germans and concentration camp we would still have to admit that the current European Parliament campaign is unfortunately infused with not so subtle reasoning based on mistrust of the foreigner – a revived intolerance that the Europe of the universal declaration of rights was supposed to have buried long ago. (see also the recent outrage in the UK following a UKIP candidate’s comments).

Recently I learnt that the story that Adolf Hitler snubbed Jesse Owens during the Berlin Olympics was a myth. Owens himself explained that Hitler had actually taken an “official” decision not to congratulate any of the medal winners after he was told on the first day that he could not simply congratulate German medal winners. Hitler did not snub Owens. It turns out that he actually shook hands with Owens on the day before leaving the stadium.

Owens said he was treated better in Germany than in America where blacks faced segregation. Sometimes, the sources of intolerance and racism are to be found where we least expect it.

the edge of politics

LA FEMME NUE DANS LE DESERT-1 There was a time when this blog would devour any news political coming out of the island in a voracious manner. Analyse, chew, criticise and expect viral reaction. Or so went the music and momentum. It’s hard to put your finger on the moment when you stop caring so deeply – for want of a better description. The irony is that what goes by the name of politics in the republic has followed the most predictable path foreseen by this blog from the very earliest of musings. The phrases “race to the bottom” and “battleground of mediocrity” had become a cliche in these columns long before the realisation dawned in other observatories.

There is little or no comfort in having been right though. With clockwork regularity every stroke and news item from the political milieu seems to confirm even the wildest of suspicions that we may have had as to the heartless direction that political representation could have taken. The blatant cynicism of one party combined with the clueless misdirection of the other can only be fuelled by an electorate that not only hangs on dearly to a partisan vocation but also throws in a level of short-sighted calculation that baffles even the most prophetic among us.

There is a moment of realisation that the business of government still owes much to the governed. J’accuse was much enamoured with the phrase “you reap what you sow” and playing the blame game with an electorate that is often reluctant to shift the goalposts remains a sordid temptation. It’s all there to see though – as much as the “paese di coglioni” formula that remains just as apt as when it was first conjured up mid-blog. What to make of a governing party that has rewritten all the rules of the game and manages to make transparent the dirtiest truth of the political game : everybody has a price? Somewhere in the Labour unconscious lies a stock market of sorts where every shaping factor in Maltese society has a price and a trade to work upon. Morbid calculations mean that everything goes so long as the final judge and jury can remain sufficiently opiated with new age doses of newspeak.

On the other hand the party in opposition remains at sea grappling for an old fashioned tidal wave of a rallying factor that would bring it back to drier and safer ground. It’s internal conflicts and failures are evident even in what should be mini-triumphs while it has still found itself unable to redefine itself and give itself a purpose. The opposition runs the risk of being stuck in opposition mode (and it is not even there yet) for a long while to come. It finds the new playing ground a very uneven place to work and is still unaccustomed to the shifted goalposts. This is not about shifting to trendier liberal stances but about being a more congruent, consistent whole once again. Without that newfound centre of gravity it is destined to play second fiddle to the puppet master’s shenanigans.

Right now, in what should be an important maturing point for the young republic, non-partisan observers have been pushed to the edge of politics. I like to think of this as our moment out in the desert in the manner of the prophets of the old book. The current order is a disaster in the waiting. Policies of appeasement and populism are destined to fail in the long run and there is only so many hacks at its breast that the golden goose can take.

In the meantime we observe the events unfold. At the edge of politics.

United Civics

From the moment you step off the plane and go through the average two and a half hours of immigrant screening attrition at whatever “port of call” you have reached you begin to realise that the United States of America is a rather peculiar entity that will be hard to emulate for any newborn federation in the future. Admittedly the chances of a similar structure finding its roots in the Old Continent are currently wallowing at their lowest and the surge of nationalism and mistrust of supranational entities goes no small way to creating such an infertile ground.

Looking at the US from the inside though you begin to notice that there is a clear distinction between what would be described as nationalist sentiment and culture in Europe on the one hand, and the allegiance to the national democratic system and structure on the other. You see it on a daily basis. There was no better way to experience this than an early evening stroll through (the safer part of) Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Passing by a pharmacy with a distinctly Italian name I overheard a conversation between a couple of young brats which was more of a verbal sparring match as to the veracity of their Italianite ethnicity.

“You’re not a Caprese, you’re married into the Capreses” sounded like a minor stain on the curriculum vitae of the recipient of this tirade. “I’m as Italian as you guys, no doubt” was the feeble reply. A few blocks down the local parish had an Easter ceremony in full swing. I recognised the rite from my days as an altar boy, only there now seemed to be quite a few altar girls too all dressed up for the occasion. “Ca existe encore? Les enfants de choeur?” quizzed my Belgian travel mates. Apparently these traditions and cultural stamps survived longer in Brooklyn than in Liege and Bruxelles.

Whenever you interact in New York you inevitably end up talking ethnicity and origin. A bona fide New Yorker will sell you the tickets to Woodbury Common but he’ll proudly tell you that he is Ghanaian “et c’est pour ca qu’il parle francais“. Equally bona fide (read that bonafied if you want to sound American) is the security guy posted at Times Square. Equally proud of being of West african descent. How many times did I hear “sei Italiano?” on my trip – in an attempt to find a common cultural ground from which to embark on social niceties.

Walk through Chinatown and you get to understand how you can live in the US as a fully grafted export of any world culture. You live, eat, enjoy and speak your own nationality, food, traditions and language. Don’t even get me started on the Latino. It’s all over the place.

And yet there is a beautiful symbiotic conviviality going on. You cannot miss the multiple expressions of allegiance – to the civic structure that surrounds. The Americans have turned the law into a fine art to the point of being finicky. Everything is calculated by entitlement in this nation that was founded on a Bill of Rights. The formula is weird but works fantastically. So when you do stand up at the Yankee Stadium (Ladies and Gentlemen please rise and take off your hats for the national anthem) you understand how the glue that keeps together so many differences is all in the patriotic pride enshrined in a democratic system of rule of law.

It’s how the slightly irritating habits of the multiple ethnicities become a reality. It’s how they can forget about still being Italian, Puerto Rican, German, Ghanaian, Kenyan, Spanish the moment the first notes are played. It’s how they forged an error-riddled system that works.

It’s how this becomes the land of the free and the home of the brave.

 

Lidl politics

lidl_akkuzaThe new Lidl branch threw open its doors in Xewkija this weekend. The Gozitans turned up en masse – particularly after the “leak” that the first 100 customers would be able to buy a 399€ TV at the discounted price of 100€. I heard reports of traffic jams as well as unconfirmed reports of people sleeping outside the store in order to get in first on opening day. We are no longer surprised by this kind of news – Lidl knows what tickles the fancy of the Maltese public (and not just them – it’s popular across Europe) and serves it on a fake silver plate. One thing that Lidl does well is deliver. It’s not just a load of promise. It puts its money where its mouth is and gives you the bargain you go looking for.

The new generation of politicians who are currently riding the wave of discontent at the politics of austerity try their hardest to be the Lidl of the situation. They promise heaven on earth and exploit the fact that for a moment all the turkeys actually believe that Christmas can be banned. For ever. Having shed any semblance of values and principles, the key is to sell everything to everyone – at least the promise. Most of their problems begin to build up when everybody tries to cash his cheque at the same time. That is when deals with the devil end up being made – somebody somewhere must underwrite the impossible promises. And who cares if that somewhere turns out to be shaky Libyan governments, friendships with Ukrainian demi-despots on the cusp of dethronement and an opaque Chinese entity?

Italy’s young star is fading faster than Malta’s turk – mainly because the mass of critical elements in Italy work at a faster rate at exposing inconsistencies. Italy might have its share of apologists but the scam of the age of Berlusconi will not be brought up in order to justify in some way the farce that is Renzi’s new way. Malta, on the other hand, is still lost between the ridiculous statements about PN closet skeletons (tu quoque, so you have lost your right to ever speak, ever) and the ongoing finger pointing at the shamed clan who dared vote Labour for change (where are you now? No longer strutting your Taghna Lkoll Vote eh?). Everybody is guilty of something if you believe the columnists and that seems to mean that Muscat’s fairy-tale ride into the Paese dei Balocchi . Yes, Muscat gets a free ride with his Bowel Movement – free of the chains of criticism, free of any form of real form of institutional accountability.

How fitting then that Renzi and Muscat, the young dreamers of Europe, can both find a link to a Disney-an utopia. Watch Marco Travaglio do just that with Renzi here.


 

How they see dead people

death_akkuzaListening to French radio this morning (it could have been any radio really) I heard about the gigantic efforts deployed by China in order to locate the lost Malaysian airlines plane. At one point the Chinese PM was reported as saying how important it was for China to find the lost plane – because “we value human life”. I needed to stop and take this in. To me China and the Chinese government has always been a gargantuan entity that operates far beyond the value of human life. I mean this in the sense of what we have been used to read about in the news – huge projects that wipe away swathes of the population in certain regions without too much batting of eyelids.

The authoritarian attitude to human life was reflected in the run up to the Beijing  Olympics (as it has been, for what that matters, reflected in the Sochi run up as well as the Brasil World Cup). To hear the Chinese PM speak of the value of human life was new to me and a sort of reality check. Then there is the matter of the huge amount of resources being deployed (including satellites) to locate a wreck  (with all the respect that is due to those who passed away). There is a huge irony in all this – the Chinese megastate mobilising expensive resources to search for the dead because it apparently respects human life.

Taken from a wider angle there is also the matter of how long news can dwell on the death of a particular set of people because of the nature of their death – an airline tragedy – when in the event of deaths in similar numbers in other corners of the earth the news is reported as though it is routine. The currency of life and death in news value is certainly one that fluctuates.

end note: The accompanying image is a famous photo of Otto von Bismarck snapped surreptitiously while he was on his deathbed. It is believed to be one of the first paparazzo photos ever – as the morbidity of death makes the news. Read more about this here.

The idiots among us

idiot_akkuza

“Quand j’entends, par exemple, madame Taubira dire qu’elle n’est pas au courant (du fond du dossier), elle nous prend pour des blaireaux. – Gilbert Collard.

One hot issue in French politics right now is that of Sarkozy’s tapped phone. It turns out that Sarkozy was being tapped while conversing with his lawyers and a huge fuss has been made about this – literally left, right and centre. Collard is a Front National representative and he was talking about France’s Justice Minister Mme Taubira who had claimed not to have known about the goings on. According to Collard, it is all a question of accountability and responsibility – Taubira’s portfolio means that police and fonctionnaires with the police and magistrates fall under her jurisdiction. “If she says that she was not aware”, Collard says, “then she is treating us like imbeciles”. Yep. “Blaireaux” means “badgers” but in street language it means idiots.

There’s much of that going around nowadays – politicians treating citizens as though they were idiots. Nothing new under the sun, only that it is becoming much more an “in your face” kind of treatment.

Last Sunday, one of Malta’s main newspapers carried a strongly worded editorial criticising Labour’s one year in government. Anyone who managed to read it would have been pleasantly surprised by the reality check being proposed on a number of fronts by the Sunday Times. A particular paragraph dealing with the impeachment proceedings against Judge Farrugia Sacco did not go down well with the person currently sitting in the institutional seat of Speaker of the House. For the benefit of the members of the public who like me prefer not to pay for the fare on offer on the online papers here is the offensive paragraph in question:

“Once that commission (note: “for the Administration of Justice”) reached a conclusion that was obviously inconvenient for the government, Dr Muscat and the Labour-appointed speaker went out of their way to ensure he (note: Judge Farrugia Sacco) would not be impeached before he reaches retirement age in the summer”. (STOM Editorial – 9 March 2014)

It so happens  that the person currently occupying the post of speaker did not take too kindly to the editorial. Free as he was to disagree with its conclusions – and point out his disagreement publicly if he so liked – he decided to take it one step further. Labour-appointed speaker Anglu Farrugia has demanded that the Sunday Times withdraw what he described as “serious allegations against him ‘as a person and as a Speaker'” and threatened to take legal action should the Times not give the withdrawal equal prominence as its allegation.

Reality check: this is the two thousand and fourteenth year of the christian era. 2014. For the second time during the Labour-led legislature, a labour-appointed public official has decided to use the parliament and its structures as a means to silence criticism. Joseph Muscat had earlier taken exception to a statement by opposition leader Simon Busuttil and transformed the parliament into a mini-jury in order to get the man to shut up (only to scuttle off to watch a football match rather than be present for the proceedings that ensued).

Heaven forbid, of course, that we insinuate in any way that members of parliament and its speaker are not within their rights and prerogatives whenever they try to defend themselves and their reputation. Having said that the zero-sum game that Farrugia is engaging with the Times is not a defence of a prerogative. It would not take too much of a genius for even the leak-recipient that is the Times to notice that the chain of events leading to the postponement of the possible impeachment smacks highly in the very least of incompetence for want of trying. It would be the duty of a vehicle of the press that notices such a lacuna in the mechanisms of our institutional representative structures and processes to point such a lacuna out. It’s a fair comment – accuse it of bias if you like (bias? the Times?) but do not gag it.

Using the “position of Speaker” in order to throw unnecessary weight around is an unfair attempt at gagging the fourth estate. Such cases have been dealt with long ago in real liberal democracies. The freedom of the press and its right to point out deficiencies in democratic representation has long been encapsulated and spelled out in the jurisprudence of the aforementioned liberal democracies. We even had our own moment of glory before the European Court of Human Rights with the famous  Demicoli vs Malta – where the Court found that the requirements of impartiality must always be preserved whenever the House felt its privilege was violated.

Incidentally, one of the two members of parliament to raise the original breach of privilege back in the eighties was the Joe Debono Grech. Another of the old-timer appointments to token but remunerated positions by this meritocratic government (we also learnt recently, among others, of Alex Sciberras Trigona’s and Joe Grima’s appointment as envoys to World Trade and Tourism Organisations). The revamped (Daily Mail inspired) MaltaToday reported yesterday that “Debono Grech refused to stay for a public consultation meeting for the Gozo minister when he learned that he was not to be placed at the head table.” Not much of a twist on the learning curve there either.

And finally, for something completely different and pythonesque, since we are on the subject of institutional disfigurement we might as well mention the news that Minister Manuel Mallia’s minions are organising government official activities in the very impartial venues of PL Clubs. Yes, that’s Kazini tal-Labour. Here’s how the Times reported the matter (my bold):

Government officials employed with the Home Affairs Ministry’s customer care unit have been detailed to attend meetings with the public organised at PL clubs located in the minister’s constituency. According to newspaper adverts titled ‘Always close to you’ (Viċin Tiegħek Dejjem), Manuel Mallia will be holding a series of meetings with the public in the coming weeks in seven localities in the districts from which he was elected last year. Without giving details of the actual place where Dr Mallia will be meeting the public, the adverts state that two days before each meeting, “people from the ministry’s customer care will be present at the respective locality’s Labour Party Club to meet the public”. (Times Online – 11th March)

What will the excuse be this time? That we are saving public money by using venues kindly provided by the Labour Party? That the Minister did not know and was not aware?

Blaireaux anyone?

 

“The most effectual engines for [pacifying a nation] are the public papers… [A despotic] government always [keeps] a kind of standing army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, [invent] and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper.” – Thomas Jefferson