Politics

The PM & the Black Knight

Appreciators of that fine vein of British humour that is the Monty Python collection will surely be familiar with the persona of the Black Knight that makes a fleeting (and diminishing) appearance in the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail“.  For the unfortunate few who are sadly unaware of the existence of such sublime sketches let me just say that the ridiculous Black Knight appears in a short sketch (see video below) in which he duels with other knights in order to fulfil his destiny ensuring that “None shall pass”.  While battling the hero of this epic (Arthur) he ends up losing limb after limb but insists on continuing to fight (“’tis but a scratch). Hopping on one leg, armless he still manages to yell “I’m invincible” – a state of absolute comic denial as to the reality of his hopeless situation.

I was reminded of this sketch this weekend when I heard the PM insist that there was no problem of governability in one of his meetings with the people. Crisis? What crisis? The government has survived all assaults on its position (read: votes of confidence in parliament) and therefore after 4 and a half years it will not accept any talk of crisis. The government, you see, is invincible. Now a   great philosopher had once mentioned something about not being able to fool all of the people all of the time and this quote has been doing the rounds in some Labour quarters for quite some time.

PM Gonzi need not bother with the weekly maquillage any longer. If anything, last nights summary termination of all things Franco within the PN should have (as if it was necessary) given the game away to any doubters. The government lost its position of being able to horsetrade away any possibility of surviving votes of confidence towards the end of the last parliamentary session. At that point, Dr Gonzi and his staff knew full well that the business of government was to be punched in on borrowed time. Come October (if we are to wait till then) there will not be much stretching and pulling left – and no amount of distractions such as half-baked civil union bills, sudden illuminations on the censorship issue that never was or even IVF roundabouts will be able to pull off any reprieve of governance.

The difference between the situation today and the situation, say, in May, is that while it is true that for a long time the main trouble with the system of government was that “provoked” by backbenchers, the government had found a way of compromising with the troublemakers : right up to the entente pas trop cordiale reached in the Cohabitation Pact with JPO. Such compromises allowed Gonzi’s government to try to promote a business as usual attitude against all odds. That possibility has now all but waned away.

The inclement weather of the past few days allowed for more of the gemgem and placing of blame at the government’s doorstep. We even had the Msida mayor calling for more funds from government to maintain two resrvoirs at the end of valley road and to clear the tappieri. We wonder why the country gets flooded every year around the same time with uncanny regularity that Arriva can only dream of when the real culprit is the national mentality of “I’m alright so f-you Jack” that leads to clogged arteries and escape routes for the water that will still come down from the sky no matter who is in government.

Here is your check list before the election becomes the here and now: 8th September festivities with accompanying press releases and exchanges of witticisms. 21st September celebrations with similar exchanges followed by 22nd September mass meeting by Labour on Il-Fosos. A short session of “my mass meeting was bigger than yours” chivalric beatings followed by the results of (a) Labour’s Congress about the Future and (b) PN’s budget projections/electoral document.

Then Bob’s your uncle. We’ve gone on record stating that “In this country we don’t solve problems, we nurture them”.

Either that… or we deny they exist.

ADDENDUM :

I had only just posted this on J’accuse when I checked the latest news on the papers. Here is the Times reporting that “PN sources” seem to believe that Gonzi is still eyeing an early 2013 election (do note that it is not an official position – just “sources” – another way of putting out feelers?). Meanwhile MaltaToday tells us that Debono is toying with the idea of a motion of no confidence against health minister Joe Cassar. As we could put it so succinctly in the vernacular: aħdimha! (Work it out!).

 

Strasbourg on embryo screening

In what is set to be a landmark judgement, the Strasbourg based European Court of Human Rights held that an Italian ban that prevented a couple of healthy carriers of a genetic disease (cystic fibrosis) from screening embryos for in vitro fertilisation was in violation of their right to respect for their private and family life. (Costa and Pavan vs Italy, application 54270/10 – Judgement of 28th August 2012 not yet final).

The couple in question had already had one child. It was through this child that they found out that they were both healthy carriers of the disease cystic fibrosis .  Italian law prohibits “PID” (preimplantation diagnosis) and therefore the couple would be unable to go through a pregnancy without first ensuring that the new child would not suffer from the dangerous and fatal disease of cystic fibrosis.

From the ECHR press release:

Relying on Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life), the applicants complained that the only course open to them to have a baby that did not have cystic fibrosis was to start a pregnancy by natural means and medically terminate it every time the foetus tested positive for the disease. Under Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination), they claimed that they were victims of discrimination compared with sterile couples or those where the man had a sexually transmissible disease.

The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 20 September 2010. At the applicants’ request, on 4 May 2011 it was decided to give the case priority (Rule 41 of the Rules of Court).  The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), the “Movimento per la vita” association and 52 Italian MPs, as one third party intervener, and the “Luca Coscioni”, “Amica Cicogna Onlus”, “Cerco un bimbo” and “L’altra cicogna” associations, together with 60 Italian and European MPs, as another third party intervener, were authorised to submit  written observations (Article 36 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 44 § 3 of the Rules of
Court).

The Court considered that the applicants’ desire to resort to medically-assisted procreation and PID in order to have a baby that did not suffer from cystic fibrosis was a form of expression of their private and family life that fell within the scope of Article 8. The fact that the law did not allow them to proceed in this manner therefore amounted to an interference with their right to respect for their private and family life which was “in accordance with the law”5 and pursued the legitimate aims of protecting morals and the rights and freedoms of others.

The Italian Government justified this interference by the need to protect the health of the mother and child and the dignity and freedom of conscience of the medical professions, and to avoid the risk of eugenic abuses. The Court observed first of all that the notions of “embryo” and “child” must not be confused. It could not see how, in the event that the foetus proved to have the disease, a medically-assisted abortion could be reconciled with the Government’s justifications, considering, among other things, the consequences of such a procedure for both the foetus and the parents, particularly the mother.

The Court stressed the difference between this case, which concerned PID and homologous insemination, and that of S.H. v. Austria, which concerned access to donor insemination. Furthermore, although the question of access to PID raised delicate issues of a moral and ethical nature, the legislative choices made by Parliament in the matter did not elude the Court’s supervision. The Court noted that of the 32 Council of Europe member States whose legislation it examined, PID was only prohibited in Italy, Austria and Switzerland (regulated access to PID was currently being examined in Switzerland).

The Court observed that the inconsistency in Italian law – prohibiting the implantation of only those embryos which were healthy, but authorising the abortion of foetuses which showed symptoms of the disease – left the applicants only one choice, which brought anxiety and suffering: starting a pregnancy by natural means and terminating it if prenatal tests showed the foetus to have the disease. The Court accordingly considered that the interference with the applicants’ right to respect for their private and family life was disproportionate, in breach of Article 8.

Article 14
Discrimination, within the meaning of Article 14, meant treating persons in similar situations differently without an objective and reasonable justification. Here the Court noted that, where access to PID was concerned, couples in which the man was infected with a sexually transmissible disease were not treated differently to the applicants, as the prohibition applied to all categories of people. This part of the application was therefore rejected as being manifestly ill-founded.

Just satisfaction (Article 41)
The court held that Italy was to pay the applicants 15,000 euros (EUR) in respect of nonpecuniary
damage and EUR 2,500 in respect of costs and expenses.

The day that Marmite died

You must be familiar with that jar of delicious liquid goo that is Marmite, or at least with its more popular beefy cousin – Bovril. Marmite’s ubiquitous presence on grocer’s shelves has divided the general public into two distinct categories that eventually became the slogan of this yeast-based product: You either love it or you hate it. The Marmite/Bovril effect is just that – spread a little of either the beef extract or its vegetarian alter ego on a bit of bread and offer it to an innocent newbie and then just watch. You will either get a an expression of finger-licking glee or a glare of absolute disgust verging on the nauseous. That’s them – the icky spreads and their effect. Both Bovril and Marmite became institutions. A quick fix in hard up times and an absolute necessity in the “economic” pre- and post- war kitchens. They ARE still institutions. Whether you love them or you hate them.

The death of Dom Mintoff brought back to the surface the Marmite effect among the Maltese. Mintoff, like Marmite, was either loved or hated. For a brief period even his most intimate of “lovers” found time to despise him when he chose to bring down a government – single handedly. I will forever remember the litany of expletives mouthed by a taxi driver in Paceville right beneath the window where I was going through my early morning revision of Criminal procedure back in 1998. This was no Mintoff-hating nationalist – this was a tattoed Mintoffian through and through – wishing that the worst of the worst would happen to the short, pipe-smoking politician following his apparent betrayal of the Socialist ideal.

Yes. I said Mintoffian. That’s because Mintoff is a large enough figure to inspire an -ism. It is a wide -ism based on a very Mintoffian cocktail of socialism and nationalism. It is a battle begun from the benches of Boffa’s government transformed into a mission that ran on slogans such as “Malta l-ewwel u qabel kollox” and “Min mhux maghna kontra taghna”. It is formed over the span of more than half a century and covers measures or interventions within a national economy supposedly intended for the benefit of the worker and the betterment of the less better off. This was no “middle class” aspiration – this was a politic that is seeded in colonial times and set out with all the intention to improve the state of the Maltese.

The whirlwind tour from the late 30’s to the mid-90s will be dissected, analysed, written and re-written. But the Mintoff effect is the same as the Marmite effect – you love him or you hate him. There are no half measures. The myth is not born today but it is definitely about to go viral. There is a party-in-waiting in Opposition that is gunning to return Mintoff cabinet members to government – it’s not exactly history that we are speaking about. Mintoffianism lives. Mintoffianism is alive in articles in last Sunday’s papers outlining how Malta can still renegotiate its deal with the EU. Mintoffianism still pulls the emotional strings of a large part of the population whose lexicon is stuck on the idea of “30 years of hurt”, on “the privileged elite vs the rest” and the new aspiration of “an open middle class”.

Some, like me, cannot get themselves to appreciate Mintoff. No matter how hard we can try to see the aspirations of the young Dom we always hit that ugly barrier come his “maturity”. Emancipation for others meant “free education” but the socialist scythe of the Mintoffian brand of politics also meant the destruction of too much aspiration. It meant continued education by godfather and the shutting down of the creative arts. It meant expropriation and nationalisation within the framework of an ever dwindling package of legal fundamental rights. More than the notorious age of violence remains the emptiness in an age when the law amounted to nothing much. The individual had no rights because the constitutional court was kept in abeyance and Malta failed to subscribe to the European Convention of Fundamental Rights.

It’s all relative some will say. Some will remain ever grateful to this tub of marmite that pulled them out of “poverty” and “gave” their sons a job and “gave” them a roof in a housing estate. Free education (with streaming first removed then reintroduced) meant more students until the age of 16. Then they would move on to what? Choice, hope and potential were all sacrificed on the all equalling altar of socialist balance. You cannot appreciate that kind of future. The hot air that was the socialist revolution petered out as would any system that attempts to dehumanise its people. Without basic rights and the possibility of expression the socialist dream fell flat on its face and was caught in its own lie. For all the talk of being on the side of the worker and on the side of the poor, the end legacy of Mintoffianism was a nation on its knees with frozen wages, nationalised dinosaur industries and an inability to contemplate the idea of meritocracy and competition. Malta’s treasury box might have been full but potential wise it was running on empty.

Yes, I am of the generation that believed the dream that came next. Our cup of Bovril was the dream of Work, Justice and Liberty of the later eighties. Comparisons are just as odious as adulations but this was our cup half full. Somewhere in this morass of political dwarves posing as giants we also were entitled to a dream. Between the campanilistic propaganda of the eighties and the mass marketing of the naughties we had an interlude of the politics that we hoped would come. Ironically Mintoff had a hand in that too and he inadvertently righted our path towards the Common Market of opportunity. Our dream too has had to subside and submit to the politics of mediocrity that have replaced the value-driven methods of Boffa’s 50s or Fenech Adami’s early 90s.

Mintoffianism is alive but Mintoff the man is dead. They tell me he was not a believer so there is no one to commend his soul to. His memory and his heritage will continue to be debated and discussed.

Until now we only have one objective certainty… Mintoff you either love him or you hate him. In the island of Saints and Fireworks there could hardly be more of a testament that this is truly one of its sons.

Nazzjon medjokri?

Żgur Brittania

Għaddew Olimpijadi oħra. Il-Brittanniċċi saħħruna għal darb’oħra bir-rikkezza ta’ pajjiżhom u bil-għana ta’ l-istorja millenarja ta’ gżirithom. Kienu inkwetaw li ma humiex se jkunu “up to standard“. Inkwetaw li wara l-immensita Ċiniza kienu se jidhru ċkejknin u amatorjali. Minflok kull min seta’ jixhed iċ-ċerimonji ta’ ftuħ u għeluq l-Olimpijadi kellu mafkar tajjeb ta’ dak li jissarraf fih il-kunċett ta’ Gran Bretanja. Lejn l-aħħar ta’ l-egħluq kien hemm siparju sabiħ fejn żeffiena Indjani tħalltu ma Morris Dancers f’taħlita kulturali li tiżboq il-preġudizzji u nazzjonaliżmi u li tfakkarna fil-kobor post-imperjali li issawwar fuq pedamenti differenti filwaqt li żamm sod fuq il-wirt storiku.

Il-Brittaniċi għandhom il-lussu li jqiegħdu lil the Queen, Pink Floyd u John Lennon f’nifs wieħed. Għaddieli il-ħsieb li fuq storja millenarja ta’ żvilupp uman aħna kellna x-xorti/żvintura li ngħixu l-biċċa l-kbira mill-ħajja kulturali u soċjali tagħna f’dinja anglo-ċentrika. Jekk tieħu l-popolazzjoni kollha ta’ ġnus li qatt għexu, ftit ħafna ikunu dawk li qatt semgħu b’McCartney u Lennon pero illum dawn l-ismijiet huma simboli ta’ l-era post-nukleari li għadna ngħixu illum avolja ftit li xejn għadna nirreferu għaliha.

Midalji Qoros

Fit-tabella tal-midalji li intrebħu żdiedu xi uċuħ ġodda. F’għajnejja jispikka ċ-Ċipru. M’huwiex xi pajjiż li wisq jispirani f’sens nazzjonalistiku minħabba dak illi jiena nara bħala nuqqas ta’ kburija kull meta jiġru biex jilgħaqu sorm il-Griegi. Qatt ma ħabbejt il-ħsieb li nitkejlu maċ-Ċiprijoti għax dejjem rajthom appendiċi imwarrba ta’ pajjiż ikbar. Aħna mhux hekk, anzi, aħna għandna ħabta naspiraw dejjem biex nikkompetu… jew talanqas nipparteċipaw bi spirtu faux de Coubertjan. Aħna l-innu tagħna u tagħna biss. Aħna l-bandiera tperper u ferħanin għax “Ara, ara… għaddejin il-Maltin fuq it-televixin”. Imma biex nirbħu? Ħożż fl-ilma.

Għandi suspett li l-isport jirrefletti xi ftit jew wisq il-limitazzjonijiet tagħna bħala pajjiz. Pajjiż li ilu kważi nofs ta’ seklu indipendenti iżda li baqa magħluq sewwa bejn l-erba ħitan akkwatiċi li jdawwruna. Pajjiż diffidenti li ma jafx jekk jifraħx bil-barrani (sakemm jibqa sterjotippizzat, ħlejju u preferibbilment mhux Għarbi) jew jinsultah b’xi “jekk ma jogħgbokx itlaq”. Irnexxilu, minkejja kollox isir parti minn klabb ferm ikbar minnu u jpoġġ mal-istess mejda ta’ qawwiet u forzi storiċi. Sabiħa wisq. Kburi li Malti? U mela le.

Imma x’inhuma is-simboli ta’ kobortna? L-isterjotipi hemm qiegħdin.. l-ilsien li tatna ommna, l-wirt storiku ta’ nies li għaddew u għal min għadu nisrani mhux biss ta’ l-isem il-kattoliċiżmu Mediterran. Kważi kważi pero dawn iktar huma karatteristiċi milli monumenti għall-ħila ta’ pajjiż. Hemm hi. Ħarbitli l-kelma. Ħila. Kapaċita. F’hiex u għal xiex aħna tajbin? L-isport storja tal-biki. Ibellħuni il-Magjari… l-Ungeriżi biex niftehmu. Ġejjin minn pajjiż imdawwar biss b’art u ħlief għal kbir Danubju ilma xejn. Imma hemm ikunu… fil-quċċata Olimpika tal-għawm, tal-qbiż mill-għoli u fuq kollox f’dak l-imbierek Waterpolo. Iva il-waterpolo.

Xejn. Lanqas nifs. Nistgħu indumu inżeggu bid-derby Sliema – Neptunes u nsarrfu għall-elf darba il-kampaniliżmu tagħna f-munita oħra ta’ għira u ġlied… imma Malta magħquda? Malta żobb. U mhux waterpolo biss. Ara il-karajbi – xi gżejjer żgħar qishom nofs ħarja ta’ ħamiema imtektin madwar Kuba u l-kbar. Imbagħad joħorġulek ġganti li jiġru b’impenn. U mhux impenn tal-billboards. “Imma dawk għandhom il-flus… jinvestu fl-isport mhux bħalna”. Appuntu baħnan. Aħna fejn investejnihom il-flus?

U imbagħad semmi l-flus lil Stephen Kiprotich. Min? Iva Kiprotich. Rebaħ l-ikbar midalja fl-Olimpijadi… deheb fil-maratona. Kiprotich jiġi mill-Uganda. Iva l-Uganda fejn il-Maltin intbagħtu eżilju mill-Ingliżi. Familtu bdiewa u mhux li kellu ħafna flus biex jikkompeti. Imma Kiprotich kellu bżonn biss par saqajn jiġru u rieda u impenn. Rebaħ il-maratona… tellieqa dominata mill-ġganti tad-distanza – dawk l-Emiri u Xejikki tal-Kenja u l-Etjopja. Taf int. Dawk jgħumu fil-flus.

Medjokrita

Forsi mhux ġust li nippretendi pajjiż li jirbaħ midalji. Forsi mhux ġust li nippretendi pajjiż li mhux biss jipparteċipa imma li huwa ukoll konxju tal-impenn neċessarju sabiex tasal u tirnexxi. Mhux ġust għax forsi fil-ħamsin sena li ilna naqdfu waħedna flok tgħallimna nikkompetu b’mod san li jippremja lil min ħaqqu ħloqna biss illużjoni ta’ kompetizzjoni. F’din l-illużjoni jiġi ippremjat il-medjokri. Bqajna nitkejlu biss bejnietna u allura l-ġganti u personalitajiet tal-pajjiż nofs ħarja fil-Mediterran komplew jiċkienu u jonqsu fl-istatura.

Iż-zgħażagħ Brittaniċi inħolqilhom panteon ta’ eroj oħra li jistgħu jaspiraw ikunu bħalhom. Għaż-żgħażagħ tagħna x’qed jissawwar? Il-ħolma tal-Middle Class? Aspira biex tkun medjokri. Il-ħolma li jekk tgħid iva u taċċetta bla ma taħseb u jekk tippappagalja allura taf tasal u tilħaq. Aspira għall-medjokrita. Kisser l-ideal.

F’dan il-pajjiż ma nsolvux problemi. Nindukrawhom.

Propaganda Pay-As-You-Please

Just imagine. The tax collector comes round and you tell him “Dude, I’m experiencing cashflow problems, mind if I pay you later?” No need to get that extreme. Just imagine checking out at the till of your supermarket and when the uber-bored guy at the till robotically announces the amount (and points to the five million packs of free water that you have just “won”) you tell him “Righto, I’ll pack the water but I’ll pay you next month… if I find the cash”.

It’s not done is it? You rent a place to run a restaurant or a strip joint, whatever, and you are expected to cough up the rent. Pronto. No rent and you are evicted. You don’t pay your water and electricity bills and you find yourself showering at the neighbours (if they can tolerate the mess you leave behind).

Except of course if you’re a political party. Ever since the PLPN decreed that “pluralism” (whatever happened to that word that used to be uttered like some magic mantra) would be showered on the expectant peoples, and ever since the likes of 101, SuperOne, Net TV and OneTV were unleashed on us the parties have had the lion’s share of broadcasting on the islands.

It is no secret that quality wise this increase in “competition” has been of no benefit whatsoever to the consumer. Given the talent gene pool limitations it would be hardly surprising should this island sustain one good quality TV structure (broadcasting corporation) branching out into specialised channels. Instead we have the two political channels lording it out and churning out Malta’s worst – thankfully in a language that is only intelligible to the island’s converted insiders.

Now we have the Malta Broadcasting Authority openly admitting that: “over the years, the Authority has taken cognisance of the fact that most national broadcasting stations face cash flow problems – from time to time situations have arisen on certain occasions where stations have fallen behind in their payments.”. Which is quite a polite way of saying that more often than not the public secret ends up being the factual truth: our political parties couldn’t give a flying armadillo whether or not they afford to pay the €15,000 or so needed annually for a broadcasting licence.

Why should they? Who will have the guts to shut them and their operations down? This is a country that constitutionally takes the existence of a bi-party system for granted. It encourages the obvious inefficiencies of an inexistent competition – and this battle for the mediocre ground spreads from values, to business, to ideas and creativity to markets.

As I said in a previous post – and I think this will be J’accuse’s seasonal motto:

In this country we do not solve problems. We nurture them.

Taxi Taxi

How many more times will we see taxis speed through the streets of Paceville as though their life depended on rounding the next corner like a crazy Le Mans driver? I  went out for dinner with the family in our home urban conglomerate yesterday and walking back home past Burger King in the direction of Wembley (Saint George’s Road) at least three white taxis sped past us without any concern for pedestrians.

In every case, without fail, the taxi driver would have one hand on the wheel and another on his phone – deeply engaged in conversation. Hands free? Why? All the talk about the PN’s strong fist with all things transport and yet the Taxi Drivers Inc (the white taxis) still rule the land in Paceville. The area opposite Burger King is their territory. Double, triple, parking and the walls of the former Enemalta building used as a latrine.

Cowboys of the road and harassers of tourists. That is all they are. Will someone -administration, police or whatever – be strong enough to get some order with these energumens? I doubt it. Venture in any city abroad and taxis stick to their designated places. If you need a taxi, you walk to the taxi stand. The taxi does not plonk itself in the middle of the most vibrant part of the area only to zoom away at turbo speed in what should be a maximum 15 km/h zone.

Hope? My guess is that the taxi drivers are probably mostly part time canvassers for some politician or other. Given the trend in that department it would hardly be surprising.

In this country we don’t solve problems. We nurture them.