Politics

Rush coming up

Jiġu mumenti fejn nipprova nimmaġina meta’ kien il-mument li waqafna nimxu u bdejna niġru. Niġru fis-sens li ma niefqux biex naħsbu u li inħallu il-mezzi ta’ komunikazzjoni jaħsbu minflokna. Filli konna hemm nifirħu bl-emanċipazzjoni tal-individwu u li issa kellu il-poter f’idejħ u filli kull ħajt virtwali u kull forum possibbli qed jintela’ bil-vomtu kwotidjan mingħajr ħafna ħsieb.

Fausto sejjħilhom graffitti. Sewwa qal. Anki jekk f’idejn esperti anki il-graffitti jafu jġiegħluk taħseb. Imma illum mhux graffiti biss għandna. Għandna il-kummenti, il-kontrokummenti, l-osservazzjonijiet mundani u personali. Għandna is-search engine u l-wikipedia. Għandna l-aħbarijiet “on tap” u l-“opinion polls” instantanji. U fil-baħar ta’ “data” l-individwu emanċipat safa dik il-gżira li John Donne qalilna li ħadd ma hu.

**

Iħħakkjaw il-kont elettroniku ta’ Bashar Al-Assad dittatur ġewwa s-Sirja. Skoprew li waqt li mijiet ta’ Sirjani kienu taħt attakk ġewwa Homs, id-dittatur u martu kienu qed jordnaw il-linef u d-DVD ta’ Harry Potter minn fuq x-xibka ta’ l-eteru. Jaħasra kemm miet kmieni Salvador Dali. Kienet tkun xena surrealissima li seta jiġbed ma Picasso. Biss biss Pablo kien ikollu jkabbar it-tila ta’ Guernica biex ma jpinġix biss il-bombi neżlin imma anki l-vann tad-DHL jew UPS qed iwassal il-linef fid-dar tad-dittatur.

U ta’ Harry Potter mhux tajba jew? Kemm hi belha din Asma (hekk jisimha martu l-Ingliża) kos. Tordnalek il-kopja legali tal-film ma jmurx tikser il-liġi u tidħol fuq xi Pirate Bay tniżżel it-torrent. Fejn taf, jekk jispiċċaw quddiem il-Qorti Kriminali Internazzjonali ikollhom akkuża inqas għal xiex iwieġbu il-koppja Al-Assad. Massakru ċivili – IVA, korruzzjoni u tkasbir tad-drittijiet – IVA, download illegali – LE ta… dak ordnajtu fuq PLAY.COM onorevoli… delivery b’xejn kieku kont fl-Ewropa.

**

Irrekordjaw lil Julian Galea. Irrekordjaw lil Joanna Gonzi. Joanna ma ħarġitx għall-elezzjoni. Julian ma setgħax jirtira l-kandidatura. Ivvutawlu xorta. Imbagħad irriżenja. Għax ħass li aħjar. Ivvutawlu xorta. Dik l-iktar biċċa affaxxinanti. Kellhom kollox għad-disposizzjoni tagħhom. Il-massa tal-medja wasslitilhom kull bit u byte tar-recording. Ivvutawlu xorta.

Ħal-Qormi għandhom sindku ġdida. Naqra naive. Imsieħba f’sit ta’ “hostesses” taljani. Hostesses kienet saret kelma sinonima mal-Kavallier tal-Italja li ħadem tant għal ġieħ u unur in-nisa tal-Italja. Li ma nifhimx hu jekk dawn in-nies humiex konxji tal-konsegwenzi tal-preżenza tagħhom fuq ix-xibka virtwali. Fil-Festschrift Immanuel Mifsud tagħna stampa ċara ta’ dak li sejjaħ bħala il-konfessjonarju ta’ Foucault. F’J’accuse semmejna kemm il-darba kif kien hemm perijodu fejn il-blogs servew ta’ mera ħarxa li uriet il-kruhat tas-soċjeta tagħna. Ma konniex nafu jekk aħniex lesti għalihom dawn il-veritajiet.

Bħal Alice fil-pajjiż tal-meravilji sirna, diffiċli tifhem dak li hu veru u dak li hu virtwali. Forsi la nifhmu li dak li ilna insejħu virtwali huwa biss estensjoni tal-veru forsi hemmhekk biss nimxu l-quddiem.

**

Cyrus Engerer il-politikant bla kostitwenti bena dar fuq Facebook. Mill-kampanja tad-divorzju il-quddiem bena persunaġġ virtwali. Cyrus il-laburist li qiegħed bilmod ilmod iżarma l-ewwel maskla reali li kien bena fil-bidu tal-karriera politiku tiegħu meta kien Cyrus in-Nazzjonalist li forsi (forsi) kien jirrekordja lil kollegi tiegħu meta’ jkunu f’xi dagħdigħa ta’ bejn il-ħbieb – just in case.

Franco Debono imur il-parlament bħala deputat nazzjonalista. Anki Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. Imbagħad meta taqbżilhom u jridu jiftħu l-mitraljatriċi tal-kritika jidħlu fuq Facebook jagħmlu xi status update. “Does RCC have a blog?” kienet waħda mill-aħħar enigmi ta’ Franco. Sa fejn nafu aħna m’għandux blogg RCC. Konna nistednuh għall-bloggata guest – imqar għall-kurzita biex naraw x’ikollu xi jgħid.

Sadattant blogs oħra li nibtu waqt il-falsa stikka tal-elezzjoni li qatt ma kienet mietu fuq ommhom. L-azzopardinicky’s tal-mument kienu posposti għal mument opportun. Kien kmieni wisq biex iżżomm ritmu ta’ elezzjoni. Dan jafu Muscat li issa inbela f’nassa ta’ prattikament prim ministru kostanti sa mill-inqas is-sena d-dieħla.

**

U Simon Busuttil li ma jridhiex tas-suċċessur predestinat qed jisħaq fuq komunikazzjoni. S’issa kull meta tniffes, tniffes biex jgħidilna li jew iridu jisimgħu iktar jew iridu jikkomunikaw aħjar dak li qed jagħmlu. Għax dak li qed jagħmlu huwa tajjeb.

Li għadna ma smajniex minn Simon Busuttil huwa jekk hux se jkollu messaġġ li jwassal, hux se jkollu kontenut ġdid, jew inkella aħniex se jkollna biss reċiklaġġ u stinar fuq messaġġi li ilhom li intilfu fil-kaos tal-eteru. X’se jisma’ Simon? Il-graffitti fuq il-ħitan?

**

Ilna niġru. Bl-Ingliż ngħidu “to rush” u qlibniha tirraxxja. Bħal dak li bela’ l-ecstasy u ma baqax jagħmel sens. Għax il-moħħ jaħseb sew meta jirrifletti u mhux meta jispara bl-addoċċ. Il-moħħ huwa l-ewwel għodda. Id-dinja virtwali – dik l-estensjoni tad-dinja reali – għandha potenzjal qawwi. Enormi. Pero jekk naqbdu niġru biha ma ndumux ma nsibu l-ewwel ħajt u nibqgħu deħlin dritt ġo fih.

Ċensu

Ħa ngħidilkom ghaliex meta smajt l-aħbar li ħalliena Ċensu Tabone ħsiebi mar fil-parapett. Kont kbirt biżżejjed biex inkun nista nitlaq ‘il bogħod minn taħt għajnejn il-ġenituri. Dak iż-żmien Marsalforn kien għadu r-renju inkontestat tat-tfal fejn kull bieba kienet miftuħa, kull parapett kien jilqgħek u l-omm ixxurtjata tal-mument kienet issib kotra tfal jiġru ħafja wara l-bieb qed iħejju għad-doveri imqarba tal-jum. Sajf jew xitwa, Milied, Għid jew Karnival konna niltaqgħu. L-Għawdxin ta’ barra, il-Maltin imnissla minn Għawdxin u l-Għawdxin D.O.K.

Il-btala kienu jfissru il-bidu tad-divertiment. Roti jiġru mas-saqajn mill-Menqa sal-breakwater u tfal ma kullimkien jiskopru d-dinja u lil xulxin mingħajr ebda biżgħa u  l-uniku rażan kien il-homework li għadu ma tlestiex (jew jekk kont kemm kemm ikbar l-istudju għall-O level li għadek trid tagħmel). L-irkejjen kollha konna nafuhom – miz-zuntier tal-knisja ta’ Dun Marjan sal-buskett ta’ fuq il-parking li għalina kien bosk infinit. Kien hemm rokna speċjali għal dawk fostna li konna ninzertaw dawk il-ġimgħat kmieni tal-Għid qabel ma jaslu il-Maltin. Kien parapett enormi (kollox suġġettiv meta tkun żgħir) li kien jmiss ma’ tarf in-niżla tat-triq li mir-Rabat twassal għal Marsalforn.

Hemm, f’dik il-kantuniera bejn il-Marsalforn Hotel  u l-Lantern,  intlagħbu l-ikbar logħbiet tal-ballun li qatt raw dawn il-gżejjer. Kemm il-darba niżlu jilgħabu il-Liverpool ta’ Dalglish u l-Juventus ta’ Platini lanqas ma tista’ tgħoddhom. U fis-skiet għażżien ta’ tard filgħodu qabel ma tinstema’ kbira l-għajta għall-ikel kien ikun hemm elf għajta oħra ta’ “goooowl”… Ma kienx isir logħob biss meta’ l-persjani tad-dar tal-parapett kienu miftuħa għax dak kien ifisser li kienu ġew is-sidien u s-sinjura żgur ma kenitx tieħu gost bit-tambir tal-ballun jirbombja kontra l-injam (tal-ġild jekk jogħġbok mhux xi SuperTele kwalunkwe).

U l-ħafna drabi meta l-logħba tal-ballun tkun imprattikabbli minħabba l-wasla tas-sidien ma kien ikun ġara xejn. Għax il-wasla tagħhom kienet tfisser li waslet ukoll il-familja estiża ta’ tfal u neputijiet. Allura erħilna ilkoll lejn il-wied… kollha kemm aħna… Ċensu (jnr), Mikela, Francesca, Mark, Joe, Andrew, Nicky, Nicola, Paula, Joanna, John u… u … il-lista kienet infinta daqs il-familja enormi… (skużawni jekk insejt lil xi ħadd). Ta’ tfal li aħna konna insibu dejjem biex negħdew.

U meta fis-87 rajthom bit t-shirt ta’ Ċensu Tabone, dak li kien in-nannu ħa lewn ieħor. U bqajt insegwih kemm dam fil-politika minn dakinhar. Segewejtu avolja kien għażel li jibni fuq il-parapett u jestendi d-dar. Hekk jew b’hekk sa dakinhar żmien il-logħob kien għadda u Marsalforn kien sar iktar post fejn infittxu l-ewwel namrati. U mhux se tmur tinnamra fil-parapett tal-Ministru hux?

Ċensu ma baqax biss in-nannu ta’ sħabi iżda sar ukoll il-politiku li missu ikun xempju għal dawn l-iskuża ta’ politikanti li għandna illum. Sar President u wettaq dmirijietu lejn il-pajjiż. Baqa’ jitkellem b’dak l-aċċent inimitabbli Għawdxi li kien jagħmlu iktar ġenwin. Il-figura tan-nannu Ċens kienet saret dik ta’ – kif isejħulu l-Ingliżi – a statesman. Tajjeb li jibqa’ imfakkar hekk.

Imma għalija jibqa’ l-ewwel haġa li tiġini f’moħħi. Dak il-parapett….

Strieħ fil-paċi nannu Ċens.

Min hawn nixtieq nagħti l-għomor lill-familja kollha ta’ Ċensu Tabone – wieħed mill-aħħar politiċi popolari tas-seklu għoxrin.

 

 

 

The Julian Galea Electors

Julian Galea is the only PN candidate in Sliema to have survived the mess from the previous council. On any other day he would have been hailed as a resilient survivor instead, like an ugly wart, he has become the latest manifestation of the obsessive symptoms of Maltese electoral practices. Galea’s infamy began when he was unlucky enough to be entrapped into a recording of vile pronouncements expounding quite succinctly his base intolerance for anything Labour (Apparently, if you believe Galea this happened two years ago in a meeting between PN candidates – bravu Cirillu). It was too late to withdraw him from the electoral lists (even death is not strong enough to nullify a candidate’s listing once the nominations are closed).

We all know where it went from there. It’s not like no one had heard about Julian Galea’s insipid pronouncements – Labour made it quite a point to have them broadcast all over the place. Armed with the knowledge of Galea’s behaviour any voter in his right mind would have desisted from even mistakenly marking the little square on the ballot beside the candidate’s disgraced name if only to spare him the ignominy of having to remaining in the public eye for an extended period of time.

Julian Galea was – how shall I put it kindly – not just not presentable but also supposedly unelectable. The only persons you’d expect would put their mark near his name in the hope of his getting elected to the Sliema council would be scheming Labourites hoping to capitalise on his glaring presence. Yet….

Julian Galea got 233 votes. Two centuries and a third. He “only” lost 60 votes from his previous tally in 2009. True he got elected on the 17th count when he had still not reached the quota of 517 having obtained 376 votes in all (inheriting 143 from other candidates). What would have been a miserable performance must be seen from another perspective though.  Who were those 233 souls who still rallied for Julian and his phobias?

Forget the noise from the pundits trying to desperately fit the Local Council shoe onto the twin ugly sisters’ General Election feet. This has nothing to do with labour/nationalist swings. It has nothing to do with the supposed “changing of Malta’s political demography”. Here you had the plain and simple reality of what makes up the bulk of Maltese politics.

On the eve of the elections we tried to warn you in “The Ugly Dress Rehearsal“. J’accuse described what the voter should be looking at in the candidates:

It should be obvious to anyone who stops to think for a moment that the ultimate consideration therefore when casting one’s vote is the competence and potential of the candidate. To summarise it more succinctly: It is not WHO is behind the candidate but rather WHO HE IS and WHAT HE STANDS FOR. 

Did the voters do any of that? Do the results of the Local Council Elections show us a discerning voter who is involved in large scale swings and confidence issues and is busy sending “messages” to this or that party? Not really no. You might enjoy the charade of conflicting interpretations that the PLPN circus is likely to feed you over the next coming weeks. You might love the myriad interpretations: “PN must listen. Labour has gained inroads in the North. Time for change.” Lahdidah.

In reality what happened is much simpler. Occam’s razor again. It rained. Heavily. Most people had had enough of the circus (except maybe Silvio Zammit). They just could not be bothered. Who bothered to go out to vote? The die-hards. They are the people who wouldn’t miss a trip to the ballot if they were dying. It’s ingrained. Their vote is tattooed on their brain. And then in Local Councils there are what we can assume to be the core of voters for each candidate. Families, neighbours, close friends who feel obliged to get their man in.

That is how Julian Galea, no matter what he says or does will keep getting at least around 250 votes every time he contests the Local Council elections. It is anything but an assessment of his capacity to convince voters to vote for him. If you want a litmus test for that just look at AD’s darling Mike Briguglio. In 2009 Mike got 457 votes and was not elected (Edward Cuschieri – PN – got elected on the 10th count in that election even though his first preference votes numbered 222). This time round his tally was 485 votes. Not much of a shift was there? That 28 vote increase transformed AD’s failure into success. Or at least we would like to think so.

Another way of reading the results – and by this I mean most of the results is that they are about as prophetic and indicative as tea leaves at the bottom of a teacup. Voters have neither swung nor used their votes to express any particular concern. Even less should we be worrying about those who did not bother to turn up.  Protest vote my foot. At this rate the only conclusion that I am willing to draw about these absentees is that they saw nothing available to make the trip to the ballot box worth it. More than a protest vote it is a lazily calculated snub at what  is on offer on the menu. I’m guessing there will be much less of these when the General Elections come along.

So there you have it. What have the LC Elections in 2012 taught us about your average voter? That he still remains that – average. The intelligent voter stayed at home this time round. He is still out there however.

 

Will the parties take note?

 

The Ugly Dress Rehearsal

They’re electing representatives of the people in a number of councils tomorrow. From Zebbug (Gozo) to Sliema (Malta) the voters who will bother to take a stroll to the polling booth will be electing a group of people who are supposedly best placed to manage the needs of their locality. That is the principle behind the process of administrative devolution that began in 1993 with the setting up of the local council system.  It’s almost twenty years now and the Kunsilli are ingrained in our political system of representation – for good or for bad – and ever since Labour’s rethink about participation in local politics they have also been a microcosm of our wider political field.

Ever since the times of Cicero, electoral campaigns for the municipium  were a hotly contested affair. As the wikipedia article will tell you the ultimate right for a citizen is the right to vote (civitas optimo iure) – something to be treasured above all. Ugly electoral campaigns are also not something new and notions of slander, corruption and dirty politics on the eve of elections were not exactly invented by the PLPN crowd. Nothing new under the sun there. So what to expect from tomorrow’s vote?

Well, the result per se, should technically not have a meaning beyond enabling us to understand whether our cives have become more intelligent with the use of their ultimate power. At the end of the day the municipal council that is elected in each locality will have an effect on the lives of its citizens via the decisions it takes. It should be obvious to anyone who stops to think for a moment that the ultimate consideration therefore when casting one’s vote is the competence and potential of the candidate. To summarise it more succinctly: It is not WHO is behind the candidate but rather WHO HE IS and WHAT HE STANDS FOR. 

And that is where we start to get complicated. Down on the ground, where it counts, I have no reason to suspect that every candidate contesting the elections and committing his or her time for a few years of civic duty has plans and ideas for the running of his locality. Even better I am sure that in the absolute majority of cases the interest is borne by a love of the locality and a desire to improve it or bring out the best in it. That is after all what the council election is about. All this happens behind the elaborate facade that is the involvement of the major political parties and it is not helped by the fact that this set of elections is the last official public scrutiny before the next general elections.

So we get the ugly dress rehearsal. Once again signs will be read where there are none. For the umpteenth time Labour will make a song and dance about winning local elections when in opposition. It’s not like we have not already been there. It is an exercise in collective dis-education.  Why? Because your criteria when voting for local representatives should be the competence of the candidates and not whether you are exercising your vote to send a message to the Prime Minister. If you are stupid enough to waste the great prerogative that you have to choose the best local representatives because you’d rather be sending some message to the PN government then your idea of how democracy works is seriously flawed.

Labour could not help itself though. Thanks to Franco Debono’s antics it was duped into campaign mode at what turns out to be a very early stage and is now desperately trying to keep the election mode going as much as possible. That is why although we are speaking about local councils and performance the national media is full of arrows and stabs aimed at the heart of “GonziPN”. And then there was the whole RecordingsGate. First Joanna Gonzi then Julian Galea then Gonzi again were caught on tape – unsurprisingly all the candidates were from Cyrus Engerer’s Sliema council. The public heard PN candidates utter the obvious – our inbred tribal hatred was suddenly there for all to see. The PN countered with a few clips of its own – giving the usual suspects pride of place in its counter-information exercise.

The relevance this had for Local Council politics was that it reinforced the idea that PLPN still do not bother to screen candidates to check their suitability for public office. Did we need the recordings to find that out? There is a paucity of political potential already as it is and the recordings only threw the truth into everybody’s face. From Mosta to Sliema the signs of an illness in our system were already evident. As for dress rehearsals for an election we saw the two behemoths unashamedly re-engage in slander and mud-slinging politics where content is relegated to the footnotes of a manifesto. There it was – a race to uncover the sleaziest candidate, long-forgotten criminal records unveiled and more. What should have been a legitimate exercise of democratic checks-and-balances became a witch-hunt.

Then came Muscat’s Iron Lady performance. As others have pointed out it was obvious were Muscat got his Assisian inspiration from. The Labour leader would have fared much better had he memorised another great line from the movie: It used to be about trying to do something, now it’s all about trying to be someone. And that really hits the nail on the head. With the politics of taste that were inaugurated early this century substance makes way for charades, for strutting and for many words that cannot be backed by thoughts and ideas. Values have been thrown out of the window and marketing and imagery is all the vogue.

With our politicians busy playing along the weary scripts and jumping from one pleasant bandwagon to the next in the hope of boosting their already bloated caricatures on this stage we have only a huge dramatic performance to look forward to come next national elections. For now we have been regaled with some very ugly scenes that made for a horrible dress rehearsal. 

But let us not forget that there cannot be a play or a charade without an audience. It brings me back to the intelligent use of the vote. It’s not, as many may think, simply an appeal to vote for alternattiva demokratika. It’s a much wider appeal for the citizen to finally live up to this immense responsibility and make the right choices. Look through the candidates. Look at them beyond the colours they represent and seriously ask yourself what you can see them doing six months down the line that can improve the state of your community. Accept any other criterion beyond that and you are making a fool of yourself. 

And as a fool, you might as well join the other pagliacci on stage….

Vesti la giubba,
e la faccia infarina.
La gente paga, e rider vuole qua.
E se Arlecchin t’invola Colombina,
ridi, Pagliaccio, e ognun applaudirà!
Tramuta in lazzi lo spasmo ed il pianto
in una smorfia il singhiozzo e ‘l dolor, Ah!

Ridi, Pagliaccio,
sul tuo amore infranto!
Ridi del duol, che t’avvelena il cor!

 

The Frontier Psychiatrist

Given that it is hard to keep up with the emptiness that is offered from our political milieu two days before a set of local council elections campaign, given also that I do not have the time required to set up a proper SHTF satirical video in Blobb style, given that there are two days till the jamboree of posts celebrating the  sevenversary of this blog and finally given that I have a post in draft that has been waiting to come out;

Given all that and more I though of just posting this video as a prequel to the actual post that is a summary of what we have seen in this campaign for the local councils (the actual post will be called “The Ugly Dress Rehearsal”. Don’t ask why I chose this particular one. Or at least don’t ask me. Do your research.

 

Polidano can, if he thinks he can

There’s a story in today’s Times about how MEPA has stopped illegal works being carried out by property developer Polidano. The work in question was being carried out in the gardens of a number of Balzan townhouses that are protected. It’s the usual story, you would say, but what really sets alarm bells ringing are phrases such as:

“(…) Mr Polidano had repeatedly applied to knock down four historic townhouses in the village core to build six terraced houses with swimming pools instead.”

Repeatedly? Forgive my stupidity but can I ask a simple question: Can he do that? What is the point of a permit application system if it is not exhaustive? You apply and you either get or don’t get a permit. I would guess that that should be that. Apparently it isn’t. If someone like Mr Polidano does not like the outcome of his application then he can keep on trying until maybe somebody changes his mind – and then he will get permission to bulldoze 300-year old townhouses to build his swimming pool projects in Balzan.

If there ever was a massive WTF then this is it. Here is my hastily constructed timeline based on the facts in the article:

March 2003 – permission requested for alterations to facade etc  – REFUSED

May 2004 – appeals in relation to refusal – REFUSED

December 2005 – application to transform two town houses into 43 apartments and 121 car underground park (while preserving facades) – REFUSED

April 2007 – appeal in relation to Dec 05 application – REFUSED

July 2009 – asks board to reconsider decision – REFUSED

But some people don’t take no for an answer. Notwithstanding the Inter-style track record with MEPA Polidano’s bulldozers seem to have swung into action  and were busy within the protected gardens (see photos on Times report).

We are talking about gardens in townhouses in Balzan – an area famous for the citrus trees and more. We are talking about at least one of the houses having a historic value with Grandmaster De Rohan having used it as his country residence. I’d love to meet the architect who signs off these “projects” for Mr Polidano. What could be going through his or her mind when he is appending his or her name to such wanton destruction.

Worse still though is the attitude that Mr Polidano has with MEPA. Somehow you get the feeling that all the enforcement notices and orders to desist will not prevent the total destruction of the gardens in Balzan.

All the MEPA orders, and all the enforcement men will never be able to put Balzan together again. 

 

also from Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar