Politics

Marriage (Behind Closed Doors)

Our “President Emeritus” (sic – the Times)  hath spoken: “It is good we are still bound to the principle that marriage is for life and we should be proud of this” – quoth he. Dr Fenech Adami reminded the world that marriage was a contract that bound the individuals for life and this was the principle at stake in the divorce debate. More importantly he rubbished the very strong pro-divorce argument that Malta only has the Philippines as it’s divorce-less partner (should I say wife?).

If you believed men like our “President Emeritus” you’d probably believe that the pro-divorce movement is only in favour of introducing divorce in order to be like others and not for the simple reason that they consider the right to marriage to essentially mean the right to a happy marriage in the long run.

Of course every marriage has its ups and downs but the Vatican-Malta-Philippine triangle would have it that no matter how “down” is “down” in that ups and downs bit, the “till death do us part” has to trump every other consideration. Fenech Adami is right – the basic principle at stake is the whole concept of indissolubility – marriage is marriage for life. Like giving animals as presents: it’s not just for Christmas/weddings but for life.

We all know that being pro-divorce does not mean wanting to better the Philippines or the Vatican State. It means opening a door to those people whose marriage has irretrievably broken down. It means a fresh start. It may not be a civil right in the strict sense of the term but living a happy marriage is an essential building block that inspires many of the civil rights recognised universally. Hiding behind closed doors while the broken couples continue to experience hideous realities without ever seeing a breakthrough is what Fenech Adami is proud of.

In terms of civil rights you can call it sweet F.A.

I wonder what the “President Emeritus” would make of this front page story on l-Orizzont:

TEJPS JĦINU SEPARAZZJONI
Il-Qorti tal-Familja laqgħet it-talba ta’ mara għas-separazzjoni minn ma’ żewġha, wara li fost oħrajn semgħet tejps li fihom ir-raġel jinstema’ jidgħi u joffendi lil martu. It-tejps kienu rrekordjati minn oħt il-mara li toqgħod fl-istess triq t’oħtha.

Il-mara talbet għas-separazzjoni għax skont hi żewġha ma kienx jistmaha. Skont hi, wara xahrejn miżżewġin huwa faqa’ l-bieb tal-kamra tal-banju, tliet snin wara kisser il-bieb tal-kamra tas-sodda u jumejn wara t-tkissir tal-bieb beda jkisser affarijiet fil-‘wall unit’.

B’kollox qalet li bidlet il-bieb tal-kamra tal-banju tliet darbiet, is-siġġijiet tal-kċina darbtejn u l-ħġieġ tal-‘wall unit’ kemm-il darba.Hija sostniet li binhom kien iqum bil-lejl jibki tant li kellha tieħdu għand il-professur li qalilha li binha kellu biża’ kbira.

Minbarra hekk sostniet li żewġha kien jheddi­dha li joqtolha, jqattagħha, jitfagħha f’għalqa u ħadd ma jsibha, li kien joffendiha b’ommha mej­ta u li kienet tarah f’għalqa ta’ ħuh ma’ tfajla u li darba sabitlu qalziet ta’ mara li ma kienx tagħha. Hija ppreżentat ukoll ittra li r-raġel tagħha allega­tament kiteb lil turista Ġermaniża fejn jgħi­dilha li jħobbha.

Fil-kawża xehdu wkoll xi ġirien, fosthom familjari tal-mara, li lkoll qalu li kienu jisimgħu lir-raġel jidħol lura d-dar fis-sakra u kienu jisimgħuh jidgħi, jgħajjas, isabbat u jitkellem ħażin. Fost dawn kien hemm oħtha li ippreżentat it-‘tapes’ fejn ir-raġel jinstema joffendi lil oħtha.

Xhud importanti kien it-tifel tal-koppja fejn dan qal li sa minn meta kellu sitt snin jiftakar lil missieru jirritorna d-dar fis-sakra, jidgħi, isabbat u jkisser. It-tifel qal li huwa kien jiekol fil-kamra tiegħu għax kien jibża’ jinżel isfel minħabba missieru u li missieru kien jgħajjru, joffendih u anke jgaralu l-affarijiet. (continue reading here)

Tinkwetax hanini. Ahseb kemm hemm nisa bhalek fil-Filippini. Dawk ukoll ghandhom kont il-bank biex ihallsu ghall-bibien. U meta tisma’ r-ragel jidghi ghid talba ghar-ruhu u ghal min ghandu mejjet.. fejn taf forsi ghad xi darba jilluminawhom lil tal-Vatikan?

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Dalli vs The Times (and the sidekick)

It’s interesting how on the day I put in context DCG’s mid-week comments on “fish-pondism”, the Times gives us a particular example of their attempts at creating their own fish-pond news. I don’t know why they bothered with an article entitled “Dalli speaks of Brussels term as four year sentence”: I mean the title would have been enough don’t you think? In fact all that we can glean from the rest of the article is that this was no official statement or occasion. For all we know – on the face of the evidence provided by the Times’ man in Brussels – it could have been a familiar chat with some journalists that was off the record. But why the rush from the Times to highlight the “four year sentence statement”? Was Dalli joking or referring to all the ruckus that was raised about his being sidelined in the first place? Will we ever know?

Here’s what the Times had to say:

Former Minister John Dalli has described his current stint at European Commissioner as a ‘four year sentence’ which will soon end.’  He made his comments to a number of Maltese journalists in Brussels.

You’d expect a little bit more information than that no? Context for example? Is the journalist in question reporting a comment made off the record by an EU commissioner to journalists – again if the context is the implication that Dalli was sent off to Brussels to get out of some people’s way you would not blame him for joking nervously about it. The Times report seems to be intent to making it seem a serious enough comment though. It’s inviting the stupid same kind of stupid thinking as hte PQ by the labour backbencher who asked about salaries and the President. The type that considers Dalli an ungrateful sod for having accepted the salary of a Commissioner AND having the gall to come back to Malta for more.

More what exactly? The lucrative business of politics? What’s the big attraction anyway? Lino Spiteri has a point to make on that in today’s Times opinion pages. There’s also an interesting story about Austin’s Sidekick on Maltatoday that provides valuable material in understanding how certain politicians (or in this case wannabe politicians) get their electoral campaigns bankrolled. I’ve had a look at the 2i Ltd website mentioned in the article and … sure enough… they also specialise in Bus Scheduling Software.

Delia the Sidekick engages in a bout of Sumo

Unstomachable

Good old Delia the Sidekick … reliable in his consistency – same old, same old. What were you thinking with that slogan anyway? “We represent a huge experience and outstanding intellectual potential”? The only truth about that is the “huge” part… as for the rest… same old pompous bull. Now the Nationalist Party really has found the cherry on the cake.

As a parting note, a message for John Dalli: “Brussels term” is not a “four year sentence”, if anything it’s a “two word phrase”.

* The Indy too went along with the story (Christopher Sultana). Again I have a problem with the “has learnt” bit of the reporting. If the journalists were in the same office as John Dalli why add the phrase “has learnt” as though it is hearsay or as though the information was obtained from secondary sources?

Here’s the Indy’s take:

European Commissioner John Dalli intends returning to the local political scene after his term in Brussels expires, The Malta Independent on Sunday has learnt. Speaking to a group of Maltese journalists at his office in Brussels earlier this week, Mr Dalli referred to his term as Commissioner responsible for Health and Consumer Policy as a “four-year sentence that will soon be up”.

So now we know Dalli uttered the words in a meeting with journalists in his office.  Still “has learnt”? Was Christopher Sultana in that office? Are the Independent reporting a press release of some kind or a shared source that was originally from another paper?

Salaries and Salary Caps

In times of recession it is inevitable that the issue of wages and salaries bounce to the forefront of the news. Whether it is the Italian Footballer’s Association and its negotiations for a collective contract (a uniform style contract) or whether it is politicians and their pay-cheques, the levels of happiness/unhappiness are exacerbated via a beggar-thy-neighbour exercise. Malta does not have a culture of meritocracy – worse still, it can barely be said to have a competitive wage/salary market. As any Euro-institution worker can vouch, one of the main attractions of emigrating to Brussels-Luxembourg-Strasbourg is the possibility of multiplying you wage-earning potential.

In normal circumstances you can expect the leftist scythe of equalization to pass comments on such matters as the “gravy train” or some other ignorant remark based on comparative jealousy. The fact is that most euro-workers, like the undersigned, leapt at the opportunity of not having their job openings or promotion possibilities depend on political networking. They moved to an area where more often than not the rules for mobility are based on merit and clear rules. But this post is not about euro-salaries (although they will inevitably be brought into question).

This post is about the latest flurry of activity comparing the salary of specialists and consultants to that of the President of the Republic. The President? Malta’s equivalent of the Queen? Does nobody see the irony in this comparison? Much as you may be a beady eyed republican overflowing with respect towards the institutional representative of our nation, surely you will recognise that the kind of demands on the President of the Republic are not exactly the same as those on a surgeon in an operating theatre.

Why then is it newsworthy to point out that 117 persons in the public sector have a higher salary than the President? Even if they are not all surgeons (and they aren’t) what is the point of this comparison? Here’s the breakdown (and it is a breakdown) on Maltatoday:

17 consultants at Mater Dei Hospital, two consultants at Gozo General Hospital, four consultants at St Vincent de Paule Home, the clinical chairman, St Vincent de Paule and a consultant at the Department for Care of the Elderly;

71 captains at Air Malta, four members of the senior management at Air Malta, the CEO, Lotteries and Gaming Authority, the chairman, MFSA, the director-general, MFSA, the CEO, Malta Tourism Authority, the executive chairman, Malta Communications Authority;

The chairman, Mepa, the Governor of the Central Bank, the CEO Malta Stock Exchange, the projects manager, Enemalta; the CEO, Enemalta;

The CEO, Malta Council for Science and Technology, the executive chairman, Malta Enterprise, the CEO, Malta Information Technology Agency; the head, flight operations directorate and three flight operations inspectors, and the Rector of the University.

Ooooh. Socialists of the world unite.  Chairmen of Authorities are paid more than the president. The Rector of a University is paid more than the president. Hell 71 captain/pilots at Air Malta earn more money than the President. Since when is the President’s salary the new standard? And why are the sums being bandied around independently of context?

Let me tell you why. Malta lacks both a culture of responsibility as well as a culture of merit. People should not be judged simply on the basis of what they earn but rather on whether their output justifies what they earn. In the case of the public sector then we should have an employer who pays well for good employees. Who gives a flying monkeys arse whether that implies a salary better than the Presidents? What they should be evaluating is whether the government is getting just returns for the salary with which it is (probably) underpaying the persons mentioned. Similarly when people underperform (or perform horribly) they should be shown the door on that basis – not because they earn money but because their performance is crap.

The confusing picture painted by an opposition intent on shifting the general look of the country to one of a continued depression fails on this measure. Muscat’s Labour will, like many Labours before it, fuel the fires of jealousy with regards to monetary amounts – implying twistedly that the cleaner, the factory worker and the postman and the baker are being short-changed. Not because they do not get the moneys’ worth but because they pay too  much money – can you see it ? More than the President? How dare they?

It’s the stupid culture of relativism raising its ugly head again. Let us flatten the wage bill therefore. Let us pay peanuts and somehow justice will be done.

Elsewhere the draft bill for regulating party funding is still in the running. Party candidates aspire for an equally low paid job of Member of Parliament. How do they fund their campaigns? Who pays for their parties, their meetings with the candidates, their brochures and their websites? Becoming an MP is not supposed to be the most profitable business on the market. Yet so many people aspire to become servants of the people every five years it’s incredible.

Either there’s a glut of altruistic beings on the island. Or there’s something that they prefer not to tell us. God Help Us (and the President) should we find out.

ADDENDUM:

Here’s an example of the current mentality. Comments taken from an update on the Baldacchino shooting on the Times:

Comments

C Cassar(3 hours, 5 minutes ago)
A good example of money not buying happiness or quality of life.
DBorg(1 hour, 58 minutes ago)
Unemployed huh?

There's something about economics

The gaps between macro-economics, micro-economics and home economics are rarely bridged in your average person’s daily thinking. Given the worry about his wages, his electricity bill, his cable football subscription and the extra little entertainment money on the one hand and the Irish Question and EFSF financial bailout disquisitions on the other, your average Joe Borg is more likely to be immersed in the problems former. Like me he would have little or no clue (or only a vague recollection) of the EFSF – European Financial Stability Facility and would have no idea how consequential its future decisions are on the price of bread in his own little world.

Which is not to say that we should all enroll in a Masters degree in economics overnight. It would help though if things monetary were put into perspective whenever we discussed politics and policies national. Our governments tend to take notice of international scenarios only when the outlook has something positive about them to say. Behaving like organisational Lou Bondis they will only read the news if it is about them and if it is good. The biggest offender however is the opposition which continues to swagger and promise as though the international financial crisis is a thing past.

It’s funny how the opposition leaders do not notice that by acting with such naivety they confirm that Malta has hitherto been cushioned from the uglier effects from such recessions. The problem is that, as the IMF seemingly pointed out yesterday, we should not be carried away by the idea that it is all over. Malta, like the rest of the countries in the real world, is still out there in the stormy financial and economic storm – and the waters are far from being calm.

On yesterday’s episode of Vieni Via Con Me, world famous architect Renzo Piano was asked the question that most of the expat community often face at one time or another in their life. Stay or Go? Implying – would you encourage people to stay in Italy or leave the country? Piano answered unequivocally – partire (go): not out of desperation (as the emigrants of the harsh times who left for New York etc) but out of curiosity to discover the wider world.

It is sometimes this careless feeling that the outer world does not matter that drives our planning along the usual corrupt and useless ruts. Which is why we too should encourage our young to leave the country and discover the outside world.

Piano added a postilla – partire … per ritornare. Leave to come back. Which I must confess is probably the most difficult part. Someone once old me that the country that you pine for when abroad is never the same one that you left behind. Which makes the coming back part all the more difficult.

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My Cousin Bondi

This is a tale of two cousins. One is a self-professed journalist who has a time slot on national television the other is a thatcherite minister in the Maltese government. J’accuse does not normally take to the “pink” style references of familial links and the like but this time the coincidental operations of two cousins – one of whom we still admire – merited an appreciative pointer from this ever cynical blog.

First was the “journalism above all bloke”. This week there was another self-referential program about… himself. Or rather about the fact that assertions made by him in an earlier program did not sell very well to a large part of the population. Bondi must have been reading the news for a couple of weeks now for he planned a program full of clips and cuts from everything under the sun. Admittedly. and sticking to his philosophy, all references he read or saw or heard were to himself and his program. So he set up a new one in order to disprove his detractors.

He had planned a lovely jubbly program complete with an interview with Finance Minister Tonio Fenech. It would be a program in which he would prove that PL’s campaign depicting him as a statistic fabricating lackey for the nationalist government is completely cuckoo. It would all be as slick as a gelled hairdo. It would be. Until Bondi discovered much to his chagrin “a few minutes before the program began” (as he repeated ad nauseam) that a welcoming delegation from the PL were waiting at the studios complete with special guest Charles Mangion.

Bondi was as surprised as Alfred Sant must have been when he saw JPO sitting in the journalist benches on that fateful afternoon. He could not call for security and have the offending intrusion on his orchestrated program removed. He would have liked to. But he could not. Instead he smiled and gave Kurt Farrugia a “ma gara xejn” nod. And so the program began. It took a bouncy Bondi a full six minutes to settle down and actually start the program – not before flushing the cameras with caveats and mumbling sorry excuses about how a presenter of his international stature had been caught pants down by a rare sly move from the PL marketing team. He would have to go ahead with the program with the “adversary” in the studio watching every step.

Throughout the first part of the program (there’s a limit to how much bull we can stomach for you readers) we could feel Bondi’s discomfort as he squirmed from one figure to the next. He jumped from “zball zghir nibdluh” to “kollha l-istess baqghu il-figuri” with the grace of a clumsy donkey ride on a hot summer beach. Whenever he felt he was losing grasp of the situation (read: the program was not going according to script) he cannonballed onto Mangion with pleas for the labour parliamentarian not to “Set the agenda”. In Bondi’s mind, anything that risks disproving his theories involves setting the agenda.

Pity that Mangion was a feeble lamb and failed to live up to the occasion. He should have damn well insisted that the Beta tape he was carrying be shown. It was after all a table of figures and not – as Bondi seemed to imply – a porn video of god know what libellous nature. That Bondi managed to brush away the presentation with a feeble: “mhux fair ghax gibtha tard” spoke volumes of the worry that had planted itself firmly in the presenter’s mind. Truth is that Bondi cannot and will not take on his critics fair and square at equal arms. He needs to dance around and manage the show with clips that can be shifted and moved around at will. Even if Bondi was right, or half right – the manner in which he chooses to refute criticism makes him stink of wrong. Very wrong.

Which brings me to the much admired (in these circles) Austin. Among the sanscouillistes even the man with half a ball is king. Gatt seems to be loaded with such attributes (we are always speaking on a metaphorical level of course – I have no idea (or interest) what Gatt carries in his pants) and as such has often borne the brunt of audacious measures. Which makes his pussyfooting and excuse mongering in the BWSC affair all the more suspicious. Unlike Cousin Bondi, Gatt has never feared opposition and a good battle and prefers to take it head on.

Reading the script of the parliamentary accounts committee interview of the Auditor General was a bit of a throwback to kafquesue big brother readings. The quizzing of the AG by Austin Gatt had a bit of a stalinist feel about them that made more noise for what was not being said than what was being said. The “smoke without fire” metaphor had been stretched beyond limits. The AG had said ab initio that while all the investigations left a stinky smell of something fishy he had not managed to put his finger on the pile of stinking fish. Why then would we need the charade of Austin Gatt asking question after question about every stage to point out that no evidence was found? Had the AG not already said that?

It sounded like Pope Urban VIII vs Galileo:

He listed almost ten stages of the entire process and the persons involved during the decision process, and after each case, he asked the Auditor if there was any evidence that these people had been corrupted.

The Auditor General replied: “there was no evidence.”

Neat isn’t it? Almost ten stages. Almost like a rosary. A litany. Stage I. No Evidence. Stage II. No Evidence. Stage III. No Evidence. Stage IV. No evidence. etc etc. Ora Pro Nobis. Turris Eburniae and all.

In view of the information available to the Audit office. No corruption was found Mifsud (the AG) said, however he did add that “there had been lack of cooperation from some people who the NAO had questioned.”

Eppur si muove right? Not really. The nationalist inquisition is probably routing for an open and shut case. Austin Gatt had skillfully (not without causing a ruckus at the PMs office) set the agenda for the PAC in much the same manner as a Bondiplus programme. The obstinacy with which he opposes the calling of forgetful witnesses (a parallel with calciopoli perhaps) is baffling. Again. Whether he is right or wrong Austin Gatt’s methodology in this business has fouled the whole reasoning. The press that Bondi scours so assiduously for references to himself have been unanimous in criticising Gatt’s modus operandi this time round. He was painfully aware of this during his interview with Herman Grech.

So there you have it. Cousins Gatt and Bondi display similar traits when it comes to attempting to control a PR exercise gone wrong. These damn Gozitans… what is it they say about burning good ones?

Quotes from MaltaToday report.