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The Sacking of a Journalist

The fourth estate being what it is, the news of the sacking of a trainee journalist (he was on probation) in a particular set of circumstances warrants careful examination. J’accuse has a long history of criticising the workings of the mainstream press and is not about to hold back now. I am of course referring to the premature termination of Matt Bonanno’s contractual arrangement with the employers at the Times of Malta. Such termination did not require much of an explanation given that Bonanno was on probation i.e. the sacking required no explanation at all.

This does not mean however that we cannot look further into what happened and how it happened. Now that we have the news from the horse’s mouth (Matt Bonanno’s facebook note – reproduced with his permission further down) we can look at what could possibly have motivated the geniuses at the Times to nip this particular career in the bud. First a little set of clarifying facts:

[box]

(1) Bonanno posted the information of the impending Ministerial visit to tal-Qroqq on a facebook wall that belonged to a friend of his: Ms Abela Garett.

(2) Bonanno did NOT pick up the invitation sent to him in reply by Ms Abela Garrett in which he was asked to “bring his notebook along” to tal-Qroqq the next day for the pre-meditated, non-spontaneous display of disaffection at the Minister’s dealings with public transport.

(3) Bonanno did not inform his editors of the possible protest action – and this is assuming he gave any importance to the wall reply by Abela Garett.

(4) The Times sent ANOTHER journalist to cover Austin Gatt’s university visit. The visit and ensuing ministerial heckling was reported on the Times as it was on all other papers.

(5) The PN sleuths trying to discredit the protesting by Abela Garett included in their list of grievances that (a) the protest was premeditated; (b) Bonanno’s message on facebook was part of the pre-meditation.

(6) While more of the “premeditated” “non-spontaneous” bull was being thrown in direction of the theatrical performance, the Times chose to sever ties with one link in the chain of “premeditation” and sacked Matt Bonanno without so much as a by your leave.[/box]

It stinks. It does. And I do not believe for one moment the whole “conspiracy theory” or the Times is a confederacy of nationalists business. What we have here is an organ that likes to kid itself of being impartial and super partes when it comes to reporting the news suddenly developing a panic attack that it might in some way be “implicated” in a supposed “frame up” of Minister Gatt.

J’accuse believes that the Times people gave absolutely no thought whatsoever to what they were doing before the knee jerk reaction of sacking Matt Bonanno. If the Times had not swallowed  so completely all the bull being shot into their direction by Messrs Bondi, Caruana Galizia and Co. about the evil nature of “non-spontaneous protest” they would have, possibly (and hopefully) noticed that Bonanno’s sole “sin” actually forms part of the repertoire of your average hack.

Yes. The Times sacked a journalist for behaving like one. Activists and ground level journalists constantly interact. Lord knows how many faxes about protests I sent in my time as an activist. If I wanted my organisation to be in the news I’d pretty damn well tell the journalist to “bring his notebook along” and pray to God that he follows suit.

Was Bonanno wrong to tell Abela Garett that Minister Gatt would be at Uni the next day? No. It’s public information after all. Nothing wrong in that.

Was Bonanno wrong not to inform his editors about possible protests occurring on the day? Again all evidence points to exculpating Bonanno. If anything, Bonanno would have abused of such information by “scooping” the issue and being on hand for the news item. Instead he probably did not even bother at all.

The uglier scenario is the alternative one. What if HE HAD told the Times editors that he suspected a possible protest against Austin Gatt on campus? What would they have done? Why are they so eager for the news? Their action (the sacking) might lead us to suspect that they would be more interested in forewarning the Minister than in actually reporting the event. After all they did get the report just the same but their reaction (the sacking) makes them seem rather angry about it all. The thing is… they lost control. They could not control the news. They had to follow and report.

Matt Bonanno’s inadvertent – and I insist unplanned – slipping of the bit of info to Abela Garrett led the Times to behave as a normal newspaper – one that reports the news as it unfolds before it without trying to tamper in any way. The moment though that the PN machine set the wheels in motion and started pointing fingers about absurd theories of “premeditation” and “nonspontaneity” the Times panicked.

And Matt was their perfect scapegoat.

 

Matt’s Note on Facebook (reproduced with his permission).

[box] I wasn’t going to write an explanation at first, but seeing as though gossip and rumours are being fired off from all sides, I thought it would be best to have my perspective wedged somewhere in between all the bullshit. Not that I ultimately give a damn what people think; times like these make it easier to realise who is not worth your time. Firstly, let me be the first to admit that what I did (and what I did exactly will be explained next) was spectacularly naive, and mildly unprofessional.

What I did was this: The day before the incident, I posted on Ms Abela Garrett’s wall, “Guess who’s going to be at University tomorrow.” I barely paid attention to her comment in which she told me she was going to give me a good story. So much so that I didn’t even tell my editors about it, and as a result did not attend the event, which by the way was public and not in the least bit top secret. Therefore, the whole thing was not orchestrated in any way. If I really, intentionally wanted to orchestrate something like that, I would have messaged her privately, not joked semi-publicly on her Facebook wall. In the words of John Cleese in a Monty Python sketch, I may be an idiot but I’m no fool.

A couple of other things which need to be cleared up are:

1) I did not write the article. I was busy following George Pullicino around a valley at the time and call him as my witness.

2) It was not me who decided to portray Ms. Abela Garrett as a heroine. I have no ill feeling towards The Times, especially my former colleagues in the newsroom.

Even though I feel my sacking was harsh, I was still on probation and they were well within their rights to give me the boot. The only thing I was disappointed about was not being given the chance to explain myself or apologise, in person. I was of course asked to explain myself via email on Thursday, since I was off that day, but I kept it brief and intended to explain myself fully, in front of the editors, the next day. On Friday, after being left in the newsroom for about 2 hours, I was called to HR and told my probation was terminated with immediate effect. To be honest I didn’t give my side of things, seeing as I wasn’t asked to. I don’t beg.

Neither am I going to be bearing a grudge against the bloggers who blew the incident out of proportion. They do what they do and I should have known better than to give them fuel to fire their own agendas.

And before they claim they don’t have an agenda, if Messrs. Bondi (sorry but I can’t be arsed putting the accent on the i) and Caruana Galizia were the journalists they claim to be, they would have phoned me to get my side of things before stampeding towards their own, warped conclusions. But that’s not how they work, obviously.

I will say one thing however. Caruana Galizia claims not to be on Facebook, but that makes her lifting photos, statuses etc. from the site and putting them on her blog even more morbid and stalker-like. Then again, she probably doesn’t search for them herself (if she does then she really does need to get a life) and has her minions do it for her. To these sad, miserable sycophants I say: do the rest of us a favour and stop robbing the planet of oxygen.

Actually now that I think of it I’d better remove the pictures of me French kissing a horse with a Labour flag draped over it while attending a pasta najt. (Kidding, Daffy) Finally, a big soppy thank you to my friends who have supported me over the past few days.

I’m touched, really. Anyway, I’ll be getting on with my life now.

Over and out. Matthew Bonanno.

Ps. I wish Maltatoday had chosen a better photo of me. [/box]

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J’accuse : Studies in Theatre

According to a possibly apocryphal story that is doing the rounds on the Internet, Steve Jobs watched the launch of the iPhone 4S from his favourite sofa in his home in Palo Alto. The man hailed as a visionary by the world’s press purportedly snacked on apples and rice pudding throughout the performance of Tim Cook: the man who had been the new anointed presenter of Apple’s latest breakthrough. The “source” claims that at the end of the show Jobs smiled as if to say “all things are in good hands” but did not utter a word.

The story is not exactly “Acts of the Apostles” material but you can see where the cult of Jobs is beginning to take shape. Jobs the visionary, the prophet of all things new, the philosopher with a positive attitude about misfits and changing the world. Here was a man who had influenced the globe − the whole world − with his ideas. It was beyond innovation. Innovation is “only” about improvement − making things better. Jobs went one step further. He made things “different”. A Times (UK) columnist put it neatly: Jobs did not give people what they wanted − he gave them products they could never have imagined.

It is somewhere there − the blasphemous fine line between innovation and creation. This prophet of the age of technology challenged the status quo − and won. No matter what he was “creating”, how far his philosophy took him, what Jobs did best was standing on that big empty stage and work the audience into an elevated sense of expectancy until, with the wave of one hand (and click of a button), the latest step in the Darwinian evolution of Apple goods was unveiled.

Yes. Steve Jobs of the limited wardrobe and unlimited intelligence was a master of theatrical presentation. He may have sat back and just given us his products through the usual channels of marketing but he chose to break barriers there too. Apple became a symbol of desirability and speciality − taking brand fidelity to new frontiers. And much of this usually culminated in the special launch events theatrically prepared and magnificently executed by the man who wanted to challenge our way of thinking and whose legacy will live on for much, much longer. Thank you Steve.

Wucking fankers

On Student’s Day this year we were regaled with a bit of amateur theatrics that took place on the university quadrangle. The dramatis personae included, the MegaloMinister Austin Gatt and a set of ministerial groupies, a cross-section of the student body, a couple of journalists faithfully following the ministerial route, and a hitherto unknown Theatre Studies student who goes by the name of Nicolà Abela Garrett. First impressions count, and the first impression we got was of a student who was mightily miffed because of the Arriva Disservice and who voiced such “miffiness” in no uncertain terms by directing a series of expletives to the minister who sleeps soundly at night. Such “miffiness” was couched in expletives of a rude-ish kind and was dutifully reported by the reporters-in-waiting in their respective online and printed papers.

My first reaction was “bravo” to the girl followed by a secondary reflection on the irony of it being Student’s Day. Oh how times have changed since the days when a critical word or two directed at government ministers would be interpreted as an invitation to a herd of thugs for an impromptu “rag day” in tal-Qroqq featuring the accessories of bare fists and knuckledusters. Any inquiries a propos the past should be directed (among others) to Michael Frendo (then esquire) − and no, Deborah Schembri, remembering the past is not an issue of political convenience.

Well done theatre studies student then. A child had finally stood up and told the Emperor the truth about his clothes. Wouldn’t it be great if more people thought and spoke their mind (and voted with it) than just Abela Garrett? What happened next − from all sides of our political power spectrum was an unfolding of scenes in our very own theatrical scenario.

One sees red

The media machine for the Opposition took up its position for scene two. Abela Garrett was projected to heroine status notwithstanding her choice of vulgar language that surely was not fitting for our sede sapientae. Nothing wrong there of course; however, those blessed with a long-term memory could detect a certain hypocrisy by the red media when it came to “judging” students and their ways.

RWD (that’s rewind) back to the last election when a young Caruana Galizia junior invited a cameraman of red persuasion to “f*** off” in no uncertain terms. The very same journalists (and party) that seemed to be exalting Garrett’s proficiency today had taken quite a different tack at the time − pushing the “indignated” buttons. At the time, no opportunity was wasted to call students all sorts of words − FFW (that’s fast forward) to today and all seems to have been forgiven.

Abela Garrett went on to apologise for her language but not for her outburst. The apology was also covered in all the papers along with a sort of investigation/witch hunt into the identity of the individual/individuals who in true MI5/CIA style had stopped Abela Garrett and given her a “talking to” while asking her for her particulars. Conspiracy theories flew across the Internet boards until it turned out that the “bully” in question had acted “spontaneously”.

Spontaneity

Mr Xuereb, a MITA employee, defended his vigorous questioning of the foul-mouthed student by claiming that his was a spontaneous and undirected reaction. The implication is clear − this is not a ministerial investigation with possible repercussions. It was an individual taking the matter into his own hands. Interestingly though, “spontaneous” was his defence and “lack of spontaneity” was the main criticism directed at the solo protester from the blue corner of the spectrum.

Apparently, according to the likes of Daphne Caruana Galizia and Lou Bondì, the fact that Abela Garrett’s protest was premeditated somehow lessens the value of the protest itself. Funny. I remember how both these advocates of spontaneous protesting defended Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s not so spontaneous antics in the run up to the last election. We have it from the horse’s mouth − in a recent interview with Josanne Cassar, Pullicino Orlando recounts how he was prepped and trained for those eventful days. In JPO’s words: “I was instructed by Richard Cachia Caruana and Joe Saliba to chase after Alfred Sant whenever he spoke publicly, in order to confront him when he did mention me”. Back then it seemed all very worthwhile for the Caruana Galizias of this world to defend the JPO charades to the hilt. Bah. Plus ça change.

Since when does preparing for an act of protest make it any less effective or truthful? It seems that the Times of Malta has sacked Mr Bonanno, the journalist who told Nicola about Gatt’s visit. Of what pray is this young hack guilty? Of telling Nicola about Austin’s visit? Why? Was it secret? It’s not like it’s a frame up to which he was accomplice. Had there been a false story and had he willingly accepted to become an accessory to it then sure, sack the guy. Here though we had a journalist losing his job because instead of following up on a fax announcing a protest in Valletta he “took his notebook” to the scene of a pre-planned protest he had learnt about via Facebook.

Theatrics and the public

Nicola Abela Garrett chose to enact her own little drama. She planned an ambush on Malta’s sleepy minister. It was well executed and actually got much more attention than is normally reserved to Ministerial hecklers in the standard press. The script included a few lies such as the bit about the bus from Attard to Naxxar and the missing of lectures (What lectures? Very few lectures have actually taken place since the launching of Arriva). She does not lie though when she voices the anger of all commuters who have had enough. As I said earlier − good for her.

The reactions to Abela Garrett’s very public showing were typically overblown. From the Labourite praises on the one hand to the character assassinations by the usual suspects in the Nationalist fold on the other. We are not new to political theatricals. Our very polarised television programmes that are supposed to be investigative are just well-rehearsed Q&A sessions with every pre-selected invitee playing his part. It was amusing this week to watch Lou “indignado” Bondì get hot under his collar on his blog (Lou, a blog?) about a new Saviour Balzan programme during which Balzan interviewed one of the abuse victims.

Bondì would have wished Saviour to ask a few questions that Bondì had prepared but, unsurprisingly, Saviour failed to pick up on this invitation. Bondì knows full well how crucial it is to the theatrics of TV for a programme’s presenter to control the questions as well as the panel of invitees. It’s theatre Lou − and the bad actors’ mask soon falls off on its own so there’s no need to worry about Saviour and his bias… it conforms fully to the journalistic standards on TV that you have so gotten us used to.

Curtain call

That’s all I have for this week. Actually I have more but time and space constraints play their part − as do editorial deadlines. I’d like to borrow the Apple philosophy statement for my concluding lines. I adopted this philosophy for J’accuse when I started the blog and I like to think, every now and then… that I still have that streak of craziness in me that obliges me to think different. Thank you again Steve Jobs.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

www.akkuza.com is running on slow at the moment due to other commitments. Bear with us and in the meantime enjoy the new flourishing of blogs in Malta’s volatile blogosphere. Most of all: Think Different.

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Values

Think Different (1955-2011)

Is it hyperbolic of me to describe the death of Steve Jobs as something on the similar scale as living in the time of Galileo Galilei and being told of his death? Much will be written by many in acknowledgement of the greatness of this man and his impact on the globe. Us willing Apple Slaves feel like we have lost a part of us and still cannot get over the feeling that the world is not the same after Steve Jobs. But this is the man who told us : “Those people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are those that actually do.”

I found this old-ish video of Jobs speaking about values and marketing. Here  is how he launches the campaign “Think Different” – a value that J’accuse espoused from the start as a blog and will keep upholding for as long as this blog lives.

Thank you Steve.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. – Apple Inc.

 

and the birth of Macintosh’s magic in 1984

 

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We don’t need no education

It’s Student’s Day and the University of Malta is abuzz as it is wont to be on such an occasion. I haven’t seen anything online about the KSU or University commemorating this moment in history but that might be for fear of Deborah Schembri or Cyrus Engerer lashing back and reminding us that bringing up the past is for pussies. Or something like that.

Student’s Day. A protesting student did make the headlines by exposing Malta’s sleepy minister to a barrage of expletives. The reason? Numerus clausus? Censorship? No. Arriva. The bus commute from Naxxar to Valletta is too long so fuck you Austin. Unlike Michael Frendo back in ’77 (go ahead correct me) this particular student did not get a taste of the Lorry Sant or Wistin Abela thug fraternity. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for hurling expletives at Ministers if that is your particular cup of tea… I only wish we had a video of the event for posterity’s sake. Did she also reserve an insult or two for the vanishing act that is Manuel Delia? Attagirl.

 

Illustration #1: A student makes the headlines

And while we are on the subject of thugs. Here’s how the youth of today, the progressive youth, spend their time on Student’s Day. Here’s Alex Saliba celebrating god knows what anniversary from the death of that paladin of tertiary education and buildings for the people Lorry Sant. Thank (expletive removed) that I had LIKED a comment in reply to Alex’s blurb before it was picked up by the Runs otherwise lord knows what new fantasies and phantsies of plagiarism or idea-theft would have been found in that corner of the blogoverse.

Illustration #2: Lorry's Anniversary

And speaking of young progressives I cannot fail but mention Aaron Farrugia – the spokesperson of Fondazzjoni Ideat whose idea of a retort in an argument is accusing his interlocutor of being an armchair critic. Aaron picked on one of Dear Leader’s rumblings at Tal-Qroqq and decided it was quotable enough as marketing material – proof of Labour’s sound vision for the future. Apparently Joseph Muscat tells us that the UOM should be a centre for learning and creativity. A university for learning did you say? There we were thinking University was only for Realtà controversies, campus fests and rag days (do they still do that one?).

I gave Aaron a taste of his own medicine (oops… can I use that phrase or is it now copyright) and suggested more catchy phrases like: “Fishermen should catch and sell fresh fish. Grocers should sell vegetables. Farmers should reap what they sow.” How does the chairman of Labour’s think tank react to my obvious allegation that this is not a proposal but a useless populist tautology? Well after toying with the usual “armchair critic” piffle… he does what seems to be done best by most Maltese when challenged to discuss: he blocks me from his facebook account. Luckily I had picture evidence of the exchange:

Armchair Escapism

One last thing about university. The barrier is already quite low as it is. Labour’s new championing of students’ right to enter courses could of course be commendable. What is truly worrying is the trend that seems to be moving confusingly towards declaring “graduation” as a right. The right is to access education. There is absolutely no right to successfully read a course. If you are hopeless at a course, if you are unqualified to read a course, then the only place for you is in the failure cabinet. I get this feeling that very little failures are forthcoming at University – resits are just a reminder “to do better next time”. This is just as worrying as having a numerus clausus. Surely someone, somewhere should be pointing this out. Otherwise might as well hand out random diplomas in combination with birth certificates. Then everybody would be equal… we’d be a nation of graduates… and who will need education then?

Surely not Lorry Sant.

ASIDE:  Josanne Cassar has belatedly joined the blogging comunity by opening her own portal at www.josannecassar.com. It’s a bit more than a blog – more like  a collection of articles and interviews but we’d like to wish her all the luck with this venture of hers.

 

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Values

Dio é morto

Mi han detto
che questa mia generazione ormai non crede
in ciò che spesso han mascherato con la fede,
nei miti eterni della patria o dell’ eroe
perchè è venuto ormai il momento di negare
tutto ciò che è falsità, le fedi fatte di abitudine e paura,
una politica che è solo far carriera,
il perbenismo interessato, la dignità fatta di vuoto,
l’ ipocrisia di chi sta sempre con la ragione e mai col torto
e un dio che è morto,
nei campi di sterminio dio è morto,
coi miti della razza dio è morto
con gli odi di partito dio è morto…

f. guccini

 

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J’accuse : Patients and their virtues

In case you were wondering, yes, I did survive my bachelor’s weekend in Italy. There’s nothing like spending some quality time with close friends who can second guess your every whim and fancy without batting an eyelid. It would indeed be a great world to live in if we all managed to live together like bosom buddies without feeling the need to justify our existence by highlighting our differences.

I only bought one book in Bologna − “Costruire il nemico” − a series of essays by Umberto Eco. In the first essay, Eco speaks of the need that has always existed in society of “constructing the enemy” and of the different manners in which such an enemy has been constructed. The essay is a roller-coaster ride through history that chronicles this historic “construction”: from Cicero’s depiction of his Catiline enemies, through the early Encyclopaedia Britannica entries on “Negroes”, through historic views (by “others”) on Saracens, Hitler on the Jews, Boccaccio on women or whoever else on whatever other category has been unlucky enough to be pigeonholed as the detestable enemy.

“(…) sin dall’inizio vengono costruiti come nemici non tanto i diversi che ci minacciano direttamente (come sarebbe il caso dei barbari), bensi coloro che qualcuno ha interesse a rappresentare come minacciosi anche se non ci minacciano direttamente, cosi che non tanto la loro minacciosità ne faccia risaltare la diversità, ma la loro diversità diventi segno di minacciosità”.

Think different

They say that a week is a long time in politics so I thought that an unplanned pause from the blogging and political scene would mean a return to topics new. Not really though, it was only last week that I was commenting on the farce that was the MUMN’s badly managed PR about the supposed stress caused to the entire Maltese health system by 16 (yes, sixteen) Libyan patients (one has sadly passed away since then).

Meanwhile, Dr Gonzi has declared the ITU closed for business in a very pre-Arriva bus-driver style declaration of “Full Up”. The MUMN, eager to stay ahead in the national foot-in-mouth championships couldn’t resist another jibe at the country’s political priorities. Apparently, the MUMN must have felt that crassly insinuating that Libyans should not be treated before every last Maltese national gets his taxes worth is not enough. So what better way to up the ante than to engage in further stereotypification. And what better “class” of citizens to use than the “Gozitans”?

They did get the headlines on the papers: “Gozitan patients lacking same political commitment given to Libyan patients”. This either means that the patients from Gozo are not as sufficiently politically committed as their Libyan counterparts (not dying for the patria are we?) or − as the “given” in the title seems to insinuate − there is not sufficient priority being given to the needs of Gozitan people coming to Malta for treatment.

Forgetting this grammatical cul-de-sac for a minute, it is absolutely ridiculous of the MUMN to actually bring this particular card out of their twisted set of lobbying instruments. The “Gozitan” cause is useful to politicians who want to specialise in a “minority” niche (if it’s not the South then it’s Gozo or Sliema or Siggiewi) and turn it into something really, really special. It is also useful to particular columnists who tend to thrive on a bit of Gozitan beating every now and then − they do so by spuriously linking localised examples of very Maltese ignorance to one particular geographic corner − as though what happens in Gozo never happened in Bisazza Street, Rabat or Cospicua.

I know. I’m biased. But what should that change? Are we stupid enough to erect barriers on the spittle of an isle we call home? What next? “Siggiewi patients deserve more attention in Maternity Ward?” And where the hell are the ethical principles that should be the foundation for a caring profession? For heaven’s sake − doctor, nurse, scrub, whatever − if you are in a caring profession then I’d expect you in the very least to be seeing each and every patient as just that: a patient. It’s not an ID Card that you have to cure; it’s a burn, a bullet wound or a severe case of chicken pox.

“Gozitans, Libyans, Siggiewi people, Xewkija people” − that’s not the language for nurses or their representative association. It’s the dangerous language of politicians who are prepared to go down the route of “great minds” before them… a geezer named Adolf comes to mind. Don’t worry though. This should all change with the news of Gaia the dog found in a skip. All this fuss about dying Libyans and underprivileged Gozitans will soon be sidelined to favour the plight of Malta’s latest animal hero. I wonder if the Animal Welfare Centre has a policy about particular breeds. “What? A boxer? No siree… we’re politically committed to Chihuahuas, Spaniels and Whippets…. “

Different strokes

Paul Pace and the MUMN chose the wrong imagery in order to highlight what might be a legitimate complaint of theirs. If our hospital system is understaffed, if patients (no matter what ID card status) are not being given a decent service and if there are other such similar problems, then there is no doubt that it is the business of a body like the MUMN to bring this to the attention of whoever may change such things. On the other hand, the dangerous game being played of fuelling discontent with the language of hatred is absolutely not done. There is no reason on earth for a nurse, doctor or hospital receptionist to treat one patient differently from another on the basis of nationality − or (heaven forbid) the village or town he is born in.

All too often we fail to discern the dangers of the divisive language that we really employ in our dealings with political affairs. Yes, it is my usual gripe but our dualist way of seeing things − black or white, blue or red − does not help us in any way. Thinking different requires a logical leap and a change of old customs and habits. It requires first of all that we collectively look in the mirror and realise the absurdity of our current situation. We need to concentrate on “knowing ourselves” more than on “knowing/constructing our enemies”.

Just read through the news and you will see what I mean. It’s not just sick individuals putting dogs in skips. It’s permits being issued to an establishment that will manufacture gas metres away from a fireworks factory. Worse still, just look at what the two parties are packing as marketing material for the next election. We had GonziPN selling you bundles of “Pride” while MuscatPL promised the masses that a PL government would give the people “Hope”. Hope? Pride? Talk about intangible faff. I had a dream where I filled my car tank with “Hope” and then proceeded to pay the station attendant in little “hope coins”. “That’s all I’ve got mate… but at least we got a change in government”.

Sunny Michaelmas

We had a sunny Michaelmas up north. That’s the 29th September. Apparently it means that we will have a mild and possibly sunny winter. Tell that to the stork who is gracing Gozo with its majestic presence. Do you follow the news like me − with that sinking feeling that any moment now the next update will say “Stork shot dead over the sea”? Why does it have to be like that? Where do we find all this darn hatred and anger that we unleash on a regular basis?

The ancient Greeks had the words “Know thyself” inscribed on the entrance to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. Sun-Tzu, the Chinese philosopher is attributed the saying “Know your enemy” in his Art of War. That’s some classical thought that is valid to this day. We might do well to do some introspective reflection − there’s time yet for the construction of another round of enemies − we’re only a few months away from full election fever anyway.

 

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