Divorce a distraction?

I get the nagging feeling that the whole divorce debate is a welcome distraction for the party in government. Whichever way you look at it, even with the possibility of a watered down divorce law on the horizon in the near future, the PN government is set to gain from what is after all a delayed distraction. By some twenty years. If we could adduce some form of strategy from the single-seat government way of thinking it would be that the divorce debate that was clumsily shifted onto its plate has the main bonus of providing the occasional distraction from the pressing issue of COL (cost of living) in its various guises.

The spice that are priests like Daniel Cordina in Zebbug or politicians like the various JPOs, Bartolos and Musumeci only serves to give the affair the varied colouring of an indian spice stand. At the end of the day there is a sense of inevitability that is wired into the divorce issue itself. It is not a question of “If”, more a question of “when” and a bit of “how”. You can read that sense of urgency into Mike Briguglio’s press conference statement today. It almost sounds like an exercise in tautology: “Decision on divorce needs to be taken“.

You can almost hear the Simpsons‘ Homer yelling :”Duh”. But this is the country where Musumeci can claim to be an “opinionist” and not a “journalist” on his little platform on Smash. Where the same Musumeci can proselytise while trying to be the new “good boy” of the PN clan. Where Muscat can shoot at the government for “playing with the people” without actually offering an alternative solution to the problems at hand. Where politicians like Zammit Lewis can quote their leader on facebook and echo the worry about the poor without budging one inch about the new ideas from the new generation.

Thank God for divorce then (or maybe don’t thank Him, since He does not like it). We’d rather the distraction that exposes the pogguti, the sinful and the pagan. It’s more familiar territory for the Kinnie & Twistees generation brought up in the shadow of Mintoffianism and Eddie’s salvationism. Discuss a program for the economic relaunching of the nation? What the hell? I’d rather discuss the sinful qualities of divorce.

And the PLPN are heading towards the 10th legislature since Independence. In this country thinking different is the norm, and the norm is being divorced from reality.