Mass Downgrade

There was a time when the day after “mass meeting” events would be spent combing the papers comparing snapshot to snapshot of the human flood that would have filled the appointed spot at the appointed time. Pre-election polls in Malta were conducted with an expert off the cuff assessment (if you excuse the oxymoron) of the number of flag waving homini partisani who crammed every nook and cranny of Il-Fosos. That was then – when a silly tune like “We take a chance” could guarantee more votes than a commitment on Waste Recycling and when everybody could dance the night away happy that our economy was boosting and F’par idejn sodi.

I went through the papers – those sympathetic to government and their online version to look for the photos of the “masses” who were supposed to have spent three days of hedonistic remembrance and instead all I could find were close-ups of Lawrence Gonzi and Paul Borg Olivier. Was something being hidden from our prying 80’s mentality? Had the PN masses failed the ultimate fidelity test? Had they not crammed the beloved fosos while singing their anachronistic innu tal-kattolċi u tal-Latini? Apparently not. Here’s the party mouthpiece MaltaRightNow letting the numbers slip while describing part of Prime Minister Gonzi’s speech:

Lista ma tispiċċax illi ġiet elenkata mill-PM u Kap tal-Partit Nazzjonalista Lawrence Gonzi meta indirizza lill-mijiet miġbura fuq il-fosos tal-Furjana għall-mass meeting li bih għalqu l-festi tal-Indipendenza bit-tema ‘Kburin b’pajjiżna, għax nemmnu f’pajjiżna.’

Mijiet. That’s hundreds. Not thousands. Hundreds.

Just saying.

(Happy Independence Day)

Later on J’accuse: More on why Labour is intent on plugging the “PN are too partisan” line, how the PN attempted to rewrite six months of Maltese fence-sitting  in the libyan saga, and how telling us that Labour is no good alternative is not exactly our idea of a plan for our future (Pjan ċar u konkret għall-futur)

Independence Day Speech (4th of July): “We can’t be consumed by our petty differences any more” (or don’t you think that Joseph Muscat would look good in a bomber jacket?)