J’accuse is anything but a personal diary but sometimes we do take a little snapshot of the j’accuse life out of a mere desire to experiment with the more conventional way of blogging (as well as an indirect justification
as to why j’accuse has not been so engaging over the weekend). In short it’s just been sunny, sunny, sunny.
Saturday was BXL day. A quick scappatella into the bowels of the city of stink. Walking along a sun drenched Place Stephanie and Avenue Louise we played a game of teaser window shopping. It’s NOT ok to only look – not for shopaholics like myself but I had to find a way of avoiding monetary dispensation since the NY trip is now only weeks away. A weird exhibition was to be found in a square bang in the middle of Avenue Louise. It represents all the things that have not been said… ever and is an itinerant Mexican exhibition that is also commemorating some jubilee anniversary of La Rivolucion!
Muted on Avenue Louise
Just after the muted giants we discovered the newly refurbished Toison d’Or shopping centre complete with Scotch & Soda and all the brands that make your shopping euros tingle. The pièce de resistance was the Desigual (yep, Desigual… we still love it on the ladies notwithstanding the recent bad publicity it might have got) store (ladies only for now but mens will be open in a few weeks time). Embargos on purchases were thrown out of the “It’s not the same” window and we walked out of there a couple of euros poorer (thank Haysus for the fidelity discount).
It
Back in LUX there were two splendid sunlit days to kill. Sunday began with the downer of no Brit papers delivered. Shock. Horror. Survival without the Independent would require some inventive creativity. No worries. Shorts, tee and sunroof open – one hour drive of pure greenery to the idyllic surroundings of Vianden and the piscine communale. The tanning began in earnest and with sundown a banquet fit for kings on the mosellan riviere (cote allemande) with a festival of spare ribs and scampi washed down with copious amounts of Riesling. Hot. Scrumptious. Relaxing.
Vianden, Piscine with view of Castle
Monday. Pentecost. Public holiday and all shops are firmly fermées. Which only leaves us with one thing to do. A second trip to the Vianden castle for a second coating of the by now Mediterranean tan (with the soleil des ardennes). Olive skinned and well coated we return to the Duchy in the evening for a terrrace mixed grill overlooking the Parc de Merl and its menagerie of singing volatids. Tuesday (aujourd’hui) is a day when we return back to work with the laid-back goodwill of a Mediterranean bon vivant. Even the Court of Justice can spare a smile….
Il processo Calciopoli 2 continua oggi. Mancini ridimensiona le sue allegazioni del 2006… toh ne esce fuori un bel niente. Si continua però a scoprire i rapporti stretti di Giacintone con le terne arbitrali. Celebrate anche questa? All-night a Milano forse? Ma fateci il piacere. Vigliacchi e imbroglioni – questo si che è un record!
Calciopoli, Mancini ridimensiona le accuse del 2006
È durata poco più di 10 minuti l’attesa deposizione di Rioberto Mancini al processo di Napoli, anche perché gli avvocati della difesa hanno rinunciato a porgli domande. Con l’allenatore del Manchester City ed ex allenatore dell’Inter ha interloquito invece il pm Capuano, che si è soffermato anche sull’ormai celebre telefonata tra Facchetti e Bergamo, per ironia della sorte scovata dai difensori, segno che ormai anche l’accusa si avvale del lavoro della controparte.
Ma sono state soprattutto le proteste per i presunti torti arbitrali quando era alla guida dell’Inter in alcune partite del campionato 2004-2005 l’argomento al centro della deposizione. In particolare, Mancini si è soffermato su Roma-Inter arbitrata da Rosetti e finita 3-3. «Io spesso ho avuto episodi di liti con arbitri – ha detto fra l’altro Mancini – ma a fine gara, presi dalla foga, se ne dicono tante. Nella foga della partita a Rosetti ho detto “pagherete tutto, tu e i tuoi amici di Torino” e alludevo a Moggi, perché pensavo che, essendo lui (Rosetti, ndr) di Torino, avesse a che fare con quelli della sua città. Ma non so niente di particolare a riguardo. Ho fatto un collegamento facile perché pensavo fossero amici. Conosco Moggi da sempre, ma nello specifico il collegamento con Rosetti era dovuto al fatto che l’arbitro è di Torino». Una delle accuse più pesanti rivolte da Mancini a Moggi nel maggio 2006 era quella di avere più volte visto il dg della Juventus negli spogliatoi degli arbitri.
Ora il tecnico jesino fornisce una versione più morbida: «Ho visto Moggi più di una volta nello spogliatoio degli arbitri, ma quiesta era una prassi anche di altri dirigenti di società. Era una cosa che capitava. Magari negli altri casi si poteva trattare di dirigenti addetti agli arbitri, ma non so fornire il nome degli altri dirigenti che mi è capitato di vedere nella mia carriera».
Altro match preso in esame dal pm, la finale di Supercoppa italiana Inter-Juve. In quell’occasione, disse Mancini quattro anni fa, Moggi scese quasi in campo, posizionandosi tra le due panchine durante i supplementari. Adesso il tecnico marchigiano specifica meglio: «Di sicuro era fuori dal terreno di gioco. Ricordo che è successo in quella occasione, non so se è successo in altre, non venne allontanato dall’arbitro». Il pm Capuano a questo punto contesta a Mancini la diversa versione fornita nel 2006: «Lei aveva detto di ricordarlo in altre circostanze. E poi aveva anche detto di non avere mai visto altri dirigenti entrare negli spogliatoi degli arbitri».
Alla fine il pm pone un’altra domanda: «Ricorda di problemi con Bertini su Inter-Perugia? (in realtà si trattava di Perugia-Inter 4-1 con un gol segnato da Rapajc di mano, ndr)». Mancini questa volta proprio non può rispondere, perché all’epoca dei fatti era impegnato altrove: «Non ero l’allenatore dell’Inter in quella stagione e non ricordo comunque problemi particolari con Bertini». Eppure dalle telefonate Bergamo-Facchetti e Bergamo-Bertini, pubblicate in questi giorni, i lamentii per le designazioni dell’arbitro aretino da parte interista sono sotto gli occhi di tutti.
LA TELEFONATA – La sera del 12 maggio 2005, al termine della partita Cagliari-Inter (11), l’arbitro Paolo Bertini chiama il designatore Paolo Bergamo per lamentarsi delle pressioni di Giacinto Facchetti prima dell’inizio dell’incontro. «Sa, questa è la tredicesima partita, eh? – dice all’arbitro negli spogliatoi il presidente dell’Inter -. Per ora siamo in perfetta parità: quattro perse, quattro vinte e quattro pareggiate. Eh, sa, per l’Inter non è che sia un grande score». «Non è stato piacevole – commenta Bertini con Bergamo -. A volte è imbarazzante una premessa del genere». Si discute del mani fuori area di Carini, portiere interista, poi si va sulla visita di Facchetti a Bertini, evidentemente all’oscuro del tema della telefonata BergamoFacchetti sul 4-4-4 (ma Bergamo faceva così: la dava calda a molti, forse a tutti).
L’INTERCETTAZIONE
BERGAMO- Pronto?
BERTINI – Sei a letto, Paolo eh?
BERGAMO – No, se. Allora?
BERTINI – Com’è andata, che mi dici?
BERGAMO – Mah, ho visto l’ultima mezz’ora perché m’avevano avvertito di questo fallo di mano che. No, non è mica espulsione comunque.
BERTINI – Quella non è espulsione.
BERGAMO- No, non è mica una chiara occasione da rete.
BERTINI – Ma poi si può fare una disposizione di carattere tecnico su tutto ma non c’ha? Forse la mancata percezione di dove fosse come posizione ma non può essere ritenuta una occasione di?
BERGAMO- No, assolutamente.
BERTINI – È stato quello l’unica cosa.
BERGAMO- Protestavano un po’ quelli dell’Inter, so’ un po’ insofferenti, quando?
BERTINI – Eh, me ne so’ accorto. È stata una remata dal primo minuto, poi, eh? Non capisco, non capisco perché. Tra l’altro c’è stato Facchetti a inizio partita, è venuto dentro lo spogliatoio a salutare con quel fare di sempre. “Ah, sa questa è la tredicesima partita, eh? Per ora siamo in perfetta parità: quattro perse, quattro vinte e quattro pareggiate. Eh, sa, per l’Inter non è che sia un grande score”, ha detto. Quindi l’abbiamo preparata in questo modo la partita.
BERGAMO- Mh, mh.
BERTINI- Eh, non è stato piacevole, non è stato piacevole.
BERGAMO – E bisogna che ci parli, sì. (incomprensibile) .più tranquillo in campo. C’avevo già parlato, gliel’avevo già detto, ma questo non capisce un cazzo.
BERTINI – No, ma ho l’impressione. non so nemmeno l’interlocuzione più giusta quale possa essere perché questa veramente… A volte è imbarazzante. Una premessa del genere. Ci siamo guardati tutti, ci siamo guardati tutti prima della partita.
BERGAMO – Ascoltami, quando avrai buttato giù con me, dopo chiama Gigi (probabilmente Pairetto, ndr) che si è accorto che m’hai chiamato.
BERTINI – Dici? Sì, sì certo.
BERGAMO- Capiscimi.
BERTINI – E quindi, niente, insomma, questa situazione te l’ho detta appunto.
BERGAMO – Grazie, comunque la partita, a parte il clima.
BERTINI – Al di là di questo, insomma la partita è poi andata bene.
BERGAMO- Per quella parte lì che ti diceva, ti ci penso io, dai…
BERTINI – Sì, perché tra l’altro non ha neanche senso. Non mi sembra di avere fatto. Anzi, anzi. Vabbuò.
BERGAMO- Buonanotte, ci sentiamo.
BERTINI – Ci sentiamo domani, va.
BERGAMO- Vabbè grazie, ciao.
BERTINI – Ciao.
Afine gara il presidente Cellino dirà: «Si vede che devono far vincere qualcosa all’Inter. A questo punto non so se serva andare a San Siro la prossima settimana».
Laughter, they say, is the best medicine. More often than not a good sense of humour is the ideal sort of equipment to deal with hard times – that and a constant reminder that “this too shall pass”. The intelligent ability to make light of one’s own troubles must not be confused with ignorance of the predicament in which one finds oneself. Any event has an inherent absurd ring to it and humour is the exploration of the absurdity in a conscious decision to highlight the very absurd while assuaging the potential discomfort.
There comes a point though when the shield of humour starts to melt in your own hands. It’s the point where it stops being funny. The joke is old, the joke is stale or, worse still, the joke risks backfiring into something more dangerous. At that point it becomes very difficult to continue to rely on the medicine that is laughter. At that point it is difficult to “find it funny”.
It stops being funny when it happens too often
Take Thursday morning. I’m sure quite a few who found themselves waking up to what seemed to be the zillionth power failure thought of a hundred new jokes. The first reaction is the “Only in Malta” syndrome – you know the type; we’ve been cracking this kind of joke ever since Freedom/Indepen-dence. As a kid I remember finding the “Malta, We Love Malta” song side-splittingly hilarious what with all its references to driving wherever there is shade and all. In the eighties period of electricity by ration, we coped and we coped through humour. In the noughties we developed a panoply of repartees about the infamous Boiler No. 7.
Yep. The inanimate creaking boiler in Marsa became the star of the show with its own Facebook page and fans. Meanwhile, where was everybody? Everybody was in the dark. The humour had been accompanied with a sort of resignation. The “Xi trid taghmel?” (What can one do?) mentality stepped in. It is the net result of a coping mechanism on a national scale: the humoured tolerance of mediocre alternation at the head and administration of our country. We’ll joke about it even when another committee is appointed, in James Hacker style, to investigate the latest fault and conclude to a bemused populace that: “Yes, we can screw it up… again (and again)”.
Humour can help us cope with the darnest of abuses in a democracy. We joke that it is only in totalitarian countries that facts are suppressed – in democracies they take decisions not to publish them. Once the joke is said it is practically OK. A little mantra that delivers these sins away from our heads. Like the gaseous build up in the stomach, it is soon forgotten once the fart is delivered. (Pardon my toilet metaphor but hey, I HAVE to make you laugh along the way).
So while we have been regaled with sufficient blackouts to qualify for BBC Africa’s online competition for “Best Power Cut Story” (yes, it’s true – and there is no European version), we still find no problem with the fact that our two surest bets for representation (on current rules) seem to be taking the joke a bit too far. I am not too sure how much longer the man in the street can keep wielding his humour shield the next time the South is thrown into chaos because of one traffic light (one,) but somehow I think it has all got to do with the inability to link that occurrence to Labour’s walk-out from the Committee of Strengthening Democracy and PN’s Sir Humphreyesque flustering away from accountability. Vote for change? Ha! Now that’s a funny one.
It’s not funny if the wrong people heard it
Karl Farrugia, aged 24 with a residence in Swieqi, was reluctantly rocketed to the top ten list of “Only in Malta” notoriety under the special section ‘weird but true’. Farrugia provided more living proof of the current human inability to manage his Internet presence with the necessary care. As a citizen of proud Roman Catholic Malta, he should have known better than join the Facebook group called “No to the Pope in Malta”. His greater crime was to suggest in a comment on the same group that should Ben XVI want to feel closer to J.C. then all we had to do was to perforate his limbs with the use of projectiles. In other words shoot bullets through the papal palms and feet.
No doubt, Farrugia’s comment will not register as the most intelligent to date but there is something infinitely sad in the story that followed. Farrugia was prosecuted under the Press Act provisions on, among other things, “incitement to violence” and ended up being fined €500 for his fine work on the website. You guessed it Karl… it ain’t funny and nobody is laughing. I had quite a few problems digesting this case and a thorough discussion is still open ended on J’accuse the blog. I will refrain from such legalistic phraseology like context and intent, but I’d like to dwell on the relative issues involved.
A man called Mario Grech gave a speech to an assembled congregation in a largish hall last week. During that speech Mario warned the congregation of the perils of liberalism while describing such liberalism as a “disease” that required some form of “cure”. Quite exactly what kind of pills Mario would be suggesting to cure this latest affliction (I hope it’s not as bad as avian flu) is beyond me and beside the point. Now this speech could (and I stress the could) have offended a few individuals who call themselves humanists. They are appalled that an individual can stand up before a crowd in public and make such calls that are vaguely reminiscent of purges and suchlike.
It simplifies matters no end that the aforementioned man Mario is one who is often seen wearing a pointy hat and armed with a long stick (mostly harmless though), and that the largish hall was a temple of worship of what is by many considered the dominant religious denomination of the country. Yep. Bishop Mario Galea thinks liberalism is up to no good and the humanists are furious. They are doubly furious actually – firstly that His Pointy Hattedness should even consider equating their philosophy to a disease, and secondly that the laws of the land did not pounce to their rescue with the same readiness and willingness as they did in the case of Karl. Ben XVIth was after all a foreigner in our land – humanists such as Raphael Vassallo are not. What then?
I find all this contradictory mess worrying. Malta is not alone in asking these questions (and in having had enough with the coping mechanism that is humour). A colleague recently pointed out a brilliant essay by Gustavo Zagrebelsky – former Italian constitutional court judge. Written in 2006, it is called “The Paladins of Identity and Tolerance in the West”. Here’s Zagrebelsky on the problem of democratic society: “Whoever recognises himself in democracy would say: in order to defend it let us operate with a spirit of concord, let us battle the arrogance and plutocracy, let us respect each other, cultivate legality, promote solidarity, give security to the poor and slow down social competition. In other words: let us not give up on ourselves, on what we are and what we believe, let us correct the defects and combat that which disfigures us. Instead no. Instead we say: enough of this (identity), let us give ourselves another, a militant identity that makes us recognisable not to each other but against each other. Instead we say that the institutions should not be neutral but should serve this battle and all the worse for he who does not recognise them. Instead we believe that identity justifies the sacrifice of others. Giving ourselves this very kind of identity means precisely to promote a battle between civilisations.”
I want to live in a society where both the Church and the Humanists can feel comfortable expressing themselves and their idea of what a just society is about. I don’t want to live in a society where any of the two (or anyone else) is busy imposing their idea on all the rest. I’d hate to live in that kind of joke, and quite frankly I don’t think it’s funny.
The secret of comedy? … timing
Someone who has no time for humour at the moment is Madame Merkel. She’s been shaking the markets like there’s no tomorrow, and although I never thought I’d say this, I think that the Germans do have a point. The euro states cannot expect to have a free ride only to go sucking at the German breast whenever there is a problem. The benefits of the eurozone will require the strict rigours of better discipline. Even General Sarkozy has recognised that as he prepares to amend the French Constitution to that effect.
Another unfunny bit of sabre rattling is going on in the Far East. The two Ks are at it again as a report has finally shown that a North Korean torpedo had actually sunk a South Korean warship. It’s not exactly battleships we are talking about and there is a real risk of war that would only add to the unsettling state of affairs that we have witnessed in Thailand in the past days. All the more worry for the economic markets – all the worse for our beloved euro.
Lastly, look out at the big battle of Facebook v the World as the social networking giant faces its moment of truth. Will its lackadaisical treatment of private data signal the beginning of the end for the facebook model? Will Facebook and Google recover from recent slips in PR thanks to their gaffes on the data protection side? All that and more promises to be an interesting development – is Web 3.0 round the corner?
www.akkuza.com featured Humanists, Catholics, Bondiplus and the BA this week. More fun coming up next week as the sun has finally come to Luxembourg.
Inter-cettati fans are extatic. They are at the top European echelon and boy have they worked hard to get there. Pity that footballing spirit has little to do with the work involved. For the inter-cettati to even get a whiff of victory they had to lie low while others around them were being crucified for the ills of italian football. Their phone calls and tampering with referee lists would pass unnoticed with the connivance of the investigating officers and a very sympathetic press. They would have the main obstacles to their victories eliminated in order to win alone – much in the fashion of the playground spoilsport.
The vulture team would then live off the falsely manufactured twisted image of victim of football and nurture and develop one of the most boring teams ever to be at the pinnacle of European football.- Forget Gullit, Rijkaard and Van Basten, forger Cruyff and Di Stefano, forget Platini, Bettega and Boniek – 45 years on and they can still only produce one type of football : the catenaccio. Watching the game for my sins I could only be reminded of the hundreds of matches Juventus played against minnows who locked 10 of their players in the defending quarter of their pitch and then lobbed the ball up in counterattack. We have seen thefts of the footballing kind before – the mind harks back to the 1990 elimination of Brasil by cocainomani and co in the world cup. Milito’s role has been played by dozens of stalwarts for the minnow teams before with the only difference being that the back five in most minnow teams is not made up of potential world champs. So yes, they built a machine – might as well have built a wall of bricks – it would probably have been just as entertaining.
For this is a complaint from the corners of entertaining football. From those who will not mind being defeated if defeated means outclassed. From those who can admire a fighting Fulham as much as they can admire a creative Barcelona and a triumphant AC Milan in the 90s. It is not a complaint out of jealousy for simply one reason – there is nothing to be jealous about. You will find it hard to remember the name of the team that won the 2010 Champions’ League in the future. Most people will think a team called Mourinho won it. That says much about the personality of the team that won on the pitch. Funny. 45 years ago it was il Mago wot did it. Now it seems to be Mourinho (the press just love him – they had more cameras for him than for Inter-cettati’s motley crew last night). Willl Inter-cettati ever win a Champions League I ask? I’m not holding my breath for another 45 years to find out.
The poetry of the figures involved speaks volumes. 39% possession and 2 shots at goal. Do you see the irony behind the name “European Champions” yet? No? let me help you further. Here is the list of European champions by nationality:
Subs
Ghana: 1
Serbia: 1
Italy (and what a fine example of Italian football) : 1
1/3 was non-european
That makes it 8 out of the 14 players who went on the pitch from outside Europe. And 1 Italian of dubious footballing quality.
Which brings us to the return with the footballing elite. In economic terms the match to watch yesterday was at Wembley. The play-off for the last place in the Premier League was worth 90 million pounds sterling. Twice the worth of the Champions League final. In an exhilarating match Balckpool ousted Cardiff with the odd goal in five. Real football with real emotions still exists somewhere. Ironically the Pool also had a four decade wait to reach their goal. At least one team yesterday can proudly say that it has returned among the elite of european football.
Stasera siamo tutti con(tro di) voi. Auguri Inter-cettati…. 4 anni di lavoro dopo Farsopoli. 45 anni di attesa dall’ultimo catenaccio. Non si aspetta niente di meno questa sera…. Tanti ma tanti auguri…
J’accuse has received a copy of Lou Bondi‘s defence argument before the Broadcasting Authority. It makes for very very interesting reading. Much as we would like to enter the debate on the issue of whether or not Lowell should have been allowed on the programme (and elsewhere we have done just that), we are more intrigued by the manner in which this ‘apologia’ continues to expose Lou’s selective amnesia as well as double-standards with regards to the weight of public opinion.
You will find below a link to the full document presented by Lou Bondi to the BA and you might like to read through it with particular attention to point 12 – regarding public opinion. Two questions stand out: firstly that Lou is arguing a technical point based on the very public opinion he chose to minimise in the Delimara program (Programmes People Watch).
Then there is the blatant selective amnesia – such as has been displayed before on the occasion of the infamous Plategate Bondiplus programme. Just look at point 12 of Lou’s apologia: first he quotes media guru Joe Borg and then he quotes an article in the Times – referring to the comments section. Having thus exhausted (according to Lou) all instances where his programme was mentioned and criticised he concludes:
Jidher car li ftit hafna kienu dawk li argumentaw li l-programm ma’ kellux isir. Interessanti wkoll li hafna minn dawk li qalu li l-programm kellu jsir, jikkritikaw, anki bl-ahrax, lil NL.
Brilliant. But false. Lou would like everybody to believe it. He probably believes it himself but the problem is tha this very forum chronicled the response in the mainstream media for you in the post entitled Gurnalizmu fuq Kollox (The Sunday Quotes). Claire Bonello, Mikela Spiteri and Tanja Cilia – all on the Times – and the Indy in a report all mentioned and criticised Bondiplus without any qualms.
You will notice of course that this assessment of all that Lou left out does not include the boringly irrelevant reality of the “peclieqa” on blogs… still, even without that proof you can see how selective Lou has been.
If you want a wider assessment of public opinion then dive to the wiked site youropenbook.org and input “norman lowell”. J’accuse has done it for you just click here. Scroll down to the period on and after 3rd May and see for yourself.
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