You’d think that with the number of aspirant legislators in this country they’d have got the lawmaking business down to a tee. Every candidate that aspires to represent you in the hallowed halls of parliament (and in the future of Piano’s parliament) is also aspiring to form a significant part of the law-making process. Parliament votes on, amends and approves, laws proposed to it by the Executive branch that is wholly made up of individuals that had been elected to parliament in the first place.
The juridical branch of the separation of powers is there to “interpret” the law if I may borrow a phrase from EU Treaty parlance – and to ensure that the law is observed. The tool for the juridical branch is the law as framed and enacted by the other two branches – the executive (government) and the legislative (parliament). So when the Times of Malta publishes an article that states that “consequences of interdiction (are) lighter than thought” in the VAT case we should start asking questions like: How come nobody int he exectuive or legislative has noticed this anomaly?
Not that it will be particularly relevant in the local Maltese scene for a while now but we can continue to draw lessons from the various coalition governments or formations around the European political world if we would like to.
In Germany, Angela Merkel is preparing for the upcoming election. She has recently pledged to shed the uncomfortable coalition with the SDP should she get re-elected. The choice is mainly pinned on economic plans since SDP and Merkel’s party do not see eye to eye on the measures to combat the recession. Merkel did not however rule out another coalition – this time with the pro-market Free Democrats. It’s not the coalition that seems to not work for Angela but the partners within.
Labour Leader Joseph Muscat has awoken from the summer slumber and shows no signs of changing his ways from that of Opinion Poll Sucker. New Labour is not forming into a party with a set of values as its backbone. Rather than a sort of “Third Way” manifesto, Joseph Muscat – a product of the media and marketing PLPN factory – opts to go for the formula of “Our Size Pleases All”. Every news item and every twist must be seen from the point of the “crowd pleaser” scenario – and if that also includes disagreeing with Gonzi’s boys then all the better.
Take his latest pronouncement on the VAT cases. They send the wrong message to those who observe the law says Muscat. He obviously does not have to cross many fingers in the hope that observers do not notice that the law was applied in these circumstances. Is Muscat asking for extra-legal punishment? Even so, as Daphne rightly pointed out (A general interdiction is nothing, says Vince, TMIS 13.09.09), the punishment of general interdiction is not exactly a slap on the back of the hand. Does Muscat even have any idea what the law states and what the implications of the punishment really are? I think he does not even care. What is important is that five minute moment when he is feted as Mexxej tal-Oppozizzjoni on radio and is made to feel that his opinion really counts.
What really matters, as with every PLPN exercise nowadays, is the public perception, and in this case the perception is that he is after the big sharks. It’s the barunijiet story all over again although now it’s Inhobbkom Joseph and not Angry Sant spinning the yarn. Muscat’s Labour had been at it earlier this week on the tuna story. It appears that Joe Borg has lost the battle within the Commission and that the persons who profit from tuna fishing and tuna farms in Malta might be in for a big disappointing ban some time soon. I tend to agree with Mark Anthony Falzon (Not on my sushi, TOM 13.09.09) on that one – the interests of the tuna exploiting community are NOT the interests of the majority of the Maltese…. so why the flying fish did Labour have to urge the government to combat the ban? It does not even make opinion poll sense – or does it?
If I had to engage in a silly exercise of anthropomorphising months – ascribing human features to months – I believe that September would have much to say about the way she has been treated. It has to be a she, because as horoscopic enthusiasts and dabblers would tell you, for most of the month the star sign to follow is Virgo. Which is not to say that I willingly engage in the logically faulty statement that “all virgins are women” but rather that I am going along with what I believe to be the general first impression of Virgo as normally pictured on the side of horoscopes – a lovely maiden pure. It was either that or have the irritatingly ever-smiling face of Richard Branson who has now become unredeemably associated with the word Virgin. So… back to September. She has been with us for some time now and has brought the gusts of wind, the first challenges to the festival weather and most of all, she has brought remembrances of all sorts. Yes, that’s because every day in September now reads like some form of lotto extraction, although this time it’s not an international form of the Italian “smorfia” (linking dreams to numbers) but a panoply of historic and not-so historic events that are fast clogging up the seventh month of the Roman calendar.
J’accuse cannot comment on the news of the day that comes straight from our place of daytime work and that will surely be the subject of many a discussion. The Times of Malta will definitely not be the last paper to misinterpret the court’s decision but it will be up to other legal brains to set the record straight.
So. Being occupationally incapacitated from indulging in interpetational speculation on the latest outcomes from the CVRIA EVROPEA I will indulge in the less spectacular but equally interesting flaws of perception of the lyrical and musical kind. The two subjects of my analysis will be the seventies band “Stretch” and the nineties master of beats “Gigi D’Agostino”.
A bout of browsing serendipity led me to the good old hit by Gigi called “Bla Bla”. Anyone who savours the musical creation of this Italian born turntable mini-genius will enjoy the flashback to the times when Tattingers was trendy, when shooters came in test-tubes and when Jack Coke was a trendy drink to order when chatting up the birds. This is “Bla Bla” in all it’s simplistic glory:
And the story would end here had I not also found some efforts to transcribe the lyrics to this questionable masterpiece. It seems that all websites dedicate to lyric transcribing render this juicy headbanger of a hit as follows:
A A BEN
WAREM A BEN BEN
WAREM BEN BEN BEN
WAREM A WA TWO BEN BEN
WAREM A BLA A BLA BEN
WAREM A A BEN
WAREM BEN BEN BEN
WAREM A TWO BEN BEN
Lovely. Senseless. And very Italian. Only, Gigi D’Agostino is not stupid. He is a sly, foxy D.J. who spun an old record, took one second of music out of it and produced this beat imbued babe. Gigi has no lyrics because Gigi is no lyrical Pavarotti. His is the business of sampling and remixing and spinning. The art pioneered by the great rappers Beastie Boys is here being demonstrated in its simplest of versions. Sample one phrase from a song – render it unrecognisable and add a beat and people will love it. The “phrase” actually comes from a cool piece by “Stretch” called “Why did you do it” which you can enjoy in the next Youtube clip. The piece you are looking for is in second 0.33… enjoy.
And that, my friends, is how “I’ve been thinking about what you have done to me” becomes “Warem a ben ben”.
Now get back to the Times report on the European Court of Justice’s decision. (titles have been changed since the horrible title that appeared at 10.14 this morning).
