Category: Mediawatch

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Mediawatch

Swedes for Europe

Reading the Times of Malta nowadays is as much a guessing game as it is informative. More often than not it is more a case of the former than the latter. Take this article that was uploaded at a quarter to eight in the evening on Sunday:

Alleanza Liberali to field Swedish candidate for 2014 EP elections

Alleanza Liberali this evening announced that it will be fielding Swedish Peter Lowe as one of its candidates for the 2014 European Parliament elections. On twitter, Mr Lowe describes himself as an urban European fighting for human rights and a better, stronger and larger EU.

The article was accompanied by a photo of a beaming man who presumably is the Swede (not the Swedish) Peter Lowe. Whoever filed this article must have been on a trip and so must any person who proof read or approved it for immediate uploading. Why? Do we need to explain?

First of all there is a glaring lack of facts. What is the Alleanza Liberali? Who spoke for it? Where? Did the heavens above the Times part and did a voice suddenly “announce” that Alleanza were fielding a candidate? It is not like Alleanza Liberali are in the news everyday – I for one thought that whatever Liberal formation existed in Malta had long disbanded. Was it a press conference? Was it a press release issued on Sunday afternoon – as an afterthought following a Sunday lunch that was heavy on the grappa?

Then there is “Swedish Peter Lowe”. It’s either Swedish national or Swede Peter Lowe (with the unfortunate consequences of associations to cousins of turnips). The second (and final) sentence of this enigmatic appendage on the timesonline pages is actually part of Peter Lowe’s twitter blurb about himself. Lazy journalism? You bet.

GIGO proceeds: What the root vegetable is an “urban European” who “fights for human rights”? Why did the Times print this bullshit?

Well ok, the Alleanza Liberali exists and it is a band of nutjobs. So far so good. Only a band of nutjobs would announce their candidate for an election two years in advance (woosh – see that? there goes the element of surprise). As for the Times lazily copying a press release into their paper… well trashofmalta anyone?

A quick internet search led me to ProKredit a property financing firm in Germany. Peter Lowe is the CEO of this firm that, among other things, translates the German “Menschen” to “Human Beings” in the English version of their website.

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Mediawatch

A Letter to Ramona (re: twerps)

Dear Ramona,

I read with interest your latest contribution to the Times’ “blogging” columns. The title, I guess, said it all (A campus of self-entitled twerps) although you did specify from the very start that generalisations can be odious.

To be quite honest I too have begun to wonder recently whether the quality of of our beloved Alma Mater’s end product is deteriorating at a faster rate than the Desserta chocolates of yesteryear. My observation is that students seem to start university with – yes, you said it – that sense of self-entitlement that ultimately means that “since I made it to day one then I am entitled to the final degree – whatever garbage I produce in the interim”.

I am fully aware that my observation too is a generalisation. I am quite sure that an independent observer who would have peeked at our behaviour during the law course years  of the vintage class of ’99 when we shared the benches at the hallowed halls of Tal-Qroqq might have found a thing or two to say about our levels of distraction. Anecdotes and reminiscences apart the point is that I believe that notwithstanding the (perceived or real) fluctuating standards of readers at university we might be dealing – in all probability  – with a constant that has persevered through the ages ever since the first universities were set up from Bologna to Cambridge i.e. the boring lecturer.

Let us not, after all, be distracted by the latest form of distractions available (be they facebook equipped netbooks or twitter enabled smartphones) and concentrate for a moment on the actual issue at hand. A lecturer has been told, in not too indirect a manner, that his delivery during lectures is as boring as a buzzing fly. Less interesting actually. It’s not always easy to point fingers at the persons who will be armed with that marking pen at the end of the semester. I still have fond memories of my “friends” patting me on the back after my not too kind graduation speech criticising the mess at the faculty of Law back in 1996 (B.A.). “Good luck with finishing the course” said many a sarcastic bastard.

Newton (Sir Isaac of gravity and refraction) is said to have penned a list of forty problems  that he intended to tackle in science during a particularly boring lecture. Amicus Plato amicus Aristotle magis amica veritas – he prefaced: truth is a better friend. So it has been through the ages where many a supposed deliverer of truth managed only to deliver sleep-inducing drones. Need I cite our own experiences? Best not.

Yes Ramona. While I would probably stand by you (and many another) in a call for more exacting standards for today’s studying masses  I would also be prepared to audi alteram partem and see whether the alleged perpetrator of mass boredom by power point was guilty of anything.

And that is where I’ve got a problem. For the alleged Mr Boredom of the hundred or more slides is none other than part-time internet troll Antoine Vella. The very man who never missed an occasion to remind J’accuse and its readers how boring the content of this site was according to his most venerable opinion (when he was not seconding other “interesting” personalities in calling me such names as wanker or whatever playground term was popular at the time).

Yes Ramona, I am biased because the man who was unable to keep a lecture theatre ever so slightly interested in whatever he was on about is a ubiquitous troll of the internet kind. His activity online might also explain why he will probably find many a defender in some circles of the net where he is considered less boring and slightly more droll.

I’d suggest a litmus test before judging whether students or lecturer was at tort in this case. Before descending into vulgar generalisation or risking ad hominem arguments we should allow Vella a chance to counter this accusation. This is why J’accuse is willing to allow Vella to make use of the modern technologies that he targeted in his letter and to provide us with the full power point presentation that we would gladly carry on our site as Exhibit Number 1 – while willingly risking the possibility of boring our esteemed readers to death (again, he would say).

We’ll let the audience be the judges of that no? They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating… it’s either that or eat humble pie.

What do you say Antoine?

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Mediawatch Satyre

Trashofmalta

Looks like it’s getting worse. The comments on the Times that is. When Eastwood famously said (or famously did not say) “Opinions are like balls, everybody has them” he had summarised a universal truth (although he would have probably been admonished in today’s world for not choosing a more gender neutral metaphor). In Maltese we say “mitt bniedem mitt fehma” (a hundred persons, a hundred opinions). What many do not seem to be getting is the fact that the simple matter of having an opinion does not automatically make it right. Just because it sounds good, doesn’t make it right (pace Skunk Anansie).

Sure, it’s hard to draw a line for online editors eager not to scare away the commenting masses and it probably all boils down to education. Or rather the lack of it. You risk becoming a wankellectual snob saying this but hell, that’s an opinion that I am prepared to defend.

The problems of this country are also down to the fact that uninformed and badly expressed opinions are not only multiple but encouraged to prosper – and in some cases rewarded.

So here. For your perusal is one of the first “shithitsthefan” posters for facebook.

Categories
Mediawatch Politics

Allons enfants de l’austerity

Some required reading from today’s Figaro. Unfortunately the editorial is still not available online for non-paying members so I have typed out the main quote. We will see more of this in tonight’s debate between Francois Hollande and Sarkozy  but what is more interesting is how the main thrust of the problems that will be debated is a universal set of issues that apply Europe-wide.

Last time round the nationalist party cloned Sarkozy’s slogan “Ensemble, tout est possible” (Flimkien kollox possibli). This time we might see some more inevitable parallels. France’s “progressive” left built around anti-Sarkozyism is running a campaign built on “Hope”.

Hollande has promised employment and work but while his appealing rhetoric might sound great for the anti-austerity crowd it has already attracted the worried stares of the financial markets. Sarkozy is basing his challenge on facing the stark reality of failed models and failed economies.

May day’ speeches in Malta might be a taste of similar things to come closer to home. Joseph Muscat’s hope and rhetoric still fails the basic test of “Show me the money”. Combine that with his pre-hedging regarding “Hofra Mark 2012” (or the gap in finances he will obviously be surprised to discover once he is elected PM) and you seem to be getting a perfect clone of François Hollande.

There is much more to be read into this and I will do so as soon as I find the time. Here is part of Le Figaro’s editorial. For an amusing reading try replacing NS with Lawrence Gonzi and FH with Joseph Muscat.

“(NS) a défendu un nouveau modèle français, fondé sur un constat d’évidence : la mondialisation bouscule tout, tout est donc à repenser si on ne veut pas etre englouti. Le viex modéle social, perpétuellement financé à crédit, ne tient plus la route. Si l’on ne fait rien, il s’écroulera bientot. (…) (FH) connait bien le problème de fond de sa campagne. Il promet des choses qu’il ne pourra tenir, puisque tous les créanciers de la France – la fameuse “finance” – l’observeront seconde par seconde.”

(watch the video top-right from 14 minutes)

Categories
Mediawatch Politics

Cheap noodles and les nouveaux pauvres

Marie Louise Coleiro Preca II is not the name of a boat. It is the name of MLCP’s second facebook page that was started after the first one was oversubscribed. Marie Louise Coleiro Preca II shared a post with Marie Louise Coleiro Preca about a meeting that was held at the PL club in Fgura where the subject seems to have been the “energy poor” and someone liked this post today so it came to my attention. These are not, as you might presume, people who are experiencing strong withdrawal symptoms from their last intake of Red Bull but rather a newly defined class of poverty that has been created by… you guessed it… GonziPN’s exorbitant energy bills.

A woman with respiratory problems, who had an electrically-operated oxygen tank at home, ate cheap noodles every day to be able to afford her utility bill, Labour health spokesman Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said yesterday. (…) “There are people who are energy poor. I spoke to a woman from Cospicua last week. She needs an oxygen tank at home to live. She just about passes the means test, so she’s not entitled to the energy benefit. She told me she can only afford to eat noodles,” Ms Coleiro Preca said.

There is something surreal about this kind of presentation. It probably has a lot to do with Labour’s generally bungled way of public relations and transmission of information. You cannot help but wonder how comfortable Joseph Muscat, Anglu Farrugia and the other geezer from the triumvirate of oxymoronic progressives can be with having their mugshot plastered on the walls of Kazini under the ubiquitous torch like some latter day Stalinist cult. There under the pictures of the future saviours of the nation sat the survivors of a not too distant socialist government plugging the narrative of the “new poor” – les nouveaux pauvres.

Marie Louise Colerio Preca II was armed with stories of the quasi-poor who “just about pass their means test” (the rare kind of test one would rather fail) and therefore cannot claim any energy benefits. So the nouveaux pauvres are condemned to eating “cheap noodles”. Do they even realise what it is they are writing? Stop for a second and think. “Cheap noodles”. As against bloody what? Gourmet noodles? And why noodles? Does noodles sound poorer than pasta asciutta?

Cue the erstwhile troubador of great socialist lore Joe Debono Grech who, once the list of nouveaux pauvres esquisses was done, ” called on his party to reach out to people by teaching people about the history of the party that worked so hard to fight poverty”.

There is something plastic about all this. Which is not to say by far that the tough economic times have not hit the people where it hurts. It is not to say either that the noodle woman shares the same problems as, say, Times columnist Kenneth Zammit Tabona who recently also complained about the exorbitant figures that turn up on his utilities bill. It’s just that Labour seems to be willing a fantasy land of misery – a potemkin village in reverse. There under the watchful eyes of The Three Leaders Who Will Guide Us In The Battle Against Poverty, the stakhanovist socialists of yesteryear spun the narrative of les nouveaux pauvres creating the new oppressed who will need a new socialist, progressive spirit to lead them out of damnation.

Fgura election prospective candidate Charles Agius joins in with enthusiasm:

(he) said that during home visits he met families who had their electricity supply suspended because they did not pay the bill. They took their children to their neighbour’s house to use the computer.

See the concept of the bare essentials? Under a previous patch of “utility poverty” (still living memory for many) you would have said that following the latest water and electricity cut parents took to filling buckets of water from the sea and kids went to bed early in the dark. Nowadays the nouveaux pauvres first thought is where to get access to the closest working PC. Plus ca change.

This is not a post that denies the existence of hard up situations in our midst. It is a post that looks at the instrumentalisation of what might be desperate cases in order  to spin an opportunistic narrative with no solution in sight. Labour is doing its damned best to redefine the goalposts by creating this new social strata which we can define as the nouveaux pauvres. Forget the middle classes or the pepe – hamalli divide. The pigeon-holeing is now strictly concerned with the reclassification of the grumbling masses into a reversed potemkin village of nouveaux pauvres. It suits the whole narrative well enough so long as the gullible and partisan are the ones being targeted.

Still. Cheap noodles?

Categories
Mediawatch Politics

Cabinet Decisions & RCC’s Head

The Labour party has finally found a way to get at Richard Cachia Caruana on something based on fact rather than on the irritation at an unelected person having a purported strong influence on cabinet decisions (pace Franco Debono). The accusation is based on Wikileaks that portray an active RCC (oh the heavy acronym) lobbying with the US for the reactivation of Malta’s Partnership for Peace membership. The buzzphrase on social networks this morning is : “Allura RCC ikbar mill-parlament?”

I’ve always found this fixation with RCC quite a curious one. The man obviously has much clout and his opinions seem (or seemed) to be highly valued within the inner decision making circles of government. That he might not be directly accountable for many a blunder might raise important questions about the structure of our elected elite. On the other hand there is a bit of an emptiness in the grudges that are held against the man. The business of government is one that does not only require elected politicians in their roles of PMs and ministers but also gets done with a caravan of policy advisors (at least we hope so) who come election day risk their position as much as the rest of the ministerial entourage. Feeble as it may be – it does give you an idea of a form of accountability.

Secondly, RCC might be counted among a list of a few intelligent persons upon whom the Gonzi cabinet depended for a long time as a sounding board as well as to prepare future policy objectives. Again the main caveat here is that I do not know the man from Adam except for the rumours within the halls of civil servicery that are not too kind on him insofar as temper and perfectionist tantrums are concerned. Be that as it may I still find the accusations of “unelected mandarin” rather feeble and populistic. After all what do you expect? Governments will lend an ear to whoever they believe are competent advisors – my only grudge here is that all too often it seems that this government depends on one channel of information without really viewing alternatives – but that is another story.

Back to the PfP issue. When the participation in the PfP program was finally reactivated in 2008 it was a cabinet decision. Not parliament mind you – cabinet. Whether the groundwork for this reactivation had been prepared by extra-cabinet members such as RCC is something one would hope for rather than condemn. Switch back to 1996 and consider Sant’s de-activation of PfP membership in the name of “neutrality”. Irrespectively of whether you agree or disagree with Sant’s interpretation of neutrality there is one point that sticks out on that day.

The seat at Castille had barely gotten used to the shape of Sant’s behind yet Sant via his cabinet took a decision to withdraw from the PfP. One could also safely assume (or, again, hope) that Sant was acting on the basis of advice from specialist persons within the field – unelected technocrats who participate in the work of government in order to facilitate its operation.

Is Sant greater than parliament? No. Neither is RCC. Nor is the cabinet. The fact remains that Malta’s original decision to take part in the PfP formed part of a wider EU participation program in an early nineties nationalist government. The withdrawal by Dr Sant was accepted as a legitimate cabinet decision by his government (based on an electoral programme promise) and the re-activation by the subsequent nationalist government was the result of another cabinet decision that itself was based on the fact that the nationalist party had never changed its policy on PfP membership (which is why I believe that it is correct in claiming that it did not need to include the re-activation in subsequent electoral programmes).

Whether RCC as part of the hidden machinery of government lobbied with governments and institutions or not is a probability that is now confirmed by the Wikileaks. We see no wrong in the fact that this occurred since the decision to activate, withdraw or re-activate lies purely within the power of cabinet and in this case RCC would be acting as the humble servant of the latter.

It’s either that or else we can safely say that both the Labour government 1998 and the Nationalist government 2008 acted as though they were above parliament. Which would not be such a great surprise but we’d rather stick to facts than speculation or misinformation.