Category: Politics

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Mediawatch Politics

Pardon their Frenċ

frenc_akkuza

The Għarb Local Council have gone all hot under the collar about what they call “allegations” made by Katie Holmes, mother of convicted Welshman Daniel Holmes. In yet another appeal to have Daniel’s punishment shortened from the draconian 10 years, Katie Holmes mentioned the fact that the man considered by many to be holy and known as Frenċ tal-Għarb had also used cannabis to cure people. Well, it turns out that hell knows no fury like a Local Council who deems that its Holy Man hath been scorned. The representatives of the tiny (and beautiful) Gozitan village whose name means “The West” resort to threatening Katie Holmes with a case of defamation/libel. In their mind it was the most they could do short of issuing a challenge in the village pjazza at the stroke of the midday bell.

A little aside here. By some twist of cosmic fate all this happened on the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo killings. You know the ones that I am talking about – the ones where the whole world asked itself whether a bunch of lame satirists had gone a step too far into “provoking” a bloody response from the fanatical and the ignorant. On a much lesser scale of cosmic importance I had also just blogged about the irrational and disproportionate reaction in Kyrgyzstan to a facebook post about a national dish.

Back to the West. The dramatis personae of this little farce makes raw material for a magical novel of the Garcia Marquez kind. We have the beleaguered mother of a man condemned by a hypocritical society to rot away in its prisons while former drug traffickers and conspirators hobnob with the leaders of the land. She could be pictured like the desperate Magdalene and Mary at the foot of the cross, heart torn apart by all the suffering caused to her son. Katie Holmes was hoping to inspire empathy with her story about the Gozitan faith healer and expert herbalist. Cannabis, she was saying, should not be seen in such a bad light in this country after all when it is so plain that some good can come out of it.

What of Frenċ? Well, I can tell you a bit about Frenċ the man and quasi-scientist. I have people in my family who, years before internet turned the world into a global village, had benefited from his healing “powers’. No marijuana was harmed in that particular feat since the stories I am told seem to have involved much more the power of conviction than anything else. Frenċ is known to have used herbs and plants endemic to the islands in order to help ailing visitors. That and a dose of Hail Marys and Our Fathers to be fair, but the latter part of the healing process are of little use in this story. We live in a world where we are oblivious to the fact that the ingredients in every medicinal we take find their origin in herbs.

You’d have to be an idiot though not to have heard of the medicinal effects of cannabis. It would be no surprise then were Frenċ to have prescribed its use to a suffering patient (that and a dose of Hail Marys of course). Cannabis just goes to be added to the long list of herbs and plants with beneficial properties such as chamomile (weariness, bowel inflammation), poppy (asthma, bronchitis, whooping cough), rosemary (headaches, epilepsy, circulation), sage (headaches, cough), primrose (rest, sedative) and lavender (fainting and nausea). Around Frenċ’s time on this earth, in London in 1916, Harrods were selling a kit described as “A Welcome Present for Friends at the Front” containing cocaine, morphine, syringes and needles. Also, heroin was sent to the soldiers in the trenches since it had the reputation of being particularly effective against tuberculosis and pneumonia.

So would Frenċ the man and herbalist (as against Frenċ the icon) have been so out of line had he really used cannabis as is alleged by Ms Holmes? Not really. At most he would have been a visionary and far ahead of his time.

Which brings me to the final actor in this dramatis personae. The Local Council. I cannot help but picture them as the Jewison portrayed the Sanhedrin in Jesus Christ Superstar. Standing on the scaffolding bare chested they pound their fists on the metal angry at the allegations and shit-stirring as they perceive it. “Must die must die this Jesus must die.”

There is no amount of WTFs that can be plastered outside their council door in order to emphasise the base stupidity of their actions. How on earth do they represent Frenċ in court anyway? Is this a class action? Did they ask themselves whether this is what Frenċ would have wanted? Again, from what I hear about the man he was blessed with an incredible amount of practicality and logic – which is probably what made him stand out so much in the first place. That such logic and intelligence was imbued with a heavy dose of humility must have been a great asset to the man. Such assets are alas lacking among the egregious members of the Gharb Local Council. They want their pound of flesh and they want it fast – all because it is alleged that Frenċ used the right herb to do the right thing.

Frenċ is Gozitan (ok, Maltese too) for Francis. Just like the Pope. You know, that man in Rome who is taking great strides in reconciling the church with the man in the street. He once said that a little mercy makes the world less cold and more just. If the councillors cannot find it in themselves to recognise the ridiculous nature of their actions and if they cannot realise that their quest is akin to that of any fanatic eager to exact his revenge upon anyone who they deem has insulted them, then and only then should they at least resort to being merciful and retract their pompous threats of libel and defamation action.

 

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Mediawatch Politics Travel

The Pastizzi of Kyrgyzstan

kyrgyzstan

Michael McFeat is a Scot gold miner in Kyrgyzstan. A couple of days ago, during the holiday celebrations, he posted a photo on Facebook showing his mates at the mine queuing up to eat a Kyrgyz delicacy called chuchuk that is apparently a sausage made up of parts of horse. In his caption to the photo McFeat described the national dish as resembling a horse’s penis. Which is when all hell broke lose. His fellow miners threatened to strike and began a petition for his arrest. Indeed, his arrest followed promptly and he is now accused under Kyrgyz law of inciting racial hatred and risks five years in prison. All this for comparing a national dish to a horse’s penis.

It’s one of those comic bits of news that tend to lighten up the New Years’ roll-call – comic that is, unless you are Michael McFeat. He’s unlucky this Michael. If luck had its way he would have been in Malta instead and snapped a photo of a queue outside one of our many pastizzeriji. He would then have been quite free to post it on facebook with a caption stating that Maltese tend to form queues in order to get their hands on a dish that resembles a womans’ private parts. It’s no secret either. There are parts of the country where pastizz is slang for vagina – and these tend to be parts of the country that tend to have a more real “feel” of the language.

McFeat would never have ended up in prison. Well. We cannot say that with absolute certainty can we? Not with the amount of crazy that goes into applying the law on the island of developers and salesmen. You can see it kicking off with a petition while the online barrage of attacks of “Go back to your country” and “Don’t touch my pastizzi” kick off.

The President of the Republic might deem it decorous to step in and defend the plate of the poor people launching a Pastizzi Telethon featuring all the VIP’s of the land in defence of the pastizz. Meanwhile the Prime Minister will immediately negotiate 25 pastizzi kiosk concessions along the islands shore (on ODZ land of course) dubbing it the Wignacourt Circle of Pastizzi. In a speech on National Television Muscat will stand on a custom made pastizz-shaped lectern and grind his teeth menacingly at anyone who threatens to instil the fear of the pastizz among the population. Anyone who criticises the pastizz is negative, and anyone who is negative has no point in living.

Is this too fantastical? Is it too far-fetched? Are you sure? As 2016 stepped in with an Alice in Wonderland message by Joseph Muscat framed in lie upon lie upon lie we would do well to ask more questions of whatever is fed into our heads – particularly whatever is fed into our heads about what it means to be Maltese. The danger is that the few values that are left that distinguish us as a nation risk making pastizzi out of all us.

Happy 2016. May it bring a heavy dose of critical-mindedness, may it whisk away any traces of gullibility and may it signify a return to the discovery of a set of values that define us properly as a nation within Europe.

It’s either that or pastizzi.

 

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Constitutional Development

More fool the law

more fool the law _ akkuza

An evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling cheek, quoth the bard. In matters legal we are often confronted with devils citing scriptures for their purpose and recently there seems to have been quite an upping of the scripture-quoting ante, if you get my drift. The Ian Borg planning permit saga drags on without so much as a whiff of a preventive suspension of duties. PM Muscat was quite clear, in his usual style used whenever clarity and convenience collide, that it was up to Borg to do what he should do. Borg, having adamantly proclaimed his innocence and shown that he does not give two hoots about whatever investigations may result declared firstly that he would proceed with his development. It was only after a sobering comment by Muscat that Borg retracted – on facebook of course.

Muscat’s comments were the most worrying in fact. He was definitely not satisfied with Ombudsman Report on Case no EP 0032 and did not hesitate to openly allege that it was beset with inaccuracies. In fact, not only does the modern day leader of steel not agree with the Ombudsman’s conclusions but also promised to set straight certain “mistakes” that are apparently contained therein. It really does beg the question of why bother listening to the Ombudsman in the first place if you are not going to give any weight to anything he has to say. Well, probably Muscat has been listening to a few scripture-quoting devils who have opted to dabble in the arcane arts of legal interpretation within their self-declared hobby/profession of all that is to do with planning.

What really sticks out whenever you read any of these apologia pro Ian Borg in the press is a quasi-autistic literal-mindedness that belies any knowledge of constitutional responsibility. You see a literal approach to the law can provide some very interesting and confusing results. The Ian Borg Saga is not about any old pesky MEPA application but about the “incorrect application of policies and procedures in processing and determining” a particular  application in Rabat.

Legally (and by this I mean also to include the literal application of the law)  there is the issue of sticking to the procedural minutiae of an application and whether what might seem to be ridiculous situations – such as a non-owner making an application- are actually allowed by law. There is also a second legal question and that is whether the permit application as filled led to MEPA wrongly acquiescing to the request.

Outside the box of literal-minded application there is an important constitutional element. A member of parliament – a parliamentary secretary to boot – is involved in this application. I say involved but ultimately we can say committed in the same way that in an English breakfast the chicken is involved but the pig is committed. The property that is the subject of this controversy is owned by Ian Borg. He is not denying it. Nobody is. The problem lies that if it should result that Borg, a government secretary, abused of MEPA procedure in order to obtain a go-ahead for this development in a property owned by him he has constitutional obligations that go beyond the mere examination of whose name appears on the application and whether that is legit.

Reading through the Ombudsman’s Report (that could admittedly have been a bit more clear) we find two important issues that tie to the constitutional responsibility of Ian Borg.

  1. The issue is not whether or not it is permissible for someone to apply on behalf of a third party. The issue is whether, when doing so, it was clear that whoever the applicant was, if he was not the sole owner (or not an owner) then he indicated that he notified the owner of his intention to apply. This is provided for in Section 15 of the application form (under article 68(3) of the Planning Act). The point that the Ombudsman makes in page 6 of his report is that in this particular application the applicants who were not the owners did not indicate as much – they actually “incorrectly stated that they were owners”. This is when the Ombudsman opts for the words “it is strange that Dr Borg chose a somewhat devious method to file the application”. The application contains an untruth. While it is true that you can still apply if you are not the owner, you are meant to do so while declaring that you are not the owner and indicating that the owner has granted his consent. This is what results from the Ombudsman’s description of the case. Given Ian Borg’s parliamentary position the omission assumes constitutional importance.
  2. The second important point made by the Ombudsman is, to put it simply, that the description given in a previous application that ended up being refused by MEPA was altered in this new application. The result is that notwithstanding that “there was no change in policy in the intervening period between the refusal of PA 1637/12 and the submission of PA 2708/14”, MEPA seems to have requalified the new application in order to get the green light for the application made by somebody for the development on Ian Borg’s property. One defence being made here is that a literal application of the planning policy  would lead to the green light being given because the former application had a built up area of less than 50 metres squared while the new application being for a 100 metres squared building would qualify. Now bear with me for a moment but what we are effectively stating is that when a plan for development was for less than 50 metres squared MEPA would object to such development tooth and nail BUT by exploiting a loophole in the law if we present a larger development plan that transforms magically “fresh land” into a backyard in the building suddenly everything is fine and dandy.

Quite frankly the combination of the two issues listed above put Ian Borg in dangerous waters. Even with all the goodwill he may claim to have had there is still definitely more to this than meets the eye and it does the PL no good to hang on behind its young soldier. We’ll have to wait for the Commission against Corruption whose remit is closer to the constitutional factors that I mentioned than the Ombudsman’s.

 

Categories
Constitutional Development Politics

Timing Anglu’s comedy secret

timing_akkuza

 

The secret of comedy, they say, is timing. There is nothing funny about the making public of a launch of a magisterial inquiry into the amount of fuel consumed by the Leader of Opposition’s car. It is not funny at all. In actual fact it is rather worrying because it has all the makings of a perfectly-timed smear attempt. It would not be the first time in the history of this country that the machinery of one of the arms of the state is put into motion in an incredibly advantageous manner that serves the party in government. Those who are not prone to lapses of amnesia still remember the sudden summons of Alternattiva Demokratika’s Harry Vassallo when some long forgotten tax case suddenly became very very pertinent in the eyes of some police officers in Sliema.

The magisterial inquiry falls within the same lines of harassment by officialdom. It is important to keep a sense of perspective here. The investigation is about a discrepancy in fuel allowances – the kind of discrepancy that would not warrant half the attention it is getting since, assuming that it is an allowance, what one assumes happens is that if you exceed the allowance then you are not refunded the difference. In any case the irony of the matter is that this is the fuel allowance used for an official car in its official capacity. Apparently too much money is being spent on fuel. One would hope that the inquiry concludes what everyone who has not been blinded by Joseph has been telling the government over the past year or so – that fuel prices are bloody expensive when compared to international market prices.

But back to Simon’s driver. Busuttil got to know that the investigation was going on and this strangely coincided with the document full of proposals on proper governance (that this blog is still to review). Muscat was quick to confuse matters by claiming that by Busuttil’s yardstick Busuttil should resign. It turns out that the Good Governance proposals have instilled the fear of God in Muscat – this is the first time that he would rather see the back of his opponent rather than continue with the playground jibes of “ma tifhmx fl-ekonomija, ma tafx taqra” &c &c.

Speaking of math and economics it is incredible that in this democracy we have importuned a magistrate to draft a pennies inquiry as to the fuel consumption of a car when our Prime Minister still to this day rents his own private car to his office at the rate of €7,000 a year. Incredible isn’t it? The apologistas of this world will tell you that this is perfectly legal – sure, but what they do not tell you is that  this way Muscat gets to double his perk. The money the government is paying for what is supposed to be a bargain deal goes to Muscat’s pockets at a rate far above the net worth of his car. It’s as though a lawyer would charge his clients extra for having used his laptop and printer to draft his legal documents.

The whole farce of the magisterial inquiry only goes to show the urgency with which the PN proposals on Good Governance must be treated. We have long embarked on the slippery slope that ignored the important tenets that underly civic society in a liberal democracy and much time has been lost using the measure of partisan fairness instead of the rightful rule of law. Instances such as Farrugia’s comic foray into the land of inquiries are a clear indication of the tragic situation of our current political state. That so many voters are still prepared to swallow this bull if only to spite the imaginary nationalist monster that was designed in their head by Muscat’s propaganda machine is even more worrying for that means that many are still prepared to defend the indefensible.

Is-sewwa jirbah zgur they used to tell us. These are definitely tough times for the truth and for justice. Only time will tell.

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Mediawatch Politics

We are all an accident waiting to happen

accident_akkuza

Insofar as national tragedies go we had a couple of headline filling “incidents” over the last month that led to discussions on safety in different environments that are normally linked to entertainment. First there was the Paqpaqli incident where a supercar mowed into a crowd of bystanders causing injuries upward of three score and a mini-emergency crisis in our establishments of health and cure. A little later, and almost in parallel with the return of the ugly face of terrorism in Paris, we had an unhappy incident in an entertainment establishment in Paceville where a sudden stampede was once again the cause of much mayhem, much trauma and much panic. Finally we had a tiger on walkabout (in an estate dotted with planning illegalities) being provoked into attacking a little boy – said provocation consisting in said little boy running in the general direction of the tiger who did not appreciate this sudden rush of adrenalin. Still. Damage there was, pain even, and this was caused by a tiger in what is for all intents and purposes an establishment tainted with various illegalities.

This being the age of social media and the hashtag it is rather a surprise that the hashtags #jesuisPaqpaqli, #jesuisPaceville and #jesuislenfantdeMontekristo were not trending in yet another demonstration of pointless Pharisaical empathy that will be forgotten come the next hashtag – be it #goDestinyforEurovision, #lowunemployment or #CHOGMrocks. What should be trending in fact is a hashtag made out of those words used by the lawyer who lends his signature to Mr. Polidano for affairs legal when he said that most times these are “accidents waiting to happen”.

In fact, given the general institutional and public reaction to the sum of these tragedies we can safely say that the hashtag #weareallanaccidentwaitingtohappen should become part of the Maltese heritage. It fits nicely not just in the case of Paqpaqli, Paceville and Montekristo but also whenever your average fireworks factory explosion occurs, whenever there is the latest cowboy accident on the place of work, whenever political requirements bow to the avarice and greed of the building industry … should I continue?

Paqpaqli was one mess short of a babylon of cock-ups. It proved incontrovertibly that our nation is nowhere near being equipped for that kind of messy patchwork excuse for running powerful engines over short distances. Did we learn anything? Hell no. Prime Minister Muscat has announced that part of his panem et circenses programme in the coming year is the holding of the World Drag Racing Championships in Malta. Why? Our idea of what is and what is not suitable for an island slightly smaller than Manhattan is twisted beyond belief. I would expect us to hold the World Igloo Building Championships in Malta next August. It would be as stupid a decision as holding a World Cup in Qatar in summer. Only an administration as corrupt to the neck as Blatter’s FIFA could come up with that. Wait a minute…

Paceville. Poor old Paceville. Always the den of iniquity that has become synonymous with Malta’s Hell. Over the years it has been obvious that those who ever try to come up with some form of “regulation” for the place are really people who have a plan of transforming a brothel into some kind of centre for social rehabilitation. If we fail to accept that Malta has its own version of Las Vegas strip of entertainment and that it is of itself a possible touristic attraction then we will fail into obtaining some sort of sense of order. The distinction between imposing martial law and understanding that the entertainment must and can go on but for the instilling of a sense of responsibility when it comes to dishing it out.

The starting point of proposals about Paceville must be how to improve the value of entertainment there, not how to kill it completely. I have always advocated as a starting point that the transformation of the old enemalta building into a centre for civil coordination would be a brilliant way to kick off the games. Think a permanent V18 for Paceville – P2K as in Paceville for the third millennium. Policing and health needs would be centred around the entertainment zone that would be detached from the St Julian’s and Swieqi dependency it has suffered until now. Public-private charters and standards could be established – from common safety regulations, to common security training and common evacuation strategies in collaboration with civic defence. Campaigns on drink driving could be co-ordinated with the different modes of transport that get to the city. Those obnoxious white taxi drivers could be relegated into oblivion. Cleaning times, projects and promotions could be coordinated by all the stakeholders. Above all this should be done in a liberal manner and not with the approach of complete and utter sanitisation. There is no point in transforming Paceville into what it is not. Will the politicians move on this? Highly unlikely. Not when the powerful stakeholders in the area have them by their short and curlies.

Montekristo. Which brings me to Montekristo. The place should be shut. The animals should be exported to the closest zoos. Malta is no place for tigers and lions. No cage should be but their time in captivity might require gradual reintegration. Animal rights apart (Where was Marlene Bonnici by the way? Or are animal rights only useful to justify the Euro Parliament presence?) the whole Montekristo story is a clear example of how the authorities will continue to pay lip service to cowboys such as Polidano. Not only will they bark a few words about the animals (Muscat tried the Ali G trick with vegetarians – “you either eat a chicken or I will  kill another one” became “we would have to kill the animals if we closed the place”) but they will continue to patronise the place for their political activities. We are all an accident waiting to happen but who gives a flying feck?

There you go. That is what your politicians would do on average when it comes to accidents. They will tell you they are sorry to have seen it happen, they will tweet their condolences and support, but in the long run, we were, we are and we will remain an accident that is waiting to happen.

 

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Immigration Middle East Terrorism Values

Know your enemy

know your enemy _ akkuza

The language of war has returned ever since the Paris Attacks. The French PM has not held back the ballistic rhetoric and insists on qualifying this as a war between France and Da’esh (they hate that name). In doing so, Hollande steps into the shoes of George W. Bush who similarly had declared war on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda shortly after the sad events of 9/11. Ever since 13/11 (European calendar) Hollande has upped the tempo and has even resorted to invoking international clauses before the UN in order to intensify the attacks on Da’esh.

One thing that has really been getting at me ever since this war discourse has begun is the frequent reference to the facts of the Paris Attacks as though they are the first time ever that a European nation is facing terror and terrorist attacks. The modern generation of politicians seem to have a faint, or non-existent, grasp of the recent history of their continent. It would appear that it is the first time that a group of men opened fire on innocent civilians, the first time that bombs went off in a major European city, the first time that a sporting event was directly in the line of fire and – to add the events of the Russian events on the Sinai – the first time that a plane was bombed or hijacked by terrorists.

As if this historical distortion is not enough we have to also add the fact that the context of all this terror-talk is a Europe that is already submerged in fear-mongering in relation to the “threat” of immigration. The Paris Attacks occurred within the context of a major continental upheaval with regards to immigrants and refugees and we had no time to factor in the issue of continental values that was still very much unresolved at the time.

What do I mean by historical distortion? This is a generation of politicians that are used to selling their wares through very efficient marketing and rhetoric. They are used to manipulating facts and figures in order to infuse feel good factors. Just take a look at “Our economy is booming” Renzi and Muscat for a clear example of what is meant. These politicians are now faced with a concrete problem and have to seem as efficient as when they are trumping up figures to make their economy sound beautiful. So they tell us that this is a danger such as we have never seen before. In one fell swoop the deeds of the IRA, ETA, Baader-Meinhoff, Brigade Rosse and the PLO (and PLF) are vanished away.  According to the new rhetoric the bombings at Liverpool Street Station, Bologna or the shootings at Munich are just fiction.

Muhammad Zaidan (Abu Abbas for enemies) never existed. The governments of Thatcher and Craxi never had to deal with terrorist cells. No. Only now are we at WAR. The enemy is everywhere. That is what they want you to believe.

Does this mean that a terrorist threat from Da’esh should be ignored or is not so bad as they make it sound? Nonsense. What I mean is that this sudden linking of terrorist attack to acts of war has consequences that go far beyond dealing with them as the type of security threat that they really are. With the death of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind behind the Paris attacks, we were told that he was very probably the mastermind behind most of the other attacks that occurred recently – or that were foiled. from the shootout in Verviers to the foiled Thalys aggression  – it was Abaaoud. When you read the facts that are available in terms of 70s and 80s terrorism it begins to look very likely that we are dealing with a cell of extreme terrorists.

This kind of cell is a bunch of individuals disgruntled with society in very much the same vein as a Breivik or your average US High School Shooter in the US. It is now also clear that they are raised and bred in Europe only to abscond to war zones like Syria to get “training” in much the same way as the Che Guevara’s of other decades rushed to zones of popular revolution. The “ideology” is an excuse or pressure valve justification to unleash pent up anger at a society that they claim misunderstands them. When they do manage to succeed with one of their plans to explode or kill that is when Da’esh steps in to claim ownership. Which is fortunate for Da’esh because, as they themselves claim in their newsletters, any action that is successful and perpetrated by anyone can be claimed as originating from them no matter how spurious the link is. This makes Da’esh look much larger and organised on the European mainland than it really is.

The flaws in European security relate to the inability to flag disillusioned individuals, the facility with which they can obtain weapons in a society that does not treat guns and bombs as liberally as the US and finally, the biggest flaw is looking for a massive organisation where there most probably is none. Da’esh’s hand in all this is ‘limited’ so to speak in obtaining a monopoly on fear. The ultimate aim for Da’esh is to provoke the “Us and Them” mentality – and they hope to recruit more than just a handful of misplaced youths with suicidal tendencies. That is why the war language serves Da’esh more than it serves your average European state.

It may sound crazy at this moment in time but I strongly believe that Europe – particularly the Union – has much bigger problems than the terrorism threat. The main issue here is the search for a Europe of Values with common intent. It is that Europe that failed to take shape when Giscard d’Estaing’s constitutional convention failed to deliver a clear definition of the Europe that we all want. It is only by defining what it is and what its values are that Europe can finally stand up and be clear about its position vis-a-vis the immigrants that are looking to it as a place of refuge or economic improvement. When we can tell refugees and immigrants who we are and what standards they must conform to then we can really wage the real war that counts. The war on ignorance and intolerance.

Before you face your enemy it is important to know thyself. Nosce te ipsum.