Category: Uncategorized

Inspired by some righteous shit from one of our men in brussels.

What is it with these candidates these days? You can tell that they are dying for a US Presidential style election – they would kill for an aeroplane, a bus or a train in which to leap from State to State yelling their salvational messages at the four winds. Instead we get these fancy declarations of candidates putt-putting in eco-friendly vehicles or attempting desperately at giving meaning to the places where they speak.

Take Marthese Portelli, a law graduate, but who has given the impression of wanting to win over the hearts (and votes) of whatever housewives have survived the epidemy of political correctness. I say that with no meanness in mind. She does form part after all of the panoply of diverse candidates championed by Lawrence and masterminded by Simon. As I said on Sunday… there’s one for every occasion and Marthese Portelli is there for the aspirant Miss Housewives of the nation (do they still exist?).

This article and accompanying Bertoon appeared on today’s edition of the Malta Independent on Sunday.

I hate number crunching. Statistics have never been my forte and although I did enjoy a period of mathematical bliss during the dreaded ‘Ordinary Level’ stage, it had more to do with the aesthetic perfection of geometry than the mesmerising incomprehensibility of algebra. Enter the logarithm exit brain. As Xs and Ys appeared conspiratorially in the formulaic world where balancing the equation was the ultimate mantra, my mind took refuge in the magical certainty of Euclidian geometry.

The beauty of Euclid’s presentation of geometrical rules is the way the Greek Geometrical Geek came up with a progressive set of axioms that built upon each other proving ever more impossible theorems right. The obviousness of certain basics is what made the geometry beautifully magical. Take the simple description of a straight line as being “the shortest distance between any two given points”. Beautifully simple. Majestically enlightening. All in one go. There’s much more to Euclid than straight lines and studies of shapes and space. There’s logic and the astounding method of proof by contradiction.

Of course in a world of Wi-Fi connections, googling and iPhone applications, we are lazily spared the explanations behind horribly complicated calculations that would in an earlier time have been inculcated within our spirit through the tried and tested method of repetition. There’s not much to worry about if we have all these gadgets to do most daily workings for our lazy cerebellums. What we really should be worrying about is that by discarding the learning process of understanding what lies beneath we also ignore some basic tenets of logical reasoning. We ignore that every assertion must be backed by logical steps and presumably by equally postulate proofs. 

In the mathematical and statistical world there is Google. In the fantastical world of promises and worldly facts we are lazily succumbing to the word of the politician. We don’t question Google or Wikipedia about how it got certain facts or how it reached that conclusion… why should we question Simon Busuttil, Kyril Micallef Stafrace or Arnold Cassola to name but three of our aspirant MEPs?

It’s as illogical leap as you can get but that is the price you pay for numbing the brain to no end with the comfort of gadgetry. A messy political class used to relying on marketing and propaganda rather than values and argument does not help one iota to make things any better, and sadly that means that the selection of candidates for the Euro-Parliamentary Buffet that is due in June is about as appetising as spare ribs from a mad cow boiled in brine.

The tremendous news comes straight out of the US of A. Being a blogger is no longer a hobby. The statistics are astounding but it seems that there are more people making their living out of blogging than there are barmen, firemen or programmers in the land of hope and opportunity. I read this news first on La Stampa.it though it was originally reported on the Wall Street Journal. 

Comparing Job Numbers in America

Lawyers	555,770
Bloggers	452,000
Computer Programmers	394,710
CEOs	299,160
Firefighters	289,710

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Blogging as a profession has overtaken computer programmers and is hot on the heels of the beloved profession. The description of the average “blogger for a living” makes for interesting reading:

“Demographically, bloggers are extremely well educated: three out of every four are college graduates. Most are white males reporting above-average incomes. One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall. It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year. Bloggers can get$75 to $200 for a good post, and some even serve as “spokesbloggers” — paid by advertisers toblog about products. As a job with zero commuting, blogging could be one of the most environmentally friendly jobs around — but it can also be quite profitable. For sites at the top, the returns can be substantial. At some point the value of the Huffington Post will no doubt pass the value of the Washington Post.”

As the Maltese blogosphere continues to give signs of shifting and upheaval (J’accuse’s list of reference blogs in Malta is badly in need of an update) it seems that elsewhere the science of blogging has established a new profession. Now that J’accuse’s dark cloud of technological incommunicado seems to be finally over we hoe to re-establish ourselves as the point of reference in Maltese blogging. Meanwhile remember… what you see comes to you for free… which does explain the occasional gap in continuity.

These are the times of high levels of immigration and low levels of tolerance. They are the times that inherited the straight-jacket rhetoric of the politically correct. They are times of neutered political debate due to reverence to populistic positions and knee-jerk reactions.

Somehow you get the feeling that these are not times that could produce a historic document like the Magna Carta, the Declaration on the Rights of Man or the Charter on Fundamental Human Rights.

Barack Obama has just published the legal advice given to George Dubya to justify appalling interrogation techniques. Obama called for “reflection, not retribution” thus enraging both the right and the left. He does not seem to want to take any action against the perpetrators of the evils that contributed no small amount to giving the States a bad name. There’s something funny about these parties who fight to gain power in the name of justice then just let justice slip through their fingers once they are sitting on the throne. Do the words S.A.G. spring to mind?

Obama’s government was not present in the Durban revision talks – known as Durban II. Don’t let the name fool you. Durban II is actually being held at the UN HQ in Geneva, Switzerland. Eight years after Durban I, the UN returned to the prickly subject of attempting a global definition of racism. It did not get off to a good start – what with the US and Canada (Funny how Canada almost always springs up when a list of misfits is needed – South Park where are you?), among others boycotting the procedure(1).

The procedure/debate is rendered rather difficult by the constant attempts by certain countries to define racism in terms of “Zionist Israel”. Well, not exactly in those terms but you get the jist. Enter Iranian Supremo (or second supremo if you’re of the Ayatollah bent) Mr Ahmadinejad and we get yesterday’s speech about how Zionist Israel is still performing acts of racism on the aboriginals of the strip of land that different deities seem to have promised to different peoples at different times.

The “different deities” bit is a wanton phrase of irony here. You see whenever the big faiths get together they often rush to speak of the One God common to all. For a moment we are all sons of Abraham, Yeshua or Mohamed but once the niceties are over and political expediency requires the battleover the land promised to men via burning bushes, black stones or simply out of revernce for remembrance of Roman torture proceedings then we revert to treating each other like the sons of bitches that we all really are.

This has nothing to do with the walkout at Ahmadinejad’s speech in Geneva of course. It did have it’s positives – like uniting Europe’s feet as the representatives of the EU countries quit the room while Ahmadinejad ranted on against Zion and the Gideonites. Ahmadinejad got what he wanted once again – the world’s attention on the Palestinian issue. It’s a pity because for a while we could have gone along with his efforts to bring nuclear energy to the nation with one of the greatest historical heritages in the world. The pity is not that Ahmadinejad wants to discuss the issue but the way in which he ignored Obama’s extended hand to participate as an equal player on the world scene and chose this petty mode of confrontation.

Poor Ahmadinejad started his speech speaking of the Sons of Abraham and ended up ranting about the sons of bitches in so many terms. That, in essence, became the marking point of Durban II. Whatever Ban-Ki Moon will say will never eclipse Ahmadinejad’s clumsy moment in the spotlight.

(1) The US, Israel, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and New Zealand had all boycotted the conference being held in Geneva, in protest at Mr Ahmadinejad’s appearance.