Tag: fausto majistral

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Politics

Rush coming up

Jiġu mumenti fejn nipprova nimmaġina meta’ kien il-mument li waqafna nimxu u bdejna niġru. Niġru fis-sens li ma niefqux biex naħsbu u li inħallu il-mezzi ta’ komunikazzjoni jaħsbu minflokna. Filli konna hemm nifirħu bl-emanċipazzjoni tal-individwu u li issa kellu il-poter f’idejħ u filli kull ħajt virtwali u kull forum possibbli qed jintela’ bil-vomtu kwotidjan mingħajr ħafna ħsieb.

Fausto sejjħilhom graffitti. Sewwa qal. Anki jekk f’idejn esperti anki il-graffitti jafu jġiegħluk taħseb. Imma illum mhux graffiti biss għandna. Għandna il-kummenti, il-kontrokummenti, l-osservazzjonijiet mundani u personali. Għandna is-search engine u l-wikipedia. Għandna l-aħbarijiet “on tap” u l-“opinion polls” instantanji. U fil-baħar ta’ “data” l-individwu emanċipat safa dik il-gżira li John Donne qalilna li ħadd ma hu.

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Iħħakkjaw il-kont elettroniku ta’ Bashar Al-Assad dittatur ġewwa s-Sirja. Skoprew li waqt li mijiet ta’ Sirjani kienu taħt attakk ġewwa Homs, id-dittatur u martu kienu qed jordnaw il-linef u d-DVD ta’ Harry Potter minn fuq x-xibka ta’ l-eteru. Jaħasra kemm miet kmieni Salvador Dali. Kienet tkun xena surrealissima li seta jiġbed ma Picasso. Biss biss Pablo kien ikollu jkabbar it-tila ta’ Guernica biex ma jpinġix biss il-bombi neżlin imma anki l-vann tad-DHL jew UPS qed iwassal il-linef fid-dar tad-dittatur.

U ta’ Harry Potter mhux tajba jew? Kemm hi belha din Asma (hekk jisimha martu l-Ingliża) kos. Tordnalek il-kopja legali tal-film ma jmurx tikser il-liġi u tidħol fuq xi Pirate Bay tniżżel it-torrent. Fejn taf, jekk jispiċċaw quddiem il-Qorti Kriminali Internazzjonali ikollhom akkuża inqas għal xiex iwieġbu il-koppja Al-Assad. Massakru ċivili – IVA, korruzzjoni u tkasbir tad-drittijiet – IVA, download illegali – LE ta… dak ordnajtu fuq PLAY.COM onorevoli… delivery b’xejn kieku kont fl-Ewropa.

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Irrekordjaw lil Julian Galea. Irrekordjaw lil Joanna Gonzi. Joanna ma ħarġitx għall-elezzjoni. Julian ma setgħax jirtira l-kandidatura. Ivvutawlu xorta. Imbagħad irriżenja. Għax ħass li aħjar. Ivvutawlu xorta. Dik l-iktar biċċa affaxxinanti. Kellhom kollox għad-disposizzjoni tagħhom. Il-massa tal-medja wasslitilhom kull bit u byte tar-recording. Ivvutawlu xorta.

Ħal-Qormi għandhom sindku ġdida. Naqra naive. Imsieħba f’sit ta’ “hostesses” taljani. Hostesses kienet saret kelma sinonima mal-Kavallier tal-Italja li ħadem tant għal ġieħ u unur in-nisa tal-Italja. Li ma nifhimx hu jekk dawn in-nies humiex konxji tal-konsegwenzi tal-preżenza tagħhom fuq ix-xibka virtwali. Fil-Festschrift Immanuel Mifsud tagħna stampa ċara ta’ dak li sejjaħ bħala il-konfessjonarju ta’ Foucault. F’J’accuse semmejna kemm il-darba kif kien hemm perijodu fejn il-blogs servew ta’ mera ħarxa li uriet il-kruhat tas-soċjeta tagħna. Ma konniex nafu jekk aħniex lesti għalihom dawn il-veritajiet.

Bħal Alice fil-pajjiż tal-meravilji sirna, diffiċli tifhem dak li hu veru u dak li hu virtwali. Forsi la nifhmu li dak li ilna insejħu virtwali huwa biss estensjoni tal-veru forsi hemmhekk biss nimxu l-quddiem.

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Cyrus Engerer il-politikant bla kostitwenti bena dar fuq Facebook. Mill-kampanja tad-divorzju il-quddiem bena persunaġġ virtwali. Cyrus il-laburist li qiegħed bilmod ilmod iżarma l-ewwel maskla reali li kien bena fil-bidu tal-karriera politiku tiegħu meta kien Cyrus in-Nazzjonalist li forsi (forsi) kien jirrekordja lil kollegi tiegħu meta’ jkunu f’xi dagħdigħa ta’ bejn il-ħbieb – just in case.

Franco Debono imur il-parlament bħala deputat nazzjonalista. Anki Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. Imbagħad meta taqbżilhom u jridu jiftħu l-mitraljatriċi tal-kritika jidħlu fuq Facebook jagħmlu xi status update. “Does RCC have a blog?” kienet waħda mill-aħħar enigmi ta’ Franco. Sa fejn nafu aħna m’għandux blogg RCC. Konna nistednuh għall-bloggata guest – imqar għall-kurzita biex naraw x’ikollu xi jgħid.

Sadattant blogs oħra li nibtu waqt il-falsa stikka tal-elezzjoni li qatt ma kienet mietu fuq ommhom. L-azzopardinicky’s tal-mument kienu posposti għal mument opportun. Kien kmieni wisq biex iżżomm ritmu ta’ elezzjoni. Dan jafu Muscat li issa inbela f’nassa ta’ prattikament prim ministru kostanti sa mill-inqas is-sena d-dieħla.

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U Simon Busuttil li ma jridhiex tas-suċċessur predestinat qed jisħaq fuq komunikazzjoni. S’issa kull meta tniffes, tniffes biex jgħidilna li jew iridu jisimgħu iktar jew iridu jikkomunikaw aħjar dak li qed jagħmlu. Għax dak li qed jagħmlu huwa tajjeb.

Li għadna ma smajniex minn Simon Busuttil huwa jekk hux se jkollu messaġġ li jwassal, hux se jkollu kontenut ġdid, jew inkella aħniex se jkollna biss reċiklaġġ u stinar fuq messaġġi li ilhom li intilfu fil-kaos tal-eteru. X’se jisma’ Simon? Il-graffitti fuq il-ħitan?

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Ilna niġru. Bl-Ingliż ngħidu “to rush” u qlibniha tirraxxja. Bħal dak li bela’ l-ecstasy u ma baqax jagħmel sens. Għax il-moħħ jaħseb sew meta jirrifletti u mhux meta jispara bl-addoċċ. Il-moħħ huwa l-ewwel għodda. Id-dinja virtwali – dik l-estensjoni tad-dinja reali – għandha potenzjal qawwi. Enormi. Pero jekk naqbdu niġru biha ma ndumux ma nsibu l-ewwel ħajt u nibqgħu deħlin dritt ġo fih.

Categories
Festschrift 2012

fausto majistral – malta 9 thermidor

It took us a while to put our finger on what this majistral bloke was about. In 2005 we were convinced he was the mother (or father) of all PN apologists. It was not that though. It was an assiduous attention to detail. Thermidor was a formidable political observer with whom to cross swords. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason the blog that had become a reference point on all things political just stopped. Fausto soldiered on as chief proof reader, fact-correcter and contradictor on J’accuse with the occasional (very welcome) guest post in the Zolabytes. Here’s another one then, telling you how the blogosphere died:

While blogging in the US really took off in the aftermath of 9/11 as “citizen journalists” put online whatever content they felt mainstream media was leaving out, in quite a few other countries the watershed year was 2005. Particularly in the Middle East (Egypt and Syria immediately come to mind), PCs and modems became as powerful weapons as guns and grenades.

Malta’s big year of the blog was also 2005. At no other time since did the Maltese blogosphere flourish as much in quality and quantity. But it was not just that. There was a good vibe from trying out a new medium whose potential was as yet undiminished with competition from the likes of Facebook and Twitter. The motivations to blog were very strong: in my case (as possibly with many others), the feeling that on the Maltese mainstream media contributors either (a) had nothing very interesting to say, (b) could only express themselves very poorly or (c) all of the above. Usually it was (c) so out we set to set the world aright. And then when an Independent intern, Aurelie Herbemont, wrote an article on the Maltese blogging scene, it really felt that the blogging revolution was on the way and, with some more effort, it might even be televised.

J’accuse was born into this happy world. Having been born under the right star sign, in a thriving community were members were genuinely interested in reading and responding to what other members were saying, the blog’s editor frequent positings quicky placed the blog in pole position. While, of course, readers came from far beyond the confines of the small blogging community, most reactions and responses were from other bloggers. That was somewhat dispiriting at the time (at least to me). Had I the gift of foresight with the ability to see the Times commentator in the future, I would have been happy that somehow what we wrote attracted like-minded people rather than contributions which, like most graffiti attest nothing except the writer’s (unwelcome) presence.

Sadly, the blogosphere decline set in quite quickly. An annus horribilis was 2008, an election year which attracted many “occasional bloggers” as well as “occasional readers” who were looking for the latest online rumour through google. Some gave up. In the case of J’accuse, its editor responded to an odyssean song becoming a contributor, first on the Sunday Times then the Independent on Sunday. The blog content suffered, becoming almost an appendage, at most a “peek preview”, to the weekly column. The writing which had looked so natural and authentic with the varying lengths, intensities and time of blogging was now subject to the fixed lengths, fixed styles and fixed publication date only the dead tree media could impose. Thankfully, the editor is now again free and some of the old J’accuse shine is back.

Not all, of course. Not the spirit of ’05 expressed in that old wordpress template. But at least J’accuse is still around to remind us of better times.

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Zolabytes

Honoraria : What lies beneath?

Fausto Majistral is back with another Zolabyte. He gives us a no-nonsense analysis of the main issues that surround the whole ruckus about honoraria. It’s less about the politics and more about the constitutional issues.

Service as an MP in the Maltese House of Representatives is a part-time affair. “Part-time” is a misnomer, of course, because parliamentary work is not only attending sittings in plenary and involves all other sorts of things including constituents who could be quite demanding (to say the least) both in what they demand and the time at which they demand.

But we should not linger on this point: after all, nobody calls teachers “part timers” because the time they spend in the classroom is less than the usual annual average of 40 hours.

There were moves in the past, very discreet, to make parliament a “full time” affair. That would have meant, amongst other things, that apart from ministerial duties parliamentary service would have been to the exclusion of all other work (a condition which would have no justification for as long as being an MP was part-time). A significant advantage gained would have been that the risk of situations of conflict of interest would have been hugely reduced.

Needless to say, this was resisted by some MPs, particularly those who are also members of a profession. Their full time work is as big as the size of their clientele which is largely a matter of their choosing. In many cases, the service they offer their clientele can be delegated to professional partners or assistants. MPs whose full time job is as an employee, where the working hours are not of their choosing and where the duties cannot be delegated, do not have such luxury.

So parliamentary service remained part-time. Paid. Which you can combine with any other full time job. Equally paid. Except for one full time job: being minister.

Before anyone makes the point that being a minister you waive your moral right to be paid anything for basic MP work because your full time job is paid from the public purse, please note that you can combine a full time salary for a job in the public sector and the honorarium for being a part-time MP. Being a minister is one of the very few jobs, in the public as well as a private sector, which disqualifies you from the parliamentary honorarium.

I will not go here into the concurrent issue of whether MPs’ honoraria should have gone from 50% to 70% of the civil service’s salary scale 1. For the very simple reason that, I have no way to tell if 50% or 70% is what is deserved for the duties in question. Note however that one of Jean-Pierre Farrugia’s main gripes (which I think is representative of what the critics have so far said) was that it was bad timing in the prevailing financial situation.

Certainly. But please note that a pay increase that’s unrelated either to productivity or cost of living is hardly and alien concept in Maltese labour law. It’s the stuff annual increments based on a sector’s collective agreement are made of.

Neither do I need to go into the other main gripe, that these increases should not have been introduced by stealth. For the simple reason, that the critics are right on this one. Salaries and honoraria for ministers and parliamentarians should be the subject of law, as is already the case with the salaries of the President of Malta, the Attorney-General and the Auditor-General, or at least a parliamentary resolution.

But this should not detract us from the fact that the way payment is made for ministerial or parliamentary service disadvantages members of one category of employment over an other. The compromise struck between Farrugia and his Leader hardly addresses that question.

This is not a trivial discussion or one which is irrelevant to the health of a democracy. The early proponents of paid service argued their case on the grounds that no one should be barred from being an MP if elected simply because he has no other private means.

That was the argument in the UK in the beginning of the 20th century; it would have lost little force in Malta of the 21st. Apart from the Leader of the Opposition and MPs who have private means, note the the MPs who first and enthusiastically stated they’ll donate the increase to charity or some pet campaign were mostly members of the professions.

Given much credence to that quote by George Bernard Shaw that the professions are really conspiracies against the laity.

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Zolabytes is a rubrique on J’accuse – the name is a nod to the original J’accuser (Emile Zola) and a building block of the digital age (byte). Zolabytes is intended to be a collection of guest contributions in the spirit of discussion that has been promoted by J’accuse on the online Maltese political scene for 5 years.
Opinions expressed in zolabyte contributions are those of the author in question. Opinions appearing on zolabytes do not necessarily reflect the editorial line of J’accuse the blog.
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Categories
Zolabytes

2010 – The Fausto Perspective (Part I)

After the forced hiatus thanks to the great storms in central Europe J’accuse returns with a multi-part Zolabyte by Fausto Majistral. In this serialised perspective Fausto looks back at the salient moments of the year that is about to end. Here goes…

LOCAL COUNCILS

Here’s a thought to brighten your day: 2010 was the first election-free year since 1993 (that’s, of course, if you don’t take into account the gripping administrative elections in places like Bubaqra and Xlendi). Main reason was the hiatus in local elections until 2012. But that doesn’t mean local councils were not in the news. Charges brought against a number of councillors gave reason for one paper to ask whether the whole local government system was at risk.

This was a wrong diagnosis. The number of charges brought which were related to elective office were four (MaltaToday counts eight but half of these are not, strictly speaking, related to the office). Two of these include the mayor of Sta Venera not issuing a €80 invoice and the mayor of Żebbuġ (Gozo) charged with having bought a laptop with public funds and which, so far, seems to have been purchased with the council’s agreement, to do council work from home — the incriminating “evidence” being the daughter using it to play around on FB.

More serious are the charges brough against the former mayors of San Gwann and Sliema, the latter which also offered the drama of a particuarly spectacular fall. Starting off from the Executive Secretary flagging irregularities, to a police investigation, to a statement admitting acceptance of bribes, to a kind of retraction (offered to the media but not in court), to political arm-twisting and a suffered no-confidence motion.

The Nationalist Party may have managed to cordon off the toxic area. But the depth of the division within Nationalist ranks in Sliema became evident and Robert Arrigo seems to be less of a shining star now.

COMEBACK KID

Local government was jinxed in 2010 … right to the top. Chris Said had to relinquish his post as PS (responsible amongst other things for local government) because he was to face charges of perjury. Things worth putting on record. First, that the “perjury” involved an inconsequential point about whether a Court session took place in the morning or the afternoon. Second, nobody thought, for a moment, that Said should be found guily and his speedy comeback was welcomed as much as it was deserved.

Finally, and more importantly, it reminded us of the murky waters of troubled families where litigation is no holds barred and downright nasty and poor Chris Said who got sucked in. If there’s a lingering image of the state of broken families in Malta is the First Holy Communion in Dingli where a “re-union” dictated by the particular circumstances, ended in a free-for-all fist fight.

PMB DIVORCE

Which brings us to the landmark political event of the year: the presentation of a Private Member’s Bill on divorce by Jeffery Pullicino-Orlando. This was not the first PMB on the matter: Joe Brincat presented one in 1996. But if 1996 were bad timing, Pullicino-Orlando has shown himself to be shrewd.

Not that the whole thing has been seamless. The Pullicino-Orlando’s first motion was a copy-and-paste of Irish legislation. Thankfully, a second motion presented jointly with Evarist Bartolo, actually takes note of the fact that Malta has a civil code and a family law tradition of its own. Sadly, it gave the whole enterprise an “as we go along” kind of air.

Take, for example, the supposed way to the referendal poll booth. Pullicino-Orlando says that sometime between the bill’s second and third reading a provision will be made for the holding of the referendum and, if the result is in the affermative, MPs will (hopefully) for for it. On this he says he has the advice of Ian Refalo. So be it. In which case Prof Refalo would be kind to explain how the provisions of a bill can have the effect of law.

Nevertheless, this must have been the media event of 2010. True, the pro and contra of divorce we had already heard before but this time they came back with full force, accompanied by the issue whether the government or MPs had a mandate to enact such a piece of legislation. The answer to which is: yes, if precedent counts for anything; the infamous 1993 agreement with the Vatican did not feature in an electoral programme or a referendal question.

EXEUNT

The bell tolled and this time Prof Demarco couldn’t be late. Mgr Nikol Cauchi, whose manner you get to appreciate the more you listen to his successor, followed some months after.

Not quite the same place, but John Dalli and Louis Galea are off to Brussels and Luxembourg. Dalli promises to come back to the political fray in four years time. He’d be close to seventy by then.

RELIGION

The Pope came and went. Granted, Benedict does not have the crowd-pulling power of his predecessor (who can also be credited with being the first pontiff to visit Malta and to beatify the first three Maltese). But the papal visit was, er, overshadowed by the Luqa monument. Rome and the Vatican have their many marble nudes so why should ours be offensive? Just because it’s ceramic?

Pity because the Maltese visit was historic at least in one sense: for the first time the Pontiff had a private meeting with victims of pastoral abuse. The request for a meeting could have been brushed off in many ways. There were risks, at the time these were still allegations under investigation and the papal visit was short (on those grounds the Church authorities rightly brushed off the request for a meeting made by the Nevada Hindu guru who has now become a perennial niusance).

But it did happen. And by all accounts it was a success (well, as much success one can hope for in the circumstances). It might be the beginning of a long way in which the Church stops being so defensive or, worse, shifting the blame on others as did Cardinal Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, when he blamed homosexuals on pastoral abuse.

ARTS AND CULTURE

Work on Piano’s design of City Gate began over an acute case of general echolalia involving works with the “-less” suffix. The theatre is “roofless”, the gate is “gateless” (has been for a couple of centuries or so) and the proposal “spineless”.

Two interesting developments. Labour, who had been mum for sometime noticed where the crowd was charging and placed itself at the head. Not in a very convinced manner, of course, just adopting the cliched (and wrong) calls for preserving “a 16th century baroque city”).

Second were the attempts to stop it. Film Director Mario Philip Azzopardi called for a collection to rebuild a theatre: €10 from 100,000 for five years. Azzopardi had big plans to mobilise the masses and even had the wording of the inauguration plaque ready. Emails, it has been said, streamed by the dozen. Contributions? Not so sure. Probably not even enough to pay for the inaugural plaque the wording on which he has already figured out.

Then there was “Stop Project Piano”, an anonymous internet initiative which set up a petition to call a referendum (which wasn’t doable). Pity those poor sods who gave their personal data to perfect strangers …

ikompli…

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Zolabytes is a rubrique on J’accuse – the name is a nod to the original J’accuser (Emile Zola) and a building block of the digital age (byte). Zolabytes is intended to be a collection of guest contributions in the spirit of discussion that has been promoted by J’accuse on the online Maltese political scene for 5 years.
Opinions expressed in zolabyte contributions are those of the author in question. Opinions appearing on zolabytes do not necessarily reflect the editorial line of J’accuse the blog.
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Categories
Arts Mediawatch

Say Cheese

The Spanish parliament has just made EUR 15b worth of budget cuts (by one vote) and Malta can afford to discuss communion to cohabitants, hypothetical coalitions, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Lou Bondi and whether secularism is a disease. Damned lucky country. – Fausto Majistral

Continue reading “Say Cheese”