Tag: intolerance

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Mediawatch Politics Rubriques

I.M. Jack : The one about the WYSINWYG

La Trahison des images (Ceci n'est pas une pipe). 1929. Oil on canvas, Overall: 25 3/8 x 37 in. (64.45 x 93.98 cm). Unframed canvas: 23 11/16 x 31 7/7 inches, 1 1/2 inches deep, 39 5/8 inches diagonal. Purchased with funds provided by the Mr. and Mrs. William Preston Harrison Collection (78.7).
La Trahison des images (Ceci n'est pas une pipe). 1929. Oil on canvas, Overall: 25 3/8 x 37 in. (64.45 x 93.98 cm). Unframed canvas: 23 11/16 x 31 7/7 inches, 1 1/2 inches deep, 39 5/8 inches diagonal. Purchased with funds provided by the Mr. and Mrs. William Preston Harrison Collection (78.7).
La Trahison des images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe). 1929. Oil on canvas,

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a quick I.M. Jack take on the major news items. The theme this week is about WYSINWYG or what seems to be the apotheosis of the governmental policy of What You See is NOT What You Get. This blog has for some time now described Muscat’s government’s actions in terms of Magritte’s “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” We are used to having this or that government representative exhort us to look for the facts beyond what our eyes can see – “what you see is not what really is” they seem to tell us. Thus the traffic clogging the sick arteries of our nation is just a question of perception, we only see lack of qualification in government appointees because we want to and the price of oil in Malta is actually cheap today if we consider that it could be cheaper in the future. Hence WYSINWYG – what you see is not what you get.

Will the real budget please stand up?

The speaker hath ruled. The real budget is not the one that was physically tabled in parliament or the one published on the government website. No the real budget is the one read by Minister Scicluna in fits and starts. The speaker’s ruling is actually an apotheosis of all that has been Taghna Lkoll until now. Do not believe the facts and figures. Only believe what we say. Anyway we have to make do with the new mantra of “genuine mistake” that seems to be as permissible with this lot as it was anathema with the previous lot.

We are genuinely mistaken

Such was the excuse when Minister Cardona once again committed a “genuine mistake” appointing a person from the bench to a government entity. The euphoria of appointments to this and that chair is such that sometimes the Ministers or their minions for whom they are directly responsible get carried away and end up signing up people who are not fit for the purpose. In this case such lack of fitness was not due to incompetence (that actually is allowed – just look at our ambassadorial appointments) but due to the fact that the person being re-nominated for a bit of the parastatal company gravy train had already been fit comfortably in the puzzle of judicial appointments – and judges and magistrates are not allowed to sit on government entities. Plus ça change.

Get him to the Greeks

Cuschieri junior is being nominated ambassador to Greece is he? And there was Tsipras thinking that he had faced his greatest challenge yet. This is the same Cuschieri whose position on the Greek debt crisis was largely influenced by very personal issues of whether or not he would be allowed to take up his seat in Strasbourg. “in the midst of the Greek bailout talks, Cuschieri called on Malta to deny the debt-afflicted state money under the EFSF lest they green-light the enlargement of the European Parliament.” (MaltaToday). Sweet isn’t it? What better man to send to Athens if not this genuine Floriana FC (and, alas, Juventus) fan?

What you did was very spiteful, but it was also very brave and very honest and I respect you for doing that. But the content of what you said has made me hate you. So there’s a layer of respect, admittedly, for your truthfulness, but it’s peppered with hate. Hateful respect. (Alduous Snow – Get Him to the Greek)

X Arab Bank

Peppi Azzopardi tried to act smart with the “patriots” of Malta. He must have reasoned that the chicken-brained reasoning that is normally spouted by intolerant bigots can be easily countered on his show. For my sins I watched the whole show on streaming. It was a disaster in many ways. It was once again a testimonial to the lack of civic education and by that I am not referring to the patriot’s lack of knowledge of the words of our national anthem. Take Peppi’s bold assertion that it is up to members of parliament to interpret the law – and that since a member of parliament has stated publicly that wearing the burqa is not illegal then so it is. Not it isn’t Peppi. Members of parliament form part of our legislative branch. They legislate. What they do not do is interpret. That is up to the courts to do. It’s part of this little game called separation of powers. You could be forgiven Peppi, with this government the whole concept of accountability and respect of the separation of powers is fast going up in smoke. We are left with a nation that is in search of its basic values and still trying hard to understand how the whole “liberal democracy” thingy works.

Labels

Labels tend to help us understand who we are and who our interlocutors are. It has become a common occurrence though to maliciously use labels for sweeping statements and assumptions. When an arab loses his mind in Paceville and goes on a stabbing rampage then it is a cue for “immigrants out” and for patriots to charge through Valletta or Birzebbugia like a bunch of oafs on a xalata. If an assembly of Croats and Serbs decide to re-enact part of the Balkan issues on St Rita Steps in Paceville the same reaction is not forthcoming. We have said it many a time: a crime is a crime is a crime – irrespective of who is committing it and irrespective of who the victim is. The confusion that results out of trying to define aggravations based on colour, race or gender (or lack thereof) of the aggressor or victim only serve to compound the melting-pot of intolerance that our country is fast changing into. We have now had news of a priest who was arrested on charges of pedophilia. Cue the hypocrite anti-frock crowd to once again come out en masse barking agains “the church”, “religion” or “priesthood”. What a load of bollocks. The crime would be a crime if the person accused were a plumber, a nurse, a footballer or whatever other profession you may think of. It is heinous, punishable and condemnable. What it is not is testimony that one particular profession is more prone towards it than others. Pointing fingers at “the church” is tantamount to accusing “arabs” after a Libyan goes on rampage in Paceville.

Traffic

It will never be solved. Not without a fascist unelected government of wise men and women. Only then could the Maltese “suffer” the imposition of a car-free island where most money is spent on an efficient common transport system. Reducing the car amount to a bare minimum can only be dreamt of so long as politicians pander to the perceived “needs” of a population that has been bred to be “hurt” (read: throw a tantrum) whenever it does not get what it wants.

Maybe that is why Taghna Lkoll fares so well among the Maltese. More often than not they are led to believe that they are getting what they always wanted – irrespectively of the fact that what they see is not actually what they had hoped for.

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain. – Nicolo Macchiavelli

 

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Mediawatch

Fear and Loathing in tal-Qroqq

fearqroqq_akkuzaIn his speech as outgoing rector of the University, Professor Juanito Camilleri addressed the issue of migration, instructing students to make good use of the knowledge and skills they acquire at University. It could not and should not have been otherwise. The University should be churning out informed citizens who are better equipped to face the realities of this world. What struck me though was the distinct difference in emphasis that the editors of two English dailies made – at least in the online headlines – when reporting this speech (the third, MaltaToday, seems to have limited itself to reporting the number of students that have been added to the Uni count).

The Times of Malta ran with “Fight hatred and intolerance through knowledge, rector tells university students” – a direct reference to one of the problems that afflict the country. Only last week we were chronicling this on this blog and mentioning the importance of fighting misinformation with knowledge. Ignorance begets darkness and informed campaigns beget light. The Times editor/reporter made the right choice here, emphasizing the crux of what Professor Camilleri was on about in his last address to the students on opening day. The message was picked up and carried by the paper – not that it had to  of course, but it is arguably part of the mission of the press on this island where bigotry too often raises its voice to the detriment of sane discussion.

The Malta Independent on the other hand opted for a more sensational approach. In doing so it went rather in the opposite direction of what Professor Camilleri was advocating. The headline on the Independent read: University rector says migration in the Med so far ‘not even an appetizer of things to come’ . Did Prof Camilleri say that? Well of course he did. He spoke of the geopolitical realities of the African continent and that demographic and political pressures could eventually lead to more population movements and increases in population density in the Mediterreanan region. Why he said that seems to have been completely overlooked by the Indy reporter – in deference to the need to shock and pander to the gods of sensationalism and feed the gullible. Instead of focussing on the tools that Prof Camilleri was offering and highlighting, instead of stressing the need to be informed and fight hatred and intolerance through knowledge, the Indy headline (food for the lazy browsers) feeds the ugly part of the “threat of an invasion that is to come” by picking the armageddon-like statement out of context.

Is it fair journalism? Debatable. Is it right for J’accuse to make such a fuss out of this. Well, to be honest yes. This is just the kind of lazy labelling that feeds into the mouths of the “patrijotti maltin”. It is the kind of reporting that is based on terror-mongering rather than a quest for reasoned solution and discussion of the situation. It ends up with the leader of a nation taking up his time at the UN (between photo shoots with celebs along with the caravan of freeriders) closing ranks with rightist leaders like Viktor Orban calling for global quotas on migrants – taking his coffee smelling business into the halls of the world. In short, it all ends in a humanistic disaster.

“If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate. It is therefore realized on all sides that however often Persia, or Egypt, or Java, or Ceylon may change hands, the main frontiers must never be crossed by anything except bombs.”- George Orwell, 1984

Categories
Citizenship Politics Values

The Maltese Race

malteser race _akkuzaIt’s almost eleven o’clock on Sunday morning. In my church going days this was the time for the infamous Sunday mass ritual complete with sermon, parade and chit chat on the church parvis just before heading off to Sunday lunch. For a long time through my childhood and adolescence we counted the mores and values of the Catholic Church as our own. Those days are long gone and it is no longer a question of pointing your finger at the Bishops and their flock whenever you feel that the moral compass has gone haywire. To be honest it has become harder and harder to identify the source of our common values in a nation that has discovered a plurality of divisions that go beyond the traditional good and evil fault lines that have always aided us to paint a chiaroscuro picture.

I remember Marsalforn’s priest (known to the flock as il-Kappillan) promoting numerous missionary efforts during the months of summer when his church would be full to the brim with the sudden influx of ‘Maltin’ who had come over to Gozo to spend their summer vacation. To the kids the idea of a mission was a remote place where the poor underprivileged, unlucky and pagan souls would be nourished with food for the spirit and for the flesh thanks to the intervention of intrepid missionaries. They might have been a reality but it was a reality that was far away. The sense of remoteness would only be breached when the first shipload of Albanians would reach our shores in the early nineties.

We grew up with a cushioned mentality of what brotherly love and concern is about. At school I heard first of the La Sallian Freres around the world spreading the word through education. Then I learnt about the not too lightweight methods of Jesuits like Francis Xavier and their trips to preach to foreigners all the way to the Orient. I came across the Freres again recently when watching a documentary about the history of what was once the Belgian Congo. Their schools have survived the upheavals since independence and they now include history teachers teaching young Congo residents the path that the Congo had to take towards eventual freedom and self-determination. Congo’s first short-lived president Patrice Lumumba had for long preached a Congo where “the blacks would be white and the whites would be black”.

But I digress. Our concept of “foreigner” were forged in colonial times and then continued to be moulded in post-independence Malta that probably had not shed its colonial mentality. For long the foreigner was a tourist with all the idiosyncrasies he could bring. He was a tourist to be charged according to the hidden prices on the menu (still is) and someone who could leave a penny or two on this young republic’s soil. Politically with the arrival of Mintoffian principles combining fabricated nationalism and aggressive participation on international fronts, the foreigner became a “barrani” – an outsider – a concept that is encapsulated in very similar terms to “not local”. We had to choose with whom to deal with and who would be our friend in times of need.

There is no doubt that the politically expedient mechanism was absorbed into our way of thinking. The irony is not lost when you see that this kind of political tool culminated in a legislation on “foreign (outsider) interference”. Setting aside the political undertones, it says much about the lilliputian element in the mentality. “We are Maltese and no outsider will tell us what to do”. Inevitably such a narrative required a fleshing out of the myth of the ‘Maltese Race’ – for which we came up with a word that is only used in one other circumstance  ie. the United Nations or Gnus Maghquda. By 1979 we had Gensna (technically “Our Nation” but giving off serious whiffs of “Our Race”). The language of “us and them” had been packaged roughly and served its purpose well. It probably was here to stay.

Fast forward to the nineties where we began an uncomfortable rapprochement to the continent to our north. We may have made giant strides towards the “Europeanisation” of our nation structurally but come the referendum on EU membership the “us and them” mentality showed that it was going nowhere. “Them” in this case was the Europeans. We had the derisory, ridiculous, statements of parts of the opposition to membership regarding AIDS, Sicilian workers et al but they were there and I am not too sure that they were easily dismissed. Without making a value judgement on EU membership itself, I believe that it is safe to say that Malta might have politically and economically joined a wider club of peers but a substantial part of its population was still torn about the need to have anything to do (or depend on) the outsiders.

An uneasy membership had begun and it would not be long before we would have a government pouncing upon the uneasiness of a  large swathe of our population with the concept of “the others”. It could have been any party mind you – so long as it is one that relies on substantial doses of populism there would always be a vein to be tapped – a vein that dislikes the outsider, snobs the foreigner and demonstrates all the makings of an intolerant mentality.

The Albanian ships had just been a forewarning. Soon we would have an ever increasing wave of refugee seekers escaping the turmoils of the Dark Continent. We would also absorb a large amount of people escaping the ugly reality of the Balkan break up. Later on (more like recently) we would add to those the East European (non-EU) diaspora looking for a better life. The Gens Malti suddenly found itself knee deep in barranin. Would it cope? Could it cope?

In this year’s address to the Luxembourg population on Duke’s Day, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel surprised the non-Luxembourgish community in Luxembourg (the country, not the city, has 48% of non-Luxembourgers in its population in 2014) by addressing them specifically. He switched to French from Luxembourgish to do so (already an immense concession) and proceeded to tell the “foreign” community of how they are welcome in Luxembourg. “You may seem to be a problem at the start but I see you as a challenge, a positive challenge and an opportunity”. I paraphrase the sense of his speech but that was Bettel’s attitude in a nutshell. Luxembourg would make the most of the presence of non-natives – not complain about them. (see Luxembourg’s score on the Migration Policy Index here).

It’s not all about Migration though. It’s about a general attitude to anything conceived as non-Maltese i.e. foreign. Trying to understand this obsession with the Maltese Race is not simply restricted to the dangerous gibberish spouted by Imperium Europa followers. It means trying to understand how it is that we form our ideas about who and what is non-Maltese. It is also about trying to understand why we have selective bursts of what cannot but be termed racist/intolerant conceptions when talking about events unfolding in Malta and close to it. The overwhelming majority surely has no wish to think in terms of the brotherhood of man.

That is why it is worrying but not surprising that an idiot on Facebook expresses his wish that MEP Roberta Metsola gets gang raped by a group of immigrants when he sees her efforts being made towards integration and assistance. That is why it is worrying but not surprising that our government’s envoy to the World Tourism Authority deems it fit to use the word “rapist” when talking about ADITUS chairman’s efforts in assisting refugees and immigrants in integration. That is why it is worrying but not surprising that our nurses complain about (specifically) Libyan patients being brought to hospital as though hospitals are only equipped to combat Maltese illnesses and bacteria (and to think that part of our great historical narrative includes a period when Malta was the hospital of the Mediterranean receiving wounded from the First Crimean War for example).

Sliema and Saint Julian’s are under threat. There is hooded gang doing the rounds with some kind of master key and burgling homes. It seems to make a difference that these criminals are Eastern European, probably Serb apparently. We have got used to situations where the defining factor is not a crime but the nationality of the person committing it – as though this in itself is an aggravation or proves some statistical point.

All this points to a continued uneasiness with the concept of non-Maltese in 2014. This is not a pretentious rant but an attempt to identify the source of the mentality and the problem. Nations like Luxembourg have taken up the challenge and are seeing the potential in seconding this new wave into the very struggles of their own nation. Malta on the other hand seems to have gone down the path of refusal and denial. Efforts at integration and commonality are either not evident or non-existent. What is clear is that we are very weak policy-wise when it comes to thinking about how to work on this reality. So long as those entrusted to govern prefer to pick and mix with a populistic enthusiasm we can expect little or no positive input from their part.

Meanwhile the Maltese Race continues…. to the bottom.

 

 

Categories
Citizenship Constitutional Development Politics

Ugly Heads

ugly_akkuzaRacism. It’s a dirty word. In the past seven days there seems to have been some form of virus in the air spreading dirty thoughts across the globe. The latest manifestation came in sporting events. First there was the Diego Alves incident. Barcelona’s colourful (an unfortunate word in these circumstances but I mean spirited) winger was getting ready to hit a corner in their match against Villareal when a banana was thrown from the stands. It is a not too intelligent and unironic insult that is common among the less evolved quarters of football “supporters”. Along with the monkey calls, the banana is the unfunny provocation (are you provocating me?) that yells “You are black therefore you are monkey”.

To Alves’ credit he did not only brush the manifestation of crass stupidity aside, he proceeded to pick up the banana and eat it before contributing to Barcelona’s turnaround victory against a banana coloured Villareal team. Unfortunately the beautiful game is often tainted with this kind of racist inspired taunts (remember Boateng last summer?). Surprisingly this week we also had news of similar dirty thoughts coming from – of all places – the black dominated NBA. The sport of LeBron and Jordan  hit the headlines for the wrong reasons when a phone call by the owner of the LA Clippers was leaked by his girlfriend to the press. It turns out that he did not want her to come to games in the company of African-Americans.

Donald Sterling (for such is the intelligent beings’ name) provoked a huge backlash to the point of getting a comment straight from President Obama that is destined to become a classic: “When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk. That’s what happened here.”  Barack, you’re so right.

It is ignorance that is at the root of intolerance. It is intolerance that is at the root of racism. In these times when democracy and democratic rights are being savagely banalised by the onslaught of relativism and populism the ugly heads of racism and intolerance are easily raised. We read in Malta about immigrants having to ask Maltese to “hail buses” because otherwise the driver would not stop for them. Ignorance. At its ugliest and worst. Rosa Parks would have a hard time in Malta, trust me. She’d probably still be stuck in some village police station on her 200th hour of “police questioning”. “What do you mean you refused to sit in the black section? There is a law you know.”

There are warning signs everywhere. Intolerance does not stop at racism on the basis of colour. In the Russian-majority areas of the Ukraine we had calls for a register of Jews. Even if we ignored the maladroit comments by Berlusconi about the Germans and concentration camp we would still have to admit that the current European Parliament campaign is unfortunately infused with not so subtle reasoning based on mistrust of the foreigner – a revived intolerance that the Europe of the universal declaration of rights was supposed to have buried long ago. (see also the recent outrage in the UK following a UKIP candidate’s comments).

Recently I learnt that the story that Adolf Hitler snubbed Jesse Owens during the Berlin Olympics was a myth. Owens himself explained that Hitler had actually taken an “official” decision not to congratulate any of the medal winners after he was told on the first day that he could not simply congratulate German medal winners. Hitler did not snub Owens. It turns out that he actually shook hands with Owens on the day before leaving the stadium.

Owens said he was treated better in Germany than in America where blacks faced segregation. Sometimes, the sources of intolerance and racism are to be found where we least expect it.

Categories
Mediawatch

Go back to your country

“Go back to your country”, he typed, he thought, he yelled, he spat, he fumed.

“They should go back to their country”, he reasoned with friends, he told his politician, he reckoned with the warden, he argued on the promenade.

“They’re useless good for nothings”, he supposed with no one in particular, he ruminated on the message boards, he mumbled lost in thought.

“This integration business will never work”, he concluded.

Then. When the anger subsided he put on the Manchester United football gear and bumbled away to support his idols…. Shinji Kagawa, Robin Van Persie, Javier Hernandez Balcazar (Chicharito), Nani, Anderson Luis de Abreu Oliveira,Rafael Pereira da Silva, Nemanja Vidic, Alexander Buttner, David De Gea, Anders Lindegaard. You know… the locals. I’d mention Rooney but he wants out.

From the Daily Mail:

Question: How many foreign players appeared on the opening weekend of the inaugural Premier League season in August 1992? Answer: 13.

Here’s another one. What percentage of foreigners made up Premier League squads when England’s top-flight celebrated its 20th anniversary last summer? Answer: 62 per cent.

“Foreigners go home” he squealed. 

(and before you say anything, the most expensive (valued) player in the English Premier League is… Welsh).

Categories
Politics

Sunshine

The tragic circumstances of the death of Osama Al Shzliaoy will undoubtedly rock the boat on a number of issues that are periodically touched upon in our public debates and politics. Sunshine was knocked down “outside a nightclub” (pace Times report) and succumbed to serious head injuries a few days later. Coming as it did hot on the heels of the court case that practically exonerated a bouncer from any wrongdoing in a death caused in similar circumstances the comparisons and conclusions will be inevitable.

Whether it is Fabrice Muamba or Osama Al Shzliaoy who is battling for life in a hospital, the effect is always such as to inspire great manifestations of solidarity. English football, fresh from weeks of scandals involving racism that peaked with the Suarez-Evra debacle needed the events of the Tottenham v Bolton encounter in order to be shocked into sensibility about respect for your brother. Or did it? Whether the global displays of affection are simply a passing fad related strictly to the facility with which an sms, a text message or a tweet is sent out remains to be seen. After all football has been there before – many times – only to revert to the booing, the banana throwing farces that are a shame for the sport.

But what about Osama? Sunshine seems to have been guilty of wanting to have a good time in Paceville. I had an Estonian guest over the weekend and I asked what she thought about Malta. This blonde from the North had great memories of the island (could be the fact that her beau hails from there) but I was particularly struck by here awe at the size of Paceville. That’s all really – awe… that so much entertainment can be found in so little a space. It does strike you as sick that depending on the colour of your skin and the tint of your hair you could come away with such a different experience from Paceville.  It’s not the Estonian’s fault of course.

We saw it in the evidence given in the last court case where the defendant championed by an aspirant parliamentarian (minister perhaps) had a panoply of witnesses from the entertainment industry prepared to swear on oath that the black man in question (sic) was a regular troublemaker. The court listened and the jury acquitted. The jury mind you. Men from the street – your average man called upon to believe a sworn oath for what it is and then to fulfil their duty. The jury system might have become an anachronism in this day and age – particularly with the selection practice that has developed over time.  Could the jury system be a problem causing an imperfect application of the law?

But back to Osama. Was his death foretold the day the Abubaker jury went out? Was there suddenly a license to kill “immigrants”? Does it tell us anything about racism? Knee-jerk reactions will put their proverbial two and two together and conclude that the fault lies at the feet of lady justice. It’s the law that is to blame isn’t it? And a life nowadays costs approximately 500€.

But that is too easy. Too simple to be true. I see intolerance before I see racism. I see discrimination between a caste of people who can be above the law and others who will suffer the consequences. The bouncer and the bouncer’s world is not the simple world of racism where “black” is discriminated against. It is the “I do what I want” because I am backed by powerful people. It is the world where rights are eschewed for brute force and naked muscle.  Even more worrying is that the brutes will find their rent-a-politician who will mentally muscle his way past the pestering laws with one hand only to blame the legislation and call for reform from the benches of the opposition with another.

The problem behind the deaths of Abubaker and Osama is not racism. It is intolerance and lawlessness. Paceville is just another petri dish where this is brought to light. I believe Deguara when he says that “he is not a racist”. Not a racist in Lowellian or Nazi terms. Deguara just has his list of priorities as a bouncer. His priorities were twisted and they would lead him to use disproportionate force in what he believed to be execution of his duties. The comfort zone of protection for people in his “profession” would even lead to exaggerations – there are no checks and balances because there are people out there who will stick up for you. On oath. In court.

Then Osama gets beaten up and is left for dead. It’s the bouncers again? Are the suspects bouncers? We have read that the suspects are Romanian. Sure. Foreigners. They’re only trouble. Right now the problem is putting the issue in perspective. What is the criminal we are looking for? What is the crime?

There is violent aggression in a very public place. Racism would classify it as a hate crime. Was Osama killed because he was black? Was he killed because his aggressors felt they are above the law? Or was this another crime in what has become the cowboy, unregulated world of entertainment in Paceville?

Our reaction to this crime is just as important as the laws that we will apply. All too often we create ghosts that are not there that distract us from the real problem. Will the sad case of the death of “Sunshine” Osama be relegated to another case of noisy distraction?

 

markbiwwa has also blogged on the subject here.