The virtual flop of the ANR demonstration last Monday is enough to allow an almost complete line to be drawn through the summer's sorry manifestation of revolting rightist racism that dirtied our national psyche.

Of course, my characterisation of the demonstration as a virtual flop will anger the rightists, who on Monday evening were having a jolly good crow about the success of the event and about the way the people had, finally, risen.

Let's get back to reality, shall we? There were, what, 500 people marching to protest about illegal immigration, 500 people in response to a concerted billboard, e-mail, publicity and word-of-mouth campaign designed to appeal to the inherent bigotry in all of us. Five hundred - or even 700 (some people put the figure as low as 300) - people who think that illegal immigration is a problem and that something should be done about it.

Impressive or what? Impressive or not, you mean, and the answer is, quite simply, not - not impressive at all.

However, even such a tiny number of people is enough to worry me, because it shows an ugly side to our national identity that I do not like and that I will continue to try to fight, even if it means more anonymous letters to my home, more insulting e-mails and a whole website devoted to me. Ian Mercieqa can carry on trying to get me fired from The Times and Ivan Attard can carry on sending me abusive e-mails all they like, it won't worry me.

Anyone who saw the rather good pictures of the demo on di-ve.com last Tuesday will have seen the disquieting images of those thugs throwing the Nazi salute in the direction of Fr Mark Montebello and of the sheer hate on the faces of the people trying to attack the Graffiti counter-protesters. The thugs are part of the right as much as blazer-garbed Philip Beattie is part of the right and, sadly for Mr Beattie, the thugs ruined it all for him and his efforts to try to make the right appear reasonable.

And let's not hear any tripe about these being just a few individuals and that Graffiti provoked them and such-like garbage. The thugs might have been just a few individuals but on the rightists' web-forum, equally violent sentiments are professed on a daily basis and when immigrants drown or fight among themselves or otherwise suffer harm, many of the bigots can't help themselves: they gloat.

I've given you examples of their writing, from the saddest losers among them to their exalted leader, Norman Lowell, who is lionised at every opportunity but who is unable to express anything by the lowest of low thoughts.

I don't have much time, frankly, for the politics and policies of Fr Montebello and of the Graffiti group, but at least they don't go around preaching race-hate and physically attacking people who don't agree with them, so they have democratic rights in this democratic country. The racists and bigots, on the other hand, deny democratic rights to others and, by this very denial, they deny themselves the right to enjoy the fruits of democracy and the sooner people like Toni Abela and Victor Vella appreciate this, the better.

The bottom line, friends, is that I will carry on keeping an eye on the bigots and the racists and looking under the stone at their squirming vileness. If they continue to align themselves with the reasonable right, then I'm afraid that the reasonable right will find itself suffering by association. Smart blazer or no smart blazer.

Do something

On Tuesday, I found myself having a discussion with a couple of friends who choose, when confronted with something they don't like, to comport themselves like a pair of fish-wives.

These two ladies (and they are ladies, for all their efforts to prove otherwise) don't like illegal immigration and believe something strong should be done about it. Of course, when asked if they mean that immigrants should be allowed to drown or that Malta should ignore its moral and legal obligations, their answer when verbalised is "no" but the body-language reads "er, well, maybe, if that's what it takes".

It's about time we all realised a few truths about the situation in which this country finds itself. Short of uprooting ourselves and planting the archipelago somewhere in the North Sea, there's no way we're not going to be in the immigrants' way while they head North towards the European mainland. As a (relatively) developed country, we have obligations, both legal and moral. We are obliged, like it or not, to give sanctuary to people who need it and we are obliged, whether Mr Lowell and his band of bigots like it or not, to treat them decently while they are here.

If treating them decently means giving them medical treatment - even if it means they jump the queue sometimes for practical reasons - and decent housing, then so be it. If treating them decently means taking time to process the question of their status correctly, then again, so be it. The egotistical knee jerks of the conscious or unconscious bigots who don't like the colour of these people's skin or the tone of their religion is immaterial, even if there are thousands of people who think this way.

Because, friends, there is simply no choice: when these people fetch up on our shores, we do not have the choice to keep them away, by force or by simple expedient of leaving them to drown. That is the sort of thinking propounded by Mr Lowell and it is the sort of thinking that appeals only to people who have a limited grasp of civilisation and the obligations that accompany being a member of civilisation.

As I write these lines, I see that di-ve.com is reporting that the new (same old same old) GWU president Salvu Sammut has just made a speech that would be worthy of the right at its most stereo-typical, all about immigrants stealing jobs, jumping queues and being full of disease.

If this is true, he should be ashamed of himself. A trade-union leader who utters this sort of clap-trap deserves nothing but disapproval and it is to be hoped that the national and international trade union movement will disassociate itself from him immediately.

OEIPs

The great and the good are about to descend on us, as the frantic roadworks going on all about us are proof positive.

But it's not only the political great and good that are going to visit with us (political and good in the same sentence, that's almost oxymoronic). We're also going to get a pretty good dose of the people who matter, the business leaders, the investors, the people who, by their belief in the bottom-line, worship at the altar of reality. Well, they say they do, and if by so doing they create wealth and jobs, then more power to their elbow and may the Commonwealth Business Forum, which is the event to which these worthies are going, bear fruit.

That way, the ill effects on the environment from all the hot air generated by the political big-wigs will be compensated for, ever so slightly.

Oh, by the way, OEIPs stands for Other Equally Important People.

Exile on meadow pie street

My little crack about Exiles last Saturday ruffled a few feathers within that friendly club, which was not my intention at all.

In fact, I bow to no man in my admiration for the way the people who run the Exiles fight Mother Nature (they don't have a government-subsidised pool, you see) and the predatory instincts of their bigger neighbours, who seem to think that the Exiles exist only to nurture potential stars, who can be plucked from under the Tower as soon as they're mature enough to play in the top flight.

Perhaps all the people who think that Sliema and Neptunes are the be-all and end-all of waterpolo in the smart areas would do well to reflect on this. For that matter, the people who betray their roots and trot off towards Ghar id-Dud or Balluta at the drop of a rubber cap should also think a bit about the reason why they got into the sport in the first place.

Car troubles

A young friend had his car broken into last week and asked me to mention this. Precisely why he wanted this was, and remains, not immediately clear to me, except perhaps that he sees me as a vicarious letter-off of steam, being as he asked me to cast eternal damnation on the larcenous ones, wishing upon them boils on their nether regions and similar discomforts.

I'd like to end, though, on something of a sombre note.

Like the rest of the country, last week, I was shocked by that horrific accident on the new Rabat to Zebbug road. It is a platitude to say that this underlines the fact that something needs to be done about the standard of driving in this country.

I am not pronouncing on the guilt or innocence of the driver in this particular case (or on whether there was any justification in having his face plastered over the papers) but it is a stark fact that some effective policing of our roads - our faster roads - is an even more urgent imperative than it ever has been.

This is not to say that ludicrous crackpot traffic management schemes should be brought into effect or ridiculous speed limits imposed. It is, however, to say that traffic police should be deployed to stop people driving like blind morons.

Because sadly, many people are blind morons when they drive, there's no two ways about it.

bocca@waldonet.net.mt