I.M. Beck quote unquote

Travel obligations, such as are unconnected with any pleasure in the travel or the arrival (in other words, work related), constrain me to blast this week's effort into the virtual ether earlier than usual, so forgive me if events have overtaken me at all.

That Health Warning having been posted, I'll get on with business.

It is every union leader's bounden duty, of course, to do his best for his membership and to try to improve their lot by a lot. That's a given and there's no way I would gainsay any such leader if he gives voice and effect to this duty.

However, I believe Mr Tony Zarb has overstepped his mark, by a long, long chalk.

No union leader, unless he is Lech Walesa (who Tony Zarb is not) or Nelson Mandela (was Mr Mandela a union man? Whatever, Tony is no Nelson, either), has the right to get up onto his high horse and proclaim that if the government does not do his bidding, he (the union leader) will work towards toppling the government.

Mr Zarb, whether or not he appreciates this, has not been elected to national office. All he has been elected to is the leadership of a trade union - an important and powerful trade union, but only a trade union, nonetheless.

As such, even if he was ushered to his exalted throne within the union by the massed ranks of Heraldic Blue Collar Angels, he has limited rights and these rights do not extend to trying to topple a democratically elected government.

In fact, not even the opposition, from whom Mr Zarb's union does not find itself a million miles distant, ideologically speaking, has the right, in a democracy, to try to topple the government. It (the opposition, not the General Workers' Union) has the right to take such pot-shots as it likes against the government, but overtly or covertly fomenting instability in the country is just not on, even for them.

So if Mr Tony Zarb thinks he's done his union any favours by getting all macho, then he'd better think again. The rest of the country, that is to say those of us who didn't vote for Mr Zarb to lead the General Workers' Union and who don't think that he is the Sublime Leader Supreme, would rather he left politics to the politicians and kept to his job.

Because if he doesn't, and if he persists, with his co-leaders, in demonstrating that they think that they can dictate the agenda all the time and that they can go around thumping their chests all the time, all that will happen is that people like me, and there are many of us, will start to remember the past and the way people like them dictated.

They dictated not only the agenda, remember, but everything else.

He is sailing

There he goes again, taking steady aim at his toe. Who? Well, here's a clue or 15. I lifted them from a fellow columnist, to whom I doff my hat. And I'm actually wearing one, a beanie, it being a bit nippy around the bald pate.

So, our subject has an academic background of economics and politics but likes, as any intellectual would, to talk about style, commitment and ideology in literature. If you are excited about the arts and you think you can easily impress him, you are quite wrong. He will discuss with you comparative European literature in relation to fine arts, music, history and politics.

Our subject knows lots about German, English, Italian, French etc. cultures and speaks about artistic eras and precociousness in certain schools of thought in relation to others. These interesting subjects he can discuss in various languages - including perfect French. He is a typical European intellectual. If you are half asleep when you discuss these matters with him, you'd better watch out. They call him Fred. Some jealous metaphorical peasants dislike him.

I trust that by these clues you have recognised him - it's none other than the man himself, come on down, Doctor Alfred Sant. I presume I am amongst the jealous metaphorical peasants who dislike him, according to Anthony Licari (for it is he from whom I have lifted this stuff) though I have to confess that I rather like the man, since he is assiduous in supplying grist for my mill on a regular basis.

And I don't even have to try not to be bored half asleep when I discuss things with him in a mishmash of German and perfect French, because all I have to do is read all about him.

Our Renaissance Man has come up with a wheeze the likes of which has rarely been spied competing in the most sublime of ideas stakes. According to this academic with a background in economics and politics, when the Malta Labour Party is elected to the governance of this country, it will launch a new Sea Malta, pardon the pun.

In and of itself, this is a darn good reason (and there are some others, believe me) for the MLP to be kept in opposition.

What does he mean, another Sea Malta? Is that what this country needs, another loss making shipping line, with a rust-bucket fleet, responsible for the transportation of five per cent of the cargo that comes in or goes out of here?

What is it about Doctor Alfred Sant that he can't let the chance of influencing a few votes go past without trying to suck it up, slime and all?

Oh well, when you consider that he leads the same party whose Deputy Leader thinks that it is a good idea to attract people to vote for it by resurrecting the memory of public broadcasting under Labour in the 1980s.

You know what I mean, that Golden Era when jobs in broadcasting were only for the party boys and girls, when the then Leader of the Opposition could not be referred to by name, when the only broadcaster in the country was nothing more and nothing less than the voice of the Malta Labour Party in government.

About this, the MLP is unrepentant and the response to that unrepentance, I believe, is for anyone who believes in this country to continue to believe that the MLP still can't be trusted with its assets.

Traffic

I just loved Revel Barker's rapier like jab last week, in which paper I don't recall. Apparently, some department or other issued a shed-load of statistics recently, among which was the information, vital to our lives as it is, that traffic accidents in Gozo and Comino amounted to such and such a percentage of the total of accidents in the country.

Mr Barker, rightly, asked for more specific information, to wit about the contribution that Comino made to this earth-shatteringly important statistic.

Good one.

While on the subject of traffic, just a quick word of congratulations to all of those who directed, transported, tucked in, fed, watered, moved about and generally dealt with the traffic jam of heads of government, queens and princes, ministers and media folk that descended on us last week.

Whether or not you think that the Commonwealth is particularly relevant, you have to admit that the conference was well run, giving the lie to those who think we're not capable of organising things.

Now let's do it all the time, shall we?

Tidings of great joy

I hadn't seen it advertised anywhere. I simply got a tip from a friend, who mentioned that for good food at decent prices, I could do worse than try Wigi's, in St Julians across the road from the Neptunes pitch.

So off we went for an assay and, verily, the assembled company was gob smacked. The menu is not extensive, with about half a dozen starters and half a dozen mains from which to choose.

But the quality! Comments ranged from "hey, this is good" through "mmmm" to "excellent stuff", and that was just the starters. By the time we got round to being served (very well served, incidentally, this is the way service should be delivered) the mains, we had come to the conclusion that this was a place to which we would be coming back, soon.

And then we came to the sweet course.

Words almost fail me. One of our excellent waiters, apparently, is something of a god in the sweet-making department and he had concocted a Mars & Snickers Cheesecake for our delectation. Yes, I know, it sounds a bit OTT but all I can say to that is "Try it".

Disappointed is what you will not be.

Sunday evening saw us toddling off to St James Cavalier for a gander at the video-installation exhibition, after which we repaired to Trabuxu in Strait Street for a very good snack or two. We also had a very good shouting match about the meaning of art and whether the video-installations we had just seen were "art".

My point, which was shot down in flames by the more intellectually gifted among us, was that simply pointing a video camera out of a dirty car window while driving through Monument Valley does not classify as an artistic endeavour.

But what do I know?

bocca@waldonet.net.mt