The relevance of March 2007

Take anyone aside and ask him/her if local elections have any national importance. Few, including the staunchest of conservatives, will say that the two phenomena are unrelated. Obviously, auto-confiance oblige, we are sometimes forced, against our better judgement, to squeak that they are not.

The latest four elections - three local council ones and the one for the European Parliament - had the results they had. In the ruling party, the reaction to two possible results were rehearsed. If we do well, we celebrate; if we do badly, we say they are not important. There's nothing new in this since Aesop and La Fontaine.

Yet, another reality of local council elections is looming and the impending March 2007 round may be forgotten by wine, arrogance and song. But the anxiety is there. The probability of another major crash by the governing party in these elections a few months after next Christmas is as clear as rien ne va plus to those who do not wish to admit it.

The results of yet another round of exasperated voting are already evident and dangerously close to parliamentary elections. I am not a member of the famous "intelligent strategy group" making gaffes with each of its steps in the government party, but it seems to me that a parliamentary election, at most relatively soon after a March 2007 debacle, would produce a double disaster while an election in March 2007 would avoid a crash followed by a bigger crash. I would rather crash once than have a head-on and a sledgehammer blow in succession. It would somehow limit the damage and an exotic sojourn in a corridor of St Luke's Hospital - if not worse.

More immigrants than tourists

The way things are going, this may become a reality. The government's muscle in Europe is weak - especially after we told them that without them we are nothing. Our fishing zones are only a small fraction of our search and rescue zones. Indeed, the Italians are taking all the fish and phoning us to pick the immigrants from practically all over the Mediterranean. "Comma picka dem up quick." But what about the swordfish and the tuna? "All de fisha is ours. Maybe we giva you de fishabones."

Perhaps we need a government capable of saying: "As if" in Europe and meaning it.

Give the cops a break

Because police officers, except for the rare press release by the police PRO, are hardly allowed to write in the media and defend themselves, the public reads media complaints giving the impression that policemen are out to harass people.

Maltese policemen are not perfect, like you and I are not. My work sometimes brings me close to police officers and I find it a great pleasure working with them. Probably they are the best people I have ever worked with. They are capable of listening, discussing, ask for an opinion and weigh the pros and cons of particular actions in specific situations. I personally find them quite analytical in their assessment of preventive and punitive action.

My latest experience was a discussion about the anxiety of victims re-visiting a site of past discomfort. Wow! I thought I was having an intellectual conversation with a psychoanalyst.

So, to consider policemen as inevitable bulldozers is quite often an emotional exaggeration.

Bogeyman

I am, as I said above, not involved in the famous ad hoc strategy group. But if the PM had some common sense, he would not react the way he did to the GWU's demand for rearrangement of workers' holidays following the GWU victory at the ILO (which Evarist E. Saliba, impressing me with his past UN role, forgot to laud in his letter of July 11 to this paper answering me on things I had never mentioned but never referring to the guillotine on striking rights that hung on workers' heads during a PN administration).

Unless I misinterpreted the PM's words, he said something like "If you insist, I shall remove more holidays". I hope he did not say this at all as it would be the attitude of a bully and a bogeyman.

Perhaps, to prove that "we are not arrogant at all", it would be best to comply with ILO recommendations and turn a defeat into an exercise in maturity.

Getting what you bargained for

The famous Vote George Get Lorry slogan irritated the PM more than most expected. I would have simply published the names of all the beneficiaries of the rationalisation (sic) green land chopping exercise. I too waited in vain for the media to publish NGO statements dissociating themselves, as the PM said they would, from the above slogan. I only saw an editor's statement that he had received no such declarations. Strange.

Meanwhile people, the Maltese being what they are, are now inventing other "clever" battuti like Vote Louis Get Tonio (like at the Mater Dei Hospital press conference), Vote Austin Get Lost, Vote Francis Get Nothing, Vote EU Get Clobbered (as in all the hostilities Brussels is aiming at Malta), Vote PN Get Plucked (like the poor gentille alouette) and, best of all, following the stagnation, Vote Lawrence Get Lawrence.

Very unkind the Maltese can be.

Civic service

If you are familiar with the European media (but not just those of a couple of countries, please) you will have come across discussion about the benefits of what's being called a "civic service". This is an improvement on the old-fashioned military service. I am in full agreement with it and regret not having directly participated in one. I wonder if they will allow 30-year-olds when it's introduced.

Young men and women would spend two years doing serious sports activities (and improve our chances internationally), first aid, military training, practical education in various areas, leadership courses etc. The result would be: more discipline, better-mannered citizens, less drugs, less dirt, less alcoholism, less crime (such as the horrid vandalism at Hastings Gardens), less mummy's and daddy's girls and boys and prouder, more optimistic, patriotic citizens waving the Maltese flag more often than foreign ones, thus doing something for their self-esteem.

At this stage I wish to add that, in answer to my query, Go Mobile customer care informed me (July 15) that "at the time being the Maltese national anthem is not offered for downloading". Foreign ones are offered, of course! However, I was told the next day that Go Mobile has made the Maltese national anthem downloadable. A victory for all of us and for them too!

New rector

"The University of Malta must continue to forge links with other stakeholders in the education sector, with industry and with civil society at large." "We must ensure that our tertiary education system equips our youth with analytical and problem-solving skills, with versatility and creativity, with the means of self-expression and fulfilment that suits them best individually."

I cannot agree more with the above statements by the new University of Malta rector Juanito Camilleri. I believe this is a time when the self-confidence and functionality of Maltese human resources are given the widest expression and encouragement. Indeed let's take a break wherever necessary and dump research for research's sake unless it provides something tangible for the country. Above all, let's respect and promote university graduates much more in our educational and industrial structures. Let's let them know their efforts are needed and appreciated.

Dr Licari teaches psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and geolinguistics at the Department of French of the University of Malta.