Trying to make a mountain out of a molehill

"The MLP has condemned without reserve, and with maximum emphasis, writing which it described as most vulgar and offensive vis-à-vis the Malta Labour Party..." - the MLP's official website. This same strong statement also informed its readers that the writing in question emanated from none other than Nationalist sources. As president of the Nationalist Party's general council, I could not just sit idly by and ignore this accusation without at least trying to find out what all the hoo-ha was about.

It seems that an assistant to one of the Nationalist MEP's posted a paragraph on his Facebook page, the contents of which I shall not repeat but only hint at later on, lest I offend further. The violent and immediate reaction by the MLP had led me to think that I would be horrified by what was written and that what was written by this Nationalist had sunk to a level that even those not usually deterred by a couple of laps in the gutter had been shocked by its "vulgarity, obscenity and its sexual connotations". Strong condemnation indeed and this vehemence should only be reserved for actions that require such a reaction.

Once the "offensive" article is read it becomes apparent that there is no sense of proportionality in the reaction. The MLP media juggernaut has reacted to a little paragraph posted by one individual on a Facebook Group Wall, a sort of electronic notice board for group members, which refers to (shhhhhhhh)... a condom! Admittedly the paragraph is not exactly written in Sunday School language and is not something I would have published myself on my own site or that would have had the PN's official stamp of approval.

It is also a gutter humour piece that has done the rounds the whole world round and has been used against the United States government, the US Democrats and the Republicans, the Australian government, the Malaysian government and even the British Labour Party.

A quick search on the internet, using a phrase in quotes, gave me 11,400 different instances of the use of this paragraph. If you're really interested just go to http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22allows+for+inflation%2C+halts+production%2C+destroys+the+next+generation%22&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&vc=&fp_ip=BE and check it out for yourself or else just do a search for "allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation".

The results speak for themselves! I don't want to be a bore and pontificate on this matter but, honestly, a sense of humour, a sense of proportion or just plain sense would go a long way to avoid embarrassment. A more dignified response would have been to criticise the copycat aspect and its lack of originality, maybe even its bad taste. But the over-the-top, molehill-into-a-mountain reaction can only end up with quite a few embarrassed faces in the MLP public relations hierarchy.

A word of advice: Grow up and let the business of politics be exactly that, business-like and dealing with the matter of which party is the most qualified to continue guiding this country on its path of prosperity. Really, have you nothing better to shout about? Come on, let's get serious, for Pete's sake!

Having said that, I'll shut up with a corny, stale pun of my own: I fail to see how the use of condoms ended up in an issue!