Speechless

What stupefying arrogance, or ignorance, the MLP's electoral commission has shown over the last few days. By the time you read this, Xarabank will have been shown and, for all I know, the five good men (I use the word "men" generically in order to leave some traces of the original quote) and true will have defied the commission and appeared on the show.

Or, again for all I know, said five good men and true will have opted for that which is the better part of valour and chickened out from going head to head with City Hall.

For anyone who has been residing under the proverbial rock for the last few days, a quick resumé of the situation would not go amiss. Xarabank, for reasons which escape me but that is hardly the point here, is watched by many thousands who take their entertainment by means of the box.

Whether this is because it panders to the "ħeqq, opinjoni, hux, ħi" characteristic that seems to predominate within the genetic make-up of its audience or whether this is because the audience demonstrates a pack-like predilection for hounding the people who are "special guests" I've no idea and it's not important, at the moment, anyway. Just as a small detour, and stop me if I've mentioned this before, to confirm the pack-hunting instincts of the audience. After one of the few times I appeared on the show, a non-Maltese speaking acquaintance asked me whether my job (as a tobacco industry lobbyist) "involved getting beaten up in public".

That being as it may be, Xarabank is a popular/ist show that gives the great unwashed its head in mulling over the issues of the day, major among which is, quite obviously, the MLP leadership contest.

Much amusement is being had by all sectors of society, from us lofty commentators right down to the people hanging around in front of the law courts (when they're not discussing Valletta FC's latest exploits) in ruminating on the who and the what and the when, not to mention the ins and the outs of the thing.

So it was only to be expected that the Grand Panjandrums (should that be Panjandra?) of Maltese televisual infotainment would dedicate their resources to covering the story. After all, there's only so much mileage that can be got out of the triumph of the East over the vanquished West (Eurovision Song Contest, for those of you who were under a rock then, too). The thing is, the electoral commission charged with conducting the election (as electoral commissions do) of the MLP's replacement for what's 'is name didn't think it would be such a nifty wheeze for the aspirants to strut their stuff with Mr Peppi Azzopardi. More precisely, the EC, bless it and its little cotton socks, arrogated unto itself the right, on what basis no one can even begin to fathom, to decide for the programme's producers what format to adopt and what ground rules to put in place.

To which rather peculiar notion the people who own and run the programme let known their reaction.

What is it about certain people within the Labour Party, for heaven's sake? Do they really think that they control the world or is it that they are too intellectually limited to think through what passes for ideas that erupt into their collective heads?

Or is there a ghost in the machine, priming pumps and prodding buttons, producing pronouncements pretending to be pristine but practically providing provisions to elect princely pretenders?

Food for thought

No food reports this weekend since we didn't go anywhere new.

Here's some food for thought: don't ask me where I read it, but some Big Cheese has pronounced himself and said that it's not so bad for members of the clergy to have homosexual tendencies, as long as they don't act on them.

That's big of him, admitting that homosexuality is not sinful per se but, excuse me for a cotton-picking second, if you would be so kind. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since when is it OK for priests with heterosexual tendencies to act on them?

Leaving aside the arguments about celibacy being a pretty dumb notion and about whether or not married men (and for that matter, women, married or not) should be admitted to the priesthood, I was under the impression that men of the cloth were not supposed to act on their carnal desires, gay or straight.

You remember, on another matter, that silly e-mail that went around purportedly spilling the beans on who leaked the MistraGate contract to Labour?

It certainly wasn't the person to whom the e-mails were attributed but someone else certainly might not be whiter than white on this story.

imbocca@gmail.com, www.timesofmalta.com/blogs