Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Lost in Flemish translations
I do not like what I see happening in Malta, no sir, not at all. These forthcoming EU elections are bringing out the worst in us. Not that previous elections have not done likewise. It seems, however, that this time round the battle strategy between the Nationalist Party (PN) and the Labour Party (PL) is based solely on rubbishing the other party in the bitchiest way possible, which in my book is not conducive to positive thinking.
The Maltese electorate is sick and tired of having to vote for either one party or the other because the alternative is so dire. All this twaddle about how badly the representatives of one party or the other performed and what buttons they pressed or did not press is irrelevant to the man in the street who couldn't give a tinker's toss about the number of plenary sessions attended by Mr X or Dr Y unless it translates from Flemish as the difference between bringing home the bacon or not.
The man in the street remains largely perplexed as to how having five or six MEPs in Brussels affects his quality of life when something that concerns and worries him, like having an urgent EU summit to discuss illegal immigration, is unceremoniously shot down by Josè Manuel Barroso. Likewise, it has little or no bearing about how one is to pay estimated energy bills.
I am perplexed myself. But then, I am merely an artist and am not supposed to understand these things, am I? Like you, I am faced with a motley crew of ladies and gentlemen, many of whom I do not know from a bar of soap despite their filling my letterbox with junk mail every day.
All of them promise to work in my interest and earnestly urge me to make them my representative in Brussels which is odd, coming to think of it, when I am having such a hard time trying to convince my local parliamentary representatives that I actually exist. Hello!
Freethinkers like myself, wannabe natural floating voters, are frowned upon by both political leviathans because they are unable to obtain what they thrive on, which is blind loyalty of the kind that enables a Maltese born and bred to wear Manchester United or Juventus colours and cheer these "foreign" teams when they are playing against a Maltese team on our own national stadium! Ideally, I would be neither PN nor PL but, please, I am Maltese!
With this kind of warped mentality so prevalent among us it is hardly surprising that these EP elections are based solely on which party manages to elect the majority of candidates irrespective of who they are, what they have done and what they promise to do.
Out of the five MEPs who have commuted to Brussels in the past four years as our national representatives, only Simon Busuttil has really shone. It is as if, like Padre Pio, he has the gift of bilocation. He is everywhere. If anyone made up for the PN deficit in candidates it was he.
With Joseph Muscat now out of the running we have the choice of re-electing John Attard Montalto, David Casa or Louis Grech. My preference will always go to a tried and proven technocrat like Mr Grech, an eminently successful ex chairman of Air Malta who is running for re-election under the PL banner.
I also, for the same reasons, approve of Marlene Mizzi who, in her time, was also a very successful chairman of Sea Malta under a PN Administration till Minister Austin Gatt thought otherwise.
Alan Deidun is also a favourite as he is to the environment what David Attenborough is to the natural world.
I am still puzzled by the two PN candidates who appear to have diametrically opposed views about hunting. One of them is related by blood to the FKNK public relations officer and is the federation's legal representative and the other also is pro-divorce within a party that is blocking its introduction to Malta at every turn. Sharon Ellul Bonici is the most baffling of the lot as the party banner she is contesting under is anything but Eurosceptic.
Despite the dreary Greek chorus about our local political polarisation, the EU, as I predicted, has been anything but a deus ex macchina.
Five years on we are still lost in demonising each other without anything valid in the way of social reform and cultural cross-fertilisation to show for it. Because the government, after being in power for so long, is going into this election with the dice heavily weighted against it. Just think of those crazily estimated bills hitting our home budgets like that crane that toppled over in St Julians last week; it is very likely that there may even be PN diehards who will use this election to register a protest vote.
Believe me, it makes no difference whatsoever as the pundits at the top of the tree are impervious to any well meant advice, criticism or protest of any sort but will carry on regardless even if it means that there are over 2,000 people waiting for a place to bury their loved ones, yet another unfulfilled promise that has not booked a seat on the EU gravy train but one with far more serious consequences than even those elusive five energy saving bulbs.
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Joe Xuereb
May 27th 2009, 11:34
cont./ (4) D. Vella. Apologies that this is turning out to be a bit of cut and paste job.
Homosexuality is of no very great importance to me. I have lived (and still) my life, I have been there, I have done that. But as a social very widespread phenomenon it is important as is people's emancipation whatever/whoever they are.
You say you will vote for an MP with a good track-record on the matter in hand. I wouldn't hold my breath D. You could wait forever. In the meantime get informed, empower yourself, be guilt-free. Maltese society plays big the guilt-ticket. Do not play the game. Empower yourself. Learn to recognise the insidiousness for what it is. And sail through. You owe it to yourself. You can make it. With a little help from your friends.
(I hope this is the last one. A couple of words from you and you generated so much passion. Congratulations! And empowerment. Live your life and be careful always. You know what I mean.
Joe Xuereb
May 27th 2009, 11:15
cont./ (3) D. Vella. I should have added 'Knowledge is empowerment'.
The homosexual's relation to women, 'no sweat'. The homosexual if not hindered in this quest to get close to women as there is no hormonal impulse/hindrance. He sees the integral woman. Bar few exceptions, woman are decent people. This is obvious when women are experienced as people with brains rather than sexual objects. Paradoxically, heterosexual men, burdened with much hormonal turbulence and resentment towards women whom they see as the source of much painful frustration. They find it impossible (if they arrived at this thinking of course) to see women as anything other than objects, 'notches on the bed-post'. And you know what D. Vella, this applies equally to the provincials and the urban sophisticates. Men!!
Joe Xuereb
May 27th 2009, 10:58
cont./ You see D. Vella, using the word 'gay' for homosexual is problematic to two-dimentional-thinking people. If they happen to just love the English language they will resent you hijacking the word. You'll win no friends (as if!).
I realised soon enough of heterosexual people directly bash or make snide insinuations at homosexual people. I was taught that the best way to deflect a knife-attacher is to disarm the attacker. Come clean in other words. If they rebut you, you have lost nothing. They are not worth knowing. Even if they pretend to be urban sophisticates. If on the other hand, they fail to appreciate your candour for whatever sick agenda they may have and continue with their overt attacks, and snide remarks (pretty pointless by now) then they are living proof that they are not sophisticated urbanites but, what the Italians call 'provinciale'. They are stuck. You can only feel sorry for them and walk away. You rock man. They don't.
Food for thought D. Vella. But worth pondering. And if this appears, please share with your friends. Thank you.
Joe Xuereb
May 27th 2009, 10:31
What KZT is saying is that, if Malta were sinking (and it is), the electorate would still be concerned about being Red or Blue. And Christain price tag of course.
Because nought else matters. This is what happens with two-dimentional thinking (see Fr. Joe Borg's blogs on Mosques, tolerance, etc.
The language question. Like the present infiltration of illegals (....we must be tolerant, not racist) Malta encouraged the infiltration of foreign influence. The result is a language destroyed (witness the interviewers and interviewees on this paper). It is not like this has been replaced by half decent English with our representatives. Little wonder were are the joke of Europe. That we speak better English, KZT and I, is hardly our fault. I do not know about KZT but with a bit of struggle, I do a mean translation into Maltese. The gist of all this.
Two-dimentional thinking and its fallout.
D. Vella. The word gay is too lateral(thinking). Try and take a leaf from my bible. Namely, 'I am homosexual. I RELATE TO WOMEN NO SWEAT. BUT EMOTIONAL ENTANGLEMENTS AND BETWEEN THE BEDSHEETS, MY ORIENTATION IS WITH ANOTHER MAN'. Words to that effect. And assuming you are a guy. cont./
D Vella
May 26th 2009, 20:28
Until such time Kenneth,and it may be sooner rather than later,I will take the only other option open to me.That is,to vote for those candidates who support gay rights ,not only by word but by deed. I shall not be voting for those whose past record in supporting gay rights at the EU has been so dismal as to be non existent ,despite their very recent change of heart which should be seen for what it is.. an opportunistic last minute panic measure .
Kenneth Zammit Tabona
May 26th 2009, 19:17
Mr Calleja
What shall it be then? Moscow Dynamos? Real Madrid? It makes no difference. Language has little to do with the issue. Insinuating that I prefer one language or another is not going to change my attitude to politcal issues. One of our most tragic mistakes is politicising language.
I speak pretty adequate maltese but am more comfortable expressing myself in English. Is that a heinious crime? If it pleases you to feel more Maltese than I because of this I cannot argue. It takes far more than a language to make you what you are.
Mr Vella
I put my money where my mouth is. Gay legislation will only become a reality if either of the big parties decide to come out of hiding under ecclesiastical petticoats.
Franco Farrugia
May 26th 2009, 18:47
@ N Calleja: 'I am Maltese more than you are because I always use the Maltese language when I talk.' That's nonsense!
N.Calleja
May 26th 2009, 16:34
Dear KZT just to inform you that I am neither a bigotted Juventus or Man.Utd supporter! May I inform you also that I am Maltese more than you are because I always use the Maltese language when I talk-unlike many I know who seem to be ashamed to speak their mother lamguage- maybe because they think they come from another planet!!
D Vella
May 26th 2009, 16:12
Kenneth... As a gay person I shall be voting for those that support my rights to equality,and furthermore, only those who by their track record have proven to me by their past record, that they care for my interests . It would be nice to think you 'll do likewise.
victor caruana
May 26th 2009, 16:00
@ Martinelli
that the Pl is the 'party for europe' was first determined 5 years ago in the first mep election. do you doubt that??
things look like going the same way.
Agreement: i will retract this statement if in the coming mep election PL is not the leading party. But you have to agree to accept it in writing after the result. See you in another time frame (maybe not a different planet!!!)
C Cassar
May 26th 2009, 13:04
N Calleja: Does "stand up and be counted" mean sticking with the same party no matter what? The reason we have no accountability in this country is because there are too few people willing to punish their party for unethical or downright dishonest behavour. The irony is that with our electoral system you can punish a bad MP without even changing parties, but no, people are too blinkered even to do that.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona
May 26th 2009, 12:38
Mr Calleja
Are you joking? You should read my article again slowly and carefully.
Nothing cute about what I said or recommend, just wishful thinking that one day you Mr Calleja will see the sense of NOT voting like a bigoted Juventus or Manchester United supporter but like a true Maltese...................
Mr Caruana
Two weeks is a VERY long time in politics so never count your chickens before they are hatched as for Mr Martinelli I think you are on another planet too, possibly one where they do not send estimated energy bills..................
P. Schembri
May 26th 2009, 12:31
@J. Martinelli. Not from Canada like you, that's for sure!
J Martinelli
May 26th 2009, 11:45
@ Victor Caruana
Which planet do you come from?
N.Calleja
May 26th 2009, 11:29
What a hotch-potch of ideas! First KZT gives the impression that does'nt care a hoot as to who is to be elected at the forthcoming EU elections and then he lists his favorites. What contradictions! Furtherdown in his artucle KZT mixes local politics with what we expect of our elected European representatives. He very cutely chose his pick from both sides of the fence. Very convienently eh! Not to disappoint the other side eh? I suggest that KZT continues to express himself artistically because politically he is not ready to stand up and be counted.
victor caruana
May 26th 2009, 10:50
The di(c)e has been cast. The Maltese electorate made it clear that the PL is the 'PARTY FOR EUROPE'. It has been clearly determined that the PL is better placed to defend Malta's position in the EU than the PN.