The xenophobes in our midst

It’s been one of those funny weeks, with it dawning on me at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday that my deadline was about to make one of those delightful whooshing sounds so loved by Doug Adams as it flew by. Mid-week holidays, especially if they’re not on a Wednesday, are great for bridging into a long weekend, but they do play havoc with your head when you’re trying to stay in work mode.

Not that writing this is really work, of course.

The big story remains Libya, it goes without saying, and the twist that affects us, as it was always going to, is the exodus of people who will fetch up on our shores. I’ve purposely not read the stories online because the temptation to take a look at the comments will become almost irresistible and I really, really don’t want to be reminded about the shameful and despicable inherent racism that too many people seem to espouse.

I glanced at maltastar.com in order to get some inspiration for this week and under the story about how we’re going to try to help the injured from Libya, three of the four comments that I read were going on about how we should take care of our own first, and not in a kind way either. The fourth was about how the government should respect its Constitutional obligations and adopt a neutral stance in taking care of the wounded, which is as nonsensical as all the other guff about that dead duck, our so-called neutrality and non-alignment.

It is blindingly obvious that the rest of the world has to help us and Italy take the strain of coping with the increased refugee stream that the North African turmoil is creating, but this does not mean that the revolting xenophobes should be given free rein in vomiting their bile into the public domain.

In the meantime, the Bishop of Gozo is exercised not by this manifestation of un-Christian sentiments but about the sinfulness of divorce and voting for it.

Coming back into the domestic scene, with minutes to spare the Attorney General filed an appeal in our version of the Oz Obscenity Trial, prompting Labour to condemn the government (they fail to grasp the difference between the Attorney General acting in his independent role and the government, which does not have the power to order him to do anything in this sort of case) for appealing.

I am on record, as you know, as being pretty disgusted by the fact that the University rector asked for the prosecution in the first place and by the fact that the police didn’t tell him to stop wasting their time, but for the second largest party in the country to make this sort of comment is, frankly, not on.

Joseph Muscat had already made it pretty clear that he has little respect for due process when he promised that when (if) elected, he will agree with himself about VAT on vehicle purchases, whatever the courts say, and this condemnation is more in the same vein and as such unacceptable.

It’s that time of the year when hunting gets some headlines, it being spring and all that, when a certain type of young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of slaughter and imprisonment of birds of the feathered variety.

The government must be thinking that it is actually doing something right on the matter of spring hunting because both the hunters and the conservationists have been getting all worked up about the regulations that have been put in place.

Just for the record, when I say “hunters and conservationists”, I am writing about two separate and distinct groups, who don’t see eye to eye (that’s an understatement) and not about that piece of black humour, the Federation of Conservationist Hunters, which is about as accurate a description as the one Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici used about the thug Gaddafi.

For those whose memory is less than perfect, Dr Muscat’s predecessor but one as leader of the Labour Party holds the thug Gaddafi in such high esteem that he calls him “the arch democrat”, which probably gives you an idea of the extent to which democracy is understood in certain Labour quarters.

As you know, I’m generally to be found in Gozo of a weekend and wearing my northern hat, allow me to recommend that those of you who might be so disposed should put their hands into their pockets and hand over the paltry sum of €150 to the people who are promoting the museum in Victoria, next to the Basilica. I was privileged to be given a look at the project and it promises to be a worthy cause and a half.

While on the matter of recommendations for things to do up north, I’m pleased to tell you that Sicilia Bella is open again in Mġarr and the standards have been retained. For less complex fare, or to put it differently, good honest stuff at good honest prices, we dropped by Ta’ Vestru in Qala, where the pizza is more than slightly good, and Tamarisk in Victoria, opposite the school complex. You mustn’t expect Gordon Blue to be in the house, but the steak, egg and chips is good and no mistake.

imbocca@gmail.com

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