As soon as something happens, it’s well known, everyone and his brother just has to have his say and lay down the law, however inane or half-baked the expressed opinion might be.

This is a phenomenon I’ve remarked on before, even while being fully aware that as a columnist, I’m prone to being tarred with the same brush. In my own defence, I’ve been at this game long enough to have some credentials and at least I take the time to write a few hundred words and try to make sure I’m not being a total moron while doing it.

This is not a stricture to which commenters (as opposed to bloggers) are subject, be it on social media (Facebook, basically) or on the comments boards, especially the un-moderated ones that other media houses employ. If you want inane or half-baked, in fact sometimes downright vicious comments, you can take a look at them, I’m not even going to give them the oxygen of publicity.

Taking a small detour at this point, the ‘oxygen of publicity’ crack reminded me how cheering it is that Norman Lowell has had his libel case against MaltaToday booted into touch, the dirty hands thesis apparently being employed for this purpose. Finally, it’s been confirmed that while you have every right to have an opinion, this doesn’t mean that you’re free to spew it out and that you’re immune from people characterising your opinion as, for instance, racist thuggery.

We had a pretty stark example of the way mouths are shot off in the wake of last Sunday’s horrific accident at the airport.

Within minutes, pretty much, we had every manner of ‘expert’ telling us what happened, how it happened, who was at fault and who should be held responsible. Needless to say, most of what was said or written was ill-informed, ill-expressed or downright self-serving, such as theargument that developed about how the accident proved, or disproved, the need for a race-track.

There was also quite a bit of finger-pointing, as always happens, with every organisation under the sun being attributed blame by someone or other

There was also quite a bit of finger-pointing, as always happens, with every organisation under the sun being attributed blame by someone or other. Not that this activity was restricted to the ill-informed: a section of the real media also succumbed to ill-judged headlines about bucks being passed by entities that clearly had nothing to do with the event.

When so-called mainstream media houses act like this, who can blame JohnQ. Citizen?

Tastelessness and lack of restraint also raised their ugly heads, with a (now happily fired) DJ trying out a spot of black humour and the media houses vying with each other to produce the most insensitive close-ups of the victims. I’m all for black humour and keeping the citizenry up to speed, but there are limits and too many operators overshot them, appearing more interested in grabbing audience-share than in being decent.

While on the subject of sensitivity, I know everyone involved is – quite understandably – pretty shocked, but it isn’t it about time that those ruddy billboards were taken down? As of Wednesday afternoon, when I’m writing this, there were enormous pictures still up of the car that was involved in the accident. Doesn’t it even occur to the people who organised the event that – just maybe – people don’t actually want to be reminded of last Sunday?

Moving on, though not far, I was pretty shocked to read a headline on the Illum portal about how a magistrate had encouraged the authorities to deport lawbreakers. It need hardly be added that the spluttering racists jumped onto this bandwagon with glee, feeling vindicated by the judgement.

Luckily, this was another case of lousy headlining: the magistrate had indeed suggested that lawbreakers should be given short shrift but what was ignored was the fact that he was doing this because of the way these miscreants fed the racist xenophobic viciousness that pollutes the country. Far from giving oxygen to the racists, Magistrate Joe Mifsud was showing what right-thinking folk think about ‘right-thinking’ people.

Back on to traffic connected subjects, I’ve put some (pretty blurred) pix up on my Facebook page in an album called Special Drivers. They’re screen grabs from my handlebar mounted camera, showing examples of the sort of thing we bikers come up against on virtually a daily basis. When less than four oiks on four wheels try to do me in on my ride in to work, I count it as a good start to the day.

You might want to take a look, see if you or anyone you know has been featured.

The ones I put up were all taken on Wednesday and I didn’t manage to get one of the smart gent in a shiny unmarked (except for the flashing blue lights on the front grille) cop car who saw fit to blast down Melita Street in town, from the corner with Strait Street to the corner with Old Bakery, gaining approximately a nanosecond in his quest to be somewhere Very Very Important. To be fair, he might have been in a hurry to escort our Premier Salesman somewhere, in a manner befitting Our Glorious Leader.

And while discoursing on the Great and the Good who rule over us, what price Minister the Honourable Joe Mizzi being a Minister much longer?

It doesn’t take a political analyst with an enormous brain to realise that the writing is very much on the wall: he’s being set up to take the rap for the traffic mayhem that has taken hold of our roads.

I mean, a parliamentary debate about the subject being accepted by the government when the poor guy isn’t even in the country to defend his patch, does he need a gilt-edged invitation to make himself scarce, or what?

Not that the government’s position about not politicising traffic problems holds much water, for that matter, given that when they were in Opposition, wannabe premier Joseph Muscat’s merry men had latched on to every glitch in the smooth progress on our roads and lambasted the onanists at whom they pointed their dainty fingers on a regular basis.

Road maps my eye, the chaos on our roads is a perfect example of how this sorry bunch aren’t fit for purpose. I’d say “shame on you, Minister” but it’s not original, though since the guy who holds copyright on it is nowhere to be seen, I doubt he’s about to sue me for stealing his bon mot.

A couple of reports on nourishment to be finishing with, with apologies for not keeping this aspect of my weekly appointment with you for a couple of weeks.

Brookies has re-opened in the valley between Rabat and Żebbug (Gozo, in case you were confused) and it’s become a very smart place for a meal. The food isn’t quite yet up to the ambience and service, which are both very good, but I’ve high hopes for the place. Certainly don’t go there if your appetite isn’t up to scratch, because the portions are generous to a fault.

Beppe’s in Marsalforn suffered just a tiny bit last weekend from the well-deserved popularity the place enjoys. The food was superb, as it has been consistently over the years, but there was a slight dip in the quality of service, though by no means is there any evidence that this is a permanent situation.

It’s the way glitches are handled that marks out a good place and I’m glad tobe able to say that this one was handled very well.

We will be back, no worries.

imbocca@gmail.com

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