I see the country is running out of ‘gates’ to attach to scandals – purported or genuine. The latest gate’ is ‘Purtieragate’. It may not be as financially complex as Panamagate, not as shocking as Oilgate, not as long-running as Arsenal- and Arloġġ-gate, not as lame as Beppe Poolgate, but still it’s a minigate. Purtieragate is the scandal that Nationalists hope will mean curtains for Labour.
In a nutshell, Purtieragate is as follows: 14 female inmates claim they are owed over €16,000 for sewing work they had done since last June. It seems that payments were made in February but there is still a considerable balance owing.
The work in question was carried out for the Love, Faith, Forgiveness project, which is endorsed by the Prime Minister’s wife Michelle Muscat, who chairs the Marigold Foundation. The woman behind the project is Mary Grace Pisani – a close friend of Muscat.
Should the inmates be paid a fair wage for their services? As soon as possible
Pisani said only that she was waiting to be paid by her clients before she could pay the inmates. Muscat addressed a press conference where she came across as being very hostile to the media. Instead of providing journalists with an updated statement of payments and a clear indication of the terms of the scheme, she alienated the press and viewers.
In the resultant social media storm – on which the PN is piggybacking – we are forgetting that this is essentially a case of delayed payments. Of course, payments should be made punctually – and in the case of prisoners who need liquidity, even more so.
However, delayed payment has unfortunately become the norm in Malta in both the private and the public sector. Is it wrong? Undoubtedly so. Do two wrongs make a right? Never. Should the inmates be paid a fair wage for their services? As soon as possible.
Is this a ‘-gate’? Justanothergate.
• The Pawlu l-perf Facebook page is offline again. Net News online portal, which reported the fact that the page had been reported to the Cyber Crime Unit, said it was an anonymous page used for disgusting cyberbullying purposes aimed at minors.
The report was right about the anonymity and about the crude language sometimes used. But I’m not so sure about the cyber-bullying bit.
For those of you who missed it, the Pawlu l-perf page was a page set up by someone who clearly wanted to mock a group of wannabe ‘gangste’ teens and pre-pubescent children bragging about how they were living it up in the hood (mostly referring to the Republic Street stretch from one major fast food outlet to the other).
The tough-talking teens had been posting photos of themselves on social media, usually posing in typical gansta wear. You know the drill – for boys who have just started sporting some light fuzz on their cheeks, it’s a matter of dropping oversized baggy pants round their waist and not wearing a shirt, so their concave chest is exposed in all its scrawny glory.
For prepubescent gangsta girls, it’s the typical Kim Kardashian-pose where the back is contorted into an S-shape so the bum covered in a skirt, which is more of a pussy pelmet, is pushed into viewers’ central line of vision. This minimal look is finished off by the obligatory midriff top which must be a bit chilly if worn outside, but may not be too bad if worn in mum’s bathroom (where the majority of photos seem to be taken). These photos are usually accompanied by gangsta slang quotes and clichéd inspirational quotes – an annoying mix of Ali G and Paolo Coelho-speak.
It’s all very teen swagger stuff, and if it is limited to posing like Al Pacino and hallucinating about Republic Street being the Bronx, I suppose it is pretty harmless. But if you’re going to post photos like Pacino on Facebook, then you’ve got to take the flak for it – even if it comes in the form of scathing criticism.
This is a fact that social media users just don’t want to acknowledge. The minute you post any photograph or information about yourself on the internet, you have put it out there to the public at large and you are subjecting yourself to the scrutiny of a potentially worldwide audience.
It may not always be sympathetic or kind. It may be crude and vulgar, as was Pawlu l-perf’s. But if you can’t take the flak get off Facebook.
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt