Friday, 2nd October 2009
UNREPENTANT
I was the subject of a long letter by a spokesperson for the Federation of Conservationist Bird Killers last Wednesday. Lino Farrugia, for it is this paragon of public relations expertise of whom I write, took me to task for saying that I'm not particularly sure what the ECJ judgement on spring hunting was all about.
Apparently, at least insofar as Mr Farrugia is concerned, my admission is to be taken as an admission that Birdlife are a load of idiots and that, when I joined forces with them last year to stretch a t-shirt over my muscular torso, I made myself into an idiot as well.
Actually, that's not what Mr Farrugia said, but his meaning so often loses itself in the spluttering that issues forth whenever pro-bird-killing chaps express their opinion (I almost wrote "vent their spleen") that I'm at a loss to understand him.
Just as I am at a loss to understand all those others who delight in rising to the bait whenever I dare, foolhardy twit that I am, to express the opinion that hunting has run its course now and these people should really think about finding themselves a new hobby.
Why do I say this?
Well, clearly, the vast majority of commentators don't like the idea of people going about the countryside shooting birds. Whether or not it is the majority of hunters who break the law has now become irrelevant, frankly, to most people. And it's rapidly becoming irrelevant to me, too: in the column to which Mr Farrugia was fulminating in response, I had conceded that it is a small minority of hunters who tarnish the image of the rest but this concession was taken by the Farrugia chap as a reason to jeer at me.
This, readers will recall, from a gentleman whose federation thinks nothing of invoking, truthfully or otherwise, the horror of suicide and the tragedy of depression because it thinks thereby that it will persuade us that we should all start campaigning for hunting to be allowed whenever the FKNK wants it to be allowed.
So, boys and girls, I've come full circle.
From taking a personal stand against hunting a couple of years ago after those cowardly attacks on journalists (amongst whom my son) by people participating in a demonstration organised by the pro-hunting lobby, attacks which failed to attract even a word of sympathy from the organisers (in fact, it was for a hair's breadth that they didn't allege that the journalists provoked them) to moderating my position to oppose only illegal hunting, Lino Farrugia's attitude is taking me right back to the "ban hunting outright" position.
They have only themselves to thank, because they choose to personalise issues and because they choose to use suicide and depression as weapons and because they choose to practise the same pastime as people who have no respect for the law.
I am unrepentant, too, about the stance I took in my real life, as you might have read, when I called on Parliament and civil society in general to take stock and to recognise that the Judiciary has to be given respect, materially and in spirit.
Many of the comments I read in the electronic Times completely missed the point I was making, presumably because - the news being what it is - they did not hear the full extent of my remarks. It's not their fault.
What is a fact, though, is that a weak judiciary, which we do not have yet but which we will have when advocates start refusing appointments to the Bench simply because they can't afford to accept, will mean that this country will cease to be a real democracy.
Granted, there is plenty of other scope for improvement and the members of the judiciary know this and accept this. Proper accountability, proper sentencing policies and a more rigorous approach to the duties to which they are called, all of these fine concepts, expressed perhaps less clearly in the comments under the report about my speech, are concepts that have to be strengthened.
For these concepts to be strengthened, both sides of the House have to agree to overhaul the system and part of the overhaul has to include a revival of the respect that is due to the judiciary. The justice system is too important a pillar of our democracy to be messed around with and there's been far too much of that already.
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Comments
What difference does it make if they are songbirds, raptors or any other kind of bird, protected or not, in or out of season. They are all fair game to our "sportsmen". And when no bird is available then traffic road signs can always be shot up for vandalizing and for target practice. There is a "logical answer" but the hunting fraternity will not have it!
I said there is no logical solution to the problem and if I’m not mistaken you haven’t come up with one either. I never looked at ‘summien, gammiem, kuccard, isqra, etc’ as songbirds, that’s a good one. Albeit, these birds are extremely nice to look at and should not be shot down.
There you go again! Transfer any farming activity that coincides with the hunting season to the other ten months - as if that were a feasible proposition! And what for? So that the devotees of a hunting that you "hate" would have their fun turning beautiful songbirds into a bloody mess of feathers!
Never judge a book by its cover. I’m no hunter, actually I hate it, especially when they kill protected birds or infringe other person’s rights. But I guess you can’t really do anything about it apart from making better use of the remaining 10 months.
I agree with you completely. Mr Zammit’s comment is an impractical counsel of perfection that will never work in Malta – witness Mr Dingli’s comment, which is typical, and which simply counseled non-hunters to get out of the way. I am afraid that is the fairly typical reaction of most hunters. I mentioned the family experience as an extreme case where the Maltese public is intimidated by firearms, not only in public areas, but even on its own turf.
I live in South Torkshire where I have never heard a gunshot in twenty years neither here nor elsewhere in the UK - apart from firing ranges.
Mr Zammit finds the thread interesting but I, for one, am bored with it
Thanks for a very reasonable comment. Friendly warnings to be careful have only produced the usual string of insults and threats. The police have been informed and they have taken the action they could – which is not much use in preventing recurrences. A judicial letter is in the offing and one can always hope that it will produce some effect, but it will certainly do nothing to protect ramblers and hotel residents taking a walk. It is true that some hunters behave decently and it is just as true that one encounters criminals in all walks of life. But usually they do not carry loaded double barrel shotguns pointed menacingly.
Dr Saliba has a right to cultivate and/or enjoy his fields at all times of the year. However, I do not think it fair to generalize against all hunters because of the misdemeanours of some. As we have irresponsible motorists, workers, employers, civil servants, lawyers and so on, we also have irresponsible hunters, and in their case Malta’s small size aggravates matters. If a friendly warning does not suffice, Dr Saliba should turn to the law for protection.
No one said that hunters fire continuously day and night throughout the hunting season. Only one single shot is all that is necessary to blind an innocent person for life while going about his legitimate business on his private farm.
In their blinkered pursuit of birds hunters manage to pepper each other (always accidentally I hope) with shot gun pellets. I am only asking that farmers cultivating their fields, and innocent passers by, do not share the same fate – either accidentally or more probably in a deliberate attempt to intimidate them.
Yes sure Dr. Saliba. 'My family cannot cultivate its field because of hunters firing their shotguns dangerously from just across the field boundary wall and trespassing at will'.... your words. Do they actually fire 24/7 during the hunting season? From the comments you posted here it seems your field is just in the middle of Afganisthan.
I complained specifically of reckless and dangerous hunting, not just arrogant hunting. Our problem is one small illustration of a problem that is widespread. We have been trying to find a reasonable solution for years without success. One reason is that these abusive hunters, who are many, believe that their impractical and selfish solution is that farming be suspended during the two months open season and that it should be shifted to the other ten months! Your words.
I never meant to distort any of your comments, so if you feel I did so, I apologize.
Regards ‘arrogant hunting’, well it is obviously unacceptable but you can’t portray the issue of ‘arrogant hunting’ as hindering farming or whatever you want to call it. A lot of hunters are farmers or part time farmers thus I wouldn’t just generalise the matter so bluntly. If your family happen to own a property next to an arrogant hunter than I guess you have to find a reasonable solution.
Yes, there are certain individuals who create a lot of problems and give a bad name to the hunters’ community but how can you control them? It is not that easy and if there was a solution, well, I guess we could use the same method to end criminality in general.
You have no right to “basically” distort my comment. Any intelligent reader would know that it is you, not I, who is calling your father a Mr Nobody. I spoke in general terms without mentioning anybody in particular. Evidently, you are putting words into my mouth so as to slyly divert from the original topic which is about arrogant hunting.
Lead poisoning is connected with low IQs. Maybe this warning is already too late?
Basically you mean my father's rights are expendable since he is Mr. Nobody. I’m sorry but as I said in my previous post, there are various abandoned factories but whoever plans these things saw fit to just take another stretch of fertile land rather than re-use an already erected structure. If you want to contemplate creation of jobs, I guess if an old factory is refurbished or even demolished and rebuilt from scratch, it would still generate a lot of necessary work and still give an opportunity for new jobs to be created.
If I'm not mistaken we were talking about the fact of 'deprived of the use of their field for just one day'..... I just gave you a proper example of depravation!! Ecco perche centra caro mio!!!
Individual property rights could sometimes be reasonably sacrificed for the common good such as the provision of roads or the erection of factories creating new jobs. The same cannot be said for accommodating “the man with a gun”.
But........ CHE CENTRA??? The usual story... when defending the indefensible bring in as many unrelated topics as possible like abortion, drugs, land expropriation etc.
I had already concluded that neither I ,nor anyone else, would succeed to teach you anything about farming. I have many years of practical experience about what can be grown and when it can be grown in the particular circumstance of the family field, e.g. availability of water and its micro weather conditions, backed by academic knowledge, a B.Sc. in botany. Hunters should not be allowed to impose on us what to grow and when to grow it otherwise they would intimidate us by the unsafe near discharge of their shotguns!
You know what is shameful (since you have farming so much at heart); when the Government decides to expropriate a farmer's field in order to accommodate someone with a wider road or to erect a new factory when the others next to it are abandoned. My father has had both treatments, one of the fields was Government property (bil-qbiela) and the other was private property.
@ Dr. Saliba
You will not teach me when you can sow / plant and according to which season/period you should do so, so for once please admit that you only have general knowledge on the subject. My point is that the remaining months can be used to sow / plant goods pertaining to the coming months (if you insist that hunters hinder the farming process).
@ ABC: "over my muscular torso". you wish! :)
Why do you find it so difficult to understand that farming jobs have to be done when required by the correct season and with the right weather conditions and these jobs cannot be postponed for any other later month so that hunters be allowed to discharge their shotguns within a few metres of farmers cultivating their own fields?
The whole point is that Dr. Saliba mentioned that due to hunters, his family cannot cultivate their fields. Technically speaking, the hunting season lasts a couple of months in total so I guess there is plenty of time for sowing and planting (a further 10 months). I grant you that maybe they will not be able to plant their desired crops but surely they can diversify quite easily!
Common sense tells me that ten months is five times as much as two months.
In order to grow plants you have to sow or plant them and you can do that only in certain times of the year.
And I have just explained to you that farming jobs such as seed sowing, planting out, watering weeding and other cultivations must be done at the appropriate time and not at the convenience of the hunting fraternity during the ten months theoretically left free by them – not that they have any respect for the closed season! You do not need any degrees in agriculture to understand that – just plain observation and common sense!
Oh I'm sorry, I never thought that you can only 'cultivate' during two months out of a whole year. Your doctorate must be in Agriculture, correct? You were the one who said that due to the hunting season, your family cannot 'cultivate'. Since the hunting season is just about two months long I thought I'll let you know that there are other months available for you.
Evidently you know nothing about farming and crop sowing. These depend on seasons and weather not the whims of hunters. Nobody's life should be threatened by the near discharge of firearms when they are on their property. Is it not enough that the opening of the hunting season is usually disclosed to hospital staff by the emergency admission of hunters peppered by pellets from shotgun injuries caused by other hunters?
The hunting season is open for a couple of months so I guess your family can cultivate their fields during the remaining months.
"Dr Borg Cardona said he marvelled at how people were still accepting appointments to the Bench, given the way the state and society eroded the respect due to judges and magistrates. ... The remuneration and pension given to judges and magistrates did not match their commitment, responsibilities, qualities and integrity. The Bench was also not being treated with the dignity it deserved, he added"
Some years ago there was this wealthy and well connected bloke who owed me money. I sued on point of principle and he jeered. Court case dragged on for over 5 years. Judge did eventually reprimand everybody but nothing came out of it. Finally to add insult to injury some important documents where "lost". Does this sound familiar to you? So can you please be a bit more open and let us know who it is you really beleive is doing their best to make sure judges do not get any respect? ... is it us or maybe your most esteemed colleagues and co workers?
First off you are absolutely right, mine and most of those that I have spoken with are at the moment of the exact same frame of mind. It is irrelevant that only a "few" hunters are doing what they want because I am sure that someone somewhere knows who they are. Just as I am sure someone out there knows those that vented their frustration on a collection of stones that as a nation we hold dear. I will never forget that outrage either.
This is a state of affairs known to someone immersed in the daily workings of our courts.
Yet, others who are similarly immersed in the workings of other ‘Government’ institutions, bodies, organizations, will voice similar grave concerns about the health of respective organizations.
Government is chronically fatigued.
O, I hear you say, another elf spinning a worn script.
I will therefore air my concerns beyond ‘Gonzipn-is-a-national-liability’
The labour party still needs to evolve into Government material; show itself to be fully aware of standards, realities and complexities of cultural barriers standing in the way of any Government committed to strengthen institutions.
Blue elves must avoid cheap rhetoric meant to provide an incumbent-in-irreversible-comatose with an opportunity to trip opposition's coming-of-age . I believe that there exsists wide consensus that Malta can not afford this Government any longer.
We therefore need a now well-led Opposition to succeed to identify priorities (JudIciary and the rest) and to mobilize Malta’s best minds to transform our nation into a modern sustainable Mediterranean nation. Polarizing debate will see us all on a lose-lose wicket.