That a political party can withstand criticism and dissent from within and come out the other end still in one piece and governing is not a bad thing – it demonstrates, if nothing else, that the party concerned has a grasp of the relevant democratic principles and that it is not made up of a bunch of yes-men and women? (Should that be yes-persons, in order to kowtow to the principles of political correctness?)
It is not a bad thing also because it provides grist for the mills of the various commentators who have to fill their allotted spaces in the media, be it virtual or actual, come rain, shine or politicians’ holidays. Which means there’s nothing like some minor politician or other having a conscientious spasm to delight the commenting classes.
Just as a small aside, I do wish the yon commenting classes would get it into their heads once and for all there is a distinction between being a commentator (opinion-former if you want to be pretentious) and being a news reporter or journalist. I’ve always tried to make sure I am not mistaken for a journalist because of these few hundred words I churn out weekly, because my being called a journalist is an insult to journalists, who have to trouble themselves to ferret out facts and report them objectively.
Well, they’re supposed to do that little thing, though sometimes needs must, especially when they work for a political medium. It still grates, though, when you see facts and opinions being mixed and un-matched and a tweet by Karl Stagno Navarra last Wednesday, when he tipped his hat in the general direction of Dr J. P. Farrugia for standing up to his party was one such wince-inducing event.
But the positive side of these minor rebellions by minor (or has-been) politicians apart, am I the only one who feels a bit sniffy about this sort of behaviour? Am I the only one for whom concepts of loyalty and respect for one’s colleagues are of some passing importance? Our political scene is, as it should be, a strongly adversarial one, where the dynamics of the contest make life very interesting most of the time, for all that the struggle sometimes goes over the top, but this “us and them” context results in internal dissent rapidly becoming perceived as giving aid and succour to the enemy and, in times of war, that is a capital offence.
As is my wont, I am exaggerating for effect but I trust you see what I mean. A bit of healthy opposition is all very well, especially when the opposition can be so inept sometimes, but there are limits and those limits are reached when the perfectly understandable desire to be seen as a fine, upstanding, independent minded soul is overtaken by a descent into showmanship, disgruntled posturing and apparently obsessive vengefulness.
Turning to matters of greater importance, I find I’m not missing Comedy Channel all that much, given that watching the repeat of a repeatedly repeated repeat was getting a bit boring. That’s not to say there’s much to watch on any other channel and, at first blush, the whinging and whining of the assembled ranks of couch potatoes tends to elicit something of a sympathetic response.
One should be fair, however – the fault that there’s so much dross (I can’t use the real word, this isn’t a restaurant puff-piece on The Sunday Times) – on the box doesn’t really lie with Go or Melita, although they could learn to play nice together and not make it such a hassle to watch the footy. Nope, the reason why we can’t watch anything decent on the box (without resorting to a Dreambox or other such irregular measure) is that – just like iTunes – the international broadcasting leviathans don’t care much about Malta and its viewing public’s desire to watch less lousy fare on the telly, which is hardly an act or omission attributable to Meligota.
In fact, I wonder whether we shouldn’t actually be thanking them for managing to bring anything at all to our screens that is not a Sicilian shopping channel or a locally produced tejatrin.
On the leisure front, we took the car on the Jean de la Vallette to Sicily for the weekend and a highly enjoyable experience it was too. That big cat is a marvellous machine and it makes exploring our northern neighbour (and getting outside some pretty good nosh) a breeze, though if I had to be picky, I’d have liked a slightly enhanced informative experience when it comes to boarding – a few signs telling me where to check-in and whatever.
But that’s just being picky – it’s a great service and we’ll be using it again, especially if the weather forecasters can be as accurate as they were last week. I’m not a brilliant sailor, you see.
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