When I started writing for The Times seven years ago, I came with just the one unspoken condition: I would write about everything except politics. I figured the world was ugly enough and that if anything could save it, it was beauty.
I focused on fashion, the arts and culture and when I was once accused of dedicating myself to ‘fluffy’ subjects, I simply shrugged it off, confident in the knowledge that I had made the right choice for myself. Seven years older and many battle scars later, I now know that it is harder to write about lipstick while Rome is burning.
Today, angry beyond belief, I will be breaking a rule that many never knew I had. I want to discuss two very important things which happened during last week’s elections. I will start by addressing all those people who deemed it fit to give Norman “Auschwitz is Poland’s Disneyland” Lowell their first preference, all 10,000 of them.
I am not sure what has happened to you in your lives that you would think giving your first preference to someone who wants to eradicate those with a disability, defends Hitler and thinks that “breeding with blacks is a sacrilege to nature”, but I hope for all your sakes that you are all platinum blonde Aryans of the highest order who definitely wouldn’t be mistaken for a carpet seller at a souk in Tunisia.
While it is being bandied about that many voted for him out of protest, I’m not sure I believe that, given the massive drop in voter turnout across the island in true protest. The only answer that everyone got loud and clear is that we are among the most racist people in Europe.
Maybe it’s time we stopped sitting on the fence, allowing things to just happen to us, and actually expected more from the people we elect to represent us
And while we are on the topic of not getting the message, I would like to send out a special shout-out to the Nationalist Party. Hi guys, I hope you’re all well. If you could actually start paying attention to what everyone is howling to the heavens, it would be really nice. Despite the kind of crushing defeat that would have made most people book a one way ticket to Nepal to live as a mountain goat, we have Hermann Schiavone offering his support to the Leader of the Opposition, who everyone seems to think is the problem except for himself and Clyde Puli, who goes on about how he’s pleasantly surprised with the results while anyone with more than a brain cell looks on in slack-jawed, abject horror.
When Adrian Delia said that he was happy the Nationalist Party was still the second biggest party in Malta, you could see the question marks over people’s heads from Mars. Second as opposed to what? To whom? At this point, the Virgin Mary herself could come down and tell everyone to vote for PN and people would still send her packing. This isn’t half-time; the game is over and everyone has already gone home and gotten into bed with their hot water bottles. It truly makes you wonder what more it could possibly take for these people to get with the programme.
I wish that I could end this article in some upbeat way, but a country with rampant racism and no opposition is far from a joke to my mind. Delia has been the Labour Party’s best asset since day one and come the next general election, they will have the kind of win that dictators have wet dreams about.
As for the rest of us, maybe it’s time we stopped sitting on the fence, allowing things to just happen to us, and actually expected more from the people we elect to represent us.