I’m not sure anyone realised that some other things—both horrible and great—have been happening in Malta and the world while we are choked to boredom by the energy debate currently gripping this rock.
Yes there is a life outside our gaseous debates. The world still rocks on while we are in electoral overdrive.
One of the worst things that happened was the half-baked, hollow apology from Lance Armstrong. Lance who? He who was a great cycling champion and won an unprecedented Tour de France 7 unbelievable times. He who beat cancer and came back to win again and again. But he managed to do all this because he cheated. He cheated so much that even the cancer he suffered from was called a sham and a fraud by some terrible tongues—horror of horrors this. Others are of the opinion that the cancer itself was aggravated by the amounts of illegal stuff he had ingested to become a super-champion. I’m sure all this is known to all so forgive me for boring you with the detail.
What some might have missed is his abject interview with a certain Oprah, in which he admitted to his misdeeds which improved his performance and made him beat the competition. I imagine he thought that by admitting he would be accepted back into the sporting world—so he also mumbled a sort of sorry. He, who brought the world of sport, and especially of cycling and of survival, into such disrepute, is now trying hard to be reinstated into the mainstream. He hardly uttered a true apology. With regard to the people he ruined –even besides his supporters and the fans who used him as their hero and icon—he hardly had a word of regret.
And in the same week that this was happening abroad, back on this rock we had a politician sounding an apology that is just as half-baked: in fact it was more offensive than no apology at all. Yes, we are back into political ground here so be warned that what follows might be boring stuff.
Joseph Muscat, in his dream of gathering any votes that will secure his victory, has said he regrets what happened in the 80s. All good, I hear all Maltese nationals say. But when he puts these events on the same scale as what happened to Labourites back in the 60s, I ask: what, in heaven’s name is he on about? In the sixties, however bad the Nats were then, nothing atrocious was done or perpetrated by them. The PN had nothing whatsoever to do with the church’s antics and the horrid way of getting all labour diehards to be treated so horribly.
On the other hand the 80s were a denial of anything democratic. The atrocities were never-ending: people framed and beaten up, tear-gas and violence perpetrated by the authorities was customary, democracy denied, freedom of speech curtailed, education stifled, unions and the right to strike diminished. The list is endless and frightening.
Yes I, as a citizen of this island, can forgive, and even in time forget. I could start celebrating with the LP all the days Joseph Muscat and his slickness asks me to—but first he should make a proper reappraisal of what happened in the 80’s and not beat about the bush and bash the PN at the same time as apologising to the nation. He seems to think that the ills were just a few blots. They were a terrible stain and when that is stated loud and clear the terrible past might be buried once and for all.
Until then I regret to say that all Joseph Muscat’s antics are exactly like Lance Armstrong’s. He wants to look good with everyone but is not really ready to admit the horror and the magnitude of the problem. And it isn’t me who has raked up the past this time—it’s Dr Muscat himself.