I simply cannot understand people who use Facebook like some kind of private diary. It makes as much sense to me as taking a shower on the roof and expecting people not to look. I use it to share ideas, events and news, so I deliberately ‘friend’ people I did not know.
That is how I met Nina. I had just shared an article about the legalised monstrosity that our government is still perpetrating by not allowing NGOs to rescue drowning men, women and children. Nina commented that these boats were just modern Trojan horses.
That got a lively conversation going. What about the infamous photo of drowned babies, someone asked. Fake news, Nina replied. When asked to explain she posted ‘proof’ that the image had been photo-shopped from another one. But it turned out that the ‘proof’ was itself fake; it was the second image that had been deliberately photo-shopped from the first and disseminated as a deliberate lie.
To her credit, Nina tacitly accepted this, which opened the door to a long conversation neither of us are likely to have had without the internet. It was like we were from hostile cultures and speaking mutually intelligible languages, trying to understand what the other was saying. Of course, it was a conversation, not a conversion. But talking to Nina was certainly an eye-opener.
Here was a fellow Maltese who did not necessarily have an axe to grind and had genuinely held views, and who was operating from a desire I shared of seeking what was best for Malta. But she was coming to diametrically opposite conclusions. Some would – and some did – call her racist bigot, a lost cause, not worth wasting time talking to. I disagree.
It is critical that we Maltese engage in this difficult dialogue because other options are closed
It is to people like Nina that we need to reach out, to listen attentively to their narratives of fears, concerns and anecdotes of perceived injustice and unfairness. If we are to have any hope of persuading Nina to change her view of her lifeworld, we need to first live in her shoes and understand where her prejudices are stemming from. Only then could Nina be persuaded to review her world.
It is critical that we Maltese engage in this difficult dialogue because other options are closed. Even three years ago it would have been unthinkable that major Western democracies would allow people to drown, separate children from their parents without any plan for reunion, treat those trying to save lives as criminals, and use the letter of the law to crush the stateless and helpless. Yet today this is the norm, from America to Hungary to Malta. And this norm is soaked up by the internet and fed intravenously to people like Nina.
Democracy has allowed populism to triumph. We, the ‘enlightened’ few who talk to each other across Malta’s English-language newspapers, are emphatically in the minority. Yesterday’s imperfect politicians are looking like pillars of wisdom and integrity next to the sorry rabble that is intent on nurturing people’s worst selves to strengthen their hold on the seats of power.
Our leaders’ voices could make a difference in countering this culture of fear and exclusion; yet these voices are far from harmonious. Archbishop Charles Scicluna has spoken out boldly and will doubtless do so again. Never has Bishop Mario Grech been so eloquent in dispelling any moral ambiguity on Catholics’ stance. And yet, never has he seemed more alone. Where is the President? Does she feel that she has spent all her arrows on the IVF debate?
No need to ask where Adrian Delia is. He is all over the place, first trumpeting his nationalistic credentials, then belatedly deploring the government’s action in stopping NGOs when this is a direct consequence of the ‘Malta first’ stance he supported. Too little, too late and too confused, as usual.
Arboreal doublespeak
Environment Minister José Herrera thinks that 2018, in which more than 500 mature trees have already been cut down to appease developers and more are to follow, should be called the Year of the Tree. That’s because regulations protecting trees are going to be tightened and many more new saplings are going to be planted.
Is he serious? No amount of decoration to the stable door can hide the glaring fact that the horse of environmental responsibility has long bolted. And in any case, what is the use of tough regulation if it is undermined by weakened oversight? The ruins of what was once the efficient Administrative Law Enforcement Section that is meant to fight environmental crime speak for themselves.
Dear Minister, it’s nothing personal. We just don’t believe a word you say.
sandrospiteri1965@gmail.com