By now we should have realised that freedom of speech, or rather the liberty to pass a fair comment, is limited by draconian Maltese press laws that govern the way columnists such as myself wish to express their views.
All I am saying is that if we talk about freedom of speech, then please look elsewhere. What is tolerated in Malta are eulogies: eulogies for those in power, whether it be in government or in business. If I pass a comment about why someone should not have been appointed – then as things stand, there is a very good chance that the libel laws will get the better of me.
And if you think that this is the sign of a beaten man, you’d better think again, because as long as I have some remaining blood corpuscles in my veins I’ll be fighting on.
Which is why, I consider the accusation from John Dalli’s ministry that this newspaper was ‘sensationalist’ when it reported the plight of a septuagenarian who went through a nightmare at Mater Dei, as an insult and nothing more.
It was rich to accuse us of being sensational – considering that the press officer who made this accusation was the one and only Amanda Ciappara, remembered not for her journalistic prowess but for the time she worked at NET in Joe Saliba’s stead, presenting sensational questions to Alfred Sant... only to be replaced by JPO at the final press conference before the election.
Now Ciappara stands in for the government as a press officer – or better, a human parrot – and she accuses her former colleagues of being sensationalist just because a 75-year-old woman waits and waits, until she is finally obliged to go to a private hospital and pay EUR 3,800 to get her wrist fixed.
Just imagine it was someone related to her, or perhaps to one of her ministers. Then I am sure she would be singing a different tune.
What is worse is the fact that just because this family had the gall to speak up. they were faced with a brusque telephone barrage from Mater Dei. So now the guilty party becomes the super victim, and the victim the problem.
I could of course suggest that the hundreds of people who break or fracture their wrists are living fusspots. But then, thank God, not all of us can take the pain of a broken wrist, not all of us are so ‘dead’ as not to say anything when waiting for hours on end at Malta’s state-of-the-art hospital, and not all of us are in a position to spend EUR3,800 to be operated by the same State hospital surgeon but in a private hospital.
I could stop there, and simply say that I am a journalist, an opinion writer or a bystander. But no, I am not. Like most Maltese I have experienced the State and the service at our State hospitals and I can say with my hand on my heart that when the next statistic arrives from WHO or wherever that declares that Malta is in the first top five countries when it comes to health – I promise to send the director general of WHO a CD of an audiovisual clip of 400,000 Maltese puking in utter disgust. Most Maltese – at least those with a brain – will not be taken over by the Gonzi attempt to portray Mater Dei as a success story. It is a story of shame from start to finish.
From recent memory I can recount far worse experiences than fractured wrists with Malta’s national health scheme. And I am still too angry to write about them, or even to refer to them.
Everyone who has had relatives or loved ones at Mater Dei, or any other hospital, will talk of the personal sufferings they have had to go through. Many are too scared to talk because they imagine that one day they will have to return and depend on the professional staff.
They literally fear retaliation. I do not blame them.
The Ministers know that some State hospital doctors prefer to see their patients in private clinics and hospitals rather than in State hospitals, and that these doctors entice their patients to visit them there. Many patients at this point are not interested in the money question. When it comes to health issues, people are willing to pay as much as it takes.
These doctors take advantage of this, and if I say that this is criminal then really I should add that this is an understatement. That is why so many people prefer to keep their story to themselves.
But this is the time to speak up, to forget about the backlash that could follow.
This is the time to remember the circus we had just a year ago, with a smiling PM and his acolytes and the thousands of silly Maltese who thought it was great idea to have a fun day at the opening of public building that took 17 years to complete and millions in liri to construct.
Walker walking
MEPA, under Lawrence Gonzi’s workmate Austin Walker, has taken the Mistra application and kicked it into outer space. So far, so good.
Really had it not been for the man everyone loved to hate, the Mistra application would have passed unnoticed. That man, by the way, is Alfred Sant.
No, Mr Walker still has to walk the walk at MEPA. If he really means business he will set up an investigation into all the permits that were issued by MEPA in the last years and see what went wrong and where. And I am sure he will find some interesting applications.
Now he should know that the minister responsible for MEPA was George Pullicino, yes the same man that one silly columnist chose to freeze into history by holding up a placard with the words: Vote George, Get Lorry... a placard that sent George and his followers ballistic.
But really and truly, what MEPA committed in the last five years sort of justifies such a poster.
The sad thing is that every time a new project hit the news, it was always as a result of a media report. And every time, the Pullicino SWAT team would go into overdrive leaving no stones unturned to trounce the bastards and bitches who made it public.
When Pullicino came up with his famous ‘Outside Development Zones’, he could not understand why so many soft Nationalist-looking greens could not be on his side. Instead of reaching out to them, his boys ¬ perhaps without his consent – would leak information about the bloody culprits.
I was on the receiving end: stories about Astrid Vella and her keyhole window, Martin Galea and his showroom, Martin Scicluna and his swimming pool, and other interesting observations.
No one was spared from the traditional Nationalist and Jesuit approach to dissent: ‘Hit them where they feel it most.’
But people have short memories, and sooner rather than later people embraced George like they embrace their brothers or lovers. Yet, MEPA is surely not a place for lovers.
In the last years, it has been dominated by political appointees who have taken the side of the developer... or shall we say, certain developers.
If Austin Walker means business, apart from boycotting this media company by stopping adverts from a publicly funded company, he could start off by investigating what has gone on in the past at MEPA .
I am sure many officials such as Godwin Cassar, the director-general who seems to have survived every human resource tremor at MEPA, will be most willing to help.
Blame it on the parents
I have yet to understand why the authorities blame parents for sending their kids to Paceville or other entertainment Meccas. I have yet to see when someone will turn to the authorities and explain to them that the obligation to protect under age kids – and I would imagine individuals under 18 – is the obligation of the State.
If it is normal that 15- and 16-year-old kids are allowed to depart from home at 9 or 10 in the evening, and return after 1am, 2am or even 3am, then really call me a nerd. To say that this is responsibility of the parents is ridiculous.
What are parents supposed to do: lock up their children? It is the responsibility of the State to ensure that retail outlets do not serve or entertain underage kids and that they do not sell them alcohol. And it is high time that the State took a look at the great undeclared mass of non-voting teenagers, and the vacuum that exists when it comes to keeping them active and entertained.
On paper we are living in a super Catholic state under Fenech Adami as our Head of State, where pornography is illegal, prostitution also, divorce a distant pipedream and abortion a taboo. And yet, Paceville is literally a Hollywood take on Sodom and Gomorrah.
I am all for a libertarian style of life, but only if you are an adult with a bank account of your own and a home of your own, but not for immature underage kids living with their families with the possibility of having easy access to drugs, booze and, yes, unprotected sex whenever they venture out.
The news
Good news that Borg Olivier beat Charlò Bonnici. Good to read in The Times that Borg Olivier replaces Saliba who ‘won every election’ since he was secretary general.
What unbelievable sycophants. Joe Saliba lost nearly every local council election and lost the European Parliamentary elections, and only won the last election because he failed to tell Nationalists through his controlled media that JPO was an embarrassment and that the whole affair was not what we thought it to be.
Not recounted in the Times’ reportage was the fact that under his tenure, Saliba ostracised dozens of Nationalists, cleaned out the Stamperija as if there was the plague, implemented draconian measures to keep Nationalists out rather than in, and failed to unite the party. At one point, with John Dalli on the way out, the PN was close to losing one of its best brains.
When you write biographies of people, the best thing is to ask people with no links or fetishes for the person in question. The best biographies are penned by those who look like angry bulls and write sensational pieces for MaltaToday.
Which is why I would be the ideal candidate for writing Joe Saliba’s real story.
Mater Dei, Mother of God
If you have experienced anything which merits mention in this column about your personal treatment at Mater Dei, please do not hesitate to write to me on sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt. For those who have a problem with an electronic messenger, please contact me on 21 382741 during office hours.
