The boiled chicken on Air Malta looked great. It tasted absolutely abominable.
So I was lucky to have had purchased a double toasted sandwich with fried veggies at €3.70, and it tasted wonderful. It is definitely cheaper than the awful equivalent at the Gudja aerodrome.
There I was, cooped up like an avian creature with a table and a chicken in the window seat, and it took ages for the stewardesses to pick up this bland dead hen, while my bladder was about to explode.
To kill time, I welcomed that loquacious someone who told me he was a former Nationalist who had decided to vote Labour in the last election. He talked of how he was pestered a day before the elections by phone-calls from Frank Portelli and Joe Saliba beckoning him to change his mind.
He did what he had to do and still voted for Labour. “I am really angry,” he said. “Look what they have done now, they go and get Sceberras Trigona elected. I never liked Joe Mifsud but really, he was at least an acceptable face. I cannot see Labour winning next time, it is a tragedy!”
So apart from killing time, I was regaled with yet more insights into the world of Maltese politics. Because many people think I am addicted to politics. But really, who isn’t?
I was offered The Times to read, but I couldn’t get myself to read the competition, so I chose Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical political weekly. This newspaper had been the target of Islamist extremists, and they have just won a court ruling on freedom of expression in Paris. Charlie Hebdo would send any good Maltese into a permanent tantrum. The Pope is just visiting France and there were cartoons of the Pope that would make many squirm.
But that is the press for you.
Landing at Gudja, the Air Malta driver mistakenly stopped us at the non-Shengen flights. So we had to wave our passports.
And then a walk into the humid September night and into a car over the roads that never seem to have a stroke of luck, not even with new asphalt.
The next morning nothing had changed. The plants on the terrace had shrivelled and the geraniums were really crying to be clipped.
In the press Gonzi was saying that “there were challenges to be met”, a warning to an impatient middle-class already stretched to the limit that there would be more difficult times ahead. What the indecisive PM really meant to say is that he had made miscalculations and misjudgements and that he had made such a bad prognosis, that in truth all his electoral promises would not be met. To meet them would be irresponsible. In this case he will have to decide which is more important; to be irresponsible or to be called a political deceiver. I would suggest he goes for the latter – after all most people have such short memories they cannot even remember why a nice guy like JPO was given such a hard time of late.
Then there was Joseph Muscat, still not yet in Parliament and still reeling from heading a party that re-elected many old-timers that are losers.
And then Arnold Cassola, who it is rumoured will stand for MEP. A grave mistake, if you ask me. A leader should lead, not jump on the EU gravy train.
There are others willing to jump on the gravy train. EU press officer Edward Demicoli is a perhaps a case in point. But then why should we care? It does not seem to bother the EU, then why should it bother us?
But it seems like Tonio Fenech’s lack of consideration for EU rules has led the Commission to block Malta’s decision to erase the dockyard’s debts. Rather surprised to tell you the truth. I thought that Richard (I mean RCC) would have been all prepared and informed about the repercussions of such a decision.
Now it has to be said that RCC’s real concern is not what is best for the country or for the general populace. Most of the time, RCC is really and truly preoccupied with himself. Never offering himself up for any election, the man who wishes to be the next European Commissioner is becoming rather slack with his work ethic. It is of course a subjective view.
After all, with such a massive staff complement and grand HQ in Brussels, RCC is better then most equipped to provide a sterling service to the PM. But then RCC is not always on the ball.
Then the traditional news stories, the hunters and their hunt for illegal birds, and of course… the bishop’s outcry on how bad our society is turning out to be.
Now Bishop Cremona, who had impressed many people in his first weeks, has taken it upon himself to warn us about abortion, euthanasia and divorce. Now religious zealots love to mix the three together. Divorce of course has nothing to do with euthanasia. Indeed divorce gives new life and provides new chances. Most of the top politicians should know; some of their own children have experienced this.
Euthanasia is another thing, all very different to abortion. Anyone who has had a loved one hanging on in immeasurable pain and in vegetative mode will lovingly sit down with the Archbishop and discuss this subject with gusto.
And abortion is yet an altogether different subject, which has complex ramifications that cannot be simplified with a yes or no.
Still, if the Bishop wishes to address anybody he should really and truly take the Prime Minister into his room and ask him to also invite President Eddie along. Then he should make them eat humble pie. For if this consumerist, materialist society is anyone’s doing, it is no doubt thanks to these two men.
This is the wonderful thing about Catholics, they pour scorn at the sinners but provide the Agar jelly for the prolific bacteria of lust to thrive.
Now, I have nothing against lust, most especially if love is part of the equation. Yet, what I cannot understand is why Bishop Cremona wastes his time addressing us. It is not us who decide what happens around us. These ghettos of transgression were not created by the general public but by a willing government who love giving in to capitalism. Nothing wrong with that, but you cannot eat the fat and then not complain about cholesterol.
Cremona could go on. He could perhaps discuss why the government makes millions from gambling companies and porno billing companies when at the same time it calls on its citizens to stick to values.
It is rather amusing I think, a question of how big a hypocrite you can get.
I remember in the good old days when Malta would always boast of its initiative to save the planet with its visionary Law of the Sea proposal. It was a 1969 proposal by Maltese diplomat Arvid Pardo at the UN. Guido de Marco always liked mentioning it.
How nice. Really nice, most especially when you see all those motor yachts dumping gallons of detergent, faeces and urine at Blue Lagoon, Ghadira and Mgarr ix-Xini. We are just a contradiction in terms but then that is what makes me love the return to this great megalomaniac islet.
Once again, I am dying for October. I am anticipating a can of U-turns on all the political promises made in March of this year. I am just looking forward to Labour’s meek response to this political conundrum and I will be fixated at the facial pattern of our Prime Minister as he declares that he will not be implementing his electoral promises. Because he is a very serious and conscientious man.
Well, just in case you did not notice, I have landed and am looking forward to the autumn spectacle.