Saviour Balzan | Wednesday, 11 February 2009

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(and why Astrid isn’t so terrible after all)

There are two characters I believe I would rather not share a desert island with, even if we were palm trees.*
To be fair to them, nor would they enjoy my company. I am of course referring here to Lawrence Gonzi and Astrid Vella.
But then again, these two personalities have much to offer in terms of nuisance value. Astrid Vella, self-appointed queen of the green movement, is someone who has done much to revitalise the environmental agenda and she has to be commended for her sterling work. But she is not someone I would like to work with. Like most leaders in her field she is a prima donna, and from personal experience I have found her political alignments strange and uncomfortable.
Yet again, her work and her dedication to the cause somehow erase all her other defects. Her argumentation about the ‘dig a hole in Valletta’ project that is captained by Richard Cachia Caruana, is well intentioned and should have the support of all those who believe that this country.
Rightly so, she says that the money earmarked for this project could be used for more worthy causes, such as the renovation of so many derelict fortifications. She mentions St Angelo and St Elmo as prime examples.
Yet Astrid’s success stems from a very interesting sociological observation. Namely, she represents the sentiment of the middle class, particularly the idiosyncratic English-speaking subgroup, traditionally Nationalist, usually so blue they become unbearable, most especially if they happen to drink too much.
Yet, this middle class and its 40-50 year-old generation is now sick and tired of a government that is more and more distant from their aspirations, and pays only lip service to their concerns and beliefs.
They are most of the time somewhat liberal in terms of social mores, environmentally conscious, and pro-European.
The likes of George Pullicino, Giovanna Debono and Paul Borg Olivier do not excite them very much.
And even if they should be attracted to Alternattiva Demokratika, given the alignment of their ideology, they are not.
Which is why they have embarked on aligning themselves to someone like Astrid. She emulates their belief that something must be done to stop the disfigurement of the countryside and our townscapes. St John’s Co-Cathedral is a battlefield that allows them to voice their anger. It is a pity that the few MPs from the PN side who have echoed this feeling are indeed not to be commended.
And I am referring here to JPO, the man who surely has lost all the green credentials he ever had.
Astrid has to her credit raised the heat on the political class: she clearly talks to politicians, and seduces them with her talk about how sacrilegious these projects are.
But she is careful not to cross the border. She knows that if she does so she will lose all the support and solidarity from the middle class, and those particular supporters such as the Slimizi.
As Astrid was talking about the 16 million planned holes in Valletta, another man was re-enacting the scene of the Sun King.

Louis XIV, baptised as Louis-Dieudonné – ‘Louis God-given’ – ruled as King of France. Louis XIV is popularly known as the Sun King (French: le Roi Soleil) because he was the source of light for his people and for Europe’s nobles and rulers. As a result, he was commonly associated with Apollo, the Greco-Roman god of the Sun. Louis believed in the Divine Right of Kings.
Last Sunday, Gonzi the Sun King criticized MaltaToday for reporting the news that he had decided that Cachia Caruana would be the next Commissioner, and Simon Busuttil the permanent representative who would replace RCC.
Clearly irate at the news, he made it clear that he was the Prime Minister, that he was the one who took decisions, and that was it. In other words, he said he could not give a hoot what his Cabinet thought, and more so MaltaToday.
Now for someone who has had endless words for doing politics in a new way, I have to say that I am not shocked. Lawrence Gonzi went on, saying there were newspapers that were striving to alienate the public from the real issues.
I guess the next question to ask is, what are the real issues according to Lawrence Gonzi? Surely the issues according to Gonzi must not in any way embarrass government, and if possible promote Department of Information bulletins and statements where the Prime Minister is portrayed as the Sun King, and his cronies portrayed as those useless nobles in Versailles.

Good eating
Last Sunday, I referred to my search for a bistro where one can dine and have fun and end up infinitely poorer. We are a tax paying folk after all.
I received a few suggestions and I promised to visit them together with the better half. If we are duly impressed, I promise to report on them, but a small suggestion: it would be welcome if restaurants start thinking of promoting simple dishes that no longer feature in menus. There are some delicious Maltese dishes that could easily entice grumblers such as myself.
And since this opinion discussed the middle-aged middle class, it would not be such a bad idea if the restaurants start cooking up ideas with vegetables as the core item in the recipe. You can eat very well and enjoy a meal without having to indulge in red meat all the time.
And finally, wine suggestions and attractive pricing will always help. So if you do encounter some unpresumptuous restaurateur, please let me know on my email.

* Congrats to George Pullicino to register all palm trees in Malta and Gozo. Congrats for having thought about this idea after the beetle mayhem. Prosit tassew!

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