Saviour Balzan | Wednesday, 04 March 2009

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So it appears that xenophobia is back to haunt us. In the year of President Obama – an African-American president of the USA – nothing seems to change this national perception that the arrival of Africans, blacks, to our shores is a calamitous affair requiring draconian measures.
The one reason I rant about xenophobia is not because I have nothing better to write about, but it is my way of exposing the hypocrisy and short-sightedness of so many people writing in the newspapers. And to show that racism is the problem.
There is a general feeling that blacks arriving in Malta from war-torn Somalia are the primary reason for the malaise in our society. Forget the fact that our government is run like a chicken factory.
Now, the migrant is being trumpeted as the biggest problem ever faced by this country by Joseph Muscat and Josie Muscat and the thousands of voters who voted for both Muscat and Gonzi. And I would not be surprised, by some Greens too.
There is a widespread feeling that the badly housed migrants, in detention, are the main threat to our livelihood and future.
So when The Sunday Times comes across with the header that nearly half of all HIV cases are found in migrants, I could not help but think that such a header would not find itself in any middle-of-the-road newspaper on continental Europe.
What is considered to be the taboo in Europe is considered to be… okayish here. It is of course perfectly in order for any newspaper to choose whatever header they wish to use. But we should not be too surprised to read in some forthcoming edition of this independent press (which professes independence for four years and eleven months before waving the PN flag prior to the election) that all migrants should be tested for AIDS or HIV.
And then what?
Should we take up Josie Muscat’s political mumbo-jumbo on doing away with all our international obligations and turn them back? Hardly!
Muscat may be entitled to rant about blacks. After all, he has made immigrants his obsession. But his mission is a dangerous one, and it has to be stopped.
And that is why I cannot understand Joseph Muscat’s statements on illegal immigrants in parliament. It is true that the Gonzi government does not have any ideas on how to tackle the issue, and that the detention centres are in a mess and that relations with Libya are bad. I emphasise ‘bad’.
But in all fairness, Gonzi should be appreciated – at least slightly – for taking an unpopular stance by not succumbing to public opinion on migration. I am not quite sure if this is a result of his indecisiveness or inability to put a finger on the problem.
But as he was being criticised by Muscat, enter JPO, or Jeffrey for short, who comes up with his own recipe for the migrant issue. I thought that he too was a liberal.

JPO
JPO is of course entitled to show us what a raving angry man he is for having been left out of the Cabinet. He must be madder when he read what PN soldiers Georg Sapiano and Ranier Fsadni had to say about his ideas on migration.
Dr Sapiano has of course said it in so many other words: JPO’s place is not in the party, which is exactly what we have been saying for a very long time.
Why Georg and Ranier kept silent when Lawrence Gonzi and Joe Saliba were defending JPO before the election beats me. JPO was of course elected from two districts, because the electorate were led to believe that JPO was their man… thanks to the party backing he enjoyed.
The PN bigwigs knew all along what JPO was doing before the election, so if there is anyone to blame, blame the Prime Minister.
There is a tendency that anything improper or wrong happening under Gonzi cannot possibly be his fault. Take the masterful mess-up with the water and electricity tariffs. Everyone is blaming Austin Gatt. Surely Gatt needs to be blamed for creating mathematical models that only exist in other dimensions in outer space, but it is the PM who allowed him to persist in his hard headedness. I wonder what Vince Farrugia has to say about this?
The fact is that the political landscape is in complete turmoil, a perfect representation of what it should not be. The left is the right, the left is not there, and the right is muddled and confused.
Which is why on election day, in the next European Parliament elections, I will be proposing to all those with a half a brain to do what I am going to do. And although Virtù Ferries continue to advertise in Bertu Mizzi’s Malta Independent even when it hardly sells, I must tell you that next June I will be purchasing a return ticket for two on their ferry.
My only displeasure is that you cannot stay on the deck when the catamaran leaves the harbour.
If the captain does concede me the unique experience to stay on deck as we leave Valletta harbour, I will lift my middle finger at the Evan’s buildings, home to the electoral commission, where my voting document awaits and which I intend not to collect.

The one-minute resto crit

I enjoy quiet romantic eateries, most especially if they allow you to whisper what does not need to be picked up from the other tables. Barracuda in St Julian’s is a place where tables offer some privacy and the view is interesting (yet not terrific). The food has also improved from the last time I was there. Nothing much to make mouths water, and the waiters are still flitting to and fro like wasps with no one seemingly assigned to particular tables. Beef roulade was good, the sorbet uninspiring, but the wines well priced. Meal for two: one starter, two mains, one sorbet, one Italian bottle of wine and one bottle of water (foreign) – €61.50

Man/woman of the week

Georg Sapiano (right), for having told us what we have long been saying about JPO; and Therese Friggieri (no picture yet... she's nowhere to be seen) for actually turning censorship into an issue. Of all things…

NEXT SUNDAY

What I will be eating in Ortygia in June, my favourite bristo, and why John Rizzo, the Commissioner of Police should resign

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