In MaltaToday on Sunday (May 4) and also in Illum (May 4) Saviour Balzan once again personifies the saying that empty vessels make the loudest sound.
Declaring that “if the hunters disappear from the face of the earth there will be more wildlife”, Mr Balzan shows clearly that he has not even come close to understanding what even the bird protectionists have long realised. It is one of the principles accepted by the European Union, and even by BirdLife International itself, that sustainable hunting goes hand in hand with biodiversity.
When Mr Balzan has no valid argument, which is more often the case than not, he strives to find new prey and turns his aim towards personal criticism. His target this time is Dr Alex Perici Calascione, one of the PN candidates for the European Parliament, whose main fault is to have “a working [sic] colleague” who issued a garnishee order against Illum journalist Julia Farrugia. This action irritated Saviour Balzan no end, since Illum comes under his direction.
Dr Perici Calascione is one of the partners of the law firm Emmanuel Mallia and Associates, that have provided legal services to the Federation for Hunting & Conservation – Malta (FKNK) for the past years. Whilst he was not the lawyer directly involved in the case mentioned by Mr Balzan, this same case was a libel suit which FKNK presented and won against Julia Farrugia, both before the Magistrates’ Court and before the Court of Appeal. Julia Farrugia was called upon more than once to pay her dues, failed to do so and hence the issuing of the garnishee order. No one is above the law and Julia Farrugia is no exception.
It is unprofessional for Mr Balzan to use the influence of his newspaper to bring this matter up when all it would have taken was for Ms Farrugia or Illum itself to pay what was due when first called upon to do so.
Not having anything of note to say Mr Balzan then opines that Dr Perici Calascione has another thing going against him: “he is a Joe Mizzi lookalike”, an irrelevant and petty remark if ever there was one. Then unable to make up his mind whether Dr Perici Calascione is the unofficial or official legal advisor to the hunting federation, Mr Balzan appears to be surprised that Dr Perici Calascione will be on the legal team to defend the Maltese government’s case for spring hunting in the EU Court of Justice. The fact that Dr Perici Calascione’s brother Joe is on the Council of the Hunters’ Federation also seems to bother Mr Balzan. He tries to imply that there is a conflict of interest in the positions held by Dr Perici Calascione, which is certainly not the case.
Unfortunately for him Mr Balzan fails to prove anything except his arrogance and irrational bias. The Hunting Federation has full confidence in Dr Alex Perici Calascione both in his professional integrity and also in his ability to represent Malta’s interests in the forthcoming court case. He forms part of the legal team, headed by the Attorney General, which has been following this case for over a year now. His involvement has therefore been there from the outset and therefore not conjured up at this stage for any political mileage. Mr Balzan typically chooses to stoop so low as to attack the integrity of Dr Perici Calascione solely on the wings of a misguided retaliation to the action taken against Julia Farrugia and as yet another manifestation of his prejudices in this subject.
As a final absurdity, stating that “very few hunters will be voting for either Simon Busuttil, John Attard Montalto, Louis Grech or Perici Calascione”, the all-knowing Mr Balzan tries to give the impression that he knows something we don’t, and declares to all and sundry that most hunters will be “abstaining”. But to be fair to him, we assume it’s all due to the wine and too much spaghetti!
Mr Balzan can rest assured that hunters and trappers deem him as the very last person in a position to tell them what to do or not to do when it comes to voting.
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