Archive for the ‘ Politics ’ Category

Parliamentary match

An own goal was scored in the parliamentary stadium last Thursday night but the referee refused to allow it. The team which suffered the goal claimed that it was totally unintentional and besides, the opposing team had also made an own goal earlier on but no one had noticed – or so the blue squad alleged. The referee decided to consult the slow-mo but since this did not clarify the allegation, he felt that the most equitable solution was to have the game replayed.

While the scorer of an own goal can rightfully claim that it was never his intention to make his team lose, it still goes down as a valid goal on the score card.

While winning a match in this manner is not the most convincing or satisfying of victories, the record books register it as a win nonetheless.

This post appeared in The Times dated 11th May 2010.

Religion of division

“Christian Europe will never allow Muslim Turkey to join the European Union.” These words, spoken by a client of mine during a discussion, clearly illustrate the division arising from the strict adherence to religion.

While religion is a spiritual matter, the leaders of the various beliefs have, over the centuries, been too concerned with the material world. I ask:

  • How exactly does abstaining from pork but eating fish improve my chances of meeting the creator of both pig and fish?
  • Does wrapping up the human form in a chador show greater appreciation of the supreme being’s work?
  • How does the use or non-use of a condom improve my chances of slipping into heaven?
  • Why should a religion be led solely by the male half of humankind if god breathed live into men and women?

Religions today are akin to football supporters’ clubs, more intent on increasing membership than on the edification of mankind’s spirit. This is so evident in their willingness to resort to the numbers game when trying to justify the validity of their belief: X hundreds of millions believe in “our” god, or, believers of “our” faith are growing by Y percent annually. With so many zeros in the statistics, there must be one hell of a gridlock on the road to heaven.

Some more maths. Take the thousands of religious rules that exist worldwide, multiply them by the billions of adherents and the result is an equation of extreme complexity.

Two blogs

In one corner, we have www.daphnecaruanagalizia.com, the address an obvious reference to the owner of, and contributor to, the site.

She epitomizes the difference between an investigative journalist and a reporter. Unfortunately for our democracy, the latter far outweigh the former. Pick up any local newspaper or tune in to any radio or TV channel and the news is essentially a verbatim repeat of the politician/church leader/business magnate’s words. Interviews turn out to be cafe chats minus the coffee, with the interviewer religiously reading questions off a list. I generalize, but this is only to emphasise why my inbox is updated regularly with Daphne’s posts.

To be hoest, I am being put off by the insults which are now flooding her contributions and which only water down the seriousness of her accusations. This gives opponents of the truth the small arms they need to fend off the charge.

However, it does not detract from the fact that she is still the leading person on this island prepared to unveil the thick layers of hypocrisy which mask our society.

In the other corner, we have the new kid on the block, www.tasteyourownmedicine.com. The soul purpose of this blog is summed up in four words taken from the post of 28th March entitled WARNING!!! and addressed directly to Daphne Caruana Galizia, “You fuck. We fuck.”

I was hoping to find some interesting arguments to counterbalance those raised in Daphne’s blog,  possibly even providing another angle to the Magistrate Scerri Herrera affair or that of Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (amongst others). Instead, I found myself in a primary school playground with a bunch of kids wild on name calling but nothing much else. The only difference is that the kids here, for all their bravado, prefer to remain hidden behind the swings and the see-saws.

This, more than anything else, is what discredits the site.