A new disease called The People Have Spoken
Published:
March 5, 2009 at 1:42pm
Wouldn’t it be a relief if, just occasionally, the people kept quiet and got on with the business of doing things instead? Unfortunately, the idea that the people can speak and that’s the end of the matter is taking on shades of an infectious disease. Take this man commenting on-line about illegal immigration, for instance:
Stephen Farrugia
This debate is closed, no integration, no landings, no immigrants! The people have spoken, accept it or resign from all your posts.
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This is The Wisdom of the People Gold Edition.
Ghax issa hekk sirna. Democracy has begun to equal mob rule. Thanks to FAA and the St. John’s saga people think they have the right to overthrow anything notwithstanding how wrong or ill-informed they might be about it. If they don’t like it mela le we can’t have it. Blacks? Le, we don’t like them! Barra! Times.com is not helping with its obvious filtering of comments. It’s just fueling a fire of xenophobic, racist ignorance – that to me is more of a threat to the country than any HIV-ridden African immigrant could ever be.
As Meryl Streep’s character in ‘Doubt’ put it: “In ancient Sparta important matters were decided by who shouted loudest”, and alas, I fear that we are heading in that direction, i.e. further back into history, rather than forwards into the 21st century.
Standards must be slipping among the Cikku l-Poplu who comment on The Times – our Stephen forgot to put “resign” in capital letters with lots of exclamation marks.
Today I had a rather hot argument with a person who I normally consider as level-headed. The thrust of her argument was that since “everyone” is complaining about illegal immigrants then government shall follow suit and act in terms of not assisting them medically, shelter-wise etc. When I tried to explain that helping people transcends race, colour or country or origin I was accused of being happy that these people can come here, make us sick with AIDS and stealing “our” jobs!
What worries me in all this is not just the hatred and xenophobia involved, but also the acceptance of the fact that as a country we are unable to discuss and argue in a mature way, and without being categoric about our positions at all cost. The smallness and insularity of Malta is probably a reason for this, but with flights costing €80, we can surely all afford to visit other countries, see different realities and not think that only Malta has problems of this sort.
JM: “Everyone” means everyone who grumbles out loud. It’s become easier to spout racist rubbish than to say anything that might sound ‘unpatriotic’.
The USA bans people with HIV from entering the US. [Daphne – What do they do, test everyone at the airport?]
Why should tiny Malta allow allow illegal immigrants irrespective of race and colour to enter with contagious diseases? [Daphne – Illegal immigrants are not allowed to enter the country. That is why they are described as illegal. However, once they are in, they have to be treated like human beings.] This is NOT a xenophobic issue; this is a very serious health issue which would put a huge burden on public health.
How would you explain this to a poor old Maltese lady who has been waiting in excruciating pain for three years for a hip replacement or a simple cataract operation? [Daphne – You don’t know much about medicine, do you? Treatment for HIV is not competing for space and time with cataract operations.]
Breaking news: it seems that nine young men were arrested for wearing “ilbies sagru” at the Nadur carnival. I love the feeling of self-satisfied Christian smugness. Shall I bring the hot pokers for the Inquisition to start?
Personally I am worried about the immigration situation – or rather by one aspect of it: the sheer numbers. I wish some solution could be found, and at times I sympathise with those who express frustration at the government and opposition’s inability to solve the problem.
Then I look at what the fringe-parties and movements and others have to offer: the demented right with its racist (sorry racialist) policies, the less extreme right’s proposals that would turn my country into the pariah of Europe, the potty “left” (KMB – on this issue indistinguishable from the right) with its inane suggestions and the maverick JPO opportunistically pandering to popular prejudice.
I prefer to stick with mainstream politics, ineffectual though they may temporarily seem…
Daphne…this is good:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090305/local/air-malta-back-in-the-red
Look at the picture…..how many Mr Fenechs do you see?
“Joe Grima (7 hours, 41 minutes ago)
… I count myself among those who want to keep our traditions and our way of life as much as we possibly can without having to compromise with people who come from a totally different background and different ideals that we can never share.”
( http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090308/local/teenagers-den-mistaken-for-immigrants-slum )
What Joe Grima fails to realise is that “people who come from a totally different background and different ideals that we can never share” have been right here amongst us for countless generations, and by that I mean fellow Maltese people, not foreigners. He would fall into that category were I to reason the way he does.
“Joanne Micallef (8 hours, 31 minutes ago)
Unfortunately if the Goverment doesn’t do anything to curb this illegal influx we will undoubtedly start to experience REAL racism in this country, and I have a feeling that it will not be directed only towards those foreigners who are here illegally.”
Has Joanne Micallef been living on another planet for the last couple of years?