'Daphne, don't break the silence because then we'll have to think'
How to inspire confidence in the judiciary - by using a magazine cover to give sad men girl-on-girl fantasies
Almost certainly unwittingly, because the point he is trying to make is diametrically opposed to mine, Kenneth Zammit Tabona gives here (his column in today’s The Times is reproduced below) a near-perfect illustration of a corrupt system, developed over centuries, which shores itself up – a system which ensures that individuals protect and shelter each other by an unspoken consensus, to the detriment of the common good.
Any attempt at breaking the code of silence is met in some quarters, but not generally, with fear masquerading as disapproval or moral superiority (the irony, of course, is missed), anger or apathy.
It is the Sicilian code and self-protective system so skilfully described by Tommasi di Lampedusa in The Leopard. It is entirely alien to northern Europe, which is why it is entirely alien to me. Even though I was raised here by Maltese parents, I was raised with a northern European mentality.
I live in this system but at the same time stand outside it and it disgusts and perplexes me. I have never wanted any part of it, especially not the malicious gossip which Mr Zammit Tabona describes, the slandering of people’s good names over bridge tables and espressos and elsewhere when those people have no hope of redress and often don’t even know it is happening.
How anyone, let alone he, can claim – as he is indirectly doing here – that he would prefer not to know of the corrupt shenanigans of a magistrate, of the activities of a demimonde of seedy politicians, lawyers, magistrates, judges and political-party media employees because it disturbs his view of a comfortable, comforting and ‘well ordered’ society, is beyond me to comprehend.
Maltese is society is ordered, yes – but it is not well ordered. Mr Zammit Tabona compares this situation to the Italian Tangentopoli scandal – an exaggeration, sadly, because I am quite sure there is a lot more to be uncovered, but at this rate it never will be.
This reasoning that nobody should reveal or say disturbing things so that others may proceed through life in a dream of denial or with their heads buried in the sand is precisely what is shocking, disturbing and – as we are now seeing – a dangerous undermining of democracy as northern Europe understands it.
The Times, today
Pandora’s technogossip cyberbox
Kenneth Zammit Tabona
I am still of two minds about the wisdom of expressing an opinion in print about the latest developments in the cyber world of blogging; something which, I am sure, most of you are aware has rocked Maltese society like a force 8 Richter Scale earthquake… I had decided to leave it well alone. Blogging is just not my scene.
Anybody who knows me well will agree that, no matter how annoyed and frustrated I am about something, like, for instance Renzo Piano’s open-air theatre joke, I keep within the accepted limits of decency and decorum. I am, therefore, hazarding this article because I feel Malta has reached a point of no return in as far as exploring the possibilities and opportunities presented by online blogging to its very limits. The last couple of months have opened up an entirely new scenario in as far as dissemination of information is concerned. You all know precisely what I am talking about, which is why I feel the matter should be discussed.
A close friend of mine, an occasional blog victim along with everyone else, President to dustman, describes this sort of blogging as comparable to heroin. You know it’s bad. You know it’s harmful; deadly even. You know it’s anything but rewarding or salubrious and, yet, one cannot get enough of it… until it is too late.
We Maltese are gossips. How can we not be? With a population barely comparable to that of a small city, if we are not related to everyone else we probably know them, well or by sight. We live in each other’s pockets. We know everybody’s business and who is sleeping with whom and when and where. Escapades are discussed over the bridge tables in an “exchange of information” and anywhere within the vibrant 50 metres between the law courts and Café Cordina. It’s no use pretending. Gossip is a national pastime; some is harmless, some is fun but a lot of it is malicious. So what is so different about a blog?
Whereas Gossip with a capital G has always sustained our natural inquisitiveness, there are, or were, certain limits of decency subject to unwritten rules that control it. The laws governing the local press have ensured that nothing remotely resembling what is written both by the bloggers and the commentators can ever be printed unless the newspaper has a death-wish to fold up pronto after a plethora of lawsuits.
Despite our fondness for litigation, the general impression is that no such regulations apply to blogs as they can be as uninhibited as they please without any fear of reprisal, legal or otherwise! Hence their universal appeal. This is absolutely untrue, which makes the situation such a puzzling one. There are two sides to every question and as the Duchess in Alice said, “there’s a moral to everything as long as you can find it”. These blogs are embroiling so many people that it reminds me of Tangentopoli barely a couple of decades ago… and where did that lead?
People are now so wary of falling victim to bloggers, myself included, that even the efficaciousness if not the safety of social marvels like Facebook is being questioned. It has taken all the fun out of it. All it takes is one dubious photograph and POW! This has been going on for several years now but in the last couple of months it has escalated to ridiculous proportions and today’s dinner table conversation is almost exclusively about blogging and its ramifications.
There is no way of fighting back. One is petrified, as if faced by Medusa herself, before such malevolence. As you see, I am being very circumspect not to upset or compromise my editor. I am not prepared to start a counter blog. I am no match anyway. I certainly have no penchant for that sort of thing. I am, nonetheless, morbidly fascinated by the ability that some people have of going for the jugular. I cannot admire it. I certainly do not condone it. Yet, I am one of the hundreds of thousands of people who hit these sites regularly to see what they are going to come up with next even though it does me no good to know the unwholesome details that are revealed about “other people”. It’s an addiction precisely because we have not got the equivalent of a “reveal all” tabloid British press here to satisfy people’s morbid curiosity.
Technogossip has opened up a Pandora’s box against which the law appears to be inadequate. The events of the last couple of months have thrown our hitherto well-ordered if hypocritical society out of synch. The power of blogging knows no bounds and it has managed to pull off an unprecedented declaration from the courts which hitherto had, like the Queen, always maintained a “never complain, never explain” attitude to public opinion, namely that no member of the judiciary or those in public office should be members of socially interactive sites like Facebook. A rather tame reaction, I thought, considering that the consequences of what has and still is developing are so enormous.
What’s next? One cannot but wonder how far it will go. I feel something has to give. What, is the question?
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Kenneth darling, you missed the whole point of what Daphne has ”blogged” about, to use your term. What she has in fact done at tremendous riskto herself but with great courage is expose the corrupting influence, because that is what it is, unethical behaviour and lack of morals which are currently rampant within certain quarters of the judiciary.
As far as I am concerned it is not gossip she has indulged in, but a sorely-needed presentation of the facts in the interests of the public, especially as investigative journalists or columnists are non-existent in Malta.
Anything which Kenneth Zammit Tabona writes or says has to be taken with a large pinch of salt.
I suspect that the situation with which Kenneth and many others are comfortable is this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/The_three_monkeys.png
No wonder then that corruption is so rampant
It’s very clear: if you are a public figure and paid by the public you should lead by example. None of them would have been mentioned on this blog if they lived by that rule.
The way Kenneth Zammit Tabona’s article comes across is that it’s OK to gossip over bridge or expresso about private and public persons, but not to expose facts about public persons, even if replete with wisecracks, on a blog.
This blog, unlike gossip over bridge, does not touch private persons. And the public persons who are talked about here know exactly what is being said about them, unlike when it is said by Kenneth and his friends behind their backs over bridge.
This blog has brought to the attention of the majority of the population what a minority already knew and talked about.
Yes, Kenneth, the people have a right to know. They don’t only have the right to make their voices heard about a theatre.
Sorry Mr. Zammit Tabona I don’t agree with you at all. What Daphne is doing is not gossip. If you want to believe “that all is well in the state of Denmark” when it isn’t, how can things improve?
If what has come to light is not investigated and dealt with, can anyone trust the courts any more?
Can you trust any other institution, for that matter? What we don’t need at this point is silence. We need more courageous journalists like Daphne. Thank you, Daphne.
If you knew just how viciously those old ladies of both sexes gossip over the bridge tables that Kenneth mentions, you would shudder. But that is perfectly acceptable to the moral hypocrites because it is ‘well ordered’.
Kenneth makes frequent references to The Queen – in his book, there is only one. But the only queens he knows are those at his bridge-table, in the closet and out of it.
As for at least two of them – not Kenneth, of course – their involvement with Labour and the Super One boys amounts to little more than the hunt for rough trade. Too fastidious to go down to the docks, they engage in a little bit of political slumming instead.
I do agree with Kenneth about the discomfort inherent in being forced to see Malta for what it is. It’s enough to keep you awake at night, and for all the wrong reasons.
“People are now so wary of falling victim to bloggers, myself included, that even the efficaciousness if not the safety of social marvels like Facebook is being questioned. It has taken all the fun out of it.” – Kenneth Zammit Tabona
If men in their mid-50s are looking to Facebook for fun, then they have a serious problem. A sad case of arrested development, one suspects.
Mr. Zammit Tabiona insinuates that we should stick to the omerta’ code because this would be best for us all. He should be denounced.
He does a disservice to Maltese society in encouraging truth-tellers and truth-seekers to refrain from their nefarious deeds in telling us what we don’t want to hear.
If “true journalists” do really exist, then this blog would be superfluous, but it seems Daphne is I think the ONLY true journalist who knows how to inform the public. The Institute of Journalists is a sham and should break up as it is the laughing stock of true journalism.
What are “accepted limits of decency and decorum”? Accepted by whom? Who decided for the rest of us?
Perhaps Daphne’s manner, tone and use of language in this blog are not typical of print journalism – indeed, they are not typical of her newspaper columns. But this is not print journalism. It is another medium altogether, with a different audience, in a totally different context, and has to be tackled appropriately.
It’s a shame Mark Camilleri didn’t post his Ir-Realta’ article on a blog. He wouldn’t have got into the trouble he is in – and not because the same laws don’t apply, but because the context is different.
Incidentally, I fail to see any comparison between Malta and a small town in Germany. The latter would be composed of people with an average education and cultural upbringing vastly superior to that of the Maltese population, which is condemned to seclusion, insular, xenophobic and racist and will forever think that the world should bow down at its feet.
THANK YOU DAPHNE FOR BRINGING FORWARD AND CHALLENGING AWARNESS ON THE PEOPLE’S BEHALF OF CORRUPT FIGURES ESPECIALLY IN THE JUDICIARY.
Mr. Zammit Tabiona is not having a very good week. First his poor arguments on Bondi+ and now this. It is only Tuesday so his week might improve with a rubber or two, at bridge of course.
It seems to me that Kenneth Zammit Tabona’s objection to this blog is driven by his opposition to the Valletta project, and your support of it. The way he sucks up to FAA and criticises the ‘Vella sisters’ on timesofmalta.com is rooted in the issue of Piano’s designs.
Zammit Tabona also strikes me as somebody who is ultraconservative and who wants to maintain the status quo, because it is quite convenient and comfortable for him, and it enforces the protection of his circle of friends.
With only 55 knots between Valletta and Capo Passero it is small wonder that we share a lot with our neighbours to the North. The only cosmetic differences are the result of 160-odd years of British rule. Nothing is ever investigated seriously, nobody ever resigns for the simple reason that the ‘piovra’ in Malta encompasses the whole of these two little islands, perhaps even more so than it does in Sicily. This is Malta, omerta’ and all: easily corruptible, corrupt and servile. Take it or leave it. Having said all this I think dragging the worst offenders across a recently manured field in full public view remains a worthwhile exercise and is to be recommended.
“…dragging the worst offenders across a recently manured field in full public view…”
Anthony, have you not yet noticed that some ‘offenders’ are already doing an excellent job of that – and dragging the rest of the judicial set up along with them.
Anthony, a “knot” is a measure of speed, not distance (one nautical mile per hour).
[Daphne – Twanny, who cares? Stick to the subject.]
I was only trying to be helpful. *sulk*
[Daphne – I’m not into flirting, Twanny. Ask around.]
Ma sabx xi jghid, Twanny. Fl-ahhar forsi beda jinduna kemm hu tac-cajt.
This kind of social communication has existed since the dawn of print, and even before that. The current form is just a technology change that made it easier and cheaper to reach incomparably wider audiences. Kenneth Zammit Tabona is using the older form, writing an opinion column in a newspaper.
The even older version are the opinionated wisecracks at family parties and other gatherings, pontificating about current affairs, public figures etc, or those writing satirical books and plays for public consumption while poking their finger in the eye of public figures.
The current form is more honest as long as it is publicly accessible and fair comments are not censored. In my opinion only trolls and their hate speech should be censored. It certainly helps raise society’s self awareness and hopefully make us all better.
Mr. Zammit Tabone, thank God I was not born an ostrich. We want to know what the judiciary are doing; we have every right to know.
‘Pecher en privat c’est pas pecher’ (It’s no sin to sin in private) as Moliere said – is that it, Kenneth?
Even if it were true for private individuals, which it isn’t, how can you accept it in a public person, Kenneth?
What are you trying to say – that it’s OK for judges to take bribes in private, as long as we only gossip about it? Are you mad? That it’s OK for a magistrate to party with the parties involved in court cases she presides over? Jesus wept.
If a football referee partied with a club official before refereeing a game involving that club, there would be a huge uproar but a magistrate, ostensibly dispensing justice, can do much worse? This is lunacy.
Do yourself a favour and recant, Kenneth, and apologise for the Medusa comparison while you’re at it.
[Daphne – Oh, was he referring to me? I thought that was a reference to Consuelo Herrera. She’s certainly got the hairstyle and basilisk eyes. Well then, I suppose I must be the first Medusa with floppy hair. Never mind. There goes Kenneth, backing the wrong horse again.]
Maybe he was peeved that you didn’t mention he was lunching in Marsaxlokk on Sunday. No not with Consuelo. The sweet person he was with deserves privacy.
Better a truth junkie than a heroin junkie, Kenneth.
Now Kenneth, you shouldn’t be reading this. Painting is better.
Maybe he should try it en plein air in Attard
I suspect that Kenneth was one of those who had a fit, simultaneously shaking head and hands, prancing up and down Republic Street having heard the Arrigo and Vella news. That was far too late.
It’s about time he starts living in the real world and puts all public officials on notice. Shape up or get out.
@ Kenneth Zammit Tabona
There is but one word to express my view of your article: HUMBUG.
It’s now Kenneth Zammit Tabona’s turn to be fed to this blog’s marmalja. Like piranhas, their frenzy is blind and indeterminable.
[Daphne – Better than being fed to the rednecks at your wife’s Barrakka party, Kev. They’d have had him turning on a spit after burning a couple of crosses. Jew ma kontx hemm?]
Rednecks have no pretentions, Daphne. And No, I wasn’t there. Not just because I avoid crowds – apart from a 3-day hop in June I avoided Malta altogether. Now get on with your work – your marmalja is baying for more.
And Kev’s right in the thick of it.
Kenneth’s article can be summed up in three words: ignorance is bliss.
Twanny you are perfectly right. I used knot as an abbreviation for nautical mile which is wrong.
It’s good to see you disentangled, Antoine.
Twanny, FYI.
“1.852 km is the LENGTH of the internationally-agreed nautical mile. The U.S. adopted the international definition in 1954, having previously used the U.S. nautical mile (1,853.248 m).[5] The U.K. adopted the international nautical mile definition in 1970, having previously used the U.K. Admiralty nautical mile (6,080 ft [1,853.184 m])” (Wikipedia)
The same applies to a ‘mile’ being a linear distance or, alternately expressed as the rate of travel, i.e. ten miles per hour.
Since in the US the knot started to be recognized both as the rate of speed of a marine craft and also as a linear distance (nautical mile), back in 1954, I am not surprised that you have no recollection of this.
Some of your (and our) best friends do not seem to (or want to) recollect what happened in the 70s and 80s, so it comes to no surprise that you cannot recall what happened in the 50s!
Hello!
“It is the Sicilian code and self-protective system so skilfully described by Tommasi di Lampedusa in The Leopard. It is entirely alien to northern Europe, which is why it is entirely alien to me.”
“entirely alien” Daphne? I’m not so sure that assertion bears scrutiny, and, well, to draw on a recent instance that I’m afraid might distract but is worth mentioning, there is the little matter of a certain former professor of theology at the University of Regensburg (Germany) and his brother the choir-master in Austria, and, well, a certain religious body in, well, northern Ireland, and something involving, how shall I say, the institutionalisation of a code of silence that met with the cooperation of local enforcement and state officials and such. Do you see what I mean?
At any rate not quite “alien” to any extent.
Excellent work uncovering the wheels, truly appreciated and all that, but the geography stuff is not quite convincing and, well, comes across as snobbery.
Regards
[Daphne – Snobbery, Anton? Hardly. Fact: the Maltese mindset is totally different and alien to the northern European mindset. People brought up in Malta with a northern European mindset cannot understand those brought up with a Sicilian/Maltese mindset and vice versa. People brought up here with a northern European mindset, incidentally, cross all socio-economic groups, and while it is true that there are many more in a certain social-economic group, largely as a result of exposure to different ideas, it is also true that the ‘omerta – let the system preval’ mindset is also most firmly entrenched in that socio-economic group. Our Kenneth here is a perfect illustration of that, the irony being that he actually thinks he’s rebelling by campaigning for a more conservative project than the one proposed by Renzo Piano. I think that Astrid Vella’s protect march last Saturday perfectly illustrated the cultural and political schizophrenia of this island: the Communists of Graffiti marching side by side with the blackshirts of Imperium Europa and the conservatives of tal-pepe Sliema with the enviornmentalists of BirdLife. It would be funny were it not so very crazy.]
I don’t think it’s a question of snobbery Anton, come on now. Daphne is right, my parents (when I was younger) always hammered this in my mind ‘Think outside the line’ They were right Anton. I have no qualms on stating that my father was pro Labour in the sixties….however he changed his views on what was yet to hit our beloved island(s) and thrown back to the ‘Dark Ages’.
“a never complain, never explain attitude to public opinion”
That might apply to Queen Elizabeth, but certainly not to politicians and magistrates – not even in her own country.
In Britain they do a lot of explaining, all right! They create commissions and fact-finding missions and public inquiries. If all this fails to assuage public opinion a new, more aggressive and high-profile inquiry is launched with a lot of fanfare.
What opinion leaders (I’m mostly referring to politicians in this case) fail to notice is that when they lose their credibility by stretching it too much or by a successful media campaign against them then they must resign for the benefit of the party. Happened to Sant here. He should have left the leadership after losing the election.
Credibility seems to be under-rated.
@Anton Caruana Galizia
I take that you are referring to the recent spate of reports regarding the abuse (sexual or otherwise) of children in various Catholic Church institutions. You are right in commenting that this code of silence (I prefer the word “omertà”) also prevailed for many years, yes, even in northern European countries. What you perhaps are not so aware of is that the cultural background (or shall we say, formation) of the persons involved in the cover-up is Roman (meaning that there was a period of training/formation in Rome). What I mean to say is that, unfortunately, this dangerous mentality creeps into the formation process of those persons who later become responsible for such institutions, etc. Such is the case with a good number of bishops, for example. Hopefully, a greater level of transparency is starting to appear even in the sphere of organised religion, Catholic or otherwise. I am of the firm belief that there should be no sacred cows.
If only you knew how ‘Sicilian’ the mindset becomes at the highest levels of authority!
And I’m not referring to bureaucrats and puppets in the executive and political arenas, but the actual ruling elites – the ‘globalists’ who own and control the banking/financial, energy, pharmaceutical, media and military industrial cartels. Their omerta is thicker than blood and their fraudulent manipulations deeper than their vaults. They are the ones who also control the EU. They are the ones who direct their minions in global think-tanks and organisations – which they set and finance – to falsely instruct you, for example, that global warming is man-made, so we need to pay for ‘carbon credits’ (certified and managed by their cartel of course).
But you would not know any of this for the Western Pravda, comprising of six major media corporations playing politics in shades of red, green, orange and blue, has fed you lies upon lies within an illusion you call reality. This Western Pravda, taking its cues (in areas of special interest) solely from government statements, has taught you to call well-proven facts outside their mantra ‘conspiracy theories’ – which is highly risible since throughout history conspiracy at the highest of levels has been the order of the day.
So let the idiotic La Redoutes and Avatars-turned-Nostradami of this blog show us what oblivious, naive Europhiles they are. And do carry on, Daphne. The pretentious proles are again restless tonight. Never disappoint baying flatterers.
Ma’ min mar Musumeci t-Tajlandja, allura, you were saying? Din mhux xi KONSpirisi tieri hux? Ghidilna dwar it-tinfoil hat ukoll, please, ha nidhqu ftit u nnehhu l-balal mill-istonku… U prosit tal-pogromm.
Kev, are you an employee of the EU?
Those working in the political sphere are allowed by Uncle Joe to dabble in politics. We are but remnants of democratic representation in an otherwise greying peoples’ congress.
Ho-hum. Our Kev’s got indigestion.
Aren’t there better ways and places to deploy your talents?
It’s not the ranting about global powermongers that gets to me but the angst at the western world that feeds and frees you.
By the way, 45+ guy on facebook, arguably one of the hated powermongers:-
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/BillGates?ref=search&sid=517778213.2932635024..1
Could not find anything of note except highly professional PR stuff. Look and learn maybe?
What are you on about, Stefan, hi? Fuq il-hass qed nitkellem jien.
Go and preach to your TEAM members, Kev