Steve, if you don’t mind, I would like to chip in here.

Not only is Daphne an excellent journalist, she is the ONLY journalist with the intestinal fortitude to speak her mind, no matter the consequences. I truly admire her incredibly hard work, time involvement, writing ability and intellect in bringing, to a (mostly) reluctant people, the opportunity to think for themselves.

“when I read an article like this, I just wonder where it leaves those who accuse you of being a PN lackey, possibly even paid.”

Daphne is merely criticising Gonzi in his capacity as PM. So your rhetoric wondering is neither here nor there in this particular instance. Please save it for when she decides to ‘attack’ the PN administration, but don’t hold your breath.

[Daphne – I’m sorry, but I can’t understand the distinction you make. Bring on the contorted reasoning. If I am not ‘attacking the PN administration’ then exactly what am I doing here? I imagine your lot at Malta Today are pretty fed-up because they can’t do it themselves, seeing as how Saviour Balzan was least seen having lunch with somebody very senior in a LAFICO-owned company. Oh, didn’t he tell you? Well, you heard it from me.]

Malta’s direct involvement would have been infinitesimal at best. The consequences of participating directly like France, Britain and the rest of the coalition could be economically substantial.

[Daphne – Angus, it is not the amount we can contribute that is at issue here, but our willingness to contribute anything at all. Talk of ‘allowing ourselves to be used’ just shows how our PM and foreign minister think: this is not their battle. They don’t want to get involved. They won’t allow themselves to be used by others in THEIR battle. Let’s draw a comparison that’s really easy to understand. You’re collecting for cancer research. You shake your tin under somebody’s nose and he says: “Nobody in my family has cancer, and anyway, I only have five cents on me so I might as well not give you anything at all.” How are you going to react to this person? Exactly. It strikes me that the government has spent a lot of time assessing the opportunity cost of participating in the coalition, and none at all on assessing the opportunity cost of staying out.]

Malta by its greatest majority (except for KMB and CNI) totally abhors Gaddafi’s actions but that does not mean that it should ‘pretend’ to have the right facilities to take an active part in the coalition’s imposition of a no-fly zone, when in reality it does not.

We are being treated as village idiots who become of sound only every five years when elections approach and we are canvassed for our votes or even taken for granted.

We are looked down upon and spoken to in a condescending manner as if we are unable to form an opinion or are not well informed; they – being the politicians – have forgotton that there are 24/7 TV channels devoted solely to news and that, through the internet, we can access newspapers all over the world of every hue and colour.

An example is the interviews given by Tonio Borg and Lawrence Gonzi on Sky News and Al Jazeera; within minutes, links and comments had been uploaded on this website and everybody had his say.

I do not think any Maltese TV channel or newspaper went further than a cursory mention let alone an analysis of what was said and, more important, how it was said.

They have even tried to sell us that whopper that Malta cannot form part of an intervention because of the neutrality clause in our constitution when this can be superseded by a UN Security Council Resolution as has in fact happened. It had to be retired President Eddie Fenech Adami to prick that balloon.

But then when one reads the comments on timesofmalta.com one is tempted to give up all hope. It seems that they are rooting for the status quo as it would not rock the boat and we can continue business as usual.

Another domino – Syria – has now started trembling in a process which will see North Africa and the Middle East changed beyond recognition. But we in our little Don Camillo world are afraid of change as our mantra has always been “mhux dejjem hekk ghamilna” (we have always done things this way).

Back to it.

I don’t have a fraction of a doubt that the reason for this pussyfooting is lobbying by those who have large investments in that country.

Ultimately, both the PN and PL are hoping that this matter will be sorted out by others, with both maintaining as large a distance as possible, so whatever the outcome, hopefully those with interests in Libya can pick up where they left off.

Both Dr Gonzi and Dr Muscat were colluding ever since we were sending refugees back from our waters to almost certain imprisonment , or worse, in Libya. And Simon Busuttil kept quiet then.

[Daphne – No, Simon Busuttil did not keep quiet. He was consistent in writing about the issue with a humanitarian point of view.]