I’ve never even seen Ix-Xewka but it lies dormant in the Maltese subconscious as something controversial, and hence reviving the newspaper – even if not in its former form – would result in readership.

It’s the title – Ix-Xewka – something ‘li tniggzek’ – but instead of just being vulgar, it would contain truth AND make fun of people’s choices, too.

Maybe I have not grasped the meaning of that publication and just see it as something historical, in the same way that Gensna is admired just because it is sort of cult, and not because the message was particularly important and relevant to 20 and 30-somethings.

Jozef,
I am not discussing whether this blog has a positive or negative impact. The foundation of my argument is that this blog has grown to be considered as a sort of PN-voice. Not the Nationalist Party’s voice: but rather, the voice of people who tend to vote Nationalist, which is a different thing.

Don’t get me started on the PN media – you’re absolutely right – at this stage, they might as well close down everything if they’re not prepared to have these so called discussions.
Now this is where the PN is following Labour’s hype: I gave some ideas to a party official a few days ago, on some “fronts of attack” – his reply? ” Hmm..we have to be careful not to be negative though”. You just give up.

Agreed.

correction, immigration is linked to unemployment.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my concerns.

Just: one one small footnote. I never said ‘this website is here to get a rid of Labour’. I was just hoping/thinking that, deep down, that is what you wish and hoped for, because you believe that Labour is a risk to our country’s (and our children’s) present and future.

One last thing regarding the suggestions: Perhaps there could be a form of user registration, that allows the same user to be notified by email when his/her comment has been replied to, either by you or by other users.

Michelle, my question then remains.

When the PN refuses to engage that which is discussed in bars etc, how exactly is it expected to be taken seriously?

I repeat, why are politics treated as something belonging to the party?

Muscat had to create the movement to rid the electorate of voting Labour, why, there’s loads of people coming here who try to distinguish between their vote and being ‘nationalist’.

Fact is, The PN can go through a catharsis in public, 25 years of rule mean five consecutive majorities by an electorate which could only be prised off their vote for Pieta’ when its alternative was nothing other than itself.

Bondi’, Micallef Leyson, Bundy etc did what they had to do to pronounce Labour electable. Muscat even promised that those voters who’ll consent the movement to power need not fear discrimination by the old guyard as he’d intercede personally for them.

Such was the degeneration in logic, discourse and clarity of politics.

A travesty of the PN claiming the ‘true’ PN, when all it is is a bunch of nostalgics, neo-fascists, misguided opinion hoggers, self-appointed environmentalists, piccoli borghesi et al.

A motley crew of disaffected individuals whose commercial, social and conflicting agenda created Muscat’s amorphous entity.

Gays for hunting, developers with a suspended sentence, their counterparts taken over by the least committed except for the cheques she recieves, everything is pop with Muscat.

Surely the Opposition will one day realise this blog is an ally, not a taboo. It’s proof not everything is medium, proof there’s still a propensity to grow, challenge and look at caprice for its own sake as something to include.

Which brings me to another suggestion for this blog, do not ever divide posts between ‘fun’ and ‘serious’ or whatever;

The spirit here is that everything matters, clothes and style make and describe people as much as what they are perceived to ‘say’. What with a press hellbent on appeasing and portraying as somewhat presentable the barbaric, the vulgar and ultimately every undercurrent of racist, bigot, undemocratic, marxist, anti-western, hand-out mental architecture.

When the national style is averse to less is more, when consumption itself becomes political, just look at the dilemma between measurable growth and accelerated cost relevance, what an individual needs to display themselves is purely political.

It’s the style that matters, apologising for one’s existence or falling into the PC trap, leftist pontificating if I may, is what killed politics everywhere.

We face big business, big corporations, faceless multinationalism, state handouts and uniform single thought.

But do you see any trace of xenophobia, homophobia or any other deligitimisation of anyone other than a gun toting lobby arguing itself desperately addicted?

Meantime Muscat puts both arms forward, immigration is directly related to immigration so there and childcare implies any job so lump it.

Time to tackle the issues why Muscat was elected, Michelle, you’d be surprised what perspective does in resolution of the conundrum we’ve been left with.

Other suggestion, I absolutely don’t fancy the idea of a like button, it makes everything banal. This portal defines interface and interface here is strictly ideas. People get to write something, commit and observe personal interaction with she who cannot be named. It verges on the illegal, what fun.

What exactly is the meaning of ‘like’? Nothing.

If anything a function to upload images from one’s PC. Graphs, info, cartoons, anything people may like to express beyond a comment.

Helpful additions would be a more powerful search (By date, nickname, blog and comments.)

And Navigation could be improved drastically:

Mobile Devices: Swipe left or Right for previous newer posts.

For non touch screens: Older/Newer buttons, either always centred side of the page; or more buttons at the end of the post and at the end of the comments.

If I do not have these changes I will still be glued to this site, wherever I am in the world.

[Daphne – If I wanted this website to have posts in Maltese, I would write them myself directly in Maltese and not have them translated from English by others. Maltese and English are two completely different languages that evolved in two vastly different cultures and authentic translations between the two are not possible of pieces in which much is embedded in the nuances of language. Also, the underclass which criticises and mocks me without having read a word I’ve written will do so in any case. They have no interest in basing their opinion on fact; they just enjoy having a figure of fun to mock or an evil witch to hate, because their cultural development has not evolved beyond where it was arrested in the pre-Enlightenment era. They are no more willing or able to read anything in Maltese than they are willing or able to read anything in English. The reason they do not read is not language, but resistance to reading and information. There’s another thing: if I were to write posts in Maltese I would still not ‘reach’ those people. My Maltese voice is not theirs, in the same way that my English voice is not that of the Greater Manchester slums. Most of them don’t speak Maltese at all, but a barely intelligible patois.]

If I may … a thing which bothers me with certain websites is the amount of time taken to publish user comments (in your case it is totally understandable because you have to moderate all the inflow on your own).

I know you want readers to be mainly engaged to the blog content, but user comments do add to the experience and these are what engage returning visitors.

Maybe a way around it could be publishing comments and moderating afterwards.

[Daphne – That’s out of the question for me because the law comes into play at the point of publication. And also because people have a tendency to be awful about others under the cloak of anonymity and when they know that their comment is not going to be moderated until after publication if at all.]

This would have to be done hand in hand with my previous point re User Registration so as to limit spam, vulgar comments etc.

[Daphne – I don’t wish to have users register. It is an unnecessary inconvenience and it stops non-registered people from commenting spontaneously because the only people who register are those who intend to contribute comments regularly.]

As a side note – you previously referred to Times of Malta as a ‘go-to’ resource, which to some extent is true. But on the other hand your blog has very powerful SEO … I would say more than Times of Malta and Malta Today. So this is something one could build on.