GUEST POST: “These people play very expensive fiddles paid for by taxpayers’ money while their cities burn”
This guest post was sent in this morning, originally as a comment, by Matthew S. I don’t know who Matthew S is, but I certainly think this is perfect for publication here.
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Malta, always the last place to catch up with the rest of western Europe.
We’re almost in 2015 and the mainstream press in Malta is still playing a game of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ with the marital and sex lives of our politicians.
Well, hello there, Malta. The game is over. The last European bastion to doggedly protect politicians’ private lives was France.
That all came to a sudden end in 2011 when a maid in New York accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her. Cue stories, back home in France (and the rest of the democratic world) of his sexual assault on journalists, participation in orgies and all sorts of extra-marital horse-play.
It had taken a New Yorker to get the French out of their stupor, but once it happened there was no turning back. The French public was shocked to discover that a much admired politician and professor (and oh boy, do they love those in France) was not only an adulterer and a philanderer but also a complete pervert.
Not only did Strauss-Kahn bring international shame to France but he also made the French realise that you cannot separate the man from his public role. Previously talked about as the next socialist leader, he was immediately dropped from running for office by his party.
Interestingly, when Nicolas Sarkozy had nominated Strauss-Kahn for the International Monetary Fund board, he was accused of kicking a possible future opponent upstairs – but what happened was a disastrous national embarrassment.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn now works as a consultant for the Russian, Serbian and South Sudanese governments, where being accused of sexual assault is a mere trifle. Insert your own Cyrus Engerer, Shiv Nair, John Dalli, etc parallel to the above story here.
As if to prove that 2011 was a watershed year (in broadcasting, a watershed is the time after which adult content can be screened) for these sorts of issues, right over the French border, Silvio Berlusconi’s premiership collapsed under the colossal weight of extra-marital affairs, bunga-bunga parties, stories of sex with minors, corruption charges and all sorts of other legal issues.
Now Italians might be a forgiving bunch when it comes to men displaying their macho, chauvinist side, but the fact is that while all these shenanigans were going on, Italy’s economy was in stalemate and had been that way for more than a decade. Instead of running the country, Berlusconi had spent half his time in office partying and the other half fighting legal battles.
Fast-forward a few years and the French want to prove that they have learned their lesson. Francois Hollande lives with a woman who is neither the mother of his children nor his wife (the mother of his children also wasn’t his wife). That’s considered fairly normal in ultra-liberal France, but all of a sudden the French president is farcically running around Paris on the back of a motorcycle, disguised in a large helmet, conducting a clandestine affair with an actress.
The story explodes in the news and everybody has a field-day. The jilted lover publishes her memoirs and the public laps it up as if it’s the best thing to hit the bookshelves since À la recherche du temps perdu.
Were the French just being nosy? Not quite. While the president was frolicking around with an actress as if he were a 20-year-old, taxes were rising, unemployment was off the charts, businesses were moving elsewhere and the deficit was out of control. Not surprisingly, his already low approval ratings continued plummeting after the revelation of his affair.
Nobody wants to think about these people having sex. Dominique Strauss-Kahn is gross, Silvio Berlusconi looks like a wax doll and Francois Hollande is so plain, you wouldn’t notice him in a crowd of one.
Nobody wants to think about the neurotic Konrad Mizzi kissing Lindsay Gambin or Janice Bartolo bending over for the lumpen Owen Bonnici. And God forbid we ever have to contemplate Leo Brincat’s, Chris Cardona’s or, oh, the horror, Manuel Mallia’s copulation high jinks, if any.
But regardless of our misgivings, we sometimes have to, because these people play very expensive fiddles paid for by taxpayers’ money while their cities burn. If Malta wants to stop being a European Union member state in name only, it’s high time it got with the programme.
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Excellent piece! This text should be mandatory for all communication studies students and aspiring journalists.
…and for repeaters like Saviour Balzan.
But Saviour Balzan only restricts journalism where it suits his beloved Prime Minister. He did not stop to harass Police Commissioner Grech when he had an extra marital affair, and was forced to resign.
Excellent post, hopefully Matthew S will become a regular contributor to this website. Prosit.
Minor correction – Hollande’s rating actually improved after the affair – http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/franois-hollandes-affair-leads-to-poll-boost-thanks-to-support-from-french-women-9058650.html
Only in France?
As with Malta, Hollande, is now seen as a joke.
There were many, in France’s regions who thought “Moi, Président….” was going to finally introduce change where Sarkozy – in his first battle with the Unions – had backed off. Crazily, they entrusted him with their vote.
When personality cracks like those appear in the case of Hollande and Muscat/ Muscat’s team there is no turning back the clock. The fissure endures and widens – even amongst those of average intelligence.
In the regions, where – remember – 70% of French have to survive on their meager under 1500 – 2000€ per month salary (in most cases where the take home is on the 1300€ level), where heavy taxes and accompanying enforcement measures are in place so that the French can only “have a life” between July and August (this is when they receive their Tax bill, and October, November the other two), life is pretty sparse. A vegetable garden is not only a hobby, it’s a necessity. People join up even to get a good deal on meat.
The French don’t like not travelling because of language difficulties – as it is largely said. The average French man can’t afford to max out and live on his salary otherwise.
That is why jeans make up the French wardrobe. That is why any household economy, even 2€ here and there counts. Even hobby fishing needs a paid for licence. If you want to go out fishing for a day with friends – you each need to pay for a day licence and then the fish gets put back in the river etc.. It gets extremely basic. And then you have French pride, style, and values, that covers up for all that. Despite the hardship that they are not even aware can be different in their lifetime, they cope.
The mentality is so very peasant post-revolution.
ADSL entered France about 6 years after it did in Malta.
Regional town halls called big meetings to explain it to the villagers. The knack of French large companies is that they introduce the big bits but leave out the convenience of the small packages. But the French remain totally unaware, screened off from the possibilities and alternatives offered to others.
Literature is translated with another 6 / 7 year delay.
Film dubbing is not exact.
The market of Medicines is so protected that only what is made in France gets offered on the National Health system.
Some medicines are free to the French, but they do have to pay 30% of all medical bills, unless this is covered by a separate insurance.
In all levels of French life there is a filter that cuts off reality for that 70%.
The conceptual limits of the general French can be equated to keeping a whole population stupid.
Germany today is very different.
In Italy conceptual limits have always been wider.
The UK has the great advantage however you put it. Perhaps it’s the humour that helped, over the years, in addition to the existence of the eccentric.
We have no idea how lucky we were in Malta. How advanced. How fast things used to get done.
In Malta too, reality has become very different.
In Malta, mob mentality rules. The screen of stupidity that put these people there allows them to do whatever they like.
And they know it.
Spot on.
We are not obsessed by the politicians’ private lives.
We are concerned about the wasteful gung-ho behaviour of theirs.
Great piece. Probably Saviour Balzan would think it’s just voyeurism of the Mediterranean kind.
https://dancingczars.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/margaret-thatcher-other-peoples-money.jpg?w=400&h=400
I can’t imagine joey and the hundreds of his cronies ever looking forward to running out of THEIR OWN money.
When they run out of other people’s money, they will know that it is the time for them to disappear – together with their own treasure chests.
Excellent post ! well done
Excellent post. Thank you for publishing it as an article rather than a reader’s comment, I would have missed it otherwise. I have no time to read all comments.
Matthew S. you are a genius. Well done.
Prosit Matthew S.Welcome to this blog. Kif għidt tajjeb int, mhu xejn sew li Malta qed tegħreq fid-dejn u l-gvern jisparpalja flusna fuq il-politiċi fi ħdanu biex iħaxxnu bwiethom u dawk ta’ nieshom u qed jiġu jitmejlu minna lkoll. Bħalissa l-aktar li qed treġi l-għajta Malta tagħna lkoll! u ħalluna tridux! Possibbli għad hawn min għandu għamad fuq għajnejh li mhux qed iħallih jara x’inhi l-verità jew ma jafux x’jiġifieri l-verità għax hekk ġew mgħallma, jaħbu kollox taħt it-tapit basta jilħqu l-iskop tagħhom?
‘Bhalissa l-aktar li qed tregi l-ghajta Malta taghna lkoll’. U veru, sewwa qed tghid.
Naf b’wiehed li, wara l-1987 kien jghajjat f’nofs ta’ triq “Ahna Nazzjonalisti, naghmlu li rridu”. U veru wkoll, ghaliex kwazi dejjem ghamel li ried u ftit kienu jiqfulu.
Minn sentejn ‘l hawn l-ghajta tbiddlet u saret aktar qawwija – Malta taghna lkoll. U hadmet, tafx,
Dak li taht gvern Nazzjonalista ma kienx thalla jaghmel ghaliex kien abuziv, issa nghata l-permess kollu biex jaghmlu.
Hollande had so bombastically endorsed Muscat a few days before the March ’13 elections
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130307/elections-news/hollande-endorses-joseph-muscat.460620
Now Muscat is rolling down hill in the same fashion as Hollande is doing.
An excellent piece. Unfortunately there are those who tolerate or turn a blind eye to this sort of behaviour as long as they are served their iced bun.
Call me an (old) wet blanket, but the transfers, promotions and benefits dished out prior to the 1987 elections still garnered 48.9% of the vote for the MLP.
Many chose to ignore the violence, the corruption, the failed economy and the anti-democratic policies which ruled the day.
Well put, but I am left wondering if Matthew S is Maltese.
Ever since the last election I have come to realise that few Maltese are truly European. The rest feel more comfortable going back to being the poor islanders forever being conquered by some ruling power, to whom they have to beg for something in return, and to whom they are grateful for whatever they get even if it is far less than what they deserve.
In Malta’s villages this is often described as Us and Them, and unfortunately it is rather endemic.