Who exactly?

The story of how the Graffitti group was prevented from carrying out its less than sensational protest at the University against representatives of the government and construction industry tycoons has done its rounds.

Still we do not know who exactly at the University authorized that the protest be prohibited and why – this before the move got rescinded.

The whole incident reminded me of another story, going back to my student days. My friends and I had set up a society to organize free debates among students. Some professors did not like this at all. When the first annual general meeting of the society was being held, one professor despatched a contingent of seminarists to mount a block vote against us. We were duly booted out.

On graduation day, we ran a protest against this. At the time, among other things, the day was celebrated with a panegyric in Latin which nobody understood. It was to be delivered by the professor who had organised the block vote. As soon as he began his speech, we rose to give him a standing ovation which we kept going for I do not know how many minutes... in any event, till ushers were summoned to kick us out.

More than half a century later, is it possible after all, that the state of affairs at the University has not changed so much?

Grillings

Supposedly – according to how things got framed – nominees as European Commissioners for the Ursula von der Leyen mandate were “grilled” during the meetings held with MEPs in which they were assessed. There has been a certain exagerration in the way by which this process was projected.

Actually, meetings are held according to a courteous liturgy, even when questions are put forward with the full intention to embarrass and sometimes too with malice. Even so, it is not easy for a nominee Commissioner to proceed for almost the duration of two football matches, waiting for questions to be fielded, judging how best to reply intelligently without irritating too many people, and striving to remain credible.

Last week, Helena Dalli demonstrated how this challenge could be met. Other candidates, like those nominated by France and Poland, found it a tougher nut to crack.

A curious point to note is that contestation started when the policy of selling citizenship got to be adopted by small countries like Malta or Cyprus. Big countries like the US and the UK, have for long years indulged in practices quite similar to it

Where do we get our information from?

What do we know about what happens around us: where do we get it from? Is it always coming from the same sources, feeding us what we believe we know about events that are happening now or occurred yesterday?

The claim is that because of social media, we no longer depend solely on the same news agencies or radio and TV stations. News reaches us from all sides, for in a capillary mode all citizens have acquired thanks to the internet an ability to inform all people they know about all they know.

One problem is that these capillary means of communication are too often greatly garbled. They shape out more like a comment or like a debased description of ongoing realities, than as facts that are being objectively reported. To make matters more unbalanced, one soon finds that the comments and descriptions that are being “published” follow from reports coming from traditional sources of information.

One doubts whether as a matter of fact, we can really boast that we have a much better access to information than our predecessors.

Accountability

What we still need to solve as a society is how to really adopt and truly respect the principle of accountability: how should all those having a public or private charge – one that impacts on the life and conduct of citizens – assume responsibility for what they do? In this field too, the friends of friends culture remains strongly embedded: If I expect that X should give a transparent account of his/her actions, he/she will expect me to do the same. Now, isn’t it the case that one and all, we would like to earn good money in peace while living well...? So, let sleeping dogs lie...!

Such sentiments undermine the drive to really establish a culture of accountability – one in which regularly and as a natural way of doing things, the expectation is that valid accounts are presented covering activities being carried out.

Perhaps this is why so many prefer a management style that operates on a one-to-one basis, rather than “collegially”, in a wider group mode. Information about ongoing proceedings does not reach everybody in the same way and at the same time. Instead, it is deconstructed into different shapes and channelled to different groups of two to three members. Which creates space for multiple ambiguities.

The emergence of such space inhibits accountability.

Passports

As an issue, the sale of passports has once again come up for discussion and controversy. It will stay that way.

A curious point to note is that contestation started when the policy of selling citizenship got to be adopted by small countries like Malta or Cyprus. Big countries like the US and the UK, have for long years indulged in practices quite similar to it. In their case though, their very size allows them to cover or fudge its effects, both good and bad. For small countries, this is not possible. Whether they experience a surge or a fall in their affairs, very soon the changes become public.

I am one of those who are hardly in favour of schemes to market passports, but I recognize the hypocrisy of many of their critics. They woke up to fret about them when the smaller countries began to put them in place.

House in Gozo

I was impressed by Mark Doneo’s new Maltese language film “Hemm dar il-Qala” (“There’s a house in Qala...”) that I’ve just seen. It is directed effectively and fluidly, and for most of the time also has nicely crafted dialogue and competent acting. As the title indicates, the film takes us to an abandoned house in Qala. Nobody seems to want to live in it any more.

The head of a PR agency accepts to send a team of film technicians to shoot a documentary about the house. They all end up overcome by the bad vibes that prevail inside it. Or else, have they been trapped in the machination of some madman? What is certain is that in the past, a horrible story seems to have occurred there.

Interestingly, the influence of Dario Argento makes itself well felt. However, the plot could have been tightened to prevent a few scenes from sounding repetitive or incoherent.