Of course it’s not normal

Fresh from a hardly convincing win in the PN leadership contest, it looks like Adrian Delia took the opportunity of his highly amusing embrace with Simon Busuttil, who had made it pretty clear he did not want him as his successor, to swipe a nap hand into

To prove this pick-pocketing feat, he quickly made use of a typical incantation from the political flop’s repertoire: this country is not normal. Of course it’s not normal. How can an insignificant little island be normal when it has a thriving economy now employing over 33,000 foreign workers, desperate as it is to find unemployed locals to fill those posts? This is in complete contrast to the time when whole generations of the island’s young men and women had no alternative but to emigrate to far-flung places like Australia, Canada and the US to find jobs and create a future for themselves and their families.

Of course it’s not normal. As the smallest member state in the European Union, Malta has, in a mere four years, reduced its unemployment rate to negligible levels, rubbing statistical shoulders with European powerhouse Germany. Indeed, that’s not normal at all given this island has no natural resources and has to contend, every single day of the year, with extreme territorial and demographic realities. However, in this short period of time, this government made up for the economic decline, soaring joblessness and poverty levels, the arrogance and corruption that had preceded the change of government in 2013.

Of course it’s not normal. This blob of land in the middle of the Mediterranean has a history and a culture that surpass by far anything the other, much bigger, islands that dot this ancient sea can ever offer. It is a nation that has achieved its independence and freedom without even a hint of bloodshed and, in the process, claiming the right to a place and a vote in the United Nations. Malta is the envy of places like Sicily, Lampedusa, Majorca, Minorca, Crete, Corsica, Sardinia and several others which depend on their mainland masters for their social, political and economic well-being.

Of course it’s not normal. How else can one describe Malta’s topten ranking in the world as regards its health services, now bound to move a notch higher as a result of the incredible local and foreign investment that has been attracted to the sector? This minuscule island with minuscule financial clout that today offers a remarkable free health package to its tax-paying citizens, is now well on its way to assuring all cancer patients, at home or in hospitals, of free medication.

Of course it’s not normal. How can it be normal when, while all this is taking place, a complete infrastructural overhaul is occurring at the same time? Yes, too many tower cranes in sight, alas, but every single one of them embodies a wide range of work opportunities for service-providers, from architects, builders and material suppliers to plasterers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, decorators, glaziers, furniture and bathroom merchants and all their employees, real estate agents, neighbourhood shops, supermarkets, restaurants, and sundry other collateral beneficiaries.

There is also the negative side to our abnormality as a country. We are still not normal where environmental issues are concerned as witnessed by the urban neglect that haunts places like Sliema, Paceville, St Julian’s and other popular parts of the island. Waste disposal and collection are still a nightmare, with many people still sadly ignoring their shared responsibilities even over the simple issue of the green and black bags schedule despite the undoubted efforts of wellmeaning local councils.

We cannot be seen as being normal given the situation of our abnormal traffic, the lack of courtesy, the infantile disregard for driving and parking regulations, the timid tempo of law-enforcement, and the persistence of a time-honoured system allowing two-way traffic in old, narrow, winding streets with parking sometimes on both sides. If that is normal, then who needs the most welcome projects undertaken recently to make sure that at least traffic flow in some long-endured bottleneck areas is improved?

Of course it’s also not normal when you have a thrice-humiliated political leader reluctantly surrendering the reins to a successor who, in his declared new way, simply picks into the other’s pocket to make sure that the same old negative script that actually led to those electoral fiascos is fitted into the new ventriloquist’s spite list.

Being normal in politics would have meant really distancing oneself from failed policies and standpoints, coming up with your own ideas and visions, and joining in the effort to continue keeping this island as not so normal as possible.

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Hats off to Godfrey

Godfrey Farrugia, whose PD party of two is in not an exactly normal coalition with the Nationalist Opposition, has rightly been directed by the other to take part in the newly appointed technical committee entrusted with the drafting of much-needed policies on waste management. I think it is the right decision and a wise message to the new Opposition leader who seems to be naively willing to stick with the idea that an Opposition is only there to criticise and to politically exploit national issues such as the ever-growing problem of waste disposal in a small island with a surging population.

Dr Farrugia did not beat about the bush. He chided the big- brother Nationalist segment of the Opposition, saying it is dutybound to represent all those who voted for it by closely monitoring the government’s business and coming up with its own alternative solutions.

I me mine

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A probably very rich cleric in rich Saudi Arabia, Abdullah al-Mutlaq, recently issued a fatwa on birthdays, claiming the celebrations are too costly. He actually announced it on state television, blowing out the candles on those eager to mark their annual happy day. Needless to say, the war on birthdays produced plenty of online discussion, with the original tweet on the story prompting numerous reactions and retweets.

A fatwa is often used to prevent Muslims from adopting non-Mus- lim customs. There have been inexplicable Saudi fatwas also on Pokémon Go, deemed a promotion of gambling, and Darwin’s ‘Theory of Evolution’. A Muslim council in Indonesia even issued a fatwa on Santa hats after reports that “companies were forcing employees to wear them” during the festive season.

No such fatwa exists in Western society, though similar attitudes and prohibitions did exist (and some continue to exist) in the various Christian denominations as regards, for example, the celebration of Halloween, contraception, and, if you remember it, the happily discarded diktat of meat consumption on Fridays.

With me reaching the unmentionable age in a few months’ time, at least I know I will hopefully still be able to celebrate it. That’s normal, isn’t it?