Tourists from all over the world dream of going to France. They have heard about the glorious food and wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, the breathtaking beauty of Brittany, the sea and sun of the French Riviera, the skiing in the French Alps and the atmosphere of gay Paris.
France is a wonderful country and the French have a lot to be proud of. All those wonders are quite true and often unique. However, the chic fashion and the slender middle-aged fragrant women with elegant haircuts and little poodles who have a certain je ne sais quoi about them, mostly live in Paris. If only that could be the end of the story – unfortunately it isn’t.
For it is also the Parisian who believes, above other Frenchmen, that the French, or more accurately the Parisian himself, is king of cuisine, fashion and sex. It is the Parisian who can’t abide Italian wine, German anything – even cars – and thinks the Spanish are just road workers. It the Parisian who believes that the Maltese think of themselves as European hoteliers when, in fact, the Parisian knows that they are really just poor Arab builders who live in ugly peasant housing and eat rubbish.
It is the Parisian who hypocritically believes that all other European nations should adhere to EU rulings, while having little intention of complying themselves. It is the Parisian who is racist, hates Arabs, Africans, Asians, Americans, other Europeans, other French and even each other.
Moreover, it is the Parisian who, above all, can’t forgive the rest of the world for being fascinated by the British monarchy and aristocracy as a sign of class, history and culture. They are most jealous of this, while conveniently forgetting that they murdered their own in an orgy of barbaric regicide and mass genocide worthy of some tin pot dictator like Robert Mugabe.
But, above all, the Parisian will never be able to forgive the English for continually beating them on land and sea throughout history until they finally became allies in the 19th century – a only for the French having to face the humiliation of being saved twice by the British in two World Wars. How humbling, how tragic, how delightful!
Most tourists from Europe, especially Great Britain, get to see most of France and therefore realise that the Parisian is not a true representative of a largely likeable and friendly race of decent people. However, travellers from further afield, like Japan and the US, perhaps only get to see Paris on their European tours and so often leave with a serious dislike for a race that they consider to be both arrogant and rude.
What gives rise to this superiority complex? Could it be a thousand years of chic effeminate fashion or perhaps a secret inverted inferiority complex brought about by their masculine failure ever since the great days of Napoleon? Who knows?
One thing is certain: the sooner the Parisians realise that their waiters are rude, their taxi drivers are both rude and smelly – perhaps the Parisians bathe less than anyone else in Europe, their trade unions are lawless, their general attitude is peevish and arrogant and that having a beautiful city because it wasn’t bombed is nothing to be proud of; the sooner the rest of the world will afford them a little more respect.
Could basket case Britain want to leave the asylum?
Could there still be enough sane people in balmy Britain who haven’t yet jumped ship and who might attempt a mutiny on board HMS Albion and thus save the ship from floundering on the rocks of moral corruption or running aground on the sands of economic ruin? Might the ship’s captain and his crew of slick self-interested liars be replaced by a new ship’s company who might yet steer the once mighty craft back into the deep and calm waters of decent values and economic security?
For a long time I have said no, and I still think it is unlikely. However, I have to note that Captain Brown and his motley crew received a massive bloodied nose in the recent local elections, with their worst performance for 40 years. They polled an appalling 24 per cent – only one per cent ahead of the useless Liberal Party and 20 per cent behind the regenerated Conservative Party.
And even worse for Gordon Brown and his aging former redbrick, flower power cronies, the reptile fancier and thoroughly hypocritical Labour mayor of London Ken Livingstone was defeated by the Conservative Boris Johnson. This should mean that Londoners’ outrageously high local taxes will no longer be wasted on either Livingstone’s personal political spin, party extravagance or the funding of foreign political organisations or even terrorist operations that had gained “Red Ken’s” sympathy.
The Party was still reeling from this news when a “You Gov” opinion poll commissioned by Britain’s largest circulation daily tabloid, The Sun, reported that in the days following its election success, the Conservative Party had recorded its second highest ever figure of 49 per cent. New Labour poled only 23 per cent – its worst since opinion polls began in Britain in 1930. The Liberals managed just 17 per cent – which I thought was quite good, given the quality of their current leader.
Having drifted from leadership alcoholic scandals to rent boy scandals, the Liberal Party seemed keen to avoid that again by electing a leader who is apparently neither a drunk nor a rent boy fancier but gives the impression that he wouldn’t know how to sell a rope to a drowning man. Perhaps this is why the Liberal Party has totally failed to benefit from Labour’s crisis. Or could it just be that the political barometer has swung to the right and therefore the Liberals, who are more left than New Labour, are totally out of favour as well as being totally inept?
Last Sunday, rats leaving a sinking ship queued up to have their autobiographies published in the press. Cherie Blair, wife of Tony, John Prescott, the ex Deputy PM, and Lord Levy, the man at the centre of the cash-for-honours scandal, all made Mr Brown out to be flawed in his honesty and ability, and so the impression that New Labour was coming apart at the seams was all the more apparent.
Next week there is a parliamentary by-election in a safe Labour seat in the North West of England. If this is lost, Labour MPs, who are already panic-stricken, may seriously think of throwing out “the Iron Chancellor” within a year of him becoming the unelected leader of their party and therefore the British Prime Minister.
Of course, this all reads very well for the new Conservative heroes of British politics – David Cameron and his lieutenants. However, Mr Cameron et al would do well to remember that 1960s’ Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson once said: “A week is a long time in politics”. He was right and that highest ever recorded Conservative lead was in 1968, which resulted in them only just winning the 1970 election after the opinion polls had swung back the other way. Moreover, the eyes of the nation will now be on calamity Boris in London and if he screws up, then the Conservative’s good prospects will be ruined. Figurehead Boris might be a better idea, Mr. Cameron.
So nothing is ever sure – and that certainly applies to getting rid of Labour’s bureaucratic, intolerant, dishonest and self-rewarding elite. However, one thing is certain – Gordon Brown has paid an incredible price for his cowardice at failing to call an election last October, when he was 11 per cent ahead in the opinion polls. But then again, they say that fortune always favours the brave. However, basket case Britain will be still going to the dogs in the meantime and any real help is two years away – and then only if the people vote for it.
What have the Burmese ever done to deserve this?
Having suffered years of mass murder, beatings, poverty and harsh dictatorial government at the hands of people who make even Robert Mugabe look decent, the Burmese people have been struck by a cyclone that has killed over 100,000 people and will almost certainly kill twice as many more as a result of the ensuing disease and famine.
And what was the military government’s reaction to this overwhelming calamity? Perhaps the same sort of decisive rapid response as was seen when soldiers were deployed to break up Buddhist monk pro-democracy demonstrations last year by brutal beatings and killings? Of course not. The military government has been far too busy making propaganda films for the state-controlled media and keeping all foreigners out to worry about launching any properly coordinated relief programme. Worse, tons of medical supplies, food, tents and blankets were refused entry into the country, as the government doesn’t want the Burmese people to meet anyone from the outside world. The result will be that tens of thousands of people who were lucky enough to survive both the government’s reign of terror and the actual disaster, will now die. In fact, Oxfam says that over 1.5 million Burmese lives could be lost while the government concentrates on taking foreign aid out of its boxes and repacking it in government-marked containers. And on top of this, the monsoon rains will pour down on these unsheltered people in the next week and thus make matters so much worse.
This case of man’s inhumanity to man is so shocking that it is all too easy to fail to remember that it was the much despised USA that, as usual, was the first to put up cash and resources to help, while Islamic so-called freedom fighters, who continually rant on about evil American tyranny, were nowhere to be seen. Does that surprise you? No – nor me. Obviously they were far too busy running over some little boy’s arm with a truck because he had stolen a loaf of bread or stoning a teenage girl to death for loving a Jew to worry about this kind of human tragedy. Western democracy may be decadent and has many failings but, gosh, it looks good compared to eastern inhumanity.
Is the MTA on track to keep Dr Gonzi’s tourist promise?
I love Malta and wish to see its government serve its delightful people well. One of Dr Gonzi’s big promises is that Malta will be the ultimate Mediterranean tourist destination by 2015. If this is achieved, the economic benefits will be enormous. So how’s the Maltese Tourist Authority doing in its endeavours to ensure that this import-ant election pledge is kept?
On a positive note, tourist numbers are going up, despite a woeful promotion campaign to get people to visit the island. Unfortunately, they are not the kind of people who go to an ultimate tourist destination like St Tropez – so no progress there, I’m afraid. Nevertheless, I don’t suppose those who do come will be too put off by a gangland shooting or a man dying in police custody, as these things happen across the Mediterranean every day.
On the other hand, the island still has 53,000 unoccupied houses, many of which remain derelict, and concrete half-finished blocks scar the landscape, while Mepa continues to grant permission to build new hideously ugly creations, many of which will no doubt also end up unfinished. Most of the beaches are littered with rubbish, while other beauty spots boast rusting fridges and dumped cars. There are only a handful of really excellent restaurants and hotels, while many are poorly managed and some even dish out food-poisoning at regular intervals.
Not quite Monaco, is it?
But what about the beautiful blue and sparkling Mediterra-nean itself? Surely, this wonderful asset is in good order? Well, not quite. Children continue to catch ear and eye infections as a result of bathing in untreated sewage. Perhaps the MTA should adopt “sun, sea and floating turds” as its new slogan. Positano? I think not!
And what of the island’s capital and tourist showcase, Valletta? Well, the government has restored some “up town” areas, but tourists are lured by the sea and the narrow streets of lower Valletta, where they see only social degeneration, poverty, pigeon droppings and discarded needles. Valletta needs social regeneration as well as restoration and the MTA must recognise this as much as the social services. Currently, only Jean Paul Mifsud seems to echo these concerns and his YMCA operation appears to fighting a lone battle to really improve matters in the capital. Valletta compares with Rome? Please!
With less than seven years to go until 2015 and the fruition of this promise, what are the chances of the government keeping its word? You don’t need me to answer that, do you?
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